Cultures of the Mountains and the Sea

Cultural Interaction:
- the roots of Greek culture are based on interaction of the Mycenaean, Minoan and Dorian cultures.
- Much of Western cultural heritage were started during this time period.

Setting the stage
- ancient times, Greece was a collection of separate lands where Greek-speaking people lived.

Geography Shapes Greek Life
Ancient Greece consisted mainly of a mountainous peninsula jutting out into Mediterranean Sea. 2,000 islands and Ionian seas.
- The Sea
    - Greeks did not live on a land but around a sea. the Aegean Sea, the Ionian Sea and the neighboring Black Sea were important transportation and they linked most parts of Greece. Important because they were lack of natural resources.
- The Land
    - Rugged mountains covered about three-fourths of ancient Greece. The Greeks developed small, independent communities within each little valley and its surrounding mountains. With little farmland  or fresh water Greece can never support a large population.
- The Climate
    - Greece have a varied climate, with temperatures averaging 48 degrees Fahrenheit in the winter and 80 in summer.

Mycenaean Civilization Develops
Some of the people who settled on the Greek mainland around 2000 B.C. were later known as Mycenaeans.
- Contact with Minoans
    -Sometimes after 1500 B.C. the Mycenaeans came into contact with the Minoan civilization, then they saw the value of seaborne trade. The Mycenaeans adapted the Minoan writing system to the Greek language and decorated vases with Minoan designs.
The Trojan War
- 1200s B.C., the Mycenaeans fought a ten-year war against Troy. They besieged and destroyed Troy because a Trojan prince had kidnapped Helen, the beautiful wife of a Greek King.
Greek Culture Declines Under the Dorians
A new group of people, the Dorians, moved into the war-torn countryside.
- Epics of Homer
    -Lacking writing, the Greek go this time learned about their history through the spoken word. The greatest storyteller was a blind man named Homer. Hector's response to his wife gives insight into the Greek heroic ideal of arete, meaning virtue and excellence.
- Greeks Create Myths
    - The Greeks developed a rich set of myths, or traditional stories, about their gods. Greeks attributed human qualities to their gods.