Western Civilization Blog Post #18 - Greece

February 24th, 2020

Greece

Trojan War - fought around 1200 B.C.
 - was part of Greek mythology until the 19th century
 - most historians thought it was fictional because the story included gods and goddesses getting involved
 - the goddesses Athena, Aphrodite, and Hera were given the "apple of discord"
 - Paris judged Aphrodite as "the fairest"
 - Aphrodite made Helen (who was married) fall in love with Paris, who took her back to Troy

"sea people" and Dorians

- around 1200 B.C. the "sea people" began to invade Mycenae, and burned palaces
- the Dorians moved into this war-torn region, dominating from 1150-750 B.C.

    • the Dorians were far less advanced
    • the trade-based economy collapsed 
    • writing disappeared for 400 years
Greek oral tradition - stories passed on by word of mouth
Epic - narrative stories that celebrate heroic deeds
Dactylic Hexameter - a form of the meter or rhythmic scheme in poetry

Homer the bard

- lived at the end of the "Greek Dark Ages"
- composed epics of the Trojan War around 750-700 B.C.

    • The Iliad - possibly one of the last conquests of the Mycenaeans (the Trojan War)
    • The Odyssey - Odysseus attempts to return home after the Trojan War, being thwarted by the angry god of the sea, Poseidon
      • The Odyssey was 12,110 lines of dactylic hexameter
- the "Homeric question" - Homer may have been a mythical creation himself
- he was a blind wandering minstrel; a heroic figure
- Illiad and Odyssey may be the culmination of many generations of storytelling 

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