Greece Geography and War

• Greece: 50,949 sq mi
• although fertile valleys cover one quarter of the peninsula, only about 20% is arable
• lack of recources most likely led to Greek colinization
• the temperature usually ranged from mid 40s in the winter to low 80s in the summer
• Greek diet consist of grains, grapes, olives and fish
• their influence began around 2000 B.C.E.
• Mycenaean kings dominated Greece from 1600-1100 B.C.E. 
• they controlled trade in that region
• 1400 B.C.E.- Mycenaeans invaded Crete and absorbed Minoan culture
• Mycenae is on Peloponnesus
• Greeks have fought in many wars over time
• Trojan war- fought around 1200 B.C.E. 
• part of Greek mythology- until the 19th century most historians thought it was fictional because the gods and goddesses got 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
• around 1200 B.C.E. the mysterious "sea people" began to invade Mycenae, and burnt palace after palace
• so the Dorians moved into this war-torn region dominating from 150-750 B.C.E. 
• Dorians were far less advanced
• the trade-based economy collapsed
• writing disappeared for 400 years
• Greek oral tradition-stories passed by word of mouth
• Homer lived at the end of the "Greek Dark Ages" 
• he composed stories (epics of the Trojan War c. 750-700 B.C.E.
• the Liad- possibly one of the last conquest 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 creature himself
• a blind wondering minstrel; a heroic figure
• Liad and Odyssey may be the culmination of many generations of storytelling
• or he could just be really really cool!:)