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Horace Mann Middle School > Grade 6 > Mr. Corey > Social Studies

Ancient Greece


Pictures of ancient Greece

Lots of terrific info and links about the people, events, and legacy of ancient Greece

A more complex look at the history of ancient Greece

Chap 11 lesson 1


Greece was centered on the Aegean Sea
The mainland was made of a peninsula and many scattered islands

Describe the geography of Greece.

--it has rugged mountains and hills that isolated communities

– islands are sprinkled among the sea

- Bays and inlets in many small isolated areas

- no point on the mainland is no more than 40 miles away from sea

What did the Greeks farm?

- Grapes, olives were grown on the hillsides, deep roots helped plants survive dry months

wheat and barley grown on plains - less than 25% of Greece was flat enough to support the farming of wheat and barley (not enough – famine was a problem)

Describe the climate

Hot, dry summers

Mild winters

All year growing season

With whom did the Greeks trade?

-Egyptians, Phoenicians, Persians, and others

What was the most significant impact of the geography of Greece?

The mountainous terrain isolated communities thereby preventing the development of a single, unified nation such as Egypt. Instead, independent city-states such as those in Mesopotamia developed. Athens & Sparta were the most notable city-states of ancient Greece.

Trading was the driving force in spreading Greek language, literature, and knowledge, including the idea of democacy, across many lands.

Summary of Democracy
In 510 BC, Athens established a form of government called democracy. A democracy lets all citizens take part in deciding the laws. There are two different kinds of democracies. One is direct democracy in which all the citizens take part in voting. The other type is representative democracy. This kind has people vote for representatives who vote on laws. Democracy was Greece’s most important export!


Lyric poems are about feelings
Greek playwrights focused on tragedies and comedies
Hellenistic is an adjective that means Greek like
Famous Greeks
Sapphos – lyric poet
Hippocrates- Hippocratic Oath; first do no harm; tried to find natural causes of disease rather than blaming disease on the will of gods
Euclid – geometry, wrote a textbook that was until 1900’s
Pythagoras – geometry
Aristotle – philosopher
Plato - philosopher
Socrates – philosopher
Thales – philosopher
Thucydides – historian who used primary sources, relied on facts rather than attempting to interpret events as the will of gods
Herodotus – first historian, tried to ex-plain events as the unfolding of the will of Greek gods
Homer epic poet, Iliad & Odyssey
The city of Alexandria, founded by Alexander the Great in Egypt, became home to the ancient world’s greatest museum/library. Founded in 332 B.C., the library attracted the world’s greatest scholars and accordingly led to the spread of Hellenstic ideas and ideals. Destroyed in 200’s A.D.

20541  
Updated: August 21, 2007  



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