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Mount Olympus

Vertical Geography

• Greece is a land of many mountains

• Mt. Olympus, the highest, is 9,570’ high.

• Mountains divide Greece into many small regions

• These regions become the basis for the city-states of ancient Greece

Cape Sounion, Attica

Relations with the Sea

• Greece has a rough coastline.

• There are many islands, as well.

• No place is more than about 30 miles from the sea.

• Transport is easier by water than by land in ancient times.

The Island of Crete

The Islands of Greece

• Settled by the Pelasgians?

• Possibly about 2500 BCE

• Brought pigs, wheat, barley, oats, grapes and other crops to the islands

• Built un-walled towns, set up villages

Pelasgian Harp/Lyre player

• carved of marble, around 2500 BCE, and found on the island of Keros, Greece. This figure is about 3 inches high

Female Figureof Cycladic origin

• created about 2800 BCE and found on the island of Paros, Greece.

Kamares Ware

• Pottery style from 1800 BCE, named after the town where it was first found.

• This came from Phaistos, Crete

The Islands of Greece

• Eventually conquered or united under the Minoan civilization.

• The Minoans were centered on Crete

• They built elaborate palaces and irrigation systems

• The culture flourished about 1650 BCE.

Mainland Greece

• Mainland Greece is a land of wild mountains and dry but fertile valleys.

• There is little water, but winters tend to be relatively mild.

• Grapes, wheat, and olives formed the base of an early economy.

Mainland Greece

Meteora in north Greece

Boeotia & Mt. Helicon

Greek Sacred Sites

• Delphi was the oldest and most important.

• It may have come into being around 3000 BCE

• It was definitely dedicated to Apollo by about 1500 BCE.

Delphi: the Oracle

• The oracle breathed fumes coming from a crack in the rock

• Once high, she could tell the future.

• The prophecies came at first from Gaia (mother Earth), but later from Apollo)

Olympia: The Games

• Where Delphi was mountainous and rocky,

• Olympia was flat and next to a river

• Both places shaped Greek identity for 4,000 years.

Eleusis: The Mysteries

• Near Athens, initiates drank a sacred drink after nine days of fasting.

• Then they met the goddess Demeter face to face in the same field where corn was first planted.