Presentation Day 1

         This blog is late. Yesterday Kaitlin, Olivia, Miel, Gía, and Leigh went. They did OK but it was still not the best. I do not want to judge them to harshly, but I feel like there was a slight lack of effort. They said multiple times in the videos something like: "The Greeks had this but we did not get it because..." I know some of the things they did not get were dangerous, such as lead powder, but they also did not get things like saffron or ash. I ended up giving them a 89, because I could tell some of them tried and it is not fair for the ones who try to get a lower grade. This is why I do not like group project. Either one person does all the work and the others get the credit for doing nothing, or one not trying ruins it for the whole group.

Presentation Day 2

      There were more presentations today. I think they were good but some were better than others. Bradly and Colin's presentation definitely had the most information, but it was not very engaging and it was more like a class power-point that I was supposed to take notes on. I ended up giving them a 96 because I could tell they did a lot of research. Grace and Katie's presentation was next and in my opinion, it was not the best. Again am not a big fan of the food topic because it was such a small detail in ancient Greece. I know food is necessary for survival of a nation, but there are better options for a project. There video was also not too professional as well. Me and Anthony ended up giving them a 87.  The project on the Athenian vs. Spartan was also very good. It was very descriptive, but again, the video was not to serious. Anthony graded this one and he gave them a 96. It is a shame we had to move our's to Tuesday because I feel like we were ready to present. Oh well.

Even More on the Project

         I think the project is going very well. We are almost 100% ready to present, we just need to make some note-cards and jobs for the people in the class. I found more interesting information on democracy, such as the three different parts of it, the ekklesia, the boule, and the dikasteria. It added some more information that was not in the PowerPoint you made. I do not know who will go first, but I hope it is not our group. I want to see other people before we do ours so I know what is expected. My main worry with our project is that we will either have no-one participate, or go over the ten minute mark. Anthony shortened the power-point so we would have more time to do the voting.

More on the Project.

    I almost forgot to do this blog. The project is going very well and we have added some new ideas. Each person in the class will be given a job or lifestyle that could have been around during ancient ancient Greece. I know all women should not be able to vote because it is Athens, but they will be counted as citizens for the project. The reason we are assigning people jobs is because it will get both sides of the story. We are thinking of making the assembly on a issue such as lowering taxes. A person assigned as a potter may want taxes to be lowered, while a wealthy noble would want the  taxes to stay the same. It would hopefully add diversity to the vote, and not everyone voting for the same thing because they know it is right.

     Today in Western Civ. we took our test on ancient Greece. I think I did pretty good but I know for a fact that I got at least 2 wrong. I got the most powerful army question wrong and what makes you a citizen of Athens. I could have still gotten a ton more wrong if you made more of the problems tricky like That still means I got a 95, which I am happy with. Third quarter is almost over and I am looking forward to it. For some reason the third quarter has felt so long and annoying. I am pretty sure summer uniforms also start. In my opinion, uniforms are unnecessary. I know they prepare you for a job and look neat, but they are very annoying and very expensive. I feel like a strict dress code would be best.

Philosopherlapalooza

• Socrates
• looked to science and logic (not the mythological gods) for explanations of how the world worked
• the Socratic Method fostered critical thinking
• "the unexamined life is not worth living"
• Socrates was charges with impiety and corruption of the Athenian youth
• at his trial, he described himself as a stinging gadfly, and Athens as a lazy old horse.
• did not deny what he had done; asked for free dinners
• found guilty by an Athenian jury and was sentenced to death by drinking poison hemlock
• Plato
• Student of Socrates
• wrote out Socrates’ teachings, and described his trial in Apology(explanation)
• Republic was Socrates’ discussion of justice and the ideal state and one of the most influential books on philosophy ever written
• Aristotle
• student of Plato
• he helped foster the idea of Athens as an intellectual destination
• his school - the Lyceum - focused on cooperative research - building on knowledge gathered from all over the world 
• He wrote on topics such as 
• logic - physics - biology 
• ethics - politics - rhetoric
• motion - theater - poetry
• metaphysics - psychology - dream
• Tutored Alexander the great
• dreamed of getting all knowledge in one location

• Greeks were unique because they had relationships with their gods
• Greeks were warlike, especially the Spartans
• Spartans were known for their tough, ruthless infantry(solders who fought on land)
• Athens had a good infantry, but their navy was the best
• there most effective weapon was the Trireme
• A technological wonder
• Fastest ship in the world at the time
• Rowed by 170 men at 3 levels
• Battering ram
• agile, fast
• The Phalanx
• close rank, dense grouping
• armed wit long spears and interlocking shields
• soldiers would advance slowly until they broke through
• Persian war
• Persia had a huge army and nearly unlimited resources
• Greek army 
• Iron weapons meant ordinary citizens could arm themselves
• foot soldiers (hoplites) were trained at a young age
• armed with spears, swords, shields
• they fraught in a phalanx
• "home field"
• motivated to preserve democracy
• Persian army
• Archers
• cavalry
• lightly armored infantry
• huge numbers
• long way from home
• professional army (mercenaries)
• Victorious Greeks form the Delian League

        Today in western civ we discussed our projects more. I was worried that we would not be able to make the sculpture because clay is very difficult to work with, but after hearing your idea, I can just completely forget about the sculpture. Holding a voting session will also get the classes attention more which will be a big part of the grade. In the beginning of class I can have a white and black rock passed to everybody, and at the end of the presentation, we will have a voting session. I am still trying to figure out a good topic. I have not found a better topic than your new road scenario and I do not want to steal it so I will try to think of another. I am worried no one will come up to say their opinion, so I may give anyone who says a argument a jolly rancher or some other candy. I know it is not related to Greece but I don't think anyone would want an olive. I hope I will not have to use the jolly ranchers and people would just cooperate. It is debated where they put the rocks to vote, some images show in piles and other images show the rocks in Greek vases, so I will probably just bring in  a flower pot with Greek looking paintings on it. I am horrible at art, but my sister takes art here so I hope she will help, I hope that would not be cheating.

Project

       I usually dread large, group projects like this, but this time, I am actually semi-happy we are doing this. My partner is Anthony and we are most likely going to make a power-point on the birth of democracy, and the sculpture or diorama we will make will be where the Greeks would vote. Of course it looks better in my head then it will than when we actually make it, but it is the efforts that count. I may also go down to the river and get a white and black rock, and maybe pass it around or something. I am confused on the one page paper though. Something that is going to help us a lot on our sculpture is Google Earth. I found the first Agora in Athens in 3-D on google earth. I can also go into street view and see what it looks like from the inside, which can be helpful. Overall, I am happy we are doing a project on a interesting topic like Greece, and I am interested to see if our idea will work.

        Today in Human Geo we watched a video on ancient Greece and answered questions on the video. In was a very good video and it further explained what happened with some of the rulers and how the overthrow of the government came to be. I did miss three questions, all in different parts of the video, so it will be very annoying going through the video to find them. My sister usually takes me home right after school, but because she is doing tech week, I have to wait for my dad and he picks me up at 4:30. I now realize how hard it is to think anywhere after school. The cafeteria is just constant noise, and the Media Center isn't any better. Did they really have to change the name of the Library. Maybe if it was still called a library, people would be quiet in it; it is really not a library anymore though. It is more of just chairs and a single wall that have a couple hundred books on it, so I guess it is not a library.

• Hippias was a tyrant who ruled from 527 to 510 bc
• his brother was murdered, and his rule became harsh
• he was then ostracized from Athens
• He was angry, so he collaborated with the Persian king, Darius I, helping him invade Marathon
• with Hippias gone, Isagoras and Cleithenes (aristocrats) engaged in a power struggle 
• Isagoras had support from aristocrats and Sparta
• Cleithenes had support from the middle class
• Isagoras wins
• Isagoras becomes archon eponymous (tyrant)
• he ostracized Cleisthenes
• Middle class aid Cleithenes
• They Trap Isagoras on the acropolis for two days, and on the third day, he fled and was banished
• 508 BC
• Cleithenes
• Member of the elite
• very rich
• insulated by the "hoi polloi"
• a crafty politician
• Citizen (one fifth of Athenians) could participate in democracy
• Direct democracy
• where the state is ruled by citizens
• rule is based on citizenship
• majority decides vote

• During the seventh and sixth centuries BC, aristocrats ran the show in most of Greece
• Aristocrats, members of the ruling class
• The attended symposiums, meetings where the elite men would enjoy wine and poetry, performances by dancers and acrobats and the company of hetaeras (courtesans) while discussing politics.
• politics
• no women, middle class, slaves, or certain aristocrats who did not have the right connections.
• tyrants seize control
• sometimes, aristocrats would form alliances with hoplites- well armed soldiers, and set up an alternative form of government known as tyranny
• tyrant- someone who rules outside the framework of the polis
• modern meaning of tyrant- an abusive or repressive ruler
• Greek meaning- someone who seized power
• Draconian- unnecessarily harsh
• Draco- 621
• Solon reforms 594
• outlaws debt slavery
• all Athenian citizen can vote at the assembly
• any citizen can press charges against other wrongdoers
• Cleistheses
• more reforms around 500 BC
• all citizens can submit laws at the assembly
• created the council of five hundred (numbers chosen at random, to counsel the assembly
• women slaves and foreigners could still not vote.

Warring City States

• Polis: fundamental political unit, made up of a city and the surrounding countryside.
• Politics, policy, political, metropolitan, etc.
• Monarchy, ruled by a single person (a king in Greece)
• aristocracy: rule by a small group of nobles, very rich landowning families.
• oligarchy: wealthy groups, dissatisfied with aristocratic rule, who seized power (often with military help)
• Tyrant: powerful individual who seized control by appealing to the common people for support.
• During the seventh and sixth centuries of B.C., aristocrats ran the show in most of Greece
• Most cities controlled between 50 and 500 square miles of territory, with 10,000 residents
• the agora was on-top of a fortified hilltop or acropolis, were citizen discussed politics.
• aristocracy- government ruled by small families
• clashes often occurred between rulers and people
• nobles usually stole control of the government by appealing to the common people- a Tyrant
• they were seen to work in interest of the common people.
• Athens reforms to a democracy
• Draco took power at 621 B.C.
• he made a legal note that rich and poor are equal under the law
• He had harsh punishments, most being death
• He enforced debt slavery, which was where people would work as slaves to pay debt
• Solon came to power at 594 B.C.
• He outlawed debt slavery
• He organized Athenians into 4 social classes
• only the top three classes could be a political leader, but all could take part in voting

• a quarter of the peninsula is fertile valleys, but only 20% is arable.
• Greek diet consists of grain, grapes, olives, and fish.
• lack of resources most likely led to Greek colonization
• Temperatures ranged from the 40s to the 80s.
• Their influence began around 2000bc
• Mycenae is located on a rocky ridge  on Peloponnesus
• Mycenaean kings dominated Greece from 1600-1100bc
• 1400bc, Mycenaean invaded Crete and absorbed Minoan Culture
• Trojan war, fought around 1200bc
• part of Greek mythology- until the 91th century, most historians thought it was fictional. 
• Athena, Aphrodite, and Hera were given the "apple of discord"
• Paris judged Aphrodite as the fairest
• Aphrodite made Helen fall in love with Paris who took her back to Troy
• Around 1200 bc, the mysterious sea people began to invade Mycenae, and burnt palaces
• Dorians moved into the region, dominating from 1500-750
• Under the Dorians; trade based economy collapsed and writing disappeared for 400 years
• Homer lived during the Greek dark ages and composed stories of the Trojan war 750-700bc
• The Iliad- the last conquest of the Mycenaean(Trojan war)
• The Odyssey- Odysseus attempts to return from the Trojan war but gets lost.
• the odyssey was 12,110 lines of dactylic hexameter
• Homer may have been mythical as well, the "Homeric question"
• His epics may have been the culmination of many generations of storytelling.

(Ancient) Greece is the Word

• The world's great civilizations were all mostly located on water
• Great river civilizations(ON TEST)
• Egypt (Nile river)
• Mesopotamia(Tigris+ Euphrates)
• India(Indus River)
• China(Huang He river
• Culture of the mountains and the sea, a geographical look at Greece
• Geography
• Note the significance of Greece's location
• Describe Greece's topography
• look at Greece's surroundings
• How could this effect their culture
• a closer look
• What bodies of water surround Greece
• What large island is to the south/ south-east
• Describe where Athens and Sparta are located relative to the sea, and to each other
• KNOW FOR TEST+LOCATION ON MAP
• Aegean Sea
• Ionian Sea
• Adriatic Sea (it’s just north of the Ionian Sea)
• Peloponnesus
• Athens
• Sparta
• Crete
• Asia Minor
• Macedonia
• Greece is a mountainous peninsula
• Approximately 2000 island in the Ionian and Aegean sea
• they had many skilled sailors, ship builders, farmers, metalworkers, weavers, and potters
• they had little natural resources, so they needed to trade
• it was difficult to unite the ancient Greeks because of the terrain
• they developed small, independent communities (city-states)
• 15000B.C, The Mycenaean developed the Minoan writing system
• They formed the core of Greek religion, art, politics, an literature.
• They fought a ten year war against troy because they kidnapped Helen, a Greek king's wife.
• After the Trojan war, the Mycenaean civilization collapsed.

Vocabulary

1. Mycenaean-people who settled in the Greek mainland around 2000 B.C.
2. Trojan War- a war around 1200B.C in which an army led by Mycenaean kings attacked the independent trading city of troy in Anatolia.
3. Dorian- Greek speaking people that migrated to mainland Greece after the destruction of the Mycenaean Civilization.
4. Homer-A blind storyteller who passed on the history of Greece
5. epic- a long narrative poem celebrating the deeds of legendary or traditional heroes
6. myth- A traditional story about, ancestors, or heroes, told to explain the natural world or the customs and beliefs of society.

Greece

• In 3000B.C., the Minoans lived on the large Greek island of Crete and created a elegant civilization that had great power in the Mediterranean world.
• Ancient Greece was mainly a mountainous peninsula jutting out of the sea.
• There were also 2000 islands on the Ionian and Aegean Sea.
• The Aegean sea, Ionian Sea, and Black sea were very important for transportation
• Mountains separated many regions of Greece
• Greeks developed small, independent communities within each mountain valley
• only small parts of Greece were farm-able
• Greece had 48 degree weather in the winter and 80 degrees in the summer.
• Mycenaean settled in the Greek mainland around 2000 B.C.
• The name for their leading city is Mycenae.
• It was surrounded by a wall 20 feet thick
• Strong rulers controlled Mycenae cities, such as Tiryns and Athens.
• These kings controlled Greece from about 1600-1100B.C.