Background to Homer
GREEK TIMELINE
Palace Empires:Minoan (Crete): c. 2700-1370 BCE
Mycenaean (Peloponnesus): c. 1600-1100 BCE
Decline and Fall: Trojan War: c. 1100 BCE
raids of the “Sea Peoples”: 1000s BCEDark Age: c. 1000-750 BCEHomer: approx. 750 BCE?
Classical Period: 480-323 BCE
Philosophers: Socrates, Plato, AristotlePlaywrights: Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, AristophanesTransformative Figures: Herodotus, Pericles, Hippocrates
Wars in the 400s: Greece against Persia, then Athens against SpartaAlexander the Great dies in 323 BCE
Map of Ancient Greece
Authors’ Map of Greece
Minoan palace, Knossos, Crete
Minoan (Cretan) bull
Minoan cup bearers
Minoan ivory figurine--bull leaping
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Minoan bee ornament
Minoan snake woman/goddess
Minoan queen’s megaron, Knossos
Mycenae: Atreus Treasury
Mycenae, beehive dome
Mycenae: Three Deities
Mycenaean grave circle
Troy: excavation phases
Troy: archaeological site
Heinrik Schleimann
Dark Age bard, 700 BCE
Dark Age clay head, Sparta, 700 BCE
Dark Age: bier detail
The world of the Odyssey recreated by Bibi Saint-Pol, based on Provensen map
Athena statue, Piraeus
Mourning Athena, Acropolis museum Athens, 5th C. BCE
The two figures are labeled ATHENAIA and POSEIDON. The inscription down the middle reads AMASIS MEPOIESEN
("Amasis made me"). 6th century BCE.
Odysseus, Sperlonga
Archaic statue of Penelope
Vase painting, Penelope at the loom, with Telemachus
Telemachus, with Mentor?
The Sirens, Athenian vase, c. 5th century BCE
Hermes holding Dionysus,by Praxiteles, 4th century BCE
Menelaus reclaiming Helen from Troy
Vase painting of Helen
Helen of Troy, by Evelyn de Morgan, 1898