C. Aegean Civilization:                                                                                         back to Greece

  - this man's name is very important in the early history of the science of archaeology

  - in the 1800's, when he lived, archaeology was a new study and, although some universities offered training,
    this science had few big "finds" to brag about.

  - Heinrich Schliemann was German. A brilliant young man, he was from the wrong class to be admitted to
    study archaeology at a university  but he had a burning desire to discover the ruins of the legendary city of
    Troy.

  - he went into business, made a fortune, and retired young to devote the rest of his life to his passion of finding
    Troy

  - an amateur archaeologist, never having had formal training in the discipline, he proceeded on his own and at
    his own expense.

  - trained archaeologists at the time did not believe that Troy had ever existed, being mentioned only in the
    works of Homer, which they thought to be purely mythical Schliemann, however, believed that Homer's
    stories contained a kernel of truth and that there had been a civilization in the Aegean area long before the
    experts believed possible

  - following clues from Homer's poem, The Iliad, he went to Turkey and there his digging  proved that Troy had
    been real.  He found ancient relics and treasures that could not be disputed, thus making himself one of the
    early heroes of archaeology.

  - having found Troy, he then went to the mainland of Greece, where he found at Mycenae and Tiryns the
    remains of the early Greek or Mycenaean civilization that Homer spoke of as fighting the Trojans in the
   Greek-Trojan war.

  - before he died, he was also able to identify the site of Knossus, the Minoan capital, but he never got to dig it
    up so the glory for finding Knossus went to the Brit Sir Arthur Evans.

  - the great man thus found the remains of two early civilizations, identified the site of another, and proved to the
    world that  "myths" can sometimes have a basis in fact.

   D. The Homeric Age of Greek Culture (c. 800-600 B.C.)

  - this was the early-age of Greek culture

  - the age is named after HOMER, who was supposedly a great blind poet by this time the Greek people as we
    know them had been formed by the mixture of the original inhabitants (the Achaeans) with barbarian invaders
    from the north - the Aeolians, Ionians, Dorians

  - during this period most of the Greeks led the simple life of small farmers.  They worked hard, had little
    wealth. They had close families, strong citizen armies.

    HOMER:

  - whether Homer actually existed or not is something that scholars disagree about

  - he supposedly composed two great EPIC POEMS (an epic is a long narrative poem about heroes), the Iliad
    and the Odyssey

  - in these poems he spoke about supposed heroic ancestors of the   Greek people, he spoke of their gods, who
    they were and what they were like, he set moral standards for the Greek people to copy.

  - these two poems (which some schoolboys totally memorized) had a  large impact on Greek society. They
    became more or less like the Bible to Christians - a set of beliefs to live by.

  - because of these epics, the ancient Greeks admired strength and cunning, looked down on weakness and
    stupidity

 - during the Homeric Age and because of Homer's writings, the pattern of Greek society was set

  4. Worship:

 - governments of the Greek city-states paid for the building and main-tenants of temples, which were so
   beautiful as to still command much respect from architects today

 - priests were not as important as in many other religions

 - sacrifice, prayer and attendance at festivals were the forms of worship

 - morality was not a part of the Greek religion

  5. Superstitions:

 - all Greeks were somewhat superstitious, although the uneducated were  more so

 - to them, evil spirits caused illness, insanity, death, bad luck

 - priests were trained in exorcism - the driving out of devils

 - portents, unlucky days, magic were all taken seriously

  6. Oracles:

 - the Greeks believed that, through certain people or at certain places, the gods could be persuaded to divulge
   the future to men. These messages, people or places were known as ORACLES.

 - the most famous was the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi

 - oracles tended to be located in mysterious places. Their predictions were sometimes vague or capable of
   various interpretations

 - predictions were given for a fee

 - the Greeks were in the habit of consulting an oracle before any major undertaking to see if it was likely
   to be successful.  This  proves that they truly believed.