The Impact of Ancient Greek Civilization

1. What are the Cyclades?
2. What types of art are attributed to Cycladic culture? When was it made?
3. How would you describe the Minoan civilization? What were its cultural influences from elsewhere? What were its impacts on later Greek civilization, for example, 5th century Athens?
4. How did Mycenaean civilization differ from Minoan civilization? How did the two civilizations interact?
5. What later myths and epic stories, told from 7th century Archaic-era Greece onward, arose from the tales handed down through centuries of Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations?
6. How did the Pantheon of Gods and Goddesses from Greek civilization factor into the lives of the Greek people? Where do we see evidence of their influence?
7. How and why did pottery develop and become so important to the Greek economy after the 9th century BCE?
8. What are the three main orders of Greek architecture, and how did they develop? Be able to talk about the different characteristics of each order and name some of their parts.
9. What are the origins of the great Homeric epics, The Iliad and The Odyssey?
10. What is The Iliad about? What is its theme? How would you write about the enduring power of The Iliad? Why do you think it is still referenced by so many people in so many different disciplines from Literature to Psychology?
11. How is The Odyssey different from The Iliad? What is its theme? How and why are we still influenced by The Odyssey, perhaps even more than by The Iliad?
12. How are these two epic poems structured? What literary devices did Homer use to create the power, beauty, suspense, and emotional impact of the poems? (Research the meter, the imagery, and the structural devices used.)
13. What was the Greek theatre? How did it develop?
14. How did the architecture of the theatre spaces evolve?

Greek Essay Development Questions (continued)

15. Who were the major tragic and comic playwrights of 5th-3rd century Greece?
16. What kinds of plays did they write? Where did their stories come from? What kinds of characters were the plays about?
17. Where and in what context were plays performed in Ancient Greece? What did they look like? What kinds of audiences attended? What significance did the theatre have for the people attending?
18. What are Aristotle’s Poetics of Tragedy? Why are the Poetics important to us?
19. Who were the great leaders of Greece just before and during the Golden Age of Athens? Why did Athens have a “Golden Age?”
20. Who were the great leaders of Greece during what is called the Hellenistic period? What was the impact of this leadership?
21. How did the leaders of the Classical (Golden Age) and Hellenistic eras contribute to the development of art and literature and other cultural advances? Were there any regressions? What were they?
22. How did the arts, the sciences, the spectacular innovations in every area of human endeavor that occurred in 5th century Greece spread through the known world? What different ways did their influence reach so many other different cultures and societies? How long did that influence last?
23. Do you see any similarities in our own civilization to that of the Greeks? Any influences from that ancient time that are still visible to us? Where?
24. What is the state of things in 21st century Greece? Why have things changed so much?
25. Do you think Greek civilization could ever become a great cultural and political power in the world again? Why or why not?