THINKING ABOUT THINGS: GREEK PHILOSOPHY

Themes the early Greeks: myth and archaeology democracy in the polis Hellenistic empire and thought

Aristotle teaching Alexander A Letter from Alexander to Aristotle?

Myth and Archaeology: who were the early Greeks?

• myth:
  • Homer, c. 725 B.C.E.: Iliad, Odyssey
    
    
  • Ovid, 43 BCE-CE 17: Crete, Minotaur, labyrinth
    
    
• archaeology and philology:
  • Henrich Schliemann (1822-1890): Troy (source Troy)
    
    
  • Sir Arthur Evans (1851-1941): Knossos
    
    
  • Michael Ventris (1922-56): Linear A and Linear B
    
    
• unraveling the mystery
  • Minoans c. 2200-1100 B.C.E:
    
    
  • Myceneans c.1600-1100 B.C.E:
    
    
  • theory
    
    
• environment*
  • Mediterranean
  • seas and mountains
  • Hellas =
    
    

The Polis: Classical Greece

• polis =
  
  
  • hoplite
  • colonization*
  • Athens vs Sparta
    
    
• religion and myth
  
  
• philosophers
  • Thales of Miletus (c. 625) and Pythagoras (c. 530-510)
    
    
  • Sophists
    
    
  • Socrates (Socratic dialogue)
    
    
  • Plato
    
    
  • Aristotle
    
    
• democracy and imperialism
  • Persian Wars c. 500-479 B.C.E. and Pelopponesian Wars 431-404
    
    
  • citizenship: women and slaves
    
    
  • ideal and reality in Thucydides: Pericles' Funeral Oration and the Melian dialogue
    
    

Hellenistic Empire

• Greece, Macedon, the world
  • Philip II of Macedon (reign 359-336 B.C.E.)
  • Alexander "the Great" (reign 336-323 B.C.E.)*
  • division of empire (323-272):* Ptolomies, Seleucids, Antigonids
  • Aristotle and Alexander: great man?
    
    
• Hellenistic world
  
  
  • megalopolis
  
  
  
• philosophies and religions
  • Epicureans
    
    
  • Stoics
    
    
  • Cynics and Skeptics
    
    
  • mystery religons: Orphism
    
    
  • syncretism, magic, and Fortuna
    
    

Comparisons and Connections

• how we know about early societies
  
  
• comparative religions and philosophies
  
  
• connections between empires and philosophies