Values in Ancient Greece

   What values were most important to early Greeks and why were they considered important?
      In early Greek culture there were 8 main values:
Athleticism
Hospitality
Justice
Teamwork
Ingenuity
Respect
Loyalty
Intuition
      When reading the Odyssey the most frequently appearing value was Ingenuity, it came up a lot through all the excerpts because a lot of plotting was done by the main characters. Yet Intuition was one that came up the least, it was only prevalent in the story of Odysseus and Circe. These values were important because they were what encompassed a good human, a lot like the IB learner profile we have now. A person who displayed all of these traits would be praised about becoming all you can become. They were also important because they became the foundation of Greek society, so that there was a goal for each person. This goal was each one of these values.

   In what ways are early Greeks values found in modern society?

      Everyday in society there are things, that as a person you are expected to be, depending of you ethnic background and beliefs and where you live, these things or expectations are different. Some the Greek values though, can be seen in everyday life. One big one is Athleticism, we see it everyday around us whether it's in ads, or maybe a game on T.V or even in school. The Olympics, a series of sports games that started with the Greeks, even still continue on today. Being athletic is just as important today as it was for the Ancient Greek during their time. Other traits such as teamwork, respect and ingenuity, these are all values you can find in learning facilities. The reason for this is that these values often can be a part of a good student. Other values such as hospitality, justice and loyalty, these are traits that really are part of our mind set. Most people are raised learning most of these, and maybe that is how the Greek culture influenced todays modern world. The reason is that since I was little, things such as justice is right, be a hospitable host, or loyalty to your friends is important have been taught to me through medias such as television, books or even my family. These values surround us through everyday life, just as Ancient Greeks had stories from epics such as Odysseus and Circe, we have fairytales such Beauty and the Beast, which teaches us a Greek value, to be hospitable. The values have seeped into our everyday life, so that we also believe that a majority of these values should be goals to reach. 

Mycenaens and Minoans

Describe each civilization:

Water pipes at Minoan Palace

Minoans

The Minoan culture started on Crete, an island between mainland Greece and the Asia Minor, around 3000 B.C.E. Being first developed on an island the Minoans were masters of the sea, and from the art we can see that their culture included fishing, farming and arts. Also being people of the sea they were able to establish distant trading locations such as Spain, Egypt and the Asia Minor. They were a very peaceful culture, they had equal rights for both men and women, so that both gender could do the same things and the lack of protection within fortresses or war equipment also within their art there were no depictions of battle. During free time Minoans would do all sorts of things from dancing, music, singing or bull-leaping. Linear A was the early form of writing for the Minoans, and it was written in a linear fashion, and made up of pictographs. This language has yet to be deciphered. Minoans also amazed archaeologists with their complex water management systems; there was even evidence of flushing toilets in some Minoan bathrooms. The reason the Minoans were so important in the ancient Greek culture, was the influence they had on the Mycenaen Civilization.

Mycenaean Sword

Mycenaenas

Mycenaeans were established around 2700 B.C.E, in contrast to the fun and peace loving Minoans, Mycenaeans revolved a lot around battle, a majority of their myths are about Greek heroes and a lot of famous battles we hear of come from this culture. Another difference between this culture and the Minoans is that they had a style of writing named, Linear B, and unlike Linear A from the Minoans it was been translated and is the earliest known form of Greek. It was made up of a simple mixture of symbols and characters. There developed economy of agriculture was based on grains, grapes and olives, all the locally grown produce. Unlike the Minoans they weren’t expert sea farers but still did trade by sea with Egypt and Asia Minor, most of the Mycenaean energy was devoted to military and war. They took pride in their decorated uniforms, helmets, chariots and all the weapons. Also horses, as they were used as modes of transport during war. This is what the Mycenaeans thrived mostly in, often their palaces were surrounded by wall 23 feet thick and 60 feet high!  Unlike the Minoans the “lower people” or “non-royalty” were not allowed inside palaces, and did not have as many rights, if many, as the Minoan people. Even though we know this information there were not many object left behind that showed us that the Mycenaeans had festivals for religious reasons or musical performances.

What aspects of both civilizations would you expect to survive in later periods of Greek history?

From the Minoan culture I expect the complex drainage system to continue on through later periods because there is also evidence that the Mycenaens had a more sophisticated water management system, meaning that they would have obtained this knowledge through the Minoans and that this was already beginning to spread. From the Mycaneans, being so revolved around war, I think their achievements in this area would survive, such as architectural aspects from their fortresses, or ways they crafted their weapons, or tactics used in war depicted by a painting.