Nora's Western Civ Blog

1. direct democracy: a form of government in which citizens rule directly and not through representatives classical art: values of harmony, order, balance, and proportion tragedy: a serious drama about common themes such as love, hate, war, or betrayal comedy: scenes filled with slapstick situations and crude humor Pelopnnesion War: war between the two city states, Athens and Sparta philosophers: great thinkers that were determined to seek the truth Socrates: one of the Sophists who believed that absolute standards did not exist for truth or justice Plato: a student of Socrates  Aristotle: a philosopher that questioned the nature of the world and of human belief, thought,  and knowledge 2. His goal to hold and strengthen the empire has the greatest impact on the modern world because it created a great empire in Greece which spread to other countries, making many strong countries around the world. 3. Pericles increased the number of public officials who were paid salar

Today in class we took a test on ancient Greece.  The test in my opinion, was challenging. I feel like I did pretty well, except for a few of the questions I messed up. I know that I got the question about people from Turkey migrating to Greece and which sea they would cross. I also know that I got the question about putting Draco, Cleisthenes, and Solon in the correct order. I put Solon, Cleisthenes,  Draco when it should have been Draco, Solon, Cleisthenes. I felt more prepared than I usually feel for you tests and I took a lot of time to study.  I hope that I did not do bad and am hoping that I get an A. The test overall was not too bad but it did challenge me.

Today in class we talked more about the government and rulers of ancient Greece. Here are some of the notes I took: Draco- all Athenians are equal under the law, death. is the punishment for many crimes, debt. slavery is ok Solon- outlaws debt slavery, all Athenian citizens can speak at the assembly, any citizen can press charges against wrongdoers Cleisthenes- allowed all citizens to vote at the assembly, created the Council of Five Hundred, only free adult male property owners born in Athens were considered citizens Hippias- tyrant, ruled from 527-510 BCE, his brother was murdered and his rule became harsh, he was expelled from Athens, he began working with the Persian king Darius I and helping them invade Marathon when Hippias was gone Cleisthenes and Isagorus had a power struggle, Isaagorus had support from aristocrats & Cleisthenes had support from majority of Athenians Isagorus becomes a tyrant & ostracizes Cleisthenes Cleisthenes supporters revolt and trap Isago

Today in class we reviewed and continued looking at the PowerPoint for our test on Thursday. We reviewed over the main things that will be on the test. Here are some of the main things that may be on the test: fertile valleys covered 1/4 of the peninsula only 20% was arable Greek diet: grain, grapes, olives, and fish lack of resources lead to Greek colonization temperatures in Greece were in the mid 40's in the winter and low 80's in the summer- very nice weather made outdoor and active people The Mycenaeans influence began around 2000 BCE and was located on a rocky ridge on Peloponnesus protected by a 20-foot thick wall Mycenaean kings dominated Greece from 1600-1100 BCE- controlled trade in the region in 1400 BCE the Mycenaeans invaded Crete and absorbed Minoan culture- cultural diffusion Dorians moved into the worn torn region Mycenae dominating from 1150-750 BCE after a mysterious sea people invade Mycenae and burned palaces Dorians were less advanced, trade-based

Today in class we read another section about Greece in our book. The main idea of this section is cultural interaction- democratic principles and classical culture flourished during Greece's golden age. Here are some key terms from the section: direct democracy:  a form of government in which citizens rule directly and not through representatives  classical art: values of harmony, order, balance, and proportion tragedy: a serious drama about common themes such was love, hate, war, or betrayal comedy: scenes filled with slapstick situations and crude humor Peloponnesian War: war between the two city-states: Athens and Sparta philosophers: great thinkers that were determined to seek the truth Socrates: one of the Sophists who believed that absolute standards did not exist for truth or justice Plato: a student of Socrates Aristotle: a philosopher that questioned the nature of the world and of human belief, thought, and knowledge 

Today in class we took more notes on ancient Greece off of the PowerPoint. Here are some of the key  notes that I took: fertile valleys covered 1/4 of the peninsula only 20% was arable Greek diet: grain, grapes, olives, and fish lack of resources lead to Greek colonization temperatures in Greece were in the mid 40's in the winter and low 80's in the summer- very nice weather made outdoor and active people The Mycenaeans influence began around 2000 BCE and was located on a rocky ridge on Peloponnesus protected by a 20-foot thick wall Mycenaean kings dominated Greece from 1600-1100 BCE- controlled trade in the region in 1400 BCE the Mycenaeans invaded Crete and absorbed Minoan culture- cultural diffusion Dorians moved into the worn torn region Mycenae dominating from 1150-750 BCE after a mysterious sea people invade Mycenae and burned palaces Dorians were less advanced, trade-based economy collapsed, and writing disappeared for 400 years Homer was an old blind storyte

Today in class we took more notes on ancient Greece. We took notes on the power point that you made. Here are some key ideas: -the greatest civilizations are all located on water, usually rivers -the greatest civilization and their key rivers are: Egypt & The Nile, India & The Indius River, and China & The Huang he River] -Greece was on the water which meant that they were involved in lots of trade and travel -Greece is a mountainous peninsula and 3/4 of it is covered in mountains -Greece had many skilled sailors and shipbuilders also farmers, metalworkers, weavers, and potters -poor/limited natural resources which meant that they had to trade -difficult to unite Greeks because of terrain -developed city-states who they were loyal to -Greece is very small relative to even states in the United States

Today in class we watched a video on the Allegory written by Plato about the cave. Yesterday, we read the allegory and learned all about what it’s symbolism and what everything in the allegory really means and you explained to us each detail so we could understand what was going on. Today i’m class we watched a video explaining the allegory. The video said many things similar to what you said to us yesterday about what was going on and about each section of the allegory starting with the prisoners being in the cave and then with the escape of the one prisoner and then lastly with the part about the prisoner that had escaped coming back to the cave and telling the other prisoners about what was outside of the cave and him being ridiculed and then being killed. There were also a few differences about how the video presented the allegory but it was more similar to how you did than different. We played ok stop and talked about different points made in the video and took a few notes.  Today

Today in class we talked about Plato's allegory of the Cave. We learned about the three parts of the allegory: setting the scene, the three stages of liberation, and the prisoner returns to the cave. In the first section, setting the scene, it explained that there were prisoners in a cave that had been in there since childbirth so they know no different. The prisoners are shackled up and cannot move. They are forced to stare at one wall and there are people that hold up objects which create shadows that the prisoners are forced to look at.In the second part, the three stages of liberation, one prisoner was released out of the cave and into the real world. At first it was painful for the prisoner to look at the light and they had to get accustomed to it. Then they were able to look at the sun itself and know that it had a lot of power and was in charge of the seasons and governs everything in sunlight. The prisoner also learns by what it was taught through the shadows. The last part

Today in class we read from the book and took notes. Some main terms that I found were: polis: a fundamental political unit in ancient Greece acropolis: where citizens gathered to discuss city government monarchy: a government ruled by a single person aristocracy: a government ruled by a small group of noble, landowning people oligarchy: a government ruled by s few powerful people tyrants: powerful individuals who seized control of the government by appealing to the common people for support democracy: rule by the people helots: peasants forced to stay on the land they worked phalanx: foot soldiers stand side by side holding a spear in one hand and a shield in the other Persian Wars: wars between Greece and the Persian Empire

1.  Mycenaean:some of the people that settled on Greek mainland around 2000 BC Trojan War: one of the last Mycenaean battle campaigns Dorian: a less advanced people that moved into the war-torn countryside Homer: a blind man who was the greatest storyteller epic: narrative poems celebrating heroic deeds myth: a traditional story 3. Living around the sea gave the Greeks a transportation route that linked most parts of Greece. This helped the Greeks become good at trading and became skilled sailors. 4. The Mycenaeans learned about seaborne trade, adapted the Minoan writing system, and also were influenced politically and religiously by the Minoans. 5. The epics were important to the Greeks of that time because they did not have things written down so the only way they learned was through spoken word in the form of epics.

Today in class we took our quiz, which I think I did bad on, and then read and took notes on the Greeks. The main idea for the Greeks is cultural interaction: the roots of Greek culture are based on interaction of the Mycenaean, Minoan, and Dorian cultures. The Greeks matter because they planted many seeds of cultural heritage during their time period. Some key terms are: Mycenaean: some of the people who settled on Greek mainland around 2000 B.C. Trojan War: one of the last Mycenaean battle campaigns Dorians: a less advanced people that moved into the war-torn countryside Homer: a blind man who was the greatest storyteller Epics: narrative poems celebrating heroic deeds Myths: a traditional story

Today in class we reviewed for the quiz on Egypt. I have to study some more for the quiz because I don't feel very prepared. I need to work more on the pharaoh and all of the things that the Egyptians did. We also watched a video in class on how the Egyptians were preserved by mummification and we talked about the strong beliefs that they had about the afterlife and how to prepare there bodies and such. We also talked about how there is not a way to prove that one groups religion is right and that it is just about believing what you know to be true.

Today in class you showed a power point that we took notes on about Egypt. We learned that the pharaoh of Egypt were all powerful and were worshipped as a god and they had many wives. We also learned that Egyptians relied on harmony and balance which they called meat. We also learned that hieroglyphics were formed in 3100 BC and the they were written in ink on papyrus, Then, the papyrus was stored in scrolls and theses scrolls were the books of ancient Egypt. We also learned that the Egyptians were the ones that made the calendar into 12 months and 365 days. You also told us that we are having a quiz on Thursday so I have to study for that.