Homer wrote epics that described heroes such as Achilles & Odysseus & showed how Greek gods influenced humans. Both epic poems & fables were passed down through generations & still influence our culture. Epics are long poems about heroes & gods; fables are short animal stories that teach a lesson.

Why do animals feature so prominently in Aesop’s fables? According to our ancient sources, the fable’s use of animals primarily serves to underscore the fictionality and lightness of the stories. The risibility of the humanized animal allows the fable to make its point without boring or insulting an addressee.

Mythology. The term mythology can refer either to the study of myths, or to a body or collection of myths. In the field of folkloristics, a myth is defined as a sacred narrative explaining how the world and humankind came to be in their present form and how customs, institutions and taboos were established.

The Aegean Sea, the Ionian Sea, and the neighboring Black Sea were important transportation and trade routes for the Greek people. These seaways linked most parts of Greece. Sea travel and trade were also important because Greece lacked natural resources, such as timber, precious metals, and usable farmland.

Greece is shaped like an outstretched hand. Greece includes both a mainland and islands.

How did the sea help the Greek economy? – The mountainous geography of Greece limited agriculture and political unity. – The Greeks depended on the sea to connect with each other and with the wider world. – Trade bought an alphabet and coins to Greece.

It may surprise you that Greeks don’t call themselves “Greek”. Instead Greeks refer to themselves as “Έλληνες”— Hellenes. The word “Greek” comes from the Latin “Graeci”, and through Roman influence has become the common root of the word for Greek people and culture in most languages.

Greece’s GDP growth has also, as an average, since the early 1990s been higher than the EU average. However, the Greek economy continues to face significant problems, including high unemployment levels, an inefficient public sector bureaucracy, tax evasion, corruption and low global competitiveness.

The natural geographical formations of ancient Greece helped form three distinct regions-the Peloponnese, Central Greece, and Northern Greece. The Peloponnese is situated on the southernmost area of the peninsula. It is attached to central Greece by a small strip of land called the Isthmus of Corinth.

Many explanations attribute the fall of the Mycenaean civilization and the Bronze Age collapse to climatic or environmental catastrophe, combined with an invasion by Dorians or by the Sea Peoples, but no single explanation fits the available archaeological evidence.

The polis centred on one town, usually walled, but included the surrounding countryside. The town contained a citadel on raised ground (acropolis) and a marketplace (agora). Government was centred in the town, but citizens of the polis lived throughout its territory.

A city-state, or polis, was the community structure of ancient Greece. Each city-state was organized with an urban center and the surrounding countryside. Characteristics of the city in a polis were outer walls for protection, as well as a public space that included temples and government buildings.

Helot, a state-owned serf of the ancient Spartans. The ethnic origin of helots is uncertain, but they were probably the original inhabitants of Laconia (the area around the Spartan capital) who were reduced to servility after the conquest of their land by the numerically fewer Dorians.

The term polis, which in archaic Greece meant “city”, changed with the development of the governance center in the city to signify “state” (which included its surrounding villages). The body of citizens came to be the most important meaning of the term polis in ancient Greece.

Polis, plural poleis, literally means city in Greek. It could also mean citizenship and body of citizens. In modern historiography “polis” is normally used to indicate the ancient Greek city-states, like Classical Athens and its contemporaries, so polis is often translated as “city-state”.

(Entry 1 of 2) : a Greek city-state broadly : a state or society especially when characterized by a sense of community. -polis.

Athens’ strengths included its large size, large trireme navy, wealth, and democratic government. Athens’ weaknesses included its unwritten laws, lack of unity at the beginning, insatiable hunger for new territories, and constant power struggles with other poleis.

Sparta was very violent and all they thought about was having the strongest military. The weaknesses of Sparta outweigh the strengths because the Spartans lacked education, boys were taken away from their families at a young age, and they were very abusive. To begin with, Spartans lacked advanced education.

Athens

Sparta was weak because they had harsh military training for their young, they abused their children, and they lacked in education. Firstly, Sparta had harsh military training for their children.

The weaknesses of Spartan education were harshness and cruelty (some probably died but nobody cared because he most likely didn’t have Spartan soldier potential). It was every man for himself for a bit, diseases were spread due to unsanitary environments.

Although there was a lack of respect for human life in Sparta, the strengths of a Spartan education are clearly greater than its weaknesses because of the education provided for women and teachings on survival. First, besides their strong military, Sparta was known for providing women with a decent amount of rights.

Now some cons:

• There were no human rights, there was slavery, women had practically no rights, foreigners got discriminated against.
• Only a few officials got elected.
• As there was no parliament elected for a longer period of time, politics were more unstable than in many western democracies.

In Ancient Sparta, the Helots were a subjugated population of slaves. Formerly warriors, the Helots outnumbered the Spartans considerably. During the time of the Battle of Plataea, which took place in 479 B.C., there were seven Helots for every Spartan.

Sparta was a warrior society in ancient Greece that reached the height of its power after defeating rival city-state Athens in the Peloponnesian War (431-404 B.C.). At age 7, Spartan boys entered a rigorous state-sponsored education, military training and socialization program.

Interesting Facts about Sparta

• Boys were encouraged to steal food.
• Spartan men were required to stay fit and ready to fight until the age of 60.
• The term “spartan” is often used to describe something simple or without comfort.
• The Spartans considered themselves to be direct descendents of the Greek hero Hercules.

Sparta worshipped Ares and Artemis Orthia as their patron deities.

To contemporaries outside of Sparta, Spartan women had a reputation for promiscuity and controlling their husbands. Unlike their Athenian counterparts, Spartan women could legally own and inherit property and they were usually better educated.