Northern Greece

• Mt. Olympus
• Thessaly

• Phocis: Delphi (site of oracle)
• Boeotia: Thebes
• Attica: Athens & Piraeus

The Peloponnese (Peloponnesus)

• Argos: Mycenae
• Elis: Olympia (site of Olympic games)
• Arcadia
• Sparta (Lacedaemon)

• Cyclades
• Crete <————> Rhodes

• Halicarnassus
• Miletus
• Ephesus
• Islands: Lesbos, Chios, Samos

• Macedonia
• Thrace
• Hellespont
• Bosphorus & Black Sea

Magna Graecia ("Greater Greece")

• South Italy
• Sicily

F. Braudel, The Mediterranean (1949)

Geology of Aegean basin

• Seismic activity (= earthquakes)
• Mountains divide ~ sea connects

• Hot, dry summers; rainy winters
• Transhumance: seasonal pasturing
• Constant ploughing to conserve water
• Outdoor, public culture

• Grain (mostly wheat & barley)
• Grapes -> Wine
• Sheep, Goats: wool, cheese, meat
• Olives (food, oil, fuel)
• Honey (no sugar)
• Fish (usually salted)
• Meat (rarely; esp. at sacrifices)

Written Sources

Materials: clay, skins, papyri, stone, pottery
(+ medieval parchment manuscripts)

Non-literary ("documentary") sources:

• Linear B tablets (Bronze Age)
• Iinscriptions (classical period)
• papyri (from 3d c. on)

• History (Herodotus, Thucydides)
• Poetry (Homer, lyric poets)
• Plays (tragedy & comedy)
• Philosophy (Plato)

• Origins, relation to other languages
• Dialect variation (= migration)
• Loan words (= foreign contacts)

• Buildings (stone, wood)
• Sculpture (stone; bronze)
• Painting (fresco, wood)
• Pottery [esp. important for dating]
• Coins, jewelry etc.

• Source bias (who is speaking?)
• Difficulty of interpretation