Class 3/27, Outline

Notes:

• Epicureanism and Stoicism: 
• founded the school of philosophy (Zeno founded the school called Stoicism) 
• Stoicis proposed that people should live virtuous lives in harmony with the will of god or the natural laws that God established to run the universe, also that wanting power and wealth and material things is unrealistic and dangerous desires that caused pain and unhappiness, encouraged followers focused on what they could control
• Epicurus founded the school of thought called Epicureanism, he thought gods were disinterested with humans and ruled the universe as they wanted, believed only real objects were things you could feel with your five senses, thought main goal of humans was to achieve harmony with body and mind, believed in everything in moderation  
• Epicurean- a person devoted to pursuing human pleasures, especially the enjoyment of good food
• Sculpture: 
• Colossus of Rhodes-a bronze statue more than 100 ft tall, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world 
• 150 B.C. the Hellenistic World was on the decline, Rome was growing and gaining strength 
• Describe the differences between the governments: aristocracy, monarchy, oligarchy, democracy
• Describe the philosophies of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle
• Describe the evolution of Greek Civilization from the Minoans, Mycenaeans, and Dorians 

Class 3/26, Review

Notes:
Hellenistic Culture:
Hellenistic Culture in Alexandria:

• Hellenistic Culture- blend of Greek, Egyptian, Persian, and Indian culture
• Trade and Culturally Diverse- 
• Alexandria became a foremost center of commerce and culture/ civilization 
• Alexandria's Attractions- Alexander's Coffin, Pharos (lighthouse), library which had 500,000 papyrus scrolls
• Science and Technology:
• Astronomy-
• Aristarchus- found out that the Sun is at least x300 bigger than the Earth, Earth and other planets revolved around the Sun
• Ptolemy- disagrees with Aristarchus, says that Earth is center of universe, this was taught for the next 14 centuries
• Eratosthenes- estimated the real size of the Earth, says the Earth is round
• Mathematics and Physics-
• Euclid- wrote the book on Geometry (Elements)
• Archimedes- estimated value of pi, explained the law of lever
• The Archimedes Screw- could raise water from the ground 

Class 3/23, Outline

Notes:
Alexander's Empire:

• Philip is Alexander's dad and King of Macedonia
• King of Macedonia who invaded Greece and won
• He was going to conquer Persia, but he was murdered
• Alexander names himself king at 20 years old
• Alexander defeats Persia (Darius III)
• Alexander was tutored by the greatest mind of his time, Aristotle, he also carried a copy of of the Iliad with him and relies on it 
• Alexander vs. Darius: 
• Alexander is outnumbered by Darius' army, but wins anyways
• Alexander is crowned pharaoh of Egypt in 332 BC
• Egyptians saw him as a liberator and Alexander claimed he was a demi-god
• He founds city of Alexandria 
• Alexander goes to Mesopotamia and confronts Darius again
• Darius' army outnumbered him again with 250,000 men, Battle at Gaugamela, Alexander uses phalanx and wins again
• Alexander continues to East to Persepolis, and burned and destroyed it (took money and gold)
• Alexander's other conquests:
• Alexander is now reigned as unchallenged ruler of Southwest Asia
• In 326 BC, Hydaspes River, defeats India
• Been fighting for 11 years and marched 11, 000 miles. Army returns home
• 323 BC, army reaches Babylon. Alexander settles here
• Alexander died at 32 years old, never carried out full plans to govern and conquer. Fever?

Class 3/19, Weather and Hellenistic Age

Today in class we spent a lot of time talking about the weather. Everyone gave their input on whether or not we thought we would have school. I hope we don't honestly. Then after we talked about the weather we started to take notes from the textbook. I didn't get that far into my note taking. But I did read through the whole thing. Also the final group presentation went up. It was Kelsie, Sophia, Jillian, Giovanna, and Anna. Their project was interesting and the pottery they made turned out way better than any pottery I could have made. It was interesting how the Greeks used to tell stories through their pottery and how important it was to them.

Class 3/15, Alexander the Great

Notes:

• Macedonia- north of Greece, rough terrain, cold climate, people lived in mountain villages, thought of themselves as Greeks, had fearless kings
• Greeks looked down on Macedonians 
• Philip II, King of Macedonia- 23 years old when he came to be king, brilliant general, ruthless politician, transformed army, organized phalanxes 16 men by 16 men, each had 18-foot pike, used fast cavalry against enemies and defeated them (northern enemies), began to plan to invade Greece
• Demosthenes (Greek orator) tried to warn Greeks of Philip
• He urged them to unite but city-states could not agree
• 338 BC Athens and Thebes unite to fight Philip but the Greeks had already been defeated at the battle of Chaeronea
• Greek independence ends
• City-states retained self-government in local affairs 
• Greece all together was under the control of Macedonia (Philip)
• Philip was murdered and his son Alexander immediately took King of Macedonia for himself 
• Alexander the Great- 20 years old, well prepared, taught by Aristotle, enjoyed Homer's work, learned how to ride a horse, use weapons, and command troops as a boy 

Class 3/14, Presenting

Today in class we had "Party Mix" (I call it Chex Mix, I'm sorry). I was very happy about that, I love that stuff. Also today, my group presented our project today. I think it went pretty well. At least I hope it went well. I think people thought it was funny, again I hope they did. I found it hard to not laugh at only because I was in it and it was embarrassing in a way. I am glad that Mr. Schick liked our horses. They were hard to train. After we presented, we asked Mr. Schick about his time in the movie industry. I thought it was really interesting and I thought it was so cool that he worked on one of my favorite movies, Home Alone.

Class 3/13, Start of Presenting

Today in class we started to present our Ancient Greece Aspects of Life projects. The first group to present was Faith, Chase, Maddy, and Ellie. They did food from Ancient Greece. Honestly, I was not expecting for the honey cake to be very good but it actually was. The only reason I thought it wasn't going to be good is because they couldn't use ingredients like sugar and baking soda and because Faith warned me to be careful. Next to present was Owen and Ben. They made trireme. It was really well put together. The last group to present was Frankie, Dom, Aiden, and Vlad. They were more of two separate groups that combine. Vlad and Aiden focused on Poseidon's trident while Dom and Frankie made a small model of a phalanx that actually looked really good.

Class 3/8, Horse Head Dilemma

Our group is having quite the issue. We ordered horse head masks to use in our Olympics video but because of this storm, THEY ARE DELAYED. We really need them and they are crucial to the video because we were going to use them in the chariot race but now we may have to do something else. This is not ok. But today in class we continued to work on our paper and basically finished laying out what were going to do. I also found videos on how to make a toga out of a sheet. It was pretty entertaining honestly. We also picked the lay out for our video. The music actually fits so well. This video is probably going to be more funny than anything but it's fine, we have keep the class intrigued some how. I'm pretty scared honestly to turn it in and stuff because we all need a good grade on this.

Class 3/6, Project

Today we finally got to work on our project. I honestly was not even sure if was still a thing and that we were doing it. I was scared to ask if we were still doing it and I was actually planning on asking today but I didn't even have to. Also, I was kind of upset about the fact the we aren't doing the prayer relating to the mass shootings anymore. I felt that in general, no matter what your thoughts are on the topic of gun control, it is something that should be addressed. I don't think that anyone can actually say that it is okay that so people are dying over shootings no matter what you believe. I do not see how it is wrong that we are sending our prayers and remembering those who lost their lives in these violent acts. Anyways, my group figured out what we are doing in our video and started our paper today.

Class 3/2, Plato's Allegory

Notes:

• Plato's Allegory of the Cave
• Allegory- a story, poem, or picture that can contain a hidden meaning, or a moral, or a political lesson
• "Life is like being chained up in a cave"
• Plato's Republic talks about an ideal society 
• People have been chained up in a cave their entire lives so they do not know any different, there is a fire burning behind them casting shadows on the wall they have been facing their whole life 
• Their whole lives they thought the shadows were the real animals or whatever the shadow was of
• One prisoner escapes and sees the real world as it really is, he is overwhelmed by the light coming from the sun, he is very confused at first but he eventually understands what the world is really like, he is enlightened
• Light is the source of everything we see 
• The prisoner that escaped goes back to the cave and struggles to see anything in the dim light as he had been in the sunlight for long enough to adjust, he tries to tell his fellow prisoners that he is going to free them and and tells them all the things they haven't seen and the light of the sun, the prisoners tell him he is crazy and hostilely refuse to be freed
• Plato's point- people are comfortable in their ignorance and resist any other ideas on life or any other belief for that matter 
• Plato said there should be philosopher kings 
• Shadows on the walls show how things in the real world are just flawed reflections 
• Theology looks at how ideal forms exist in the creators of religion 

Class 3/1, Bagels and Colors

Today in class we actually finished the philosophy video. We also talked about some thoughts on guns. But the most interesting part of the class was the weird debate on colors and how we see them. I didn't really understand what point they were trying to make but I did at the same time. Like if we have been told that something is a certain color since we were born then that is all we would ever know so technically people could understand all things as something completely different as someone as if that is what they were taught their whole life. The best part of class was that Jamie brought in bagels with cream cheese and these cookies. The bagels made me really happy especially since they were mini but the cookies were so good. The video didn't really introduce any new topics but it didn't really matter because the debate about colors really just consumed the whole class period.