History and Myth

It is important for you to acquire some sense of the fundamental periods of Greek history, the principal sources and their approximate dates, and the names and locations of the most important city-states. This topic is addressed quite succinctly in chapter 2 of Classical Mythology, and if you can master what they tell you there, you will be in good shape. I recommend that when you run across the name of an obviously important city or geographical location, use the maps in the text to locate them. You may find the "Ancient History and the Sources of Myth" chart useful in keeping the chronology straight, as well as the principal literary sources you will encounter. Please make sure you are familiar with the authors and their works listed (they are identified and discussed, along with a few others, in the textbook (pp. 26–30).

Ancient History and the Sources of Myth
Historical Period	Sources
7000–3000 B.C.: Neolithic Age	Archaeology
3000–2000 B.C.: Early Bronze Age
ca. 2000 B.C.: first Greek-speaking people enter
2000–1600 B.C.: Middle Bronze Age
1600–1100 B.C.: Late Bronze Age ca. 1500 B.C.: rise of Mycenae ca. 1250 B.C.: Fall of Troy
1100–800 B.C.: Dark Age ca. 1100 B.C.: Dorian invasion ca. 1000 B.C.: Iron Age begins
750–500 B.C.: Archaic Period 700–600 B.C.: Emergence of Greek city-states	ca. 750 B.C. Homer (Iliad, Odyssey)
	Hesiod (Theogony, Works and Days) Homeric Hymns
500–323 B.C.: Classical Period in Greece	Pindar (518–438 B.C.; Odes) Aeschylus (525–456 B.C.) Herodotus (ca. 485–425 B.C.; Histories)
461–429 B.C.: Age of Pericles 431–404 B.C.: Peloponnesian War	Sophocles (496–406 B.C.) Euripides (485–406 B.C.) Aristophanes (ca. 450–385 B.C.) Plato (429–347 B.C.)
352–323 B.C.: Alexander the Great
323–327 B.C.: Hellenistic Period in Greece	Callimachus (305–240 B.C.) Apollonius (third century), et al.
146–27 B.C.: Late Republican Rome
27 B.C.–A.D. 14: Age of Augustus	Vergil (Aeneid) Ovid (Metamorphoses) Livy (History of Rome)
Second century A.D.?	"Apollodorus" (Bibliotheca)