A tabular version is also available.
Period Events Literary Sources
for Myth
Neolithic Possible worship of fertility
(6000-3000 BC) mother-goddesses
Minoan "Minoan" culture on Crete, with
(3000-1500 BC) large population and rich
palace-centres. Non-Greek speakers.
Middle Bronze Large-scale invasions of
Age (2000-1700 Greek-speaking patriarchal peoples (Linear A - still
BC) into mainland Greece. undeciphered)
Late Bronze Age Development (under Minoan (Linear B script
(Mycenaean) influence), peak and decline (after used for palace
(1700-1100 BC) 1250 BC) of "Mycenaean" culture in records)
mainland Greece.
"Dark Age" Break-up of Mycenaean civilization;
(transition to Greek settlements throughout the
Iron Age) Aegean Islands and the coast of Asia
(1100-850 BC) Minor.
Homer - Iliad,
Redevelopment of overseas trade. 750?
Alphabetic script adapted from Odyssey, 725-700?
Geometric and Phoenician in Greece, ca 750. Hesiod - Theogony,
Archaic Period Emergence of the classical Greek Works & Days, ca
(850-480 BC) city-states, governed by family 680?
groups or dictators (mainly 7th-6th Homeric Hymns,
century),or democracies (begun by lost Cyclic Epics.
Athens, 5th century) Bacchylides, 5th -
6th century?
Pindar of Thebes,
518-428;
Greek city-states flourish until Aeschylus,
overshadowed by the powerful 525-456,
High Classical Macedonian kings. Philip of Macedon Sophocles,
Period (480-323 rules Greece; his son Alexander 495-405;
BC) campaigns as far east as India, Euripides, 480-406
conquering Persia and Egypt, before Herodotus, ca
dying in 323 BC 484-425
Plato, 428-347
Demosthenes,
384-322
Alexander's empire fragments into
Greek monarchies in Macedonia, Syria
and Egypt.
Hellenistic Roman overseas expansion begins in
Period (323-146 208 BC; Apollonius of
BC); Hellenization of Roman myth & Rhodes,
Roman Republic religion. Callimachus,
(to 44 BC) Greece becomes a Roman province. 3rd-2nd century BC
The Roman Republic ends with a
seizure of power by Julius Caesar
(assassinated 44 BC)
Vergil, 70-19 BC
Roman Empire (31 Livy, 59 BC - ??
BC on) Augustus, 31 BC - to 14 AD AD
Ovid, 43 BC 18 AD
Diodorus Siculus
(1st century BC),
Apollodorus, 1st
Julio-Claudian emperors & successors century AD
Plutarch, ca 45 AD
-ca 125 AD
Pausanias, 115 AD
- 180 AD
312 AD - Conversion of Constantine
to Christianity.
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Maintained by Laurel Bowman: lbowman@uvic.ca. Last updated: June 28, 2002.