Does Power Corrupt?

Does power corrupt? Well, this can be answered in different ways, but first, let us define power. Merriam Webster dictionary states that power is: “a : possession of control, authority, or influence over others b : one having such power; specifically : a sovereign state c : a controlling group : Establishment —often used in the phrase the powers that be d archaic : a force of armed men echiefly dialect : a large number or quantity.” (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/power). Let’s focus on the first definition. Power is when a person, more than one person, or thing is in a position of authority. The response to our main question can be affected by many different factors. Whether or not power corrupts a person depends solely on that person, their personality, their past experiences, and the type of power. When thinking even deeper, one may realize that power can not only affect one person. It can affect groups, or even whole countries. Systems or organizations can also be affected by power, whether it be because they are powerful, or because a person that has been corrupted by power is destroying it. As you can see, power and corruption together are very complicated topics, so let’s take a deeper look.

As stated above, power is a very complicated topic, so its corrupting of things can vary depending on the situation. A person’s personality before they gain power can determine whether the power will corrupt them. It is easy to let the power get to your head, but if the person is kind, always puts others first, never thought about wanting power, or is concerned about the welfare of all people, then they may not become corrupted if they are given power. People that are nasty, selfish, greedy, or power-thirsty, on the other hand, may easily let the power take over and control their actions. Another factor that affects how much power may corrode a person is their past experiences. For example, say a person suffered underneath a dictator before. If they ever gain power, they may try to be careful not to make other people suffer the way they did, and be careful with what they do with their power. On the other hand, maybe that person them self was corroded by power before, and they realized that they had made a mistake. They may learn from their mistake and not let the power corrode them the next time. As you can see, power can be dangerous, but not every person is affected by it.

In history, power has corrupted many individuals. It has also occurred the other way around. Corrupted individuals have gained power. Take Hitler for example. He was a corrupt person, hungry for power, and when he did gain it, he became even more corrupted. He killed more than eleven million people, and his gaining of power helped that a lot. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler_). Others were not corrupted by power, like Princess Diana. She used her power and wealth to help out more people, and she was always kind. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diana,_Princess_of_Wales). Obviously, power can either greatly corrupt or greatly help people make others lives better, but power does not only affect individuals.

Along with individuals, groups of people can be affected by power. Entire countries, in fact. Every country, some time in its existence, will probably be powerful at some point. They act like individuals many times, and are selfish and let the power corrupt them. However, when entire countries are corrupted, they can have big affects on other countries, or even systems and organizations. Every country has a complicated mix of systems that hold their country together. When a country becomes corrupt, they can destroy the systems that they worked so hard on to put in place. This is something that a country may never recover from, and can be very dangerous.

Our world is built on the rising and falling of nations, groups, and even individual people. Without certain people or groups being powerful, it would be chaos. Even if some people are hurt along the way, it is a way of life. The most that we can hope for is that these corrupted people will learn from their mistakes, and if they get the opportunity, to make better choices in the future.

Sources:

"Diana, Princess of Wales." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Web. 26 Feb. 2010. .

"Adolf Hitler." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Web. 26 Feb. 2010. .

"Power - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary." Dictionary and Thesaurus - Merriam-Webster Online. Merriam-Webster. Web. 26 Feb. 2010. .

Photographs from:

Photograph. Wikimedia Commons. Wikipedia, 30 Nov. 2008. Web. 26 Feb. 2010. .

Photograph. Wikimedia Commons. Wikipedia, 22 May 1987. Web. 26 Feb. 2010. .

Why do people want to lead others?

I think it is the power that compels someone to lead others. Power and popularity. There are many reasons that a person may want to come to power. Some may think that they know what is best for the people they will be leading, some may just want to feel the power of ruling other people. Like Alexander the Great, the person may have a goal in mind. Alexander wanted to conquer the world, but he would need power and help to be able to do that. He was put into power unexpectedly, when his father died. His first act was to get revenge for his father's death, but then he started on another course. He decided to conquer the world. When he had seen how easily he got revenge for his father, the power went to his head. Overall, there are different reasons that people want to lead others. Maybe they want to feel the power, or maybe the power just got to their head.

Source:

"Alexander the Great." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Web. 25 Feb. 2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_the_Great>.

Photograph from:

Photograph. Wikimedia Commons. Wikipedia, Oct. 2006. Web. 25 Feb. 2010. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aleksander-d-store.jpg>.

Notes 2-25- continuing on Alexander from yesterday

• The Battle of Issus: Darius was front and center of the Persian line.
• Darius vs Alexander- Persians vs Macedonians
• The Macedonians win of course, because Alexander sends his calvary around the side of Darius' army, and the weak archers, who are on the outside, run away, and the good archers, with Darius, are left open and vulnerable. People are coming at them from their front and side.
• After this battle, Alexander hunts down the man who left Darius for dead. He cuts of Bessus'(idk how to really spell it) ears, tongue, and stuff off, which is a Persian tradition for traitors.
• Then Alexander moves into another area, where he meets horseman, very skilled warriors. This is his first defeat. But he and his men push on.
• Later, there is a confrontation between him and his men. he says that they should go beyond the river, because he has heard stories of people living out there. His men do not want to go. He finally agrees that they can go home.
• He allows his men to marry Persian wives, and he has gotten married and dressed as a Persian king. Persia changed Alexander.
• He goes on one last march, and comes back up to the ancient city of Babylon. There, he loses a dear friend in an accident, and becomes extremely depressed. He finally becomes very ill with a fever, and he dies. He was 32 when he died. He had conquered LOTS of land. All of his land was split up between many different generals.
• Ptolemy

Apollo!

Apollo on Prezi

Source:

"APOLLO : Greek god of music, healing & prophecy ; mythology ; pictures : APOLLON." THEOI GREEK MYTHOLOGY, Exploring Mythology & the Greek Gods in Classical Literature & Art. Web. 25 Feb. 2010. http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/Apollon.html>.

Notes 2-24

• Phalanx- the square formation used in the ancient times where the two groups push up against each other, all standing in rows.
• The Greeks built the long walls. They built them all the way from the harbor to the city. They are two walls close together. The carts loaded with items from the harbor went into the gate and goes all the way down the long walls.
• The walls were a great defense, but if Sparta gets close enough, and push the Athenians into the walls, and close the gate. The Athenians are trapped within their own walls, and the plague breaks out. Sparta just waits, and then eventually go back home. The Athenians are left there, wondering what to do. It was a terrible blow to Athens.
• Sparta had allies and outposts in Sicily. If the Athenians could get around Sparta, they could attack Sicily where Sparta could never catch up to them.
• Alcibiades comes up with the idea to invade Sicily. It becomes known as the Sicilian Expedition. Someone committed a vast act of vandalism the night before the expedition, and Alcibiades enemies had convinced enough people that Alcibiades was behind it. In the heat of the moment, they were connived that he had something to do with it, even though it didn't make sense.
• They had a trial without Alcibiades there and he was convicted.They try to follow after the expedition and capture Alcibiades, but he refused and then took another boat to Sparta. When the Athenians get to Sicily, The Sicilian and Spartan armies were waiting for them. It was one of the greatest defeats every(of Athens).
• Athens come back, but it never comes back to as powerful as it had been.

Alexander the great

• Was Aristotle's student.
• Alexanders Dad was the King of Macedon. Philip was his name, and he is assassinated when Alexander is 19. Alexander becomes King. First thing he does is get revenge on the people that killed dad.
• He did not know what to do, so he decided to take over the world. He also decides that he finally will be the guy to take revenge on the Persians. He wants to take over and conquer it. He did that, and then at the age when he would have been getting out of college today, he had conquered half of the know world.
• He goes to Troy, but nothing is there. The Trojan war happened a thousand years ago. He throws a spear onto the shore and says that that is the spear he uses to conquer Persia.
• He comes down the coast, has a couple battles and defeats the Persians he meets there, and ends up in a town known as Gordian. There is a strange legend at Gordian. Out in the field, there is an ox cart. The two bars of the cart are tied up by a huge knot. The take all of the ends of the knot and then tuck it underneath, so you wouldn't know where to start to untie it.
• Alexander says that he is going to untie the rope. His friends are scared that he won't be able to untie it. He slices the knot and cops it in half, and opens it up. He says that it doesn't matter how you undo the knot.
• Then, he continues down the coast, and crosses into Egypt. When he gets to Egypt, he is hailed as a King. They love him, because they also hate Persia.
• He and a few of his friends take a caravan out into the desert and land at an oasis called Siwa Oasis. It is still there today. There is an oracle there at Siwa. The priest at the oracle greets him as the son of God. That makes Alexander feel pretty good:) Now he is ready to conquer Persia.

Here is a video I found about Alexander the Great:)

The Roman Republic

The Roman republic was a period of republican government in Rome, which occurred after was monarchy overthrown. Like our government today, there were separated powers and a system of checks and balances. In the beginning, only rich powerful people could participate in government or form the constitution, but this changed later .This is also how our government is, along with many others in the world today. The Roman republic was strong, and while this government was in place it expanded and grew, and became more and more powerful. This is also reflected in many democracies, including the US. We are a very powerful country, one of the most powerful in the world. Perhaps our form of government helps us out in achieving this. Lastly, like our government, they have a Senate. The Romans were very powerful and have made many, many, contributions to our society today. Maybe these links between modern democracies and the Roman republic are reasons for the success of democracies today.

Sources:

"Roman Republic." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Wikipedia. Web. 24 Feb. 2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Republic>.

Hooker, Richard. "Rome: The Republic." Washington State University - Pullman, Washington. 06 June 1999. Web. 23 Feb. 2010. http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/ROME/REPUBLIC.HTM>.

Picture from:

Photograph. Wikimedia Commons. Wikipedia, 18 Apr. 2007. Web. 23 Feb. 2010. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Parthenon.JPG>.

Biographies

Socrates:

Socrates was an ancient Greek philosopher. He lived from 469-399 BC. He appeared a lot in Plato's dialogues, which is one of the main reasons why he is known and famous. He did not leave any writings behind, so we do not know much about him besides what a few people have recorded. There is also another person who wrote about his life. Xenophon, who was an ancient Greek historian, was a very accurate writer and his writings were not affected by other things, unlike Socrates' student's writings(Plato). Socrates set standards for all of western philosophy. He always was truthful and had very critical reasoning. He once served as a soldier, was a stonemason, and raised a family. He inherited a small fortune, but material goods were not important to him, so did not charge for lessons or teachings to his students. Overall, he has helped our world a lot today and is one of the founders of Western Philosophy.

"Socrates- A Biography of Socrates Life." 2020 Site - Wedding invitation wording, family crests, trees and other eclectic information at 2020. Web. 23 Feb. 2010. http://www.2020site.org/socrates/>.

"Socrates." Philosophy Pages. Web. 23 Feb. 2010. http://www.philosophypages.com/ph/socr.htm>.

Plato:

Plato was, like Socrates, another Greek philosopher, but was also a mathematician, writer of philosophical dialogues, and the founder of the Academy in Athens. Living from 427-347 BC, he was the teacher of Aristotle and the student of Socrates. He came from a wealthy family with very influential parents. His works were very influential in later mathematics. He lectured at the academy he founded, and taught many different subjects. These subjects included philosophy, logic, rhetoric, and mathematics.

"Plato." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Wikipedia. Web. 23 Feb. 2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plato>.

"Plato." Philosophy Pages. Web. 23 Feb. 2010. http://www.philosophypages.com/ph/plat.htm>.

Aristotle:

Aristotle, yet another philosopher, who was the student of Plato, lived from 384-322 BC. He made many important contributions to society, even some that still continue on today. Mainly, he systemized deductive logic and wrote on philosophical subjects. He studied for twenty years at Plato's academy, and was one of the best students. He even then went on to establish his own school. He studied many, many varying subjects, but we do not have all of his writings, so we can not see his full studies. Overall, Aristotle was trying to find a universal way of thinking so that everything could be learned about reality. As we have continued to find today, this is not yet possible, although much of Aristotle's work has amazed and helped shape our lives today.

"Aristotle summary." GAP System for Computational Discrete Algebra. Web. 23 Feb. 2010. http://www.gap-system.org/~history/Mathematicians/Aristotle.html>.

"Aristotle." Philosophy Pages. Web. 22 Feb. 2010. http://www.philosophypages.com/ph/aris.htm>.

Photographs from:

Photograph. Wikimedia Commons. Wikipenia, 04 Dec. 2004. Web. 22 Feb. 2010. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Socrates.jpg>.

Photograph. Wikimedia Commons. Wikipedia, 18 Nov. 2008. Web. 22 Feb. 2010. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Platon2.jpg>.

Photograph. Wikimedia Commons. Wikipedia, 10 May 2005. Web. 22 Feb. 2010. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aristotelesbunt.jpg>.

Notes 2-22

• The Classical Age
• Athens is on a little peninsula in the province of Attica. Modern Athens is a huge city. Over a quarter of the population of Greece lives in Athens. The population is around 5 million people, and of course in the Ancient times it was considerably smaller.
  
• The ancient city of Athens was centered around the Acropolis.
• The sacred grove of Dionysus opens up to the theater of Dionysus. Notes that religion and theater are together. From the very beginning they are absolutely connected.
• Tragedy and comedy are the themes of the plays.
• Temple of Athena Nike- Nike is the Greek word that means victory. This temple was built after the Persian war. Athena is the protector of Athens, and they built a temple for Athena, the victorious.
• There is an ancient carving of Athena Nike, or Athena victorious, is fixing her shoe. That is where Nike got its name.
• The Parthenon is a Doric(the columns end in sort of squares at the top) temple. (there are a variety of temples). It began being built in 480. it was built with funds that Athenians got as a result of the Persian war.
• The Athenian General Pericles. He was so famous and influential that often we refer to the age of classical Greece as the age of Pericles. He thought that Athens would be the protector of Greece, and all the other cities would contribute to Athens to protect Greece. Pericles also thought that Greece should build a navy. Lastly, Pericles really opens up the arts. Remember, the Acropolis was destroyed, so Pericles built up something new instead of the acropolis, and that is where we get the Parthenon.
• The Parthenon has a picture all around the top of the inside, about a parade. The temple was dedicated to Athena Parthenos. (the virgin Athena) On the day of the festival the people would parade around and the women would go into the temple and wrap a fine linen around the huge statue of Athena.
• The classical age gives us philosophy, the arts, music painting, sculpture all reach critical high points in this period. Also, the first experience of democracy occurs.

Who Makes History?

Who makes history? Is it the individuals? Or is it “the people”? How can we decide this? This is a tricky question, and, depending on the person, it can be answered differently. Before we can ponder this question, we must know what exactly history is.

Definitions of history vary; from multiple dictionary definitions to quotes explaining what history is. Even dictionary definitions of history differ. The Merriam Webster definition is “a: events that form the subject matter of a history b: events of the past c: one that is finished or done for d: previous treatment, handling, or experience (as of a metal).” (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/history). This definition is similar to that of Encarta dictionary; they both classify history as past events. Encarta says “what has happened: the past events of a period of in time or in the life or development of a people, and institution, or a place.” On the other hand, Wikipedia says history is “is the study of the human past.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History). The first two definitions state that history is the past events, whereas Wikipedia says that history is the study of past events. Either way, history can be said to include anything in the past. Now that the definition is clear, the question of who creates it arises.

Some may think that individuals create history. They may think that a single person going about their daily routine even makes history. Individual people make history every day, but there are also bigger historical events that individual people have created. Take, for example, Rosa Parks, or Martin Luther King. Rosa Parks made a huge step in history by not giving her seat on a bus to a white person (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_parks). Martin Luther King led many peaceful protests and worked for the end of segregation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_luther_king). Individuals like these have made history in our world, history that has been recorded in many books, history that almost everyone knows about. There are also other people that everyone knows about. Take George Washington for example. He was our first president, and pretty much everyone in the United States knows that. There is a lot of history in our world, recorded and not recorded, that is made by individuals. However, this is not the only history there is; that would make everything pretty boring!

While it is true that individuals create some parts of history, many events are group efforts. Take any war for example. It takes a whole army to win a war, and when the war is over, a whole country is considered to have won. The newspapers all say that “The United States has won the war.” Many large events in history are created by “the people” also. Records of a country’s history are mostly all accomplishments or milestones that the entire country has reached. As said above, Martin Luther King was a single individual that made huge steps in history. However, he was part of an entire movement. The entire civil rights movement was completed by the entire Native American population. It could not have been done by just one person. “The people,” including Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks, all worked together over a series of years to shape the world into what it is today and create lots of interesting stories and events in history. Most events in history, like ones that children study at school are large, country based events, which are therefore made by “the people.” But the question is still there: Is history actually made by the people or by individuals?

Maybe this is not a yes or no question. As seen above, individuals and groups of people all make different aspects of history. Individuals create their own daily history simply by living, which contrasts with wars and large events accomplished by the people. While thinking in this way, another combination can be made. Maybe one event in history was made by both individuals and groups. Using an example from above, Martin Luther King was an important individual in the civil rights movement, but that movement most definitely could not have been completed with the help of every person in each protest or boycott. Each person has a specific role in making history, and sometimes these roles are combined together, working towards the same event. Again, using an already stated example, wars show these qualities. The people may win or lose a war, but each person within the war has their special role in history. Each soldier has a different job, and some things they do may be small and just kept to themselves, while other could be large actions that help the whole army, or affect other soldiers. Another event like this was when the first man was sent to the moon. When great achievements in outer space are reached, they are classified by country, just as it was when America put the first man on the moon. Neil Armstrong, who was the first man on the moon, obviously had an important role in history (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_man_on_the_moon). But all of the other people working on this great feat are melded together into “the people” of America. This is not necessarily a bad thing, it is just the way history is grouped or categorized. On another note, some people may think that history cannot be categorized into individual or group efforts; it simply happens. Any of these views are true, but there are some other questions to ask about these categories.

Some may ask “Can history really be categorized?” History as a whole is a very vast and abstract topic, so the thought of categorizing it may be difficult for some people. Not only can history be categorized by who creates it, but it could be categorized by importance, when it happened, where it happened; the list goes on and on. Every person creates history and is affected by it in their daily life; whether it be something they did yesterday or something done by their ancestors. So is history really a topic that needs to be put into categories?

Sources used:

"Rosa Parks." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Web. 15 Feb. 2010. .

"Martin Luther King, Jr." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Web. 15 Feb. 2010. .

"History - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary." Dictionary and Thesaurus - Merriam-Webster Online. Web. 15 Feb. 2010. .

"History." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Web. 15 Feb. 2010. .

Photographs:

Photograph. Wikimedia Commons. Wikipedia, 23 Oct. 2006. Web. 15 Feb. 2010. .

Photograph. Wikimedia Commons. Wikipedia, 01 July 1969. Web. 15 Feb. 2010. .

"The Yesterday show"- Tales of the Ancient World

Interviewer: Today we have a few guests on the show, thank you for coming. Would you like to tell us who you are and a bit about your experiences?

Soldier 1: hello, I am a Persian soldier, proud survivor of the Persian war. I am here today to tell you about this war, with my partner here.

Soldier 2: Hello everyone.

Soldier 1: Well, we Persians know that we should rule the whole world, but of course, we need to start out somewhere.

Soldier 2: Yes, when Ionia was conquered, we knew that it was a good time to go out there and get some more territory. Unfortunately, the Greeks thought so also.

Soldier 1: We sent out some of our most noble men to lead each of the cities we got. However, the Greeks had a problem with this. One of our noble leaders set out to conquer more territory, this time the island of Naxos. Persia, of course, helped him along.

Soldier 2: Very unexpectedly, Aristagoras got all of Hellenic Asia Minor to rebel against us. They really got on our nerves, and one day, I don’t understand how, but one day they got to our capital, Sardis, and captured and burned it.

Soldier 1: Our great king, Darius the Great, vowed that we would get revenge on Athens and Eretria for what they had done to us.

Soldier 2: Finally, we got prepared enough to revolt back, and we centered around the aria of Miletus.

Soldier 1: We defeated the Ionians, as we rightfully should have. After that, just to be safe, we decided to attack Greece, so that they would not be able to attack us later.

Soldier 2: Well, I must admit, the first force we sent out failed, and again our second force failed. We then knew that we needed to plan to completely conquer Greece. When Darius died, we launched our second conquest under Xerxes. We had THE largest army ever assembled.

Soldier 1: Well, not the total largest, but one of the largest ever. We finally overran most of Greece. When we began to lose some battles, the invasion sadly ended .

Soldier 2: Those terrible Greeks destroyed the rest of our fleet. We had a few more battles, but we continued declining in our number of wins. With no clear winner, we created a peace treaty. Personally, I think we should have been the true winner. Even though we had some weak points.

Soldier 1: I am proud to say I fought in this war, because I feel very strongly towards my country, Persia. I hope that we will get our strength back and conquer the world one day.

Soldier 2: Thank you for inviting us to the show.

Interviewer: Thank you for joining us! That’s all for today folks!

Sources:

"Greco-Persian Wars." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Wikipedia. Web. 18 Feb. 2010. .

Photograph from:

Photograph. Wikimedia Commons. Wikipedia. Web. 17 Feb. 2010. <"Greco-Persian Wars." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Wikipedia. Web. 18 Feb. 2010. .>.

Notes 2-18

• The late Bronze age: 1600-1050 BC
• It is said that King Minos who ruled the entire Aegean Sea demanded sacrifices so that he could feed the minotaur.
• Crete is an island in the Aegean Sea (the large island). In the Middle Bronze age it was the site of the Minoan civilization. The Minoans make very interesting artwork and much of their artwork has animal themes to it, either sea creatures or bull's heads. Minoan culture seems to come to and end at 1100 BC. Theories of the Minoan fall include invasion, the spread of disease, or earthquakes. After that, there is confusion as to who should rule the Aegean Sea. Mycenae steps in.
• The Mycenaean emblem is the lion. Mycenae has a warlike culture, they started the Trojan war. After the fall of Mycenae, the dark ages come. After that, the geometric period. It is called the geometric period because of the artwork created at this time.
• Greeks in the geometric period used great pieces of pottery as grave markers. The pottery tells stories on them. *Remember the vase that shows the great warrior's death, with the mourners and the other warriors that he had fought with. After the very long dark age, we have all of this great art and culture.
• The Archaic period. Or the "old" period. From 700-480 BC.
• There is a big difference between the geometric and the archaic period. The Greeks turn inward and start looking at themselves. They start to depict humans in art. The Greek statues let space between the legs, unlike Egyptian. Also, the people are depicted nude. Also, people other than the Pharaoh could have sculptures of them.
• If there were two warriors on the battlefield, and on is slain, the other warrior strips him of his armor and takes it home as a prize. The sculptures then may depict soldiers, as they were nude when they died. Also, this means that the warrior died in his glory, brave and fighting on the battlefield.
• Greek sculpture also starts picturing the movement of the body. The left leg may be more forward to resemble walking.
• There are hero shrines all throughout Greece.
• The "Age of Tyrants" was from 650 to 500 BC. Tyrants are not necessarily bad. In Greece, it meant the number one guy that was in charge. The first of the tyrants was a guy from Sparta named Lycurgus. He was the first Greek to set up laws that his city would have to abide by. Sparta and Athens were the cities who would rise up and be the power of Greece.
• In Sparta, the most important thing was being prepared for war. In Greece, war was constant. The hoplites were light armed soldiers that could move quickly in square formation. These soldiers were trained from children to fight.
• The Athenians were also warriors, like all Greeks. They were kind of at odds with Sparta. One thing that could unite Greeks no matter what was an invasion by the Persian Empire.
• Ionia was a Greek colony and right on the edge of the Persian empire. Persia attacked or gained control of all the cities all the way up the coast and then up to Thrace, then marched down through lots of cities and are about to get to Athens. they tell Sparta that if the Persians take Athens, all of Greece will be lost. The Athenians completely abandon the city of Athens and hide out in the Islands.
• At the battle of Thermopylae, about 7,000 Greeks confronted the entire Persian invasion force, and every single person died. It held them off long enough for the entire city of Athens to be evacuated though. So the Greeks moved of the coast onto an island. When the Persians get to Athens, they find the city empty, and they are furious. They burn the entire Acropolis down. The Persians destroy Athens, and then they get called out to salamis, where the Greeks are hiding. They take the bait, and the Athenian army and the Greek allies are waiting for them, and they crush the Persians. The Persians barely make it back home. The battle of Salamis is the most important battle in the war. If the Greeks had not won, there would have been so much we would never have had happen or learned. It shows that history is surviving on a thread. No one knows exactly what is going to happen.

Why do people record history?

People record history for many varying reasons. Some for future references, or so that it can be remembered and learned from later. Some may record smaller, more personal pieces of history for later entertainment or memories. Also, decisions one made yesterday can help them make their next decisions. Pretty much no one sees history, or anything for that matter, the same way. One object can be photographed in an infinite number of ways. Each angle opens up a new part and view of an object. The angle is not the only thing that affects how one sees an object though. Where the object is for example, affects how one sees it, just like the environment affects ones decisions, and then later, history. When one is photographing an object, they can look at it from the right, left, top, bottom, and every direction in between. Even from all of these different angles, a person's past experiences or encounters with this object can affect what they think of this object. As you can see, there is an unending list of factors that affect one's view of anything, so there is no possible way that anyone can see something the same way as the person next to them.

The picture shows a good example of something that people view differently. Each small turn of the globe unveils a different area or side of the world. Each person from each different country may view their country as the most important. In this example, the form matters too. When it is in the form of a map, a certain area is perceived to be in the middle.

Sources used:

Krev, George. "Why Do Different People Perceive the Same Things Differently? -." Associated Content - associatedcontent.com. 03 Aug. 2009. Web. 14 Feb. 2010. http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1956712/why_do_different_people_perceive_the.html>.

Photograph from:

Photograph. Wikimedia Commons. Wikipedia, 16 Sept. 2007. Web. 14 Feb. 2010. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Globe.svg>.

Greece Notes

• Modern day Turkey was once called Anatolia
• Athens lies right on the bay
• Sparta: There is a lot of information about it in Google earth, just click on it
• The oldest epic written in the English language was the Iliad
• Achilles was the Greek hero of Troy
• The Trojan war broke out because: There was a wedding planned and everyone in all of Greece was invited except one. She sends out a golden apple to the wedding that says "to the fairest." all of the goddesses want it, and one man has to decide which one is the fairest. Pairs is the judge. She bribes him by saying that she will give him any woman as his bride if he choses her. The woman he choses, Helen, is the most beautiful woman in the world, and she is married, so he captures her, and her husband and others come after Paris. Achilles is killed, and it is left to Odesius to come up with a plot. They hide in a horse and left it as a gift to the Gods, and the Trojans took it into their city. The Trojans came out and sprung a surprise attack. They opened the gates for the rest of the Greek army and then set the entire city on fire.

I found a video about Athenian and Spartan women, and how they were treated.

Athenian "Democracy"?

I believe that Athens was a democracy. It may not be the same type of democracy as ours, or even any other democracies in the world, but it was a democracy. Even though the base definition of democracy is clear, there are many different ways that it can be interpreted, and many different variations of it. Although Athens had a somewhat biased democracy, it was a democracy none the less. Most of the time, only the rich men that were citizens of Athens could vote or participate in government. Some may say that this was not a good representation of "the people." Even though this is true, this still is a government that is ruled or governed by more than one person, thus, making it "the people." When one thinks of the people, they may see an entire civilization that needs to be represented. By more of a technical definition, "the people" may just include two or three people. Also, today the United Stated has representatives to vote for groups of people, and when one thinks about this, this is also not a very good representation of all of the people. So. As you can see, Athens is classified as a democracy because at least a portion of the people were represented, and the civilization was trying to be run in a way that was best for all citizens.

Sites used:

Cartledge, Paul. "Critics and Critiques of Athenian Democracy." BBC - Homepage. BBC, 05 Nov. 2009. Web. 14 Feb. 2010. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/greeks/greekcritics_01.shtml>.

Photograph from:

Photograph. Wikimedia Commons. Wikipedia, 31 Mar. 2008. Web. 14 Feb. 2010. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ancient_Agora_of_Athens_4.jpg>.

The Olympic Games

The Olympic games today are very different from the rituals performed in ancient Olympia and even from the old games that were played. At first, the games started in Olympia in 776 b. c. and they were rituals performed to honor Zeus. This was even before they became athletic games; they solely consisted of rituals and offerings honoring Zeus, but this later changed. It became more of a physical competition, which, while it still was in honor of Zeus, the city-states were competing to see who was the strongest. Along with this, it was a way to get the men fit for battle.

The games began with only one event, which was a race. This games later grew to add in a few more different types of races. Even after this, events including boxing, wrestling, the pentathlon, and horse and chariot races were added. This does not, however, come even close to he Olympic games that we celebrate today.

Today we have an enormous variety of sports included in our Olympics, and we do not compete in horse and chariot races anymore. Also, the games today are mainly for competition and entertainment; not to honor any Gods. Another difference in the games today is that both men and women are allowed to compete. This was not so in the ancient times when the games began. As you can see, times have changed a lot since 776 b. c., and not only because of the Olympic games. These games, however, are a fun tradition that has been passed on for a very long time. They will hopefully continue on into the future, adapting with the current culture as they did for us.

Source used:

Instone, Stephen. "The Olympics: Ancient versus Modern." Ow.ly - Shorten urls, share files and track visits - Owly. BBC, 05 Nov. 2009. Web. 18 Feb. 2010. .

Photograph from:

Photograph. Wikimedia Commons. Wikipedia, 12 Feb. 2010. Web. 17 Feb. 2010. .

Pharaohs- Extra credit pixton

Baines, John. "Ancient History in depth: The Story of the Nile." BBC - Homepage. 05 Nov. 2009. Web. 06 Feb. 2010. .

Tyldesly, Joyce. "Ancient History in depth: Ancient Egypt and the Modern World." BBC - Homepage. 05 Nov. 2009. Web. 06 Feb. 2010. .

Extra Credit Links!

Ancient Egypt was a very culturally interesting place. They spoke three different languages; Arabic, Coptic, and Egyptian. They were ruled by pharaohs whom they honored greatly. One of the most know pharaohs was King Tutankhamen. When the pharaohs died, large pyramids were built as burial tombs for the pharaoh and his family. The pharaoh would go through a process called mummification, in which his organs are removed and he is wrapped up into a mummy, and then placed in his casket. The Great Pyramids at Giza are some of the oldest and largest pyramids ever. There is a large sphinx that appears to be guarding the great pyramids, but know one knows for sure why it was there. In legends there was a story that he had a riddle and would not let anyone pass by without getting his riddle correct. On the more physical side, the Nile river is a major river in Africa that flows north. Also, ancient Egyptians have a very unique and interesting way of art also. For example, in sculptures, there are never any spaces in between the legs. If there is then you know that the sculpture is fake. Egyptians are polytheistic, because they believe in more than one God. Monotheism, on the other hand, is the belief in one God. The Egyptians got into a war with the Persians, and then Alexander the Great came along. They loved him, because he also hated the Persians. Egypt also had a writing system, hieroglyphics, which consisted of many pictures. The pictures did not stand for words, but sounds. Overall, Egypt was a very interesting, and yet complex, place.