animals and plants in ancient Greece

compiled by Makenzie Lystrup



On the following pages we will be taking a look at the other life in Greece:

plants and animals

The Greeks knew their land was pretty rough and not that good for farming. The land was (and still is) also mountainous, so a lot of it was not great for living on. So most of the Greeks lived around the ocean, the Aegean Sea. Since they lived on the coast, they considered themselves living around the ocean, instead of on a piece of land. That's a lot different from how we see things here in the United States. So the Greeks probably did not have a lot of contact with the plants and animals outside of the coastline. We will still take a look at these other life forms, but mostly look at the ones the Greek people dealt with directly. A lot of the information we have comes from modern times, but the evolutionary process is slow. It's pretty safe to say that things have not changed a whole lot since the ancient times.

worked a lot on the study of plants (botany) and animals (zoology ). He was interested in putting them into categories to understand them better. One of the most important things to remember about the Greek environment in general is that farming and cattle grazing made the land even worse. Many trees were cut down and the land deteriorated. This is what can happen when A LOT of people live in a small area.

*head back to Environment Home Page

*to learn more about the Greek environment, try the geography page

*bibliography

Test your knowledge!

After you've checked out the following pages, you should be able to answer these questions:

*How did people affect the plants and animals they lived around?

*How is the Greek environment different from yours?

*What kinds of plants and animals were there in ancient Greece?

*How important was farming to the people?