- ~800–500 BC
Culture
- Homer was very important for all subsequent ancient Greek culture
- Memorizing Homer was part of the education of any reasonably well brought up young Greek man
- Hesiod is a major source for greek mythology
- Heroism
- Not some kind of moral accomplishment, but a status
- Criterions
- Genealogy is the first criteria, i.e., you were the son of a hero
- Hereos tended to be tall and good-looking
- They had military courage and a group of retainers that would follow them with unquestionable loyalty
- It was a remarkably fragile status (zero-sum game, it was constanly being tested)
- Arete
- = Constantly displayed virtue excellence
- Aristeia
- = Being at one’s best (especially in combat)
- Xenia
- = Guest-friendship, hospitality towards foreigners and guests
- Olympic games
- First games took place in 776 BC
- Such competitions were important for establishing civil identity
- Poetry
- The lyric poetry is associated with gods, especially with Apollo
- Poetry was a public performance accompanied by music (lyric from lyra)
- There was a pervasive sense of anxiety in poetry in this time (as things were changing fast)
- Important poets
Polis (pl. poleis)
- = “city-state”
- A settled community with internal unity and independence from other communities
- Defined by politea_ (“constitution”, “citizen body”, “citizenship) much more than place
- Astu
- = The urban center of a polis
- Polis always atsu and the land around it
- Polites (pl. politai)
- = Citizens
- A citizen was only a native-born, adult, free, male
- Citizens were equal in rights
- Foreigners (metoikos_), women and slaves were not guaranteed these citizen rights
- Astu
- Every city had a “castle” (akropolis) and a central public space (agora)
- Autonomy was important for even the smallest of city states
- War was often the default relationship between them
Colonization
- Probably because of land shortages
- Greece has little arable land
- Key terms
- Metropolis
- = “Mother city”
- Colonies were independent of the mother city
- Apoikia
- = “Colony”
- Oikistes
- = “Founder”
- Metropolis
- People from all over the Greek world would come to Delphi to get approval to send out a community
- The earliest colonies were in Italy
Literacy and Law
- The greeks rediscovered literacy
- They used alphabet borrowed from the Phoenicians
- Nomos
- = “law sanctioned by long usage”, “customs”
- Eunomia
- = “having good laws well obeyed”, “lawfulness”
- Agathoi
- = “good people” as they called themselves
- A wealthy class that emerged in the dark ages
- These people controlled the dispensation of justice, law-givers
- They simply wrote down nomos (customs)
- The purpose of the laws was not to elevate the character of the community, but to simply codify the customs
- Story of every law-giver ends with either his death or departure, so that there wouldn’t be a possibility of him changing the code
- They simply wrote down nomos (customs)
- For example Solon and Cleisthenes were famous Athenian law-givers
Economics
- A mercantile class arose in the first half of the 7th century BC
- Coinage was introduced in about 680 BC
- Coins became a part of civic identity
- Aristocratic regimes of city states were often threatened by wealthy merchants ambitious for power
- Coinage was introduced in about 680 BC
Warfare
- Hoplites
- The hoplite is a heavily armed soldier who is fighting in close formation
- Phalanx is a rank of about 8 men
- Battles were highly ritualized
- Soldiers in line, they move towards each other until the othimos (pushing) begins
- The battles could last very long time
- After the battle, the winning side would allow the losers generally to collect their wounded and dead
- Then they’d set up a trophy and disperse
- Almost no involvement of civilian population
- After the battle, the winning side would allow the losers generally to collect their wounded and dead
- The hoplite is a heavily armed soldier who is fighting in close formation
- There were no professional armies, hoplites were essentially farmers