Download The Archaic Greek Age

Overview
• Overview & Timeline for Greek History
• Background on Archaic Period
• Factors favoring Panhellenism
– Homer’s Epics
– The Olympic Games
– Threat of Foreign Invasion
• Factors favoring the Polis
–
–
–
–
Geographical Influences
Acropolis
Civic Identity
Tyrants and political agitation
Timeline
• Archaic Period: 750-500
– The genesis of ancient Greek Culture
• Classical Period: 500-350
– The Golden Age of the Polis
• Hellenistic Period: 350-50 BCE
– The Spread of Greek Culture throughout the
Eastern Mediterranean
The Archaic Period
– Period of Creative Tension influenced partly by
the conflicting loyalties to the polis and a
common Greek identity
– Demographic & Commercial Expansion c. 700
BCE
– Formation of Greek Colonies
• Magna Graecia
• Ionian Greece
– Philosophy & Speculative inquiries
The Archaic Period
• Between 1000 and 800 BCE many Greeks migrate
from Greece to Asia Minor and gradually develop a
distinctive Ionian Greek culture
• Ionia preceded mainland Greece in the rebirth of
civilization by re-developing trade networks, cities,
and literature; many of the pre-Socratic philosophers
and scientists, such as Thales, Pythagorus, and
Heraclitus, were born in Ionia
• By 800 BCE Ionian civilization had spread across the
Mediterranean as far away as Spain and connected the
Greek mainland to many of the ideas and
developments, including the Phoenician alphabet,
which the Greeks quickly adopted and adapted
Ionian Greeks & Philosophy
• During the course of the eighth century, Greek city
states along the coast of Asia Minor underwent a
resurgence of trade; prosperity spread as populations
swelled
• By the seventh century in the city of Miletus a new
strain of intellectual endeavors spread
• A group of thinkers, including Thales and Heraclitus,
known as sophoi or philosophoi (lovers of wisdom)
imagined that the workings of the cosmos could be
explained through reference to mechanistic rather than
supernatural forces
• Later, Pythagoras of Samos incorporated the orderly
nature of mechanistic thought with religion to produce a
secretive mystery religion
Factors Favoring Panhellenism: Homer
• Using the newly adopted Greek alphabet, Homer
allegedly wrote the epic poems, the Iliad and the
Odyssey around 750 BCE
• The poems had been circulating in oral tradition for
centuries before Homer put his version in writing
• References in the poems suggest that they relate
events that took place during the Bronze Age c.
1500-1200 BCE
• The Iliad tells the story of a ten year long siege of
Troy that the Greeks endure in order to reclaim a
Greek princess who was kidnapped by Paris of Troy
Factors Favoring Panhellenism: Homer
• Achilles is the great Greek hero of the Iliad; by
modern standards he seems almost bipolar, one
minute sulking in his tent because his concubine has
been ravished by his king, Agamemnon, and the next
minute seeking revenge against the Trojans for the
slaying of his soul mate, Patrocolus - the relationship
between Achilles and Patrocolus is reminiscent of that
between Gilgamesh and Enkidu
• Rather than viewing Achilles as bi-polar, it is more
accurate to view his moodiness as the result of ten
years of fighting and bloodshed; his violent slaying of
Hector, Patrocolus’ killer, signifies the brutality of the
hardened warrior
Factors Favoring Panhellenism: Homer
• Eventually Achilles is re-civilized and he agrees to
return the battered body of Hector to the Trojans for
proper burial; by agreeing to the entreaties of his
enemies who invoke the wishes of the gods, Achilles
demonstrates his willingness to re-integrate with
civilized life
Influence of the Homeric Epics
• The Homeric epics became the basis for Greek
education during the classical period; students
memorized great portions of the poem in order to learn
grammar, vocabulary, and particularly ancient values
– heroism
– piety and respect for the gods
• The poems never doubt the existence of the gods,
whose humanity is evident throughout
• The poems established a common identity and shared
past for the various tribes and cities that began to
emerge at the end of the Greek Dark Ages
Factors Favoring Panhellenism: Olympics
• Beginning in the early eighth century, the games
are part of a religious festival held at Olympia in
the NW Peloponese every four years
• Competition initially included running, wrestling,
jumping, throwing and later included horse and
chariot racing
• Individual, not city-state, competitions with a
garland for the winner
• Women were barred on pain of death but had their
own games dedicated to Hera, wife of Zeus
Factors Favoring Panhellenism: Olympics
•
•
•
•
Emphasis on excellence: aretê
Contributed to panhellenic identity
all fighting ceased during the games
Olympia was not the site of an ancient city
or town; it was a sacred sanctuary complex
– Temple of Zeus was the principal shrine; it was
destroyed by the Christian Roman Emperor
Theodosius II in 426 CE
Homer
c. 750 BCE
wrote about
events from
the early
1100s BCE
Achilles in 5th century manuscript
What values did the Iliad convey?
How did it depict the Greeks?
In what ways was the Iliad a
tragedy?
What did it say about warfare and
human nature?
The Rage of
Achilles
Giovanni
Battista 1757
Greek Bireme c. 1200
Mycenaean Palace: Lion’s Gate
Mycenaean Daggers
Mycenaean
murals from the
palace of
Nestor in SW
Peloponese
Mycenaean
Vase
c. 1300
Troy
The Walls of Troy 7
Entrance
Ramp to
Ancient
Troy 2
Pergammon Museum in Berlin
The Archaic Greek Age
800-500 BCE
Homer c.
725 BCE
Remains of
the ancient
site of
Olympia
Mt. Olympus in Thessalonica
Apollo
Temple of Zeus
• One of the most popular
gods of the Greco
Roman world
• Represented the sun,
wisdom, justice
• The favored god of the
ancient Trojans;
Achilles desecrates his
temple in the Iliad
Pentathlon: The Discuss
Pentathlon: Wrestling
Running
• Races varied in
length from ½
mile to 3 miles
• In one of the half
mile races
contests wore full
armor (50-60 lbs)
Equestrian
Sports
• Expensive, only the
wealthy could
compete
• Road bareback and
without stirrups
• At 4.5 miles, the
standard race was
much longer than
modern thoroughbred
racing
Four Horse
Chariot Race
Typical Greek Acropolis
Colonization c. 500 BCE
Ancient Greece
Greek
Hoplites
Hoplite phalanx
Hoplite phalanx
This frieze of attacking foot soldiers is from the so-called Chigi Vase--a Corinthian masterpiece.
When the Greeks adopted heavy armor, weapons, and shields, their lack of mobility forced them
to fight in several dense lines, each behind the other. Cohesion and order became as valuable as
courage. Here a flute player plays a marching tune to help the hoplites maintain their pace during
the attack. (Villa Giulia Museum/Gabinetto Fotografico Nazionale)
Sophoi:
Thales of Miletis (624-547) Pythagoras of Samos (570-495)
Sophoi:
Socrates? (470-399)
Attica
Solon and
the Tyrants
Pesistratus Instituted
the Pan Athenian
Festival during the
mid 500s BCE
Cleisthenes
Father of
Athenian
Democracy
508-507
BCE
Aristophanes
&
Old Comedy
What does the introduction tell us about
Aristophanes and his plays?
A. They were written during the 500s BCE
B. They were performed in front of small elite
audiences over the course of a Summer
C. They were often performed during a festival
honoring the wine god, Dionysos
D. They rarely relied on crude humor
What topic are the primary focus
of these plays?
A. Education & how to end the war
B. Political corruption & public drunkenness
C. Bribery & extortion
D. Achilles, the gods, and heroism
How did Aristophanes portray
Socrates?
a.
b.
c.
d.
As a warrior
As a sophist, who corrupted Athenian youth
As a drinking companion
As a very religious priest
Factors Favoring the Polis:
Geography
• Similar to the political organization of ancient Sumeria
- and later Renaissance Italy - city states had become
the principal form of political organization in Greece
by 750 BCE, which is traditionally identified as the
beginning of the Archaic Greek Age
• With its plethora of mountains and isolated pockets of
land surrounded by sea, the geography of Greece
encouraged the formation of fragmented rather than
unified political structures
• Additionally Greeks established numerous urban
colonies throughout the Aegean and Mediterranean
The Polis
• In contrast to the Mesopotamian city-state, the Greek
polis had a much broader level of political participation,
which was often divided among its male citizens, not its
inhabitants
• Because both rich and poor participated in the political
process, tension was an ongoing feature of many poleis
during the Archaic Age, when many city-states sought
to define the rules for administering justice and sharing
power
The Polis
• Several poleis first emerged on fortified hilltops, called
an acropolis, which served as a defensive post in time
of war and the treasury in time of peace
• Unified by civic gods, traditions, and ceremonies, the
various poleis were the primary focus of Greek
political loyalties, which were caught between the
conflicting forces of panhellenism and civic pride
• Most poleis numbered only ten to twenty thousand
people and many were limited in size by the fertility of
the surrounding countryside
The Tyrants & the Poleis
• As the population and commercial expansion
spread to the Greek mainland during the seventh
and sixth centuries, tensions emerged in the poleis
as the merchants and prosperous independent
farmers challenged the control that the hereditary
aristocracy had exercised on the governments of
Greek cities
• In most of the Greek mainland a group of popular
dictators known as tyrants seized power from the
aristocracy by catering to the will of the
independent farmers and merchants
The Tyrants
• One of the most successful tyrants was Solon
(630-560 BCE) of Athens; he reorganized the
social and economic laws of the city and ushered
in a period of profound prosperity for the city’s
merchants during the early decades of the sixth
century BCE
• An unintended consequence of his actions was a
mushrooming of foreign born slaves in the city
• Solon is usually credited with a vital influence on
the spread of popular control over the city
government: the democratization of Athens
Diverging Cultures: The Lacedaemonians
• Unlike Athens, Sparta never had a tyrant and they
developed a culture that was rabidly opposed to tyranny
• Political power was shared by hoplite warriors, “the
Similars,” who were led by a king
• The Spartan warriors were free to train for warfare
throughout most of their life while their economy was
supported by virtually servile labor of helots
• Encouraged to perform physical exercise, Spartan
women enjoyed more independence and freedom than in
other Greek city-states
Diverging Cultures: The Lacedaemonians
• The term used to describe those who lived in and
around Sparta
– people of few words, from whom we obtain the term
laconic
– male children raised for martial career from a very early
age; by 7 they are living in barracks, separated from family
– Relatively sparse population but immense political
influence in Hellas based on the respect that they
engendered for their bravery and military exploits; this
respect helped the Spartans form the Peloponesian
League, a coalition of allied city-sates loyal to Sparta
Summary
• The writing of the Iliad and the Odyssey marked an
important step in the coalescence of the various
elements of Greek culture
– language
– religion
– values
• As various civic cultures developed throughout the
Greek mainland, the common heritage of the Homeric
epics provided a unifying element of panhellenic
identity; nevertheless, panhellenism generally played
second fiddle to the attraction of the polis
• During the archaic Greek Age, the various poleis of
Greece developed their own customs and traditions and
gradually undermined the unifying aspects of
panhellenism