Download Ancient Greece Reflective Essay

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The ancient Greeks gave the modern world several aspects of our civilization. The
Greeks had aspects of their culture that were extremely innovative. In this class I wrote about
three pieces of ancient Greece that were important to the culture and writing about these three
items helped me to get a better understanding of the culture in ancient Greece. The three artifacts
that I wrote about were the Agora, the Owl coins of Athens, and the Sacred Line of Thebes. The
Agora served a religious center in the ancient Greek city-states. The Agora was something
common in ancient Greece and it is an example of the shared culture of the city-states. The
Athenians used their coinage in order to extend their influence over other Greeks and people of
the Aegean. The Athenians mandated the use of their currency among their allies in the region;
this helped them develop a strong influence over other Greeks and nationalities. The Greeks used
their innovation in their militaries as well as their civil culture. Pelopidas of Thebes was a very
innovative military leader in the ancient Greek world. He developed the Sacred Line that was
very important to the Theban victories over the Spartans on two separate occasions and it was
used to develop Thebes’ military strength. The Agora and the innovation of the owl coins and the
Sacred Line are cultural characteristics shared by all the Greeks in the ancient world.
The Greeks lived in city-states during the ancient times; these cities were sovereign
countries and survived as singular entities. While the Greeks lived in cities as sovereign nations,
they shared many cultural characteristics. One cultural characteristic of the Greeks was the
Agora. The Agora of ancient Athens was the first of my three artifacts. I wrote a paper about the
Agora after I was assigned to write about a place that was important in Greek history. I learned
that he Agora was a very important gathering place in Athens and it played an important role in
everyday Greek life. The Agora is an example of the shared culture of the Greeks because the
Agora could be found in all of the city-states. The Agora served primarily as a religious center,
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statues and temples of the Greek gods were placed in a central location so that all Greeks in an
area could come and worship the gods. The creation of the central worship place laid the
foundation of the city-state, Greeks from an area would come and worship the gods then they
would remain in a singular location and cities were formed. The Agora did not only serve a
religious center, but it also served as a market and a political center. The Greeks realized that
there were a lot of people in the Agora for the purpose of worshiping the gods and many
merchants realized that this would be an excellent opportunity to sell goods to the people
worshipping at the temples. The merchants brought in a wide variety of goods to be sold at the
market and the Agora became important to the city as a market and a place for religious worship.
Greeks would visit the Agora in order to shop without the intent of visiting the temples of the
gods. Merchants from other parts of the Aegean and city states would travel within the different
parts of Greece, particularly to Athens, in order to sell their good for profit. The Greeks built
many of their government buildings in or near the Agora. In Athens the Athenian legislative
assembly, the courts, and the housing for the legislative members in session were all located
within the Agora.
The second of my three artifacts was the Owl coins of Athens. The Athenians’ use of the
Owl coins is a great example of the innovation that was common in the Greek world. I wrote
about the coins after we covered the Athenians during our class discussions. While writing the
second paper I learned the Athenians used their coinage as a way to spread their influence around
the Aegean and gain influence over the other Greeks. Athens founded the Delian League as a
military alliance to defend against another attack from the Persians. The Athenians gathered
money from their allies in order to build ships to use in the defense of Greece. Athens grew to
dominate the Delian League, they demanded more money from their allies within the league and
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would not allow any of the other Greek city-state to withdraw from the league. Athens spread its
dominance throughout the Aegean and one of the methods Athens used to gain influence over
the other city-states in the Delian League was through its currency. Athens minted a series of
coins known as the Athenian Owl Coins, or Owls, these coins were the only currency allowed in
Athenian markets and if foreign merchants wanted to trade with Athenians they would only be
allowed to use the Owls in the transactions. Athens imposed currency restrictions on the other
members of the Delian League, Athens forced the other members of the league to use the
Athenian currency and Athens only accepted tribute in Owls. This was an innovative way for the
Athenians to spread their dominance over other city-states. When other Greeks used the Owls
they would see a picture of Athena minted on one side of the coin and on the other side they
would see an owl, both of these were symbols of Athens and the coins served as a reminder of
Athenian power to all the other Greeks in the Delian League.
My third artifact was Pelopidas of Thebes. Our third paper assignment was to write about
a famous person in ancient Greece. Pelopidas of Thebes was suggested as a topic and I knew that
he defeated the Spartans in the open, but I did not know much more. I learned that Pelopidas was
great military of leader of Thebes and he helped establish a period of Theban dominance in
Greece. Pelopidas is a great example of Greek innovation in military tactics and strategies. The
Theban commander Pelopidas showed great innovation when he created the Sacred Line in the
Theban army. The Sacred Line of Thebes was a military unit of 150 homosexual couples, 300
soldiers in total. The Sacred Line was effective in the battles against the Spartans, Pelopidas led
the Sacred Line in combat against the Spartans twice in the open and the Thebans defeated the
Spartans on both occasions. Pelopidas is a great example of Greek military innovation; he
thought that lovers would fight very hard beside one another in combat so he used couple as an
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elite infantry fighting unit. The Sacred Line was vital to the Theban military success after their
defeat of the Spartans until Pelopidas’ death.
The Greeks were a very important culture in world history. Their culture was a very
innovative culture that gave the world several important inventions. The Greeks developed many
modern concepts such as democracy and the recording of history. Greek culture has had an
impact on many civilizations throughout history and it still plays an important role in the modern
world.