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The Early Greeks:
The Ancient Greek World
Lesson Module
The Greek World
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Iron Age Governments
• Based on agriculture and
centered on rivers
• King owns everything and
has a special relationship
with the gods
• Priests control writing
and knowledge
• Aristocratic nobles
control the military
• Peasants work the land
and are owned
Iron Age Religions
• Bound up with idea of
fertility and harvest
• Usually some sort of
afterlife with rewards
for the virtuous
• Deeply connected to
the government – king
is divinely chosen and
laws are divinely given
• Patriarchal in nature
Greek Government
• Greek towns are small
and isolated by both
mountains and sea
• Isolation results in small
city-states and a range
of government types
• Kings exist but their
power is not absolute
• Size allows for
democracy
Greek Religion
• The Greek Gods are not
connected to any
human royal line
• Greek Gods are unique
in their humanity
• Mystery religions
popular in Greece
• Orpheus descends to
Hades and returns with
divine knowledge
Greek Advantage: The Alphabet
• Earliest alphabets are
pictorial and complex
• Phoenicians (1200 BCE)
develop a phonemic
alphabet – each symbol
represents a sound
• Greeks improve upon
Phoenician by adding
vowels (800 BCE)
• Easy to learn – there are
only 24 symbols
• Infinitely flexible
Greek Advantage: Trading
• Many Greeks were
traders, exchanging
goods between colonies
and Iron Age empires
• Superior naval
technology like the
trireme made trade
efficient and profitable
• Primary exports are
wine and olive oil
Greek Advantage: Coinage
• Nearby Lydia was the
first to use currency in
the form of gold coins
but the Greeks soon
followed
• Money is more efficient
than barter causing
trading to increase
• Greeks had easy access
to rich gold mines,
allowing for seigniorage
Distinctive Athenian “owl” coin
(5th century BCE)
The Persian Wars
• 499 to 494 BCE: Ionians
revolt against Persian
control with help from
Greek city-states
• 490 BCE: Persian
invasion of Athens
repelled at Marathon
• 480 BCE: Xerxes leads
second invasion and is
turned back at Salamis
(sea) and Plataea (land)