Origins of Classical Greece

CLASSICAL GREECE
i-Origins

CLASSICAL GREECE
i-Origins

Achilles tending the wounded Patroclus

(Attic red-ﬁgure kylix, ca. 500 BC)

εἶς µία ἔν ά

Τό Πρῶτον Μάθηµα

session i will look
at these periods

sessions ii-viii will
look at these periods

PRINCIPAL TOPICS

I. Reasons to study ancient Greece

II. έν ἀρχῇ (ěn archē=in the beginning)

III. Homer

IV. The Gods

V. The Greek Dark Ages

DONALD KAGAN’S ANSWERS

subjectively, it’s amazingly interesting

objectively, the Greek experience is the starting point of Western Civilization

Western Civ has created the most envied and sought after human condition in
history

political and legal institutions which have created unprecedented freedom

scientific and technological discoveries which have created health and prosperity
unknown outside of the West and regions which have influenced by the West

reason and objectivity, essential to the above, make their appearance with the Greeks

“The civilization of the West, however, was not the result of some inevitable process,
through which other cultures will automatically pass. It emerged from a unique
history in which chance and accident often played a vital part. The institutions and
ideas, therefore, that provide for freedom and improvement in the material
conditions of life cannot take root and flourish without an understanding of how
they came about and what challenges they have had to surmount. Non-western
peoples who wish to share in the things which characterize modernity will need to
study the ideas and history of Western Civilization to achieve what they want. And
Westerners, I would argue, who wish to preserve these things, must do the same.

Donald Kagan, Introduction to Ancient Greek History, iTunes University. 12/31/00

or: http://academicearth.org/lectures/kagan-intro-ancient-greek-history

“The many [non-Western] civilizations adopted by the human race have shared
basic characteristics. Most have tended toward cultural uniformity and stability.
Reason, although it was employed for all sorts of practical and intellectual purposes
in some of these cultures, still lacked independence from religion, and it lacked the
high status to challenge the most basic received ideas.

Standard form of government has been monarchy. Outside the West, republics have
been unknown. Rulers have been thought to be divine or appointed spokesmen for
divinity. Religious and political institutions and beliefs have been thoroughly
intertwined as a mutually supportive unified structure. Government has not been
subjected to secular reasoned analysis. It has rested on religious authority, tradition
and power. The concept of individual freedom has had no importance in the great
majority of cultures in human history.

Kagan, loc. cit.

“The first and the sharpest break with this common human experience came in
ancient Greece. The Greek city states (called poleis) were republics. Differences in
wealth among their citizens were relatively small. There were no kings with the
wealth to hire mercenary soldiers, so the citizens had to do their own fighting and to
decide when to fight. As independent defenders of the common safety...they
demanded a role in the most important political decisions. In this way for the first
time political life was invented (observe that the word “political” derives from the
Greek word “polis”). Before that, no word was needed because there was no such
thing. This political life came to be shared by a relatively large proportion of the
people and participation in political life was highly valued by the Greeks.”

Ibid.

Hence it is evident that man is a
political animal (ἂνθρωπος
φύσει πολιτικόν ζωόν). And he
who by nature and not by mere
accident is without a state, is
either a bad man or above
humanity...he who is unable to
live in society...must be either a
beast or a god….

Aristotle, Politics, bk I, 2
Aristotle (Greek: Ἀριστοτέλης,
Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC)

DELPHI
γνόθι σεαυτόν
(GNO•thi say•au•TAWN)
know thyself-Thales
µῆ δὲν ἄγαν
(may den A•gan)
nothing in excess-Solon
“...this was the manner of philosophy among the ancients, a
kind of laconic brevity.”--Socrates (470?-399 BC)

the most famous of many Greek
and barbarian (βαρβαρ-) oracles

Pythia, priests, omphalos, gasses?

intelligence gathering

It was [in Classical Greece, between the late eighth and the early fourth centuries,
BC] democracy was invented and argued about, achieved and attacked. Romans
disapproved of democracy, and after the conquest of Greece by the Macedonian
kings and the Roman Republic, democracy was suppressed in favor of domination
of the upper class. Other basic questions were discussed in works of [Greek]
literature which have survived the centuries. Is slavery wrong? (against nature)
What is the ultimate source of law, human or divine? Should the family be abolished
in favor of the state? (Plato abolished it in theory, and the Spartans [had gone] a
long way toward abolishing it in fact) Is civil disobedience sometimes right?
(Antigone) What is the right relation of the sexes? What justifies a state in ruling
other states, or is there no such justification, but only the ruthless logic of power?
What is the role of heredity and what of education in the formation of character?

Jasper Griffin, Greece and the Hellenistic World, in the Oxford History of the Classical World, 1988. pp. 1-2

HUMANISM is a maddeningly slippery term, but in the context of fourteenth-
century Italy, where the movement was born, it has a very specific meaning: it
describes a surge of interest in the works of the ancient Greeks and Romans, the
development of a new kind of critical method for studying those works, and the
gradual emergence of a program of education and cultural renewal based on
classical thought. [classical or secular humanism stood in contradistinction to Church
teaching. This provoked Christian humanism which tried to reconcile the two
approaches.--jbp]

Toby Lester, The Fourth Part of the World, 2009. p. 118

II. ΕΝ ΑΡΧΗ
IN THE BEGINNING

II. ΕΝ ΑΡΧΗ
Head from the figure
of a woman, Spedos
type, Early Cycladic II
(2700 BC–2300 BC),
IN THE BEGINNING Keros culture.

Archaeology-(from Greek ἀρχαιολογία, archaiologia – ἀρχαῖος, arkhaios,
"ancient"; and -λογία, -logia, "-logy"), is the study of human society, primarily
through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data
that they have left behind.

PREHISTORIC TIMES

literally, this refers to the period before written texts appear

our knowledge of events and conditions then is, necessarily, imprecise

it depends on archaeology

2900 BC/BCE-for Greece, our prehistory begins with the remains of Bronze Age
civilization in the Aegean area at approximately this date

Poliochnē; settled in Late Chalcolithic or Early Bronze Age
“The Oldest City in Europe”

Poliochni
Lemnos

WHAT’S THIS BC VS BCE?

BC=before Christ

BCE=before the common era

guess which is more politically correct

;-) For those uncomfortable with Before Christ, just imagine BC stands for
“backward chronology”

guess which most universities use today

so fifth century, the “Golden Age” of Classical Greece=the 400s BC, and
early fifth century=the 490s, the 480s and so on; the time of the Persian Wars

ATHENIAN YEAR DATES

when a year date is given for an event in Athens it will appear as 411/10

I puzzled over that for some time. Even Mr. Google was mute

finally an appendix in Song of Wrath explained the mystery

Athenian year dates were given by the name of the Eponymous Archon

for example, “in the year of Cleisthenes,” whose year of office ran July 411-July 410

so when the source dates something with the archon’s name, that’s as close as we
can come! At least students don’t have to learn day and month!

THE LITMUS TEST FOR “CIVILIZATION”

most archaeologists distinguish the arrival of “civilization” with the appearance
of cities

there were Greek agricultural villages in Neolithic times but Greek cities are first
found in the Aegean area on the island of Crete

the Bronze Age civilization there was first uncovered at the beginning of the 20th
century by the archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans

he called it Minoan after the legendary king Minos

THE LITMUS TEST FOR “CIVILIZATION”

most archaeologists distinguish the arrival of “civilization” with the appearance
of cities

there were Greek agricultural villages in Neolithic times but Greek cities are first
found in the Aegean area on the island of Crete

the Bronze Age civilization there was first uncovered at the beginning of the 20th
century by the archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans

he called it Minoan after the legendary king Minos

Evans uncovered the impressive palace ruins at Knossos

The Minoan civilization...was the first major Mediterranean civilization, the first
wealthy, literate, city-based culture with a vibrant artistic culture to emerge within the
Mediterranean world.

David Abulafia, The Great Sea, 2011, p. 22

THE BULL-LEAPING FRESCO
!om the Middle Minoan III to Late Minoan B period
(17th-15th centuries BC)

beside that fresco, bronzes and carved
gems portray the ritual of bull grappling
in Minoan Crete

the bull was an object of reverence,
perhaps associated with the sea,
earthquakes?

on the wall is a painting of the Labrys
(double-bladed axe), a royal symbol

this + the many chambers of the palace
of Knossos-->labyrinth?

beside that fresco, bronzes and carved
gems portray the ritual of bull grappling
in Minoan Crete

the bull was an object of reverence,
perhaps associated with the sea,
earthquakes?

on the wall is a painting of the Labrys
(double-bladed axe), a royal symbol

this + the many chambers of the palace
of Knossos-->labyrinth?

the bull grappling-->Minotaur

WHO WERE THE
GREEKS?

Those who were native speakers (that is from birth, not a
later learned speech) of some variety of the Greek language.
A cultural definition. We no longer speak of a Greek race, as
if it were a matter of DNA. That was the style in the
nineteenth century. But the Nazis and other racists have
thoroughly discredited race as a concept.

The earliest speakers of what would develop
into the Greek language seem to have arrived
in the Balkans during the third millennium.

Mycenean sites (ca 1600-1100 BC)

the shaft
the Lion
graves
Gate

a reconstruction of Mycenae at the time of its height

THE FOUNDER OF MYCENAEAN
ARCHAEOLOGY

son of a Protestant minister--early education

an amazing business career which included
the California gold rush, cornering the indigo
market in St Petersburg, speculating

he learned languages easily:

English, French, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish,
Polish, Italian, Greek, Latin, Russian, Arabic, and Turkish
as well as German

as a self-made millionaire, he indulged his
ambition since adolescence---to search for
Troy Heinrich Schliemann
1822 – 1890

“PRIAM’S TREASURE”

1871-he began digging for Troy at a Turkish site
called Hissarlik

later, more professional archaeologists, would
curse the way he “bulldozed” an area which they
called “Schliemann’s trench”

Sophia Schliemann
1852 – 1932

“PRIAM’S TREASURE”

1871-he began digging for Troy at a Turkish site
called Hissarlik

later, more professional archaeologists, would
curse the way he “bulldozed” an area which they
called “Schliemann’s trench”

1873-under suspicious circumstances, he
discovered the gold, shown here, on his Greek
wife

this publicity astounded the academic
community which had long regarded Homer’s
Sophia Schliemann
epics as mere legends
1852 – 1932

MYCENAE

1841- Greek archaeologist Kiriakos Pittakis
found and restored the Lion Gate

1874-after his success at Troy, Schliemann
undertook a complete excavation of Mycenae

he found the shaft graves with their rich burial
goods

he also uncovered the tholos or beehive tombs
outside the acropolis

“Clytemnestra’s Tomb”
interior view of the tholos tomb

Exterior view of a tholos tomb
MYCENAE

1841- Greek archaeologist Kiriakos Pittakis
found and restored the Lion Gate

1874-after his success at Troy, Schliemann
undertook a complete excavation of Mycenae

he found the shaft graves with their rich burial
goods

he also uncovered the tholos or beehive tombs
outside the acropolis

“Clytemnestra’s Tomb”
interior view of the tholos tomb

MYCENEAN GRAVE GOODS
on the right, replicas are pictured”
“Mycenae, rich in gold…”--Homer

Schliemann stated “I have
gazed upon the face of
Agamemnon!”

discovered at Mycenae in 1878, found
over the face of a body in burial shaft V

Linear B is a syllabic script that
was used for writing
Mycenaean Greek, an early
form of Greek. It pre-dated the
Greek alphabet by several
centuries (ca. 13th but perhaps
as early as 17th century BC)
and seems to have died out
with the fall of Mycenaean
civilization. Most clay tablets
inscribed in Linear B were
found in Knossos, Cydonia,
Pylos, Thebes and Mycenae.
The succeeding period, known
as the Greek Dark Ages,
provides no evidence of the use
of writing.

Mycenaean culture resembled other Bronze Age states: Egypt, Babylonia

monarchy, monumental architecture, centralized bureaucracy, widespread trade

governments powerful enough to direct such enterprises

wealth

stratified societies

Idealized portrayal
of Homer dating
to the Hellenistic

III. HOMER period. British
Museum.

“ALL MEN MUST SUFFER, THAT IS THE WAY THE
GODS PLAN HUMAN LIFE” (ILIAD, 24.531)

THE HOMERIC QUESTION

was there a real Homer?

when did he live?

how did he describe events from four or five centuries previously?

how did the praise songs of ἀοιδοί (aoidoí-creators ) or ῤαψῳδοί (rhapsōdoi-
performers) come to be a written text?

how do the texts of the two epics provide historic information about the Bronze
Age? the Greek Dark Ages?

Homeric studies are today confronted with a paradox. The Homeric poems we
read are the result of a double transmission: a mainly oral transmission until the
sixth century BCE and then, more and more, a written transmission leading to the
modern editions. If documents and materials are lacking to compare different
stages and variants of the oral evolution of the poems, we have many textual
variants that can teach us a lot about both oral and written transmission. A deeper
comprehension of oral composition in ancient Greece requires—somewhat
paradoxically—a close examination of these textual variants. Consider an
example: Plato quotes Homer many times and his quotations often differ from the
Homeric vulgate. How should we interpret these differences? Most interesting are
the instances that allow us to understand how Plato memorized Homer (when he
was not reading a variant). Did he use the rhythmical structure of the hexameter
or not?
David Bouvier, The Homeric Question; An Issue for the Ancients?, p.3

PDF at muse.jhu.edu/demo/oral_tradition/v018/18.1bouvier.pdf

Various considerations of language, archaeology and history suggest that it was
about 725 BC, somewhere on the coast of Asia Minor or on one of the Aegean
islands, that a great poet conceived the plan of the Iliad, and perhaps a generation
later, that the second poet created the Odyssey, setting out to create a poem which
in scale and inclusiveness should rival the Iliad.
Once in existence, the two poems never went out of fashion and were never lost
sight of…. In this they differ from all the literature of the period except the Old
Testament; the writings of the Egyptians, the Sumerians, the Babylonians and all
the rest were lost to the world for many centuries and have only recently been
deciphered by the labours of Western scholars.

Jasper Griffin, Homer, 1980, p. 6

The Iliad

15,693 lines, ≐ 26 hours to recite (aoidoi and rhapsodoi)

contests, beginning in the 6th century

5,500 combats (µάχια)

the most famous, between “man-killing Hektor” and “fleet-footed
Achilles” (Homeric epithets)

describes forty-one days during the ninth year of the ten-year Trojan
War

http://cerhas.uc.edu/troy/map.html

Those who believe that the stories of the Trojan
War are derived from a specific historical conflict
usually date it to the 12th or 11th centuries BC,
often preferring the dates given by Eratosthenes,
1194–1184 BC, which roughly corresponds with
archaeological evidence of a catastrophic burning
of Troy VIIa

http://cerhas.uc.edu/troy/map.html

The impact of Troy on the history of the Mediterranean is twofold. On the one
hand Troy functioned from the beginning of the Bronze Age as a staging-post
linking the Aegean to Anatolia and the Black Sea [for the trade in tin and copper];
on the other, the tale of Troy lay at the heart of the historical consciousness not
merely of the Greeks who claimed to have destroyed the city, but of the Romans
who claimed to have descended from its refugees. The real Troy and the mythical
Troy have been hard to disentangle since 1868 when Heinrich Schliemann...

David Abulafia, The Great Sea, 2011, p. 18

born in Minneapolis to Norwegian immigrant parents

1907-after U of MN began graduate studies at Yale

1911-13-fellow at American School of Classical
Studies at Athens (ASCSA)

1920-26--after WW I, became Assistant Dir. ASCSA

1927-57-Univ of Cinti, prof of classical archaeology

1932-38-Troy
Carl William Blegen
1887 – 1971
1939-Pylos begins. After WW II, Linear B
decipherment in 1952. UC at Pylos continues to the
present

born in Minneapolis to Norwegian immigrant parents

1907-after U of MN began graduate studies at Yale

1911-13-fellow at American School of Classical
Studies at Athens (ASCSA)
The Blegen
Library
1920-26--after WW I, became Assistant Dir. ASCSA

1927-57-Univ of Cinti, prof of classical archaeology

1932-38-Troy
Carl William Blegen
1887 – 1971
1939-Pylos begins. After WW II, Linear B
decipherment in 1952. UC at Pylos continues to the
present

Μηνιν αειδε Θεα, Πηληιαδεω Αχιληος Μaynin aede Thea, Paylayyadeo Achilayos
ουλοµενην, η µυρι Αχαιοις αλγε εθηκε, oolowmenayn hay moori Acha•iois algay ethehke,
πολλας δ’ιφθιµους ψυχας ‘Αïδι προιαψεν pullas d’ifthemoos psoochas Haëde proyapsen
ηρωων, αυτους δε ελωρια τευχε κυνεσσιν heh•row•on*,ow•toos deh el•ow•ria toohay koonessin
οιωνοισι τε πασι, Διος δ’ετελειετο βουλη, oyonoisee tay posse Deeaws dehtelayehtow boolay
εξ ου δη τα πρωτα διαστητην ερισαντε ex hoo day ta prota dyastay•tayn ehrisanteh
‘Ατρειδης τε αναξ ανδρων και διος Αχιλλευς Ahtraydeis tay ahnax androne kay dios Achilayos

Sing Goddess of the wrath, of Peleus’ son Achilles,
that baneful wrath which brought countless woes
upon the Achaeans, that sent many heroes’ souls to
Hades, and made their bodies food for dogs and all
manner of birds; and thus the will of Zeus was being
fulfilled when first there parted that leader of men,
Atreus’ son and godlike Achilles

* heroes the Homeric Greek word for men at war, which has had such fatal consequences

ΑΧΙΛΛΕΥΣ ΟΧΥΣ ΠΟΔΑΣ
FLEET FOOTED ACHILLES

“Sing Goddess of the wrath of Peleus’ son Achilles,”

“...the best of the Achaeans”

ἀρετἦ (aretē [manly] excellence)

either to live a long, comfortable life of inactivity or
to die young and have an immortal memory (κλεός
ἄφθιτον)

῟Ον οί θεοὶ φιλοῦσιν ἀπο-θνῃσκει νέος (those whom
the gods love die young--Menander, Mon. 425)

The Wrath of Achilles, by François-Léon
Benouville (1821–1859) (Musée Fabre)

MĒTĒR GAR TE ME FĒSI THEA THETIS ARGUROPEDZA

μήτηρ γάρ τέ μέ φησι θεὰ Θέτις ἀργυρόπεζα (410) For my mother Thetis the goddess of silver feet tells me
διχθαδίας κῆρας φερέμεν θανάτοιο τέλος δέ. I carry two sorts of destiny toward the day of my death. Either,
εἰ μέν κ’ αὖθι μένων Τρώων πόλιν ἀμφιμάχωμαι, if I stay here and fight beside the city of the Trojans,
ὤλετο μέν μοι νόστος, ἀτὰρ κλέος ἄφθιτον ἔσται my return home is gone, but my glory shall be everlasting;
εἰ δέ κεν οἴκαδ’ ἵκωμι φίλην ἐς πατρίδα γαῖαν, but if I return home to the beloved land of my fathers,
ὤλετό μοι κλέος ἐσθλόν, ἐπὶ δηρὸν δέ μοι αἰὼν (415) the excellence of my glory is gone, but there will be a long life
ἔσσεται, οὐδέ κέ μ’ ὦκα τέλος θανάτοιο κιχείη. left for me, and my end in death will not come to me quickly

book ix, Latimore translation

“The rage of Achilles,” Gian Battista Tiepolo, fresco, 1757

Following this confrontation Achilles storms off to his tent in book i. he
will not rejoin the Achaeans in battle, despite their pleas, until book xix.
But he appeals to his mother, Thetis, a sea nymph demigoddess. She
intercedes with Zeus

Jupiter and Thetis,
Jean Auguste Dominique
Ingres, 1811:

"She sank to the
ground beside him,
put her left arm
round his knees,
raised her right hand
to touch his chin,
and so made her
petition to the Royal
Son of Cronos"
(book i, 500-502)

ἦ καὶ κυανέῃσιν ἐπ' ὀφρύσι
νεῦσε Κρονίων
ἀμβρόσιαι δ' ἄρα χαῖται
ἐπερρώσαντο ἄνακτος
κρατὸς ἀπ' ἀθανάτοιο μέγαν
δ' ἐλέλιξεν Ὄλυμπον.

He spoke, the son of Kronos,
and nodded his head with the
dark brows,
and the immortally anointed
hair of the great god
swept from his divine head, and
all Olympos was shaken
(book i, 528-530)

One of the
“seven wonders”
Roman copy of Phidias’
Chryselephantine at Olympia (532)

OF KING EDWARD II
OF ENGLAND

Napoleon I
J.A.D. Ingres
(1804)

Daniel Chester French
(1920)

Homeric simile

Achilles rushed to meet him like a lion, a ravaging lion, whom men are resolved to
slay, the whole village uniting: at first he goes on, heedless, but when some fighting
man wounds him with a spear, he gathers himself open-mouthed; there is foam about
his teeth, his fighting spirit groans in his heart, and with his tail he lashes his flanks on
either side, goading himself to fight, then comes straight on with glaring eyes, either to
kill a man or be killed himself in the first onset: even so was Achilles driven on by his
anger and his brave spirit to confront great-hearted Aeneas (20.164-75).

Griffin, p.11

ΠΟΛΥΤΡΟΠΟΣ ΟΔΥΣΣΕΥΣ
ODYSSEUS OF THE MANY TURNINGS

“wily Odysseus” His heroic trait is µητις
(mētis) “cunning intelligence”

“...his patron goddess Athena congratulates
him on being ‘practiced in deceits’ beyond all
men”--Griffin, p. 50

“ Much suffering did he endure on the deep,
struggling for his own life and the return of
his comrades. But even so he could not save
his comrades, although he desired it: they
perished through their own wantonness, the
fools; they devoured the cattle of the god of
the Sun, and he took away their home-
coming.” (i. 4-9)

The Odyssey

12,110 lines of dactylic hexameter

non-linear plot, “flashbacks” develop details of the fall of Troy and
Odysseus’ many adventures

influence on the plot by the choices of women and serfs

although most scholars believe it is the work of a second author,
“one influential opinion was that the Iliad was the work of the poet’s
youth, the Odyssey that of his old age”--Griffin, p. 47

“The simple narrative of the return home of a hero has been greatly
expanded”--Ibid.

Homeric simile

“So they mocked, but Odysseus, mastermind in action, once he's handled the great
bow and scanned every inch, then, like an expert singer, skilled at lyre and song--who
strains a string to a new peg with ease, making the pliant sheep-gut fast at either end--
so with virtuoso ease Odysseus strung his mighty bow."

xxi. 451-454

The ancient Greeks regarded the Iliad as the greater of the Homeric
poems, and the writer of this book shares that view. It is the Iliad
which is quoted more, which was the subject of the greater volume of
scholarly work, and which did more to form the Greek conception of
the world and man. It is a tragic work whereas the Odyssey is an
adventure story which ends happily, with the good rewarded and the
wicked punished. The tragic view of human life is, alas, more deeply
true than the view which sees straightforward poetic justice in the
working out of events…

Griffin, Homer, p. 46

“A Reading from Homer,” Lawrence Alma-Tadema, oil on canvas, 1885
Here, a young poet crowned with a laurel wreath reads from Homer to an audience dressed for a festival.
The setting is probably Greece toward the end of the seventh century BCE. The Greek letters in the upper
right indicate that the place is dedicated to the poet.

Through attention to details such as architecture and dress, Alma-Tadema evokes scenes of everyday life in
ancient Greece and Rome. However, his pictures are rarely entirely archaeologically accurate. For example,
while he accurately rendered the ancient musical instrument on the left, a cithara, he also included a type
of rose that did not exist before the nineteenth century.

"Homer receiving homage from all the great men of Greece, Rome and modern times. The Universe
crowns him, Herodotus burns incense. The Iliad and Odyssey sit at his feet."

Herodotus

"Homer receiving homage from all the great men of Greece, Rome and modern times. The Universe
crowns him, Herodotus burns incense. The Iliad and Odyssey sit at his feet."

Raphael

Apelles of Kos

ΙΛΙΑΣ ΟΔΥΣΣΕΙΑ

Raphael
Pindar
Vergil
Pheidias
Apelles of Kos

Dante


Raphael
Pindar
Vergil
Pheidias
Alexander
Apelles of Kos

Dante


Poussin Moliere
Longinus

Giulio Romano
"The Gods of Olympus”

V. THE GODS trompe l'oeil ceiling

from the Sala dei Giganti

"...(thousands of baroque ceilings with paintings of the gods
derive ultimately from the Iliad)” --Griffin, p. 21

To understand the place of religion in Greek society we must think away the
central religious institution of our own experience, the Church. In Greece
power in religious matters lay with those who had secular power: in the
household with the father, in the early communities with the king, in
developed city-states with the magistrates or even with the citizen assembly….

There was, therefore, no religious organization that could spread moral
teaching, develop doctrine, or impose orthodoxy. In such a context a creed
would have been unthinkable. In a famous passage Herodotus casts two poets
as the theologians of Greece: Homer and Hesiod

Robert Parker, “Greek Religion; Gods and Men,” in Greece and the Hellenistic World,
pp. 253-254

ΗΣΙΟΔΟΣ (HESIOD)

flourished 750-650 BC

his Theogony collected the myths
concerning the origins of the gods

this “retelling of the old stories
became, according to the fifth-century
historian, Herodotus, the accepted
version that linked all Hellenes”

Ancient bronze bust, the so-called Pseudo-Seneca
now conjectured to be an imaginative portrait of Hesiod.

ΜΥΘΟΣ (MYTHOS,MYTH)

meant “story,” not “falsehood”

required no more credulity
than many Biblical tales

were viewed as conveying
moral truths for edifying
youths and adults

inspired cultic observance
Athena fights Enkelados
Attic red figure--525 bc

ROBERT
VON RANKE
GRAVES
(1895 – 1985) - an English poet,
translator and novelist. During his long
life he produced more than 140 works.
Graves' poems—together with his
translations and innovative
interpretations of the Greek myths, his
memoir of his early life, including his role
in the First World War, Goodbye to All
That, and his historical study of poetic

DODEKATHEON
Δωδεκάθεον < δώδεκα, dōdeka, "twelve"+ θεοί, theoi, "gods"

the principal deities of the Greek pantheon, resided atop
Mount Olympus

Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Hestia, and Hades were
siblings

Ares, Hermes, Hephaestus, Athena, Apollo, and Artemis
were children of Zeus

when the Twelve were codified in 5th century Athens,
Hades was “out,” Aphrodite was “in”
The Twelve Olympians
by Monsiau, late 18th c

from Homer’s time, until the rise of philosophical and scientific
thinking among the educated few, Greeks regarded religion as the
foundation of morality

each of the Twelve personified the virtues which they wished to
transmit to their children

the deities were to be praised, thanked, supplicated and propitiated
in public ceremonies

certain places came to be considered as sacred, associated with
particular gods, demigods or heroes

such was Delphi, sacred to Apollo, the masculine embodiment of
reason

V. THE GREEK
DARK AGES

A finely decorated geometric vase
dating to around 750 BC

Let me say a little bit, first of all, about the way scholars have categorized the history
of Greece. Typically, we speak of the Bronze Age, the Mycenaean Period and so on,
followed by the Dark Ages, but after that, you started having refined terms which
derive actually from the world of the history of art. That is because in the Dark Ages
we don't have any writing. So, if you want to designate anything it has to be by
tangible things like pottery, particularly painted pottery, because it's easier to
categorize. It's from that most of our terms show up. So, for instance, you will see
references to words like proto-geometric. They'll be sort of post-Mycenaean then
proto-geometric. These would be the very earliest kinds of pots that have geometric
designs on them, then comes the geometric period
Kagan, op. cit.

The Greek Dark Age or Ages also known as Geometric or Homeric Age (ca. 1200
BC–800 BC) are terms which have regularly been used to refer to the period of Greek
history from the presumed Dorian invasion and end of the Mycenaean Palatial
civilization around 1200 BC, to the ﬁrst signs of the Greek city-states in the 9th
century BC. These terms are gradually going out of use, since the former lack of
archaeological evidence in a period that was mute in its lack of inscriptions (thus
"dark") has been shown to be an accident of discovery rather than a fact of history.[1]

Wikipedia

WHAT ENDED THE BRONZE AGE?

climatic or environmental catastrophe?

invasion by Dorians or “Sea Peoples”?

the widespread availability of edged weapons of iron?

“no single explanation fits the available archaeological evidence”--Wikipedia

MEDITERRANEAN WARFARE
AND THE SEA PEOPLES

Around this time large-scale revolts took place in several parts of the Eastern
Mediterranean, and attempts to overthrow existing kingdoms were made as a
result of economic and political instability by surrounding people who were
already plagued with famine and hardship. Part of the Hittite kingdom was
invaded and conquered by the so-called Sea Peoples whose origins - perhaps
from different parts of the Mediterranean, such as the Black Sea, the Aegean
and Anatolian regions - remain obscure. The thirteenth and twelfth-century
inscriptions and carvings at Karnak and Luxor are the only sources for "Sea
Peoples", a term invented by the Egyptians themselves and recorded in the
boastful accounts of Egyptian military successes.
Wikipedia

Aeolian
settlements

Ionian
settlements

Mycenaean
settlements

Archaeological evidence shows that during the “Dark Ages” Greek-speaking
Mycenaeans, Aeolians and Ionians spread from the Greek mainland and
settled the islands and the western coast of Asia Minor

The Aeolians (Greek: Αἰολεῖς) were one of the four major ancient Greek tribes
comprising Ancient Greeks. Their name derives from Aeolus, the mythical ancestor
of the Aeolic branch and son of Hellen*, the mythical patriarch of the Greek
nation. The dialect of ancient Greek they spoke is referred to as Aeolic.
Originating in Thessaly, a part of which was called Aeolis, the Aeolians often appear
as the most numerous amongst the other Hellenic tribes of early times. The
Boeotians, a subgroup of the Aeolians, were driven from Thessaly by the
Thessalians and moved their location to Boeotia (bee•O•sha). Aeolian peoples were
spread in many other parts of Greece such as Aetolia, Locris, Corinth, Elis and
Messenia. During the Dorian invasion, Aeolians from Thessaly fled across the
Aegean Sea to the island of Lesbos and the region of Aeolis, called as such after
them, in Asia Minor.
________
* note the double l! The Greek name for themselves is Hellenes

Wikipedia

Originating in Thessaly, a part of which was called Aeolis, the Aeolians often appear as
the most numerous amongst the other Hellenic tribes of early times. The Boeotians, a
subgroup of the Aeolians, were driven from Thessaly by the Thessalians and moved their
location to Boeotia (bee•O•sha). Aeolian peoples were spread in many other parts of
Greece such as Aetolia, Locris, Corinth, Elis and Messenia. During the Dorian
invasion, Aeolians from Thessaly fled across the Aegean Sea to the island of Lesbos and
the region of Aeolis, called as such after them, in Asia Minor

The Ionians (Greek: Ἴωνες, Íōnes, singular Ἴων, Íōn) were one of the four major
tribes into which the Classical Greeks considered the population of Hellenes to have
been divided (along with the Dorians, Aeolians and Achaeans). The Ionian dialect
was one of the three major linguistic divisions of the Hellenic world, together with
the Dorian and Aeolian.
"Ionian" with reference to populations had several senses in Classical Greece. In the
narrowest sense, it was used of the region of Ionia in Asia Minor. In a more broad
sense, it could be used to describe all speakers of the Ionic dialect, which also
included the populations of Euboea, the Cyclades and many colonies founded by
Ionian colonists. Finally, in the broadest sense, it could be used to describe all those
who spoke languages of the East Greek group, which included Attic.
The foundation myth which was current in the Classical period suggested that the
Ionians were named after Ion, son of Xuthus, and lived in the north Peloponnesian
region of Aegilaus. When the Dorians invaded the Peloponnese and expelled the
Achaeans from the Argolid and Lacedaemonia, the Achaeans moved into Aegilaus
(henceforth known as Achaea), and the Ionians were in turn expelled. The Ionians
went to Attica and mingled with the population there, before many people finally
emigrated to the coast of Asia Minor, founding the historical region of Ionia.

Wikipedia

the region of Ionia in Asia Minor. In a more broad sense, it could be used to describe all
speakers of the Ionic dialect, which also included the populations of Euboea (u•BEE•uh),
the Cyclades and many colonies founded by Ionian colonists. Finally, in the broadest
sense, it could be used to describe all those who spoke languages of the East Greek group,
which included Attic [Attica-the area around Athens]

The Doric dialect was spoken in northwest Greece, Peloponnese, Crete,
southwest Asia Minor, the southernmost islands in the Aegean Sea, and various
cities of Southern Italy and Sicily. After the classical period it was mainly
replaced by the Attic, upon which the Koine or common Greek language of the
Hellenistic period was based. The main characteristic of Doric was the
preservation of Indo-European [aː], long ‹α›, which in Attic-Ionic became [ɛː],
‹η›; as an example, the famous last farewell before the battle by Spartan mothers
to their warrior sons giving them their shields "Ἤ τὰν ἤ ἐπὶ τὰς" (E tan e epi tas:
either with it or on it - either you return with the shield or you are carried back
dead on it) would have been "Ἤ τήν ἤ ἐπὶ τῆς" (E ten e epi tes) if it had been
uttered by an Attic-Ionic speaker, such as an Athenian mother. Tsakonian Greek,
a descendant of Doric Greek is still spoken in some regions of the Southern
Argolid coast of the Peloponnese, on the coast of the modern prefecture of
Arcadia.

DARK AGE CULTURE

With the collapse of the palatial centres, no more monumental stone
buildings were built and the practice of wall painting may have ceased;
writing in the Linear B script ceased, vital trade links were lost, and
towns and villages were abandoned. The population of Greece was
reduced, and the world of organized state armies, kings, officials, and
redistributive systems that offered security to individuals disappeared.
Most of the information about the period comes from burial sites and
the grave goods contained within them. To what extent the earliest
Greek literary sources, Homeric epics (8th-7th century) and Hesiod's
Works and Days (7th century) describe life in the 9th-8th centuries
remains a matter of considerable debate.
Wikipedia

The Lelantine War was a long-remembered military conflict between the two
ancient Greek city states Chalkis and Eretria in Euboea which took place in the
early Archaic period, at some time between ca 710 and 650 BC. The reason for
war was, according to tradition, the struggle for the fertile Lelantine Plain on the
island of Euboea. Due to the economic importance of the two participating poleis,
the conflict spread considerably, with many further city states joining either side,
resulting in much of Greece being at war. The historian Thucydides describes the
Lelantine War as exceptional, the only war in Greece between the mythical Trojan
War and the Persian Wars of the early fifth century BC in which allied cities rather
than single ones were involved.

Wikipedia

Chalkis and
Eretria on the
Lelantine Plain.
Ägäisches Meer =
Aegean Sea;
Euböa = Euboea;
Lelantische Ebene =
Lelantine Plain;
Golf von Euböa = Gulf
of Euboea;
Attika = Attica.

Lefkandi's contribution to archaeology
The site's importance is due to a number of factors. First,
substantial occupation strata of the Late Helladic IIIC period
(ca. 1200-1100/1075 BCE) excavated in the 1960s allowed
the establishment of a ceramic sequence for this period, at
that time insufficiently attested. The IIIC settlement
furthermore stands in contrast to sites in the other parts of
Greece, such as the Peloponnese, where many sites were
abandoned at the end of LHIIIB (i.e. the end of the
Mycenaean palatial period). This situation places Lefkandi
within a group of sites in Central Greece with important
post-palatial occupation, such as Mitrou (settlement),
Kalapodi (sanctuary), and Elateia (cemetery).
Wikipedia

Heroon
The archaeological significance of the site was revealed in 1980[1] when a large mound was
discovered to contain the remains of a man and a woman within a large structure called by
some a heroön, or "hero's grave." There is some dispute as to whether the structure was in
fact a heroön built to commemorate a hero or whether it was instead the grave of a couple
who were locally important for other reasons. This monumental building, built c 950 BC,
50 meters long and 13.8 meters wide, with a wooden verandah, foreshadows the temple
architecture that started to appear with regularity some two centuries later.
One of the bodies in the grave had been cremated, the ashes being wrapped in a fringed
linen cloth then stored in a bronze amphora from Cyprus. The amphora was engraved with
a hunting scene and placed within a still larger bronze bowl. A sword and other grave goods
were nearby. It is believed that the ashes were those of a man.
The woman's body was not cremated. Instead, she was buried alongside a wall and adorned
with jewelry, including a ring of electrum, a Bronze braziere, and a gorget believed to have
come from Babylonia and already a thousand years old when it was buried. An iron knife
with an ivory handle was found near her shoulder. It is unknown whether this woman was
buried contemporaneously with the man's remains, or at a later date. Scholars have
suggested that the woman was slaughtered to be buried with the man, possibly her
husband, in a practice reminiscent of the Indian custom of sati. Other scholars have
pointed to the lack of conclusive evidence for sati in this instance, suggesting instead that
this woman may have been an important person in the community in her own right, who
was interred with the man's ashes after her own death.
Four horses appear to have been sacrificed and were included in the grave. Some of them
were wearing iron bits in their mouths.

Wikipedia

Heroon of Lefkandi, as seen from the main door.

By the mid- to late eighth century [750-710 BC] a new alphabet
system was adopted from the Phoenicians by a Greek with
first-hand experience of it. The Greeks adapted the Phoenician
writing system, notably introducing characters for vowel
sounds and thereby creating the first truly alphabetic writing
system. The new alphabet quickly spread throughout the
Mediterranean and was used to write not only the Greek
language, but also Phrygian and other languages in the eastern
Mediterranean. As Greece sent out colonies west towards Sicily
and Italy (Pithekoussae, Cumae), the influence of their new
alphabet extended further. The ceramic Euboean artifact
inscribed with a few lines written in the Greek alphabet
referring to "Nestor's cup", discovered in a grave at
Pithekoussae (Ischia) dates from c. 730 BC; it seems to be the
oldest written reference to the Iliad.

Wikipedia

"Nestor's Cup" inscription, Cumae alphabet, 8th century BC from a Greek
vase from Pithikoussai, the older Greek colony in Magna Graecia and Sicily,
related to, and often confused with, Cumae.

upper half: drawing of the state of the original inscription; lower half:
restoration

Society
It is likely that Greece during this period was divided into
independent regions organized by kinship groups and the oikoi
or households, the origins of the later poleis.
Wikipedia

But the rise of the Polis is another story...

Origins of Classical Greece

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (19)

Similar to Origins of Classical Greece

Similar to Origins of Classical Greece (8)

More from Jim Powers

More from Jim Powers (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Origins of Classical Greece