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Greeks: tied by common language, fractured, regionalized thinking
○ Hellenes- used as they opposed the Persians
Bronze Age (3000-1200 B.C.E) - use of bronze tools and weapons, extensive trade networks,
development of the palace/redistributive economy
○ Mycenaeans culture- bronze, gold (not native, trade), boar tusk, loom
epic poetry, Homer’s Iliad, Homer’s Odyssey
polis (pl. poleis), acropolis- religious area, astu/asty (town/urban space), chora (countryside)
Mediterranean triad — olives, grapes, grain
Iron Age (1200-700 B.C.E) - severe population collapse, use of iron for tools and weapons
demos (people/region), basileus (king, chieftain), oikos (house, household)
Hesiod’s Works and Days- How to manage life and farm. Wisdom lit, (didactic)
○ Plowing and sowing done with oxen. Switch used to keep animal moving, iron blade
○ Threshing is the process of beating the grain out of the wheat
○ Winnowing- throwing the wheat up, chaff is separated from heavier grain
○ Mill stone, Beating the grain and turning it into flour.
○ Cloth production and the loom are seen as essential jobs for women
○ Flax and wool used to create almost all clothes, Spindle whorls spun into thread, Thread
worked into cloth with the loom
○ Sailing- 2 sailing seasons, late summer and a shorter more dangerous one in spring
Geometric- 900-700 BCE, early, middle late (starts seeing figures).
Archaic Period (700-480 B.C.E) - population growth and the emergence of large, organized
poleis,
“orientalizing” period 710 to 600, geometric pottery starts to have animal figures, borrowed from
the Near East, Corinth major hub. kouros/kore (statues) - inspired by Egyptian statue design
Greek religion:
○ cults worshiped gods and heroes. Sanctuary consisted of temenos (boundary) and altar.
Temples were treasuries. Rituals consisted of animal sacrifice, Votive and Libation
Aristocracy controlled the cities through council (boule) limited powers of assembly (ekklesia)
Greek “colonization” / migration- Wealthy citizens fled the societal challenges of poleis to form
new poleis across Mediterranean.
symposium - elite male drinking parties: politics, performances, pottery, and sex
thes (pl. thetes) - the dependent poor, increased dramatically in archaic
Military- hoplite fought in phalanx, heavy infantry. Trireme- boat used, 3 sets of oarsmen,
ramming not marines
Tyrants- take over (ca. 670-500 BCE), lower aristocrats, populists appeal to masses
lyric poetry (lyre used)- Sappho from lesbos, Archilochus from Naxos, fights and fucks
Sparta- Citizens, helots (Messenians), perioeci
○ agoge (raised kids to warriors), syssition (dining group)
Spartan Government- Dual kingship (religious), Gerousia (council/boule of elders), Ephors
(overseers, 5, 1 yr), Assembly (ekklesia, weak)
Athens (the city in Attica, also controls the island of Salamis)
○ Archons, basileus, polemarch, [eponymous]
○ tribe, phratry (brotherhood) lower class, aristocratic clans (gens) upper class
○ Draco’s laws (harsh) Solon’s reforms (reduce aristocratic power)
○
Pisistratus and his sons (tyrants further break aristocrats), Has mercenaries to enforce
■ Kidnaps enemies children and uses them as hostages, Popular with the Deimos,
people
■ Helps them get loans, Supports economic growth and public works, Builds public
wells, Institutes 2 festivals- The panathenaia and Dionysia
● Reforms of Cleisthenes: massive social reorganization, groups all of the Athenians into 10 tribes
made out of 30 regions called “Thirds” breaks aristocratic solidarity by creating unification across
these different regions
○ 10 tribes (with 10 strategoi), “Thirds”- Demes
○ boule (council) of five hundred — aristocratic council becomes the council of five
hundred, officers are chosen by lot, how many lots each town gets are determined by the
population (beginning of proportional democracy)
■ becomes open to a wider part of the citizen body beyond the aristocracy, not
totally democracy but closer. Serve for one year, determine the agenda
■ More democratic in that where they’re from and the way they’re chosen is
different
○ 10 strategoi (chief general), in charge of the army, army service is by tribe, over time
start to be more important politically, one office in Athens that doesn’t have limitations
● Ostracism- Exile a citizen for 10 years at a time
● Athenian Exports- Pottery, olive oil and products, and silver (great wealth from mines)
○ Mint their own coins, weighed out bullion, matter of civic pride, semi-standardized
● Panhellenic sanctuaries
○ Zeus at Olympia
○ Apollo at Delphi
Readings
● Herodotus’ The Histories
○ Ionian Revolt (499-493 BCE)
■ 5.30-38, 97-126, 6.1-32
○ First Persian invasion, under King Darius I, 492-490 BCE
■ 6.42-45 Mardonius’ failed campaign (492 BCE)
■ 6.46-51 Darius demands submission from the Greeks (491)
■ 6.94-120 Campaign against the Greeks led by Persian generals Datis and
Artaphrenes
● 6.101 Eretria falls
● 6.102-120 build up to and battle of Marathon
○ Second Persian invasion, under king Xerxes I, 480-479 BCE
■ 7.1-60 Xerxes’ preparations and march into Greece
● 7.20-25, 33-36 Feats of engineering
● 7.32 Xerxes demands submission from the Greeks
● 7.132-152 the response of Athens and Sparta to the invasion
■ 7.201-239 Battle of Thermopylae (480 BCE)
■ 8.40-107 Battle of Salamis (480 BCE)
■ 9.39-88 Battle of Plataea (479 BCE)
■ [did not read] Battle of Mycale [destruction of the remnants of the Greek fleet]