Chapter Three
Greece in the Heroic Age
p. 96-127
The Earliest Civilizations in Europe: The
Minoans
• Minoans lived in Crete, an agriculturally good
area
• Minoans were very good navigators
• Agriculture+navigation = first civilization in
Europe
• By 1900 BCE, had writing, palace-led social
organization, advanced metal-working skills,
and sophisticated artistic expression
Crete
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200 km long
Mountain ranges
Semi-tropical climate
Small villages
Grew grain
Raised sheep and goats
Hunt and fished
Traded with
neighbouring islands
Innovations: The Introduction of
Bronze
• 9 parts copper + 1 part tin = bronze
• Introduced to Crete during the early Minoan
period (3000-2100 BCE)
• Tin was rare and more expensive, probably
coming fro Turkey
• Bronze was a tough, but malleable metal with
a reasonably low melting point, ideal for
producing sharp knives and spear points,
tough saws, hard chisels
Minoan Agriculture
• Paid for bronze with surplus of food, linen, and
wool clothing
• Better use of agriculture
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Plowing heavier soils
Making cheese from milk
Planting grape vines
Planted olive tree  olive oil
• Brought about a society with more diverse skills and
occupations
Cross-cultural Influences and the
Minoans
• Middle Minoan period 2100 – 1700 BCE
• Population growth helped by immigration
• Foreign trade with Near East increased
Advances in Civilization
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New burial customs
Impressive buildings
Higher levels of artisanship
System of writing Sanctuaries = sacred
grounds on hilltops had temples, sacrificial
alters, and other buildings to honour the gods
Wealthy Minoans
• Wealthy citizens had bigger homes (almost
palaces)
– Fine jewelry and clothing
– Works of art
– Imported luxury items
– Developed record keeping systems to keep track
of their property
• First used hieroglyphics from Egypt and then eventually
Linear A
Politics and the Palaces
• Largest and most powerful
palace on Crete was at
Knossos
• Also palaces at Phaestus
and Mallia
• Control over certain goods
and products gave power
• Large storerooms for
agricultural produce and for
luxury items
• All destroyed around 1750
BCE, most likely because of
an earthquake.
Architecture of Palaces
• Dozens of interconnected
rectangular rooms on many
storeys around a large open
courtyard
• Areas for administration,
residences, religious purposes, etc
• Finest rooms were decorated with
frescoes
• Walls reinforced with wooden
beams to protect from
earthquakes
• Light wells
• Plumbing
The Eruption of Thera
• Volcanic eruption on Thera
around 1628 BCE (now called
Santorini)
• Small town was buried by ash
and was well preserved
• Rediscovered in 1967
• Unlike Pompeii, most people
were able to evacuate
• Vibrant wall paintings all that
are left
• May have lead to the myth of
the lost city of Atlantis
Thera’s Frescoes
External Forces
• Palaces built almost immediately after their
destruction in 1750 BCE, but were once again
destroyed in 1490 BCE – except for Knossos
• Probably due to the Mycenaean warriors who
were arriving on Crete
• Mycenaeans probably used Knossos as their
administrative centre 1500 BCE
• Use of new language, Linear B, for record keeping
• Recorded the language of the early Greek-speaking
Mycenaeans
• Language deciphered in 1952 by Michael Ventris
External Forces continued
• Knossos palace served as administrative
centre for about 80 years
• Many features of Minoan culture disappeared
• Buildings with central courts
• Art forms depicting scenes from nature
• Finely carved stone vases
• Knossos palace destroyed by a great fire and was
not rebuilt
The Myth of the Minotaur
The Myth of the Minotaur
• The wife King Minos of
Knossos gave birth to a
half-man, half-bull
called the Minotaur
• Was imprisoned in the
Labyrinth, built by
Daedalus, the court
inventor
Ariadne
• Minotaur’s diet included young
unmarried men and women
• King Minos forced the people of
Athens to select 14 young people
as a sacrifice every year
• Theseus volunteered to go as a
sacrifice
• With the help of Ariadne, Minos’s
daughter, Theseus killed the
Minotaur, and emerged from the
Labyrinth using a ball of string and
a sword that Ariadne provided him
The Myth of the Minotaur
continued
• Myth seems out of character
for the Minoans, who seemed
to love peaceful scenes of
nature
• There are, however, pictures of
young people leaping over the
backs of bulls
• Also, palace of Knossos could be
compared to a maze
The Earliest Greeks: The
Mycenaeans
• Neolithic farms were scattered in the narrow valleys of
Greece from 6500 – 3000 BCE
• Bronze started to be used commonly around 3000 BCE
 Early Helladic Period (3000-2000 BCE)
• By 2000 BCE, Early Helladic culture had been replaced
by less wealthy farming-herding culture (Middle
Helladic Period)
• Greece was invaded at this time  invaders language +
indigenous peoples’ language= ancient Greek
• Mycenaeans spoke an early form of Greek
Characteristics of Mycenaean
Culture
• Powerful and wealthy chiefdoms sprang up and
consolidated control of small farming villages
• Chiefdoms transformed into well-defined states ruled
by kings with administrative centres, with a writing
system, and state institutions, including a state
religion
• Discovered by Heinrich Schliemann in 1876
• Thought he had discovered the burials of King
Agamemnon and his family
• Declared that the Iliad and the Odyssey by Homer
were based in history
The Legend of the Trojan War
• Excavations at Troy show that the city was destroyed
in a battle 1240 BCE
• Was really just a fortified town with a poor standard
of living
• War may have been a dispute over fishing rights or
control over shipping
• Homer claimed that Agamemnon of Mycenae, the
leader of the Greek army at Troy, returned home
from the war successfully, only to be murdered by his
wife, Clytemnestra
Mycenaean Royals
• Schliemann found graves belonging to the royal
family of Mycenae, pre-dating the Trojan War by
300-400 years
• Had objects of gold, silver, ivory, and faience
• Each ruler governed his own wide area from a
palace
• All rulers probably owed allegiance to the king of
Mycenae
• Wealth probably came from trade, like gold or tin
Heinrich Schliemann: Hero or
Fraud
• Many irregularities in Schliemann’s writings
– many outright lies
• Was obsessed with Troy which lead to an
interest in archaeology
• Combined treasures from many sites to
support his research
• Today’s archaeologists feel he did find Troy,
but his false claims cast a shadow over this
discovery
• Smuggled much of the treasure out of
Turkey and donated it to Germany  after
World War II, confiscated by Russians and
not seen again until 1991
Minoan Influence on Mycenae
• Very strongly influenced by Minoans
– Wall painting
– Dress
– Vases
– Seal carving
– Religious ideas
– Both practiced animal sacrifice
– Both poured wine into the ground for religious purposes
– Both kept cult areas within the palace
– Names of many of the gods same as Classical Greek gods
e.g. Zeus, Poseidon, Athena, Dionysos
End of Mycenaean World
• Widespread destruction around 1250 BCE
• Around 1200 BCE, more disasters brought an end to
centralized administration and the use of writing
• Palaces fell into disuse political and economic structure
weakened.
• Causes:
– Natural disasters
– Foreign attacks
– Internal strife
– Combination of three
The Dark Ages
• For about 350 years, various groups of Greekspeaking people from the north settled in the
Peloponnese
• No written documents
• Minstrels kept the Mycenaean past alive
through oral storytelling
Geography and the Greek CityState
• Mountains isolate one valley from another and
reduce the habitable land in half
• Kept the nation separated into small communities
• Isolated communities developed into polis – citystates
• The sea linked the communities and the other
nations of the Mediterranean
• Greek sailors brought home ideas and wealth
from abroad
The Archaic Period
• The end of the Dark Ages was marked by
– Appearance of national literature e.g. Homer
• Common view of their gods
– Resurgence of trade past the Aegean Sea
• Brought back skills in shipbuilding and metal-working
techniques
• Better knowledge of geography and navigation
• Artistic and religious ideas
• An alphabet -- only 27 letters
Archaic Period continued
– Establishment of contacts and settlements in Italy
• Access to iron and other metals in Northern Italy
• Lead to colonization
• Learned about rich agricultural land in Italy, Sicily, and along
the coast of the Mediterranean 100s of new settlements
– Establishment of the first Olympic Games to
honour Zeus in 776 BCE
• First firm date in Greek history
• Olympics part of four Panhellenic (“all Greece”) games
• Continued until 393 CE when a Christian Roman emperor,
Theodosius I, ordered all pagan sanctuaries closed
Colonization
Colonization
• Before new settlements were established, the
oracle of Apollo at Delphi was usually
consulted
• After the oracle’s blessing, a group of several
hundred men sailed away, along with
everything they would need to start a colony
• Once there, had to chose the best place for a
harbour, divide the land, plant the crops, build
houses, and deal with the native people they
were displacing
Government in Greece
The Age of Tyrants
• Greeks were first people to invent a formal
democratic system in which citizens governed
themselves through voting
• Early Greek states were governed by a king,
who acted as the chief judge, leading
administrator, military leader, and sometimes
priest of the state cult
• Did not have absolute power nor was their
power automatically hereditary
Age of Tyrants continued
• During the Dark Ages, many of the kings lost
some or all of their power to the aristocracy
• This arbitrary power and the lack of voice in
government by wealthy non-aristrocrats lead
to dissent
• Poor Greeks suffered loss of land, debts, and
possibly even debt enslavement
• Aristocrats could keep power as long as they
held onto military power also
Military
• Only wealthy aristocrats
could afford to have
heavily armed warriors
backed up by their
lightly armed
supporters
• From 675-650 BCE,
warfare changed
– Depended on unified
movement of large
number of warriors hoplites
Hoplites
• Heavily armed men with large
round shields, shin protectors,
helmets, body armour, and
spears
• Stood side by side 6-10 lines
deep
• Needed large numbers of
warriors to not be surrounded
• Because there was not enough
aristocrats to do this, anyone
who could afford the armour
could join the army
Tyrants
• In Corinth, a man of noble
blood was excluded from the
ruling of the city by the nobles
• Cypselus gathered a military
force of discontented citizens
and took control of the
government of Corinth in 657
BCE
• A person who takes power
unconstitutionally tyrant
Foundations of Democratic Rule
Solon and Peisistratus
• Athens avoided tyranny by
having a written code of law and
by appointing a magistrate called
an archon to try to solve the
problems between aristocrats
and common citizens
• Draco`s law code of 620 BCE
recognized that once laws were
written down, they could be
changed
Solon
• Appointed archon in 594 BCE
• Helped relieve the debt and land problems of the
poor
• Abolished the practice of selling debtors into slavery
• All wealthy men could run for the highest
government offices
• Created the Council of 400
– 100 citizens from each of the four traditional tribes were
elected annually and met regularly to prepare legislation
to be voted on by the entire Citizen Assembly
Who didn`t have political power
• Women
– Citizenship was given to those who could fight in
the army
• Slaves
– No personal rights at all
• Foreigners
– Citizenship was hardly ever given to people not
born in the city
Peisistratus
• Eventually became
Tyrant of Athens in 546
BCE and ruled until 527
BCE
• Tried three times before
he succeeded
• Famous for his
generalship
• Very ambitious
• Power handed over to
son, Hippias
Cleisthenes Establishes Democracy
• Hippias ruled until 510 BCE
until the army of Sparta
overthrew him
• Cleisthenes created the
Council of 500 with 50
members elected from 10 new
tribes, equitably distributed
amongst the citizens
• For one-tenth of the year,
teach tribe acted as executive
committee of the Council
Democracy continued
• Each tribe also elected a general –
strategos – who would lead the city
in all its military affairs
• All other government positions were
filled by drawing lots each year
• Introduced ostracism –the city could
vote to send any citizen and his
family into exile for a period of ten
years
– Needed a minimum of 6000 votes
– First started in 487 BCE and used for
70 years
Slaves in Greek Society
• Slaves were considered property of their
owners
• Household slaves of wealthy owners were best
off
• Working in state mines, the worst off
• At master`s discretion, could marry, have a
home, and keep their children
• Employed in every occupation, except military
and government
Slaves continued
• Athens was a major slave-owning state
• About one-third of the population of Attica
(greater Athens) were probably slaves (60 00080 000)
• Majority worked in manufacturing
• During the Peloponnesian War (412-404 BCE),
over 20 000 slaves deserted Athens
Lycurgus and Spartan Society
• Two most powerful citystates were Athens and
Sparta
• Spartans were known as
warriors, and with only
5000, Sparta had a
position of leadership in
Greece
• Did not send out colonists,
but extended their
influence by defeating its
western neighbours
Lycurgus
• Political, social, and military systems of Sparta
attributed to Lycurgus
• May have lived in early seventh century BCE
• Created military program which trained the best
warriors in Greece
• Constitution that guaranteed all citizens (adult males
born to citizen parents) a minimum level of political
equality
• Could vote in the Assembly, have a share of land, and
use the enslaved helots (state slaves)
Spartan Military
• Spartan boys began military training at 7
– Learned to withstand pain without complaint
– Obedient to leaders
– Cunning
– Never admit defeat
• Only became a full citizen at 30, when they
could vote, hold political office, marry, have a
house, and receive an estate worked by helots
Spartan Government
• Ruled by two kings
• Council of Elders advised the king (28 men over the
age of 60
• Present legislation to the Assembly for approval
• Assembly couldn’t initiate legislation, nor discuss it,
only vote on it
• Ephorate – 5 men called Ephors who were elected by
the assembly to hold office for one year
• Presided over the Council and Assembly
Spartan Life
• Government was conservative to keep control
of the helots
• Babies who were unhealthy at birth were
abandoned
• Spartan women had more freedom and
privileges than women elsewhere in Greece
– Encouraged to take part in sports to develop
healthy bodies
– Training in music and dance
– Had property and marriage rights
The Persian Wars: Greece Unites in
Conflict
• The Persians and Medes had the most powerful
empire
• By 600 BCE, the Persians were threatening Greece
• Greek city-states needed to stop fighting amongst
themselves and work together to defeat the Persians
– Greek soldiers tough
– Battle tactics and weapons superior
– Good leaders
– Lydians in west-central Asia Minor acted as a
buffer for 40 years – ruler Croesus
Cyrus the Great
• Took the throne in 559 BCE
• Took over the Medes and expanded
the Persian Empire
• Croesus of Lydia decided to attack
Cyrus across the boundary
between the two empires and lost
• The Ionian Greeks tried to fight but
didn’t cooperate with each other,
so surrendered to the Persians and
were forced to serve in their army
Battle of Marathon
• In 490 BCE, Persian king Darius, sent a fleet of
20 000 soldiers to punish Athens and Eretria
for helping in the Ionian Revolt
• Burned and plundered Eretria and sailed
south to the eastern coast of Attica –
established a base at Marathon
• Athenians send a professional messenger to
Sparta, pleading for help (250 kms away)
Battle of Marathon continued
• Sparta would only come after the full moon
• 9000 Athenians went to meet the Persians at
Marathon
• Only help was send from Plataea – 1000 soldiers
• Miltiades convinced the Athenians to attack
• Greeks charged the Persians on the run and killed
them as they fled to their ships
• Herodotus claimed 6400 Persians were killed but
only 192 Athenians
Thermoplylae: Greek Cooperation
Defeats Persia
• Marathon provided a 10 year break from Persian
invasion
• 480 BCE, Xerxes crossed into Greece with about 200
000 soldiers
• Not a lot of time for Greeks to prepare for attack
• Athens had new ships built with money from a silver
mine near Laurion
• Athenians and Spartan leadership decided to defend
a narrow pass in central Greece called Thermopylae
through which the Persians had to pass
Thermopylae
• 4000 soldiers led by King Leonidas of Sparta
and his bodyguard of 300 were sent to hold
the pass
• Greek shepherd betrayed them by showing
Xerxes a mountain pass around Thermopylae
• 1000 soldiers died fighting the Persians who
poured southward through Boeotia to Athens
and took revenge on the city for its defeat at
Marathon
Salamis and Plataea
• Combined Greek fleet of over 300
triremes (fast Greek ships with three
levels of rowers) remained at Salamis
• About 600 Persian ships were enticed
into the straits where they were
attacked
• Battle was a severe loss for the Persians
 Xerxes escaped Greece, but left his
army under general Maronius
Plataea
• In 497 BCE, Mardonius took up a position near
Plataea
• United army of Greek city-states, led by Sparta
met the Persians in an all-out battle
• Mardonius was killed
• Persian wealth and luxury goods captured
• Invasion force left for Persia
• Greek navy attacked the Persians again in Asia
Minor and freed the Ionian Greeks
Early Greek Art: Cross-Cultural
Influences
• Greeks absorbed many
important ideas and
influences from the
East, Egypt, and other
regions in eighth and
seventh centuries BCE
• Influenced by forms of
Eastern art known as
Orientalizing
Influences of Egypt
• In Egypt, saw large statues and
temples
• Greek architects learned how to build
these monuments
• Learned drawing and colour after
seeing wall paints on tombs and walls
• Learned metal-working skills and
glass-making
• Adapted the skills and applied them to
their own needs and tastes
Temple of Artemis at Ephesus
• The sanctuary was one
of the largest in the
Greek world – about
the size of a football
field
• Home to hundreds of
marble sculptures of
people, gods, and
animals
Painting
• Vase painting changed
from little black stick
figures to fluid,
idealized characters
against a black, red, or
white background
Philosophy
• Philosophers wanted to know exactly how the
Earth was formed and from what
• Proposed theories about the world’s origins
• Basic elements such as moisture, or air, or fire
• Philosophy is phileo – to love + sophia wisdom
Literature
• Passed from age of epic poems (Iliad and
Odyssey) to age of lyric poetry
• All sorts of poems and songs
• Sappho of Lesbos was a lyric poet who was a
woman
• Dramatic plays also being written in Athens
History Continues to Unfold
• By end of fifth century BCE, Greece ready to
enter their golden age – Classical Period
• Athenians would build their empire and
created unprecedented heights of cultural and
political achievement