January 18 th , 2012
What are our primary sources for Dark Age
Greece?
 Archaeology.
 Homeric epics, Iliad and Odyssey (ca. 750 BCE).
 Refer to Mycenaean times, but cannot be used as a
good source for Mycaean period.
 Actually reflect the values of Homer’s audience; good
source for the Late Dark Ages or Early Archaic period.
What are the basic structural features of Dark
Age civilization?
 Ca. 1200 BCE – All of the Eastern Mediterranean, Near East, and Egypt
in decline.
Greece:
 Palace complexes abandoned or destroyed.
 Depopulation (size of towns shrinks; decrease in graves).
 Formerly active farmland no longer cultivated (pollen analysis; field




surveys).
Decrease in trade (foreign goods in Greece and Greek goods abroad less
common).
Decrease in over all wealth (large, rich tombs disappear; graves more
“impoverished”).
Loss of writing.
Greece in a “Dark Age.”
 Based on pottery types.
 1125-1050 BCE – Submycenaean.
 1050-900 BCE – Protogeometric.
 900-850 BCE – Early Geometric.
 850-750 BCE – Middle Geometric.
 Two phases of the Dark Age: 1. Early Dark Age (1100-
900 BCE. 2. Late Dark Age (900-750 BCE).
 Greece is in a “Dark Age” because of a loss of useful historical
evidence.
 Should not underestimate the degree of continuity between the
late Mycenaean Greeks and the Greeks of the Dark Age.
 Many places maintained continuous habitation (i.e. Athens,
Sparta, Lefkandi).
 Life goes on!
 Growth in a sense of shared Greek identity.
http://www.utexas.edu/courses/classicalarch/images3/DarkAgeGreece.gif
 Widespread depopulation (ca. 340 inhabited sites reduced to ca.
40).
 Migrant populations emigrating to the coasts of Asia Minor, esp.
from Attica (i.e. Miletus, ca. 1050 BCE; Hittite & Egyptian Docs.).
 Change in burial practices (shift from burial to cremation).
 Decrease in agriculture and increase in pastoralism.
 Loss of artistic sophistication (protogeometric pottery).
 Minimal evidence of social stratification (Grave evidence;
buildings).
 Discovery of iron-working.
http://www.utexas.edu/courses/classicalarch/images2/protogeoSkyphKer10.jpg
Lefkandi
 Located on Euboea.
 Significant archaeological site for Dark Age civilization.
 Occupied since the Early Bronze Age down to ca. 700 BCE.
 Site indicates an important center uniting Thessaly, Euboea, and
Scyros (i.e. traded goods deposited in graves).
 Evidence of trade contact with Cyprus and Phoenicia.
 Earliest example of the recovery of “monumental architecture.”
The Chief’s House at Lefkandi (ca. 950 BCE)
 Large 50 x 14 m building.
 Sloped roof supported by collonades (prefiguring later Greek
architecture).
 Several graves inside: 1. Male warrior (cremated). 2. Richly
adorned woman (buried). 3. Four horses (buried).
 Later demolished and covered with a stone tumulus (i.e. a
mound).
 Residence, Temple, or Tomb?
 Example of social stratification (i.e. Princely burial; grander than
other structures in the area etc.).
 Suggestion of “head-man” system (if taken with other evidence);
The Mycenaean “qa-si-re-u” and the Archaic “basileus.”
http://www.utexas.edu/courses/classicalarch/images2/lefkandi.gif
http://www.utexas.edu/courses/classicalarch/images2/LefkandiHorseBurial.jpg
 Population increase (villages expand, grave evidence).
 Increase in agriculture (pollen analysis; field surveys).
 Recovery of long-distance trade (i.e. Al Mina, ca. 800 BCE).
 Recovery of writing (ca. 800 BCE).
 Growing artistic sophistication.
 Colonization
 The Greek Renaissance.
http://www.all-art.org/images_hist16/114.jpg
www.culture.gr/2/21/214/21405m/e21405m3.htm
http://www.all-art.org/history52.html
 ΝΕΣΤΟΡΟΣ:...:ΕΥΠΟΤΟΝ:Π
ΟΤΕΡΙΟΝ
ΗΟΣΔΑΤΟΔΕΠΙΕΣΙ:ΠΟΤΕΡΙ.
.:ΗΥΤΙΚΑΚΕΝΟΝ
ΗΙΜΕΡΟΣΗΑΙΡΕΣΕΙ:ΚΑΛΛΙ
ΣΤΕΦΑΝΟ:ΑΦΡΟΔΙΤΕΣ
 I am Nestor’s cup, good to
drink from.
Whoever drinks this cup
empty, straightaway
desire for beautifulcrowned Aphrodite will
seize him.
Significance of Nestor’s Cup
 Evidence for Greek presence in Italy (or trade with
Italy) from at least ca. 750 BCE.
 Evidence for the recovery of writing from at least 750
BCE.
 Evidence for the wide circulation of the Trojan Saga
(Homeric epics?) since at least 750 BCE.
Social and Political Life in Dark Age Greece
 Archaeology, epigraphy, Homeric epics Iliad and Odyssey =
primary sources (note: dating of Homeric epics controversial).
 Greece not a unified whole; population divided according to: 1.
Ethnicity, 2. Local community.
 Communities separated into: 1. Aristocratic class. 2. Commoners.
3. Slaves; highly patriarchal.
 The household (oikos) at the center of all social and economic
life.
 Certain continuity between Late Bronze Age and later Archaic
and Classical periods.
 Believed all Greeks descended from the eponymous Hellen (Greeks
called themselves Hellenes; term not used by Homer)
 Divided into tribes on the basis of dialect.
 Ionians (Attica, Cyclades, Coastal Asia Minor).
 Dorians (Peloponnesus, North-Western Greece, Crete,
Southern Anatolia.).
 Aelioans (Boeotia, Thesaly, Northern Anatolia).
 Arcadian (interior of the Peloponnesus).
 Ethnicity not the basis of political organization.
The Divisions of the Greek People:
Apollodorus, Library 1.7.2-3 (1st Century CE)
 “And at the bidding of Zeus he took up stones and threw them over his
head, and the stones which Deucalion threw became men, and the
stones which Pyrrha threw became women. Hence people were called
metaphorically people (laos) from laas, “a stone.” And Deucalion had
children by Pyrrha, first Hellen, whose father some say was Zeus, and
second Amphictyon, who reigned over Attica after Cranaus; and third a
daughter Protogenia, who became the mother of Aethlius by Zeus.
[1.7.3] Hellen had Dorus, Xuthus, and Aeolus by a nymph Orseis.
Those who were called Greeks he named Hellenes after himself, and
divided the country among his sons. Xuthus received Peloponnese and
begat Achaeus and Ion by Creusa, daughter of Erechtheus, and from
Achaeus and Ion the Achaeans and Ionians derive their names. Dorus
received the country over against Peloponnese and called the settlers
Dorians after himself. Aeolus reigned over the regions about Thessaly
and named the inhabitants Aeolians.” (Trans. J.G. Frazer, 1921).
http://www.theoi.com/Text/Apollodorus1.html
A Dark Age Development?
 …..evidently before the Trojan War no enterprise was undertaken
by Hellas as a whole. It seems to me in fact that at the time the
whole country did not yet have its name. Before the time of
Hellen the son of Deukalion the name did not exist at all; for the
most part the various peoples such as the Pelasgians lent their
names to their districts. But after Hellen and his sons had come
to power in Phthiotis and had been invited as allies into other
poleis, this connection led to the various states changing their
name to that of Hellenes. It was a long time though before this
name superseded all others. The best witness to this is Homer:
although he was born long after the Trojan War he never calls the
whole Greek army Hellenes; this term he reserves for the
followers of Achilles from Phthiotis – who were indeed the
original Hellenes – and speaks otherwise in his poems of
Danaans, Argives, and Achaians. He does not even use the word
barbaroi…..” (Thucydides, 1.3. Crawford & Whitehead, Doc. 1A).
http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e7/AncientGreekDialects.png/270pxAncientGreekDialects.png&imgrefurl=http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Ancient_History/Greece/Greek_Dark_Ages&usg=__XF0jQhelFrKF8_T_kvz5sdmKFY=&h=227&w=270&sz=66&hl=en&start=114&um=1&tbnid=gPTDs3alV11jvM:&tbnh=95&tbnw=113&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dionians%2Band%2Bdorians%26ndsp%3D20%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%2
6start%3D100%26um%3D1

Careful not to generalize; variation between communities.

Homer, Iliad and Odyssey our principal source for political and social structures and
relations.

Dark Age society was: 1.Aristocratic, 2.Militaristic, 3.Hierarchical.

Social and political status rests upon: 1.Lineage, 2. Prowess in battle. 3.Wealth

Communities ruled by a Basileus (Chief); attested in Linear B texts (qa-si-re-u).

Basileus = Warrior, judge, protector of the people.

Anyone with sufficient military prowess and wealth a potential Basileus; Highly competitive
society.

Social and political cohesion a function of the personal relationships established between
heads of aristocratic households (oikos).

Warrior class rules over a free commoner population (the Laos or Demos).

Exchange produce, labor, loyalty etc. for protection, law and order, public benefaction.

Slaves.

Agathos and Kakos.
 “Seven citadels he will give you, filled with people,
Cardamyle, Enope, and the grassy slopes of Hire, Pherae
the sacrosanct, Anthea deep in meadows, rolling Aepea
and Pedasus green with vineyards. All face the sea at the far
edge of sandy Pylos and the men who live within them, rich
in sheep-flocks, rich in shambling cattle, will honor you
like a god with hoards of gifts and beneath your scepter’s
sway live out your laws in sleek and shining peace.” (Trans.
R. Fagles, 1990)

Thersites: “The ugliest man of all those who had come to Troy, he was bandy-legged and
lame in one foot; his shoulders were so rounded that they practically met across the
chest; and above them was a pointed head boasting a sparse covering of hair.” (Homer,
Iliad 2.188-277. Crawford & Whitehead, Doc. 6).

Agamemnon: “Here, come closer, tell me the name of that tremendous fighter. Look,
who’s that Achaean there, so stark and grand? Many others afield are much taller, true,
but I have never set eyes on one so regal, so majestic….That man must be a king!”
(Homer, Iliad 3.201-209. R. Fagles, 1990)

Odysseus: “And sighting Odysseus next the old king questioned Helen, ‘Come, dear
child, tell me of that one too – now who is he? Shorter than Atreus’ son Agamemnon,
clearly, but broader across the shoulders, through the chest. There, you see? His armour’s
heaped on the green field but the man keeps ranging the ranks of fighters like a ram –
yes, he looks like a thick-fleeced bellwether ram making his way through a big mass of
sheep-flocks, shining silver-gray.” (Homer, Iliad 3.231-239, R. Fagles, 1990)

Ajax: “Catching sight of a third fighter, Ajax, the old king asker her next, ‘Who’s that
other Achaean, so powerful, so well-built? He towers over the Argives, his head, his
massive shoulders.” (Homer, Iliad 3.270-272. R. Fagles, 1990)
 Aristocratic clans organized into households (oikoi –
singular = oikos).
 Oikos = The house, all out buildings, fields, moveable
property, family, serfs, and slaves.
 Oikos functions so as to: 1.Provide wealth and
subsistence to its members. 2.Provide enough wealth
to: a. Allow the male head to train for war and b.
Provide valuable goods for gift exchange (xenia) and
public benefaction (euergetism).
 Relations between aristocratic oikoi based on marriage
and xenia (guest-friendship)
 “That was the story he told – and Diomedes, he of the loud battle-cry, was
delighted: sticking his spear into the fruitful earth, he spoke warmly to the
prince. ‘It is clear that you are my guest-friend, thanks to links established by
our forefathers long ago. For once noble Oineus entertained great Bellerophon
in his palace for twenty days, and they exchanged fine tokens of their
friendship. Oineus gave a belt of bright purple-red, and Bellerophon a gold cup
with two handles; I left it in my own house before coming here. Tydeus, I
cannot remember, as I was still a baby when he left to join the Achaian force
which perished at Thebes. Anyway, now I am your friend and host in the heart
of Argos, and you are mine in Lykia, should I ever come to that country. Let us
avoid each other’s spears, even in the general throng: there are plenty of the
Trojans and their famous allies to be my victims, should the gods give me speed
to catch them, and for you there are lots of Achaians to try to overcome. And let
us exchange our armor, so that all may see that we are proud to continue the
friendship of our forefathers.’ So they spoke, the two of them, and dismounted
to clasp hands with one another and pledge their faith….” (Homer, Iliad 4.212236. Crawford & Whitehead, Doc. 5B).
 Key Pan-Hellenic institutions emerge in the Dark Ages.
 Pan-Hellenic = “All Greeks.”
 The Dark Ages see the emergence of the first Pan-Hellenic
institutions.
 The Olympic Games.
 The Oracle of Apollo at Delphi.
 First Olympic Games held in 776 BCE.
 Contests = an offering to the gods.
 Only Greeks allowed to compete.
 Held at Olympia every 4 years.
 Opportunity for aristocratic males to display their arete
and so earn time; most important political commodities.
http://www.utexas.edu/courses/classicalarch/images3/MapArchaeolGreece.gif
 Olympia = remote sanctuary in the North-West
Peloponnese
 Cult sanctuary associated with the city of Elis
 Facilities were added gradually between 776 BCE
and c. 350 BCE when it reached its finished form
 Not mentioned in Homer – although similar
athletic contests are mentioned
 “But Achilles held the armies on the spot. He had
them sit in a great and growing circle – now for funeral
games – and brought from his ships the trophies for
the contests: cauldrons and tripods, stallions, mules
and cattle with massive heads, women sashed and
lovely, and gleaming gray iron. First, for the fastest
charioteers he set out glittering prizes….Then Achilles
made his way through the crowds of troops and set out
prizes next for the bruising boxing match….Quickly
Achilles displayed before the troops the prizes set for
the third event, the grueling wrestling
match….Achilles quickly set out prizes for the
footrace….”(Trans. R. Fagles, 1990)
 Cult center for the worship of Apollo Pythios (Apollo who
slew Python)
 Evidence for cult activity starting from c. 1000 BCE
 Evidence of habitation from ca. 860 BCE
 Seat of an oracle – Eclipsed the oracle of Zeus at Olympia
 Athletic contests and singing/poetry competition held
every 4 years (Pythian Games)
 Pan-Hellenic oracle – particularly important for
colonization
 Location of the Omphalos (Navel)
www.sikyon.com/Delphi/Monuments/omphalos.jpg
 “But when they had put from them the desire of food
and drink, the Muse moved the minstrel to sing of the
glorious deeds of warriors, from that lay the fame
whereof had then reached broad heaven, [75] even the
quarrel of Odysseus and Achilles, son of Peleus, how
once they strove with furious words at a rich feast of
the gods, and Agamemnon, king of men, was glad at
heart that the best of the Achaeans were quarrelling;
for thus Phoebus Apollo, in giving his response, had
told him that it should be, [80] in sacred Pytho, when
he passed over the threshold of stone to enquire of the
oracle. For then the beginning of woe was rolling upon
Trojans and Danaans through the will of great Zeus.”
(A.T. Murray, 1919)
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0136%3Abook%3D8%3Acard%3D46
 Provide divine sanction for policies (i.e.
Colonization; Declaration of war or peace; Major
political decisions etc.)
 Pan-Hellenic Cult (i.e. Expression of Greek unity
and cultural identity)
 Healing/Cleansing/Purification of miasma (i.e.
pollution, especially blood guilt)
 The Dark Ages do not necessarily constitute a break
between the Mycenaean Age and the Archaic Period
(ca. 750-480 BCE).
 Many of the key social, political, and economic
features of the Archaic and Classical worlds are a
natural evolution of Dark Age/Homeric Society.
Does the collapse of Mycenaean society
between ca. 1200 and 1100 BCE represent a
complete break with the past?