CLASSICAL GREECEi-Origins

CLASSICAL GREECEi-Origins

CLASSICAL GREECEi-Origins

Achilles tending the wounded Patroclus

(Attic red-figure kylix, ca. 500 BC)

εἶς µία ἔν ά

Τό Πρῶτον Μάθηµα

session i will lookat 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

I. WHY STUDYANCIENT GREECE?

I. WHY STUDYANCIENT GREECE?

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

DONALD KAGAN’S ANSWERS

“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)

DELPHIγνόθι 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 ΑΡΧΗIN THE BEGINNING

II. ΕΝ ΑΡΧΗIN THE BEGINNING

Head from the figure of a woman, Spedos type, Early Cycladic II (2700 BC–2300 BC), 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

Prehistoric times

LemnosPoliochni

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

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 SO-CALLED THRONE ROOM

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?

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

MINOAN CRETE

The Discus of Phaistos

The Discus of Phaistos

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.

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)

a reconstruction of Mycenae at the time of its height

the LionGate

the shaftgraves

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”

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 epics as mere legendsSophia Schliemann

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

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

MYCENEAN GRAVE GOODSon 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

III. HOMER

III. HOMERIdealized portrayal

of Homer dating to the Hellenistic

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

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

The Iliad

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

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

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

Troy VIIa

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

1939-Pylos begins. After WW II, Linear B decipherment in 1952. UC at Pylos continues to the present

Carl William Blegen

1887 – 1971

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

1939-Pylos begins. After WW II, Linear B decipherment in 1952. UC at Pylos continues to the present

Carl William Blegen

1887 – 1971

The BlegenLibrary

Μηνιν αειδε Θεα, Πηληιαδεω Αχιληος

ουλοµενην, η µυρι Αχαιοις αλγε εθηκε,

πολλας δ’ιφθιµους ψυχας ‘Αïδι προιαψεν

ηρωων, αυτους δε ελωρια τευχε κυνεσσιν

οιωνοισι τε πασι, Διος δ’ετελειετο βουλη,

εξ ου δη τα πρωτα διαστητην ερισαντε

‘Ατρειδης τε αναξ ανδρων και διος Αχιλλευς

Μaynin aede Thea, Paylayyadeo Achilayos

oolowmenayn hay moori Acha•iois algay ethehke,

pullas d’ifthemoos psoochas Haëde proyapsen

heh•row•on*,ow•toos deh el•ow•ria toohay koonessin

oyonoisee tay posse Deeaws dehtelayehtow boolay

ex hoo day ta prota dyastay•tayn ehrisanteh

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 ΠΟΔΑΣFLEET 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)

μήτηρ γάρ τέ μέ φησι θεὰ Θέτις ἀργυρόπεζα (410)διχθαδίας κῆρας φερέμεν θανάτοιο τέλος δέ.εἰ μέν κ’ αὖθι μένων Τρώων πόλιν ἀμφιμάχωμαι,ὤλετο μέν μοι νόστος, ἀτὰρ κλέος ἄφθιτον ἔσταιεἰ δέ κεν οἴκαδ’ ἵκωμι φίλην ἐς πατρίδα γαῖαν,ὤλετό μοι κλέος ἐσθλόν, ἐπὶ δηρὸν δέ μοι αἰὼν (415)ἔσσεται, οὐδέ κέ μ’ ὦκα τέλος θανάτοιο κιχείη.

For my mother Thetis the goddess of silver feet tells meI carry two sorts of destiny toward the day of my death. Either,if I stay here and fight beside the city of the Trojans,my return home is gone, but my glory shall be everlasting;but if I return home to the beloved land of my fathers,the excellence of my glory is gone, but there will be a long lifeleft for me, and my end in death will not come to me quickly

book ix, Latimore translation

MĒTĒR GAR TE ME FĒSI THEA THETIS ARGUROPEDZA

“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

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 Κρονίωνἀμβρόσιαι δ' ἄρα χαῖται ἐπερρώσαντο ἄνακτοςκρατὸς 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 godswept from his divine head, and all Olympos was shaken

(book i, 528-530)

Roman copy of Phidias’ Chryselephantine at Olympia (532)

One of the

“seven wonders”

OF KING EDWARD II

OF ENGLAND

Napoleon IJ.A.D. Ingres

(1804)

Daniel Chester French(1920)

Daniel Chester French(1920)

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

Homeric simile

ΠΟΛΥΤΡΟΠΟΣ ΟΔΥΣΣΕΥΣODYSSEUS 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.

“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

Homeric simile

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, 1885Here, 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."

"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

Apelles of Kos

Raphael

ΙΛΙΑΣ ΟΔΥΣΣΕΙΑ

Apelles of Kos

Raphael

Dante

VergilPindar

Pheidias

ΙΛΙΑΣ ΟΔΥΣΣΕΙΑ

Poussin

Apelles of Kos

Raphael

Dante

Vergil

Moliere

Pindar

Pheidias Alexander

Longinus

ΙΛΙΑΣ ΟΔΥΣΣΕΙΑ

V. THE GODS

V. THE GODS

V. THE GODSGiulio Romano

"The Gods of Olympus” 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 observanceAthena fights EnkeladosAttic red figure--525 bc

ROBERTVON 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 Olympiansby 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 GREEKDARK AGES

V. THE GREEKDARK 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

Aeoliansettlements

Ioniansettlements

Mycenaeansettlements

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]

Greek Dialects

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 archaeologyThe 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

HeroonThe 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

HeroonThe 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

SocietyIt 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...