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Homer – The Iliad and The Odyssey After the fall of Troy, Mycenaean civilization crumbled under the attack of sea raiders.

Another wave of Greek-speaking people, the Dorians, invaded from the north.

As Mycenaean power faded, people abandoned the cities, and trade declined.

1100 BCE to 800 BCE Greek civilization “DARK AGE.” People forgot many skills, including the art of writing.

Homer – The Iliad and The Odyssey

We get hints about life during this period from two great epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey.

They are credited to the poet HOMER, who probably lived about 750 BCE

According to tradition, Homer was a blind poet who wandered from village to village, singing of heroic deeds.

Homer's tales were passed on orally for generations before they were finally written down.

Homer – The Iliad and The Odyssey

The Iliad is our chief source of information about the Trojan War. At the start of the poem, Achilles, the mightiest Greek warrior, is sulking in his tent because of a dispute with his commander. Although the war soon turns against the Greeks, Achilles stubbornly refuses to listen to pleas that he rejoin the fighting. Only after his best friend is killed does Achilles return to battle.

Homer – The Iliad and The Odyssey

The Odyssey tells of the struggles of the Greek hero Odysseus to return home to his faithful wife, Penelope, after the fall of Troy. Odysseus encounters a sea monster, a race of one-eyed giants, and a beautiful sorceress who turns men into swine.

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Homer – The Iliad and The Odyssey

The Iliad and Odyssey reveal much about the values of the ancient Greeks. The heroes display honor, courage, and eloquence. For almost 3,000 years, the epics of Homer have inspired European writers and artists.

Geography of the Greek Homeland

By 750 BCE, rapid population growth was forcing many Greeks to leave their own overcrowded valleys.

With fertile land limited, the Greeks expanded overseas.

Gradually, a scattering of Greek COLONIES, territories settled and ruled by people from another land, took root all around the Mediterranean from Spain to Egypt.

Wherever they traveled, Greek settlers and traders carried their ideas and culture.

Governing the City-States

The Greeks evolved a unique version of the city-state, which they called the POLIS.

The city itself was built on two levels.

On a hilltop stood the ACROPOLIS, or high city, with its great marble temples dedicated to different gods and goddesses.

On flatter ground below lay the walled main city with its AGORA, or marketplace, theater, public buildings, and homes.

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Governing the City-States

The population of each city-state was fairly small. This helped citizens share a sense of responsibility. In the warm climate of Greece, free men spent much time outdoors in the marketplace, debating issues that affected their lives. The whole community joined in festivals honoring the city's special god or goddess.

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Governing the City-States

EARLY GOVERNMENTS Between 750 BCE and 500 BCE, the ruler of the polis was a king.

A government in which a king or queen exercises central power is a MONARCHY.

Slowly, power shifted to the noble landowners and military defenders of the city-states.

The result was an ARISTOCRACY, or rule by a landholding elite.

Governing the City-States

As trade expanded, a new middle class of wealthy merchants, farmers, and artisans emerged in some cities. They challenged the landowning nobles for power and came to dominate some city-states. The result was a form of government called an OLIGARCHY, where power is in the hands of a small, powerful elite, usually from the business class.

Changes in Warfare

Changes in military technology increased the power of the middle class.

By about 650 b.c.e., iron weapons replaced bronze ones.

Since iron was cheaper, ordinary citizens could afford iron helmets, shields, and swords.

A new method of fighting emerged. The PHALANX was a massive formation of heavily armed foot soldiers.

It required long hours of drill, creating a strong sense of unity among citizen-soldiers.

Changes in Warfare

Changes in Warfare

By putting the defense of the city-state in the hands of ordinary citizens, the phalanx reduced class differences. The new type of warfare, however, led the two most influential city-states to develop very different ways of life. While Sparta stressed military virtues and stern discipline, Athens glorified the individual and extended political rights to more citizens.

Sparta: A Nation of Soldiers

The Spartans conquered the region of PELOPONNESUS, the southern part of Greece.

Sparta turned the conquered people into state-owned slaves, called HELOTS, and made them work the land.

Because the helots greatly outnumbered their rulers, the Spartans set up a brutal system of strict control.

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Sparta: A Nation of Soldiers

The Spartan government included two kings and a council of elders who advised the monarchs. An assembly made up of all citizens approved major decisions. Citizens were male, native-born Spartans over the age of 30. The assembly also elected five ephors, officials who held the real power and ran day-to-day affairs.

Sparta: A Nation of Soldiers

THE RIGORS OF CITIZENSHIP From childhood, a Spartan prepared to be part of a military state. Officials examined every newborn, and sickly children were abandoned to die. Spartans wanted future soldiers or mothers of soldiers to be healthy.

Sparta: A Nation of Soldiers Boys began training for the military at the age of 7.

They moved into barracks, where they endured a brutal existence. Toughened by a coarse diet, hard exercise, and rigid discipline, Spartan youths became excellent soldiers.

At the age of 20, a man could marry, but he continued to live in the barracks for another 10 years and to eat there for another 40 years.

At the age of 30, after further specialized training, he took his place in the assembly.

Sparta: A Nation of Soldiers Girls, too, had a rigorous upbringing.

As part of a warrior society, they were expected to produce healthy sons for the army. They therefore were told to exercise and strengthen their bodies—something no other Greek women did.

Like other Greek women, Spartan women had to obey their fathers or husbands.

Under Spartan law, they had the right to inherit property.

Sparta: A Nation of Soldiers The Spartans isolated themselves from other Greeks. They looked down on trade and wealth, forbade their own citizens to travel, and had little use for new ideas or the arts. While other Greeks admired the Spartans' military skills, no other city-state imitated their rigorous way of life. “Spartans are willing to die for their city,” some suggested, “because they have no reason to live.”

Athens: A Limited Democracy Athens was located just north of the Peloponnesus.

Athenian government evolved from a monarchy into an aristocracy.

Around 700 BCE, noble landowners held power and chose the chief officials. Nobles judged major cases in court and dominated the assembly.

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Athens: A Limited Democracy Under the aristocracy, Athenian wealth and power grew.

Discontent spread among ordinary people.

Merchants and soldiers resented the power of the nobles. Foreign artisans, who produced many goods that Athens traded abroad, were resentful that foreigners were barred from becoming citizens. Farmers, during hard times, were forced to sell their land to nobles. Some even sold themselves and their families into slavery to pay their debts.

As discontent spread, Athens moved slowly toward DEMOCRACY, or government by the people.

Athens: A Limited Democracy SOLON’S REFORMS SOLON was appointed ARCHON, or chief official, in 594 BCE

Athenians gave him power to make needed reforms.

outlawed debt slavery and freed those who had already been sold into slavery for debt. opened high offices to more citizens granted citizenship to some foreigners gave the Athenian assembly more say in important decisions.

He encouraged an export policy helped merchants and farmers by increasing demand for their products.

Athens: A Limited Democracy Although Solon's reforms ensured greater fairness and justice to some groups, citizenship remained limited, and many positions were open only to the wealthy.

Widespread and continued unrest led to the rise of TYRANTS, or people who gained power by force.

Tyrants often won support of the merchant class and the poor by imposing reforms to help these groups. (Although Greek tyrants often governed well, the word tyrant has come to mean a vicious and brutal ruler.)

Athens: A Limited Democracy LATER REFORMS The first Athenian tyrant PISISTRATUS seized power in 546 BCE He helped farmers by giving them loans and land taken from nobles. New building projects gave jobs to the poor. By giving poor citizens a greater voice, he further weakened the aristocracy.

Athens: A Limited Democracy In 507 BCE, CLEISTHENES, broadened the role of ordinary citizens in government.

He set up the COUNCIL OF 500, whose members were chosen by lot from among all citizens.

The council prepared laws for the assembly and supervised the day-to-day work of government.

The assembly was a genuine LEGISLATURE, or lawmaking body. All male citizens over the age of 30 were members of the assembly.

Athens: A Limited Democracy LIMITED RIGHTS Athenian democracy was quite limited.

Only male citizens could participate in government

Citizenship was severely restricted.

Tens of thousands of Athenians were slaves without political rights or personal freedom.

Still, Athens gave more people a say in decision making.

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Athens: A Limited Democracy WOMEN In Athens, women had no share in public life.

The respected thinker Aristotle saw women as imperfect beings who lacked the ability to reason as well as men. “The man is by nature fitter for command than the female,” he wrote, “just as an older person is superior to a younger, more immature person.”

In wealthy Athenian homes, women lived a secluded existence.

Poorer women worked outside the home, tending sheep or working as spinners, weavers, or potters.

Athens: A Limited Democracy EDUCATION OF DEMOCRACY Girls received little or no formal education. Boys attended school if their families could afford it. They learned: reading writing music poetry ORATORY, public speaking military training

Athens: A Limited Democracy FORCES OF UNITY Religious Beliefs The Greeks were polytheistic. They believed that the gods lived on MOUNT OLYMPUS in northern Greece. The most powerful Olympian was ZEUS, who presided over the affairs of gods and humans.

Athens: A Limited Democracy FORCES OF UNITY Religious Beliefs Greeks honored their gods with temples and festivals. Greeks consulted the ORACLES, priests or priestesses through whom the gods were thought to speak. Although religion was important, some Greek thinkers came to believe that the universe was regulated, not by the will of gods, but by natural laws.

Athens: A Limited Democracy FORCES OF UNITY View of Non-Greeks Greeks felt superior to non-Greeks and called them barbaroi (English word BARBARIAN ), people who did not speak Greek. These “barbarians” included such people as the Phoenicians and Egyptians, from whom the Greeks borrowed important ideas and inventions.