Chapter
3
The Greek Experiment
Outline
  1. Introduction
    1. The image of the ancient Greek world
    2. Near Eastern influences
    3. Western ideas/Western values
  2. The Dark Age of Greece (1150–800 B.C.E.)
    1. The Dark Age
      1. Mycenaean decline
      2. Depopulation
      3. Effects on later Greeks
    2. Homer and the heroic tradition
      1. The importance of renewed trade
      2. The best men
      3. The heroic ideal
      4. The Iliad and the Odyssey
        1. Finally written down around 800 B.C.E.
      5. Hero cults
    3. Foreign contacts and the rise of the polis
      1. Phoenician influence
        1. Alphabet
        2. Seafaring
      2. Rapid population growth
      3. The polis (city-state)
        1. The asty—the urban community
        2. The khora—the land
        3. Synoikismos—bringing together of dwellings
  3. Archaic Greece (800–480 B.C.E.)
    1. "Age of Experiment"—a new dynamism
    2. Colonization and Panhellenism
      1. Expansion of the Greek world (Magna Graecia)—new contacts and trade
      2. A new awareness of common culture and outlook—Hellenes
      3. Panhellenism
        1. Oracle of Delphi
        2. Games at Olympia (776 B.C.E.)
    3. Hoplite warfare
      1. Common foot soldiers supporting aristocratic warriors
      2. Carried spears of short swords and the large round shield (hoplon)
      3. The phalanx
      4. Formation of a "hoplite class"
        1. Every polis needed a hoplite force
        2. Ranks filled by farmers who could afford armor
        3. Wanted a share in the political decisions of the polis
    4. Aristocratic culture and the rise of tyranny
      1. Pursued wealth and power as well as a distinctive culture
      2. Office-holding and the symposium
      3. Homosexuality
      4. The aristocratic identity
      5. A new elite—problems
        1. Violence between aristocratic groups
        2. Tyrannos—someone who seized power and ruled outside traditional framework
        3. The tyrant had to satisfy the hoplites
        4. Important path from aristocracy to democracy
  4. The Archaic Polis in Action
    1. Athens
      1. Agricultural economy
      2. Government
        1. Landed aristocracy
        2. Elected magistrates and the council of state
        3. Nine archons held executive power (civil, military, judicial and religious functions)
        4. Areopagus Council—elected the archons
      3. Political Change
        1. Debt slavery
        2. Political factions
        3. Drakon (621 B.C.E.)—"setting the laws"
          1. "draconian" punishments
        4. Solon (c. 640–c. 559 B.C.E.)
          1. Abolished debt slavery
          2. Encouraged cash-crop farming and urban industries
          3. Set up courts with citizen juries
          4. iv. Eligibility for political office based on property not birth
          5. The ekklesia (citizen assembly)
        5. Peisistratos (c. 600–527 B.C.E.)
          1. Established himself as tyrant (546 B.C.E.)
          2. Strengthened the demos
        6. Cleisthenes (c. 570–c. 508 B.C.E.)
          1. Championed the cause of the demos (the people)
          2. Introduced ostracism
    2. Sparta
      1. The Peloponnesus
      2. Five villages combined to become Sparta
      3. The conquest of Messenia
      4. The helots (slaves)
      5. The Spartiate—professional soldier of the phalanx
      6. A society organized for war
      7. Early training of boys and girls
      8. The apella—the citizen assembly of Spartiate males over thirty years old
      9. The gerousia—council that proposed matters to the apella
      10. The krypteia—secret police
      11. Helots and Spartiate
        1. Helots outnumbered Spartiate ten to one
        2. The problem of revolts
        3. Spartiate could not engage in trade or farm their own land (distractions)
      12. Demographic flaws
    3. Miletus and the Ionian revolution in thought
      1. Commercial, cultural, and military power of Ionia (Asia Minor)
      2. Strong Hellenic identity shaped by Near Eastern influence
      3. Speculative thought—the "Milesian School"
        1. Pre-Socratic thought
        2. The cosmos, gods, and men
        3. Theories of the cosmos and the problem of change
        4. From religious belief to philosophical speculation
  5. The Persian Wars
    1. The Ionian Revolt (499–494 B.C.E.)
      1. Causes and origins (the account of Herodotus)
      2. Darius the Great—teaching Athens a lesson
    2. Marathon and its aftermath
      1. Athens is refused help from the Spartans
      2. Athenian victory (without Spartan help)
      3. Themistocles—building the Greek navy
    3. Xerxes' invasion
      1. Overland invasion of entire country of Greece
      2. The Hellenic League (Athens, Sparta, Corinth, and other poleis)
      3. Greek defeat at Thermopylae (480 B.C.E.)
      4. Athens abandoned and burned by the Persians
      5. Battle of Plataea and the end of the war
  6. The Golden Age of Classical Greece
    1. The Delian League
    2. Periclean Athens
      1. The strategos—general
      2. Anti-Spartan foreign policy
      3. Pushed reforms to make Athens more democratic
      4. Public building—public confidence
    3. Literature and drama
      1. Aeschylus (525–456 B.C.E.)
      2. Sophocles (496–406 B.C.E.)
      3. Euripides (485–406 B.C.E.)
      4. Aristophanes (c. 448–382 B.C.E.)
      5. Herodotus (c. 485–425 B.C.E.)
      6. Thucydides (c. 460–c. 400 B.C.E.)
    4. Art and architecture
      1. Idealized beauty
      2. The dignity of the human form
      3. The Parthenon
    5. Women and men in the daily life of Athens
      1. Inequality of the sexes
      2. A male world
      3. Women in the shadows
        1. Rearing of children
        2. A private space
        3. Marriage
        4. "Women's work"
      4. Slavery
        1. Athenian slavery widespread but small in scale
        2. Most families owned at least one or two slaves
  7. League Building and the Peloponnesian War
    1. Athenian control of the Delian League
    2. Animosities and jealousies—had Athens become a tyranny?
    3. The Peloponnesian War erupts
      1. Athens and Sparta
      2. Pericles' naval strategy
    4. The end of the war
      1. Lysander destroys the Athenian fleet (404 two)
      2. Spartan success?
      3. War brought demoralization and a questioning of former certainties
    5. The life and thought of Socrates
      1. The Sophists—"those who are wise"
      2. Protagoras—"man is the measure of all things"
      3. Socrates
        1. Questioning received truth—examine everything
        2. Socrates was wise because he knew nothing
        3. Examined ethics rather than the physical world
        4. The "philosopher of the marketplace"
      4. Discuss the geographic and cultural reasons for the rise of the polis (pl. poleis).
      5. How did the Greeks develop a unified culture— Hellenism—despite their political divisions and quarrels?
      6. Why were the hoplites (soldiers) the cause of social and political change?
      7. The comparison of Athens and Sparta is familiar, but perhaps too extreme. How was Miletus different from the other two, particularly in its ties to Near Eastern cultures?
      8. Were the Persian Wars a victory for Greek civilization and democracy? Or were they the beginning of the end for the Greek ideal of freedom?
      9. When Thucydides wrote about the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta, he relied upon his memory, oral testimony, and public documents. He also admitted that he invented speeches when he did not know the exact words that were spoken. Was his writing fiction or history? Does it matter? Does our seeing it as fiction or as history affect our understanding of the Melian dialogue?
  8. Conclusion
    1. Image versus reality
    2. Freedom, competition, individual achievement, and human glory
    3. Primacy of the human intellect
    4. The Greeks and humanity
    5. Paideia
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