March 2-16 - Notes on the Greek city-state

Chronology: Iron Age, ca. 1100-700 BC

One of the most significant and influential changes in Greek society took place in the late eighth and seventh centuries BC (ca. 750-650 BC), namely the formation of the Greek city-state. The Greek city-state, or polis (the Greek word) was a small unit of territory, about the size of a county, which was a politically independent, self-governing unit comprising one or more urban centers and the agricultural land in the countryside around the urban center. The polis became the chief political and social unit for the individual Greek; there was no such thing as a Greek state or a Greek Empire before Alexander of Macedonia, who ruled from 336 to 323 BC. Most Greeks identified more strongly with their polis, such as Athens, Corinth, Sparta, Miletos, Ephesos (and many others) than with their ethnicity as a Greek.

In forming the polis as a system of government and social organization, the Greeks were deliberately turning away from the dominant model which existed during this time, namely the kingdom or empire governed by a single individual who usually came to power through birth or conquest. This was the model of the contemporary Egyptians and Assyrians, and also had been the model of the earliest complex societies in the Greek world, the Minoans and Mycenaeans during the Bronze Age.

Where did the polis come from?

Ultimately we can't be sure, but it seems likely that it grew out of the kind of particularism which we see in the Homeric poems, where each individual chieftain operates as an independent force, often placing his own interests above the common interests of the Greek army. It also developed out of the growing class of small landowners so vividly described by Hesiod in the Works and Days, who identified themselves primarily with their district and the region where their farms lay. Much of Greek history during the Archaic Period revolves around the demands of these people for greater participation and fairer treatment at the hands of the aristocracy. Another factor is surely the Greek character, which always put a great deal of stress on individualism and competition; this is well summed up by Plato, who stated that each polis should be small enough so that all the citizens knew each other.

How did the polis function?

In the Iliad, we see a social system in which the aristocratic elite, the "heroes" of the poem, make all the political and legal decisions, fight the battles, and through their ability to talk to the gods, control access to religious ritual. The growth of the polis is marked by the spread of these privileges to a larger group, called polites (politai in the plural), usually translated as "citizens", but simply meaning members of the polis community. Not everyone who lived in the community was a citizen, or polites: women were always excluded, as were free born men with no land or property, and also slaves (a small group at first, but one which grew substantially during the sixth and fifth centuries BC). Also, being a Greek didn't entitle you to citizenship in the polis other than the one in which you were born; that is, if you were a polites of Athens, you had no rights in another Greek city, such as Corinth or Miletos.

Within their own city-state, the politai, the citizens of the community, gradually took over the functions of statecraft originally limited to the aristocracy. They ran the government, and usually community leaders were chosen by elections in which all citizens voted. They ran the law courts and made decisions, usually by choosing panel of citizens (sometimes chosen by election, sometimes by lot) to arbitrate disputes; this is the origin of our system of trial by jury. Each state maintained an army of citizens who could be called on to fight at any moment; the citizens each provided their own armor and fought together in massed formation, a military tactic which is much more effective than hand-to-hand combat by individuals. And each polis maintained its own religious rituals, performed by individual citizens rather than by a class of priests.

How did the citizens gain these rights? Did the aristocrats give up power willingly?

Of course not. Who ever gives up power willingly? The process by which individual citizens gained power was marked by a great deal of class friction, sometimes bordering on civil war. One key factor in encouraging greater sharing of power with the middle class must have been the effectiveness of the new military tactic of group fighting in massed formation. (The citizen-warrior was called a hoplite in Greek and the massed formation was called a phalanx.) This is a much better way to win battles than hand-to-hand individual combat by aristocratic warriors (even Achilles). However, it carries a price: all the men in the battle line must fight as a unit and not break rank. Once the security of the polis depends on the fighting power of all the citizens, not only a few chosen champions, these citizens would be in a much better position to demand political and legal rights.

It is also clear that the process of growing citizen participation in the city-state was marked by some elements of common sense and good judgement, at least by a few individuals. There is much discussion in the literature of this period, especially by Hesiod and Solon, of the importance of justice and fair play, indicating a recognition of the need for compromise and equal treatment if the city-state was going to survive.

What are the major sources for these political and social changes?

There is no continuous historical source from the Archaic period, which is part of the problem in trying to follow the development of the Greek polis. Most of the written sources we have on early Greek history and society were either written well after the Archaic period, such as the fifth century historians Herodotos and Thucydides, or they are a very different type of literature, lyric poetry, which was intended as a form of individual expression, not as historical or social analysis.

The major lyric poets are:

Solon - Athenian, lived in the early sixth century BC, wrote about the problems of social justice in Athens during his time. Later revered as one of the Seven Sages of Greece

Tyrtaios - Spartan, lived in the seventh century BC, wrote poems designed to greater loyalty to the polis, and particularly to encourage young men to fight for their city

Archilochos - from Paros, one of the Aegean islands, lived in the seventh century BC. Wrote very personal, often cynical reactions to the ideals of statehood, patriotism, military values. also wrote about love and sex.

Sappho - from Lesbos, one of the large islands off the west coast of Asia Minor (modern Turkey), late seventh century BC. The only woman poet whose work has survived in any amount. She wrote a great deal about women's lives, women's relationship, and women's reactions to the heroic ideals of the masculine, militaristic values which dominated the Greek world.

Alkaios - also from Lesbos, lived in the late seventh and early sixth centuries BC. Wrote a very earthy, personal view of life, love, sex, and a rather cynical view of the epic heroes.

Mimnermos - from Kolophon, on the west coast of Asia Minor, late seventh century BC. Another example of a rather earthy, cynical view of life, deliberately the opposite of the heroic value code of prestige and honor.

Examples of early Greek art

Many of the basic skills needed to create art, which had existed during the Bronze Age, were lost during the social collapse of the Dark Ages. This includes the ability to make monumental buildings of stone, life-size works of sculpture in stone or bronze, and fine metal working. Much early Greek "art" is in fact decorated pottery, which was made to be used as a functional object, not a work of art. However, much of this pottery is decorated with painted scenes, many of them quite elaborate, which gives an insight into the Greek visual conception of their world.

Some of these pots were decorated with scenes of daily life:

Slides 1: Funerary vase, intended as a burial marker, decorated with scenes of funerary ritual and scenes of armed soldiers, perhaps alluding to the life of the deceased.

Slides 2: Detail of this vase, showing funerary rites for the dead

Other pots were decorated with scenes of myth, giving us a sense of how the Greeks visualized the stories of the Trojan War and others:

Slides 3: Metal relief, showing fight between Greek man and centaurs (half-horse, half-man creatures)

Slides 4: Vase illustrating the myth of Perseus and the Gorgon on the body, Odysseus and his companions blinding Polyphemos on the neck

Slides 5: Vase illustrating scenes of the Sack of Troy

Slides 6: Detail of the neck of the vase, illustrating the Trojan Horse

March 9 - Early Greek science and philosophy

In the early sixth century BC an innovative group of Greek thinkers started to question the basic assumptions about the nature of the material world and the nature of the universe. These people were trying to ask some very fundamental questions: what is matter? what is the origin of matter? what is the earth and what is its place in the cosmos, in relation to the sun and other heavenly bodies? Such questions had been asked before, but the answers had usually been framed within a system of inquiry which relied heavily on the use of gods, divine will and divine causation to provide the answers. These early thinkers, often grouped together under the general term Pre-Socratics (because they represented the dominant school of Greek philosophy before Socrates), asked the same questions, but in formulating their answers, they left the gods out.

Many of the answers proposed by the Pre-Socratics to basic inquiries on the origin of the universe and the nature of matter seem naive to us, and they probably seemed naive to many of their contemporaries. However, the boldness of these individuals who posed these questions in such original terms is extremely striking. Their work lays the foundation for subsequent scientific inquiry, particularly in chemistry, physics, and mathematics. It is fairly clear that in making such inquiries about matter and the cosmos, the Pre-Socratics were drawing on a long tradition of observation and record-keeping by the Egyptians and the Babylonians, particularly in astronomy and geometry. The Greek contribution lies in part in formulating these questions without reference to religion, and also in formulating questions in abstract, theoretical terms supported by general proof, not limited only to specific situations.

Some of the most important of these early Greek philosophers/scientists are:

the school of Miletos - Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes. These were the earliest Pre-Socratics (Thales' flourishing period is known from the eclipse of 585 BC) who wrote about the basic elements of matter.

the inquiries about change - primarily Heraklitus of Ephesos, Parmenides of Elea and Empedocles of Akragas. These were a group of thinkers who tried to explain the process of change in matter (solid, liquid, gas, different forms of matter).

early mathematicians - the most famous is Pythagoras of Samos, the first to demonstrate the general proof of geometric theories

the atomists - especially Leukippos and Democritus of Abdera. These men postulated that all matter was made of basic particles, which they called atoms (meaning "indivisible" in Greek), and that the differing forms and qualities of matters resulted from the different number, arrangements and combinations of atoms.

March 11 - Greek religious practice and the development of Greek sanctuaries

Belief in the role of the gods in human affairs was as much an important part of Archaic Greek society as it was in Egypt and Mesopotamia. Actual religious practice, however, was quite different, largely because of the differing social and political structures of the Greek city-states. Whereas one key function of religion in monarchical kingdoms with hierarchical power structures was to reinforce the power of the elite, the function of Greek religious practice was primarily to create a sense of solidarity with the group. Religion was one of the major binding forces in Greek society, effected through the performance of shared community rituals.

One example was the religious ritual of a city-state, or polis. Such rituals were performed by all residents of a polis (not only the citizens, the politai, but all the people of the community). They included processions, music, animal sacrifice, and communal dining. These rituals were part of religious ceremonies held to honor the major deity (or deities) of the community, whose temple was always the most conspicuous building in any city.

Slides 1: The acropolis (high point in the city) in Athens, site of the major temples to Athena

Slides 2: The acropolis of Corinth, site of the major temple to Apollo

Another example is the Panhellenic festival, in which Greeks from all Greek city-states participated. There were four major Panhellenic festivals, each held every four years. Their chief function was to bring Greeks from all city-states together to perform certain rituals, similar to the rituals of the individual city-state, which reinforced their common sense of identity as Greeks. The two largest and most important Panhellenic festivals, Olympia and Delphi, served the further function of being important tools of statecraft. They helped resolve disputes between city-states.

Olympia was the oldest of the Greek sanctuaries. It was dedicated to Zeus, and the earliest evidence for the worship of Zeus there may go back to the ninth, certainly to the eighth century BC. The Olympic Games were founded in 776 BC and were held every four years after that for nearly a thousand years, until 393 CE. One of the chief functions of the Games was to bring individuals from different city-states together to compete and show off their athletic skills in a non-hostile environment.

Slides 3: General view of Olympia

Slides 4: Plan of the sanctuary of Olympia

Slides 5: Small bronze figurines, examples of early votive dedication to Zeus

Slides 6: Bronze tripods, examples of early votive dedication to Zeus

Slides 7: Temple of Hera, earliest temple built at Olympia, ca. 600 BC

Slides 8: Stadium at Olympia

Slides 9: Starting line of Olympia stadium

Slides 10: Statue bases, on which stood bronze statues of Zeus; these were paid for from money collected as fines from athletes caught cheating

Some of the events in the ancient Olympic Games

Slides 11: The foot race, the oldest and most prestigious competition

Slides 12: A wrestling match

Slides 13: Long jump

Slides 14: Javelin throw

Slides 15: The sanctuary of Olympia at its fullest extent

Slides 16: Reconstructed facade of the Temple of Zeus, built in the early fifth century BC. The sculpture decorating the building tells the story of the chariot race between Pelops and Oinamaos, which is recounted for us by the Greek poet Pindar, First Olympian ode

The second major Panhellenic sanctuary was Delphi, dedicated to Apollo. Delphi was famous primarily for its oracle; people came to consult the god and ask him to foretell the future. This too became an important tool of statecraft, as individual poleis contacted the god to help them resolve problems like border disputes with a neighboring polis, civil strife resulting from famine or class struggles within a polis, etc.

Slides 17: The omphalos, or navel of Delphi, sacred to Apollo

Slides 18: Aerial view of Delphi

Slides 19: An early polis treasury, holding offerings dedicated by the citizens of that polis to Apollo

Slides 20: Sculptural decoration on the treasury, illustrating the Battle of the Gods and Giants (told in Hesiod's Theogony)

Slides 21: Close-up of 20

Slides 22: Another early polis treasury

Some examples of votive offerings to Apollo

Slides 23: Embossed gold plaque

Slides 24: Ivory carving illustrating the myth of Perseus and the Gorgon

Slides 25: Life-size silver bull

Slides 26: Gold and ivory statue of Apollo, life-size

Slides 27: Temple of Apollo

Slides 28: Reconstructed view of the Apollo temple

Slides 29: Consulting the oracle of Apollo: a man approaches the priestess of Apollo, called the Pythia, and asks her his question

March 16 - Herodotos, the earliest historian

Herodotos was a native of Halicarnassos in Asia Minor but spent most of his adult life in Athens. He wrote during the middle of the fifth century BC and thus belong to the Classical period, but his subject was the history of the Archaic period. His main theme was the meeting of east and west, meaning the cultures of Asia Minor and the Near East and Egypt (east) and their contact with the Greek world (west).

Intellectually, Herodotos' work is an outgrowth of the work of the Pre-Socratic philosophers. Where the early philosophers were concerned with the nature of the universe and the origin of matter, Herodotos was concerned with the nature of different human cultures and the causes of human actions. His researches (the Greek word is "historia") led him to examine the underlying causes of human activities, especially warfare, without reference to gods or divine will. He made a point of including material from Near Eastern and Egyptian sources as well as Greek sources.

Like the Pre-Socratic philosophers, much of what Herodotos wrote seems very naive to us. His efforts to find the human causes for the great conflicts between east and west often result in a string of light-hearted anecdotes bordering on myth and gossip. However, like the Pre-Socratics, Herodotos' main contribution is less in his results than in the questions he asked and in his methods of answering them. He tried to examine basic underlying principles for human actions and motivations, without relying to divine causation, and he tried to examine all sides of the question, including non-Greek as well as Greek sources. For this he is usually called the world's first historian.