Читать книгу Western Civilization - Paul R. Waibel - Страница 23

Slowly, the turmoil decreased. Agricultural production increased, and with it, the population. The small agricultural villages of the Dark Ages grew into cities and then into city‐states (poleis). Typically, a raised area or hill became a fortified area known as the acropolis. Temples to the gods, especially the patron god of the city‐state – e.g. the goddess Athena in Athens – were constructed on the acropolis, as well as other official buildings. When the city came under attack, the people would retreat to the acropolis.

At the base of the acropolis was an open area called the agora where merchants and craftsmen conducted their business. It was also the area where free‐born citizens would gather to hear public announcements, muster for military campaigns, and attend meetings of the Popular Assembly to discuss and decide matters of importance to the city‐state. The philosopher Socrates (see below) frequented the agora in Athens. He would wander about in all sorts of weather barefoot and wearing the same old cloak. He must have been an amusing, if also irritating, figure going about tapping people on the shoulder and asking such questions as “Can you tell me where I can find an honest man?”

Increased population, together with geography and the historical influence of both Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations, led the Greek city‐states to look to the sea. During the sixth and fifth centuries BC, Greek colonies existed throughout the Mediterranean world from Asia Minor to Spain. Greek trading posts and settlements existed on the Mediterranean coasts of Spain, France, southern Italy, North Africa, and on the Island of Sicily. They were not colonies in the modern sense. Each was from its founding an independent city‐state. Commercial and sentimental ties existed between the sponsoring city‐state and the colony, but like the city‐states in Greece, and elsewhere, they remained independent.

The overseas colonies provided a market for Greek goods such as wine, olive oil, pottery, and a source of luxury goods and raw materials that found a ready market in Greece. The Greeks, like the Minoans, Myceneans, and the Phoenicians, acted as middle men for the movement of goods throughout the Mediterranean. The Greek colonies acted as important disseminators of Greek culture. They were also a means of relieving political tensions arising in the Greek city‐states from over population and/or class conflict. Problems could, in a sense, be exported by founding a colony.

The Greeks never created a unified state. This was due in part to geography, but also the fact that the individual identified first with the city‐state. Still, they were conscious of being Greeks. Language was one common denominator. All those who did not speak Greek were regarded as barbarians (barbaroi), regardless of their level of civilization, as for example, the Persians. During the eighth century BC, the Greeks reinvented writing by adopting the Phoenician writing system. By adding signs to represent vowels, they created the Greek alphabet. Oral transmission of history and myth could be replaced with written accounts, for example, Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. Common language and knowledge of a common history and culture was an important source of a common identity. The Olympic Games held on Mount Olympia every four years, beginning in 776 BC, mirrored the independence of the city‐states and, at the same time, strengthened their common identity as Greeks.

Mount Olympia is located on the western side of the Peloponnesus where the sanctuary of Altis was located. A temple to Zeus, king of the Greek gods, and a temple to Zeus' wife Hera were located within the sanctuary. The games were held in honor of Zeus. The best athletes from throughout Greece competed as individuals for a garland of wild olive leaves. Participation in the games, in which the athletes competed in the nude, was restricted to men. Married women were not allowed to attend, but unmarried women were permitted as spectators. A separate festival for women in honor of Hera was held at a different time. There, young female athletes competed in what was known as the Heraean Games.

The temple to Apollo, located on the southern slopes of Mount Parnassus was the religious center of ancient Greek religion, as well as a symbol of the unity of all Greeks. It was believed to be the center, or navel, of the world. The oracle of Delphi was located there. It was through the oracle that Apollo made known his will to the Greeks. Individuals would make a sacrifice to Apollo before presenting a question to a male priest. The priest would then present the question to the Pythia, or priestess. The priestess sat on a bronze tripod in the inner chamber of the temple. According to some accounts, the priestess went into a trance induced by fumes arising from a crack in the earth below where she sat, or from chewing laurel leaves. While in the trance, the priestess revealed Apollo's answer, or prophesies. The prophesies were then interpreted by the male priest.