Among all the peoples of the ancient world, one whose culture most clearly exemplified the spirit of Western society was the Greek or Hellenic. No other people had so strong a devotion to freedom or so firm a belief in the nobility of human achievement. The Greeks glorified humanity as the most important creation in the universe and refused to submit to the dictates of priests or despots. The Greek view of the world was predominantly secular and rationalistic; it exalted the spirit of free inquiry and preferred knowledge to faith. With only a limited cultural inheritance from the past upon which to build the Greeks produced intellectual and artistic monuments that have serve ever since as standards of achievement. The fall of the Mycenaean civilization resulted in overwhelming change for the Hellenic world.
It ushered in a period that is known as the Dark ages which lasted from 1150 to 750 BC (lecture notes ancient Greece pg. 3).
Records were lost and the culture reverted to a simpler from. Given the lack of writing or physical remains, the Greek society during the Dark ages is scarce, almost all of it coming from inferences drawn from the Iliad and the Odyssey derived from the epic poems of Homer who wrote the heroic masterpiece. Political patterns were very simple. Village communities were autonomous. The rulers were called basileus, which is Greek for king; which was no more than a little tribal leader who commanded the local army.
The bulk of the myceanaen inhabitants lived in extended villages where they worked either land or land held by nobles or kings. Agriculture and herding were the basic occupations of free men. Slavery existed, male slave were relatively few in numbers because the source of supply was war prisoners. Women, including worked in the home their main function was to bear children and manage the home, where a women was restricted to the quarters when her husband entertained his friends. Marriages where usually arranged and the coupe seldom met before the betrothal. Also homosexuality was very popular and socially acceptable. To the Greeks of the Dark Ages religion meant chiefly a polytheistic system.
The Term Paper on Ancient Greek Stories God World
Genesis v. Theogony: A Comparison of the Christian and Ancient Greek Cultures Most Christians (or those religions that follow the basic principles of the Bible) believe in the stories told in the Bible. In fact, these stories are usually regarded not only as mere stories, but also as actual historical accounts of important people, events, and concepts of the Christian faith. However, stories of ...
Demeter was the goddess who was mother earth and giver of grain. Then there was Apollo, the sun and giver of light and Poseidon who dwelled in the seas and ruled the waters, and Aphrodited the goddess of love (lecture notes Greek Genius).
The Greeks did not expect that their religion would bestow them with goodness or everlasting rewards because the gods were viewed as callous and enraged very easy. However, by the time of Hesiod, a religious reformation had begun that changed the vengeful and capricious gods of Homer into austere arbiters of justice some what like the God that is worshipped in todays society. Given a century after Hesiod cults emerged and a new type of Greek religion was established. There was new believed that there was life after death. It was believed that Death freed the divine soul from the evil body.
The Decline of the Greek Civilization: The supreme tragedy of the Greeks was their failure to solve the problem of political conflict. Seriously weakened by the wars between cities that transpired for many years. Both Sparta and Athens suffered problems surrounded by their organization. The two social orders organized as one for a brief time in which they limited Persias attempts at invasion, in 478 B.C. Soon after the Athens advanced to power by creating the Delian League and driving Persia out of the Agean (McKay117).
The era in which Macedonia ruled showed heroic potential for Greek civilization and that was the only time that the states were united.
This Hellenistic World that evolved from the civil wars brought about political and social improvement that in turn brought enormous prosperity and pleasure to the citizens. However, independence was never reach in this society and the Greek civilization collapsed in the face of the Roman Republic in 202 B.C. Some of the enduring importance and words that come from this civilization: are politics, democracy, philosophy, metaphysics, history and tragedy. These are all ways of thinking and acting that have helped enrich human life vastly but that had hardly been known to humanity before the Greeks invented them. This civilization has many teaching to learn from and mysteries that will always be questioned. Then again, all of these wonderful traits makes a person wonder if the Hellenistic Age is not one of the most significant in the entire human record for comparison with our own.
The Term Paper on The Greek civilization 2
... which has stood the test of time to reveal the greatness of this civilization across generations. The Greek civilization perhaps has very few comparisons ... important as they portray the story of the Gods, mythical creatures, heroes and the Greek culture and tradition in general. However it ... the Olympic games was actually held in honor of the Greek God, Zeus. The games were then held once in four years ...
