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Course greek History yale

Introduction to Ancient Greek History

This is an introductory course in Greek history tracing the development of Greek civilization as manifested in political, intellectual, and creative achievements from the Bronze Age to the end of the classical period. Students read original sources in translation as well as the works of modern scholars.

Introduction

  • Greeks represent the sharpest break from how civilizations normally operated
  • Greeks invented the polis (city-state)
    • Republic where citizens fought their own wars and had political participation
    • Political comes from polis
  • Speculative philosophy based on on reason, observation, science emerges
  • After the fall of Rome it was too difficult for any one conqueror to build a vast empire
    • Cities became self-governing, eventually city-states emerge
    • "Freedom" grew in the cracks of the broken system

The Dark Ages

  • Bronze age
    • Civilization
      • Establishment of cities
      • Cities contain people who don't provide their own support
    • ~1600 - 1100 Mycenaean period
  • We have not deciphered the language (Linear A) of Minoans
  • Someone is Greek if their native language was Greek
    • Talking about a culture, not a race
  • Greeks came down to the Aegean sea ~2000 B.C.
  • Mycenae settlements were not right on the sea (safety and security)
    • Citadel surrounded by farmland
  • Lots of evidence of regular trade
  • There is a unity between religion and state, led my a monarchy
    • This is the norm for humans
    • "Palace economy", the Oriental model
  • The culture during this time is a lot different than the Greeks we'll see in the rest of the lectures
    • There were no laws or standards outside the king's authority
  • ~1200 B.C large attacks sweep the regions
    • Civil unrest? Climate change?
    • Dorians invaded?
    • Whatever caused the fall of Mycenae, it happened quickly and was devastating
  • The collapse of the Mycenaean period brings us a clean slate
  • Greeks are totally illiterate from ~1100-750 B.C.

The Dark Ages (cont.)

  • Largest consensus is that some of the details in the Homeric plays are correct but the details are often wrong
    • The way Homer described the world (palaces, materials, etc.) are representative of what has been found
    • Differences
      • The descriptions of how chariots are used in warfare is wrong
      • How they dealt with the dead (burial vs cremation)
      • Weapons
      • The Homeric society is not literate
  • Very little proof of what the world was like then
    • Poems of Homer are large source
    • Greek legends (should we use them?)
    • Archaeology
  • The higher naiveté
    • Knowing what to belief even if you can't prove it
  • The reason the Homeric poems contain so many discrepancies is because of the method used to pass them down
    • Bards would tell the stories and those bards would modify the poems to suit their talents
  • Why is Agamemnon wanax?
    • His role in the war
  • There is evidence of equality amongst nobility
    • They are all buried with the same graves
  • The distinct political line is between nobility and commoners (not monarchy)
    • Aristocratic society
      • Based on birthright
    • Decisions are made by the nobility meeting and discussing
    • Soldiers would have no say in strategy, decisions, etc.
  • Homeric poems would basically be considered the Greek Bible if they were religious in nature
  • Greeks claimed they were the same race as the gods
  • The tragic view
    • Man is great, death is oblivion
    • The contradicting view is tragic because there is no comforting story to resolve the tension
  • The polis was always the most important thing, the individual came after
  • The Greeks had no concept of natural rights (rights given by the gods)
    • You had to act to make life decent, which included participation in the polis
  • The Greeks believed that things happened by chance
    • Surprising that this is true even though they believed in the gods?
  • An agonal society
    • Filled with competition
    • People are constantly striving to be the best
    • The only way to defeat you mortality

The Rise of the Polis

  • Aristocratic way of thinking
  • Individualism leads to nihilism
  • For the Greeks, political society is essential for living a good life
  • Archaic period
    • ~750 BC
    • Start getting out of the dark ages
  • The first Olympic Games were ~776 BC
    • Something bringing everyone together
  • A true alphabet is formed
  • The ideal size of a polis allows all folks to be able to hear a speech
  • Agricultural communities
    • Most people are farming
    • The invention of the family farm occurs; people are more incentivized
  • Immortality is achieved in various ways
    • Having children
    • Fighting for the polis (ie. Achilles, become a legend)
  • There's something about verse that makes it easy to remember
    • Pamphlets were written in poems because of this
  • A good polis defeats wrong and creates right
  • Concept of a citizen is new to the polis
    • Nobody owns a citizen
  • The polis creates a concept when men rule themselves
    • At the same time, slavery arises
  • Interesting to think about how many people used to be farmers vs today
    • You go back far enough in America's history and ~90%+ of people are farmers
  • How laws are viewed differs from today
    • Modern view: humans are bad and cannot be changed, a system must exist to keep them in check
    • Greek view: good laws cure any bad within a person; growing up with a good system creates good people
  • Interesting how there is an individualist perspective yet your worth is dictated by your contribution to the whole / public perception