Greece - Korina Miller [11]
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Greek is Europe’s oldest written language, second only to Chinese in the world. It is traceable back to the Linear B script of the Minoans and Mycenaeans. For more on Linear B script, try www.ancientscripts.com/linearb.html.
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Archaic Age
During the Archaic period, about 1000–800 BC, Greek culture developed rapidly; many of the advancements in literature, sculpture, theatre, architecture and intellectual endeavour began; this revival overlapped with the Classical age (the two eras are often classified as the Hellenic period). Advances included the Greek alphabetic script (of Phoenician origin, though the Greeks introduced the practice of indicating vowels within the script); the verses of Homer (which created a sense of a shared Mycenaean past); the founding of the Olympic Games; and central sanctuaries such as Delphi (a neutral meeting ground for lively negotiations and ceremonial reconciliations). These common bonds gave Greeks a sense of national identity and emerging platforms to express intellect and opinion, and to determine regional political strategy.
By about 800 BC Greece had begun to settle into a new social and political structure. The Dorians had developed into a class of landholding aristocrats and Greece had been divided into a series of independent city-states. The most powerful of these were Argos, Athens, Corinth, Elis, Sparta and Thiva (Thebes).
The city-states strived for autonomy; most abolished monarchic rule in favour of an aristocratic form of government, usually headed by an arhon (chief magistrate) who ruled by a rudimentary consensus. The population often disliked aristocrats for their inherited privileges and some city-states fell to the rule of tyrants (who seized their position rather than inheriting it) – after Kypselos, the first tyrant of Corinth, started the practice in Corinth around 650 BC. (While today the word ‘may have darker overtones, in ancient times tyrants were often seen as being on the side of ordinary citizens.) Kypselos was responsible for removing the ruling aristocracy from power and establishing a set of laws that redistributed wealth and allowed the city’s citizens to regain control over their lands.
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PAGANISM TO MONOTHEISM
Early Worship
The origins of ancient Greek worship are found in antiquity (c 3000 BC); later the worship focuses mainly on 12 major and minor deities – essentially a pastiche of various pagan gods, goddesses, belief systems and fertility cults of indigenous tribes and settlers. Surviving representations include terracotta (or stone) statuettes of the Great Mother (the earth goddess) found in early Greek tombs and sanctuaries, depictions on fresco fragments or gold pieces, and lists of the names of gods found on clay tablets.
It was the Dorians who dispensed with fertility goddesses and adopted the Mycenaean gods Poseidon, Zeus and Apollo. New deities such as Aphrodite (originally from Asia) were introduced later; paving the way for the Greek religious pantheon as personified in Greek mythology (Click here) and general Hellenic texts.
Christianity
St Paul had visited Greece several times in the 1st century AD and made many converts. The definitive boost to the spread of Christianity in this part of the world came with the conversion of the Roman emperors and the rise of Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire, which blended Hellenic culture with Christianity.
In 394 Christianity emerged as the state’s official religion under Emperor Theodosius I. He outlawed the worship of all Greek (and Roman) gods, now branded as pagan;