Classical Greece

How did Greek civilization develop?

Homeric/Archaic Greece

• Authentic work of history.• Arete: Excellence befitting a hero; result

of a struggle or conflict.• Heroism, honor, nobility.

The Trojan War

• Fight a ten-year war against Troy, an independent trading nation in Anatolia.

• 1870: Schliemann finds evidence of cities mentioned in the tale.

• 1988: Korfmann finds Troy.• Fight over control of a crucial waterway

in the Agean Sea?

The Trojan War• Homer, The Illiad and The Odyssey.• Gives us the history of the Trojan War.• In the myth, main characters evoke

Greek values.

Dorians• 1200 BCE: Dorians collapse Mycenaean

civilization.• Less “civilized.”• How? No written records!

The Rise of City-States• 750 BCE: The Polis:

– City and surrounding countryside on an acropolis (fortified hilltop).

– Monarchy, aristocracy, oligarchy.

– Defended by citizens.

Sparta v. Athens

• Military.• Assembly and

Council of Elders.• Citizens, non-

citizens, helots (peasants), slaves.

• Military training.• Women manage

estates.

• Democratic.• Free, adult, male

citizens.• Citizens, women,

foreigners, slaves.• Solon vs. Draco.• Trade, education.• Women raise

children.