The Rise of Classical Greek Civilization:

Historical Context, Politics, Society, and Wars

Ancient Greece and the Western Historical Imagination: Did the Greeks “invent” Western Civilization?

• Individualism and “Freedom”
• Participatory Government (Democracy)
• The Primacy of Rational/Secular Thought

Key Terms

1) Polis 6) Solon and Cleisthenes

2) Areté and Hubris 7) Idiōtēs

3) Helots 8) Pederasty

4) Ephors 9) Hetairai

5) Hoplites

I. The First Greek Civilizations and the Origins of Classical Greece

· What social, economic, and cultural conditions already present at the beginning (800-700 B.C.) of the Classical period shaped the subsequent evolution of Greek civilization and culture?

• Minoan Civilization (1900 - 1450 B.C.) (Knossos 2 3)
• Mycenaean Civilization (1500 - 1200 B.C.)
• The Dark Ages (1150 - 800 B.C.)
• Eighth-Century Revival
• Structures: Economy, Society, and the Polis
• Culture: Writing, Religion, and Homer’s Ideal: Areté and Hubris

II. Sparta and Athens: Two Models of Greek Politics and Society

· What historical conditions led to different social and political systems in Sparta and Athens?

· How did Athenian democracy develop between 700 and 450 B.C.?

Sparta:

• On the Land: Peloponnesus
• Lycurgus’s Constitution: Participatory/Mixed Monarchy
• Conquering Messenia and Ruling the Helots
• Militarily Powerful, Culturally Empty (Theater)

Athens:

• On the Sea: Attica and the Aegean
• Small Farmers, Merchants, and Craftsmen: A Democratic “Milieu?”
• The Cultural Foundations of Athenian Democracy
• From Monarchy to Oligarchy to Tyranny (700 – 600 B.C.): Draco’s Laws (“draconian”)
• Social unrest from Below
• The Reforms of Solon (594 B.C.) and Cleisthenes (508 B.C.E.)
• The Hoplite: The Citizen-Soldier
• The Golden Age of Athenian Democracy (480-431 B.C.E.)
• Citizenship, Identity, and Idiōtēs

III. Patriarchy and Sex in Ancient Athens

1) How was society ordered in Athens? How did gender shape that order?

• Social and Political Status in Athens: The Male Public Citizen
• Citizens, Foreigners (Metics), Slaves
• Public and Private Lives
• Man as Citizen, Woman as Wife: Public vs. Domestic Identities

2) How did Athenians understand sexuality? How did sex itself shape Athenian culture and society?

• The Reign of the Phallus? Sex and Power
• The Pederastic Tradition: Men and Boys (Images) 1 2
• Women and Women: Sapho of Lesbos
• Women and Men
• The Athenian Sex Market: Flute Girls and Hetairai