GREEKS Section 1 of the Blue Book - World History

The Trojan War and other adventures had kept Odysseus away from his home for many years. Penelope, his wife, remained faithful to her husband and displayed great courage and intelligence in preserving their household during her husband's long absence. On his return, Odysseus praised her for her excellence:
Madame, there is not a man in the wide world who could find fault with you. For your fame has reached heaven itself, like that of some perfect king, ruling a populous and mighty state with the fear of god in his heart, and upholding the right.
—The Odyssey, Homer, E. V. Rieu, trans., 1946
Homer, Greece's great eighth-century B.C. poet, wrote about heroes. Heroes like Odysseus and Penelope in Homer's Odyssey were expected to strive for excellence. Homer's writings identified the ideals that were valued by the Greek ruling class.

The Impact of Geography
Geography played an important role in the development of Greek civilization. Compared with Mesopotamia and Egypt, Greece occupies a small area. It consists of a mountainous peninsula and numerous islands that encompass about fifty thousand square miles of territory—about the size of the state of Louisiana.
The mountains and the sea played especially significant roles in the development of Greek history. Much of Greece consists of small plains and river valleys surrounded by high mountain ranges. The mountains isolated Greeks from one another, causing different Greek communities to develop their own ways of life. Over a period of time, these communities became fiercely independent. It is probable that the small size of these independent communities encouraged people to participate in political affairs. On the other hand, the rivalry between the communities led to warfare that devastated Greek society.

The sea also influenced the evolution of Greek society. Greece has a long seacoast dotted by bays and inlets that provided many harbors. The Greeks lived on a number of islands to the west, south, and east of the Greek mainland. It was no accident that the Greeks became seafarers. They sailed out into the Aegean Sea, the Mediterranean, and the Black Sea, making contact with the outside world. Later they established colonies that spread Greek civilization throughout the Mediterranean world.

The Minoan Civilization

By 2800 B.C., a Bronze Age civilization that used metals, especially bronze, in making weapons had been established on the large island of Crete, southeast of the Greek mainland. Called the Minoan civilization, it flourished between 2700 and 1450 B.C. Arthur Evans, the English archaeologist who first discovered the civilization, named it after Minos, the legendary king of Crete.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, Evans discovered an enormous palace complex on Crete at Knossos (NAH•suhs). The remains of this complex revealed a rich culture, with Knossos as the center of a far-ranging sea empire based on trade. The ships of the Minoans took them to Egypt as well as southern Greece in search of goods.

The palace at Knossos, the royal seat of the kings, was an elaborate building that included numerous private living rooms for the royal family and workshops for making decorated vases, ivory figurines, and jewelry. Even bathrooms, with elaborate drains, formed part of the complex. The rooms were decorated with brightly colored paintings showing sporting events and nature scenes. Storerooms in the palace held gigantic jars of oil, wine, and grain, items that were paid as taxes to the king.
The centers of Minoan civilization on Crete suffered a sudden and catastrophic collapse around 1450 B.C. Some historians believe that a tidal wave triggered by a powerful volcanic eruption on the island of Thera (THIHR•uh) was responsible for the devastation. Most historians, however, believe that the destruction was the result of invasion by mainland Greeks known as the Mycenaeans (MY•suh•NEE•uhnz).
The First Greek State: Mycenae

The term Mycenaean comes from Mycenae (my•SEE•nee), a fortified site in Greece that was first discovered by the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann. Mycenae was one of a number of centers in a Mycenaean Greek civilization that flourished between 1600 and 1100 B.C.

The Mycenaean Greeks were part of the Indo-European family of peoples who spread into southern and western Europe, India, and Iran. One of these groups entered Greece from the north around 1900 B.C. Over a period of time, this group managed to gain control of the Greek mainland and develop a civilization.

Mycenaean civilization, which reached its high point between 1400 and 1200 B.C., was made up of powerful monarchies. Each resided in a fortified palace center. Like Mycenae, these centers were built on hills and surrounded by gigantic stone walls. The various centers of power probably formed a loose alliance of independent states. While the royal families lived within the walls of these complexes, the civilian populations lived in scattered locations outside the walls. Among the noticeable features of these Mycenaean centers were the tombs where members of the royal families were buried. Known as tholos tombs, they were built into hillsides. An entryway led into a circular tomb chamber constructed of cut stone blocks in a domed shape that resembled a beehive in appearance.
The Mycenaeans were, above all, a warrior people who prided themselves on their heroic deeds in battle. Mycenaean wall murals often show war and hunting scenes, the natural occupations of a warrior aristocracy. Archaeological evidence also indicates that the Mycenaean monarchies developed an extensive commercial network. Mycenaean pottery has been found throughout the Mediterranean area, in Syria and Egypt to the east and Sicily and southern Italy to the west. But some historians believe that the Mycenaeans, led by Mycenae itself, also spread outward militarily, conquering Crete and making it part of the Mycenaean world. Some of the Aegean islands also fell subject to Mycenaean control.
The most famous of all their supposed military adventures has come down to us in the poetry of Homer. According to Homer, Mycenaean Greeks, led by Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, sacked (plundered) the city of Troy on the northwestern coast of Asia Minor around 1250 B.C. Did this event really occur? Ever since the excavations of Schliemann, begun in 1870, scholars have debated this question. (Schliemann's discovery of Troy was featured in Chapter 1.) Many believe that Homer's account does have a basis in fact.

By the late thirteenth century B.C., Mycenaean Greece was showing signs of serious trouble. Mycenaean states fought one another, and major earthquakes caused widespread damage. In the twelfth century B.C., new waves of Greek-speaking invaders moved into Greece from the north. By 1100 B.C., Mycenaean civilization had collapsed.

The Greeks in a Dark Age
After the collapse of Mycenaean civilization, Greece entered a difficult period in which the population declined and food production dropped. Historians call the period from approximately 1100 to 750 B.C. the Dark Age, because few records of what happened exist. Not until 850 B.C. did farming revive. At the same time, the basis for a new Greece was forming.

Developments of the Dark Age During the Dark Age, large numbers of Greeks left the mainland and sailed across the Aegean Sea to various islands. Many went to the western shores of Asia Minor, a strip of territory that came to be called Ionia (or Ionian Greece), which is in modern-day Turkey.

Two other major groups of Greeks settled in established parts of Greece. The Aeolian Greeks who were located in northern and central Greece colonized the large island of Lesbos and the territory near the mainland. The Dorians established themselves in southwestern Greece, especially in the Peloponnesus, as well as on some of the southern Aegean islands, including Crete.

Other important activities occurred in this Dark Age as well. There was a revival of some trade and some economic activity besides agriculture. Iron replaced bronze in the construction of weapons, making them affordable for more people. Farming tools made of iron helped to reverse the decline in food production.

At some point in the eighth century B.C., the Greeks adopted the Phoenician alphabet to give themselves a new system of writing. By reducing all words to a combination of twenty-four letters (both consonants and vowels), the Greeks made learning to read and write simpler. Near the very end of the Dark Age appeared the work of Homer, one of the truly great poets of all time.

Homer The Iliad and the Odyssey were the first great epic poems of early Greece. An epic poem is a long poem that tells the deeds of a great hero. The Iliad and the Odyssey were based on stories that had been passed from generation to generation.

Homer used stories of the Trojan War to compose the Iliad and the Odyssey. The war is caused by Paris, a prince of Troy. By kidnapping Helen, the wife of the king of the Greek state of Sparta, Paris outrages all the Greeks. Under the leadership of the Spartan king's brother, King Agamemnon, the Greeks attack Troy. Ten years later, the Greeks devise a plan to take the city. They trick the Trojans by building a huge hollow wooden horse. The best Mycenaean soldiers hide inside the horse, while the rest board their ships and pretend to sail away. The joyful Trojans, thinking themselves victorious, bring the gift horse into the city. That night, the Greeks creep out of the horse, slaughter the Trojan men, enslave the women and children, and burn the city to the ground. The Iliad is not so much the story of the war itself, however, as it is the tale of the Greek hero Achilles (uh•KIH•leez) and how the anger of Achilles led to disaster.

The Odyssey recounts the journeys of one of the Greek heroes, Odysseus, after the fall of Troy, and his ultimate return to his wife. The Odyssey has long been considered Homer's other masterpiece. Some scholars believe that it was composed later than the Iliad.


Homer proved to be of great value to later Greeks. He did not so much record history; he created it. The Greeks looked on the Iliad and the Odyssey as true history and as the works of one poet, Homer. These masterpieces gave the Greeks an ideal past with a cast of heroes. The epics came to be used as basic texts for the education of generations of Greek males. As one ancient Athenian stated, "My father was anxious to see me develop into a good man . . . and as a means to this end he compelled me to memorize all of Homer."

The values Homer taught were courage and honor. A hero strives for excellence, which the Greeks called arete (ahr•ah•TEE). Arete is won in a struggle or contest. Through his willingness to fight, the hero protects his family and friends, preserves his own honor and that of his family, and earns his reputation. Homer gave to later generations of Greek males a model of heroism and honor. For example, in an exciting description of men marching to war, the Iliad taught students to be proud of their Greek heritage and their heroic ancestors.