1.16 Greek Culture and Trade
The Greek poleis were each distinct, fiercely proud of their own identity and independence, and they frequently fought small-scale wars against one another. Even as they did so, they recognized each other as fellow Greeks and therefore as cultural equals. All Greeks spoke mutually intelligible dialects of the Greek language. All Greeks worshiped the same pantheon of gods. All Greeks shared political traditions of citizenship. Finally, all Greeks took part in a range of cultural practices, from listening to traveling storytellers who recited the Iliad and Odyssey from memory to holding drawn-out drinking parties called symposia.
Exploration: The Olympics
In 1896, in Athens, Greece, an ancient tradition was revived: the Olympic Games. There is a lot of ceremony surrounding the modern Olympic Games and a lot of politics. For example, in 1972, terrorists killed 11 Israeli athletes. In 1976, 22 African nations boycotted the games held in Montreal simply because New Zealand was competing. New Zealand had offended the African nations by implying support of apartheid when they participated in rugby games held in South Africa. In 1980, the United States boycotted the Olympic Games being held in the Soviet Union, to protest the USSR’s invasion of Afghanistan. As you can see from just these few examples, the ancient Olympic games have transformed into something different from their origins. . . or have they?
Ancient vs. Modern
Review Penn Museum’s Olympic Games website and then watch the video clip below that describes the early Olympics. As you do this, ask yourself: What similarities do you find to the modern Olympic games? What differences? How might an athlete from Classical Greece view our modern games?
“Introduction: Death or Glory.” The Real Olympics: A History of the Ancient and Modern Olympic Games. Films on Demand. 2004. 1:38.
Unwelcome Athletes
Women in Ancient, Classical and Hellenistic Greece lived in a culture very different from the modern day, yet there is evidence that at least unmarried women participated in athletic competition. Why? What was it about the Olympic games that allowed this relaxation of societal gender norms? Read Penn Museum’s conclusions about women’s participation and sexism in the early Olympics at the Penn Museum’s Olympic Games website; then watch the video clips below. As you go through the material, ask yourself what conclusions might you draw about women in the early Olympics? How does this connect with the present day games?
“Women at the Ancient Games.” The Real Olympics: A History of the Ancient and Modern Olympic Games. Films on Demand. 2004. 4:23.
Religious Beginnings
As you saw in Penn Museum’s discussion of the origins of the ancient games, the Olympics evolved from religious ritual and festivals in honor of Zeus and his wife, Hera. Do we still see these origins in the modern day? Consider this as you watch this video clip.
“An Act of Worship.” The Real Olympics: A History of the Ancient and Modern Olympic Games. Films on Demand. 2004. 3:03.
If you receive a message that the video cannot be authenticated, use this link: https://ccco.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://fod-infobase-com.ccco.idm.oclc.org/PortalPlaylists.aspx?wID=151823&xtid=44395&loid=117709.
Bibliography:
Penn Museum. “The Real Story of the Ancient Olympic Games.” Penn Museum. 2019. Accessed November 7, 2019. https://www.penn.museum/sites/olympics/olympicorigins.shtml.
Recovery
With the end of the Dark Age, population levels in Greece recovered. This led to emigration as the population outstripped the poor, rocky soil of Greece itself and forced people to move elsewhere. Eventually, Greek colonies stretched across the Mediterranean as far as Spain in the west and the coasts of the Black Sea in the north. Greeks founded colonies on the North African coast and on the islands of the Mediterranean, most importantly on Sicily. Greeks set up trading posts in the areas they settled, even in Egypt. The colonies continued the mainland practice of growing olives and grapes for oil and wine, but they also took advantage of much more fertile areas away from Greece to cultivate other crops.
As trade recovered following the end of the Dark Age, the Greeks re-established their commercial shipping network across the Mediterranean, with their colonies soon playing a vital role. Greek merchants eagerly traded with everyone from the Celts of western Europe to the Egyptians, Lydians, and Babylonians.
Military Organization and Politics
A key military development unique to Greece was the phalanx: a unit of spearmen standing in a dense formation, with each using his shield to protect the man to his left. Each soldier in a phalanx was called a hoplite. Each hoplite had to be a free Greek citizen of his polis and had to be able to pay for his own weapons and armor. He also had to be able to train and drill regularly with his fellow hoplites, since maneuvering in the densely-packed phalanx required a great deal of practice and coordination. The hoplites were significant politically because they were not always aristocrats, despite the fact that they had to be free citizens capable of paying for their own arms. Because they defended the poleis and proved extremely effective on the battlefield, the hoplites would go on to demand better political representation, something that would have a major impact on Greek politics as a whole.
By the seventh century BCE, the hoplites in many poleis were clamoring for better political representation, since they were excluded by the traditional aristocrats from meaningful political power. In many cases, the result was the rise of tyrannies: a government led by a man, the tyrant, who had no legal right to power, but had been appointed by the citizens of a polis in order to stave off civil conflict (tyrants were generally aristocrats, but they answered to the needs of the hoplites as well). To the Greeks, the term tyrant did not originally mean an unjust or cruel ruler, since many tyrants succeeded in solving major political crises on behalf of the hoplites while still managing to placate the aristocrats.
The tyrants, lacking official political status, had to play to the interests of the people to stay in power as popular dictators. They sometimes seized lands of aristocrats outright and distributed them to free citizens. Many of them built public works and provided jobs, while others went out of their way to promote trade. The period between 650–500 BCE is sometimes called the “Age of Tyrants” in Greek history because many poleis instituted tyrants to stave off civil war between aristocrats and less wealthy citizens during this period. After 500 BCE, a compromise government called oligarchy tended to replace both aristocracies and tyrannies. In an oligarchy, anyone with enough money could hold office, the laws were written down and known to all free citizens, and even poorer citizens could vote (albeit only yes or no) on the laws passed by councils.
