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The Archaic Period set the stage for the triumph of Greek civilization in the later Classical and Hellenistic periods. The epoch began in
chaos with a succession of invasions by Ionians, Dorians, and Aeolians, who destroyed the advanced civilization of the Mycenaeans. The invaders tended to cluster in city-states in Greece, the Aegean Islands
, and Asia Minor.
Their governments often consisted of a king and an assembly of warriors who defended the realm. As the danger from invaders diminished, the need for the warrior king lessened and the importance of the citizens grew
proportionally.In time the Greeks, as they came to be called, learned to read and write. This age was to produce Homer, one of the world's great storytellers. Nothing is known of him as an individual, and in fact the Homeric epics are now thought to have been the work of more than one
individual. The great epics attributed to him, the Iliad and the Odyssey, were probably written on the west coast of Asia Minor in the 9th century BC. They tell the story of the Trojan War, which took place in about 1260 BC, and describe the return of the Greek hero Odysseus to his wife
Penelope. These epics influenced Greek drama and poetry for centuries to come. The works are renowned for their elegant and formal poetic discourse, as
well as for the legendary events they describe.Living close to the sea, the ancient Greeks were valiant sailors and traders. Between 750 and 450 BC, they founded colonies around the Black Sea and in present-day
Italy, Sicily, Spain, Greece, and Libya. By the end of the Archaic Period, the Greeks lived in several hundred city-states, each independent and consisting of an urban centre and its rural hinterland. These states
experimented with various forms of government, the names of which we still use today: aristocracy, oligarchy, tyranny, and democracy. (Our words "politics" and "police" come from the Greek word polis,
meaning "city".) In various cities, codes of laws were elaborated and committed to writing. The best known of the lawgivers was Solon
, who lived from c. 638 to c. 559 BC. His regulations covered matters as diverse as marriage, adoption, clothing, farming, and the calendar.In about 650
BC the Greeks began to show an aptitude for monumental architecture and sculpture. The stimulus for this may have come from Egypt. Greek colonies had been established there by this time, and some of the early Greek
statues show Egyptian traits: men are depicted with clenched fists, one leg forward, and wig-like hair; women are clothed in close-fitting garments and have one arm raised. In certain respects the statues are basic
imitations of the Egyptian style. As early as 600 BC, however, Greek sculptors had made an important innovation. They carved the first "free standing" statues in history. Empty space separated legs from each other and
arms from the body. Many of the world's cultures reached a high level of achievement—as did Archaic Greece—and then fell to internal turmoil or foreign invasion. Greece was more fortunate. The years of her greatest
triumphs still lay ahead. |
