CLASS221 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Greco-Persian Wars, Delian League, Class Conflict
19 Nov 2016
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Document Summary
Throughout our era, there is no one political entity called greece. There are lots of small, independent city-states that have distinct political, religious, cultural life. Greeks do have shared cultural institutions, esp. city-state (polis) culture, greek language and mythology, also olympics and delphi. Tendency toward greater political unity in 5c-4c as a few states grow powerful. Texts we"re reading come from period from about 430-370 in athens. Greek civilization as we know it emerges in 700s bc (earlier mycenaean and minoan civilizations related) Archaic period (750-500) sees establishment of polis civilization as norm: Largely aristocratic culture, though often with class conflict. Literature dominated by poets, above all homer, and a distinctive mode of thought. Usually if you have a query about the way the world works you look back at myths/poets/etc. Come up with new takes on ancestral wisdom. Pessimistic emphasis on limits of the human condition, think they have to rely on what we already know.
