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CLAS 201 (Handout 3) CLAS 201 (Handout 3) MYCENAEAN COLLAPSE Around 1150 the Mycenaean empire collapsed. There are a number of possible causes, famine, soil erosion, earthquakes and (if legend is correct and a large expeditionary force fought about Troy for 10 years) over-extension. In the face of growing weakness, another population moved into Greece: the Dorians. To understand the Dorians we have to back up a little. According to one theory, when the Helladic branch of the Indo-Europeans invaded mainland Greece c. 2000 BCE, it left some of its numbers behind, up north (in the region of Macedonia). This population, while related to the Indo-Europeans who invaded Greece, spoke a different dialect, observed different festivals and had distinct cultural practises. They came to be called Dorians and their arrival in Greece (c. 1150) is referred to as the Dorian invasion. These Dorians took over the NW half of the Greek mainland and just about all of the Peloponnese. The former populations were either destroyed, absorbed or (in many cases) took to their heels. They gathered in Athens and (according to legend) were organized by an individual named Ion – hence their name, Ionians. They then left Athens and migrated to various islands in the Aegean and to Asia Minor (modern day Turkey) – a part of the world that came to be called Ionia. The Greeks explained this migration by the following myth. There was a flood in which mankind was destroyed except for Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha. (This is much like the flood in Noah’s ark; indeed, this Near Eastern myth was probably responsible for the Greek version.) D and P produced a son Hellenus, who in turn was father of Aeolus, Xuthus and Dorus. Xuthus in turn produced Ion and Achaevus. This myth accounts for the Greeks as a whole (the Hellenes) and the various sub-branches (Ionians, Dorians, Aeolians). The distinction between Dorian and Ionian will interest us later. Now it is important to note that there are general cultural and temperamental differences between the two groups. Ionians are thought to be experimental, luxury loving, and relatively easy going; while Dorians are strict, frugal and conservative. Obviously such generalizations should be taken with a grain of salt although they do apply to some degree to the Athenians versus the Spartans (as we shall see). The arrival of the Dorians and the migrations of the former Mycenaean populations throughout the Peloponnese meant the collapse of Mycenaean culture. DARK AGE A so-called Dark Age ensued in the wake of Mycenaean collapse. Many of the former citadels were abandoned – Mycenae, Tiryns, Pylos. Others shrunk in size and importance. Population shrinkage triggered an urban revolution in reverse. That is to say, just as a critical density of people leads to job specialization, political hierarchies, monumental building, complex economy, development of writing, trade, sophisticated art etc; so a decline in population leads to the reverse. The depopulation of districts leads to inferior forms of pottery, the disappearance of writing, the slackening of foreign trade, isolation etc. An author who give us insight into the conditions of Dark Age Greece is Hesiod who is responsible for two major works The Works and Days and the Theogony (there are other works too but only fragments survive). Let us consider each. WORKS AND DAYS Hesiod wrote this as a warning to his brother Persé, a no-good lout who was taking his brother to court in an effort to win over the family farm. In this work Hesiod admonishes his brother, offers him sound advice and refers to various traditional tales. One tale that interests is the Myth of the Five Ages (see the Hesiod Handout for the text). In this tale Hesiod describes one possible creation myth for humankind. First there is a golden race of men, then silver, then bronze, then heroes, then iron. Each age is (ostensibly) ‘cheaper’ and more debased than its predecessor. The 5th – iron – interests us because it is the worst of the lot and Hesiod’s own. Its shabbiness, when compared with the ages that preceded it, seems to be a reflection of the differences between the wealth of the Mycenaeans and the squalor of Dark Age. We also note that this creation myth really shows that humankind (in the Greek estimate) has no special place in the scheme of creation. Compare the account in Genesis where humankind (in the guise of Adam) is the culmination of creation. The animals are given to him to name, suggesting he has mastery over them. Not so in the Greek scheme of things. Humankind is weak, ordinary, an afterthought. We also note how woman plays no part in this myth. She only comes about later, after Prometheus has 1) divided the shares from sacrifice so that humans get the better part (this happens at a place called Mekoné) and 2) stolen fire and given it to mankind (not humankind). In revenge, Zeus decides to create woman. Various gods give her gifts – hence her name Pandora or ‘all gifts’) and she is handed to Epimetheus (the brother of Prometheus). She is accompanied by a jar (later tradition will call it a box) inside of which are many plagues which she inadvertently releases. The only one she manages to keep inside is Hope (elpis). (Possibly Hope, like Eris (strife) has a double meaning. The Greeks always see the advantages and detractions of the qualities at large). We also note that, whereas Eve too leads to Adam’s (mankind’s) fall, she has been created as a comfort to Adam. The Greek tradition, in other words, is more misogynistic than the Biblical one. THEOGONY It is worthwhile mentioning here Hesiod’s second work, The Theogony. In it, Hesiod attempts nothing less than to describe the evolution of the gods (‘Theogony’ means literally ‘a begetting of the gods’). He presents us with a family tree of the gods, one that encompasses hundreds of deities. Let us look at the origins of the Olympians. First there was Chaos (literally a ‘gap’) – this will be of some importance when we turn our attention to Greek philosophy in a later class. He/it produces Gaia (earth), Night (darkness above the earth), Erebus (darkness below?), Tartarus (the underworld) and Eros (the power of sexual generation). These are all fairly monstrous, primitive figures. Gaia then produces Ouranos (sky). With sky, she produces (through something known as a hieros gamos or sacred wedding) the Cyclopes (three one-eyed muscular brutes who will be responsible later for forging Zeus’ lightning bolt), the Hekatoncheires (three hundred-handed muscular brutes) and the Titans (gods that resemble humans – some of them are Cronus, Rhea, Prometheus, Epimetheus). Ouranos is so disgusted with the Cyclopes and Hekatoncheires that he imprisons them in Tartarus. Enraged, Gaia asks one of the Titans to avenge this behaviour. Only Cronus volunteers to do so and ends up castrating Ouranos. (This myth parallels closely several Near Eastern myths). Cronus produces children by his wife Rhea: Demeter, Hera, Hestia, Poseidon and Hades. He swallows all of these. When his last child is born (Zeus) he swallows a stone in its place. Zeus grows up on the island of Crete and, on reaching maturity, causes his father to vomit up his brothers and sisters [note: I am not making this stuff up!] The Olympians (as Zeus and his siblings will be called) fight a protracted war against Cronus and the Titans (with the exception of Prometheus and Epimetheus) and manage to defeat them. Zeus then takes over the world. In one version of events, he draws lots with his brothers (Hades and Poseidon): he wins heaven, Poseidon gets the sea and Hades gets the underworld as his share. Once again we see that humans play no role in these events. We also understand that the Greeks were polytheists (they worshipped many gods) and that these gods were anthropomorphic (conceived in the image of men and endowed with human behaviour – all too human behaviour at times). TRANSITION FROM DARK AGE TO ARCHAIC AGE Over the centuries, Greece begins to recover. This happens in late Dark Age times (or early Archaic ones – the Archaic age is traditionally thought to begin with the first recorded Olympic games in 776 BCE). There is population growth and, again, the urban revolution catches fire. There is more evidence of monumental building, trade picks up, more ambitious buildings are constructions, and writing is re-introduced (the alphabet, by the Phoenicians). There is such a jump in population growth that some colonies have too many citizens. The excess population goes off in search of a colony of its own (in S. Italy, Sicily, the Black Sea region and Asia Minor). In addition to everything mentioned above, there are two other important developments: the Polis and hoplite warfare. The Polis The polis (or city-state) as we understand it takes shape during the Dark Age. By polis we usually mean a major city together with the territory surrounding it (including farms and townships). The process of drawing all this territory into a single political entity is called synoecism, literally a ‘drawing together of households’. The polis is a bit like a country. Its inhabitants are citizens and, anyone outside, is a non- citizen (who would find it difficult, almost impossible, to win citizen status). It has its own calendar, currency, constitution, law code, festivals and religious practices. Ancient Greece, from this stage on, consists of multiple city-states in close proximity to each other and (often) competing fiercely with each other. Perhaps this goes some way in explaining the Greek Miracle that we looked at in lecture one.
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