Chapter Two Greece.docx

1、Chapter Two GreeceChapter Two GreecePart One Early Greece, 2500-500 B.C.E.I. Greece in the Bronze AgeUnlike the rich floodplains of Mesopotamia and Egypt, Greece is a stark world of mountains and sea. The rugged terrain of Greece, only 10 % of which is flat, and the scores of lands that dot the Aege

2、an and Ionian seas favor the development of small, self-contianed agricultural societies. The Greek climate is uncertain, constantly threatening Greek farmers with failure. Rainfall varies enormously from year to year, and arid summers alternate with cool, wet winters. Wheat, barley, and beans were

3、the staples of Greek life. Greek farmers struggled to produce the mediterranean triad of grains, olives, and wine, which first began to dominate agriculture around 3000 B.C.E. Constant fluctuations in climate and weather from region to region helped to break down the geographical isolation by forcin

4、g insular communities to build contacts with a wider world in order to survive.1. Islands of PeaceSince the late 19th century, archaeologists have discerned three fairly dictinct late Bronze Age cultures - the Cycladic（基克拉迪文化）, the Minoan（米诺斯文化）, and the Mycenean（迈锡尼文化）- that flourished in the Medit

5、erranean before the end of the 12th century B.C.E.The CycladesThe first culture appeared on the Cyclads, the rugged islands strewn across the bottom of the Aegean from the Greek mainliand to the coast of Asia Minor. Cycladic society was not concentrated into towns, nor, was it particularly warlike.

6、Cycladic religion focused on female deities, perhaps fertility goddesses. As early as 2500 B.C.E., Cycldic artisans developed a high level of metallurgical（冶金的 and artisitc skill.Minoan CreteCretes location between the civilizations of the fertile Crescent, Egypt, and the barbarianworlds of the nort

7、h and west made the island a natural point of exchange and amalgamation of cultures. During the golden age of Crete, roughly between 2000 and 1550 B.C.E., the island developed its unique traditions.Like other ancient civilizations, Minoan Crete was strongly stratified. The vast peasantry paid a heav

8、y tribute in olive oil and other produce. The palace elites redistributed this wealth through their patterns of consumption.Although male deities received veneration, Cretans particularly worshiped female deities, especially the mother goddess. Minoan society was not clearly matriarchal, but until t

9、he 14th century B.C.E., both men and women seem to have played important roles in religious and public life.MycenaeanAround 1600 B.C.E., a new and powerful warrior civilization arose on the Peloponnesus at Mycenae. This civilization, which encompassed not only the Greek mainland but also parts of th

10、e coast of Asia Minor, is called Mycenaean, although there is no evidence that the city of Mycenae actually ruled all Greece.The Mycenaeans quickly adopted artisanal and architectural techniques from neighboring cultures, especially from the Hittites and from Crete, and incorporated these techniques

11、 into a distinctive tradition of their own.2. The Dark AgeMycenaean domination did not last for long. Around 1200 B.C.E., many of the mainland and island fortresses and cities were sacked and totally destroyed. Why and how this happened are among the great mysteries of world history. In later centur

12、ies, the Greeks believed that after the Trojian War, new peoples, especially the Dorians, had migrated into Greece, destroying Mycenae and most of the other Achaean（亚加亚人的；希腊的）cities. More recently, some historians have argued that catastrophic climate changes, volcanic eruptions, or some other natur

13、al disaster wrecked the cities and brought famine and tremendous social unrest in its wake.Neither theory is accurate. Mycenaean Greece self-destructed. Its disintegration was part of the widespread crisis affecting the eastern Mediterranean in the 12th century B.C.E. Overpopulation, the fragility o

14、f the agrarian base, the risks of overspecialization in cash crops such as grain in Messenia and sheep raising in Crete, and rivalry among states - all made Mycenaean culture vulnerable. The disintegration of the Hittite empire and the near-collapse of the Egyptian empire disrupted Mediterranean com

15、merce, exacerbating hostilities among Greek states.From roughly 1200 to 800 B.C.E., the Aegean world entered what is generally termed the Dark Age, a confused period about which little is known, during which Greece returned to a more primitive level of culture and society.In the wake of the Mycenaea

16、n callopse, bands of northerners moved slowly into the Peloponnesus while other Greeks migrated out from the mainland to the islands and the coast of Asia Minor, bringing distinctive dialectic and cultural charateristics. As a result, from the 11th centure B.C.E., both shores of the Aegean became pa

17、rt of a Greek-speaking world. Still later, Greeks established colonies in what is today southern Ukraine, Italy, North Africa, Spain, and France. Throughout its history, Greece was less a geographical than a cultural designation.The Greece of this Dark Age was much poorer, more rural, and more simpl

18、y organized. Architecture and urban traditions declined, and writing disappeared along with the elites for whose exclusive benfit these achievements had served.Gradually, beginning in the 11th century B.C.E., things began to change a bit. For instance, Greeks in some locations stopped burying their

19、dead and began to practice cremation.The two epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey, traditionally ascribed to Homer, were actually the work of oral bards（吟游诗人）or performers who composed as they chanted. Much of the description of life, society, and culture in Homeric poems actually reflects Dark Age

20、 conditions.From the Bronze Age civilization, speakers of Greek had inherited distant memories of an original, highly organized urban civilization grafted onto the rural, aristocratic warrior society of the Dark Age. Most important, this common dimly recollected past gave all Greek-speaking inhabita

21、nts of the Mediterranean world common myths, values, and identity.II. Archaic Greece, 700-500 B.C.E.Between roughly 800 and 500 B.C.E., extraordinary changes took place in the Greek world. The descendants of the farmers and herdsmen of Homers Dark Age brought about a revolution in political organiza

22、tion, artistic traditions, intellectual values, and social structures. In a burst of creativity forged in conflict and competition, they invented politics, abstract thought, and the individual. Greeks of the Archaic Age set the agenda for the rest of Western history.1. ChangesThe first sign of radic

23、al change in Greece was the major increase in population in the 8th century B.C.E. Its consequences were enormous.First, population increase meant more villages and towns, greater communication among them, and thus the more rapid circulation of ideas and skills.Second, the rising population placed i

24、mpossible demands on the aagricultural system of much of Greece.Third, it led to greater division of labor and, with an increasingly diverse population, to fundamental changes in political system.The second change was that the multiplicity of political and social forms developing in the Archaic Age

25、set the framework within which the first flowering of Greek culture developed.The third change was that economic and political transformation laid basis for intellectual advance by creating a broad class with the prosperity to enjoy sufficient leisure for thought and creative activity.Finally, marit

26、ime relations brought people and ideas from around the Greek world together, cross-fertilizing（相互影响）artists and intellectuals in a way never before seen in the West.2. Ethnos and PolisIn general, two forms of political organization developed in response to the population explosion of the 8th century

27、 B.C.E.On the mainland and in much of the western Peloponnesus, people continued to live in large territorial units called ethne (sing. Ethnos). In each ethnos, people lived in villages and small towns scattered across a wide region. The ethnos was governed by an elite, or oligarchy, made up of majo

28、r landowners who met from time to time in one or another town within the region. This form of government, which had its roots in the Dark Age, continued to exist throughout the classical period.A much more innvative form of political organization, which developed on the shores of the Aegean and on t

29、he islands, was the polis (pl. poleis), or city-state. Initially, polis meant “citadel”. Villages clustered around these fortifications, which were both protective structures and cult centers for specific deities. In addition to protection, the polis offered a marketplace, where farmers and artisans

30、 could trade and conduct business. The rapid population growth of the 8th century B.C.E. led to the fusion of these villages and the formation of real towns. Each town was independent, and was ruled by a monarchy or an oligarchy. Each town controlled the surrounding region. At times of political or

31、military crisis, the rulers might summon an assembly of the free males of the community to the agora to participate in or to witness the decision-making process. In the following centuries these city-states became the center for that most dramatic Greek experiment in government: democracy.3. Writing

32、 and WarfareSometime in the 8th century B.C.E., Greeks adopted the Phoenician（腓尼基人） writing sysytem. From the start, this writing system was intended for private, personal use and was available to virtually anyone.The democratization of war led to the democratization of political life. Those who bro

33、ught victory in the phalanx (pl. phalanxes or phalanges) were unwilling to accept total domination by the aristocracy in the agora. The rapid growth of the urban population, the increasing impoverishment of the rural peasantry, and the rise of a new class of wealthy merchant commoners were all challenges that