THE HELLENIC CIVILAZATION

They were secular and rationalistic. The man was the most important creature
in the universe and refused to submit to the dictation of priests or despots or
even to humble themselves before their gods. Strong devotion to liberty and
so firm belief in the nobility of human achievement.

The Homeric Age.

In order to comprehend the evolution of the Hellenic civilization we need to go

back to the Homeric age (1200B.C – 800 B.C). It is the period of time when the
Greeks began to form a nation and the foundations laid for many of the social
and political developments of subsequent centuries.

Probably the home of the Greeks was somewhere in the Danube valley. Their
migration began in 1000bc and they appear to have been a mixture of Alpine
and Nordic stocks. Later, they mingled with the Mediterranean natives who were
already established in Greece. It is possible to say that the Hellenes were a
mixed race who spoke a language of Indo-European relationship.

As regards the colonization of Greece, we can find 3 different groups, the

Ionians (settled in the more sparsely populated areas), the Achaeans
(conquered Mycenae, Troy and Crete) and the Dorians (settled in central
Greece but most of them took to the sea, conquering the Peloponnesus).

GOVERNMENT IN THE HOMERIC AGE.

The political institutions were primitive since each community of villages were
independent. The King was as every other citizen, a king had to cultivate his
own farm and did not have a remuneration of any kind for being a king. His
functions as king were only related to military and priestly. The king didn’t have
power over justice and law.

They did have a council of nobles that advised and assisted the king. Moreover,
they had an assembly of warriors that ratified declarations of war and assent to
the conclusion of peace. The administration of justice was private e.g. even the
willful murder was punishable only by the family of the victim. The political
consciousness of the Greeks of this time was so poorly developed that they had
no conception of government as an indispensable agency to maintain the social
order.

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC LIFE

The pattern of social and economic life was amazingly simple.

 There was no rigid stratification of classes.

 Any warrior that displayed unusual bravery in battle could become a
noble.
 Agriculture and herding were the basic occupations. Except for a few
skilled crafts like those of wagonmaker, swordsmith, goldsmith and
potter, there were no specialization of labor.

RELIGION

The Greeks had a system to explain explain the physical world; explain the
passions and obtain material benefits.

They didn’t believe that religion would save them from their sins or endow them
with spiritual blessings. There were no commandments, no dogmas, no ritual,
no sacraments.

The deities were mere human beings (with human bodies and weaknesses) in
order to bargain in equal terms. It was really important that it should be so if the
Greek was to feel at home in the world over which they ruled.

The religion was thoroughly polytheistic, and no one deity was elevated very
high above any of the others. Their religion was not dualistic since there was no
Satan in their beliefs, the nearest approach to a god of evil was Hades.

INDEFFERENCE TO LIFE HEREAFTER

They were almost indifferent to what happened to them after death. They
assumed that the shades or ghosts of men survived for a time after the death of
their bodies. All with a few exceptions, went to the same abode -to the murky
realm of Hades situated beneath the earth. This was neither a paradise nor a
hell: no one was rewarded for the good and no one was punished for his sins.
WORSHIP

Worship in the Homeric Age consisted primarily of sacrifice. The offerings were
made not for forgiveness, but for favors and to please the gods. They were
simple rites and each head of the family performed them, and the king of the
village did it as well but for the whole community.

The Greek temple was not used for ceremonies and was not considered as a
church. It was, instead, a shrine where the gods would stay occasionally and
use it as a temporary house.

THE EVOLUTION OF THE CITY STATES.

In 800bc village communities were changing from clan organizations to larger

political units. Acropolis or Citadel were created as a response to the need of
defense. They were built in high locations and a city grew up around it as the
seat of government for a whole community. Some examples of city-states are
Athens and Sparta.

Greek city-states went through a similar political evolution. They began their
histories as monarchies. In the eighth century they were changed into
oligarchies. In 700bc the oligarchies were overthrown by dictators or “tyrants”,
as the Greeks called them, meaning usurpers who ruled without legal right
whether oppressively or not. In the 6th and 5th centuries, democracy was set up,
or in some cases “timocracies” that is governments based upon a property
qualification for the exercise of political rights, or in which love of honor or glory
was the ruling principle.

CAUSES OF POLITICAL EVOLUTION

The causes are not difficult to determine,

 the first one is related to the concentration of landed wealth; the owners
of great states had more power now and they wrest political authority
from the king and vest it in the council (which they could control).
 Kingship was abolished.
 Numerous new colonies were founded as a result of the increasing
scarcity of land. Commerce and industry grew, urban population
increased.
 Now there was a more evident stratification of classes, the rising middle
class and dispossessed farmers joined in attack upon oligarchy.
 Since there were a lot of conflicts, ambitious demagogues provided
“solutions and reliefs for chaos” to win popular support to ride into power.
 Dissatisfaction with tyrannical rule and the increasing economic power
and political consciousness led to the establishment of democracies.