The Greeks are responsible for an intellectual revolution in Western Civilization.  They invented politics, philosophy, and what we now call the classical conventions in art.  I think the book is not right in saying that the Greeks invented the idea of the individual.  They did have an exalted idea of humanity that is evident in their artistic interest in the human form, in their fascination for military heroes and athletic prowess, and most significantly in their conception of human reason.  Human beings, they came to believe, were capable of understanding the structure and workings of the physical and human world, and they accordingly developed reasoned analyses of social order (politics) and more generally the natural and moral order of things (philosophy).

What kind of society can produce such a revolution?  What was unique about the Greek way of life?  Today we will focus on four unique aspects of Greek life: the polis, the family, religion and sports.  Later we will discuss the history of the greatest Greek city,  Athens, and finally the flowering of classical philosophy with the teaching of Socrates.

The Polis

The Greeks were, like most other peoples, warriors who invaded the more desirable Greek lands from areas in the north.  The earliest literature of Greece, Homer's epic poems, The Iliad  and The Odyssey, elegantly and stirringly celebrate the values of an elite chariot-warrior class: heroism, honor, valor, camaraderie and sacrifice.  The polis was originally a high, defensible position, occupied and fortified by the invading Greeks, that later became self-governing city-states made up of the city and surrounding countryside.  As in Mesopotamia, there would be a temple to the city's patron god at the center of the polis.  Once they settled into their city-states, however, the Greeks changed their way of fighting, and this change greatly influenced the way Greek culture developed.

Sometime after 700 BCE, the Greeks abandoned chariot warfare in favor of the phalanx system of fighting.  This change was probably caused by the more rugged terrain of Greece, and also the difficulty of raising horses there, and also because the city-states were so hard to conquer.  Since it was so hard to take the well-defended polis, one side must try to burn the crops of the other side to force a surrender.  The defending side would need to send out a force to prevent this.  Battles would have occur near harvest time, when crops were vulnerable.  All this dictated that war became a pitched battle in the open field until one side lost.  The phalanx (meaning "roller") was a rectangular formation of tightly-ranked, armored infantry with shields and spears. (see p. 72 of the textbook).  The more widespread availability of iron made armor and deadly spear a greater military force than before.  The phalanx was designed to make all the men in the army a single great weapon, possible of winning a decisive victory over the other side.

Greek warriors took their place in the battlefield ranked shoulder to shoulder in a compact mass, usually eight rows deep.  They wore armor and shield of wood reinforced with iron. (This shield was called a "hoplon," which is the source of word "hoplite", meaning foot-soldier).  After a ritual  morning meal and wine, the two sides found some level ground.  Starting from 150 yards apart, they would drive straight at each other in formation.  As the two formations crashed into each other, the soldiers attempted to thrust their spears at some gap between the shields--or underneath--trying to reach an unprotected spot like a throat, armpit, or groin.  The ranks behind would push on those in the front, and the pressure might cause some to fall on one side or another, and create a breach in the formation.  Once there was a retreat in one part, and the line broke, that side would quickly be defeated, for to organize a retreat in close formation was nearly impossible. The winning side would pursue and kill many of those who turned their backs to flee--but not for long. The decision had been made, and at the end of the day, both sides were content to establish a truce and exchange their dead.

This type of infantry warfare placed a strong premium on common bravery and sacrifice, but not on individualism or leadership.  It also fostered a sense of equality and camaraderie that eventually destroyed the aristocratic monopoly of warfare, and eventually undermined the aristocratic monopoly of political power in the polis as well.  The polis relied on the common soldier for its well being more than the rich landowners or generals.  It likely contributed a great deal to the notion of equality and eventually democracy in Greek political life.  ("political" means "the affairs of the polis")

Family and Social Life

The culture of the phalanx may also have influenced the organization of family life in ancient Greece.  The men and the women lived separate lives after early childhood.  Marriages were monogamous, unlike those of the Hebrews (though sex was not normally restricted to one partner).  Marriage was important in clearly defining both rights of inheritance and rights to citizenship.  Seduction and adultery were therefore terrible crimes in the Greek world, and the women were largely secluded from public life, including shopping, except for religious festivals.  Women could only go to the theater in the company of their husbands.  At home, they lived in a separate section of the house, secluded from visitors, and were sometimes even assigned slave guards.

Ironically, women were freer in the city-state of Sparta.  Sparta was unique because it was strictly organized on a military basis.  Boys were taken from their homes at age seven to be trained for military life.  Men were allowed to marry at 30, but they continued to eat and live most of the time at the barracks until age sixty.  Work in the fields and in homes was performed by Helots--a slave class.  In Sparta, it was the men who were segregated to their own domain rather than the women!  Men maintained a monopoly of political rights, but the women were freer to manage their personal affairs.

In classical times (400s-300s BCE), Greek cities were relatively prosperous because of colonization and trade throughout much of the Mediterranean coastal areas.  The wealthier citizens had slaves.  Greek men, separated as they were from female society, could find sexual satisfaction in the services of female slaves.  It was also common for men to form "Platonic" attachments to attractive boys.  Slaves must obey their masters, but relationships between men or between men and boys was considered more a matter of mutual regard and affection--"Platonic."  Although these relations may have been sexual, the emphasis was emotional attachment.  Greek writers praised the depth of emotion and feeling in love as they did the depth of philosophic thought or athletic accomplishment.

Social life, like political and family life, was separated by sex.  The "symposium" was the Greek term for party.  Men would gather to lie around on couches, drink diluted wine (less alcohol than present beer), and enjoy games, entertainment, poetry competitions and debates.  It might occasionally end in a drunken riot afterwards.  How apt it is that college fraternities have Greek names!

In sophisticated and wealthy Greek cities, then, the males socialized as a sort of community of peers, and fostered a culture of competition in pursuit of excellence in mind and body.  This sense of honor and pride in human accomplishment encouraged an idealism about humanity, an idealism illustrated in the popularity and importance of athletic competitions.

Athletics

Athletic competitions were taken very seriously in Greece.  There was a circuit of pan-Hellenic (all-Greek) festivals for athletic competition of which the Olympiad was the most prestigious.  Like everything else in Greece, it was an all-male affair.  Only men competed and only men attended.  Women held their own separate games nearby, and dedicated them to Zeus's wife, Hera.   The origins of the Olympics are not known, but the first records of winners dates from 776 BCE.  Competitions were part of the religious rites and festivals in honor of the gods.  Before and after the games themselves--which took two days--were several days of religious processions and rituals.   They were held every four years at the shrine to Zeus in the village of Olympia in western Greece.  Even in times of conflict, peace was maintained for the duration of the games to allow Greeks from every city to participate.

The Olympics consisted of 5 main events: footraces (200, 400 and 4,800 meters), wrestling, boxing, chariot races and the pentathlon (discus, javelin, broad jump, 200 meter race, and wrestling).   Greeks did have ball games played between teams, but these were considered mere kids' games.  The warrior roots of Greek athletics are clear.  Only warrior events pitting individual athletes against each other were considered worthy of men.  Great athletes were highly honored.  Some were virtually professional, training year-round and supported by wealthy patrons.  Winners were feasted and celebrated, and odes and songs written for them.

The value given to physical excellence was related to the value given to mental excellence.  Men gathered in the "gymnasia" to exercise and train, but also to hear lectures and debate.  The great philosopher, Plato, was a wrestler.  He formed his famous school of philosophy in a gymnasium called the "Academy" and his pupil Aristotle founded his school in a gymnasium called the "Lyceum."

The one area of life in which Greek men and women often participated together was religious observance.  Indeed, some religions developed, such as the Dionysian mystery cult, whose followers were almost exclusively women.  Even though the Greek placed emphasis on human abilities and reason, and some were genuine atheists, most Greeks remained deeply religious.
 

Religion

Greek religion in the Homeric age (700s BCE) was similar in many respects to the Mesopotamian religion.  And it is likely that much of Greek religious thought was borrowed from Mesopotamian cultures such as the Phoenicians, from whom they also borrowed their system of writing.  The Greek gods were mix of local and Mesopotamian gods and beliefs.  Aphrodite, the goddess of love and regeneration, for example, is clearly derived from the Mesopotamian fertility goddess, Innana/Ishtar.  As with the Mesopotamians, heaven and earth were unpredictable and dangerous.  The Greek gods were not omnipotent; they took human shape and quarreled with each other.  They demanded human service and honor, though they were capricious and might even punish the innocent for their own reasons.  To the Greeks the gods were inscrutable, though, like the Mesopotamians, they had priests and methods of divination to know the will of the gods.  The oracle of Delphi, which was transmitted through the priestess of Apollo was the most famous of all ways of knowing the wisdom and will of the gods, because Apollo was considered the god of wisdom (as well as music).  Like the Mesopotamian cities, the Greek city-states hoped to please at least one god by dedicated their polis to a particular patron god.

It is interesting to note a couple of differences.  In Greek thought, gods and humanity were not so separate as they were in Mesopotamian thought.  Humans and gods were alike in that they were limited--not omnipotent--and were both subject to fate.   The gods, of course, were immortal and much more powerful, but Greek mythology is full of stories of gods mating and procreating with humans and producing demi-gods, such as Heracles.   As later Greeks came to form more orderly communities of city-states, the gods were represented as a more orderly polis as well.  The polis of the gods was supposed to be at the top of Mt. Olympus.  Fundamentally, it was believed that a great man can be godlike, he has his own glory and honor which he makes for himself by bravely accepting the highest challenges.  The example in the textbook from Homer ( p. 71) concerns the hero Hector, who is doomed by fate to death and defeat, but whose virtue and glory is celebrated by Homer nevertheless.  It is not results, but quality that matters.

 The polis, the social life, sports and religion of the Greeks all contributed to and reflected a new view of human nature.  There was an idealism about humanity that celebrated the heroic and godlike qualities of man.  The Greeks pursued those qualities in themselves be they physical, emotional, or intellectual.  They engaged in endless competitions to recognize those qualities in the best among them, and then celebrated those accomplishments in song and poem.

Aristotle's political ideals

In classic age of Greek philosophy--which we will consider in more depth later--Greek thinkers attempted to determine universal truths not only about the physical nature of the universe, but the social and moral nature of humanity itself.  This project reflected their idealism about humanity--that it was good and noble--and their conclusions about humanity clearly reflected their social conventions.

We can consider Aristotle's view of human nature contained in his work, Politics, a portion of which is assigned for today.  Aristotle says in our  reading that man was made to live in the polis.  That this social and political association is what makes a man a man.  (Women are excluded from consideration here.)  In other words, he is saying that the way Greek society is organized is the best way.  What could Aristotle mean by this?  How does the polis bring out the highest excellence in humanity?  What ideals about humankind does Aristotle uphold in this reading, and how do they compare with our own?