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Agriculture
Judging by the data of the epic, cattle breeding and agriculture, as in the Mycenaean times, continued to be the main occupation of the population. Areas such as Laconica, Argolis and Boeotia were known as agricultural in later times, and in Ionia and Aeolis, at least until the 8th century, there was also no developed craft and trade.
The data available in the Iliad and Odyssey show that the role of cattle breeding was especially great: values \u200b\u200bare usually counted in bulls, the bulk of slaves are employed in cattle breeding. Odysseus' farm alone had several dozen shepherds. The abundance of terms denoting shepherds is also indicative: swineherds and goat breeders, shepherds of cows and sheep, and even senior shepherds are mentioned. Eumeus, Philotius and Melantius, named by their names in the Odyssey, are not simple shepherds, but in fact overseers of the shepherds, often referred to as “the leaders of the people”. The wealth of Odysseus was measured primarily by herds of large and small livestock.
Although agriculture plays a lesser role in the epic than cattle breeding, its share was very large. Poems speak of the presence of 12 slave girls engaged in grinding in Odysseus's household; the hand-mill is mentioned three times in the Odyssey; in the Iliad, large stones are compared to millstones. Pretty high level reached and -culture agricultural work... The epic often speaks of a fallow fallow three times, and draws attention to the depth of plowing. For raising vapors, the poet considers mules more suitable than oxen. The plow was widely used, with special attention paid to its strength. During the harvesting of the plots of the leader - Basileus, the reapers used sickles, others knitted sheaves, the children followed the knitters and picked up the ears. The Greeks of Homeric time used natural fertilizers. It is possible that the picture of the development of animal husbandry and agriculture drawn from the epic data refers not only to Homeric, but also to Mycenaean time.
The craft was much less developed than agriculture and cattle breeding. The differentiation of individual craft specialties was, apparently, weaker than in the Mycenaean time. The bulk of the rural population still combined, to a certain extent, agricultural work with domestic handicrafts. But nevertheless, both the epic and the data of archeology confirm that the craft was separated from agriculture. The poems mention blacksmiths, goldsmiths, tanners, potters, carpenters and other artisans. The above-mentioned burial of a blacksmith from Athens shows that already in the 10th century. blacksmithing was quite developed. Blacksmiths used a hammer, anvil, bellows, tongs, scales. Among other handicraft tools, various axes, drills, a potter's wheel, a loom, etc. were known. The entire set of tools of the Mycenaean period known to us from archaeological data is also mentioned in Homeric poems.
The social position of the artisans was apparently quite high. All of them were personally free people, many of them were respected. Describing some skillfully made thing, the poet, as a rule, mentions the name of the master who made it. Basileians are also proud of their knowledge of the craft. A significant difference between the artisans of the beginning of the 1st millennium and the craftsmen of the Mycenaean period is, as mentioned above, the lesser differentiation of their labor; but on the other hand, the craft no longer served only the top of society, but began to serve increasingly wider circles of the free. At the same time, for example, ceramics was almost in no way inferior in quality to the late Helladic, and in the use of metals, especially iron, artisans far surpassed the level of the Mycenaean time.
Trade
Trade as a whole was still very poorly developed. In the epic, the Phoenicians and Tafians are mentioned as merchants; where the Tafians lived is not yet clear, possibly in the area of \u200b\u200bthe Gulf of Corinth. Of the Hellenes engaged in trade, only the king of the island of Lemnos, Eneus, is mentioned several times. The attitude towards traders was negative; Odysseus felt offended when they thought he was a merchant. In general, Homer does not even have a special term for trade and merchants; the epic does not speak of markets either. An indicator of the presence of only natural exchange is also the absence of money. The Phoenicians and Tafians are mainly traded in jewelry and iron. It is closely associated with sea robbery and especially with the kidnapping of people for sale into slavery.
Geometric Attic Vase Despite the fact that Homer often mentions the Phoenicians, archaeological excavations for the entire time from the 11th to the 9th century. virtually no items of oriental origin were found. In the IX century. Phoenician trade is revitalized in the central and even in the western Mediterranean, but not in the Aegean. The oldest, apart from the Mycenaean time, found on the territory of Hellas "treasure with Phoenician products was discovered on the island of Aegina; however, it is now believed that it dates back not earlier than the second half of the VIII century. In addition, Homer's idea of \u200b\u200bPhenicia was quite Apparently, the mention of the Phoenicians in the epic reflects their role in Mycenaean, and not in Homeric time. Only at the end of the 9th century did the Phoenician sailors begin to enter the waters of the Aegean. two very important discoveries: the alphabet, which will be discussed later, and improvements in shipbuilding; along with the rounded cargo ships on the sails, long, narrow, low-sided warships with 25 rowers on each side appeared. The weapons of such ships were sharp, at water level, a ledge - a battering ram, with which they tried to break through the side of an enemy ship. in Greece. Such ships are depicted on the beginning of the VIII century. BC e. large vases found near the Dipylon gate in Athens.
No less important than the beginning Phoenician trade was the first steps of intra-Greek trade. Unlike Mycenaean ceramics, dishes with geometric patterns in almost every center of their production had distinct local features, which makes it easy to trace the extent of their distribution. So, for example, already u X c. Attic pottery is found in considerable quantities on the neighboring island of Aegina; Corinthian pottery, especially in the middle of the 9th century, reaches Boeotia, Delphi, Argolis and the island of Fera. A lot of Corinthian utensils have been found on Aegina; in the IX century. Corinthian pottery here already prevailed over Attic pottery. The spread of a special kind of brooches (peculiar fasteners like a safety pin) with plates of dyed ivory is no less characteristic; these brooches, probably of Dorian origin, were found in large numbers in the layers of the 9th-8th centuries. in Ionian Ephesus and even further east, up to Assyria.
Thus, after a decline of foreign relations and trade, which lasted for about two centuries, the Hellenic tribes already in the 9th century. have noticeably expanded their relations with outside world... At the same time — the important difference between the Homeric period and the Mycenaean time — even in the atom — begins to grow on a much wider base than in the previous period, and intra-Greek trade.
Socio-economic relations
Greek society at the beginning of the first millennium has gone far from the primitive economic and social equality of the primitive communal system. The scope of trade, as mentioned earlier, was still small. However, the process of property stratification was accelerated by constant wars. War, piracy and simple robbery not only contributed to the accumulation of material values \u200b\u200bin the hands of the top of society, but also provided them with free labor - slaves. The exploitation of slaves by the nobility, which provided a large amount of surplus product, accelerated the process of property stratification. Slaves, as can be judged from the meager data of the epic, were in the possession of only the nobility; in her hands was the bulk of the cattle. Only the land continued to be the property of the community, although it also began to go into private ownership to a large extent.
However, the process of accumulation of the means of production in the hands of the nobility has not yet led to any significant expropriation of the broad masses of the free population. The social conditions of that time were characterized only by the emergence and formation of class differences. When applied to the Greek society of this period, one can only speak of the presence of individual social groups, only gradually turned into classes.
One of these social groups was the Basilei. This term in the epic meant not only the tribal kings, but also the nobility in general. There were 12 such basilei, at the same time "skiproderzhavnyh", was in the city of Faeacs, mentioned in the "Odyssey". The king of the Feacs, Alkina, summons the Basileians to listen to the story of the adventures of Odysseus. The economic basis of the power of the Basilees was the ownership of the best lands "cut off" from the communal lands and the ownership of huge herds of large and small livestock, and dozens of slaves hunted in the war. The Basilean lands were designated by the name temenos, from the verb that meant "to cut." The clan nobility in the following centuries grew into large slaveholders and landowners.
The bulk of free farmers owned small plots of land - clears (literally "lots") and a small number of livestock and, apparently, did without the use of slave labor. In the epic, there is very little data on the situation of free farmers, although the use of the terms "multicore" and "beleless" testifies to the beginning of the economic stratification among free farmers. In terms of social status, it is close to farmers. there were artisans, singers, healers, soothsayers, united by a common name - demiurges. They, obviously, were not part of the community and did not have land plots.
It is important to note that Homer's poems already describe a certain group of free people, deprived of any means of production and not part of the community. These are powerless - metanastas (apparently, migrants to empty lands), farm laborers - feta, finally, quite often mentioned, especially in the "Odyssey" - beggars. The poet treats the latter with undisguised contempt. The presence of a large group of personally free people, not members of the community, also testifies to the decomposition of the primitive communal system.
Greece in the 9th-8th centuries BC e. The names of the land plots of both Basileans and ordinary farmers indicate that these plots were once, and possibly still remained in Homeric time, the property of the community. The name of the peasant plots - clerics - shows that the land plots were allocated by drawing lots during the redistribution of communal lands, and the tsarist plot was "cut off" from the communal land. The customs of systematic redistribution of land, apparently, had already fallen out of use during the compilation of the Odyssey, but traces of it can be clearly traced in both Homeric poems. The old communal ties were still very strong and the Greek militia near Troy was organized not only according to the territorial, but also according to the old clan principle: according to the phylae (tribes) and phratries (clan associations). Intrageneric connections were of great importance not only in Homeric, but also in subsequent times.
The period from the end of the 1st millennium BC to the VIII century BC is today called "Homeric period", since the main source of information about these times is the works of Homer, in particular, "Iliad" and "Odysseus".
Watch an interesting movie about Troy!
http://rutube.ru/tracks/4450697.html?v\u003d
Homeric Greece is a kind of "dark age" in the history of civilization, which lasted about 400 years and ended with the emergence of the Greek city-states of the archaic period. Data about this periodextremely few. It is known that there was a complete decline of culture and arts, even writing was lost. Leftovers mycenaean civilization were finally destroyed.
The Homeric period was characterized by the development of existing societies from a primitive communal system to a class slave-owning society. There was a tendency in which the leaders of the tribes and their closest entourage gradually appropriated the best lands and enslaved the poorest compatriots. The ability to work with iron led to the rapid development of crafts from the end of the VIII century BC.
From this time almost no architectural monuments remained, since the material was mainly wood and unbaked, but only dried in the sun, raw brick. An idea of \u200b\u200bthe architecture at its origins can only be given by poorly preserved remains of foundations, drawings on vases, terracotta burial urns, likened to houses and temples, and some lines of Homeric poems:
"Friend, we certainly came to the glorious house of Odysseus,
It can easily be recognized among all the other houses:
A long row of chambers, spacious, wide and cleanly paved
Crenellated courtyard, double gates
With a strong lock - no one would think to break into them by force. "
Rare monuments of sculpture, simple in shape and small in size, were also created in that era. Especially widespread was the decoration of vessels, which the ancient Greeks regarded not only as necessary in everyday life. In varied, sometimes whimsical ceramic forms, in simple but expressive ones.
In the forms and patterns of vases that arose before the 9th century BC. e., was the simplicity of expressing the feelings of the people who created them.
Vessels were usually covered with ornaments in the form of the simplest figures: circles, triangles, squares, rhombuses. Over time, the patterns on the vessels became more complex, their forms became diverse. In the late 9th - early 8th centuries BC. e. vases appeared with a continuous filling of the surface with ornaments.
The body of an amphora from the Munich Museum of Applied Arts is divided into thin belts - painted friezes geometric shapeslike lace lying on a vessel.
The ancient artist decided to show on the surface of this amphora, in addition to patterns - animals and birds, for which he singled out special friezes, located one in the upper part of the throat, another at the very beginning of the body and the third near the bottom. The principle of repetition, characteristic of the early stages of the development of art of different peoples, also appears among the Greeks in ceramic paintings.
TO VIII century the Dipylonian amphora, which served as a tombstone in the cemetery of Athens, belongs to. Its monumental forms are expressive; a broadly massive body, a high throat proudly rises. She seems no less majestic than the slender column of a temple or the statue of a powerful athlete. Its entire surface is divided into friezes, each of which has its own pattern, with a frequently repeating meander of various types. The depiction of animals on the friezes is subject here to the same principle as on the Munich amphora. At the widest point, there is a scene of farewell to the deceased. To the right and left of the deceased are mourners with their arms folded over their heads. The sorrow of the drawings on the vases that served as tombstones is extremely restrained. The feelings presented here seem harsh, close to those experienced by Odysseus, listening to the exciting story of Penelope, who was crying and did not recognize him:
"But like horns or iron, the eyes stood motionless
For centuries. And he did not give free rein to tears, keeping caution! "
In the laconicism of the paintings of the 10th-8th centuries, qualities were formed that later developed in the plastically juicy forms of Greek art. This era was a school for Greek artists: the strict clarity of the geometric style drawings are due to the restrained harmony of the images of the archaic and the classic.
In the geometric style, the aesthetic feelings of the people were manifested, starting the path to the top of civilization, subsequently creating monuments that eclipsed glory egyptian pyramids and the palaces of Babylon. The decisiveness and inner composure of the Hellenes at that period found an echo in the extreme laconicism of the paintings with an inexorable rhythm, clarity and sharpness of lines. The conventional nature of the images, the simplification of forms are not the result of sophistication, but the desire to express with a graphic sign the general concept of a completely definite object of the real world. The limitation of this principle of the image is in the absence of specific, individual features of the image. Its value is that a person at an early stage of development begins to bring into the world, which still seems incomprehensible and chaotic, an element of a system and order.
The schematic images of geometry will be saturated in the future with more and more concreteness, but Greek artists will not lose the principle of generalization achieved in this art. In this regard, the paintings of the Homeric period are the first steps in the development of ancient artistic thinking.
The task:
Watch the presentation "Greek vase painting", characterize the features of each period in the development of Greek vase painting, noting the difference in plots and styles. Post your answer in the comments.
Periodization
According to modern science, the first state formations on the territory Balkan Peninsula were known already in the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. e. Earlier, class society and state organization took shape on the island of Crete and in Mycenae. Therefore, the period of the creation of the first states in Greece is called the Cretan-Mycenaean civilization. The order of government in Crete and in Mycenae resembled the eastern states: theocracy, the palace system of government. The end of the Cretan-Mycenaean civilization was laid by the arrival of the Dorian tribes in the south of Greece from the north. As a result, primitive communal relations are again established throughout Greece, after the decomposition of which a new stage begins in the history of Greece: the formation and flourishing of policies, slave-owning relations of the classical type.
Polis stage of history Ancient Greece divided into three periods:
1. The Homeric period (XI-IX centuries BC), characterized by the dominance of tribal relations, which begin to disintegrate by the end of this period.
2. Archaic period (VIII-VI centuries BC), within which the formation takes place class society and states in the form of policies.
3. The classical period (V-IV centuries BC) was marked by the flourishing of the ancient Greek slave state, the polis system.
Greek polis as a sovereign state with a peculiar socio-economic and political structure by the IV century. BC e. exhausted its capabilities and entered a period of crisis, overcoming which was possible only by creating new state entities... They were those that emerged at the end of the 4th century. BC e. Hellenistic states. They were formed as a result of the conquest of Attica by Alexander the Great and the further disintegration of his "world" empire. Thus, the Hellenistic states combined the beginnings of the Greek polis system and ancient Eastern society and opened a new, deeply different from the previous polis, stage of ancient Greek history.
The idea of \u200b\u200bthis stage in the history of Ancient Greece can be drawn from the poems of the famous poet "Iliad" and "Odyssey". At this time, the population was united into rather primitive rural communities, occupying a small area and almost isolated from neighboring communities. The political and economic center of the community was a settlement called a city. The bulk of the city's population are farmers, cattle breeders, and very few artisans and merchants.
At this time, the land still constituted tribal property and was provided formally to members of the clans only for use on the basis of periodic redistribution. However, the allotments of representatives of the noble and the rich differ in their size and quality, and the Basileus (tribal leaders) also receive a special allotment - temenos. At the same time, the sources also name such peasants who did not have land at all. It is possible that, having no means of farming, these community members gave their land to the rich.
Homeric, the period is the period of military democracy. The state did not exist yet, and the management of society was carried out with the help of the following bodies.
The permanent authority was council of elders- bule.But this was not a council of old people, but of the most prominent representatives of the clan nobility. The primitive democracy was still preserved, and National assembliesplayed in public organization significant role. The organization was led by basileus- simultaneously the warlord of the tribe, the supreme judge and the high priest. In fact, he acted together with representatives of the tribal nobility. The position of the basileus was elective, but over time, when it was replaced, they began to give preference to the son of the deceased basileus, and the position was entrenched as hereditary.
Thus, Homeric Greece was fragmented into many small self-governing districts; it was from them that the first city-states - the policies - were subsequently formed.
Historical development of Ancient Greece at the turn of the IX-VIII centuries. BC e. characterized by profound changes. The clan system is replaced by the slave system, which is accompanied by the development of the institution of private property. Many ordinary farmers are deprived of their allotments, which are concentrated in the hands of the clan nobility. Formed large landholdings... Debt bondage is born. The development of handicraft production and trade accelerated the process of social and property stratification.
The ancient communal organization, which retained kinship ties between its members, ceases to meet the needs of the time. Everywhere in Greece VIII-VI centuries. BC e. there is a merger of several small previously isolated communities located close to each other (syneikism). The ancient forms of unification of clans - phyla and phratries - continue to retain their significance in these associations for some time, but soon give way to new divisions based on property and territorial characteristics. So, on the basis of tribal and rural communities, new socio-political organisms arose - policies. The formation of an early slave-owning society and state in the form of a polis system is the content of the historical development of Ancient Greece in the archaic period.
In the history of Ancient Greece, two policies played an important role:. Athens and Sparta. Wherein political system Athens can be called an example of a slave-owning democracy, while the political organization of Sparta became the model of the oligarchy.
Homeric Greece call the time from about the 12th to the 8th centuries. BC. In one of these eras, the famous poet Homer... His work has survived to this day. In his poems, Homer spoke about the cultural, economic and social life of Greece. Most bright works artist - the poem "Odyssey", "Iliad".
Had it not been for Homer, the world, hundreds of years later, would not have known how the ancient Greeks lived. Their life, traditions and especially everyday life were touched in the works of Homer from all sides. Information about how the poems were created did not reach contemporaries. Many scientists argue about whether such a person existed in Ancient Greece, or a fictitious name. In addition, the authorship of many of his works is questioned. IN " Odyssey"Tells about the adventures of" one king ", and" Iliad"Tells about the events of the Trojan War. There is evidence of these events in history, but they happened much earlier than the period when the works of Homer were created. Researchers have analyzed the available materials, but scientists continue to hypothesize about what Ancient Greece was like. They mostly base their ideas on Homeric works.
Homeric works became almost the only written historical monument that was created in those centuries. However, the researchers give such a conclusion solely on the basis of information about the absence of other surviving written evidence of that era. It was called "Dark Time" because no special archaeological or other finds dated to this period were found.
It is believed that in the 10-8 centuries. BC. trade, writing and even the social life of the Greeks fell into complete decline. They fought many wars and developed only those crafts that were useful in the conduct of battles. Thus, the potters' business, metalworking, shipbuilding, and agricultural activities flourished. And sculpture and painting came to the background, or even did not develop at all.
Archaeologists and other researchers in Ancient Greece have found the reasons for this turn of events. The Dorians, who inhabited the Greek lands at that time, were engaged in plundering of neighboring states. Piracy flourished. It was this way of life that these ancient people considered correct, referring it to the foundations of valor and courage. Neither the Phoenicians nor the Egyptians visited the Greeks for trade any more. By the end of the Dorian period, trade relations gradually began to improve. But the internal trade proceeded at a faster pace.
The social system of the "dark period"
For the Dorians, it all began with tribal ties. Estates or classes have not yet emerged. Nevertheless, the Greeks could not be called a primitive society at that time. Policies gradually began to form. A unique socio-economic and political system has been formed in the city-states. The land could not be owned by the representatives of the people or community. The allotments were common. Power was based on the foundations of a military democracy.
The Dorians honored their parents and treated all old people with respect. The family occupied a huge place in the life of each of the people. In the works of Homer, all bad sons were punished by fair goddesses who cursed them for several generations. The wife was respected. She occupied the most honorable place in the house. The groom “ransomed” his bride from her father in order to create his own hearth in the future. The Greeks never had polygamy. The wife in any situation had to be strictly faithful to her husband. In the poems of Homer women - Elena, Penelope Nausica - personified virtue. They are presented as the most beautiful creatures in the world.
The woman was called "mistress of the house." She not only did household chores, but also received guests, became a participant in meetings and important meetings. The wife's voice in the house carried a lot of weight, and often her word became decisive.
Most Greek husbands had connections on the side. This was not considered shameful, especially if they were on travel. But a second marriage was not welcomed.
The houses in which the Dorians lived were not small. They consisted of a large number of rooms, bedrooms, weapons storage. There was even a hall with columns. This was the main room of the house. In it, the family gathered to discuss problems, solve cases.
Homer portrayed people who lived in marriage as very happy and sincerely loving each other. Women who were convicted of treason were punished quite severely. Women's betrayal was condemned by all, without exception.
Children of men were born not only from their wives, but also from concubines - slaves. All children were brought up on equal terms, lived together and had part of the father's capital after his death. The children of slaves who were born of free men received freedom, but they were given less inheritance than the rest, legitimate descendants.
Social life of the Ancient Greeks who lived in the 10th-8th centuries. BC, was full of all kinds of skirmishes, robberies and even murders. This is the fault of the imperfect social order. People sincerely hated each other even for the most harmless deeds. They poured out their anger as best they could. Often it came to bloodshed. There were practically no concepts of law, honor, mercy, moral principles, forgiveness.
In the foreground - military affairs, conquest, capture, plunder of foreigners. The most respected was the bravest warrior who brought rich booty to his homeland. None of the men had to shy away from the opportunity to fight and take part in military campaigns.
Homer's poems are filled with evidence of friendly relations between the ruler and the soldiers who defend the honor of the state. They were guests of honor at all feasts. At such festivities they sang a lot, danced and glorified the commanders. This significantly raised the spirit and gave moral strength for new campaigns.
Scientists have analyzed the archeology of that period
Cultural monuments of that time have not survived. The death of the Mycenaean civilization greatly shattered the canons of Greek culture. She stopped developing. The Dorian tribes, who invaded from the north, destroyed all important and major architectural monuments from the face of the earth. Palaces, buildings, statues were lost. Only the cemeteries remained. Scientists were able to conduct excavations and found that during that period the population was greatly reduced. Someone died at the hands of strangers, others fled and moved to other territories.
The tombs are poor. They are made of wood. Less often - made of bricks. It was then fashionable to create household items in a geometric style. Forms, ornaments on pots, vases, amphoras obeyed him. But towards the end Homeric era the drawings have become much more complex. Which testifies to the gradual revival and development of ancient Greek culture.
Music and musical instruments in ancient Greece
Music in Ancient Greece was one of the main arts. She had a huge impact on further development world music in general and Greek music in particular. Very little information about ancient Greek music has come down to us. Some of the plays have survived on parchment, papyrus, in the form of wall paintings in epigraphy, etc. Skoliy Seikila, 3 hymns of Mesomed, two hymns to Apollo have been completely preserved.
Sports events in Greece
Cycladic civilization - the grandmother of antiquity
In the southern part of the Aegean Sea is the Cyclades archipelago. In translation from the Greek language "Cyclades" means "lying in a circle". In ancient times, the Cyclades were covered with dense forests. The largest of them - Naxos, Paros, Andros and Tenos - were inhabited by the Ionians, and Melos, Feru and Antiparos were inhabited by the Dorians.
Ruins of Mycenae and the Lion's Gate
Thessaloniki in Greece. History, sights (part four)
Thessaloniki became an important center for the formation and spread of Christianity. The official end of the pagan era in the empire is the famous Theodosius decree of Theodosius (IV century). Apostle Paul preached Christianity in Thessaloniki during his travels in Greece. He founded a community in Thessaloniki, for which he wrote two of his famous epistles ("To the Thessalonians"). The First Epistle is believed to be the first written book of the New Testament.
In the XII-VIII centuries. BC e. the transition from the clan system to the state organization of the polis type took place. Some manifestations of this process can be found in the poems of Homer, which arose mainly in the 8th century. BC er ... The Greek tribes who came from the Balkans settled, apparently, in small clan groups headed by the elective leader - Basileus. To solve some common problems, the clans sometimes combined their forces, forming larger communities called phratries. An even greater union was the Phila tribe, which, like the phratry and the clan, derived its origin from one common ancestor. Along with the heads of the clans, there were also the leaders of the phratries and phyla - the Philobasileus mentioned by Homer, to whom the heads of the clans conceded part of their enormous power. When the ancient Aeda singer speaks of some kings as being more "regal" than others, or "most regal" of all, he is expressing differences in status between tribal leaders and heads of separate clans.
Under the clan system, elements of private property have long been widespread. Although the land was considered the common property of the genus, hunting prey, for example, or everyday objects belonged to the one who appropriated them. Livestock also constituted individual property. With the development of agriculture, crafts, trade and piracy, with the emergence of cities, where tribes that previously lived only in villages began to settle, individual wealth began to grow rapidly, and the rights of people to their property were strengthened. More and more enterprising people freed themselves from the power of the clan and its head, left their villages and began to manage completely independently. At the same time, property and social differentiation deepened.
As we know from the poems of Homer, in the VIII century. BC e. wealthy aristocracy had extensive land holdingsinherited and separated from the collective generic property. Representatives of this aristocracy sought to limit the power of the Philobasileus, to rule together with them. This is clearly seen in the "Odyssey", where the Phaeacian king Alkina manages all affairs together with 12 elected people for life basileus, occupying, rather, the position of the first among equals. The hereditary prerogatives of the supreme ruler act only as a relic of the clan system and cause resistance among the aristocracy. So, in Corinth, the aristocratic family of Bakhiads nominated a ruler who was elected for a year, obviously from the same wealthy and noble milieu, instead of the king for life. In Thessaly, the hereditary monarchy was replaced by an elective one. In Athens, the basileus was assisted first by the supreme commander - the polemarch, then the regent - the archon, and, finally, six judges - the Thesmophets. Over time, the power of the hereditary king was replaced by the power of an elected official who bore a double title - archon-basileus.
The main form of political organization of the Greeks was city-states, or city-states, ruled by the aristocracy. The center of the state was a city, most often formed as a result of the merger of several villages. So, Mantinea, according to the Greek geographer Strabo, arose from a combination of nine, Tegea - also nine, Patras - seven villages. Sparta, which included five villages, was such an artificially created complex of settlements (this measure, which had the goal of strengthening the defenses, was called synoikism). The most famous was the Athenian synekism, which legend attributed to King Theseus: twelve rural communities were merged into a single polis and thus deprived of political independence. With the emergence of a new organism, the old phyla did not cease to exist, but now they became constituent parts... We then find three Doric phylae in Sparta, Corinth, Sicyon and Crete, four Ionian phyla - in Athens, Ephesus, Miletus and other Ionian cities of the Aegean world.
Despite the fact that writing in the VIII century. BC e. was not yet widespread, it is to this time that, in all likelihood, belong two masterpieces of ancient Greek literature - "Iliad" and "Odyssey" by Homer. The fact that at the threshold of the centuries-old Greek literary tradition are two already so perfect works, makes us assume the previous long development of the epic, brilliantly crowned in the poems of Homer. The ancient turns of the epic language, the very image of the world in which heroes on chariots fight with bronze spears, lead us to the Mycenaean era, the era of the Achaean kings. The poems seem to ignore those great changes in the life of the Greeks, which were associated with the arrival of the Doric tribes, the destruction of Argos, Sparta, Mycenae, the formation of new forms of political organization and culture. The singer gazes with admiration at the distant time of the Achaean heroes, trying to convey to the audience a fascinating vision of a world that has long disappeared. An epic tradition was rooted in all its roots during the period of the Mycenaean culture. These songs, of which there should have been many, were sung then by the kings and soldiers themselves to the sounds of the forminga - a variety of cithara, as Achilles does in the Iliad. They sang about glorious victories, about events that boggle the imagination. One such event was undoubtedly the siege of Troy.
Later, chanting was replaced by recitation, and professionals appeared - aedy, or rhapsodes. The epic song was a treasure trove of traditional wisdom and traditional language, and included many ready-made formulas. Both masterpieces of ancient culture - "Iliad" and "Odyssey" were built from this traditional material. However, they are not completely immersed in the past, but are also addressed to their contemporary era. Although the heroes of Homer still fight with bronze spears, the poems mention the Phoenicians, with whom the Greeks before the beginning of the first millennium BC. e. did not have any contacts. The magnificent Phoenician vessels described by Homer correspond to those found by archaeologists and date back to the 8th century. BC e. The famous description of the shield of Achilles is more applicable to bronze shields in the Orientalizing style of the 8th century. BC e., discovered in Crete. For the same time, apparently, the use of both types of shields found in the Iliad was also characteristic: one - a long, Mycenaean, covering the whole warrior; the other is of a later, smaller size, round, with a metal pommel in the middle. Both types of shields are presented simultaneously on vessels of the geometric style of the 8th century. BC e. Even the bronze weapon of Homeric heroes, which has always been considered in science as evidence of a conscious "archaization" of the narrative, is not necessarily such: in 1953, bronze armor of the middle of the same 8th century was found intact in Argos. BC e. As can be seen from these and other examples, Homer draws material both in the distant Mycenaean past and in his contemporary world. The dominant position that the aristocracy occupies in his poems is also a reflection of the relations that prevailed not in the Achaean states, but in the Ionian policies of the Homeric era.
Reading the Iliad and the Odyssey, we observe an increase in property and social inequality, a weakening of the power of the clan and its head, the formation of a relatively numerous privileged stratum, claiming power along with the Basileus. Between the kings and the aristocracy, fighting in chariots, and the mass of lightly armed, simple foot soldiers, a deep abyss already lay. We see an unnamed demos, owners of small plots of land, persons who pay land rent, finally, hired laborers, day laborers employed in agriculture. The life of this lower stratum of free Greeks is only slightly better than death and afterlife torture, as Achilles says to Odysseus, who, according to him, preferred to work as a day laborer in a foreign land, with the poorest of the peasants, than to rule in the kingdom of the dead.
Like the Mycenaean tablets, Homer's poems tell about the specialization of the craft: about blacksmiths, masons, carpenters, shipbuilders. Slaves work hard alongside free people, and Homer's slavery still retains a domestic, patriarchal character. Slaves and female slaves perform various tasks around the house, but they are also engaged in agriculture, herding cattle. The economy is natural, it serves to meet the needs of one family; this explains the fact that slavery did not play then a significant role in the economy. The kings and aristocracy do not need to employ more slaves in their household: their needs are limited, and they themselves are not ashamed and do not shy away from physical labor. Odysseus's father, Laertes, tills the land, Penelope spins, Nausicaa washes clothes. Odysseus builds a raft, and Paris builds a whole palace. And yet the richer the king or the large landowner, the more slaves he has; Odysseus has 50 female slaves in his household. By singing the heroes of the past, the great realist Homer provides a clear picture of the social demarcation in the era when he lived. In the image of the daring Tersit, sowing discontent with the supreme leader Agamemnon among those besieging Troy, the imminent conflict between the kings, descended from the Olympian gods, and the masses of ordinary warriors was reflected.
Homer's ideals are aristocratic ideals, and he appeals to the bearers of aristocratic culture and self-awareness. It was this layer of listeners who especially liked the sonorous lines about the glorious and warlike kings born by Zeus, or about the punishment of the rebel Tersite by Odysseus. Homer's epic poems are a kind of code of aristocratic morality. The highest value for a noble warrior - an epic hero - is posthumous glory, the eternal memory of the name of a valiant soldier and his exploits. This memory is preserved by the singer-aed, who will pass it on to descendants. In the "Odyssey", such keepers of the legend about the heroic deeds of their ancestors are the singers Demodok at the court of King Alcinoy and Themias in the house of Odysseus. Their songs, like the poems of Homer himself, not only told about the past, but also brought up aristocratic youth on the examples of famous men of past centuries: if you want to be sung by the Aedami yourself, imitate in wisdom and valor the heroes who fought at Troy, or the wandering Odyssey, choose like Achilles, a short but glorious life instead of a long, but devoid of exploits.
Before us are the psychological and moral types of the aristocratic environment of the then Greek society. In the figure of Achilles, painfully experiencing an offense, yao indifferently / looking at the death of his fellow tribesmen from the pestilence, one can guess the type of a selfish and proud Ionian aristocrat. Likewise, in the figure of Odysseus wandering the seas, it is easy to recognize the features of the fearless Greek colonist of the 8th century. BC e., an experienced and enterprising person. Homer not only artistically recreates both of these types, but also clothe them in mythological attire. Over time, Homer's poems became for the Greeks something like sacred books, a canon of behavior and at the same time a source of knowledge about the past, as the historian Thucydides, for example, perceived the Iliad and Odyssey. This attitude to the epic as a treasury of all wisdom in general persisted for many centuries, until the very end of the ancient era, the allegorical interpretation of both poems was popular.
To some extent, it is also true that Herodotus remarked that Homer and Hesiod created the gods to the Greeks. Homer really so deeply inspired the Greeks with his idea of \u200b\u200bthe gods that they could never free themselves from this idea, and the greatest Greek sculptor of the 5th century. BC e. Phidias, creating his Olympian Zeus, was certainly under the impression of the poetry of the blind aeda. But in fact, the world of the Olympian gods and goddesses led by Zeus was not just a figment of the imagination of Homer or the poet Hesiod. The image of the Olympic pantheon was formed much earlier, when the Greek tribes who settled near Mount Olympus began to imagine that the mighty god of light and day reigns on the eternally shrouded peak of clouds; the Greeks brought this cult with them from the north. Of course, it is difficult to definitely judge what happened in the minds of people in such distant times, but the image of the magnificent Olympians gathering at the court of the Thunderer Zeus for a general council, having fun feasting all day from sunrise to sunset, marrying and quarreling among themselves, is too resembles the court life of the ancient rulers who lived at the foot of Olympus in Thessaly, so as not to see in the ideas of the Greeks about the Olympian gods a reflection of everyday life and the ideals of the Thessalian aristocracy. It was then that the ancient Greek pantheon began to take shape, which included some pre-Greek gods and goddesses, such as Athena, who became the warlike and wise daughter of Zeus in Hellenic mythology. However, many pre-Greek deities and the whole world of demons and spirits did not enter the new religious system. However, the new religion did not immediately prevail: echoes of the struggle against old pre-Greek beliefs are heard in the legend of titanomachy - the war of the titans, the sons of the goddess of the earth, with the Olympian gods. Legends reflecting a lengthy approval process new religion, the religion of Zeus, the religion of order and harmony, in the fight against the old belief in giants and titans, who personified primitive, unbridled, wild and blind forces, can be found in the poems of Homer and Hesiod.
In Homer, we find other traces of the most ancient religious beliefs. The epithets that he applies to Athena ("owl-eyed") and to Hera ("hair-eyed") go back to pre-Greek times, when the manifestations of divine power were seen in animals. Similar ideas about gods are seen in the Iliad and in the story of how Apollo and Athena, like birds, sat on the branches of a sacred oak near the gate of Troy. Although Zeus himself appears in the Iliad as the father of gods, people and the absolute ruler, he cannot command everything: the dark and mysterious power of Moir, the goddesses of fate, sets the limit of his power. The Olympian gods reign supreme, but they are not omnipotent and omniscient. But they are beautiful, illuminated with light, the imagination endows them with amazing plasticity, they inspire admiration. Homer's hero treats his gods not with fear, but with amazement and delight. These gods are close to people, for they themselves are, as it were, ennobled, "improved" people, creatures that differ from people only by immortality. The gods living on Olympus constantly communicate with ordinary mortals, participate in their lives: so, they all came to the wedding of Peleus with Thetis. But if the gods are similar to people, then people are with the gods: the favorite heroes of the Greeks, Diomedes, Ajax, Agamemnon, are godlike. In the eyes of the ancient Hellene, the greatness of the gods was not in the least diminished by the fact that they love and hate, like people, that Zeus recaptures mortal women from their husbands, and Hera is jealous of him. For in jealousy, as in hatred, in laughter, as well as in crying and groans, the beauty of life manifested itself, according to the Greeks - could the immortal Olympic gods be deprived of this beauty? Deprived of feelings, emotions, experiences inherent in all living, the gods would seem to the Greeks creatures more unhappy than people.
The hero of Homer is connected with the gods by his soul, they affect all his thoughts and actions. Here Achilles, angry with Agamemnon, is already grabbing the sword to fall on the hated offender, when suddenly some change occurs in his soul and he lowers the sword into its sheath. Homer explains what happened by the sudden appearance of the goddess Athena, who called on the hero to tame his anger. So the gods can influence any decisions of mortals, and in moments of doubt, give the heroes confidence and courage. However, there is nothing unnatural in the actions of the gods, nothing that would determine the line of behavior of people against their conscious will. Athena does not force Achilles to blindly fulfill the command of the gods, she appeals to his mind, urges him to obey. This naturalness of the behavior of the gods and the fact that each of them had a pronounced individuality in the minds of people, also did not remain without consequences for the thinking of the ancient Hellenes.
The Greek epic influenced not only the formation of local religious and ethical concepts, but also the entire European culture. His influence was reflected primarily in the creation of new literary forms of poetry, Greek and Roman. In Greece, the legacy of Homer lived both epic and tragedy, and to some extent all other literary genres. Homeric traditions persisted in the language of Greek poetry until the very end of ancient times. Without Homer, neither Virgil nor any of the many works of pseudo-classical epics would be unthinkable. Another thing is that other motives, which for Homer were something natural and stemmed from his worldview, such as the intervention of the gods in the lives of people, became in the later epic only technical means designed to facilitate the development of action, or remained as a traditional convention. like a relic. Homer was the creator of the epic technique, which was then used by all European literature without exception. But Homer also created a number of images that awakened the imagination of many prominent European poets. Let us name at least such Polish poets as Stanislaw Wyspianski, who wrote The Return of Odyssey under the influence of Homer, Adam Mickiewicz, who, creating the Polish national epic, a masterpiece of literature - the poem Pan Tadeusz, often deliberately struck the strings of the same blind aeda.