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MDS2/3 TGW

Ancient Greece: The Greek Renaissance

Gillian  Shepherd  

Lion Gate, Mycenae NB Linear B script (syllabary)

Photo  ©  Gillian  Shepherd  

Fall of the Mycenaean Civilisation •  c. 1200 BC •  Palaces at Mycenae, Pylos, Tiryns destroyed by fire, other sites

are abandoned •  Only at Tiryns was there later palace construction •  Many features of palatial culture lost, including:

–  Writing (and administration) –  Monumental architecture and stone carving –  Wall painting –  Trade with eastern Mediterranean

•  BUT there is also much continuity, e.g. in pottery styles, settlement occupation

•  Enter the Dark Ages…

The 8th century BC: The “Renaissance” of Ancient Greece?

•  Burials •  Settlement patterns •  Technology (monumental art and building

especially from 7th cent. BC) •  Sanctuaries and religion •  Overseas contacts (settlement and trade) •  Literacy

Image source: http://cw.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415469920/images.asp (after Snodgrass 1980, fig. 4)

Burials in Athens, Attica and Argos c. 950-700 BC

Image source: http://cw.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415469920/images.asp Image  source:  h8p://cw.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415469920/images.asp  

Dark Age sites in Attica occupied prior to 800 BC Sites in Attica occupied in the 8th cent. BC

Image source: http://www.trentu.ca/faculty/rfitzsimons/AHCL2200Y/LE%2006-03.htm

Heraion, Samos, 8th cent. BC “Hekatompedon” ie 100 Greek feet

Sanctuary site/ Dedication type

11th-10th cents BC

9th/early 8th cents BC

Later 8th/7th cents BC

Philia (Thessaly) Bronze fibulae

0 2 1783+

Philia (Thessaly) Bronze pins

1 4 37

Perachora Bronze fibulae

7 1 50+

Perachora Bronze pins

0 15 81

Argive Heraion Bronze fibulae

16 10 88

Argive Heraion Bronze pins

3 c. 250 c. 3070

Lindos (Rhodes) Bronze fibulae

0 52 1540

Lindos (Rhodes) Bronze pins

0 0 42

Dedications of bronze pins and fibulae at Greek sanctuaries (after Snodgrass 1980, p. 53)

Stadium, Olympia Photo © Gillian Shepherd

Bronze tripod-cauldron from Olympia 8th cent. BC Image  not  available  

for  copyright  reasons  

Greek settlement around the Mediterranean Greek settlement around the Mediterranean

Image source: http://www.platos-academy.com/archives/magna_graecia.html

Greek Settlements in Sicily and Italy For mother-cities and foundation dates see esp. Thucydides Book 6 (Sicily)

Image source: http://www.utexas.edu/courses/greeksahoy!/maps.html

Greek settlements in Sicily and Southern Italy

Some major Western Greek sites City Mother-city Date Oikist Source

Naxos Chalcis 734 BC Thukles Thuc. VI.3

Syracuse Corinth 733 BC Archias Thuc. VI.3

Megara Hyblaea

Megara 728 BC Lamis Thuc. VI.4

Taras Sparta 706 BC Phalanthos Strabo 278

Gela Rhodes Crete

688 BC Antiphemos Entimos

Thuc. VI.4

Selinus Megara Hyblaea

628 BC Pammilos Thuc. VI.4

Poseidonia Sybaris Late 7th cent. ? Strabo 252

Akragas Gela 580 BC Aristonous Pystilos

Thuc. VI.4

Theories for colonisation

•  Trade (“Trade before the flag”) •  Overpopulation •  Political dissatisfaction

Pithekoussai (Ischia) Founded c. 750 BC (Euboeans) Cf. Livy 8.22.5-6; Strabo 5.4.9

Bone-and-amber fibula

Photo © Gillian Shepherd

Ischia from Cumae (on the Italian mainland, founded c. 750) Photo  ©  Gillian  Shepherd  

Agricultural land around Selinus, Sicily

Photo  ©  Gillian  Shepherd  

Thera (Santorini)

Cyrene (Libya, c. 630 BC))

Image  source  page:  h8p://staKc.travel.usnews.com/images/desKnaKons/73/santorini_main_image_-­‐_revamp_cropped_445x280.jpg  

Image  source  page:  h8p://www.livius.org/a/libya/cyrene/cyrene_overview.jpg  

During the seven years that followed, not a drop of rain and every tree on the island, except one, withered and died. In this difficult situation the Therans sent to Delphi for advice and were reminded about the colony which they had omitted to send to Libya… [the Therans send out a reconnaissance party] … it was thereupon decided to send a party to join the new colony; the party was to represent all the seven villages in Thera, and brothers were to draw lots to determine which should join in. It was to be under the sole authority of Battus. Two fifty-oared galleys then got underway…

Herod. 4.1.152-3

Corinth (Temple of Apollo, mid 6th cent. BC)

Image  source  page:  h8p://www.historvius.com/images/original/Corinth-­‐542.jpg  

Image  source  page:  h8p://www.gutenberg.org/files/14189/14189-­‐h/images/fig2.jpg  

Plan of ancient Piraeus

Hippodamos, the son of Euryphon, a Milesian (it was he who invented the dividing up of cities and cut up [ie applied a grid plan to] Piraeus…)… He also divided the area of the town into three parts, one of sacred land, one of public land and another of private land…

Aristotle, Politics 1267 b22

Megara Hyblaea (Megara, 728 BC; local Sikel King Hyblon; destroyed by Syracuse 483 BC)

Image  source  page:  h8p://www.sicilyontour.com/images/MegaraHyblaea.jpg  

Image  source  page:  h8p://www.utexas.edu/courses/greeksahoy!/megara_hyblaea_street.JPG  

Megara Hyblaea (plan of the archaic city)

Image  source  page:  h8p://archeoporVolio.efrome.it/Megara/PicturesGallery/promenade.jpg  

Megara Hyblaea (archaic city - detail)

Image  source  page:  h8p://archeoporVolio.efrome.it/Megara/PicturesGallery/promenade.jpg  

Temple G, Megara Hyblaea

Megara Hyblaea South Colonnaded Temple

Photo  ©  Gillian  Shepherd  

Photo  ©  Gillian  Shepherd  

South Colonnaded Temple, Megara Hyblaea Image  source  page:  h8p://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/Wrials/verres/syracuse1.jpg  

Ortygia, Syracuse Ancient street plan?

Image  not  available  for  copyright    reasons  

A new form of writing… •  The Phoenicians had devised a script of 22 phonetic

letters •  The Greeks adapted this script to represent their own

language •  They made one crucial innovation:

•  Reassigned five Phoenician signs for which Greek had no consonantal equivalent (such as ‘aleph’) as vowels (Phoenician was an alphabet of consonants)

•  Greek could now be written via an alphabet (rather than a syllabary, as in Linear B)  

Image source: http://codex99.com/typography/13.html

“Nestor’s Cup” (Pithekoussai, 750-700 BC)

Image source: http://codex99.com/typography/13.html

“I am Nestor’s cup, good to drink from. Whoever drinks from this cup will straightway be seized with a desire for fair-crowned Aphrodite”