The Dark Age Patterns In Ancient Greece

In examining the impact that the ancient world has had on modern Western civilization, the two ancient civilizations which are frequently understood as having had the greatest influence are Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. These two civilizations would eventually come to shape much of what would become the modern European culture, politics and society, and by extension, a vast proportion of global culture and society. In examining the trajectory of modern history in an era of globalization of Western ideas and modes of living, the importance of these civilizations in world history is extensive, contributing to cultural, political and social trends which may well dominate the globe in the future.

The Bronze Age in Greece was a period of time in which their civilization flourished. They were a main power at the time and seemed to have everything they wanted in the palm of their hands. Many other civilizations have a period of time also known as the Bronze Age, however, the bronze age of Greece is widely known to be the most prolific and dominant in history. The Greece Bronze Age is estimated to have lasted from between 8th to 6th century BC to about 146BC. Nobody knows for sure the exact time period in which it began and ended. However, these are the dates that are most widely known to be accurate. No other civilization has been able to remain a dominant world power longer than this time period, which is why this is such an

According to Halperin, “the 'sexuality' of the classical Athenians...was constituted by the very principles on which Athenian public life was organized” (Halperin 419). By this he is referring to the fact that sexuality in the Ancient Athens society was socially constructed, but not in the way that it is understood to be socially constructed in modern thought. The so-called sexuality of the Ancient Greek peoples in Athens was directly related to how the society worked, how it was built and how it was understood. Halperin provides a quote from a French anthropologist who is named Maurice Godelier in order to make this point more apparent. This quote states that “it is not sexuality which haunts society, but society which haunts the body's sexuality” (Halperin 419). This statement re-emphasizes the fact that sexuality is a socially constructed concept, entirely dependant upon the society in which it is created in order to be best understood. The history of sexuality, therefore, is a brief history in the sense that the idea of sexuality is constantly being rethought and changed. Halperin sums up the concept of sexuality very well when he says that “[it]...is not a cause but an effect” (Halperin).

1. During the Mycenaean civilization, who was the great poet and what were his two important literary works that influenced the Greeks and formed part of Western literature? Homer, The Iliad, The Odyssey

Pederasty, or a homosexual relationship between an adult male and an adolescent male, was quite common in ancient Greek myth. For example, Pelops and Poseidon, as well as Zeus and Ganymede, were represented as lovers. But these bonds weren’t just mythological themes, they had real-life parallels at Olympia. Young male competitors participated in a variety of events ranging from racing to wrestling in the nude before a predominately male audience. Women also held roles as athletes and spectators.

Women’s role in Greece can be seen when one first begins to do research on the subject. The subject of women in Greece is coupled with the subject of slaves. This is the earliest classification of women in Greek society. Although women were treated differently from city to city the basic premise of that treatment never changed. Women were only useful for establishing a bloodline that could carry on the family name and give the proper last rites to the husband. However, women did form life long bonds with their husbands and found love in arranged marriages. Women in Athenian Society Women are “defined as near slaves, or as perpetual minors” in Athenian society (The Greek World, pg. 200). For women life didn’t

The treatment of the male appropriation of birth seems particularly partial. This whole chapter puts too much weight on the initiatory character of Greek pederasty and little on those anthropological of sex segregated societies the problems the distribution of evidence poses in classical Greece. Perhaps, in the historiographical introduction, where the pattern of fifth-century Greek history is said to confirm the larger hypothesis of a connection between state formation and the subordination of women produces forced and so unconvincing interpretations of important and complex texts and evidence. For those interested in ancient Greek scientific and medical views on human reproduction and the takeover of female lore about childbearing by Hippocratic gynecology to have had effects that extend to the present

In Recurring Dark Ages, Chew has a complex analogy that dark ages will occur resulting in a social collapse, and ironically there will be more than one. Certain aspects that are focused on when determining a dark age is; there will be an economic slowdown and the political stability is interrupted. Recurrences of a dark age is very likely because according to Chew it has already repeated 3 times. He brings up the collapse of the Roman Empire just like Dixon and analysis that the rapid growth will use to much energy. This will then lead to what he called de-urbanization; there will be people moving out of cities causing a decline due to limited resources compared to what there once was to keep people living. Movements to the country side became

As civilizations entered their classical period, they began to develop culturally. Agriculture was organized and succeeding and extensive trade routes, by land and water, connected civilizations. Goods were being exchanged and survival was no longer a prominent struggle. With this new found freedom from the burden of labor, some cultures moved towards a spiritual path and trying to find a meaning in the world, while others were succeeding economically and the citizens could live more comfortable lives. It was a period of prosperity in many ways and helped to create more compelling civilizations.

First is the Archaic period, and this one was at the time between 620 and 480 B.C. The Archaic period was after the Dark Ages and before the classical period. At this time, the Archaic period is showing the pottery and sculpture skills, which was more naturalistic and well developed on the classical Period. The written language and the knowledge were lost on the dark ages, but they were founded again on the Archaic Period. During this period of Greek art, There were two types of status, one was describing the youth called (kouroi) and the other one which was describing the maidens called (korai). (Kouros) was used to show the male figure and created in marble material. Some of these status were made larger than the human body, and the others

The immediate impact of Ancient Egyptian writing on Archaic Greece has never been completely recognized. Greek reasoning, specifically of the Classical Period, has particularly since the Renaissance has been comprehended as an incredible standard sprung out of the mastermind of the Greeks, the Greek wonder. Hellenocentrism was and still is an intense perspective, emphasizing the academic prevalence of the Greeks and thus of all societies directly connected with this Graeco-Roman legacy. Just as of late, and because of the basic chronicled approach, have researchers reexamined Greek Antiquity, to find another side of the Greek soul, with its well-known Dionysian and elitist Orphic secrets, enchanted schools (Pythagoras), chorals, verse poetric,

Homosexual conduct between a teacher and a student was considered a valuable part of the education process. Since the children were taken care of mostly by the government, it was important to establish a lasting relationship with someone that would teach you how to become a young man. The military supported homosexuality, as they thought that one would fight harder to protect his unit if he had a lover or multiple lovers in the same unit. It was also believed to bring about a sense of comradeship. "Similarly, the Greek attitude toward sex was, for the most part, value-neutral... And though exclusive homosexuality was probably discouraged as a threat to the family, it was widely tolerated both for older men who had children and for younger men prior to marriage."-(Blumenfeld and Raymond 1988. 155) Yet, as time went on, people who performed homosexual acts were considered polluted and to have become like women, and were therefore expelled from the military. The Greeks had double standards. Even though they recognized passion and attraction towards the same sex, those who were not attracted to women were not tolerated. Therefore, if a man was homosexual, he had to already have a wife and children. These double standards came from the fact that the society had to reproduce in order to survive. Homosexuality was only tolerated if both of the men have already established a family and met their obligations to reproduce. Social status was also

The society of the ancient Greeks in The Odyssey, by Homer, is different than the one that we know today. The currency, transportation, and technology were all different. Another part of society that was also different was gender roles. For instance, women were bound to the home and men were able to do pretty much anything they pleased. Double standards arose—a man could travel by himself and be praised for getting to see the world, while a woman who did the same was berated and reckoned by others as a vixen. The greatest double standard of all in The Odyssey, though—and perhaps the most frustrating—is that men were allowed to go on sexual voyages while women were expected to remain chaste and faithful. Examples of this double standard

In the article, Environmental Degradation in Ancient Greece, Curtis Runnels creates and describes his hypothesis on the landscape of Greece. He believes that the majority of the bareness of the land is Greece was caused by humans and their actions instead of the natural degradation. In the article, Runnels set up a couple experiments to dig deeper into his research. One of his experiments looked at massive areas of land so that he could get an idea of the history of the location. The land that was used was called the Argive plain where they found a small amount of evidence that there was human activity back in the Middle Paleolithic period. It was brought to Runnels and his colleagues attention that when the agriculturists entered the Argive

The Ancient Greeks (800 B.C. to 500 B.C.) were known to participate in anal sex. Their acts mostly involved two males. The interesting part is that lots of anal sex took place between young teen and older man. The older man would usually be in his mid-to-late 20s and the young man would be any age after puberty up to 18. This is called Pederasty (Holmen 2010). The Greeks, for the most part, did not condemn or criticize the act, but the actually encouraged, or at least permitted, it. Older men desired for sex, and viewed their wives as just the child-bearer. They looked to young men to appease their sexual desires. Younger males would seek mentorship, and the older males would teach them (Holmen 2010; Miko 2016). Many societies in Ancient Greece saw anal sex between males of different age groups as a rite-of-passage.