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Rise of the polis

• A polis is a city-state. We often have an Atheno-centric view when we think of a typical Greek city. But
Sparta, another Greek city-state, had little there. They didn’t have a democracy as it was in Athens.
• Settlements become more centralized, villages join together-synoecism
• Sense of city identity over clan loyalties
• The polis a self-governing city-state. There was a vision of how the city-state was to be.
• Urban center-astu; surrounding territory-chora.

Rise of Panhellenic Sanctuary: where the gods would dwell. The gods had their own income, their own
priests as servants. This is quite unique from ANE where the gods were viewed as sovereigns. This evens
out the playing field in a way, in terms of the Greeks. Zeus was the king.
• Major cult centers far from powerful cities -- there apart from the city system. They, in a way, become
neutral zones. Instead of being controlled by a particular city or family, many people would come to
these cult centers for sacrifice, competition, and other things. In antiquity competition was king! At the
panhellenic zone, like Olympia, you can have a place of competition without violence.
• Delphi (associated with Apollo, one of the most popular places), Olympia, Dodona, Delos (island
sanctuary associated with Apollo)
• Greeks from all over make dedications there
• Home of great contests where Greeks compete
• Develop a sense of common Greek identity and city individuality -- do these Greeks understand each
other? Yes. Coming together at these sanctuaries they share a similar interests. But gods could be
worshiped differently at each sanctuary. But when literature arose, we see similar touchstones (e.g.,
Hesiod, Homer, etc.).

Frogs around a pond: colonies

• Trade and need for land send Greeks searching for new homes (800-500) -- they thought they had lots
of good land with the islands, etc.
• Euboeans seek metals in Italy-Pithekussai -- they look for different resources.
• Little arable land in Greece, and land divided between sons
• Chalkidians and Corinthians in Sicily -- generally one city would form a colony.
• Achaeans colonize South Italy
• Milesians colonize Black Sea

Metropolis -- “mother city”

Greek colonies 750-500 BCE:

Colonization: characteristics
• Decision to send out colonists official
• Original city becomes mother-city (metropolis) to colony (apoikia, “a home away from home”)
• Metropolis sends out founder-oikistes -- his responsibility is that the foundation of the colony should be
carried through.
• Founder makes plans, leads colonization, receives heroic honors after death (sacrifices)
• New polis owes honor to mother city -- expectations of sacrifices, open to following colonists from the
mother city. It’s not completely independent.
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Characteristics continued -- One way to start a new colony would be to consult the oracle. Colonists had
an equal share of land. This gives a colonist a higher status he wouldn’t otherwise have in a big city.
• Delphic Oracle consulted
• Factional strife, scarce resources, and desire for an equal share motivate colonization -- Ithaca, e.g.,
without a king, is in chaos.
• Kleros-original colonists get equal share of land
• Grid plans adopted in colonies, earliest evidence of city planning -- notice the picture (legos implanted
on the land. It was simple organization. Sometimes in their colonization, arriving at an empty
landscape, people would fight for their claimed land. Grids as they had set up it was easier to defend
their land.

Theran Founder’s Decree -- this is inscribed in stone

“Resolved by the Assembly. Since Apollo spontaneously told Battos and the Therans to colonize Cyrene, it
has been decided by the Therans to send Battos off to Libya, as Archagetes [founder] and as King, with the
Therans to sail as his Companions. On equal and fair terms shall they sail according to family, with one
son to be conscripted [from each household]…If they establish the settlement, kinsmen who sail later to
Libya shall be entitled to citizenship and offices and shall be allotted portions of land which has no
owner…”

Greek Tyrants
• Men who seize power by irregular means -- they aren’t always bad guys, but they didn’t get power the
traditional and usual ways.
• Corinth: Cypselus; Athens: Peisistratus -- Peisistratus came to power after the failure of some reforms
by Solon. He tried to save Athenian society by reforming but failed. Factions arose. Peisistratus seized
control. He pretends he is beat up and he is given a body-guard. Then he immediately turns around
and seizes control of the Acropolis but he didn’t succeed at first but he eventually did. In order to keep
power he goes about undermining others’ power of emerging leaders. He also is responsible of public
works -- public buildings, etc. Tragedy/drama arises from public theaters, buildings, etc. This is when
Peisistratus was in power. Great Greek tragedies were during this time. Peisistratus is behind all this.
What does this mean? People of lower class of Greek societies were dependent upon aristocracies.
Peisistratus’ reforms changes Athenian society so that the center of life is in Athens itself. There is now
a collective identity. So tyrants do have good things to do.
• Takes power from aristocrats, empowers men of new wealth
• Funds public works [diolkos], sponsors new festivals [Great Dionysia]
• Gives city new sense of collective identity apart from aristocracy

Tyrants’ downfall -- the party doesn’t last! Tyrants have a simple plan -- the city has a broken system and
I’m going to fix it. Then when the problem is fixed people were wondering why the tyrants hold onto
power and pass it on to their sons.
• When reason for tyranny gone, tyrants try to hold onto power
• Second generation always depicted as worse than first
• Corinth: Periander; Athens: Hippias -- these guys were thrown out. But the cities have a sense of
identity to carry on.
• People with newfound sense of power throw tyrants out: Harmodius & Aristogeiton

Hoplite warfare -- most cities didn’t spend much time in training. The exception was Sparta. They were
professional at what they did -- they always were training for battle. Others were afraid of the Spartans.
As wealth increases, more men can arm for battle
Metal helmet, large round shield, corselet, greaves, thrusting spear
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Requires minimal training

Phalanx formation: a line of bronzed men to smash into the enemy
Ability to fight leads to push for political say

Homer’s Odyssey
Iliad -- focuses on Achilles and the battle for Troy. Odyssey -- the nostos, the returning home. There is
more of a female presence in the Odyssey. So there are vast differences. In the Greek there are several
places in the Odyssey that refer back to the Iliad.
(1) There are more female provocative characters in the Odyssey.
(2) Many settings take place at the oikos -- the home.

Lecture objectives
• To understand the distinction between the Iliad and Odyssey
• Discover Odysseus, the quintessential example of the Greek spirit -- what is so appealing about learning
about Odysseus. At the beginning of the poem it speaks of Odysseus, the wandering hero, cunning.
Cunning -- polytropos -- “many ways.” He is flexible and versatile. This is a great characteristic for
Odysseus to have in the story.
• To appreciate Odyssey’s impact on Western culture -- who else was influenced by Homer? Virgil,
stories of Jesus (?), Orpheus (see Ovid), Dante (Pergatorio)... George Lucas (!)

Major themes of poem

• Nostos- the homecoming of heroes from Troy. Can relate to the period of the dark age -- a decline in
population, a time of disparity, chaos at home.
• Rites of passage- Telemachus becomes a man. Prominent idea in anthropological works. One rite of
passage is transition from childhood to adulthood. Example -- Telemachus (with the help of Athena).
At the beginning Telemachus is kind of like a moody teenager (Luke in Star Wars!). Then the journey
to adulthood is complex and violent. Sort of an “initiation.” The violence is the education for the
transition to adulthood.
• Xenia- the guest-host relationship

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Lecture reading
The Odyssey
3 things of focus --
1. How Odysseus represents a new kind of hero.
2. Issues the poem raises about life after war.
3. What the poem says about growing up.

The Iliad is different from the Odyssey. Concerns in the Odyssey -- the health of communities and
stability of life. Iliad is conflict between enemies and supposed friends.
We don’t know who the author is. Who is this Homer dude? It wasn’t until the 6th cent BCE that
____ made these poems “canonical.” The material in the manuscripts are different from material from
other manuscripts. Textual tradition is shady.
How does Odysseus modify our term on hero? Odysseus is a hero of wit than simply with power
and muscle. Achilles is in quest of honor and immortal glory. A hero should be great with the spear,
sword, but also a great persuader. Iliad we don’t really see a great persuader. But in the Odyssey we do
see a persuader.
Contrast between Odysseus and Achilles is show at the scene when Achilles was sulking at his
ship. Phoenix reminds Achilles both sides of the hero. A hero is a speaker of words and a doer of
deeds. In the Iliad Odysseus is both a hero of words and deeds.
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Achilles’ life is simple and ends quickly. Odysseus endures and goes about day to day. He is faced
with more complex problems -- problems he deals with his wit. Odysseus is western culture’s “proto-
scientist.” When he arrives at a place he wants to know everything about the people and the land. Often
he will find out that customs differ. The empiricism was encountered everyday with Greeks traveling by
sea and land, encountering different cultures. And it was a treacherous environment. So one had to be
witty and clever to survive.
When Calypso tells him he is free to leave the island, Odysseus asks what new evil is in store for
him. He wants to know “what gives?” He questions even the gods themselves. This is an important part
of western culture -- questioning everything. Could this be the beginning of atheism? Odysseus was
certainly no atheist. But he tried to make sense of the world and the gods’ will. How does he avoid
offending the gods? He won’t neglect making the sacrifices to the gods. Heros are concerned with
meeting a god in disguise. Telemachus is approached by Athena disguised as Mentes. So basically,
Odysseus was covering his bases.
To the Greeks, a human being could actually play the part of a god. “That quality is god/divine.”
Throughout the years in Greek and Roman literature we see divine figures seen as humans encountering
people; the people will worship them and do good deeds to them. So this might seem crazy to us when
people worship another human figure. But it wasn’t crazy for them since this concept goes back to the
Odyssey.
The Greeks were great travelers and explorers. Heroditus was a traveler and wanted to know how
the world worked.
Odysseus wants to hear the sirens, when he is traveling on sea. He wants to do something that
hasn’t been done before. Odysseus and his questing spirit wants to explore so that he can tell the tale. He,
like Orpheus, visits the spirits of the dead... This is a pillar of western thought. A journey can be seen as a
spiritual quest, a spiritual biography.
Part of this exploration is born out of Greek colonization. Odysseus is interested in seeing places
inhabited and seeing it develop in the near future. When you see a community built from the ground up
and see it grow, you look at it from a different perspective.
From reading the Poem, what does Odysseus find which makes communities work. The
Lotus-eaters (they sit around and just want him to stay), the Phaeacians -- the only thing making them
worthwhile is their ability to travel. But Poseidon forever traps them in one place. Phaeacia is almost like
a never-never land. When you go into the palace it is like Disneyland (?).
A community that works, from a Greek point of view, is when the patriarch is head of the family
and is doing his duty.
The island of the Cyclopes -- no respect for the gods. This doesn’t work with the Greek point of
view. They don’t have a real agriculture -- just sheep. In Greek society if you don’t come together to
discuss how things are going, there won’t be good communication, etc. So with the Cyclopes.

The Household -- Odysseus is also a domestic hero. Autarchy -- the idea of the Greek noble was to
provide for yourself as much as possible -- provide your food, tend to the flocks, herds, etc. The big
conflict at home in Ithaca the suitors are not self-sufficient, eating away the inheritance of Telemachus.
They abuse this custom.
The price of Odysseus’ absence is a kingdom in shambles. The youth is running amuck. How do
you deal with this? Unlike Achilles, Odysseus knows how to test people around him and, with the help of
Athena, he does so. Essentially, Odysseus cannot trust anyone since he had been away for so long. So he
is prepared for the worst.

2. Life after war

War is simply part of life as we see in the Iliad and in real life. War is depicted in Achilles’ shield. The
painting on the slide, there is a Latin phrase which means is “Even in Paradise, bad things happen.” That
is what is on Achilles’ shield. But we always want to end war.
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With Telemachus, we still see a child because Odysseus has been gone most of his life. But
Athena comes down and spurs him on to become a man.
The murder of Agamemnon stands as a worst case scenario. Aegisthus and Orestes. ... What can
Odysseus learn from Agamemnon -- people at peace do not live the life of the warrior. Clydemnestra was
ticked off by Agamenon because he sacrifices Clyde’s daughter. Agamemnon says that it was the will of
Poseidon. So Agamemnon tricks Clydemnestra into thinking it was a wedding, but actually has in mind
to sacrifice to the gods.
Notice the pattern: Agamemnon sacrifices a girl, and bring backs a woman from Troy. Odysseus
cannot bring the battlefield home with him. Odysseus tests the waters -- he tests people. He assesses his
land, his flocks, and finally gets to know his son.
Adjusting to life after war is also a problem today -- post-traumatic stress syndrome. Odysseus, in
a way, goes crazy when he comes home and slaughters the suitors. Penelope thinks he is crazy. It takes
the gods to stop him. They intervene to stop the conflict. If you keep going on with the violence,
something has to break the pattern. Zeus sends a lightning bolt to startle Odysseus. They come down,
Zeus and Athena, and stop what’s going on. There must be an alternative solution -- dealing with the
problems of internal violence.

Menelaus and Helen: how did they interact with the stories and with each other. There are two different
tales about Troy. Helen says that she saw Odysseus and she promised not to tell when he was in the city.
Menelaus tells of the story when he and some of the other men were in the wooden horse. Some of it were
conflicting view points, but they deal with it in a humorous way. So in the household you can have
different perspectives but deal with them without violence.

“When Winning isn’t Winning” -- subtitle for the Odyssey. Achilles questioned the war for the taking
back of the wife of Menelaus. But then Patroclus was killed. Many of the heros, as we see in the Odyssey,
didn’t return home. What does it mean to succeed? To kill more people? What is the objective for going
to war? With the Trojan war? According to the poem it was because of Helen. Did the Greeks win? Yes,
but was it worth the cost? No. It really wasn’t a great result from all their loss. Did it even matter?
Achilles says to Odysseus that he would rather be a lowly worker at a farm than be the ruler of the dead.
In the end it meant nothing and unsatisfying to him. It was an empty and bitter concept. He eventually
chose life over glory (but he dies anyway).
How is Telemachus a hero in the Odyssey? He help keeps things together while his father is away.
He is coming of age. A rite of passage. At the end father and son are fighting side by side. The most
apparent sign is the stringing of the bow. When Telemachus is about to string the bow he’s interrupted by
his father he shoots the suitors with arrows. Telemachus was about to fill the shoes of his father.