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This third edition first published 2017
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CONTENTS

FOREWORD LOOKING BACKWARD

Reinventing Ancient Greek Civilization
Ancient Greece in Perspective: Time
Ancient Greece in Perspective: Space
Zetemata: Questions for Discussion
Recommended for Further Reading
Suggested Internet Resources

1 THE GREEKS AND THE BRONZE AGE

Cycladic Civilization
Minoan Civilization
The Greeks Speak Up
The Emergence of Mycenaean Civilization
The Character of Mycenaean Civilization
The End of Mycenaean Civilization
Zetemata: Questions for Discussion
Recommended for Further Reading
Suggested Internet Resources

2 IRON AGE GREECE

Dark Age Ceramic Ware
The Invention of the Alphabet
The Age of Expansion
The Polis
The Olympic Games
Zetemata: Questions for Discussion
Recommended for Further Reading
Suggested Internet Resources

3 THE POEMS OF HESIOD AND HOMER

The Poems of Hesiod
The Development of Hero Cult
The Poems of Homer
Zetemata: Questions for Discussion
Recommended for Further Reading
Suggested Internet Resources

4 POETRY AND SCULPTURE OF THE ARCHAIC PERIOD

The Human Figure in Archaic Art
Lyric Poetry of Archaic Greece
Zetemata: Questions for Discussion
Recommended for Further Reading
Suggested Internet Resources

5 SYMPOSIA, SEALS, AND CERAMICS IN THE ARCHAIC PERIOD

The Symposium
Seals
Tyranny
Ceramics
Zetemata: Questions for Discussion
Recommended for Further Reading
Suggested Internet Resources

6 THE BIRTH OF PHILOSOPHY AND THE PERSIAN WARS

Miletus and the Beginnings of Philosophy
The Agora
The Ionian Revolt (499–494 BC)
The Persian Wars: Marathon
The Persian Wars: Thermopylae, Salamis, and Plataea
Zetemata: Questions for Discussion
Recommended for Further Reading
Suggested Internet Resources

7 SETTING THE STAGE FOR DEMOCRACY

The Development of Spartan Oligarchy
The Development of Democracy in Athens: Solon
Other Persons: Slavery and Democracy
The Development of Democracy in Athens: Cleisthenes
Ostracism
The Delian League
The Dionysia and the Drama of Aeschylus
Zetemata: Questions for Discussion
Recommended for Further Reading
Suggested Internet Resources

8 HISTORY AND TRAGEDY IN THE FIFTH CENTURY

Herodotus and the Invention of History
Books and Readers
Sophocles
Other Persons: Women and Athenian Democracy
Zetemata: Questions for Discussion
Recommended for Further Reading
Suggested Internet Resources

9 THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR: A TALE OF THUCYDIDES

Thucydides and the Writing of the Peloponnesian War
Diagnosis and Prognosis
The Invention of “the Classical”
Zetemata: Questions for Discussion
Recommended for Further Reading
Suggested Internet Resources

10 STAGE AND LAW COURT IN LATE FIFTH-CENTURY ATHENS

Euripides
Aristophanes
Socrates
Zetemata: Questions for Discussion
Recommended for Further Reading
Suggested Internet Resources

11 THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE GREEK WORLD IN THE FOURTH CENTURY

Plato’s Bright Ideas
Attic Oratory in the Fifth and Fourth Centuries
Philip II of Macedon and the Subjugation of Greece
Alexander the Great and the Conquest of Asia
Zetemata: Questions for Discussion
Recommended for Further Reading
Suggested Internet Resources

12 GREEK CULTURE IN THE HELLENISTIC PERIOD

Political Life and the Polis
Hellenistic Literature
Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics
Hellenistic Art
Zetemata: Questions for Discussion
Recommended for Further Reading
Suggested Internet Resources

AFTERWORD LOOKING FORWARD

GLOSSARY

INDEX

EULA

List of Figures

Foreword

Figure 1 Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472–1553), The Judgment of Paris, oil on wood; 102 × 71 cm, ca. 1528.
Figure 2 Attic black-figure tripod-jar showing Hermes (center) leading Athena, Hera, and Aphrodite to Paris (right) for judgment; height 14 cm, ca. 570 BC. Paris, Musée du Louvre, CA 616 C.
Figure 3 Print of The Judgment of Paris, a book stamp for Fritz Waerndorfer designed by Koloman Moser, Austria, 1903; 30.5 × 25.4 cm. London, Victoria and Albert Museum, E.1209–1965, given by Mr. Peter G. Wentworth-Shields.

Chapter 1

Figure 4 The word for “night” in some Indo-European and non-Indo-European languages.
Figure 5 Marble Cycladic figurine, front and side views; height 21 cm, ca. 2400–2100 BC.
Figure 6 Plan of the Minoan palace at Cnossus, ca. 1600–1500 BC. Reprinted with the permission of Cambridge University Press from O. Dickinson, The Aegean Bronze Age (Cambridge 1994), fig. 5.26.
Figure 7 ASTER image of Santorini (Thera) taken on November 21, 2000 from NASA’s Terra spacecraft.
Figure 8 Detail of fresco from Akrotiri, Thera (Santorini), ca. 1700 BC. Museum of Prehistoric Thera.
Figure 9 Linear B tablet Ue 611 from Mycenae, ca. 1200 BC. The four lines of text read (from left to right):
Figure 10 Plan, drawn by Heinrich Sulze, of the Mycenaean palace at Tiryns, thirteenth century BC.
Figure 11 Bronze dagger blade inlaid in gold, silver, and niello from the tomb IV at Mycenae, now in the National Archaeological Museum, Athens; length 22.9 cm, 1650–1600 BC.
Figure 12 Limestone STELE (grave marker) from Grave Circle A at Mycenae, with scene of warfare or hunting; height 1.33 m, 1650–1600 BC. Athens, National Archaeological Museum, 1428.
Figure 13 Middle Minoan ceramic jar from Phaistos, Crete; height 50 cm, seventeenth or eighteenth century BC. Archaeological Museum of Herakleion. Source: © 2015 Marie Mauzy / Scala, Florence.
Figure 14 Interior of tholos tomb at Mycenae, called the “Treasury of Atreus,” thirteenth century BC. Source: © Peter Eastland / Alamy Stock Photo.
Figure 15 “Treasury of Atreus,” plan and sections, drawn by Piet de Jong.
Figure 16 Fragment of fresco from Mycenae, showing dog-headed demons in procession; width of fragment ca. 11.5 cm, thirteenth century BC. Athens, National Archaeological Museum.

Chapter 2

Figure 17 Protogeometric amphora from the Kerameikos cemetery in Athens; height 39.9 cm, ca. 975 BC. Athens, Kerameikos, Inv. 1073.
Figure 18 Late Geometric amphora from the Dipylon cemetery in Athens; height 1.55 m, ca. 750 BC. Athens, National Archaeological Museum, Inv. 804.
Figure 19 The development of the Greek alphabet from Phoenician script.
Figure 20 Modern reconstruction of bronze tripod “with ears” of the eighth century BC; height 1.54 m. Olympia, Archaeological Museum.

Chapter 3

Figure 21 Interior of black-figure Laconian cup by the Arkesilas Painter, showing Atlas (left) and the punishment of Prometheus; diameter of cup 20.2 cm, ca. 565–550 BC. Vatican Museums, Museo Gregoriano Etrusco, Inv. 16592.
Figure 22 Axonometric drawing of the “Heroon” at Lefkandi as reconstructed, 1000–950 BC.

Chapter 4

Figure 23 Stone statue of Egyptian King Menkaure (Mycerinus) and his queen; height 1.422 m, 2490–2472 BC. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts 11.1738.
Figure 24 Attic marble statue of a young man (“kouros”); height 1.946 m, ca. 590–580 BC. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fletcher Fund, 1932 (32.11.1).
Figure 25 Marble statue of a young woman (“kore”); height 0.55 m, ca. 520 BC. Athens, Acropolis Museum, no. 675.
Figure 26 Fragment of papyrus from Egypt with a poem by Sappho copied on it, later used as wrapping for a mummy, Papyrussammlung Inv. 21351 + 21376 recto; text first published in 2004; early third century BC.
Figure 27 Detail of Protocorinthian pitcher (the “Chigi Vase”); height of figured band 5 cm, ca. 640 BC. Rome, Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia, no. 22679.

Chapter 5

Figure 28 Exterior of red-figure cup, attributed to the Brygos Painter, showing wreathed symposiasts accompanied by female entertainers, one playing the aulos and one holding a wine cup similar in shape to the one on which the scene is painted; diameter of cup 32 cm, ca. 490–480 BC. London, British Museum, GR 1848.6–19.7 (Vases E 68).
Figure 29 Minoan green jasper seal stone from Crete and plaster impression of the same (top), showing two dolphins swimming; diameter 15 mm, early second millennium BC. Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, AN1941.91.
Figure 30 Obverse of silver coin, perhaps from the island of Thera, showing two dolphins swimming; diameter 21 mm, ca. 550–525 BC.
Figure 31 Engraved chalcedony scarab, showing a satyr with vessels for wine; length 16 mm, ca. 500 BC. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, 67.624, Frederick Brown Fund.
Figure 32 Obverse of Panathenaic prize amphora attributed to the Berlin Painter, showing Athena; height 62.4 cm, ca. 500–490 BC. Princeton University Art Museum, Bequest of Mrs. Allan Marquand.
Figure 33 Reverse of Figure 32, showing a competitor in the four-horse chariot race. Princeton University Art Museum, Bequest of Mrs. Allan Marquand.
Figure 34 Attic black-figure amphora signed, “Exekias made and painted me,” showing Ajax and Achilles (both labeled) playing dice; height 61.1 cm, ca. 540–530 BC. Vatican Museums, Museo Gregoriano Etrusco, Inv. 16757.
Figure 35 Interior of Attic red-figure cup by the Epidromos Painter, showing two men about to sacrifice a pig; diameter of cup 19.8 cm, ca. 510–500 BC. Paris, Musée du Louvre, G 112.

Chapter 6

Figure 36 Attic red-figure amphora, showing a hoplite spearing a Persian warrior who holds a bow and a sword; height 34.8 cm, ca. 480–470 BC. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 1906 (06.1021.117).
Figure 37 Attic black-figure cup, showing warship with two banks of oars (right) about to ram a merchant vessel; height of cup 8.4 cm, late sixth century BC. London, British Museum, Vases B 436.
Figure 38 The Olympias, a full-scale reconstruction of an ancient trireme, built in 1985–7 to test the properties of such a vessel under actual sailing conditions.

Chapter 7

Figure 39 Town plan of Miletus, fifth century BC.
Figure 40 The arrangement of the 30 Cleisthenic trittyes, based on the table in J. S. Traill, Demos and Trittys: Epigraphical and Topographical Studies in the Organization of Attica (Toronto 1986), 110. (Not all of the names of trittyes are certain.)
Figure 41 Ostrakon from Athens (P 9950), inscribed “Themistocles (son) of Neocles of (the deme) Phrearrhioi,” with the name and the deme misspelled (“Themisthocles,” “Phrerrhios”); width 10 cm, 480s or 470s BC.
Figure 42 Fragment of an inscription on marble listing the allies of Athens and the sixtieth part of each city’s monetary contribution that was dedicated to Athena; 440–439 BC. New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fletcher Fund, 1926.
Figure 43 Red-figure bell krater by the Christie Painter, showing Dionysus flanked by a MAENAD and a satyr; height 29.2 cm, ca. 440 BC. Baltimore, The Walters Art Museum, 48.74.

Chapter 8

Figure 44 Attic red-figure hydria (water pitcher), by a painter of the Group of Polygnotus, showing the poet Sappho holding open and reading a roll; height of vase 40 cm, 440–430 BC. Athens, National Archaeological Museum, 1260.
Figure 45 Attic black-figure amphora by Exekias, showing Ajax preparing to commit suicide; height of vase 61 cm, ca. 530 BC. Boulogne-sur-mer, Château-Musée, 558.
Figure 46 Attic red-figure vessel by Sotades in the form of a knucklebone, showing women or divinities flying; length 16.51 cm, ca. 470–450 BC. London, British Museum, 1860,1201.2.

Chapter 9

Figure 47 Plan of the acropolis in Athens in the second century AD (1 = Parthenon, 2 = Erechtheum, 3 = Propylaea, 4 = Temple of Athena Nike, 5 = Sanctuary and Theater of Dionysus).
Figure 48 Plan, drawn by Gottfried Gruben, of the Parthenon in Athens; length 72.3 m, width 33.7 m, 447–432 BC.
Figure 49 The Parthenon as seen from the northwest.
Figure 50 Plaster cast, made ca. 1790 before the marble original suffered further damage, of the east frieze of the Parthenon, showing Poseidon, Apollo, and Artemis; height 106 cm, original (now in the Acropolis Museum, Athens) ca. 440–435 BC. Urbana, Spurlock Museum, 1911.03.0021.
Figure 51 Plaster cast of the south frieze of the Parthenon, showing sacrificial victim being led in procession; height 106 cm, original (now in the British Museum, London) ca. 440–435 BC. Urbana, Spurlock Museum, 1911.03.0010.
Figure 52 Plaster cast of the east frieze of the Parthenon, showing girls and men (serving as marshals?) in procession; height 106 cm, original (now in the Musée du Louvre, Paris) ca. 440–435 BC. Urbana, Spurlock Museum, 1911.03.0017.
Figure 53 The Erechtheum as seen from the west; width (north to south) 23.1 m, length (east to west) 26.9 m, ca. 421–405 BC.
Figure 54 The Temple of Athena Nike (right) seen from the northwest; length (north to south) 8.2 m, width (east to west) 5.4 m, ca. 424–418 BC.

Chapter 10

Figure 55 Terracotta figurine of a masked tragic actor portraying Heracles, T 862; height 8 cm, ca. 250 BC.
Figure 56 Lucanian red-figure calyx-krater attributed to the Policoro Painter, showing Medea in an airborne chariot drawn by serpents, with Jason (bottom left) and the bodies of their children (right); height of vase 50.5 cm, ca. 400 BC. The Cleveland Museum of Art.
Figure 57 Apulian red-figure bell-krater illustrating a scene from Aristophanes’ Thesmophoriazusae; height of vase 18.5 cm, 370s BC. Würzburg, Martin von Wagner Museum der Universität Würzburg.
Figure 58 Bronze figurine of a Spartan girl; height 11.4 cm, ca. 520–500 BC. London, British Museum, GR 1876.5–10.1 (Bronze 208).
Figure 59 Interior of red-figure cup, attributed to the Triptolemus Painter, showing a man carrying a provocatively phallic sack past a herm; diameter of figured scene 15.5 cm, ca. 490 BC. Berlin, Antikensammlung, F 2298.
Figure 60 Silver decadrachm of Syracuse, signed by Kimon, showing the nymph Arethusa with dolphins and a charioteer crowned by Nike; weight 43.36 g, 400–390 BC. London, British Museum, 1841,0726.288.

Chapter 11

Figure 61 Attic red-figure amphora attributed to the Berlin Painter, showing a rhapsode performing; height of vase 41.5 cm, ca. 490 BC. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fletcher Fund, 1956 (56.171.38).
Figure 62 Right triangle (α² + β² = γ²).
Figure 63 Detail of bronze krater discovered in 1962 at Derveni, near Thessaloniki, showing a satyr under a vine tendril; height of vase 0.91 m, mid-fourth century BC. Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki.
Figure 64 Monumental marble lion from Amphipolis; height of lion 5.3 m, late fourth century BC. Source: Fotolia / Author: vkara.
Figure 65 Digital restoration of interior of the Kasta Tomb, Amphipolis; late fourth century BC.
Figure 15 The campaigns of Alexander the Great.
Figure 66 Obverse of silver coin minted by Alexander’s successor Lysimachus, showing Alexander with ram’s horns. Ottilia Buerger Collection of Ancient and Byzantine Coins, Lawrence University, Appleton, WI. Source: Ottilia Buerger Collection of Ancient and Byzantine Coins, Lawrence University, Appleton, WI. Inv. 91.046.

Chapter 12

Figure 67 Detail of granodiorite statue of Queen Arsinoe II; height of statue 1.595 m, ca. 270–246 BC. Shigaraki, Miho Museum.
Figure 68 Obverse of gold coin minted by and showing in profile Ptolemy II and Arsinoe II. Ottilia Buerger Collection of Ancient and Byzantine Coins, Lawrence University, Appleton, WI.
Figure 69 Plan of Hellenistic city located at what is now Ai Khanoum, Afghanistan.
Figure 70 Marble relief by Archelaos showing (bottom) Homer being crowned by Time and Humanity and receiving worship at a round altar; height 1.18 m, ca. 200 BC. London, British Museum, 2191.
Figure 71 Bronze statuette of dancer; height 20.5 cm, third or second century BC. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Bequest of Walter C. Baker, 1971 (1972.118.95).
Figure 72 Plaster impression of an engraved garnet gemstone set in gold ring, inscribed “created by Gelon,” showing Aphrodite holding a shield and spear; 29 × 24 mm, late third century BC. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Francis Bartlett Donation, 21.1213.
Figure 73 Eratosthenes’ method of measuring the Earth’s circumference.
Figure 75 Reconstruction of the west side of the Great Altar of Zeus; width 36.44 m, first half of second century BC. Berlin, Pergamum Museum.
Figure 76 Part of the east frieze of the Great Altar of Zeus, showing Nike crowning Athena as she battles an unidentified giant, with Gaia (Earth, the mother of the giants) rising up to entreat her; height of frieze 2.3 m. Berlin, Pergamum Museum.
Figure 77 Part of the west frieze of the Great Altar of Zeus, showing the gods of the sea battling unidentified giants. Berlin, Pergamum Museum.
Figure 78 The Apoxyomenos by Lysippus: Roman copy in marble of bronze original (which needed no struts or braces); height of copy 2.05 m, original ca. 330 BC. Vatican Museums, Museo Pio Clementino, Inv. 1185.
Figure 79 Marble copy of an original statue, attributed to Doidalsas, depicting Aphrodite at her bath; height of copy 98 cm, original ca. 250 BC. Paris, Musée du Louvre, MA 2240.
Figure 80 Hollow-cast original bronze statue from the Classical Period, recovered in the 1920s from an ancient shipwreck, showing Zeus hurling a thunderbolt; height 2.09 m, ca. 460 BC. Athens, National Archaeological Museum, 15161.
Figure 81 Marble copy of an original bronze statue of a Gallic warrior and his wife; height of copy 2.11 m, original ca. 230–220 BC. Rome, Museo Nazionale Romano, Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, 8608.

Afterword

Figure 82 Royal ordinance on papyrus, dated February 23, 33 BC, granting tax privileges to a Roman citizen and bearing the handwritten approval of Cleopatra VII at the bottom right: “So be it.” Berlin, Aegyptisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Inv. P25239. Source: Photo: Margarete Buesing. © 2015. Photo Scala, Florence / bpk, Bildagentur für Kunst, Kultur und Geschichte, Berlin.
Figure 83 Life-size bronze head, perhaps of a philosopher, recovered in 1900 from the Antikythera shipwreck; height 29 cm, first century BC. Athens, National Archaeological Museum. Source: DEA / G. NIMATALLAH / De Agostini / Getty Images.
Figure 84 View of interior of the Stoa of Attalus II, in the agora of Athens, built ca. 150 BC and reconstructed between 1953 and 1956 by the American School of Classical Studies in Athens. Source: © Martin Garnham / Alamy Stock Photo.
Figure 86 A Greek prayer book with its thirteenth-century text written at right angles over the tenth-century text and diagrams of a work of Archimedes, as revealed by advanced imaging techniques. Private Collection, on display at The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. Source: Archimedes Palimpsest Image Bank. Image produced by the Rochester Institute of Technology, Equipoise Imaging and Boeing LTS. http://www.cis.rit.edu/people/faculty/easton/Archie/093v-092r/093v-092rsp-dime.jpg. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License 3.0 (CC BY-3.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ (sites accessed March 29, 2016).
Figure 87 Fragmentary marble SARCOPHAGUS, showing Christ (center) transmitting the law to Peter; 0.74 × 2.05 m, late fourth century AD. Rome, Museum of the Catacomb of St. Sebastian. Source: Photo PCSA Archives.
Figure 88 Detail of marble sarcophagus, with an inscription indicating that it was used as the last resting place for a Christian man, showing Orpheus playing the lyre; middle of the third century AD. Ostia Antica, Museum, Inv. 1202. Source: The Art Archive / Manuel Cohen.
Figure 89 Detail of fresco in the Catacomb of Saints Peter and Marcellinus in Rome, showing the sun god Sol driving his chariot through the heaven; early fourth century AD. Source: Photo PCSA Archives.

List of Maps