population. Perhaps of even greater importance, the nature of community organization had changed
radically between the beginning and the end of the Dark Age. It is not at all clear what kind of political
organization existed in Greece after the collapse of Mycenaean society, or even if there was any
recognizable political organization at all. The impression given by the archaeological remains from the
twelfth and eleventh centuries is that individuals and their families functioned outside of any larger social
or political framework. By the eighth century BC, however, the characteristic unit of Greek social,
political, and religious organization had come into being. This unit is the polis. “Polis” is simply the
Greek word for “city” but, as we will see, the nature of the ancient Greek polis is so different from that of
the cities that we are familiar with in modern nation-states that it will be less confusing if we employ the
Greek word polis and its plural form, poleis.
The typical Greek polis, as we know it from its manifestation in the Archaic and Classical Periods, is a
self-governing territory consisting of an urban center, often containing a heavily fortified citadel, with a
surrounding agricultural area, generally of a size such that one can walk from one end of it to the other in
the course of a day. The urban center also contains an open area, called an AGORA, where members of
the polis can interact to conduct trade and to carry out the business of government, and a place for the cult
that is shared by the members of the polis. One or more additional places for the cult, sometimes
including a major sanctuary, are located in the surrounding area, often at or near the border of the polis’
territory. The details of the development of the polis as the political and social entity around which Greek
life would be structured throughout the Archaic and Classical Periods are not clear. But the religious
connection would seem to be fundamental, and the presence of one or more sanctuaries is as essential to
the nature of the polis as the territory itself or the people who inhabit it. Each polis felt itself to be under
the special protection of one or another of the Greek gods, and it was to that god or goddess that its main
sanctuary was dedicated. So, for example, Athens worshipped as its patron deity Athena, after whom the
city was named, Argos worshipped Hera, and Corinth worshipped Poseidon. The citizens of these cities
naturally worshipped other gods and goddesses as well, but they felt that their city had a special
relationship with its patron deity, and that this deity had a special interest in protecting and supporting
their city. The polis seems to have crystallized during the eighth century BC around the sanctuary, which is
marked off as a space sacred to a god or goddess, contains an altar for making animal sacrifice in the
form of burnt offerings, and usually features a temple that houses the deity’s cult statue. All these
elements, the sacred precinct, the large altar, the cult statue, and the temple building, emerged in the Greek
world during the Geometric Period under the influence of the cultures of western Asia.
AGORA A centrally located open area of a polis where people could gather for political functions
or for social and commercial purposes.“She went to Cyprus and entered the fragrant sanctuary in Paphos. There is where she has her
precinct and her fragrant altar. There she entered and shut the shining doors; there the Graces bathed
her and anointed her with heavenly olive oil, the kind of oil that gives luster to the skin of the
immortal gods, heavenly, seductive oil that had been made fragrant for her. She clothed her body
magnificently with all her finery and, after she had arrayed herself with golden adornments,
Aphrodite the smile-arouser rushed off to Troy, leaving fragrant Cyprus behind and making her way
effortlessly high up among the clouds.” (Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite 58–67)Thus, paradoxically, the characteristically Greek polis develops around features that the Greeks imported