T
he ancient Greeks first
entered the territory now
associated with them in
about 2000 BCE, when Egypt was
still a great power and the Minoans
of Crete were evolving into a highly
sophisticated society. The first
migrants, who probably came from
Russia and central Asia, settled
in the mountainous north and the
Peloponnese to the south, where
the city of Mycenae was founded
ca. 160 0 BCE. Described by Homer
as “rich in gold,” the Mycenaean
civilization prospered thanks to
trade networks across the Aegean
and Mediterranean seas.
With the Bronze Age collapse
of palace culture and the end of
Mycenaean civilization ca. 110 0 BCE,
Greece entered its Dark Age.
By the 8th century BCE, poleis
(“city-states”) began to emergeas agricultural and trading hubs.
Greece became a collection of
separate city-states—such as
Athens, Sparta, and Corinth—
united by a shared language and
the worship of common gods.
However, Greek religion was not
standardized; there was no book
of doctrines to tell people how they
should worship. Their mythology
borrowed from their ancestors —
the myth of the Minotaur came
from the Minoans in Crete, and the
Mycenaean era was the setting for
the Trojan War, immortalized in
Homer’s Iliad.Athenian dominance
The Classical era in Greece began
with the fall of the powerful Persian
empire in 479 BCE. Having defeated
the Persians, the city-states of
Athens and Sparta fought eachother for dominion over Greece.
As the preeminent power, Athens
was the setting for many Greek
myths, from its origins under the
care of its patron goddess, Athena,
to tales such as Jason and Medea.
Many of the surviving Greek
myths come to us via Athenian
dramatists: from the tragedies
of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and
Euripides in the 5th century BCE
to the comedies of Aristophanes
(ca.446–c.386 BCE) and Menander
(ca.342–c.291 BCE). These works
told stories about the gods and
heroes of Greek mythology and
inspired later writers such as
Shakespeare, whose A Midsummer
Night’s Dream and Romeo and
Juliet borrow from Greek myth.
The era of Athenian dominance
ended in the 4th century BCE, when
the Macedonian ruler AlexanderINTRODUCTION
CA. 1200 BCE
CA. 800 BCE CA. 600 BCE 432 BCE CA. 450–400 BCE
CA. 700 BCE CA. 500 BCE CA. 458–430 BCE
In the Bronze Age
collapse of Aegean
and Mediterranean
kingdoms, Troy is
destroyed by war.Homer’s epic poems, the
Iliad and Odyssey,
are among the oldest
surviving works in
Western literature.The Homeric
Hymns, written
anonymously, are
devoted to the
praise of 33 gods.In On Nature,
Heraclitus
discourses on
ethics, theology,
and the universe.The Parthenon temple
is dedicated to the
goddess Athena, and
marks the zenith of
Classical Greece.Hesiod’s Theogony
tracks the origins
and genealogies
of a wide array of
Greek deities.Aeschylus stages
the Oresteia, a
trilogy that retells
a blood-soaked
cycle of myths.In Oedipus Rex,
Sophocles contrasts
fate and free will in a
sinister tale of murder
and incest.16
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Euripides’s The
Bacchae explores
the dual nature of
man—the rational
versus the instinctual.Xenophon’s
Anabasis contains
the story of King
Midas and his
golden touch.Apollonius of
Rhodes depicts the
adventures of Jason
and his band of men
in the Argonautica.Greece is defeated
in battle and faces
Roman rule, leading
to the integration of
the two cultures.Diodorus Siculus
includes the myth of
Icarus and Daedalus
in his 40-book
Historical Library.Plato’s dialogues
Timaeus and Critias
introduce the idea
of the legendary
city of Atlantis.The Library of
Pseudo-Apollodorus
documents a variety
of Greek myths
and legends.Pausanias explores
famous sites and
Greek identity
in Description
of Greece.the Great built his empire. Thanks
to Alexander’s conquests, Greek
culture and mythology were
exported as far as Asia Minor,
Egypt, Mesopotamia, and India.The major deities
It was the poets Homer and Hesiod
who imposed order upon the myriad
gods and beliefs inherited from
earlier times. Homer set down his
poetry from oral tradition around
800 BCE, after the migrations that
followed the collapse of the
Mycenaean culture. His two epic
poems, the Iliad and Odyssey, gave
the Greeks a history, a pantheon,
and guidelines for how to live their
lives. As the Olympian family of 12
principal gods dwelling on Mount
Olympus gradually replaced older
beliefs, Homer and Hesiod gave
them distinct characters andappearances. Because Homer’s epic
poems were set in an aristocratic
and feudal society—which preceded
the birth of democracy in Athens
in the 5th century BCE—his gods
behaved like chieftains, motivated
solely by their own desires.
Like other ancient agrarian
peoples, the Greeks were local in
their focus. They ordered their
religious life around local places,
identifying different hills, streams,
and plains with different deities.
This mythic lore invested every
corner of the land with spiritual
significance. The Earth was the
source of existence: divine power
originated in its depths, as did
the crops. Myths sought to explain
aspects of agrarian life. The tale
of Persephone—daughter of the
harvest goddess Demeter—and her
imprisonment in the Underworld byHades was a way of accounting
for the changing cycles of the
agricultural year.The rise of the cult
At the end of the 5th century BCE,
various mystery cults arose in
the Greek-speaking world. Chief
among these were the Eleusinian
mysteries, an ancient agrarian cult
honoring Demeter and Persephone
and promising paradise for the
dead. The Dionysian cult, which
originated in Asia, worshipped
Dionysus and involved wild
dancing, drinking, and ecstasy.
Unlike the public worship of the
gods, which was well documented,
these mystery cults consisted of
secret rites and doctrines that
remain enigmatic to this day, but
would go on to influence the beliefs
and myths of ancient Rome. ■ANCIENT GREECE
408–405 BCE
CA. 370 BCE CA. 250 BCE CA. 30 BCE CA. 150 CE
CA. 360 BCE 146 BCE CA. 100 CE
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