City Greeks In Greece example essay topic
In the video, Greeks were the center of literature and art, particularly in art sculpture of human figures. Since they only have a few of cultivation, the people were in poverty. I noticed that Greece had a lot of art sculptures, I was wondering if they started that art form and while they were traveling did they share knowledge with other cultures? Greece was divided into two sections, the island people and the mainland people. Greeks thought they were the center of the earth. That is why they called their sea the Mediterranean Sea because it means "Middle of the earth".
The Greek people liked to travel everywhere. In the east of Greece they came upon Turkey, Iran, and China, which they named the area "Asu", which means the place where the sun rises. Also they referred them as the oriental people and that is how they got the word "Asia" from. Then in the west of Greece, they have encountered with the Italians, Germany, and French. The Greek called that area the "Er ibu", also the place where the sun goes down".
Today they referred to call it as Europe and the people as occidental. Ancient Greek faced east all the time because all of the wealth and richness were in the east side, as well as, their enemies. Since the people of Greece were low on agriculture, it was best for them to trade and do business with other civilization. Greeks were always on the move. In result, it exposed them to different culture, religion, and languages. The first Greek civilization started in the island called Crete.
The Phoenician people colonized in Crete. Crete was the place where the Minoan civilization has started. A king named Minos ruled over the Minoans. He was known for his wealth, resources, and especially palaces. One of the greatest palaces that were built in Crete was the palace of knossos, it was built for king Minos. They used gold in many things; particularly for currency.
The gold that the Greek owns might have been found in western Africa or Egypt. In the year 2000 B.C. the Mycenaean have killed the Cretan culture. And they have adapted the Cretan scriptures known as Phoenician scriptures that came from an ancient city called Phoenicia. In fact, the "A, B, and C" was based on Phoenician scripts.
Then in 1100 B.C. the Dorians diminished the Mycenaean. The Dorians were known for their architecture rather than literature. Actually, the never had a writing system. During the dark ages, people don't know what happen to them. Except that they left to go to Asia Minor and southern Italy because of starvation and warfare.
Greek did their best features around the year 800 B.C. Then in 500 B.C. the rise of philosophers brought out their ideas to the people of Greece. The city-state of Greek was called the polis; it's described more as a village rather than a big city. In the video, polis was spread around the Mediterranean Sea and each polis had its own personality. Greeks polis liked to have common things with each other. For example, they had common ancestors gods. Also Greeks thought to be all relatives, which means they married their own blood.
War was idealized in Greek culture, especially the Spartan culture. They based their city lives on Militarism and dictatorship. In fact, at age 8-10 boys were taken away for basic training. Then in age 15-20, teen boys were allowed to get married and to visit their wife for a little while.
At age 20-25, men were sent out in combat and allowed to have children. Finally, at age 60 they were consented to retire the military. In addition to their military initiation, they were required to have sexual intercourse within other military men. Conversely, the city of Athens based their lives on intellectual, and politics, which led to democracy. Spartan despises the Athenians, so they spent their lives destroying each other's city. Greeks who were freemen were allowed to vote.
Women and slaves were not permitted to vote. Slave men could vote if they were to buy their freedom from their masters. However, Greek women were treated badly, especially slave women that were just used for concubines wives or sex. And that led to women homosexuality., which I thought was so sad because their men left them. Persia was one of Greek's worst enemies. The war between Greece and Persia was called the Marathon War.
Persia civilization had a lot of resources. They even hired Greek military leaders to kill their own people just to win the fight. Therefore, during 490 B.C. Greek people struggled until something happened in the Persian camps, which caused them to lose the war. After the war Greeks set up a league called the Delian League to unite all city Greeks in Greece. But the Spartan refused to join the league because of the Athenians. Since Athenians were into politics, they had skills to become leaders, so they became the leaders of that league.
So did the Athenians dictate Greece, given that they were a good political people? A man named Philip I of Macedonia tried to unite all city Greeks, but couldn't because a Spartan killed him. However, a son of Philip came to the throne and became one of the first conqueror of Greece, his named was Alexander the great. Alexander invaded the Asia Minor and took control of Persia.
He conquered Egypt and fell in love with the civilization. He was fascinated with their libraries, in result he ordered to construct a library in Egypt at the city of Alexandria. Alexander took people from other civilization to join with him in his quest. He traveled so much that he wanted to go more further. When he got to city called Bactria, Alexander fell in love with this woman named Rukhsaneh. He was in loved; therefore he made her as his wife.
Then he took her to Mesopotamia and became a king of two crowns (East and West). When he died, the council killed Alexander's wife and son because they were not good enough to rule the East and West civilizations. Western stories told that Alexander died from a fever. But in the Eastern story said that he got stab by the supposedly future husband of Rukhsaneh. Now at this time they still have not figured out the place where Alexander the great was buried. Compared to Egypt civilization, I believe Egypt was more cultured than the Greeks.