Essay Sample. Relations Between States in Classical Greece and the Greek Dark Ages

The era of Classical Greece was a period of conflict and war among states, especially the war with the ancient Persians or Ottomans, as well as that with the Spartans. It was also a time of cultural and political achievement (Kagan, 2013). The Classical Greece period was marked by war and turbulence, including the era of Athens and the bloody war after another that raged in mainland Greece such as the war against Persia, which was a great kingdom. The parties shared mutual ignorance that caused significant misunderstanding among the people leading to a bloody and deadly war (Kagan, 2013). The Greeks defeated the Persians and threw their military armies out of their mainland, hence the beginning of the blossoming of the Golden Age (Kagan, 2013). Over time, the two groups, thus, Athens and Sparta which collaborated in defeating the Persians, gradually turned against each other; hence the warfare of Greek against Greek. Eventually, the war among states ended with Athens defeating Sparta which led to the termination of the Athenian Golden Age.

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Contrarily, during the Greek Dark Ages, the major settlements were abandoned, and people were moving to give themselves social support through the keeping of livestock and other agricultural productions (Hall, 2013). During this era, the political rules were ignored, and new political institutions emerged that portrayed democracy that was ruled by the people. In the era of the Greek Dark Ages, people were scattered across Greece in small farming villages, and then the villages started evolving as people grew larger (Hall, 2013). Greece used to build community meeting places and markets, as citizens developed governments that were organized and regulated by a set of laws. Notably, the organized armies and had governments that could collect taxes.

More significantly, during the Greek Dark Ages, the states received protection from certain gods or goddesses, which the people respected and offered sacrifices. The states formed economies that invested in agriculture at the expense of trade; therefore, land became a valuable resource, and most states were ruled by wealthy aristocrats as citizens overthrew the hereditary kings. Understandably, Greece monopolized political power as well as fertile lands for cultivation, and the serfs with their families were enslaved to the nobles, and they could not influence politics (Hall, 2013). Therefore, there was a conflict between the people and the noble class over a long period.

Based on the relations between the leaders of Athens and other Classical Greece states to the people and outsiders, leaders had a more enlightened approach to the relationship both with the people and to the outsiders. For instance, Demosthenes was a statesman and a vibrant politician during ancient Greece (Kagan, 2013). He swayed the citizens with the motive of overthrowing the rulers of Macedonian. The man later joined politics, and he was focused on averting the Macedonians from conquering Athens, which gave Alexander the throne. Alexander then turned against him and organized assassin, but he took his life before he was seized (Kagan, 2013). Again, Cleisthenes was known as the father of the Athenian democracy, and he even redeveloped the constitution that was used by the Athens that led to the formation of a democratic government (Hall, 2013).

The man became more popular when he enhanced the political power of the Athenian people and discouraging the power of the nobles in the society. He then collaborated with the Spartans and overthrew their king that led to the formation of a democratic government to the citizens (Kagan, 2013). Cleisthenes eventually pursued other reforms and awarded equal rights to the people as well as creating ostracism that offered temporary banishment from the city through the use of popular votes. Another great leader was Alexander, who was a philosopher and a military genius. The father was assassinated, and he ascended to power and followed his father's approaches in leadership, he conquered the Persian Empire and even built the biggest empire in the world (Hall, 2013).

Similarly, Pericles was also a Greek statesman and a politician, and his reign is referred to as the Golden Age of Athens. During his rule, he encouraged arts, literature, and philosophy as well as promoting freedom of expression among citizens (Kagan, 2013). The Athenians were rich in science, artists, sculptors, and playwrights, among other things. He constructed the glorious Parthenon, and his death led to the termination of the Golden Age for the Athenians, and no one could perpetuate his legacy. Solon was also a politician and a founder of democracy in Greece (Hall, 2013). He introduced policies that destroyed bonded slavery and the beginning of the common people. He ensured that both the noblemen and the common citizens had equal rights and freedom of expression.

Contrarily, it was significantly different from what was described by Homer in the Iliad. According to Homer, Iliad was composed as an unceasing poem. The Iliad's language was a conflation of diverse regional dialects, which demonstrated that it does not belong to a specific ancient city like other ancient Greek texts (Kagan, 2013). The attack by the Greeks on Troy was a collective decision that came from different forces across the Greek world, and Pan-Hellenism is seen as the core of the Iliad. Based on war and death, the Iliad became the inevitability of death, and the victims remain to be young people (Kagan, 2013). For instance, Achilles was a youth and a headstrong who had a goddess, but he still had to die. The young man was given two choices, thus, either to live long without heroic glory or to live shorter with glorious life in fighting. And, he became an immortal hero as he decided to participate in the war.

Ironically, the gods could not worry about death, but they were greatly affected by the same death. For instance, Thetis had to deal with the imminent death of her son called Achilles, as Zeus' son also died in the Iliad, and there were persistent mourning and immortality in the Greek (Hall, 2013). According to Iliad, the atrocities during the war at Troy were devoted by the people of Greek on the Trojans. Concerning the poem, Achilles pursued human sacrifices to the Iliad and mutilated Hector's body. As described by Homer in the Iliad, the main focus was the genocide of the Trojans, and the poet has concentrated much on nasty impulses of human behavior in the war (Hall, 2013). Regarding the history of the Iliad, both Priam and Achilles became the embodiment of the war in the Greek, which also reflected the fate of man and what people could commit against other people in ancient Greek (Kagan, 2013).

Notably, the reconstructions by Homer led to the realities of the seventh and eighth-century b.c. Greece. Many people believed that the Trojan fight and its parties led to the formation of the Greek imagination. But the remains of the Troy were discovered by an archaeologist called Schliemann in the nineteenth century. Understandably, the Iliad was composed basically in the dialect of ancient Greek as it was with the Odyssey. The poem was indeed composed in the ionic dialect since it was more appropriate and suitable for the grand scope of work as well as being the high style (Kagan, 2013). Finally, the epics of Homer encompassed all the Greece in their spirits. Therefore, it is worth noting that Homer designed his poem to correspond to the dialect that only complements his opinions.

References

Hall, J. M. (2013). A history of the Archaic Greek World, ca. 1200-479 BCE. John Wiley & Sons.

Kagan, D. (2013). New History of the Peloponnesian War. Cornell University Press.