The Minoan Cultures - Assignment Example

The Minoan cultures of poetry, rhetoric and religion were fundamental to the development of western civilization but religion was the most important because as the invaders took over their lands, religion stood over and out of it came science. The details about their religion is a vague one since their writing hasn’t been translated and archeologists indicate that it was polytheistic but goodness as the central feature, archaeologists suggest that it was intertwined with politics and it was specific in terms of how people spend their leisure or working time. These evidences show they had numerous celebrations, ceremonies, rituals to mark specific event in their religion and festivals. They also suggest that Athena and Aphrodite of the Greeks also stem from the Minoan religion. However, problem of interpreting such evidence is bound to mislead due to language barriers and meaning given to specific religious belief (Russell, pg, 46-51). The Minoans and Mycenaeans relate to one another in many ways even though they had certain disparities in their ways of lives, they constantly fought each other rather than uniting but had similarities in that they had spent most of their time sailing in waters, traded around Aegean Sea and were the first few two cultures to sprout in Greece, they had similar poetry and religion since they worshiped in one goddess. In terms of their palaces, the layout and rules regarding them was similar. They also differed in a number of ways such as the Mycenaeans were more focused on weapon making and their military and war-loving who did little for themselves while the Minoans were more artistry, painted, made pots and build boats for trading (Russell, pg, 52). The collapse of these two civilization has perplex many and it can be attributed to the natural disasters (climate change) that wreck havoc at around 1600, B. C, during this time an earthquake (tsunami) occurred that is believed to have swept away majority of the Minoans leaving them prone to attack by the Greek soldiers and subsequent defeat. Study guide five The Persian war in 490-480 was integral to the rise of Athens to be powerful and brought changes in political climate of Greece. The unity of Sparta and Athens was also greatly influenced by these invasions starting in the time of fear of the Persians while these city states were constantly against each other, the repulsion of the Persians’ attack by the Athenians gave them a sense of self worth and prestige as a result there was new audacity and political change and in turn influenced how the second war was fought. Athens became powerful and due to Sparta’s jealousy Peloponnesian war erupted and this lead to the fall of the economic development of these city sates. In 493 BC the Ionian who revolted were defeated by the Persians’ military and Darius the Great through his son-in-law introduced democracy and tax system in Greece, he released prisoners to pile pressure on other city states to surrender without revolt, many did except Athens and Sparta (Russell, pg, 91). Due to these invasions there were exchange of Greece and Persian cultures and religion, cults like Mithras and Isis flourished although Christianity was selected as state religion by the Persians because of geographic hierarchy and they could use it to unify the empire. Throughout the war the Athenians gained power and naval experience which they would use to defeat Persians later, these wars extended the Greece freedom as a whole after the defeat of Persians in 479 that prevented them from further capturing peninsula and freedom of the Ionians from Persian bondages (Russell, pg, 83). Archaic period (750-480 BC) is one of earlier Greek historical times, in this time political theories most so democracy, cultures and art were advanced, knowledge and writing language were reformed. The dark ages that came before archaic period saw solidification of their religion, myths and historical background. After Mycenaeans’ civilization collapsed the Greeks formed small tribes and no longer reside in cities, some tribes were agricultural while others were nomads. It’s these tribes that lead to the development of city states because of trade and togetherness between them to create units for defense. (Russell, pg, 95) Due to interrelations, introduction of democracy and chance for the city states to form its own political structure they grew stronger. Athenians were ruled by tyrants leaders for several years, aristocrat Cleisthenes brought a new form of governance called democracy and it came with the principle of “majority rule”. Athenian democracy had mistakes and several errors and to some point considered non-democratic because it left out many social class of people such as slaves, women and Metics which in itself defeated the purpose of democracy of all citizens’ participation in governance. While this form stressed all society involvement in governance, it was the few popular individuals who controlled government and all measures to ensure equality and preserve democratic principles failed. The system of Ostracism was also corrupted due to inability of many Athenians to read and write and made them lose many of their strong warriors such as Themistocles. (Russell, pg, 103) The development of democracy in Athens started in 1066 BC when the last king was succeeded by Archon who was to rule for life but in 752BC the term was reduced to 10 years and in 683BC one year term per archon was introduced with solon elected in 594BC in time of many farmers were taken as slaves as payment of debts, Solon cancelled all debts and formed a fairer system by creating a 400 council members from poor Athenians. And later Cleisthenes developed division of Athenians into 10 groups with each electing 50 people to an assembly (Russell, pg, 72). Greek colonization started in mid 8th century and driven with desire to provide fertile land for its citizens and get imported commodities (Russell, pg, 64). Every polis that establishes a colony was responsible for building it. Their experience with other people in their colonies was complex and was a gateway through which Greek culture and way of life influenced western people (western civilization), they took Greeks’ alphabets, religious teachings and philosophies such as Aristotle, Plato and Socrates philosophies. Study guide six The difference in classical and Hellenism is that in classical time all cultural expressions flourished: political, philosophical, literature and music and all these innovations have influenced many things throughout the history and is the foundation of Hellenistic civilization while (Russell, pg, 96) Hellenistic period starts with Alexander’s conquest and the influence of the Greeks reduced gradually as Romans surpasses them, in classical, harmony was fundamental concept and all young Greeks were trained to have spiritual and physical harmony. After the death of King Philip II his son Alexander took over the empire and subsequently conquered Persia and Egypt. His empire was divided into 3 successor states of Antigonid Macedonia, Seleucid Asia and Ptolemaic Egypt (Russell, pg, 135). These cities shared commerce and culture with Greece but in the long run there were political instability that weakened them. The Middle East in Hellenistic period was featured by ideological exchange between Persia, Greece, Egypt and Africa and this lead to intellectual development in civilized Middle East. After the Macedonians’ defeat by the Illyrians and King Philip coming to power in 359 BCE he made several political and military improvements for example increasing group of royal companions which created more positions and power hence they felt a sense of belonging, ensured sons of nobles train in warfare therefore had war skills, loyalty to the king and parental allegiance were maintained (Russell, pg, 132)s. Work cited Russell, Lawrence T.. Age of empires: unauthorized game secrets. Rocklin, Calif.: Prima Pub., 1997. Print. Read More