The Primary Features of the Hellenic Polis - Essay Example

The Hellenic Polis had two key features; the war against enemies that were not Greek and Pan-Hellenic festivals. Many poleis took part in these two events. They erected monuments and trophies that were an indication of the success of the events. The statues and trophies were also for memorial purposes and were built on sites where all the Greeks would see them for centuries. Such sites include Olympia and Delphi. Pan-Hellenic festivals had activities such as the Olympia games while the Persian wars are an example of wars against non-Greek enemies of the 5th century BCE.

CONCEPTS OF DEMOCRACY
The Greeks were quite innovative, and their outstanding inventions, both political and cultural are still used today. Major political innovations of the Greeks are the concepts of a democratic form of government and the rise of the city-state. Athens is believed to be the center where democracy was invented in the world. The Athenian democracy later ended in ancient Greece, but the ideals of democratic concepts influence governments and politics worldwide even today. Abraham Lincoln of the U.S. described democracy as “A government of the people, by the people and for the people.”

MODERN PHILOSOPHY AND OLYMPICS
Modern Philosophy was also an innovation of ancient Greece. Before this innovation, the world was masked with magic and misconceptions. For instance, the Egyptians associated floods, fertile dark soils along the river Nile with Pharaoh Commands. The Greeks developed philosophical explanations of the world around them less magic, myth, or religion. The ancient Olympics were practiced culturally in ancient Greece. These games were played on the ancient Olympian plains for the Olympian gods. The modern Olympics were founded on the basis of the Ancient Greece Olympics.

The paper also discussed how the innovations cited have been enduring throughout the development of History (Smith, De Mieroop and Glahn).