The earliest Greek civilization thrived around 4,000 years ago. Some of the things thatthey had that we still use today are the arts, science, math, literature, and politics. TheGreeks were known for their great intelligence, military strategies, and their buildings. All Greek’s spoke the same language.
This made it easier to trade and tocommunicate between different parts of the country. All Greeks believed in the same godsand also shared some common heritage. The Greeks believed that there was a god foreverything on earth. A few examples of these gods are Zeus, ruler of the gods. Posidonwas the god of the ocean and Hades, god of the under world.
The Greek government was not a monarchy with a king and queen. Instead theGreek government was a city-state. A city-state is when each city has its own separatepolitical unit. The men were a very important part of the Greek civilization because they werethe ones that ran the government. The men were also the ones who would plant and workthe fields or would oversee them. They would also spend time sailing, hunting, ormanufacturing things for trade.
For fun, the men would attend drinking parties, wouldwrestle, and enjoyed horse back riding. When the men held drinking parties for his friendsthe wives and daughters were not aloud to attend. The women in the Greek civilization were very limited to what they were allowedto do. They were permitted to attend weddings, funerals, and visit female neighbors forbrief periods. The main responsibility for the women were to bear children and to watchover the house and make sure it was cleaned by one of the slaves because women wererarely ever responsible for cleaning the house.
Women slaves were the cooks, cleaners,and sometimes even worked in the fields. The male slaves would act as a guard andwould stand at the door and protect the women when the man was away. Only otherwomen were allowed to enter when the man was away. Women were not allowed toparticipate in the Olympic games except for the chariot racing, which they were onlyallowed to participate in if they owned a horse. There were several different ways in which a person could be made a slave.
If youwere captured in battle then you could be sold as a slave. If a child was abandoned andthen was found he could be kept by the person as his slave or could be sold. Sometimes apoor family might sell their baby as a slave to earn some money and in hopes that the babymight have a better life as a slave than with them. The worse thing that could happen tosomeone that was then put into slavery was when the baby or child was kidnapped andsold for money. Many houses in Greece in the 5th and 6th century were made up of clay, stone,and wood. They usually had two to three rooms and were built around an open aircourtyard.
If you were richer you might have had a kitchen, men’s drinking area, andmaybe even a room for bathing. The Greek’s used an irrigation system to get water to their crops which consistedof olives, grapes, and figs. They would also keep goat to get milk and cheese. ManyGreek’s made their own wine which was a very popular thing in Greece. Meat was veryexpensive and was rarely eaten but was often used for religious sacrifices. The types of clothing that the Greek’s wore were wool in he winter and linen in thesummer.
Since Clothing was very expensive to buy most families made their own clothesand just bleached them white or a bright color. All cloths if made at home were made bythe mother, daughter, or female slave. We use many of the things that the Greek’s have discovered today in our modernsociety. We should be thankful that we have used merchant’s to create cultural diffusion. If we hadn’t done this than we wouldn’t have many of the things that we consideredimportant or even vital to our society.History Essays
