CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 6 Rapte apter One DAILY LIFE 8 El apter A Two MYTHS 15 See Chapte ree GOVERNMENT 23 Chapter Fou PHILOSOPHY 28 apter Five THE ARTS 34 GLOSSARY 44 FOR MORE INFORMATION 45 INDEX 46
DISCOVERING ANCIENT GREECE ore than three thousand years ago the Greeks began to develop one of the most remarkable civiliza tions of the ancient world In their own time the ancient Greeks spread their influence far and wide by expanding their borders beyond the Greece we know today They founded cities along the coasts of Africa Turkey Italy and France carrying their culture through out the region But their impact did not end there Their achievements in politics philos ophy science and the arts formed a legacy that has had an unmatched influence on Western civilization to this day The ancient Greeks lived in self governing communities called city states In the most famous of the city states Athens they cre ated the world's first democracy The word democracy comes from a Greek word meaning rule by the people Democracy is still one of the most widely used political systems in the world Though often separated by barriers of sea and mountain the city states were united by their common language religion and customs They also shared a body of stories about their gods heroes and the nature of the universe These stories or myths have
INTRODUCTION TH MAC DON MLY RIA Grand Sll P B cop on T TS CHALCD1 China D efense I am PHR E CONC RU THESSALAA t LOCRIS LYDIA CHAJA ICA CARIA CADI Seait of Miles As shown on this map the boundaries of ancient Greece and the extent of its influence went beyond the borders of the modern country of Greece influenced world literature and continue to be studied today With such an interesting culture ready to be explored let the discovery of ancient Greece
