delivered to the teenaged Aeschylus in the dream was straightforward become a playwright Aeschylus began writing immediately It took him years to perfect his craft but eventually he went on to win many competitions at the Dionysia a festival of theater that celebrated Dionysus Aeschylus became a successful playwright and one of the most respected citizens of the Greek city-state Athens Aeschylus was at the height of his career in the early 400s BCE At the time Athens operated under a newly established democracy This form of government that gave power to the masses would become widespread more than 2,000 years later But in the first decades of the 400s BCE democracy was controversial and still evolving It was an idea not an institution Members of the aristocracy still struggled to retain power and it was rarely a peaceful process On stage Aeschylus’s plays explored the conflict in real-life Athens and in other parts of Greece In one of his plays The Eumenides Aeschylus seems to reveal his preferences for an aristocratic government This view did not sit well with many of Athens’s residents At one point Aeschylus was threatened while on stage He also stood trial for revealing the secrets of the Eleusinian Mysteries a religious cult based in his hometown He was acquitted but the political tide was against him Shunned by his fellow citizens Aeschylus moved to the island of Sicily where he lived the rest of his life in peace 8 ABD_ANC_GRE_FPGS indd 8 10 23 14 11 42
In the middle of the 400s BCE Greece was changing The ancient mythology of gods and goddesses still dominated the culture but an age of reason was emerging Battles made heroes and people celebrated military achievements but Greeks were also developing more intellectual pursuits math science theater and philosophy The political voices of the masses were coming together as they tried the new experiment of democracy At this time the city of Athens was at the heart of this crossroads in thinking And ideas from this time in history still have resonance today OUT OF MYTHOLOGY Ancient Greece was steeped in mythology The Greeks believed Mount Olympus in northern Greece was home to a group of gods Zeus hurled his thunderbolts when he was angry Poseidon raised his trident to stir up storms on the sea Apollo pulled the sun across the sky In every way the gods had control over people’s lives They could be temperamental but they were not irrational If people behaved well toward each other and particularly if they Mount Olympus Located in northern Greece Mount Olympus stands approximately 9,570 feet 2,920 m at its highest point The steep sides make it difficult to climb The Greeks did not venture to the summit of Mount Olympus that was the home of the gods and they considered it off-limits to humans In Greek mythology it was a beautiful place with never-ending nice weather but at one time it had been a battleground the place where Zeus led a campaign to overthrow his father Cronus leader of the Titans Zeus then became king of the gods and ruler on Mount Olympus 9 ABD_ANC_GRE_FPGS indd 910 23 14 11 42
treated the gods right the gods would be appeased and allow people to live happy lives By as early as 700 BCE the famous Greek poet Homer was composing his two masterpieces the Iliad and the Odyssey These epic poems are about the Trojan War and its aftermath Many historians today believe the Trojan War did not actually happen at least not in the way Homer describes it But the story which exalts the qualities of competition and military ability inspired the Greek people for centuries Much of ancient Greek history is a story of wars as independent city-states fought to protect their borders Mediterranean Sea ATHENS SPARTA CRETE N CLASSICAL GREECE 450 BCE ABD_ANC_GRE_FPGS indd 1010 29 14 10 39
Ancient Greece was not one but many places Its physical borders were fragmented and far-flung with colonies stretching from mainland Greece into what are now Italy Bulgaria Turkey Iraq Syria and northern Africa Greek civilizations sprang up on the thousands of islands sprinkled in the Mediterranean Sea and along most of the sea’s shores Greece was a people and a way of life more than it was a country As with other ancient civilizations it is impossible to know the precise time Greece began Tribes of people existed in the region for millennia but the first substantial records begin in approximately 1400 BCE with what is known as the Mycenaean civilization This culture died by approximately 1100 BCE and Greek history remains hazy until the Archaic Age approximately 800 479 BCE During this time Greeks began leaving their homes in search of land to support the growing population Fiercely proud and independent they established numerous citizen-states autonomous states in which the citizens ruled themselves Eventually the largest The Blind Poet Little is known about the Greek poet Homer who lived in the 700s BCE Some question whether Homer existed at all Records say Homer was a blind wandering poet but this description is common in Greek legends and the poet could also be a combination of several people In any case the stories attributed to Homer were likely not invented by him alone they were the result of hundreds of years of an oral tradition of storytelling Although today Homer’s narratives are seen as mythical the ancient Greeks believed the tales were their authentic history Today Homer’s epic poems are considered a cornerstone of Western literature 11 ABD_ANC_GRE_FPGS indd 1110 23 14 11 42
