Living History Living in Ancient Greece

2,500 years ago, a remarkable civilization was thriving here in Greece. Greece is known as the birthplace of Western civilization because its people created the world's first democratic government, the first Olympic Games, and made important contributions to architecture, art, literature, science, and mathematics. And their mysterious religion has enriched countless generations with its many wonderful myths and legends. So now, let us go back in time and find out what it was like to live during this amazing period of history. The civilization of ancient Greece developed here in the northeastern region of the Mediterranean Sea in an area known for its beauty where the mountains touch the sea. It is a place where olive trees spring from fields of wildflowers and where shepherds still tend their flocks on the rocky hillsides of hundreds of remote islands. Because of the rugged geography of this ancient land, long ago, people from different parts of Greece were isolated from one another. And that is why they were rarely united under a single government. Instead, their civilization developed in many independent city-states that were scattered across a large area. Basically, a Greek city-state was nothing more than a tiny country made up of a single city and the lands and villages that surrounded it. Each city-state was unique. Each had its own system of government, its own laws, and its own military. But because the citizens of all the different city-states spoke the Greek language, had similar customs, employed similar styles of building and art, and worshipped the same gods and goddesses, historians have combined them into a single great civilization known as the Civilization of Ancient Greece. The lives of the ancient Greeks were strongly influenced by their religion. And by understanding their beliefs, we can learn quite a lot about the world in which they lived. The Greek religion was very well organized, and yet it wasn't based on sacred books of teachings, such as the Bible or the Koran. Instead, it slowly grew and developed over thousands of years. Religion was taught mainly through folk tales called myths that were passed down from one generation to the next. Greek myths told of the magical powers and adventures of the gods. The Greeks worshipped the nature spirits of rivers, springs, trees, and caves. But most important to them were the gods and goddesses that came from the snow-covered peaks of Mount Olympus. The ancient Greeks thought that the Olympian gods were a family of huge, all-powerful beings who could change their shapes by magic. The Greek gods were believed to be immortal. That is, they could live forever. Each god had a different role. Some governed various regions of the world, while others controlled the many different things that affected human life. For example, here we see a statue of the god Poseidon. He ruled the seas and all the creatures in them. Poseidon's brother Zeus was the king of the gods and ruled the sky and stormy weather. Zeus was also the father of many of the most important gods and goddesses. His children included Apollo, the god of the sun, Artemis, the goddess of the hunt, and Athena, the goddess of wisdom, to name just a few. The Greek gods were thought to be a lot like human beings because myths told of how they got angry and jealous and even fought with one another. The way the ancient Greeks could obtain a god's advice was by asking questions of a strange woman called an oracle. Oracles used a special room hidden underneath temples like this one. By performing special ceremonies, oracles spoke in the god's voice and could see into the future. The ancient Greeks believed it was very important to keep the gods happy so they wouldn't cause trouble in the world. And that was why temples were always the finest buildings in any Greek town. Greek temples weren't like churches, mosques, or synagogues because ordinary people weren't allowed inside to worship. Instead, a temple was built to be a home for a god's spirit. Several temples stood on the rocky hill of the Acropolis, or high city, that overlooked the streets of Athens. And of these temples, this one, called the Parthenon, was completed around the year 432 B.C. The temple was constructed of pure white marble for the goddess Athena, the protector of their city-state. Inside the Parthenon, a famous sculptor had constructed an enormous statue of the goddess from wood, gold, and ivory. In Athens, the main festival of the summer, the Panathenaia, honored Athena's birthday. The festival began with a joyous procession in which gifts and sacrificial animals were brought to her temple. As people paraded through the streets, they sang hymns and played musical instruments. After reaching the temple, a splendid ceremony was held in which Athena's birthday gift from the Athenians, a newly woven gown, was placed on her statue. Outside the temple, the animals were sacrificed and some of their meat was burned on a sacred fire. After the ceremonies ended, the people of Athens enjoyed a typical Greek feast of meat, olives, grapes, cheese, figs, bread, and wine. Athens was probably the best of all the Greek city-states. It was famous not only because of its many fine buildings, but also because it was where the world's first democracy was established. In fact, democracy is a Greek word that means government by the people. Although the Athenian democracy allowed enslavement of people captured in wars and did not allow women to vote, it still proved to be very successful. Under it, Athens thrived, and with the help of some of the greatest statesmen, artists, and scholars in history, the city grew in wealth, beauty, and power. Religious festivals, such as the one honoring Athena, were very important to the ancient Greeks. Most religious festivals included contests in which athletes competed with one another in front of huge crowds. The largest and most famous of these contests, the Olympic Games, are still held today. The first Olympic Games took place here, in ancient Olympia, in the year 776 BC. Olympia was a sanctuary, or sacred town, built for Zeus, and originally the Olympic Games were held in his honor. To this day, the Olympic torch is still lit in Olympia, and then is carried by runners to wherever the Games are being held. Long ago, Zeus's magnificent temple stood proudly in the center of Olympia. Near it were a row of buildings called treasuries, where valuable religious offerings were stored. Also nearby was a smaller temple, the Temple of Hera, Zeus's goddess wife, whom the ancient Greeks called the Mother of the Gods. Just outside the walls of the temple enclosure stood the stadium and the athletic buildings where the contestants trained. Like Athena's temple in Athens, Zeus's temple at Olympia held a gold and ivory statue of the god that stood over 44 feet, or nearly 14 meters high. Zeus's temple was ringed with altars like this one, and on some of them, sacrificial fires burned 24 hours a day. Sprinkled among the altars were the statues of the winners of past Olympic Games, and all around them grew the wild olive trees that were sacred to Zeus. Today, the Temple of the King of the Gods lies in ruins, and his statue has long since disappeared. But the stones of its huge pillars still lie where they crashed to the earth over 1,500 years ago following a powerful earthquake. The Olympic Games were held every four years at midsummer. They lasted for a whole month, and during this time, warfare among the city-states stopped as a sign of respect for Zeus. Tens of thousands of men came from all parts of Greece either to watch or to participate in the Games. Women, however, were not allowed to attend. During the first day of the Olympic Games, religious ceremonies were held. There was a grand procession, and offerings and sacrifices were made to Zeus. The next day, here in the stadium, the events began. There were foot races, wrestling contests, and boxing matches, to name just a few. Besides these events, horse races and chariot races were held in the Olympic racecourse next to the stadium. For prizes, instead of the bronze, silver, and gold medals of today, the winners of the ancient Olympic Games were crowned with wreaths made from the branches of Zeus' sacred olive trees. In Greece, this simple ceremony was considered the greatest honor a man could ever receive. Athletic competitions were an important part of life in ancient Greece, but watching plays was probably an even more popular activity. Plays were held in open-air theaters like this one, which were found in nearly all Greek towns. In the center of each theater stood a small round altar to the god Dionysus, because theaters were actually his temples. In fact, the best seats were always reserved for his priests. Dionysus was the god of wine and pleasure, and in ancient Greece, wild religious festivals were often held in his honor. Attending plays was thought to please Dionysus, mainly because it was an enjoyable thing to do. The ancient Greeks loved to watch daylong plays that were performed in the circular area at the foot of the grandstands they called the orchestra. The Greeks were very famous for their plays, which were based on legends and myths. Greek plays were very different from those of today, because the actors in ancient times were always men who wore masks like this one that had strange, exaggerated expressions. It is quite interesting that just a short walk from the huge theater seen here, there once stood the greatest center for healing in all of ancient Greece. Long ago, sick people came from far and wide, hoping to be cured here at the Sanctuary of Asclepius. Asclepius was the god of medicine and the son of Apollo, the sun god. Myths told of how the god had learned healing from a very wise being belonging to a race of creatures called centaurs that were half man and half horse. The temple of Asclepius was guarded by thousands of snakes, the god's sacred animal. It was outside this temple that those seeking to be cured sacrificed animals and burned offerings to the god of medicine. After making their offerings, the sick people followed a path through the woods to a hospital building where they spent the night sleeping on the skin of the animal they had just sacrificed. While they slept, if they were lucky, the god of medicine appeared to them in their dreams. In the morning, the patients would tell a temple priest what they had seen in their dreams, and the priest would prescribe a treatment to cure them. In ancient Greece, some of the most common treatments for sick people were having them take special baths, do physical exercises, or even having them perform mental exercises, such as studying certain books or writing poetry. The medical treatments used by the ancient Greeks must have actually done some good because their civilization prospered for quite a long time until the Romans started to conquer them around 220 B.C. But the Romans truly admired the Greeks and ended up absorbing many Greek ways into their own civilization. And so it was the Romans who spread Greek ideas, styles of art, and religious beliefs to the countries of Western Europe. And that is why ancient Greece has come to be known as the birthplace of Western civilization. When European explorers began to cross the great oceans, they brought Greek ideas with them to the New World. It is very easy to see the influence ancient Greece has had on us by looking at the styles of many of the buildings found in almost any town in America. Two of the best examples of the Greek style of architecture are found in Washington, D.C., in the fine buildings of the United States Supreme Court and the U.S. Capitol. And it is interesting to think that inside of these famous buildings that were built to resemble Greek temples, the democratic principles of government that began thousands of years ago in ancient Greece are still being followed today. True or false, Zeus was the god of the sea. True or false, Greek theaters were temples to the god Poseidon. True or false, the Olympian gods were from Mount Olympus. True or false, Dionysus was the god of wine and pleasure. True or false, only men acted in ancient Greek plays. True or false, oracles were women who spoke for the gods. True or false, Athena's temple was called the Parthenon. True or false, the world's first democracy began in Corinth. True or false, centaurs were half man and half horse. True or false, the word Acropolis means high city.