Surname 2
Name:
Lecturer name:
Course:
Date:
Ancient Greece
On ancient Greece Tames(5) says that, the history of ancient Greece spans to 20 centuries and that it began with the civilization of the Minoan that took place and was realized between 1900 and 1450 BC.
According to Connolly (6), ancient Greece had the most advanced culture in the years between 500 and 400 BC. He also points out that, Athens was the greatest city in Greece. Other main cities were Corinth and Sparta. During the 5th century, the best writers, artists, leaders and thinkers in the history came from the city of Athens. Athens was also considered a home of democracy where citizens of the ancient Greece held their meetings. Generally women, foreigners and slaves were not allowed to vote (Connolly 6).
Ancient Greece was not one country with a single ruler and government but rather, it was a collection of states, each of them comprising of a city and its surrounding countryside (Connolly 6).There also existed several island states and small Greek colonies in other parts of the land. The states unified when ever there was an external attack
The people of ancient Greece had a temple which was not a place for worshipping but it was purposefully built for the storage of statutes and images of gods (Tames 32).According to Tames (38), the people of ancient Greece left their offerings of food at the temple. But sacrifices were not offered inside the temple but on an alter or shrine that was built outside the temple. The temple size varied in relation to the type of god. There were also different t sacrifices that were made throughout the year for the gods. According to Noyed and Klingel (28), the people of ancient Greece worshipped a number of gods. They had twelve gods in number and each god served its purpose. For example there was the god of agriculture, god of war, god of protection, and god of good health among others. They also believed that the twelve gods resided on top of a mountain called Olympus. Therefore they worshiped at the foot of this mountain. They had one most powerful among all gods called Zeus.
On daily life, Benduhn (12) says that, the people of ancient Greece built their houses using sun dried mud bricks and in most cases the houses were built around an open courtyard. In Athens, the freedom of women was restricted. That is, they were not allowed to leave their homes. While in Sparta women had there freedom as the men were always in the war fields (Benduhn 12).Girls in ancient Greece got married as early as fourteen years and they were betrothed by their fathers. On the other hand men got married as late as thirty years as they spent more years in the war fields fighting. Generally, boys went to school while girls remained at home to be taught domestic chores. The people of ancient Greece ate their food late in the day and their main meals included cheese, vegetables, and seafood such as octopus and squids and in most cases they used their hands and bread as the fork.
In conclusion, ancient Greece has rich history in terms of folklore, art and architecture, clothing, language and also music. And for a long time historians have been interested in studying the social, political and economic activities of the people of ancient Greece.
Works cited
Benduhn. T (2007) Ancient Greece, weekly readers, USA
Connolly (2001) Ancient Greece, oxford university press, London
Noyed and Klingel (2002) Ancient Greece, oxford university press, London
Pomeroy.B (1999) A political, social and cultural history, oxford university press, London
Richard.T (2002) Ancient Greece, online edition