Greek Ship Uses

Oxford First Ancient History

The people of ancient Greece were only able to produce olive vines and grapes from their land, because of this, trading was very important. The Greeks only exported a few things, olive oil, wine, and pottery; in contrast, they imported all kinds of goods. Grain, metals, hides, and slaves are only a few of the many things that Grecians gathered from all parts of the Mediterranean Sea. However, Greeks did not only use their boats for trading, they prided themselves on having professionally trained rowers, who carried the Greek generals all over the Mediterranean. You may think that soldiers and generals were the only ones who ever did any fighting; yet, the rowers played a major part in defeating an enemy. They would lift up their oars and with these, try to wrench the enemy’s oars out of their hands. If this failed, the captain would have to use the prow and stick it into the enemy’s ship, all the same, without the rowers, fighting off of land would have been very hard. Occasionally, we have found remains of sunken ships, in one, we found a few large, clay containers, containing wine. However, all of the wine was spoilt, not at all fit to drink. It is true, we have found sunken Grecian ships, but for the most part, Greeks were very careful about sailing in sight of land, and it is quite rare to find a sunken Greek ship. As you can see, trading was very important to the Greeks, it was a way to survive, and to interact with other cultures.  

Athenian Governing

Oxford First Ancient History

Every single country needs some sort of governing to keep the country thriving, including Athens. Athens had a leader called a consul, who would lead the city, and a counsel, that would deal with murderers. Almost anything else was decided by the people Rome, who would meet frequently to take votes on almost all matters. How did this kind of governing come about? Certainly not over night, but after many years of hard work. Draco, who was an early Athenian leader, made extremely harsh laws, with extremely cruel punishments. The people of Athens were not at all excited about this, so when Draco ceased his reign, Solon, the next leader, had the job of changing all these rules. He set about first by allowing people of poorer classes to have some say in the government. Then, he made it clear to the people of Athens that selling yourself into slavery to pay off a debt, was not permitted anymore. Solon made many other wise laws, and then, to test how well the Athenians would obey him, took a nice, long, vacation. Sadly, a tyrant named Pisistratus took over Athens by pretending to be followed by a murderer, he asked for some personal bodyguards, and used them to force the Athenians to let him be leader. Pisistratus was soon thrown out, but he used his cunning to trick the Athenians into thinking that Athena had told them to let him be leader. Unfortunately, the Athenians believed this trick, and for the next 20 years, were ruled by Pisistratus. Cleisthenes soon came to the rescue; he kicked out Pisistratus, and led the Athenians in his place. Cleisthenes was very wise, and helped the Athenians to have even more power over themselves than they had had before. This was accomplished with voting, if any man was so terrible that Athens would be better off without him, than a vote would take place, if more than 6,000 adult males voted that Athens did not need this man, he would be thrown out of Athens for 10 years. This wise man was followed by Pericles, who considered himself to be lucky. He believed that he lead Athens at its height. At that time Athens was much more than just an city, it dominated lots of other land outside of Greece. Athens received money from allies, to protect the city from possible enemies. Pericles used the excess money in making his city more beautiful, Athens was a lovely place, it would be a great privilege to go back in time and see the wonders of this nation!

The Last Persian War

Oxford First Ancient History

The Greeks were very worried about their women and children, the Persians were certainly going to come again, and when they did, there would be trouble. A long battle, later to be known as, "The Persian Wars"was being fought, the Persian kings were trying their very hardest to capture the small country of Greece. That being said, the Greeks hurried to evacuate Greece of all women and children in the area. Sure enough, after a very hard battle, the Persians took over the Parthenon. Sadly, while they had been waiting outside of the great temple, the Persians had wrecked and ruined ever other statue, building, monument, or temple that they could get their hands on. Soon, the Greeks were able to reclaim the Acropolis for their own, you may think that the Greeks would hurry to repair all of their buildings, but no! They purposely left ruins sitting around the city, in order to warn the people always, “be on your guard!” Themistocles, the general in charge, clearly saw that the Greeks stood no chance against the Persians; their enemy’s army was just to big. He saw that they could only succeed by craftiness, and trickery. In order to do this, he pretended that one of the Greek men was a traitor, he sent this man to king Xerxes’ palace, where he told the king that the Greeks would be at Salamis, and that if he was able to start off quickly, Xerxes might have a chance of beating the Grecians. Now, Salamis was really a narrow strait, in which only a few boats at a time could pass through, Themistocles hoped to beat the Persians by only attacking a few boats at a time, while the other boats were making their way down the narrow passage. This the Greeks did, and to the Persians’ great surprise, the Greeks completely defeated their enemies. In terror, king Xerxes fled, leaving his general, Mardonius, with only a few men, hoping that he could fight a successful battle in a few years. This battle was fought, and to no one’s great surprise, the Greeks drove out the last of the Persians, little did they know that from that year, 479 B.C, all the way to 431 B.C., there would peace for the Greeks.      

The Minoan Religion

Oxford First Ancient History

The Minoans had many gods and goddesses. However, the mother goddesses was the highest of them all. The Minoans did not have any large statues or temples dedicated to their gods, they had small shrines. To give an offering to the mother goddess, the Minoans had to first be anointed by a priestess in order to “wash off their sins”. Only then could you give your offering to the goddess. Many times an animal was sacrificed, yet other times, a golden ornament, sword, etc. could be brought and placed into a chest for the mother goddess to keep. In mythology, we often see that gods of war and battle are worshiped. Yet, no pictures of gods and goddesses partaking in war or even hunting have been found in the Minoan ruins, at all! You may be wondering, is there a Minoan afterlife? Archaeologists have found that on the sides of Minoan coffins, there were pictures of the dead person in the afterlife, walking with the mother goddess, receiving the offerings that his relatives and friends were giving him. The Minoan tombs were shaped like beehives, in these buildings the deceased man's friends would place gold jewelry, swords, and ornaments around the coffin in honor of the dead man. More importantly than anything, the Minoans loved and honored their gods, they were one of the most god-fearing nations. They truly believed in, and honored their gods.

The Minoans

Oxford First Ancient History

On the island of Crete, which lies in the Mediterranean sea there lives a long lost kingdom, the kingdom of Minos. Knossos, Crete’s palace, was built by Minos. Minos was said to own a terrifying bull-man. Every year he would send his ships to Greece. When the captains arrived at Greece, they would demand 7 young girls and 7 young men to enter Minos' labyrinth. When the Grecians found the middle of the maze, the bull-man would be there, waiting to devour the poor victims.We do not know if this really ever happened, but we do know, that there was a king Minos, and there was a great, twisting winding, huge palace, Knossos. Remains have been dug up, they show that Crete really was an amazing place. Houses, built from stone and brick dotted the busy roads. Beautiful pottery has been found that has pictures of dolphins, fish, and octopus on it. The great palace Knossos has even been rebuilt! This palace is a true amazement! With about one thousand rooms, Knossos itself is a maze! Bathrooms, throne rooms, bedrooms, dressing rooms, and many others made up Minos’ breath-taking palace! But enough about the place, let us talk of the people, the Minoans were a very happy busy people, who loved to bull wrestle, dance, sing, etc. the men wore kilts, fastened with a rope at the waist, and the girls wore frontless shirts with long skirts. They had varying occupations, from weavers and merchants, to fishers and farmers, each Minoan was kept busy. Crete must have been a very interesting place, and I am very exited to learn more about it!