Thomas R. Martin
Ancient Greece: from Prehistoric to Hellenistic Times
Chapter 4: The Archaic Age
1. Why is this period called "Archaic," and what years does it encompass? What period comes before it, and what period follows it?
2. What territory made up a 'polis,' and what was the population of a polis (52, 55)?
3. What religious obligations did citizens of a polis have?
4. What was the main benefit of citizenship in a polis?
5. Though the mountainous terrain of Greece often separated one polis from another, what two kinds of exceptions to this "rule" does Martin mention -- and what does this tell us about the Greeks?
6. What three factors contributed to the impetus for Greek colonization (55, 58)?
7. What was a KTISTES, and what kind of relationship existed between a colony and its METROPOLIS?
8. What do we learn from the Cyrene colony inscription? (57)
9. In what five areas did Greeks borrow significantly from their near eastern neighbors in this period? (58)
10. How was Corinth important in the Archaic period? What natural advantages did it have? How did it capitalize on its strengths? (59, and map on p. 148)
11. How did the god Apollo become involved in colonization? Who was the Pythia? What did generous contributors to this shrine get as a reward? (Its Greek name is "promanteia.") (59)
12. What kind of social tension underlies the formation of the city-state, and the creation of citizenship? (60-61)
13. What are four advantages that a citizen of a Greek polis could enjoy?
14. What is a "metic," and what privileges might he enjoy?
15. What are three rights that a Greek citizen woman could enjoy, and what could she NOT do? (61)
16. How did the cult of the goddess Demeter serve "as a safety valve"? (62)
17. What was the so-called "hoplite revolution"?
18. What three possibilities does Martin present to explain the fact that men who were too poor to be hoplites nevertheless managed to get citizenship rights in the polis? (63-64)
19. How, and from where did Greeks get slaves? What were "barbarians"?
20. How many slaves did individual Greeks keep, and what were their duties? (65-66)
21. What were the duties of "demosioi" slaves?
22. Why did Greek slaves not rise in revolt against their condition?
23. What seven household duties did a Greek woman have? (67-68)
24. What is the etymology of "economics," and why were ancient Greek women "economists"?
25. What roles in public life did Greek women play?
26. What did a legal marriage consist of, and what was the role of the dowry?
27. With whom could Greek married men and women have sexual relations?
28. What were the two main concerns of Greek men in regulating their women?
29. How does the story of Pandora as told by Hesiod sum up a paradoxical positive/negative image of women in Greek life? (69)