History shows that Mycenae, the conqueror of Crete and the destroyer of Troy, was one of the earliest inhabitants of Greece. Later, he became a slave of the northern barbarians and gradually split into Dorian and Ionian. They all have the same belief and language, so they are called Greeks.
In BC12nd century, the Aegean civilization was seriously damaged by the invasion of barbarians in the north, but the unyielding Greeks re-established a splendid Greek civilization on this once rich ruins of civilization and became the true ancestor of European civilization.
In the Greek peninsula, which entered the slave society, more than 200 slave city-states were established. Each city-state takes the city as the center, plus suburban villages, forming countries of different sizes, each in its own way. Athens and Sparta are the most powerful among them. Because the country is poor and the people are poor, wars broke out between the city-states for survival and development, and the law of the jungle prevailed. In order to save themselves and plunder wealth, the city-state implemented the policy of strengthening the country, implemented democratic politics within the city-state, and the free people directly participated in the governance of the city-state
Greece has a pleasant climate, abundant sunshine and moderate temperature, which is suitable for outdoor nude sports and competitions. Because of nudity, people's ideas have changed. They are not ashamed of exposure, but proud of bodybuilding, which has attracted the attention of aestheticians and the performance of artists. Aestheticism discovered the beauty of the human body, and artists created beautiful human bodies. The great politician Pericles once said, "We are people who love beauty." The Greek nation is a nation that loves and creates beauty.
In the environment of democracy, freedom and fierce competition, the Greeks not only discovered, bred and created beauty, but also created God. In the eyes of the Greeks, the most perfect person is God. So the Greeks respected people and raised them to the height of God. God and man are the same. The Greeks regarded a strong body as the origin of all goodness and beauty, and regarded Greek mythology as the spiritual source of art, as Marx pointed out: "Greek mythology is not only an arsenal of Greek art.
Greek mythology: Greek mythology originated in ancient Greece and has been passed down orally for a long time. It is a collective creation of the ancient Greeks, which is scattered in Homer's epic, hesiod's genealogy and later literature and history. Therefore, the image or story of the same mythical figure is often different or even contradictory in the works of different writers. Now the common systematic Greek myths are all sorted out by later generations according to ancient books.
Greek mythology mainly includes two parts: the story of god and the legend of hero. The confluence of the story of God and the legend of heroes can be found in Homer's epic, Herzog's Divine Spectrum, and literature, history and philosophy in the classical period.
The story of God mainly includes stories about the creation of the world, the appearance of God, the genealogy of God, the alternation of dynasties in heaven, the origin of mankind and God's daily activities. In the imagination of the ancient Greeks, mountains, rivers, trees, the sun, the moon, oceans and land, even rainbows after rain and daffodils by the river were gods. Birth, illness, death, success or failure all depend on God's will. They created a huge protoss. Zeus is the head of the gods, Poseidon is the sea god, Hades is the ghost, Apollo is the sun god, themis is the hunting god, Ares is the god of war, hephaestus is the god of fire, Hermes is the god of commerce, nine muses are the goddess of literature and art, and three moira are the goddess of fate. The gods live in Olympia, the highest in Greece.
The gods in Greek mythology are different from those in other more developed religions. They are very close to secular life. Most gods are very similar to the nobles in the clan. They are willful, hedonistic, vain, jealous and vengeful, and they are eager for power and profit. From time to time, they will sneak down the mountain to have sex with beautiful men and women on earth. Most gods, represented by Zeus, like to play tricks on human beings, and even deliberately destroy human beings three times and five times. The ancient Greeks often laughed at the evil of God in mythology. Accuse god of injustice. Homer's epic once said, "God gives fear and pain to the poor, and God himself lives happily and carefree." However, there are also great gods like Prometheus who benefit mankind. Prometheus stole skyfire from the world and made epoch-making progress for mankind. Zeus nailed him to the Caucasus Mountain and released an evil eagle to peck at his liver every day.
The legend of heroes is a memory of ancient history, social life and people's struggle with nature. Heroes are regarded as descendants of gods and people, but they are actually representatives of collective strength and wisdom. The legend of heroes formed many systems centering on different families, including the Trojan War, the 12th achievement of Hercules, and the well-known stories that King theseus of Athens took golden fleece as a hero. Among them, Achilles described in Homer's epic. Or he died gloriously on the battlefield. His mother was so eager to love his son that she disguised him as a girl, but the clever Odysseus recognized him. Achilles made great contributions to the battle against Trojans. His mother predicted that he would be buried under Troy, but he still stood up and took part in the war, which showed the courage of the Greeks.
For example, the famous Hercules accomplished 12 outstanding achievements. He is a famous Hercules who killed a water snake in the cradle. When he was young, the evil goddess came to lure him to enjoy himself, but he listened to the advice of the good goddess and was determined to take risks to benefit everyone. It is said that as an adult, he killed hydra and Medusa, the gorgon, and even defeated Hades, the keeper of hades. The story about Hercules is full of heroism, which embodies the ancient people's precious qualities of loving labor and cherishing the collective.
Tips of ancient Greek civilization:
Greece: The word "Greece" means elegance and beauty. The ancient Greeks who created a splendid ancient civilization are worthy of this name.
Homer's Epic: Homer, the Blind Poet, is a comprehensive compilation of short epic songs circulated orally in Asia Minor, including Iliad and Odyssey. This is a milestone in the history of European literature. It is like an encyclopedia, including astronomy, geography, history, society, philosophy, art, mythology and other knowledge. The Iliad is a story about the Trojan War, and The Odyssey describes the journey home of the Greek hero Odysseus after the Trojan War.
Music: Greece calls music a muse, which refers to the nine goddesses in Greek mythology who are in charge of music. At that time, the word was not the music we refer to now, but all the arts, such as poetry and drama. This is the origin of the word music today.
Drama: The world drama art first appeared in ancient Greece about 2,400 years ago. There were three great tragic writers Aeschylus, Sophocles, euripides and a great comic writer in ancient Greece.
Sha Fu: The first famous poetess in the history of western literature. Some people once compared her with Homer, while others called her the tenth goddess of poetry.
History: Herodotus is recognized as the first important historian in ancient Greece in the 6th and 5th centuries BC. He traveled all over the East and collected many legends and stories. Later, his works developed to record the history of the wars between Greece and Persia. His works are fluent and solemn, not only an important historical document, but also an important literary work, which can be compared with Historical Records written by Sima Qian in China.