Western Civ Blog 26

Today in class we watched the Crucible of Civilization. Some notes I took were that Greeks laid the foundation for western civilization. Greeks also achievements shape our world. Heracles was a famous politician. Panamanian ruled the streets of Athens . Cleisthenes born to be a ruler and save Athens. He thought people should have own freedoms. He was born around 570 BC into one of the richest families- Alkamihoded. He was taught that he was an aristocrat because he grew up that way, he had a greedy family. He set Greece on the path for an empire. 6th century BC aristocrats controlled everything in Athens, its impossible to think this place would soon rule a huge empire. Most houses were made out of mud brick. Athens smelled terrible, and had no society of equality . Greece used to be called Hellas, and Athens was built around acropolis . Women spent their days in the house cooking cleaning etc. Reading and writing was a rare skill, and life expectancy was under 15 years. The society was not equal and was ruled under the aristocrats. They did not expect Greece to have an empire by the appearance, south of Greece was Egypt, to the east were the Persians. Greatest civilizations were based off rivers , countless tiny nations called city states. Over a thousand city states in Cleisthenes time. Each polis sought to maintain it's own independence and only some were successful, the Spartans every year caused war against the Helots. Legitament to kill a Helot because they were strong war-like fighters. Athenian potters were motivated by out doing each other. Hippiates became ruler and his brother died and he tortured many people, by Cleisthenes time the games were open to anyone. There was lots of chariot racing, running, boxing, there was no real prize, just fame throughout Greece. Homer wrote the Iliad and Odyssey about war.