Archaic Culture - The Visual Mainframe of Knowledge (800-480 BC)

Athena - The Greek Goddess of Wisdom and Warfare, Patron of the City of Athens, and major source of inspiration for the Parthenon, one of the Greatest Architectural Achievements in Human History. — Culture – **Athena** – The Greek Goddess of Wisdom and Warfare, Patron of the City of Athens, major source of inspiration for the Parthenon — one of the Greatest Architectural Achievements in Human History.

Here we take a look at the birth of Ancient Greek Culture:

After the tragic collapse of the colorful Minoan Civilization of Crete, followed by the brutal demise of Mycenaean Greece, the remaining Greeks find themselves enveloped by a Dark Age, the exact cause of which remains a mystery to this very day.

From this Darkness and Despair emerge heroes into the visionary world of a blind poet, Homer, whose powerful descriptions of brotherhood, violence and courage in the face of adversity would inspire generations to come.

Hesiod’s Theogony, one of the Greatest Achievements of the Human Imagination, envisions a Universe where Gods and Titans wrestle to determine the fate of man.

City-states slowly arise in difficult circumstances where tyranny, hunger and war extract a heavy toll on the growing population of Archaic Greece.

Blessed with Heroes, Gods, emerging laws and a brotherhood of competing citizen soldiers, whose unbelievable courage would culminate into the Single Greatest Military Victory the world has ever known — the defeat of the Colossal Persian Army of the God-king Xerxes the Great — fearless Greek warriors march into battle.

Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis. Plataea… names of battles, the glory of which, grabs the imagination of soldiers and citizens alike.

From this unlikely Victory the Greatest Achievement of Mankind would arise… Classical Greece, the blossoming of Democracy, Philosophy, Rhetoric, Mathematics, Sculpture, Literature, Art, Architecture and Conquest, a Cultural achievement the likes of which has never been surpassed until this present day.

Table of content:

01. Greek Heroic Age
02. The Trojan War
03. Helen of Sparta
04. Achilles
05. Homer
06. The Iliad
07. The Odyssey
08. Poseidon
09. Hesiod
10. The Birth of Archaic Greece
11. The Art of Archaic Greece

I. Culture / Greek Heroic Age

G.R.E.E.K H.E.R.O.I.C A.G.E

T.H.E G.O.L.D.E.N F.L.E.E.C.E

The Death of Hector, The Greatest Warrior of the City of Troy. — Culture – Achilles and Hector engaged in mortal combat

A.N.C.I.E.N.T G.R.E.E.K W.A.R.F.A.R.E

II. Culture / The Trojan War

Trojan Horse - Wooden Horse portraying the Greek's attempt to conquer Troy with a clever strategem. — Culture – The **Trojan Horse** was a wooden horse said to have been used by the Greeks during the Trojan War in a last desperate bid to enter the city of Troy in order to bring the decade long fruitless siege to a succesful conclusion.

T.H.E I.N.C.R.E.D.I.B.L.E S.T.O.R.Y O.F

T.H.E T.R.O.J.A.N W.A.R S.A.G.A

III. Culture / Helen of Sparta

Helen of Troy - The face that launched a thousand ships — Culture – **Helen of Sparta** was a figure in Greek mythology said to have been the most beautiful woman in the world. She was married first to King Menelaus of Sparta. Her kidnapping and subsequent marriage to Paris of Troy was the most immediate cause of the Trojan War.

H.E.L.E.N O.F S.P.A.R.T.A

IV. Culture / Achilles

A.C.H.I.L.L.E.S

G.R.E.A.T T.R.A.G.I.C W.A.R H.E.R.O

Achilles

A fallen hero is never sad,
but a poet sometimes cries.
Is it better to embrace ecstasy?
Or a fate where strength just dies.

How quickly youth and time fade.
How eager the ancient fall.
Countless dead on the battlefield.
Who will heed Achilles’ call?

Mako The Poet

V. Culture / Greek Archaic Age – Homer

Homer - one of the most revered and influential authors in history. — Culture – The mysterious blind bard knows as “**Home**r”, presumed author/source of two of the most influential literary works in Human History:

T.H.E G.L.O.R.Y O.F H.O.M.E.R

“In youth and beauty, wisdom is but rare!”

“Yet, taught by time, my heart has learned to glow for other’s good, and melt at other’s woe.“

“And what he greatly thought, he nobly dared.”

VI. Culture / Greek Archaic Age – The Iliad

T.H.E T.R.U.L.Y M.A.G.N.I.F.I.C.E.N.T

G.L.O.R.Y O.F T.H.E I.L.I.A.D

VII. Culture / Greek Archaic Age – The Odyssey

Poseidon, badass Olympian, presiding over the sea, storms, earthquakes and horses. — Culture – Greek hero Odysseus infuriates Poseidon, Lord of the Sea, by blinding his son, the Cyclops Polyphemus. Poseidon’s Wrath — punishing storms — cause the complete loss of his ship and companions, delaying his return home by ten years.

T.H.E C.U.N.N.I.N.G C.O.U.R.A.G.E.O.U.S

V.O.Y.A.G.E O.F O.D.Y.S.S.E.U.S

VIII. Culture / Poseidon

P.O.S.E.I.D.O.N

G.R.E.E.K G.O.D O.F T.H.E S.E.A

IX. Culture / Hesiod

Hesiod – Author of Theogony, an Epic Poem which sets forth the Origins and Genealogies of the Greek Gods, that would govern the Greek Mindset for centuries to come. — Culture – **Hesiod** – Author of Theogony, an Epic Poem which sets forth the Origins and Genealogies of the Greek Gods, that would govern the Greek Mindset for centuries to come.

“That man is best who sees the truth himself. Good too is he who listens to wise counsel. But who is neither wise himself nor willing to ponder wisdom is not worth a straw.”

“Observe due measure, for right timing is in all things is the most important factor.”

“It is best to do things systematically, since we are only human, and disorder is our worst enemy.”

B.I.R.T.H O.F T.H.E G.R.E.E.K G.O.D.S

T.H.E.O.G.O.N.Y

W.O.R.K A.N.D D.A.Y.S

X. Culture / The Birth of Archaic Greece

kouros — Culture – Mantiklos “Apollo” (~700 BC), Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

T.H.E A.R.C.H.A.I.C B.I.R.T.H O.F A.N.C.I.E.N.T G.R.E.E.C.E

XI. Culture / The Art of Archaic Greece

Culture - Moschophoros, the calf-bearer. — Culture – Moschophoros. A man carrying a sacrificial animal c. 560 BC, Acropolis Museum, Athens, Greece.

T.H.E H.O.N.O.R.I.F.I.C.A.B.I.L.I.T.U.D.I.N.I.T.A.T.I.B.U.S A.R.T O.F A.R.C.H.A.I.C G.R.E.E.C.E