Greece from 750-700

Dipylon Inscription

This blog will be looking at the latter half of the 8th Century BC (or BCE if you prefer), from the years 750-700 for Greece and the greater Greek region. This post was originally intended to be about the greater Near East for this period, but there was so much happening in Greece that I decided to make an entire blog post just about this.

Whoever of all these dancers now plays most delicately, to him this ...
Dipylon Inscription
(I am) Nestor’s cup, good to drink from.
Whoever drinks from this cup, him straightaway
the desire of beautiful-crowned Aphrodite will seize.
Nestor’s Cup

Nestor's Cup

The two texts quoted above are the oldest known Greek inscriptions, both dating from around 740. Both are texts painted onto pottery and it is possible that older inscriptions again will yet be found.  This is the beginning of one of the world’s greatest literary traditions and both inscriptions point to a culture where ritual social interactions involving drinking and dancing abounded. One of the texts also hints at the great epics of Homer, which according to tradition, were composed around this time. While myth and history do not always correlate, it seems that the late 700’s is a plausible time for the Iliad and the Odyssey to be written. If they were not written at this time they were written shortly thereafter.

Rage-Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus’ son Achilles,
Murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaeans countless losses,
Hurling down to the House of Death so many sturdy souls,
Great fighters’ souls, but made their bodies carrion,
Feasts for the dogs and birds,
And the will of Zeus was moving towards its end.
Begin, Muse, when the two first broke and clashed,
Agamemnon lord of men and brilliant Achilles.
Iliad 1:1 Fagles

These poems were descriptions of an ancient war in an age of heroes, where the gods dealt more directly with men, who were themselves closer to gods. The first poem, the Iliad, speaks of an incident during a war across the sea, when the greatest of the Greeks quarrelled whilst besieging windswept Troy on the far side of the Aegean. The second poem, the Odyssey, speaks of the quest of one of victorious Greek warriors braving perils to return to his home across the wine-dark sea. The two books are the earliest truly European literature and can still stand among the finest works of art ever produced by European civilisation.

Later depiction of Homer

It is not entirely clear if Homer actually wrote both poems and because so much of his life is legendary, he may not in fact have existed. However, both poems could conceivably have been written by one artist, and, as we shall never have full clarity, Homer is as good a name as any. While the current form of the texts was likely finalised around this time, the poems show clear features of having been recited in various forms by bards and singers. Homer, if he existed, was a skilful weaver of the multiple strands of song into completed epics, rather than a creator of tales himself. One of the characters of his stories may in fact be referenced on one of the earliest inscriptions (Nestor) so it is safe to assume that the broader tales were well known around the Greek speaking world.

Once they'd put aside desire for food and drink, old Nestor the noble charioteer began, at last: "Now's the time, now they've enjoyed their meal, to probe our guests and find out who they are. Strangers — friends, who are you? Where did you sail from, over the running sea-lanes? Out on a trading spree or roving the waves like pirates, sea-wolves raiding at will, who risk their lives to plunder other men?"
Odyssey: Book 3

Despite being so vital for European cultural history, they may not in fact have even been written in Europe. The language of the poems is a mixture of Aeolic and Ionic (two dialects of Greek), suggesting that the poems may have been written in present day Turkey, or on the islands in the Aegean rather than the mainland. This underpins the fact that the Greeks cities were becoming crowded and that, seeking a better life, or more land, or to trade, to engage in piracy, for simple love of adventure, or all of the above reasons, Greeks were leaving mainland Greece and colonising the adjacent lands. The western coast of Asia Minor was full of Greek cities by this point and around the year 733, a group of Corinthian settlers founded the city of Syracuse in Sicily, which would go on to become of pivotal importance in later centuries (and still a major city today).

Later vase depiction of a scene from the Trojan War

There was a major war in Greece during this time that may have sparked a renewed interests in the wars of antiquity. This was the First Messenian War between Sparta and Messene. Sparta had supposedly undergone military and social reforms under Lycurgus in the previous century, but it did not seem to have fully transformed the Spartan state. The Messenians were a powerful state to the west of the Peloponnese who had close relations with the Eleans (who organised the Olympic Games). Many of the early Olympic winners were from Messene.

…the mutual hatred of the Lacedaemonians and Messenians was aroused, and the Lacedaemonians began war, obtaining a pretext which was not only sufficient for them, eager for a quarrel as they were and resolved on war at all costs,
Pausanias: Description of Greece 4.4.4

The Messenians were Achaean Greeks (named for their dialect) while the Spartans were Dorian Greeks, who saw themselves as conquerors of the earlier Achaeans. There were tensions between the two states and sometime around 740 the two states went to war. Both sides would only have been able to field around 5000 soldiers (usually a lot less than that) and both sides would struggle to field armies throughout the year, as neither side was fully militarised. Hoplite warfare had not developed fully so the armies would have fought in irregular infantry formations, but many elements of the later Greek warfare were already present. Some sources suggest that the Spartans may have developed the beginnings of the phalanx in this war, but these sources are later and there is no evidence that this was actually the case.

When the leaders on either side gave the signal, the Messenians charged the Lacedaemonians recklessly like men eager for death in their wrath, each one of them eager to be the first to join battle. The Lacedaemonians also advanced to meet them eagerly, but were careful not to break their ranks.
Pausanias: Description of Greece 4.8.1

The war stretched on for nearly two decades of irregular warfare, with Sparta gaining the upper hand. Both sides appealed to the Oracle of Delphi and both sides were granted relatively ambiguous advice, but neither side was fully promised victory. The Messenians fortified Mt Ithome in their territory and when this finally fell to the Spartans around 720 it marked the end of the Messenian state.

Mt Ithome: Fortified by the Messenians at the end of the war

Even then the Messenians were not inferior in courage and brave deeds, but all their generals were killed and their most notable men. After this they held out for some five months, but as the year was coming to an end deserted Ithome, the war having lasted twenty years in all, as is stated in the poems of Tyrtaeus: But in the twentieth year they left their rich tilled lands, and fled from out the lofty mountains of Ithome.
Pausanias: Description of Greece 4.13.6

This was a very unusual war for the Greeks. The Spartans had spent decades fighting the war and never wanted to repeat it. So, after the war, they enslaved and permanently conquered the city of Messene, destroying the city and reducing the population to a perpetual underclass of slaves, who were known as helots, although it is clear that the Spartans already had an underclass of helots and thus not all helots were Messenian.

This was the true beginning of Sparta as we know it. The warrior class was maintained by the grudging labour of the helots. In turn, because the memory of Messenia never faded, the helots were always a danger to the state. A slave rebellion was always imminent so the Spartan warrior class had to remain ever vigilant. This paranoid military arrangement forced the Spartan state to maintain a permanent warrior class and the fact that their city actually had the land of two large city-states at their disposal meant that the Spartans were the most powerful of the city states. However, because of their continual need to prevent rebellion at home, the Spartans used this power lightly, never sending their armies on campaign for long periods.

Greek pottery from the period

The Messenians themselves were treated in this way: First they exacted an oath that they would never rebel or attempt any kind of revolution. Secondly, though no fixed tribute was imposed on them, they used to bring the half of all the produce of their fields to Sparta. It was also ordained that for the funerals of the kings and other magistrates men should come from Messene with their wives in black garments, and a penalty was laid on those who disobeyed.
As to the wanton punishments which they inflicted on the Messenians, this is what is said in Tyrtaeus' poems:–
Like asses worn by their great burdens, bringing of dire necessity to their masters the half of all the fruits the corn-land bears.
Pausanias: Description of Greece 4.14.4-5

On a rather different note, with the Spartan army on campaign for long periods during the war, a number of illegitimate children were supposedly born to the Spartan women and were viewed as being outside of society. These fatherless men were sent to colonise southern Italy and founded the colony of Taras around 710. This city, afterwards known as Tarentum/Tarento would become famous in its own right in years to come.

Not many bows will be drawn,
nor will slingshots be common,
whenever battle will be joined in the plain;
instead the much-sighing work will belong to the swords,
for the warlike lords of Euboea are experienced in that manner of war.
Archilochus

Greek pottery from the period

The Messenian War was long and decisive, but another war was beginning at this time. The Lelantine War was fought between Chalcis and Eretria. Both of these cities were wealthy cities on the long island of Euboea. They were barely twenty kilometres apart but these two cities, which had previously been allies, as well as some of the wealthiest cities in Greece, went to war over the plain between their cities. The war is supposed to have had gentleman’s agreements over the forbidding of cavalry and archers, to have involved cities from all over the Greek world and to have lasted for sixty years. It is strange to imagine that in this archaic period that Greece could have sustained conflict for over six decades in such a tiny field of battle. The truth may have been that that there were intermittent conflicts (that evolved into almost ritualised infantry encounters) that periodically flared up between the two states. As the states traded extensively, foreign cities would choose a side and occasionally send small contingents. As the war drags on into the next century we will discuss it in depth there, but it certainly starts in the 8th Century.

Muses of Pieria who give glory through song, come hither, tell of Zeus your father and chant his praise. Through him mortal men are famed or un-famed, sung or unsung alike, as great Zeus wills. For easily he makes strong, and easily he brings the strong man low; easily he humbles the proud and raises the obscure, and easily he straightens the crooked and blasts the proud,--Zeus who thunders aloft and has his dwelling most high.
Beginning of Works and Days by Hesiod

Mt Helikon, where Hesiod was inspired by the Muses

Around the late 700’s a Greek poet by the name of Hesiod began to write. His genuine poems that come down to us are Theogony and Works and Days. Theogony is a short description of the nature of the gods of Greece and provides a rough version of a Greek creation story. Works and Days is similar to a farmer’s almanac, containing vignettes of life as the owner of a small farm in Boeotia. These short poems are not nearly as famous as the Iliad or Odyssey, but they give us the first concept of the Muses, the myth of the Titans, Prometheus, Pandora’s box and the concept of four successive ages (gold, silver, bronze and iron).

For never yet have I sailed by ship over the wide sea, but only to Euboea from Aulis where the Achaeans once stayed through much storm when they had gathered a great host from divine Hellas for Troy, the land of fair women.  Then I crossed over to Chalcis, to the games of wise Amphidamas where the sons of the great-hearted hero proclaimed and appointed prizes.  And there I boast that I gained the victory with a song and carried off a handled tripod which I dedicated to the Muses of Helicon, in the place where they first set me in the way of clear song.
Hesiod: Works and Days

Unlike Homer, Hesiod was almost certainly a real person, and he describes his life in a number of passages in his work. There is a later myth that Homer and Hesiod were in fact contemporaries and that they competed in poetry competitions against each other (supposedly the prize went to Hesiod, whose poem promoted peace rather than war). The venue of the competition was supposedly the city of Chalcis, at the funeral celebrations of Amphidamas, a noble who had fallen in the Lelantine War. Hesiod himself mentions the competition but the tradition that his opponent was Homer is a much later and probably false invention.

A gift of HDR for our lord Hazael, from the plain of Basan, a brow-band for our respectful lord
Inscription from a votive offering found in Samos

Lastly, there is some evidence that the Greeks of this era were involved as mercenaries and traders in the larger empires of the Near East. In 733/732 Damascus was taken by the Assyrians and looted. Certain items that had been looted by Hazael and dedicated in the temples of his god Hadad were taken as loot from the sack of Damascus. Some of these items were dedicated in temples in Eretria and Samos and may have been the parts of the spoil allocated to Greek mercenaries serving in the Assyrian army. It is a tempting supposition, but it is of course possible that the items were looted several more times and were dedicated at the Greek temples at a later date. Either way, it is an interesting case study in the movement of people and artefacts during the Greek Archaic Period.

Item with inscription mentioning Hazael

A gift of Hadad for our lord Hazael, the year that our lord crossed the river
Inscription from the Hazael Blinkers found in Eretria

Related Blog Posts:
The 8th Century BC in the Near East: I
750-725BC in the Near East
725-701BC in the Near East
Greece from 700-675BC