The Greek Middle Ages: c. 1125 - c.700 BC DOWNLOAD FREE

Hesiod Hesiod was a farmer from Askra on the southern side of Mount Helikon in Boiotia. He lived around 725 - 700 BC. In his poem Works and Days he begins by upbraiding a lazy brother and proceeds to give a manual of good agricultural practice, which involves a combination of practical knowledge and astrology. His work also indicates that by his day land could be bought and sold. His father was a trader from Kyme, who falling on bad times, decided to become a farmer. Hesiod claims that he was inspired by the Muses to write. He employs Homeric hexameters and writes in Ionic, which would not have been his native dialect. Hesiod is also credited with writing the poem Theagony or the Genesis of the Gods which attempts to provide a systematic account of the early history of the world. It is probable that Hesiod was drawing upon existing traditions, and a prose Hittite Theogony has been discovered that bears close resemblance to Heiod's. Hesiod, in his Works and Days, also introduces a theory of human history and the myth of five ages, starting with the Golden Age and culminating with his own age, the Iron Age. He ascribes the Heroic age to the period between the Bronze and Iron Ages.

Contents of The Greek Middle Ages: c. 1125 - c.700 BC 1 Population growth and land hunger 2 Economic expansion and the rising "middle class" 3 Cultural developments in Greece during the period of tyrannies 4 Hoplite tactics 5 Factional politics 6 Ethnic tensions 7 The downfall of tyrants in archaic Greece 8 The Dorian and Ionic migrations 9 The Dorians 10 Greek Dark age 11 The Greek City States 12 Greek colonization of the C8th BC 13 Greek colonization of the Aegean and East 14 Greek settlers in the Euxine 15 Causes of the Greek colonization 16 Archaeological evidence for Greek population expansion in C8th BC 17 Foundation of Cyrene 18 Corcyra 19 Olbia 20 The Lelantine war 21 Relations with Egypt 22 Greek Culture during the Greek Middle Ages 23 Introduction of phonetic script 24 Homer 25 Hesiod 26 Foundation of the Olympic Games

Related articles: (1) Mycenae and the Heroic Age, (2) The Greek Tyrannies: c. 650 - 510 BC