When most people think of Ancient Greece, it is full of Hollywoodized stereotypes many of these stereotypes depicted in the Oliver Stone film (2004) Alexander. There are also many not so obvious things about ancient Greece like a lot of the information in the book Ancient Greece: A Political, Social, and Cultural History. Many people have very similar thoughts when they think of ancient Greece. They think of the many fabled heroes like Achilles and Hercules. Many of the gods that are well known are Zeus, the god of thunder, Hades, the god of the underworld, and Aries, the fabled god of war. There is a myriad of fictitious depictions of all these heroes and gods. All of this is the glam part of ancient Greece. Another crazy idea is that a lot of the history of ancient Greece is that it did not happen, and a lot of it was all fabricated. Lastly, many of the everyday concepts of our government and daily lives where derived from ancient Greece. Come along as we delve into the greatness and exciting parts of Ancient Greece.
Many have jumped at the chance to choose the topic of ancient Greece/Alexander the great because, like those others, I too had the Hollywoodized vision and thoughts of ancient Greece. Leading me to want to broaden my knowledge of ancient Greece and present to you, the reader like you are learning alongside. I chose the movie Alexander; because like most Hollywood historical movies, they glam up the “cool” parts of history. Movies also seem to gloss over the essential details because movies are about what is vital to the director. I am going to the best of my knowledge to try to reveal the details left out by the film.
The perspective of the book on the topic is very informational, especially when it comes to military events, political/social events, and cultural developments of ancient Greece. The writers undertook this book due to their frustration about not being able to find a single complete volume of Greek history. This book dates to the Neolithic period, which was when Greece first settled it then went into the Hellenistic period to the Classical period, which brought to the end of Greece. This book elegantly lays out the hectic and long history of Greece.
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The movie’s perspective on the topic was very loose when it comes to the topic. It focused solely on Alexander the Great, which we now know the self-titled movie fit. The movie did an excellent job depicting several of Alexander’s major battles and victories. Many of the campaigns you had no idea which was going on. The movie itself was great, which is what you expect from Oliver Stone. Films about ancient times, if done factually historical, would have a hard time doing well at the box office, nor make any money. The film depicted Alexander as a timid man that always strove for greatness. He also wanted to go further than his father, King Philip. Roxanne in the movie never bore a child during his campaign, and finally revealed she was with child right after he found out his friend died. The movie was loosely accurate; it depicts Alexander’s mother Olympias a lot more than King Philip. The film made King Philip out as a sloppy drunk who hated Alexander for casting out his mother. The death of his friend Hephaestion was accurate, but the cause of death was different from my research. The movie did not cover any of his Egyptian campaigns. Alexander’s death in the film was pretty close to the historical accounts of his death. The film did not exclude anything when it came to ethnicity, race, or group. There was an overwhelming stereotype in the movie that bisexuality was very apparent in the film. Partaking in this activity was not frowned upon back then. My general opinion of the movie is at its surface; it is a pretty decent film. It is a very long movie, that is very informative and loosely specific when it comes to details. Colin Farrell does a phenomenal job of portraying Alexander the Great. I feel they did a lousy job at depicting King Philip. He had a large hand in grooming Alexander. In the beginning, Alexander was very fond of his royal guard, but by the end of it, he started to sour because of their disdain for continuing his campaign.
As you read in the previous paragraphs Ancient Greece and Alexander the Great have a rich history that has a lot of major points in it but lost in those are the small details that have huge impacts on what Alexander the great had at his disposal once he came to power. From their legendary heroes, the Greeks were irresistibly drawn to the distant shores. CITATION Bur99 p 1 l 1033 (Burstein, Donlan and Pomeroy 1999, 1) 1. The Greeks were probably like this to the geographical features of the land. “Greece is about the size of the state of Alabama”.CITATION Bur99 p 1 l 1033 (Burstein, Donlan and Pomeroy 1999, 1) The size of the country, the landscape, and the natural resources played a big part in how Greece was formed. Its location on the Mediterranean means it had a unique climate with long hot summers and short moist winters when most of the rain fell.
The Greeks discovered how to make Bronze around 3000 B.C.CITATION Bur99 p 8 l 1033 (Burstein, Donlan and Pomeroy 1999, 8). Thediscovery of this made farming and hunting a lot easier for them starting. The records of this period are very scarce and based primarily on archaeological data recovered from the various regions. “Ancient Greeks used many languages during the middle bronze age these languages include: Latin, Old Persian, and Sanskrit as well as Germanic and Slavic.”CITATION Bur99 p 10 l 1033 (Burstein, Donlan and Pomeroy 1999, 10). I know that this quote is hard to prove due to the lack of archaeological evidence to prove this so this history of this.
The Mycenean age is named after one of the richest digs in mainland Greece. This age was from the years 1580-1150 BC CITATION Bur99 l 1033 (Burstein, Donlan and Pomeroy 1999) 18. One of the important things that were discovered from this time was one of the early forms of tombs.
These tombs are known as tholos these where huge chambers shaped like beehives and predominantly built into hillsides. CITATION Bur99 l 1033 (Burstein, Donlan and Pomeroy 1999) 22 These were important because it gave us a window into how the Greeks from this time viewed death as honorary and sacred. Another interesting fact is that Greeks from this age were actively trading across all of the Mediterranean. The religion from this period is somehow preserved on tablets that were dug up at Knossos and Pylos. These tablets named various gods and quite a few major gods mentioned many times in the Hollywoodized Greek history: Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Hermes, Athena, Artemis, and possibly Apollo. One of the important inventions from this period is the Chariot which is one of the most costly and intricate manufacturing job known to the Greeks. CITATION Bur99 l 1033 (Burstein, Donlan and Pomeroy 1999)36-37. The Chariot is an important item because it had many uses when it came to domestic jobs and especially warfare. I would consider it to be a legitimate precursor to the horse carriage the technology is very similar.
Greek civilization suffered a fatal blow over a few decades to 1200 BC. This is known because of the scarcity of the archaeological record of this period.CITATION Bur99 p 9 l 1033 (Burstein, Donlan and Pomeroy 1999, 9). The state of Greece currently to the Dark Age it was a stateless society of farmers and shepherds. The contact with Crete helps Greece establish statehood and helped it flourish around 1600. The Dark Age of Greece had catastrophic culture loss and was very long-lasting. Unfortunately, the only way that we have been able to gather most of our information about this time is from two of the most famous epic poems: The Iliad and the Odyssey which were not even produced until later in the geometric period. The root word “demos” is used in many of our words today such as democracy, demographics, and fitting and currently going on the pandemic which was written in the Iliad. The way of life during the dark ages was raiding, and the institutions of government were few and simple. The council, assembly, and law court are all there is in Homer. These crucial parts of government would become the organs essential of government. The Greek religion of this time period would remain the same as it is represented in Homer and Hesiod. Open worship of the popular gods known today of Zeus, Hades Ares, Poseidon, Athena, and Aphrodite arouse around this time in Homer and Hesiod. It is still shocking that there isn’t a lot of openinformation about these events and we have to rely on accounts from two famous poems. Towards the end of the Dark ages widespread rise in the population was a major factor in bringing about the end of the Dark ages. This growth was surprising after centuries of slow growth remains one of the biggest mysteries of early Greek history. Also, during this time increase contact with the East helped develop the most significant cultural achievement of the late dark age the Greek Alphabet. CITATION Bur99 l 1033 (Burstein, Donlan and Pomeroy 1999). Whenever an alphabet is established by a civilization it can lead various changes in civil interactions, how the gods are worshipped, and even how leaders rule. The impact of literacy on Greek development was groundbreaking it led to many things that are still around today. Another major achievement from this time was thick brick and stone walls that provided formidable defense. Since the beginning of time formidable fortifications have helped preserve the populations of cities. The formation of city-states came into being during this time period which they were commonly known as polis which is also the root word for politics. Warfare took on a drastic change during the next period of Greek history. These changes gave birth to the new type of solider the Hoplite. These heavily armed soldiers arranged themselves into one of the most famous and formidable formations called the Phalanx. These soldiers and formation were made very known and popular in many of the campaigns laid out in Alexander and another famous movie of 300.
The Hoplon was a very innovative piece of equipment for its time this is saying a lot because it is what the Hoplite got its name. The Hoplon was a round piece of wood covered with a thin sheet of bronze. This piece of equipment is what made the Phalanx such a formidable adversaryCITATION Bur99 p 103 l 1033 (Burstein, Donlan and Pomeroy 1999, 103).
Over the next two periods of Greek history one of the most famous city-states named Sparta came into being and rose to power. They were praised in peace time and they were also dread when it came to war. In the mention of the movie 300 aside from alexander it gives you an insight into just how much Sparta lived in a totalitarian society because they had their hands in every aspect of life. One of the interesting facts about Spartans is they never married foreigners nor did they recruit very many non-Spartans.CITATION Bur99 p 147 l 1033 (Burstein, Donlan and Pomeroy 1999, 147). While the Spartans were on the rise and flourishing another well-known city-state was coming along just as well was the great city of Athens. It was very crucialthata strong Athens was established because of the impending conflict with Persia in the East. If Greece were not strong there would not have been a country to grow. The early establish government of Athens was strictly aristocratic which most of its laws concern homicide. Most of the laws from around this time all involved the death penalty for crimes as simple a misdemeanor.CITATION Bur99 p 161 l 1033 (Burstein, Donlan and Pomeroy 1999, 161). Like most places before any laws were put into place it was a very eye for an eye typed retaliation system.
The use of this could have possibly made some family cease to exist. Athens most significant contribution to the world at this time was Olive oil, and it was exported in beautiful vases from the clay found in Attica. Olive oil was very bountiful due to the type of soil from the region which was great for olive growth. Shortly, after this time a person who was very crucial is the development and being crowned as the father of democracy, his name was Solon.CITATION Bur99 p 167 l 1033 (Burstein, Donlan and Pomeroy 1999, 167) One his ideas has giving rise to what a lot of countries in western civilization know as juries. One of the big events of this was the Battle of Thermopylae which is depicted in the movie 300.
