Greek History vs Mythology
Upvote:4
I generally suggest anyone interested in Ancient History in the Near East start with Colin McEvedy's New Penguin Atlas of Ancient History. This is a history of all the peoples of the near-east area since the dawn of humanity to 462 AD. Every page is the same base map, but advanced a few years, and a page opposite going into details about the political changes since the last map. This gives you an invaluable base of knowledge from which you can go do more detailed reading on individual topics or peoples at your discretion.
I find a lot of people who don't have this kind of broad base of knowledge can miss how individual bits of history fit into the whole.
It may sound daunting, but its relatively short compared to a typical non-fiction novel, and its a surprisingly fun read. The main drawback is that the last revision I believe was 2002, so some of the information isn't totally up to date.*
This actually gives you a surprisingly good overview of Greek history, from the murky details we have about their entry into the peninsula, to a lot of the detail during their era of military supremacy and colonization, clean up to their eventual near-eclipse by the growing power of Rome. There's even a few words in there about how their popular mythology fits into things (answer: not a whole lot, except perhaps metaphorically).
* - Of particular interest to you, I believe he presented a fairly simple Dorian invasion theory for the cause of the Greek Dark Ages. These days this is considered at best an oversimplification, if it happened at all.
Upvote:7
Short answer: Greek history, as opposed to myth and legend, begins about one hundred to three hundred years before the time of Herodotus.
Long answer:
Herodotus (c.484-c.425 BC) has been called "The Father of History".
he was the first historian known to have broken from Homeric tradition to treat historical subjects as a method of investigation—specifically, by collecting his materials systematically and critically, and then arranging them into a historiographic narrative.[2]
The Histories is the only work which he is known to have produced, a record of his "inquiry" (ἱστορία historía) on the origins of the Greco-Persian Wars; it primarily deals with the lives of Croesus, Cyrus, Cambyses, Smerdis, Darius, and Xerxes and the battles of Marathon, Thermopylae, Artemisium, Salamis, Plataea, and Mycale; however, its many cultural, ethnographical, geographical, historiographical, and other digressions form a defining and essential part of the Histories and contain a wealth of information. Some of his stories are fanciful and others inaccurate, yet he states that he is reporting only what he was told; a sizable portion of the information he provided was later confirmed by historians and archaeologists.
Despite Herodotus's historical significance, little is known of his personal life.
The main persons listed as subjects of the history of Herodotus were:
Croesus (595-c.546 BC) King of Lydia.
Cyrus II The Great (c. 600-530 BC) The Great King, the King of Kings, The King of Lands and Peoples, The King of the World.
Cambyses II (d. 522 BC) The Great King, the King of Kings, The King of Lands and Peoples, The King of the World.
Darius I (c.560-486 BC) The Great King, the King of Kings, The King of Lands and Peoples, The King of the World.
Xerxes I (519-465 BC) The Great King, the King of Kings, The King of Lands and Peoples, The King of the World.
The battles that are main subjects include:
Marathon (490 BC).
Thermopylae (480 BC).
Artemisium (480 BC).
Salamis (480 BC).
Plataea (479 BC).
Mycale (479 BC).
Herodotus reports on the possible mythical origins of conflict between Europe and Aisa, but most of his work covers events in the previous two centuries or about 650 to 450 BC. It is likely that the sources used by Herodotus for recent events were more accurate that the sources used for earlier events that had more time for exaggeration, confusion, and propaganda during the transmissions of those stories.
The ancient Greeks began holding Olympic games every four years at Olympus in Greece. An Olympiad was the term for a four year period beginning the summer when Olympic games were held and ending in the summer at the beginning of the fifth year right before the next next set of Olympic games was held.
It eventually became the Greek custom to date events to the year of the Olympiad in which they happened, the first second third, or fourth year of the particular Olympiad.
Any event that was recorded at the time it happened as happening in a particular year of a particular Olympiad is precisely dated.
Timaeus of Tauromenium (c.345-c.250 BC) was the first historian to use Olympiad dating to date events.
The first Olympic games were probably held in 776 BC according to our modern Gregorian calendar.
And I believe that some ancient Greek historians considered that the age of myths and legends ended about then and the age of history began about then.
Therefore a rough rule could be that most Greek events said to happen before about 776 BC are myths or legends (though they could be true) and most Greek events said to happen after about 776 BC are more or less history (although possibly distorted or falsified history).
More post
- 📝 What were the military justifications for the bombing of Dresden?
- 📝 When did the Chinese begin using night soil as fertilizer?
- 📝 When and why did Erasmus ask whether the Pope would govern the east better than the Turk?
- 📝 Was there ever an occurrence of diplomatic communication using food?
- 📝 Who cataloged the ships that visited Alta California?
- 📝 Were Serbs and Croats one people / tribe in the past? If not, why do they speak the same language?
- 📝 Are Zoot suits considered an element of the 1940s Hipster subculture?
- 📝 What was the relationship between Ottoman emperor Murat IV and his mother Kosem Sultan?
- 📝 How accurate is Grossman's description of Nazi concentration camps?
- 📝 What did the Musa Dagh monument look like?
- 📝 What were French actions against Germany during September 1939?
- 📝 Why did a lot of major cities around the world obtain obelisks?
- 📝 What was Canada's policy on immigrants who served in the Wehrmacht, after WW2?
- 📝 How were diplomats and their staffs treated when World War II was declared?
- 📝 To what extent was the Cold War caused by post World War 2 economics?
- 📝 Can oral tradition be used as a source in scholarly papers?
- 📝 Identifying a ship in Sydney Harbour
- 📝 What specifically did Einstein have in mind when he called the Israeli Freedom Party fascistic?
- 📝 What was the reason the Maronites lobbied for a state of Greater Lebanon?
- 📝 How many people were in an average Iron Age Celtic settlement?
- 📝 Why require every ploughman to make his own plough?
- 📝 Was any other religion as exact in terms of genealogy as Judaism?
- 📝 How did Tenures Abolition Act of 1660 change feudalism in England?
- 📝 Did Nicholas II of Russia send telegrams demanding evacuation of Serbs?
- 📝 When did springs first appear in or below vehicle seats?
- 📝 How did a nomadic minority group the Manchus come to rule over China?
- 📝 How many wars have there been in Europe since WW2?
- 📝 How could I find the original text of Leonardo Da Vinci's fable "La fiamma e la candela"?
- 📝 How much salt did people in agricultural societies eat?
- 📝 Were Confederate pikes just a curious item to laugh at?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Greek History vs Mythology
- 📝 When did Greek historians stop believing Greek mythology to be historical fact?
- 📝 How could one understand the essence of Greek mythology and the deep meanings? Understanding the belief system of Ancient Greeks
- 📝 Is history always written by the victors?
- 📝 History of scientific regression
- 📝 When did worshipping of ancient Greek gods come to an end?
- 📝 Which year in history had the highest ratio of non-natural deaths?
- 📝 What did people in 13th century England know about Greek mythology?
- 📝 Which countries (or comparable geographical units) have a lower population now than they used to at some point in history before 1950?
- 📝 What is the difference between the Ancient Greek religion and the Ancient Roman religion?
- 📝 Was Alexander the Great Greek or Macedonian?
- 📝 Why is Dravidian history ignored?
- 📝 Did the Persian Immortals instill fear in their Greek adversaries?
- 📝 Do Real Roman and Greek warriors have big muscles and six-pack abs like in the movie?
- 📝 What was the first battle in history fought by vast-majority-% "distance-shooting" non-mechanized force?
- 📝 Is black American history only about segregation, slavery, and the 3 people you get taught about in school?
- 📝 Japan is known for being isolationist, so what cultivated its history of interventionism in the 20th century?
- 📝 Does the Catholic church have a long history of child abuse, or is it something that started in our time?
- 📝 What is the history of the popped collar?
- 📝 In Antiquity, were Persian arrows considered superior to their Greek counterparts?
- 📝 What is the history of the university asylum law?
- 📝 Pre-Christian use of the Greek Septuagint
- 📝 What is the large blue object on the right in this picture showing Greek fire?
- 📝 Has history mistreated Nero?
- 📝 Did Greek traders visit the Philippines in the 1st century AD?
- 📝 Why was the Greek alphabet not adopted by other languages, given the Greek influence?
- 📝 Does Chinese history really span the past 5000 years?
- 📝 What were Greek and Roman sails made from?
- 📝 How did the Druids learn the Greek language by the time of Caesar's campaign in Gaul?
- 📝 Pedophilia in ancient Greek and Roman culture