Nothing seems certain any longer in the study of archaic Greece. In recent years, staples of older textbooks such as “tyranny,” “colonization” and “the rise of the hoplite phalanx” have been thoroughly reconceptualized or even consigned to the dustbin of history - at least by a few scholars. Most historical dates, beginning with the year 776 bc as marking the foundation of the Olympic Games and the start of the archaic age, are now widely considered unreliable. Iconic events such as the Lelantine and Messenian Wars may never have taken place. Perhaps some of the scepticism driving such reassessments has gone too far, but it is certainly an important positive development that recent scholarship has been characterized by a more critical approach to the literary evidence. Meanwhile, other kinds of evidence - archaeological and iconographic - as well as numerous topics in the field of social, economic, and cultural history have been demanding increasing attention. As a combined effect of these developments, archaic Greek history has virtually been transformed beyond recognition. Recent surveys by, for example, Robin Osborne (1996) or Jonathan Hall (2007), make an admirable effort to highlight new perspectives and assessments. Still, the task has perhaps become almost too complex for one scholar, and it is high time for an even more comprehensive approach. As is typical of the genre, this Companion to Archaic Greece pursues two complementary goals: to offer, from the perspective of many specialists in various fields, a multi-authored survey of the current state of the evidence and the latest insights on the period, and to give new impulses or suggest new directions for future research.
The Introduction establishes the context of this volume in two ways. It provides the intellectual background by tracing changes in historiography since the nineteenth century that have brought us to the present state of scholarship (ch. 1), and it lays out the physical context of geography and communications in the wider Mediterranean world, which did so much to shape Greek history (ch. 2).
A narrative history of the archaic age has always been difficult to write, even for those with great confidence in the accuracy of our later sources for the period. By now it seems virtually impossible. The written record mentions very few events or individuals, scattered across the cities and centuries. More importantly, much that has survived is not contemporary but represents archaic Greece as selectively remembered by later generations with their own interests, agendas and presuppositions. Nevertheless, enough contemporary texts and material remains survive to allow us to reconstruct the history of the period in broad outline, as shown in Part II, Histories. We begin with the long-term historical background to developments of the archaic period in what is rightly no longer called “the Dark Age” (ch. 3) and proceed with an analysis of the changes of the eighth century bc and the beginnings of urbanization which shape the fundamental structures of the archaic age (ch. 4). Alongside the archaeological evidence on which these two chapters are based, the society and culture of the early archaic period are potentially illuminated by the controversial evidence of Homer and Hesiod, which is analysed next (ch. 5). The political, military and social history of the following centuries is outlined in three chapters which concentrate on the widespread phenomenon of tyranny (ch. 6) and on the only two states about which we are sufficiently well informed to attempt a continuous and coherent interpretation of developments, Athens (ch. 7) and Sparta (ch. 8), the latter a subject of particularly lively debate in the last decade or so. Part II closes with a study of relations between Greece and Persia, stripped as far as possible of its usual Greek bias, culminating in the great war which conventionally marks the transition to the classical period (ch. 9).
The ever bigger, better and better-published body of evidence from archaeological excavation and survey is the main focus of Part III, Regions. As several of the contributors note, the areas covered by each of the chapters are not always unified and often have notable similarities to and links with other regions with which they might profitably have been combined in a single study. In order to ensure comprehensive and even coverage, however, we have divided up the Greek world into eight broad regions each of which has at least some significant distinguishing characteristics. In view of their special status in Greek history, the territories of Athens (ch. 10) and Sparta (ch. 12) deserve separate treatment, while the rest of the Greek homeland is covered in four wide-ranging chapters on the cities of the Aegean (ch. 11), the Peloponnese (ch. 13), Crete (ch. 14) and northern Greece (ch. 15). We have unfortunately been unable to include the very different world of the Greeks in Cyprus, but the “colonial” Greek settlements receive their due in two chapters dedicated to the western Mediterranean (ch. 16) and the Black Sea area (ch. 17).
The fourth, final and longest part, Themes, offers fourteen new perspectives on key themes in archaic Greek society and history. The rise of a world of poleis is studied from several angles, taking in urbanization as well as the developments of the concepts of “city” and “countryside” (ch. 18), the nature of the “foundation’ of cities and the creation of Mediterranean-wide networks linking them (ch. 19), the establishment of complex republican institutions and popular sovereignty (ch. 20), the continuing role of charismatic political leadership in its various guises (ch. 21), and the crucial role of sanctuaries and festivals in binding communities together at every level (ch. 22). Basic features of archaic society are surveyed in studies of economy (ch. 23) and class (ch. 24) as forces for historical change, and on concepts of gender as expressed in literature and material culture (ch. 25). The symposium (ch. 26) and sporting and other competitions (ch. 27) not only dominated social life but also inspired a great deal of the literature and art of the period - among the most remarkable achievements of Greek culture, along with the adoption of the alphabet and the spread of literacy (ch. 28), and, perhaps most important of all, the spirit of critical enquiry which produced scientific, philosophical and political thought (ch. 29). The volume closes with a look at the Greek world as an international system, analysing both the changing shapes of war and diplomacy (ch. 30) and the formulation of ethnic identities in a world where many cultures met and influenced one another across the Mediterranean and Near East (ch. 31).
Many more themes might have been added. Readers may be surprised to find no chapter devoted to, for example, art and architecture, or lyric poetry. These and other topics are not ignored, but discussed - albeit relatively briefly - under different headings, as an aspect of, say, economic development or of sympotic culture, as well as in the regional surveys. We believe that in such cases the loss of detail in the treatment is off-set by the insights gained from looking at these subjects from a broader historical perspective.
Not the least important feature of this Companion is that the contributing authors represent an exceptionally wide range of scholarship and scholarly traditions: thirty-five authors of a dozen different nationalities working in thirteen different countries, all leading experts with innovative approaches to their subjects, including some whose important work is rarely published in English. Both the range and the sheer size of this volume - which could have been much larger still if we had not brutally cut large amounts of excellent material from numerous chapters - are, we think, eloquent testimony to the renewed vitality and enduring fascination of archaic Greek history and culture.
The first drafts of many of the papers in this volume were written several years ago, and comprehensive updating has not always been possible, but authors and editors have made every effort to include the most recent bibliography. US spelling and punctuation have been adopted as standard; all ancient Greek has been transliterated, and contributors have been allowed their own preference in rendering long vowels (marked by circumflex, macron, or acute accent, or not marked at all). The editors wish to acknowledge the important contributions made to this volume by David Yates who, together with Jennifer Yates, translated a chapter and compiled the indices, by Amy Flynn and especially by Mark Thatcher, who did most of the work towards compiling the consolidated bibliography of more than 2,500 entries, by Al Bertrand, who commissioned the project, and staff at Blackwell for their assistance at various stages of the long road towards completing this Companion. We are also grateful to Errietta Bissa for further assistance with the bibliography and to Nino Luraghi for help with the maps, which are based on relief maps provided by C. Scott Walker of the Harvard University Maps Collection.
for financial assistance in funding the work of graduate students are owed to the Humanities Research Fund and the Royce Family Fund for Teaching Excellence at Brown University.
Kurt A. Raaflaub Hans van Wees
World History
