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238 The Origin of Civilisation

The Dark Age, then, was the essential rebuilding era. The Greeks finally sloughed ofF the propensity to slawishly copy other regimes. Rejecting the rigid attitudes and postures of their oriental mentors, what euentually evolved was an entirely original Greek innovation, a truły unique European civi 1 isation.⁴⁹ Although it arrived as a somewhat 'Swift crystallisatidn¹,. (an elegant term used by Starr to describe the rise of the first Near Eastern civilisations during the third millennium BC), seueral important continuity themes can be traced back to the age of Homer's Heroes. The Mycenaeans spoke Greek, although they wrote it in the cumbersome Linear B script. Howewer, the later Greeks modified the Phoenician alphabet,⁵⁰ which prowed morę suitable for expressing Greek in written form. The megaron, a central architectural feature of the early palaces also survived, as did many gods of the Hycenaean pantheon. The Linear B tablets reveal sonie references to Zeus, Hera, Athene, Artemis, Ares, Poseidon and Dionysus*¹ Nilsson's research on Greek mythology and religion suggest that much classical Greek myth was linked to Hycenaean centres. Oedipus was linked to Thebes, Jason to lolkos, Heracles to Tiryns, and, of course, the Atreids to Mycenae itself.** Nonetheless, the cultural mix went through a firing process to create the ultimate Classical milieu. Yet, even after the initial intellectual spurt had been achiewed the core of this new ciwilisation continued ewolwing. Andrewes suggests Athenian democracy, for evample, did not reach a fuli dewelopment until 507 BC,⁵³ and John Collis sees a span of three centuries for the concept of market exchange to maturę into a flexible demand/supply situation.⁵⁴

According to Starr, the pivotal outburst may have erupted within the space of one forty year generation (720-680 BC), aa confirmed in the evolution of słone temples, the Proto-corinthian pottery style and progress in sculpture techniques. The extent of the Greek achiewement is awesome, pervading ewery aspect of life,⁵⁵ with changes ramifying across the entire cultural framework. Major innowatiwe elements arose in all the fiwe culture subsystems. There was territorial expansion to found autonomous colonies around the Mediterranean, from the Lewant to Spain, and round the Black Sea.⁵⁶ The political structure of the polis itself evolved, and with it a remodelling of the city-state, slowly accompanied by the original bold ideas of citizenship and democracy. The concept of a free market and the adwent of independent traders euoli/ed from the social arrangenent of the agora.⁵⁷ For war, the Greeks deweloped the phalanx of hoplites (infantry-men) and the paid mercenai.; in sport, they realiaed the self-fulfillment attainable through competition and rigoraus dewelopment of the body. They were the first people to actiwely combine the pragmatism of experimentation with the rationality of scientific thought, applying engineering principles to the fields of practical water technology, architecture and public works.^Their use of stone for temples and statuary created a new perception of how space could be harnessed in morę dynamie and harnonious balances. Starr describes the Greek tempie as "a jewel box set on a platform to encase a statuę." ⁵⁹ The Greek architect, he tells us, took part

of space and cut it off sharply from the chaotic world around his struć turę. The three dimensional modelling of statuary in clay, bronze, wood and stone was only one aspect of the intellectual outpouring of Greek ability in the arts and Sciences.⁶⁰ There was a new groundswell in literaturę, the theatre, the growth of philoaophy and logie, and perhaps, the greatest gift that the Greeks endowed to subsequent ciwilisations, the ability to reduce the chaos of the obserued phyaical world to order through a logie comprehensible to rational human modes of understanding and expression.

These achievements were not secured without cost, howewer. Starr sees the stresa of such a rapid radiation of change reflected in the literaturę, art and religion of the times, expressing the sharp sense of anxieties that such dynamie adjustments had brought to bear. In his masterly analysis, firmly based on the archaeological ewidence for the period, we can perceive how the total amazing transformation brought about by the emergence of the Classical Greek experience affected almost every aspect of life. The interwowen meshing of subsystem strands that allowed major progress to be madę in almost ewery field of human endeavour highlights the necessary balance that needs to be present before a slowly ewolwing culture can go critical. The fact that the exponential burst can be as dramat ic as one generation, as Starr suggests, underlines the energetic self-generating, or self-sustaining ability of the autocatalytic action/reaction/chain reaction process. It may be that the emergence of a true ciwilisation, not an infrequent event as the records con-firm, adds an extra dimension to life, perhaps comparable to mowing up into an 'over-drive' situation.

For Greece, her successful flirtation with the experience of ciwilisation led to a brief imperial interlude, ending abruptly with the early death of Alexander. Yet the influence of Greek ciwilisation surwiwed as a powerful cultural aura, and remains very much with us today. Although the apogea of a ciwilisation often coincides with territoriał expansion and imperial status some ciwilisations seemed to possess this profound, almost immortal aura, which was somehow transmissible to others following later. Mumford suggests that ewery ciwilisation carries within it the insignificant refuse of past technologies and the important germs of new ones, but the focus for new growth is cent rally generated.⁶ This may be too cynical, sińce one cannot surwey the story of man without glimpsing the occasional brilliance in his early efforts. Thus, in the paradox of change and continuity we see how a part of the splendid Greek heritage liwes on to be relayed through us to futurę generations.