10 a.m A pleasant morning - I have already enjoyed an hour returning to Ancient Greece, as seen through the eyes and pen of Will Durant. I am not in a hurry to "get through" this topic of ancient Greece. I rather enjoy a leisurely approach where I can enjoy some of the rich description of Durant without succumbing to the temptation to just make a few short lists of important points. Such an approach may provide a skeleton, but it is the meat that provides sustenance. I also want to return to some of the original (translated) works of the dramatists such as Sophocles and Aristophanes.

The third chapter from "The Life of Greece" contains information about the Greek Heroic Age. Two of the legends give me a clearer understanding of the origin of the names Hellenes, Archean [the term used by Homer in the Illiad] and Peloponnesian. I have drawn a couple of flowcharts using Inspiration.

Durant reminds the reader that Greek civilization in the period 700 - 500 B.C. was influenced by other cultures, notably Egypt, but also Phoenicia, Persia and Crete. Thales, Pythagorus, Solon. Plato and Democritus all visited Egypt.

Egypt had a mature civilization 2000 years before the fall of Troy. An Egyptian priest is said to have said to Solon, "You Greeks are mere children, talkative and vain, and knowing nothing of the past". (p. 68). I see other words that might be substituted for "Greeks".

The fourth chapter is a complete description of Sparta. At is peak, Sparta was a union of 5 villages, totalling a population of about 70,000. Today it is a hamlet of 4,000 and "hardly anything remains of the city that once ruled and ruined Greece".

Sparta took control of much of the Peloponneseun peninsula during the Messenian wars and ended up with a situation where there were 220,000 Helots (Greek slaves) and only 30,000 Spartans. Thus every Spartan male was needed as a soldier to suppress rebellions.

Lycurgas is generally credited with creating the Spartan Code. Basically boys were brought up in a communal setting, away from their families and taught to endure hardship and battle. Essentially they were trained to be soldiers. Their army was respected and feared throught Greece. But they were the only city-state to adopt such a severe form of culture.

Here is a lovely quote from the section on Corinth. "Perhaps time and chance were ungrateful to the city, and her annals fell to be written by men of other loyalties. The past would be startled if it could see itself in the pages of historians.". (p. 92)

Here is a great site with photographs of modern Greece.

I have also clarified the differences among Doric, Ionic and Corinthian architecture. Doric has no ornamentation at the top of the column, Ionic has a scroll at the top, and Corinthian is fairly ornate. I love the way these isolated bits of factual knowledge begin to be less isolated.