ese early Greeks were seafarers and plunderers, and allegedly made their most famous expedition against the city of Troy, located on the north-west corner of Asia Minor (Robinson 11-14). Around 900 B.C., Greek society, having learned the art of writing from Phoenician merchants, began producing poems and verses to commemorate its great and terrible wars, conquests and adventures (Robinson 14). It was, however, 776 B.C. that marked two significant events in the origins of Greece: it was the earliest recorded date in Greek history, as well as the first time the Olympic Games were celebrated (Garland 4). It was also in this century that the great lyrical poet Homer is thought to have produced the Iliad and the Odyssey, each relating to the Trojan War, and each among the most enduring works in all of literature.
The advent of the written word impacted ancient Greek society in a myriad of ways, many of which appear to coalesce in the early 7th century B.C. Literate cultures may record their histories, codify laws, write constitutions, and establish governments that are more transparent. This the Greeks began to do. The first written laws date back to this time. And, unlike the ancient Egyptians, the Greeks did not extend the right of literacy only to select groups such as the priesthood. On the contrary, as Greek society became largely literate it therefore became progressively more open. All spheres of Greek existence were gravitating toward the written word. Civic, political and religious life in Greece produced and depended upon written complements, and it is thus hypothesized that the Greek city-state, or polis, was able to emerge and multiply upon and across the Aegean peninsula (Garland 5-7).
Before fully examining more fully the nature of the ancient Greek city-state (and some variations of it), it is important to identify the landscape and climate that it was set against. The ancient civilizations of Greece develo...