Greece [antikvár]

Introduction To make Greece's acquaintance is a great challenge. It is both easy and difficult. For nigh on two thousand years — since the days when the traveller Pausanias, in the second century ad visited here — travellers and tourists have arrived in steady stream, all eagerly intent on getting to know something of its long history, its unique civilisation and enjoying its very special landscape. Very few countries offer such a variety of countryside and such a host of historical monuments; sunshine and light, high mountains, lushly verdant plains, coasts fringed with sandy beaches, brilliant white islands scattered with ancient ruins, interspersed with modern buildings, Greece is all these things. Home of the gods and heroes, persons fantastic and mythical, poets, orators, philosophers eternalise through space and time a historical continuum. Its name and its history are lost in the mists of legend. It was Homer who used the name "Hellas" for the first time, while in historical times the name "Hellenes" denoted not only the inhabitants of Central Greece, but also of Epirus, Macedonia, Thrace, Asia Minor, the isles of the Aegean and Ionian seas, as well as Southern Italy and Sicily. Since earliest times the land has been settled. The first traces of man at Petralona, Chalkidike are dated to the Middle Palaeolothic era (c. 50,000 bc). During the Neolithic period, important cultural centres grew up, especially in Thessaly (Dimini-Sesklo), Crete, Attica, Central Greece and the Peloponnese. There was considerable socio-economic development, as well as artistic creativity, in the Bronze Age (circa 2000 bc) and, indeed, during the final phase, the Late Helladic, generally known as the Mycenaean. Then it was that Mycenae "rich in gold" flourished, impressive palaces were constructed, Cyclopean fortifications built around their acropoles and works of art created, many of which have survived until the present day. Around 1100 bc the Dorians descended upon Greece, irrevocably disrupting the indigenous population. Many fled to Asia Minor, while those who remained continued the development of the body politic, economic and cultural advancement. The Homeric poems give a picture of the society and institutions of that era (llth-8th century bc) during the latter part of which (9th-8th century bc) Geometric Art flourished. There was a smooth transition to the ensuing period — the Archaic, 8th-6th century bc — when there was an increased colonisation movement from Greece proper and the cities of Asia Minor to the shores of the Black Sea and to Sicily and Italy where Magna Graecia was established and where to this day Greek speaking enclaves still preserve the local dialects. In the same period a zenith was achieved in the arts - sculpture and architecture - and especially in pottery and vase-painting. Then it was, too, that the city state acquired its definitive form. The 5th and 4 th century bc constitute the Golden Age, the Classical Miracle. Then the