Every people in the ancient Greek world was given a name, Hellas. The first record of this term dates back to the Homeric period and was used to refer to the region of Thessaly, the homeland of the Hellenes. However, the term Hellas was not used simply in a geographical sense, but rather to the set of values and ideals that made up the Greek civilization.
The Greek civilization was established in the territories of Attica and the Peloponnese, on the coast of the Aegean Sea and the islands in the region. The diverse Greek peoples did not form a nation as we understand it today, but they had a language that united them: Greek, as well as the traditions that keep them culturally united.
Cultural Manifestations of Hellas
The Iliad and the Odyssey of Homero written in the VIII century; C constitute the cultural root of this civilization. It should be noted that in both poetic works the main episodes that make up the history of the Greeks are told, such as the Trojan War and the various real and fictional characters of their culture, from Achilles and Apollo, passing through Vulcan and Ulysses.
In the art world, Praxiteles, in sculpture, and Arquíloco, in poetry, stand out. In dramaturgy it is worth mentioning Hesiod, Sophocles and Aeschylus. On the other hand, the Greeks were sport lovers and periodically organize competitions, such as the Olympic Games and the Pythian Games.
The Greek mentality had fundamental problems: mythological tradition and rationality
The myths served to explain their own traditions and customs, but these stories began to lose strength with the emergence of a new knowledge : philosophy. Thus, strictly rational explanations gradually imposed themselves as the only valid model to explain the various phenomena of nature.
Hellas’ legacy
For the Greeks of the ancient world, the idea of Hellas referred to a shared way of understanding life. Each polis or city – state was completely independent from a political point of view, but they all had a common culture. Your world is part of the past, but it is very present today. In this sense, contemporary art, politics , philosophy and science had their origins in the cultural context of Hellas.
