Overpopulation In Ancient Greek

During the Archaic Age of Ancient Greece, circa 776-500 B.C.E., the population growth in Ancient Greece called a need for more food supplies, and this demand was met by trade, establishing colonies, and by warfare to seize more land (Making Europe 71). According to Kidner, the Archaic Age “brought a revival of culture, the economy, and political significance to Greece” (71). As Greece began to overpopulate, methods for dealing with the overpopulation had to be found, once of these methods was to import food, which caused an expansion of Greek commerce and production of trade goods (Making Europe 71). Another solution to the overpopulation of Greece was to find new land somewhere else, and during the colonization that lasted from 750-550 B.C.E.,

Greeks colonized coastal cities because they wanted access to trade routes across the sea (Making Europe 71). The revival of Greek trade also brought Near Eastern culture into Greece, including new styles or art. According to Kidner, “Greek sculpture assumed a very Egyptian look, and Greek pottery depicted many eastern designs…and Greek potters and sculptors soon used designs from their own myths and legents” (72). Eventually after the new styles of art were created, Greek pottery was a popular trade good. One more way that the Greeks found to deal with the overpopulation issue was to take over additional land in Greece, which increased the amount of warfare between Greek city-states (Making Europe 72). This growth of warfare to obtain land called for a new type of military for city-states, according to Kidner, “the wealthiest citizens, who could afford a horse, served in the cavalry, but most of the army consisted of heavily armed infantrymen called hoplites” (73), which gave rise to the amount of hoplite armies in Greece. This increase of hoplite armies then led to the decline of the aristocratic governments in Ancient Greece (Making Europe 73). According to Kidner, “aristocrats made common cause with the most wealthy nonaristocrats and changed their constitutions to create a new form of government called oligarchy” (73), which then meant that the amount of wealth that a citizen had determined their ability to participate in government. When aristocrats resisted to make changes, wealthy merchant groups would eventually overthrow the aristocracy and according to Kidner, “replaced it with an illegal ruler with absolute power called a tyrant” (73), which caused this time of the Archaic Age in Ancient Greece to be known as the Age of Tyrants.
The first piece of art is a type of sculpture, and its museum accession number is 54.912.

This sculpture is a handle, which was part of a jug, and it shows a nude male athlete with an Egyptian looking haircut with head dress. The man is standing holding two female lions by the tales in each of his hands right next to his head. He is standing atop the head of Medusa, and at the base of his feet next to his ankles are two rams, one on each side of his legs, staring in the same direction as him. His power over the lions, rams, and Medusa suggest that the man is a deity, possibly Apollo. The object appears to be half a foot tall of sculpted bronze, showing a strong upper build on the man, again signifying his power. The narrative that the object might be depicting is Apollo who has just battled and defeated Medusa, and the two lionesses that he is holding in each of his hands had to be defeated before he could reach Medusa. The relationship between the narrative and the values of Greek culture during the Archaic Age is through the works of Hesiod, who created a catalogue of the gods called Theogony. Another way that the narrative and sculpture show values of Greek culture during the Archaic age is through the use of lionesses and rams, which show the influence of Near Eastern cultures that came with the revival of Greek Trade, along with the nude man himself who looks similar to that of an Egyptian man rather than a

Greek.
The second piece of art is an amphora, created by two different artists, and its museum accession number is 48.12.

Apparently the two different artists would create “bilingual” vases by having one artist paint red-figure art on one side of the vase and the other artist paint black-figure art on the other side of the vase. The amphora is about two feet tall, and made out of ceramic, with the handles about two inches from the upper lip of the vase. The pattern on the amphora has the colors switching from a layer of orange to a layer black, two layers of about four to eight inches each, starting with an orange layer on the bottom. The handles of the vase are also orange with two lines of dots going from one end of the handle to the other end. The images that are painted on the amphora are on the second layer of orange, in between the first black layer and the second black layer that is the top of the vase. Each side of the amphora seems to portray two different narratives from the two different artists, and on one side the people seem to be well dressed while on the other side there are soldiers dressed in battle gear and helmets holding up their shields. The narrative that is on the side with the well-dressed people is Hermes, the messenger of the gods, who is bringing a women to the wine-god, Dionysus. On the other side with the soldiers, the narrative shows one armed soldier getting into his chariot while his fellow soldiers see him off. The amphora shows the values of Greek

culture during the Archaic Age by the use of wine that the amphora is commonly used for, along with the soldiers that see their comrade off to battle, which relates to the constant warfare in Ancient Greece for farmland and the use of hoplite armies.
The third piece of art is a drinking cup, which has the shape called a “mastos” which resembles a woman’s breast, and its museum accession number is 48.223. The cup has a height of about four inches and a width of about 7 inches, with the interior and handles of the cup being a black color and the exterior of the cup being an orange color. One of the handles on the cup is vertical, with the hole going through the side of the handle, and the other handle is horizontal, with the hole going through the top and bottom of the handle. The cup overall has a cone shape, and on the bottom of the cup, instead of being a flat surface to stand upright, there is an extra piece of ceramic which contributes to the portrayal of a woman’s breast. On one of the sides of the cup, there is a nude soldier fighting a clothed soldier, and each of the soldiers have a herald behind them. On the other side of the cup, there is also a nude soldier fighting two other clothed soldiers, and there is also a herald behind the nude man and the two soldiers. The patterns on the shields of both the nude are the same, a black ring around a red circle, which are different than that of the clothed soldiers, a red ring around a black circle. The patterns on the heralds behind the nude soldiers are also the same, thick stripes of black and red on their clothes, while the patterns on the heralds behind the clothed soldiers are the same, with just thick stripes of black. This inverse in color and clothes versus no-clothes signify a battle between two different types of peoples. The images on the drinking cup shows the values of Greek culture during the Archaic Age by this use of battling between two different types of peoples because it shows two different city-states battling for land with the possible use of well-trained hoplite soldiers.