Archaic Period 600-479 B.C.

The Archaic period was marked by political and social unrest. By the 6th Century B.C. a majority of the most important and powerful city-states were ruled by tyrants. However, it was also an era where commerce and the arts flourished, especially  Corinth and Athens.  The Archaic Period also saw the beginnings of democracy which can be traced to Athens in the years following the fall of the tyrant Peisistratids (560-510 B.C.).

The 6th Century was one of struggle, mainly with the Persian Empire who attempted to extend its control over the Greeks in Asia Minor.  The Greek colonies in Asia Minor had been conquered by Croesus, king of Lydia, and brought into the Lydian Empire. Croesus was sympathetic to the Hellenes, and an ally of Sparta, and the economic, political, and intellectual life of the colonies was greatly stimulated by Lydian rule. In 546 B.C. Croesus was overthrown by Cyrus the Great, king of Persia and, except for the island of Samos, the Greek cities in Asia and the coastal islands became part of the Persian Empire.

In 499 B.C. Ionia, assisted by Athens and Eretria, revolted against Persia, but this revolt was put down in 493 by  King Darius I of Persia. A year later Mardonius, Darius' son-in law, led a Persian fleet to exact vengeance on the Greeks, but most of the ships were wrecked off Mount Athos. At the same time, Darius sent messangers to Greece, requiring tokens of submission from all the Greek city-states, Sparta and Athens refused, and slew the Persian messangers in defiance. Darius, angered both by the Greek insult and the destruction of his fleet, prepared a second expedition, which sailed in 490 B.C. After destroying Eretria, the Persian army proceeded to the plain of Marathon near Athens. Wtih Sparta in the middle of a religious festival, the Athenians were force to face the Persians alone. However, the Athenian army, under Miltiades, won an overwhelming victory over a Persian force three times as large, and the Persians withdrew.

Darius' son, Xerxes I, who succeeded him in 486 B.C., brought together one of the largest armies in ancient history, crossing the Hellespont strait over a bridge of boats. The Greeks succesfully defended the narrow pass at Thermopylae in 480 B.C. but a traitor showed the Persians another path which enabled the invaders to enter the pass from the rear.  A force of 300 Spartans and 700 Thespians were annihilated. The Persians then marched on to Athens, capturing and burning the abandoned city.

In a battle near the Salamis, an island in the Saronic Gulf  near Athens, fewer than 400 Greek vessels, under the Athenian general and statesman Themistocles, defeated 1200 Persian vessels. Xerxes, who had watched the battle in the harbor of Salamis, fled to Asia. Finally in 479 B.C., the remainder of the Persian forces in Greece were defeated at Plataea, and the invaders were finally driven out.

 Key Developments in Art

• Statues of nude males (kouroi ) and draped females (korai ) were produced as dedications for sanctuaries and as markers for graves.
• Building of large marble temples to house huge cult images of the gods.
• In the early 5th century, production of Black Figure work began to decline and the new Red Figure style was increasingly evident  in the late 7th century B.C.
• Tthe region of Attica dominated the pottery market for about a century and a half with high-quality pottery.
• The final victory of the Greeks over the Persians was celebrated in Greek art and literature as a symbol of the triumph of civilized peoples over the barbarians.