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have for many centuries intertwined into a single and unique image of antiquity. Its
characteristic features were a mythological way of thinking, slave economy, polis
system state, polytheism of the religious life, delicate aesthetic feeling as essential
elements of the philosophy.
The concept of a ‘myth’ comes from the Greek and means a ‘word’, ‘speech’,
‘legend’. The mythology itself was both a result of human exploration of the world
and an information channel through which the communication could be carried out
by the generations.
Polis is a term of the Greek origin, but as a socio-political phenomenon it is
inherent in any ancient civilization. The polis is not just a city-state, but also a civil
community with common ownership of the land of the city and its rural districts,
its gods - the patrons of the city and the citizens who were often the descendants of
deities and traditions, customs and norms, the compliance with which was
mandatory for all citizens without exception. Polises were an incredibly self-
managed political and spiritual (religious, but not limited to) community of citizens
whose highest values were their personal sovereignty and the sovereignty of their
country. The polis was autonomous, economically and politically, and sometimes a
culturally independent unit. Even with a monarch, it was ruled by the citizens’
council, whose role was particularly important in dealing with fundamental issues -
war and peace, trade agreements, court proceedings and others.
2. Periodization of antiquity and sources of evidence of the ancient
culture
The complex and multifaceted historical material that highlights the life and
development of different cultures of the ancient type, the combined lifetime, a
form of consciousness (mythological) and the mechanism of social embodiment,
are usually divided into several periods.
The oldest was Ehey culture, the existence of which is generally consistent
with the Bronze Age (IIId – XII th century BC). The end of the period lies with the
date of decay decline legendary Troy - 1184 BC (from the date of the legendary
founding of Rome ).
In the period of the so-called ‘Dark Ages’ the pre-Greek population the
Achaeans was replaced by the Dorians, then Ioniana, Aeolians, and other
Thessalian tribes, united by a common ethnonym Hellenes. Then Greece joined the
Homeric or heroic period (IXth - middle of VIIth century. BC), which was the
main content of aliens crossing the northern Balkans to the sedentary lifestyle of
pastoralism to the predominantly agricultural economy model.
The first ‘exact date’ of the Hellenic History - 776 BC was the start of the
Olympic Games and the Great colonization, a widespread settlement of Greeks
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