- Published: September 16, 2022
- Updated: September 16, 2022
- University / College: Macquarie University
- Language: English
- Downloads: 19
Athens has remained to be seen as a remarkable perennial city in Greece. The political, social, and economic position of the city strategically placed it in the right position for the economic dominance in the country and Europe generally. A city-state is an area with one city centrally located and containing the city residents. The people in Athens undertook a range of activities catalyzed by the development of Athens, which later formed part of the culture. Many people began to adopt the life of the Athenians since the ancient times and they began to unite by the Athenian virtues and values. Athens was the centre of Greek civilization. However, the city-state was the major reason for the Athenian lifestyle growth. This paper analyzes the ways through which the city-state contributed to the growth and development of the Athenian lifestyle among the people in Greece.
The concentration of people in the city made it possible for the agricultural activities that aided the supply of food to most of the residents in the city. Most of the residents of Athens are agriculturalists and farmers. The people engaged in farming although they never got the sales for their produce. However, with more people moving to Athens due to its city-state, the people got an easy market for the agricultural commodities among the city residents. The people also got the labor supply on the agricultural projects from the city residents (Santamouris et al, 2001). Employment majorly challenged the population in Athens as many people settled in the city and the employment opportunities were scarce. The farmers took the opportunity to solve the problem by employing the people in the farms hence the agricultural activities thrived in the city due to this challenge. As more people moved to Athens, more agricultural activities came up while the farmers employed more people.
The city-state influenced the growth and development of urban architecture and urban planning, which developed into the lifestyle activity for the Greek. Most of the ancient architectural work in Europe started in Athens. As the populations drew to the city due to its city-state, many people came up with innovative ways to earn income. The most beneficial was the architectural work by some of the residents. Some of the people who settled in the city started making carvings and architectural items that attracted interest from the whole continent. However, the cultural injunction of the architectural work was the most important of the developments from the activities (Stockwell, 2010). Investors and planners soon began to recruit people from Athens to develop and manage their architectural works in different countries. The architectural culture continued and many other people have since adopted architecture as their career.
The city-state contributed to the growth and development of the Athenian culture through influencing the educational adoption and the currency development. Greece developed fast courtesy of the urbanization in Athens (Tada, 2011). However, the role played by education in the development and stability of Athens was probably the greatest effect of the city-state in Athens. The invention of the alphabet in Athens was the first step as it helped most of the residents in the area to learn how to read and write. The reading culture in Athens has since been growing with many publications being done in the city. At the same time, many businesses dealing in writing and printing have been established in the area because of the development of ample educational cultures.
The people in Athens had trading and exchange potential. This led to the development of the trading and exchange culture among the people in Athens. Due to the growth of the trading and exchange culture among the people in Athens, they invented the coin money to be used as a medium of exchange in trade. The people then developed a mature business and exchange mechanism aided by the ancient barter system that later evolved to money trading through the introduction of coin money and other media of exchanges for trading. The evolution of money majorly involved the Greek as they experimented with different media of exchange to get the most favorable for their dealings.
Most of the Athenian people are tightly attached to the cultural and social lives that permit them to interact freely and associate among themselves. The development attached to the city-state contributed highly to the development of the current cultural activities in Athens and the entire Greece (Clark et al, 2009). The Athenian lifestyle is firmly rooted on the culture of the Athenian people as the people carry out different cultural activities annually. The advancement and development of the Athenian culture has developed and evolved over time. The migration of people from the rest of Greece to Athens aided the cultural bond among the people. The people shared in the one Greek culture, Greek dances, and Greek ceremonies. This heavily contributed to the present cultural strength among the Athenians. Most of the cultural activities that define the Athenian life stretch back to the industrial and urban development in Athens.
The city-state in Greece contributed to the Athenian life through the development and attraction of people to Agora (Watts, 2006). Agora is a geographical location in Athens that developed because of constant migration of people to the city and their need for social unity. The migrants met at the place and carried out their cultural activities, which greatly contributed to the cultural heritage of the people. The Athenian people are known for cultural proficiency and integration into their daily lives mainly through development of strong cultural links among themselves. Most of the Athenian people practice their cultural activities in centralized places built on simulation and comparison to Agora. The cultural heritage played a major role in the lives of the Athenians as it united and bonded them together throughout the cultural activities. The Athenian life soon started to develop around cultural heritage and cultural agility among the people, which has contributed to the development of the Athenian culture to date.
Musical and theatre literature are also products of the city-state Athens that shaped the lives of the Athenian people (Katsibokis, 2013). Most of the Athenians know their legends through architecture and art. However, the most discreet art among the Athenian people are the visual and performing arts. However, the city-state Athens developed the people into notable and respected artists (Tada, 2011). Some of the common art and musical styles arose from their application in Athens. As more people moved to the town during industrial and urban revolutions, some of the most talented people also moved to the cities and established musical groups. Some of the musical groups have gradually matured and attracted more people. Classical music used globally now is a product of the artistic work in city-state Athens.
The city-state was the centre of the Athenian life as it developed the sense of beauty among the Athenians (Stockwell, 2010). Most of the attractive places in Athens developed because of the city-state. During the development and advancement of the city-state, the Athenians loved the wildlife and some of them domesticated wild animals. However, the innovative nature of the Greeks led them to evaluate the possibility of using the wild animals and their natural habitats to beautify the environment. Due to the innovation, various national parks and zoos were established including the Parnitha National Park. The advancement not only made the city beautiful but also made it one of the most attractive globally both in terms of beauty and economic endowment.
Concisely, the city-state was the center of the Athenian life because of the treasure with which the people treated it and the level of development that happened in the city. Through the city-state, many Athenians invented and innovated creative architecture that grew to excellent architecture with time. The Athenian people also had the chance to advance their agricultural activities as they could get cheap and available labor as well as market for their commodities. The Athenian people also advanced in their cultural heritage with the development of cultural centers and the development of cultural links among the people. More s, the city-state led to the invention of the alphabets and the coin money that greatly influenced the literacy of the people as well as exchange in the Greek trading system.
References
Clark, J., Frick, R., Rapacon, S., Anderson, J., Wojno, M. A., & Schwalb, C. (2009). Best Cities: It’s All About Jobs. Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, 63(7), 69-75.
Katsibokis, G. (2013). Ktiriothiki: The Architectural Heritage of Athens, 1830-1950. Journal Of Modern Greek Studies, 31(1), 133.
Santamouris M., Papanikolaou N., Livada I., Koronakis I., Georgakis A., Assimakopoulos D. N. (2001). ” On the impact of urban climate on the energy consumption of buildings”. Solar Energy, 70 (3): pp. 201–216.
Stockwell, S. (2010). Before Athens: early popular government in Phoenician and Greek city states.(Report). Geopolitics, History, And International Relations, (2), 123.
Tada, R. (2011). The end of Athens: a demagogue, a treacherous ally, and a brutal Roman general destroyed the city-state–and democracy–in the first century BC. MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History, (3). 74.
Watts, E. (2006). City and school in late antique Athens and Alexandria. University of California Press.