WHAT WERE THE 5 CULTURAL AREAS OF GREECE? - HISTORY - 2025

The cultural areas of Greece were ancient Greek territories that shared multiple common similarities. Due mainly to the geography of ancient Greece, it became difficult to unify all the villages as a single nation.

Instead, the so-called “city-states” (also known as polis) arose, which made it possible to vastly expand the territory of Greece and form groups of individuals with quite marked cultures.

Greece was one of the most influential civilizations of the Ancient Age.

Despite interacting with each other, cultural areas allowed the diffusion of cultural traits and elements that were remarkably different from each other.

In total there were 5 existing cultural areas in Greece: Athenian, Cretan, Spartan, Ionian and Mycenaean cultures.

Cultural areas of Greece

Each Greek cultural area was defined by certain parameters and had a significant contribution to humanity.

The Greek civilization is considered one of the most important in history, with numerous advances in areas such as medicine, literature, art, and politics.

1- Athenian Culture

Arisen in the region of Attica, in mainland Greece, literature and philosophy flourished in this culture.

Its size included what is now Athens, one of the oldest and most storied inhabited cities in the world, the birthplace of some of the most influential philosophers, mathematicians and thinkers in world history.

His policy was relevant throughout Greece, going through several stages (Monarchy, Oligarchy, Dictatorship) that led to one of his greatest contributions; democracy.

2- Cretan Culture

Also called Minoan culture, it was located on the island of Crete in the Aegean Sea, its main headquarters was the city of Knossos.

It was a thalassocracy or Maritime Empire, its political system consisted of a King called Minos (from which the name of Minoan culture comes from), a council of nobles and a popular assembly.

They strongly developed agriculture, goldsmithing and architecture. They formed a mercantilist system; numerous archaeological evidences show that they were an ostentatious society surrounded by luxuries and comforts.

3- Spartan Culture

Its heyday was lived in Laconia, but it influenced all of Greece by its governmental organization. It had a distribution of strata, where there were 2 kings, 5 ephors (advisers), a congress of 28 elders and a popular assembly.

This governmental system was instituted by one of his Ephors, Lycurgus, through a constitution that established social classes.

It was a pioneering society in education through military service, the state took care of children from the age of 7 to instill training in the art of war.

4- Ionian culture

It was the culture of Greece that covered the largest territory, including several of the most important city-states, such as Teos, Chios, Colophon, Ephesus or Miletus.

Given its size, it adopted a system where a king, an advisory council and a popular assembly governed each polis.

Prominent in agriculture, art, and literature, they developed a mercantilist system. It was in the Ionian culture that such representative members of Greek civilization as Pythagoras and Homer emerged.

5- Mycenaean Culture

It inherited numerous aspects of Cretan culture, including its political organization.

Its name comes in honor of one of its most important polis, Mycenae, the city where the Trojan War was fought. Its economic activity was based on goldsmithing and agriculture.

References

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4. Cultural aspects of Greece (November 5, 2014). Retrieved on April 13, 2017, from El Popular.
5. Sigrid Deger-Jalkotzy (2006). Ancient Greece.