How Did Greek Polis Influence Greek Daily Life

The idea of the Greek Polis shaped the Greeks’ daily lives. While the day-to-day tasks were fairly constant across Greece, variation occurred based on where in Greece one lived. When a specific region could no longer support the growing population, colonies were created due to the Greeks expanding into neighboring areas in search for resources. These colonies would continue to grow and eventually many colonies developed into city-states. The majority of Greek colonies were founded on the shores of the Mediterranean and Black Seas. This was useful to the Greeks since the majority of their culture was dependent on the seas. The climate and land of these colonies were very similar to those of the city-states, proving colonists with a very similar life to the one they

An important job of the poleis was to levy taxes and appropriate a portion of agricultural surplus to support the growing population. The polis that one lived in also determined the government due to the independence and various political structures. These governments ranged from democracy to monarchies to militaristic societies to oligarchies. Homer’s poems also impacted the daily lives of the Greeks since they provided a set of values that was consistent throughout all of Greece and they also preserved the Greeks' own ideas about themselves. One of his most famous works was the Iliad. The Iliad depicts the Greek perspective on war against the city of Troy in Anatolia during the 12th century BCE. Homer was also famous for the Odyssey, which recounted the experiences of the Greek hero Odysseus as he sailed home after the Trojan War. The Odyssey and Iliad also convey how frequently and normal travel, communication, and interaction were in the Mediterranean Basin during this time period. This is due to the important role the waterways had in their