323 - 146 B.C. > The Hellenistic Age
 

The Minoans on Crete produced figures of snake goddesses to represent their matriarchal religion, architectural forms incorporating friezes and frescoes, and Cretan scripts Linear A and B.

The Myceneans on the Peloponnesus provided a source for later Greek mythology, built structures using post-beam-triangle construction, and buried their dead in shaft graves with funerary masks and treasures.

The Archaic Greeks shifted from a monarchical society to an oligarchical society; each polis had an acropolis and an agora; cultural achievements include the development of epic poetry, lyric poetry, drama, natural philosophy, temple architecture (columns, architraves, pediments, entablature, friezes, cornices, etc.), and free-standing sculptures.

Hellenic civilization was urbanized and competitive with Athens as its major city. Tragedy was the dominant dramatic form; comedies often took the form of low comedy.  Music was integrated with poetry. Hellenic cultural contributions include the study of history; Socratic, Platonic, and Aristotelian philosophy; vase painting; Ionic temple and amphitheatre architecture; contrapposto; and Severe Style, High Classical Style, and Fourth Century Style in sculpture.

Hellenistic civilization was much more cosmopolitan with Alexandria as its major city. Literary contributions include New Comedy, Alexandrianism, the pastoral, the idyll, and grammar. Other cultural accomplishments include the development of the philosophies of Cynicism, Skepticism, Epicureanism, and Stoicism; the emergence of mystery cults; public building programs; Corinthian temple and altar architecture; and secularism and genre subjects in sculpture.