People lived scattered throughout Greece in small farming villages during the so-called “Greek Dark Ages” before the Archaic period. As they grew larger, these villages began to evolve. Some built walls. Most built a marketplace and a community meeting place. They developed governments and organized their citizens according to a constitution or set of laws. They raised armies and collected taxes. And every one of these city-states (known as poleis) was said to be protected by a particular god or goddess, to whom the citizens of the polis owed a great deal of reverence, respect, and sacrifice.