Shakespeare borrows from the history of ancient Greece for the framework of his play A Midsummer Night's Dream. Using the Greek legend of Athens' king Theseus and the Amazonian woman Hippolyta, the play features Theseus as the Duke of Athens, which places the text historically during the twelfth century B.C., at the time of the Mycenaean rule of Greece.
Greece during the Bronze Age (1700-1000 B.C.) The progression toward the well-known democratic model of government in fifth-century classical Athens involved a long and gradual process. Prior to this early democracy, the Mycenaeans, who were early Greek settlers, had established a society based on a royal hierarchy. The Mycenaeans ruled primarily in the Peloponnesus, a peninsula of southern Greece that included the towns of Mycenae, Pylos, and Tiryns. In central Greece, Athens and Thebes were the main Mycenaean outposts.
Shakespeare's play depicts a time when this system of aristocratic rule was in place. According to this system of government, Theseus is able to dictate his wishes to his subjects. At one point in the play, for instance, he decides the fate of one of the young female characters-Hermiawith one command.
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