Ancient Greece History

Hippias of Elis travels throughout the Greek world practicing and teaching the art of making beautiful speeches. On a rare visit to Athens, he meets Socrates, who questions him about the nature of his art. Socrates is especially curious about how Hippias would define beauty. They agree that beauty makes all beautiful things beautiful, but when Socrates presses him to say precisely what he means, Hippias is unable to deliver such a definition.

The story of Atlantis has captured the minds and hearts of historians, scientists, artists, and writers for millennia, and yet it never ceases to amaze people when told that the only literary evidence that exists comes from a single fourth century BCE author. The Athenian philosopher Plato, famous for his dialogues in which the Socratic Method was invented, was the first writer to mention the mysterious continent of Atlantis.

The subject of Greek mythology conjures up mythical stories of glorious and wonderful Greek gods, goddesses, and heroes with tales of war, love, and betrayal. Since ancient Greece was the birth place of philosophy, theater, and politics, it is understandable that such a great civilization would be capable of creating an elaborate belief system in which to help understand the world around them.

Our contemporary world is inescapably Greek. Whether in a word like "pandemic," a Freudian state of mind like the "Oedipus complex," or a replica of the Parthenon in a Chinese theme park, ancient Greek culture shapes the contours of our lives. Ever since the first Roman imitators, we have been continually falling under the Greeks' spell. But how did ancient Greece spread its influence so far and wide? And how has this influence changed us?

Adrienne Mayor is renowned for exploring the borders of history, science, archaeology, anthropology, and popular knowledge to find historical realities and scientific insights—glimmering, long-buried nuggets of truth—embedded in myth, legends, and folklore. Combing through ancient texts and obscure sources, she has spent decades prospecting for intriguing wonders and marvels, historical mysteries, diverting anecdotes, and hidden gems from antiquity, medieval, and modern times. Flying Snakes and Griffin Claws is a treasury of fifty of her most amazing and amusing discoveries.

The Odyssey is an epic poem, written by the ancient Greek philosopher Homer, and considered to be the second oldest piece of western literature still in existence. Scholars believe it was written at the end of the eighth century BC. Still heavily used in schools because of its unique literary makeup and historical value, the poems follow Greek hero Odysseus, as he journeys home after the 10-year long Trojan War. His journey home takes another 10 years, and Odysseus encounters many obstacles.

Immediate, visceral, and full of new analyses that defy decades of conventional wisdom, The First Clash is a superb interpretation of a conflict that indeed made the world safe for Aristotle, Plato, and our own modern democracy. But it was also a battle whose legacy and lessons have often been misunderstood—perhaps, now more than ever, at our own peril.

Pocos relatos han seducido tanto como los de Alejandro, Pericles, Troya o Salamina. El audio libro La gran aventura de los griegos los narra de una forma diferente.

Lying in the middle of a plain in modern day Iran is a forgotten ancient city: Persepolis. Built 2,500 years ago, it was known in its day as the richest city under the sun. Persepolis was the capital of Achaemenid Persian Empire, the largest empire the world had ever seen, but after its destruction, it was largely forgotten for nearly 2,000 years, and the lives and achievements of those who built it were almost entirely erased from history.

The book contains the myths of the "Agamemnon, and his son Orestes" and "Theban Cycle" myth of King Oedipus, Antigone, and Alcmaeon set out by the tragedies of Aeschylus '"Agamemnon" and Sophocles' "Oedipus Rex".

The flowering of Greek civilization was further made possible by an increase of trade between the cities and with other civilizations. Trade became a major occupation on account of the scarcity of agricultural land in the largely mountainous regions of the Balkan peninsula. The polis of Athens, in particular, assumed economic dominance in the Aegean in from the sixth century BC. The consequent increase in wealth, resources, and population made a cultural renaissance possible.

In 323 BCE, Alexander the Great was on top of the world; on June 11, 323 B.C., Alexander the Great, King of Macedon, Hegemon of the League of Corinth, King of Kings, died. The Diadochi: The History of Alexander the Great’s Successors and the Wars That Divided His Empire chronicles how Alexander’s legendary conquests shaped the next several centuries, and how the successor generals carved out various empires. You will learn about the Diadochi like never before.

The book contains the myths about the Argonauts set out on the basis of the poem of Apollonius of Rhodes'"Argonavtika".

What was the role - if any - of the land itself in shaping Greek (and particularly Athenian) attitudes toward themselves and their way of life? Did the land play any significant part at all in forming Greeks and Athenians? To answer these questions, it is essential to examine the impact of climate and landscape in the region known as Attica on the creation of Greek culture.

A witty, inspiring reckoning with the ancient Greek and Roman myths and their legacy, from what they can illuminate about #MeToo to the radical imagery of Beyoncé.

Let’s connect some events, shall we? It’s a brain game that your third grader should play because it makes learning history much more fun and interactive. It also allows a child to see the relationship between the past and the present. The decisions made before have shaped the world that we know today. Yes, it was ancient Greece, but its effects reached the modern West.

Modern perceptions of ancient Greece are almost always based on Athens and Sparta, which is why other city-states and other military units besides the hoplites have been overlooked for thousands of years. For this reason, Greek cavalry forces - including their composition, purpose, techniques, equipment, and developments - are still not very well understood when compared with their naval or infantry counterparts.

The center of political and commercial interaction in the Ancient Greek polis was the agora. The word essentially means a gathering place or an open space, and in all Greek city states, the agora was central to all aspects of daily life and commerce. As the agora developed as a civic space, particularly from the sixth century BCE onward in Athens, the architectural splendor of the buildings associated with it became an ever more obvious demonstration of the power and glory of Athenian democracy.

Plutarch’s Lives remains one of the world’s most profoundly influential literary works. Written at the beginning of the second century, it forms a brilliant social history of the ancient world. second volume includes Alexander and Caesar, Demetrius and Antony, Dion and Marcus Brutus, the aforementioned Demosthenes and Cicero, as well as biographies of Alexander, Caesar, Cato the Younger, and others.

The Greek god Hades is something of an enigma. On the one hand, people can view him through a lens that was a byproduct of the Christian tradition: as a terrifying lord of death seated upon his ebony throne, an unseen force of power moving through the world. Certainly, many of the ancient Greeks themselves saw the god in this light.