Ancient Greece

In ancient Greece the continued existence of the dead depended on their constant remembrance by the living. The after-life, for the ancient Greeks, consisted of a grey and dreary world in the time of Homer (8th century BCE) and, most famously, we have the scene from Homer s Odyssey in which Odysseus…

Ancient Greece’s most famous export to this day is arguably democracy. America, alongside many nations, recently celebrated the 2500th ‘anniversary’ of the invention of democracy in ancient Athens and its links with today’s democracies in America and around the globe. But was ancient Athenian democracy…

Children are often surprised to find just how much impact the Ancient Greeks had on our lives today - in the arts, mathematics, philosophy, science, literature, theatre and politics (democracy). And of course the Olympics, coming up every 2 years, provide a perfect excuse to explore Ancient Greece and…

History Ancient Greece has had an enormous amount of impact on culture in the Western world. Some of the first works of literature in the west, of which we have record, come from Greece, and although they were created at a time after older works from Mesopotamia, such epic poems as the Iliad and Odyssey…

Ancient Greek Inventions are in fact the original concepts of some of our most well known products, to this day. Those original concepts have just taken on a more modern form. The early days of the Greek civilization gave birth to many admirable scientists, and they in turn have managed to pave the way…

Ancient Greek Weddings In Ancient Greece, around 400 B.C.E., young girls were given in marriage as soon as they reached puberty, about the age of 12 or 13. Fathers arranged for suitable husbands for their daughters. The marriage ceremony in Ancient Greece was made up of three different phases. First…

The Trojan War, fought between Greeks and the defenders of the city of Troy in Anatolia sometime in the late Bronze Age, has grabbed the imagination for millennia. A conflict between Mycenaeans and Hittites may well have occurred, but its representation in epic literature such as Homer’s Iliad is almost…

Josiah Ober is the Mitsotakis Professor of Political Science and Classics at Stanford University. He is also the author of a new book from Princeton University Press, “The Rise and Fall of Classical Greece, ” which seeks to uncover the reasons Classical Greece was so extraordinary, creating ideas and…

Trade Incentives & Protection Maritime loans enabled traders to pay for their cargoes and the loan did not have to be repaid if the ship failed to reach safely its port of destination. To compensate the lender for this risk, interest rates ( nautikos tokos ) could be from 12.5 to 30% and the…

Customs and traditions in Greece and the Greek Islands one important aspect of the Greek culture. There are either of a religious character or coming from paganism. Furthermore, most of the traditions and festivals still celebrated today are religious. The Greeks are very superstitious and believe a…

Panoramic View PIRAEUS Piraeus is Greece s third largest city in terms of population and its biggest port. It was first settled in the ages of Themistocles, when the Long Walls were built (478 BC), and the town was being laid out to the plans of the architect Hippodamus. It gained considerably in importance…

Greece and the Balkans 1914AD - 1960AD The aftermath of World War 1 saw the map of the Balkans re-drawn. Most notably, Serbia, plus the South Slav territories of the former Austro-Hungarian empire, were united to form the kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, later called Yugoslavia. Because of…

While medieval European medicine was still mired in superstitions and the rigid Catholic teachings of the Church, the advent of Islam in the 7th century A.D. gave rise to impressive growth and discoveries in many scientific fields, especially medicine. Islamic scholars and doctors translated medical…

The Hellenistic Period is a part of the Ancient Period for the European and Near Asian space. The use of this period is justified by the extent of the Hellenic culture in most of these areas, due to the Greek political presence especially in Asia after Alexander s conquests, but also to a new wave of…

Greek life was dominated by religion and so it is not surprising that the temples of ancient Greece were the biggest and most beautiful.They also had a political purpose as they were often built to celebrate civic power and pride, or offer thanksgiving to the patron deity of a city for success in war…