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| The battle of the Arginusae Islands (406 BC) was the last major Athenian victory of the Great Peloponnesian War, but after the battle six of the eight victorious generals were executed for failing to rescue the crews of the twenty five Athenian warships lost during the battle. At the start of the campaigning season in 406 BC the Athenians had a fleet of 70 ships in Asia Minor, commanded by Conon, while the Peloponnesians had 140 ships under the newly appointed Callicratidas. He achieved a series of early successes, capturing Delphinium in the territory of Chios and Methymne on Lesbos. He then chased Conon into Mytilene, sinking or capturing thirty of the seventy Athenian ships, and began a siege of Mytilene |
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- eans an altar for burnt-offerings; ara and altare are often used without any distinction, but properly ara was a structure of less height than altare (altus), the latter being erected in honour of the superior gods, and the former to the inferior gods, demigods, and heroes. (Cf. Verg. Ecl.v. 65.) Sacrifices to the infernal gods were not offered on altars, but in cavities dug in the ground and known as scrobes, scrobiculi,
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both an archaeological site and a modern town in Greece on the south-western spur of Mount Parnassus in the valley of Phocis. In Greek mythology, Delphi was the site of the Delphic oracle, the most important oracle in the classical Greek world, and a major site for the worship of the god Apollo after he slew the Python, a dragon who lived there and protected the navel of the Earth. Python (derived from the verb pythein, "to rot") is claimed by some to be the original name of the site in recognition of the Python that Apollo defeated.[2] The Homeric Hymn to Delphic Apollo recalled that the ancient name of this site had been Krisa.[3]
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From as early as 1700 BC up to the 4th century AD, Eleusis was the site of the Eleusinian Mysteries, or the Mysteries of Demeter and Kore. These Mysteries revolved around a belief that there was a hope for life after death for those who were initiated. Such a belief was cultivated from the introduction ceremony in which the hopeful initiates were shown a number of things including the seed of life in a stalk of grain. The central myth of the Mysteries was Demeter's quest for her lost daughter (Kore the Maiden, or Persephone) who had been abducted by Hades.
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were an unfree group that formed the main population of Laconia and Messenia (areas ruled with an iron fist by Sparta). Their exact status was already disputed in antiquity: according to Critias, they were "especially slaves"[1] whereas to Pollux, they occupied a status "between free men and slaves".[2] Tied to the land, they worked in agriculture as a majority and economically supported the Spartan citizens. They were ritually mistreated, humiliated and even slaughtered: every autumn, during the Crypteia, they could be killed by a Spartan citizen without fear of repercussion.[ |
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Hetaira is the ancient Greek word for a type of highly skilled prostitute or courtesan.
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| he Hoplites were the heavily armed infantry soldiers of the Greeks. It is thought by many that the name "hoplite" comes from a Greek word "hoplon" for a specific shape (large and round) of shield with a "flat offset rim (itus)" and two handles on the inside, that Paul Cartledge says was invented by 700 B.C. It was usually bronze-rimmed wood. By 425, the Spartan shield generally had a thin sheet of bronze over it. Its size depended on the length of the wearer's forearm. |
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the Battle of Leuctra (or Leuktra) was a battle fought on July 6, 371 BC, between the Boeotians led by Thebans and the Spartans along with their allies amidst the post-Corinthian War conflict. The battle took place in the neighbourhood of Leuctra, a village in Boeotia in the territory of Thespiae. Theban victory shattered Sparta’s immense influence over the Greek peninsula which Sparta had gained since its victory in the Peloponnesian War.
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Linear A was the primary script used in palace and religious writings. It was discovered by archaeologist Arthur Evans. |
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is a syllabic script that was used for writing Mycenaean Greek, the earliest attested form of Greek. The script predates the Greek alphabet by several centuries. The oldest Mycenaean writing dates to about 1450 BC.[1] It is descended from the older Linear A, an undeciphered earlier script used for writing the Minoan language, as does the later Cypriot syllabary, which also recorded Greek Both Linear B and Linear A were written during the 2nd millennium B.C. in Minoan Crete. Michael Ventris deciphered Linear B in 1952. This is the written syllabic language that spread from the Minoans to the Mycenaeans. Linear A has not yet been deciphered.
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Metic is the Greek-based term for a resident alien. It refers particularly to the substantial poportion of the population of Athens who lived there to pursue commerce, but had not been born there. Following Pericles' citizenship law, the children of a metic mother (not born to an Athenian citizen father) could not have Athenian citizenship, regardless of where their father was from. That means that their children, too, would be metics. Although a metic shared the obligations of the citizens, he was denied most of the benefits. Metics paid a tax in order to follow a trade in Attica. |
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is a bronze-aged civilization that arose on the island of Crete and came to dominate the shores and islands of the Aegean Sea. The civilization flourished as a maritime power from approximately the 27th century to the 15th century BC. It was rediscovered at the beginning of the 20th century by British archaeologist Arthur Evans. Will Durant referred to this civilization as "the first link in the European chain.
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Greek legend, Agamemnon, leader of the combined Greek forces, was king of Mycenae during the Trojan War.The Mycenaeans lived during the late Bronze Age in Greece, from about 1600 to 1200 B.C. They are called Mycenaeans after their capital at Mycenae. The period in which they lived (Mycenaean), in ceramic terms is known as the Late Helladic period.
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as a procedure under the Athenian democracy in which any citizen could be expelled from the city-state of Athens for ten years. While some instances clearly expressed popular anger at the victim, ostracism was often used preemptively. It was used as a way of neutralizing someone thought to be a threat to the state or potential tyrant. Crucially, ostracism had no relation to the processes of justice. There was no charge or defense, and the exile was not in fact a penalty; it was simply a command from the Athenian people that one of their number be gone for ten years.
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were held every four years in Athens in Ancient Greece since 566 BC.[1] They continued into the third century AD.[2] These Games incorporated religious festival, ceremony (including prize-giving), athletic competitions, and cultural events hosted within a stadium.
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was the final land battle during the second Persian invasion of Greece. It took place in 479 BC near the city of Plataea in Boeotia, and was fought between an alliance of the Greekcity-states, including Sparta, Athens, Corinth and Megara, and the Persian Empire of Xerxes I. The previous year the Persian invasion force, led by the Persian king in person, had scored victories at the battles of Thermopylae and Artemisium and conquered Thessaly, Boeotia and Attica. However, at the ensuing Battle of Salamis, the Allied Greek navy had won an unlikely but decisive victory, preventing the conquest of the Peloponnesus. Xerxes then retreated with much of his army, leaving his general Mardonius to finish off the Greeks the following year.
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- was the official meeting place of the Athenian democratic assembly (ekklesia). In the earliest days of Athenian democracy (after the reforms of Kleisthenes in 508 B.C.), the ekklesia met in the Agora. Sometime in the early 5th century, the meeting place was moved to a hill south and west of the Acropolis. This new meeting place came to be called "Pnyx" (from the Greek word meaning "tightly packed together" |
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efers to the traditional Persian act of prostrating oneself before a person of higher social rank.According to Herodotus in his Histories, a person of equal rank received a kiss on the lips, someone of a slightly lower rank gave a kiss on the cheek, and someone of a very inferior social standing had to completely bow down to the other person before them. To the Greeks, giving proskynesis to a mortal seemed to be a barbarian and ludicrous practice. They reserved such submissions for the gods only.
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name of the last dynasty of independent Egypt.
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was a 4 to 7 meter (13–21 feet) long spear used in the ancient Greek and Hellenistic warfare |
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was a Greek-Macedonian state that came into existence following the carve up of the empire created by Alexander the Great following his death.[1][2][3][4] At the height of its power, it included central Anatolia, the Levant, Mesopotamia, Persia, today's Turkmenistan, Pamir and parts of Pakistan.
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