Things to learn about Ancient Greece (Packet 2 of 12)

1. Tragedy

A type of drama play, usually based off of human suffering, first used by the ancient Greeks in the sixth century BCE, but also notably associated with Elizabethan England, and more specifically with William Shakespeare. While there can be humor in these dramas, particularly in the works of Shakespeare, they stand out in that typically all does not work out in the end. Things go poorly for the hero, oft resulting in his or her death. The ultimate goal of these plays is to invoke catharsis. The three great Greek practitioners of these type of drama were Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, all of whom presented plays at one time or another at a festival to honor the god Dionysus.

2. catharsis

A purification and purging of emotions, especially pity and fear, through art. The extreme change in emotion that results in the renewal or restoration. The term was first applied to Greek tragedy by Aristotle in his poetics, where he compared the effect tragedy has on the mind of the viewers to the effects that certain things have on flesh out the body of toxins. In this comparison, Aristotle is saying that tragedies help viewers flush out their mental toxins.

3. empathy

The ability to understand or feel what another person is experiencing from within the other person’s frame of reference. The concept of figuratively placing oneself in another person’s shoes. This differs slightly from sympathy, which is the emotion that spawns from caring so greatly about another person in distress, that their distress causes you distress. Sympathy does not indicate an understanding of what the other person is feeling, but this does. The goal of a good tragedy is for people to feel this for the characters.

4. Comedy

A theatrical genre created in Ancient Greece that pits two groups in contest with each other, usually with humorous results. The Greeks also used this format for political satire. The greatest Greek writer of this genre was Aristophanes. In Elizabethan England, William Shakespeare used this genre as well. In Shakespeare’s works, however, the difference between plays of this style and tragedies had to do with whether the things worked out for the hero in the end. Some extremely tragic things could happen over the course of a play, but it still would be labeled in this genre if it all worked out to a happy ending. In modern terms, it refers to any work that is generally intended to be humorous.

5. Deus ex machina

Literally it means, the god in the machine. What it has come to mean in theater is a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem is suddenly and abruptly resolved by the contrived and unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability or object. It dates back to a device created by the great tragedian Aeschylus to bring the actors playing the gods onto the stage from above. These gods often served a similar purpose as the modern use of the term, wrapping up everything that had no hope of resolving in a quick and efficient manner.

6. The Muses

The inspiration of all literature, science and the arts in Greek mythology. Throughout time, the number of them has varied, but eventually was standardized at nine. That standardization has them being the daughters of Zeus and the Titan Mnemosyne, the titan of memory, who slept together for nine consecutive nights. Originally, they were just over knowledge and learning in general, but later, the nine were given separate specialities within knowledge. The most important of them was Calliope, the beautiful-voiced one who covered epic poetry and rhetoric. Second, there was Clio (glorifying and representing history), Third, Erato (singing), Fourth Euterpe (lyric poetry), Fifth Melpomene (tragedy), Sixth Thalia (comedy), Seventh Plymnia (hymns to the gods and heroes), Eighth Terpsichore (dance) and ninth Urania (astronomy).

7. Dionysia (Festival of Dionysus)

A festival of Ancient Greece that is most remembered today because of the theater competitions that took place there. Legendarily, the first actor, Thespis, was the first to perform a tragedy at the festival, winning the prize for best tragedy in 534 BCE. Three playwrights would compete at the festival, each presenting three related plays on successive days and then one satyr play on the fourth. It was a great honor to win, a honor that was bestowed on Sophocles 24 times, more than any other playwright.

8. Aeschylus

A Greek tragedian who lived from 525-455 BCE and is the first of the three great Greek tragedians. He is often referred to as the Father of Tragedy. He introduced the second character to plays, where all earlier plays consisted of one character interacting with the chorus, he allowed characters to interact with each other. He also introduced the concept of the trilogy, and his Oresteia trilogy still survives consisting of Agamemnon, telling of the death of the general, The Libation Bearers, where Electra and Orestes plot their mother’s death and then The Eumenides, where Orestes is put on trial in the court of Athena. Generally these trilogies were combined with a satyr play to make up a tetralogy. Only a handful of his over 90 plays survive, including The Persians, Seven Against Thebes, The Suppliants and Prometheus Bound, though the last one has had its authorship disputed in the last 200 years. It is reported that he died when a eagle mistook his bald head for a rock and dropped a tortoise on it from a great height, hoping to crack the shell open, and cracking his head open instead.

9. Seven Against Thebes

A play by Aeschylus that was originally the third part of a trilogy about Oedipus and his family referred to as the Oedipodea. The other two plays in the trilogy were titled Lauis and Oedipus. The accompanying satyr play, which is also lost, was called Sphinx. The play has a fairly simple plot. There is an army surrounding the city of Thebes, which includes Polynices, the brother of the king of Thebes Eteocles (both are sons of Oedipus). The invading army is sending groups led by different captains to each of Thebes’ seven gates. The play consists mostly of dialogue between Eteocles, his sisters Antigone and Ismene, and other members of the town, as he discusses each attacker and which captain he will send to defend against each. Since Polynices himself is coming to the seventh gate, Eteocles goes to defend that gate and leaves stage. A messenger comes back to tell us that they killed each other and their bodies are dragged on stage. Originally, everyone mourned both brothers to end the play, but it was later rewritten 50 years after Aeschylus death so that it would line up better with the events of the Sophocles play Antigone. The new ending has a messenger come in and declare that Polynices body is not to be buried.

10. Prometheus Bound

One of the seven plays attributed to Aeschylus, and originally part one of trilogy called the Promethia that included Prometheus Unbound and Prometheus the Fire Bringer, but those latter two works are lost. The play itself deals with Zeus’ punishment of Prometheus for giving fire to man. Prometheus is chained to a rock, where an eagle comes and eats his liver every day, as the liver regenerates because Prometheus is a titan. In the 19th century, many scholars began to doubt whether this play was actually by Aeschylus, even though the Great Library of Alexandria had attributed to him. They argue that it doesn’t fit his style poetically, and that his view of Zeus in this play is far less reverent than his other works. Some say that it is the work of his son Euphorion, who was also a playwright, though there is no proof of that. Prometheus and his defiant nature became popular in the Romantic period of the 19th century, with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron all writing about him. Mary Shelley, Percy’s wife, even subtitled her famous work Frankenstein – “Prometheus Unbound”.

11. Sophocles

The second of the three great tragedians of Ancient Greece, and probably the most celebrated in his time. He lived from 497-405 CE, and wrote more than 123 plays in his career, though just seven survive, much like Aeschylus. He won the theater competition at the Festival of Dionysus 24 times (out of around 30 tries), compared to 14 for Aeschylus and just four for rival Euripides. His most famous works are his Theban plays based on the life of Oedipus – Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone. These plays were not actually a trilogy as they were written many years apart in separate trilogies, but are often published together anyway.

12. Oedipus

A mythical ancient king of Thebes, and one of the most written about subjects by Greek playwrights. According to the legend, his father Lauis is told that he will grow up to kill Lauis by the oracle of Delphi. Lauis instantly tells his wife Jocasta to kill the small child. She tells a shepherd to do it, but instead he takes the small child and gives it to another shepherd, who in turn takes him to Corinth, where he is adopted by the childless king and queen. When he grows up, he goes to the oracle of Delphi himself, and is told that he is going to kill his father and marry his mother. Seeking to avoid this, he vows never to go back to Corinth. He meets Lauis at a crossroads, and after a quarrel over who has the right of way, he kills Lauis and all of his men. He continues on to Thebes. There he finds that the king has been killed (he doesn’t know it was he who killed him) and the city is at the mercy of the Sphinx. He solves the Sphinx’s riddle and is awarded the throne and widowed queen, his mother Jocasta. They have four children, two boys (Eteocles and Polynices) and two girls (Antigone and Ismene). Eventually, after discovering the truth about who killed Lauis and who he is, Jocasta hangs herself and he blinds himself in penance for his transgressions. He then wanders about with his daughters as guides before eventually dying at Colonus near Athens. Sigmund Freud named a complex after him dealing with the almost unnatural love of a son for his mother.

13. Oedipus Rex

Chronologically, the first of Sophocles three Theban plays, though it was written approximately 15 years after Antigone. It is often considered the greatest of all the Greek tragedies. The play opens with the declaration that there is a plague in Thebes because the murderer of King Lauis has not been found. Oedipus, now king, declares he will get to the bottom of it. After being told the truth that it was him by the blind poet Tiresias, he instead rallies against Creon, saying Creon bribed the poet. Slowly, but surely, he starts to piece it together, first by comparing stories with his wife Jocasta, and finally with the appearance of the original shepherd that gave him away, who also witnessed his slaughter of Lauis and his men on the road. Jocasta goes offstage and hangs herself, and Oedipus blinds himself with pins from her dress. He then asks to be exiled, but Creon sends him inside with his daughters/sisters Antigone and Ismene while he consults the oracles, which is where the play ends.

14. Oedipus at Colonus

One of the last plays written by Sophocles, if not the very last play. It wasn’t produced until five years after his death by his grandson, and it won the Dionysia award for him. By timeline, it is the second of Sophocles’ three Theban plays, though it was written decades after either of the other two works. The play centers around the last days of Oedipus after his ejection from Thebes. He is tended to by his daughters Antigone and Ismene. In the original prophecy to Oedipus, it was said his burial site will give blessing to the area around it. He learns from Ismene that his son Eteocles has seized the throne of Thebes from his eldest son Polynices, and that his wife’s brother Creon wants to obtain his body on his death to bury near Thebes. He curses both of his sons and blesses his daughters. He meets with Theseus, king of Athens, who understands his plight and makes him a citizen of Athens. Creon arrives attempting to draw Oedipus back to Thebes by capturing Ismene and then forcibly taking Antigone from his side. Theseus arrives and rebukes him, and then leads his army to get Oedipus’ daughters back. After a meeting with Polynices, where he curses him and Eteocles again, Oedipus dies and brings blessing on the city of Athens.

15. Creon

A prominent figure in almost every play dealing with the legend of Oedipus. He is the brother of Oedipus’ mother and wife Jocasta. He had to deal with the Sphinx upon the death of Lauis and is the one who promised the crown of Thebes and the hand of his sister to any who solved the riddle, which was eventually solved by Oedipus. He is a complicated figure, and treated both sympathetically (Oedipus Rex), and as the foil against the hero (Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone). Despite trying to avoid being king, he ends up returning to that role several times as the result of the deaths of Lauis, Oedipus, Eteocles and Polynices. He is open to changing his mind if the gods will it, but often that change comes too late.

16. Antigone
The last chronologically of the three Theban plays of Sophocles, but actually the first to be written. The play was so popular that people went back and edited the ending of Aeschylus’ great play Seven Against Thebes so that its ending would set up this play. The play picks up where that Aeschylus play leaves off, with the death of Eteocles and Polynices, the sons of Oedipus. With their death, Creon takes control and declares that Polynices is guilty of treason for attacking the city, and his body is not to be buried, an act that would cause his soul to wander aimlessly on the earth. The title character is the sister of Eteocles and Polynices. She talks to her sister Ismene about a plot to bury her brother anyway. Ismene refuses to help for fear of the death penalty. The title character, who is betrothed to her cousin Haemon, the son of Creon, proves to be just as stubborn as her uncle and buries him anyway. She is caught and sentenced to be buried alive. Creon has a change of heart and tries to free her, but it is too late. When the tomb is opened, the title character has already hanged herself to avoid the slow death of being buried alive.

17. Euripides

The third of the three great Greek tragedians, the only three to have any plays survive, and the least decorated. Despite being the least popular, in his time (480-406 BCE), he became so popular in the subsequent Hellenistic age, where he was taught as one of the cornerstones of ancient literary education, more of his plays survive than Aeschylus and Sophocles combined. He started to add more comedy to his tragedies, which would lead to an entire comedy section of the Dionysia. He chose to display his mythical heroes as ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. His approach of sympathy to women and the underprivileged were well ahead of his time, and much like Socrates, the men who ruled society saw him as a bit of a rabble rouser. The comic playwright Aristophanes made fun of him in at least three plays, accusing him of trying to be clever and witty rather than of composing stronger tragedies. An example of his style, he makes Jason’s wife Medea the heroine of her own play where she points out that childbirth is actually more difficult than fighting in war. His other big works include Andromache, about the wife of Hector, and The Trojan Women.

18. The Trojan Women
A play by Euripides that is indicative of his subversive style when it comes to the plight of those with no control in society. It focuses on four women in Troy after the fall of the city and their tragic lives. Hecuba, the queen of Troy, will have to go with the conquering general Odysseus. Her daughter Cassandra, who had been raped near the end of the war, would be given to Agamemnon as his concubine (though since Cassandra could see the future, she almost morbidly happy that they would be killed when they got to his home). Andromache, the wife of Hector, had her daughter sacrificed at the tomb of Achilles, and her son put to death by throwing him off the top of the city walls, lest he grow up to avenge Hector’s death. She also would be the concubine of Achilles’ son Neoptolemus (Her life after that is covered in more detail in the later Euripides play Andromache). The fourth woman covered is Helen, who has been condemned to die by the husband she discarded for Paris, Meneleus. The audience knows that she will avoid this death, but that is not covered in the play.

19. Medea

One of the most performed ancient Greek plays currently, it was actually shocking and disliked at its original presentation. It came in last when it was presented at Dionysia. The work is particularly embraced by modern feminists. In it, the title character is trapped in a world completely controlled by the men around her. Her husband Jason has decided to marry a Corinthian princess, though he assures her that he intends to keep her as a mistress and unite the families. She rages against this and is exiled by the father of Jason’s new bride, who is also the king of Corinth. First, she assures that she will have a place in Athens after she is exiled, then she returns to Corinth, pretending to be okay with the situation. She even offers a dress to Glauce, Jason’s new bride. The dress is poisoned and it kills both Glauce and her father when he embraces her while she is still in it. Not content to stop there, she decides to murder her on children, not because they have done anything wrong or because she doesn’t love them, but because she believes that this will cause Jason the maximum amount of pain. She kills them and then leaves with their bodies to Athens.

20. Andromache

A play by Euripides about the plight of Hector’s wife after the end of the Trojan War. She is the concubine of Achilles’ son Neoptolemus and she has a son by him. However, Neoptolemus has now married Hermione, the daughter of Meneleus and Helen, who had been originally betrothed to her cousin Orestes before the Trojan War, but was promised to Neoptolemus in exchange for service in the war. Hermione is extremely mean to the title character, uttering lines like “Learn your new found place” and accusing her of oriental witchcraft. Hermione’s father Meneleus comes looking for the title character because he wants to kill her son. King Peleus (Achilles’ father) intervenes and stops the slaughter. Orestes arrives and kills Neoptolemus and takes Hermione. In the end, Thetis, a goddess and mother of Achilles, comes in true deus ex machina style and ties up loose ends. Meneleus’ extremely negative portrayal in this play stems largely from his status of ancient king of Sparta. The play was written in Athens during the Peloponnesian War.

21. Aristophanes

The most renowned comic playwright of ancient Greece, he lived from 446-386 BCE, and is known for the unrelenting political satire of his contemporaries, most notably the playwright Euripides and the philosopher Socrates. No less than Plato accused his play The Clouds of directly leading to the trial and ultimate death of Socrates. He is referred to as both the Father of Comedy and the Prince of Ancient Comedy. His most notable plays include Lysistrata, The Clouds, The Wasps, The Birds, and The Frogs. He wrote in his plays that “the author-director of comedies has the hardest job of all.”

22. Lysistrata

Probably the most famous of the plays by the Greek comic playwright Aristophanes. It was written seven years before the end of the 27-year Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta. In it, the title character organizes the women of Greece to refuse to sleep with their husbands and boyfriends until the war stops. The plan works and the men finally come to the peace table, ending the war.

23. The Clouds

An infamous play by Aristophanes that skewers Socrates and his students. In it, a man with debts, Strepsiades, tries to convince his son, Pheidippides to enroll in a school called The Thinkery, in which he would learn to win arguments with illogical positions. The son refuses because he doesn’t want to talk his way around problems and the school is seen as a joke. So, Strepsiades enrolls himself instead. There he is introduced to the school’s leader Socrates. Socrates tries to teach him, but he is too set in his old ways, and is unable to be taught. He then forces his son to go. His son enters the school an athlete, but emerges as a scrawny nerd. His dad celebrates at first, but then the son uses his new logic to argue not for the forgiveness of his father’s debt, but rather for his right to beat his father and mother and lead a lackadaisical life. The father returns to the Thinkery with his slaves and torches to attack the disreputable school.

24. The Frogs

This comic play of Aristophanes was written one year after the death of Euripides. In it, the god Dionysus laments the state of the tragedy plays in his festival and journeys to Hades to revive Euripides and bring him back to Athens. Once there, however, he finds that Euripides is arguing with the long dead Aeschylus over who should get the seat of “Best Tragic Poet” at the dinner table. Euripides argues that his characters are more human, while Aeschylus argues that his are more heroic and give people something to strive for. In the end, Dionysus decides he will take whichever playwright gives the best advice on how to save Athens. Euripides gives an answer that sounds clever while basically says nothing, while Aeschylus answers well. Dionysus chooses Aeschylus to go back to earth. Before he leaves, he comments that his chair should be used by Sophocles while he is gone, not Euripides.

25. Socrates

The first of the three great philosophers of ancient Greece. He lived from 470-399 BCE in Athens. He is most known for the concepts of Socratic irony (where one pretends to know nothing about a subject to trick an opponent into revealing their full thoughts before skewering them with one’s superior knowledge) and for Socratic method (a series of questions designed to seek out the merit and refute if necessary a held position. He favored oral banter over the written work, which provides a bit of a problem in knowing him, as he wrote nothing down. Therefore all we know about him and his teaching comes from three outside sources: 1) His student Plato, who likely is giving us an idealized picture of him, 2) The playwright Aristophanes, who clearly was ridiculing him and thus provides a negative image and 3) The historian Xenophon, who also was a student of him, and spent much of his adult life in Sparta. While we are pretty confident that he spent much of his adult life in Athens criticizing such concepts as “might makes right”, the only things that we are universally sure about him is that he was extremely ugly, and that he was executed by Athens for corrupting the minds of the youth of Athens and impiety (not believing in the gods of the state). The method of his execution was drinking a mixture containing the poison hemlock.

26. Plato

The second of the three great philosophers of ancient Greece, he bears stark contrast to his teacher Socrates in that he not only wrote everything down, almost everything he wrote has survived to present day, making him arguably the most important writer of ancient times. He lived from approximately 423-347 BCE in Athens. Along with Socrates and his student Aristotle, he laid the foundations of Western science and philosophy. He is also known for opening the first school of higher learning in ancient Greece, called the Academy, and the basis for all future schools in Western tradition. He has many notable works, perhaps the most notable being The Republic and The Laws.

27. The Republic

The greatest and most influential work by the philosopher Plato. No exact date is assigned to the work, though it is likely in the second half of the fifth century BCE. In this work, Socrates and various other Athenians discuss the meaning of justice and whether the just man is happier than the unjust man. They do this by considering a series of different cities coming into existence, eventually culminating in a city called Kallipolis which is ruled by philosopher-kings, a term that has become associated with Plato.

28. The Allegory of the Cave

A particularly famous section of Plato’s Republic. In it, Plato describes a conversation between his brother Glaucon and his mentor Socrates. Socrates describes a gathering of people who are chained all their lives facing the blank wall of a cave. Meanwhile, there is a fire behind them, and periodically, people walk in between them and the fire. This causes shadows to be cast on the wall. The people become so familiar with those shadows that they begin to name them, as it is their reality. And yet, they never see the true nature of the people causing the shadows. Similarly, the theory goes, what we see on a daily basis is not the true nature of the world, and it is the philosopher’s job to see beyond the shadowy representations to the true nature of the world.  

29. The Academy

The first school of Ancient Greece and the Western world founded by Plato around 387 BCE. It gets its name from its location – the site of the ancient lands of an Athenian who legendarily told Castor and Pollux where then 50-year old Theseus had hidden then 12-year old Helen, who he absconded with. Thus, he became the savior of Athens as Castor and Pollux did not destroy the city. Aristotle studied at the school for 20 years before starting his own school. The school lasted well after Plato’s death, finally closing in 83 BCE. The Romans revived it in 410 CE as a center of Neoplatonism, but Justinian I closed it for good in 529 CE. Its name has come to be the generic term for any school of higher learning.

30. Aristotle

A Macedonian philosopher and scientist who lived from 364-322 BCE. At age 18, he joined Plato’s Academy and would study there for 20 years, until he left to found his own school, The Lyceum. Four years later, he returned to Macedonia in 343 BCE at the request of King Philip of Macedon to tutor his son Alexander, later known as Alexander the Great. He used his resources from this tutoring to fund a great library at the Lyceum and immerse himself in the study of empiricism. He believed that peoples’ concepts and knowledge were ultimately based on perception. Described as the first scientist, his view on physical science would shape medieval scholarship and last all the way to the Renaissance. His metaphysical ponderings still influence much religious thought today, especially Catholicism. Even the medieval Muslims referred to him as first teacher.

31. The Lyceum

An ancient gymnasium and public meeting place in a grove of trees that was famously converted into a school by Aristotle in 334 BCE. It remained a public building even after his flight from Athens in 323 BCE, though it was eventually destroyed by the Roman general Sulla when he sacked Athens in 86 BCE. Its remains were found in a park behind the Hellenic Parliament in Athens in 1996. The school was run by the students, who elected a new student leader every 10 days to rotate leadership. It benefitted greatly from Aristotle’s role as Alexander the Great’s tutors, as Alexander sent him plants and animals from all his conquests, allowing Aristotle to start the first zoo. Alexander also gave the equivalent of $4 million to the school.

32. deductive reasoning

The process of reasoning from one or more statements to make a logically certain conclusion. It links premises with conclusions. If all premises are true, the terms are clear and the rules are followed, then the conclusions have to be true. For example: All of Mr. Kirby’s Humanities students have to take tests. Cat Towne is one of Mr. Kirby’s Humanities students. Therefore Cat Towne has to take tests. That specific example is a type of this reasoning called a syllogism, but there can be more complex forms.

33. inductive reasoning

A type of reasoning that supplies strong evidence for a logical conclusion but not absolute proof. It is more nuanced that deductive reasoning, in that it provides a probability that something is true with not absolute proof. An example would be: 100% of people who have ever been the best player on a state championship academic team have learned something outside of what they were taught in their classes at school, therefore it is highly probable that if Jack Duarte wants to be the best player on a state championship winning academic team, he will have to learn more than just what he is taught at school. It also differs from the third type of reasoning – abductive – where the result is seen first and the observer looks to inferring the reason for the result they are seeing, which is used in computer science.

34. Five Classic Elements

The classic elements show up in multiple cultures and religions including Babylonia, Ancient Greece, Hinduism and Buddhism. Concentrating on the ones from ancient Greece, there were originally four – earth, air, fire and water. Aristotle classified each of those elements as having a primary and secondary trait from among the concepts of hot, cold, wet and dry. He reasoned that fire is primarily hot and secondarily dry, air is primarily wet and secondarily hot, water is primarily cold and secondarily wet and that earth is primarily dry and secondarily cold. He also added a fifth element called aether that would be an unchangeable heavenly substance.

35. Metaphysics

One of the principal works of Aristotle and the first major work the branch of philosophy that bears the same name. It examines what can be asserted about anything that exists just because of its existence and not because of any special qualities it has. It also covers different kinds of causation, form and matter, the existence of mathematical objects and a God that causes the actions of the universe but is not affected by any reactive motion.

36. Pythagoras

A Greek philosopher and mathematician that lived from 570-495 BCE, predating Socrates by more than 100 years. He is most famous for his theorem about the sides of right triangles, saying that the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the square of the adjacent sides. Exactly what else he did is up to conjecture because most of his accomplishments were written down hundreds of years after he made them, and the legend mixes greatly with any facts. He did travel extensively from the island of Samos he was born on, reaching Egypt and the Greek mainland. If the legend is to be believed, he is the first man to call himself a philosopher (Greek for “lover of wisdom”)
37. Seven Sages of Greece

The title given to a group of ancient Greek philosophers, statesmen and law-givers from the sixth century BCE. They were all much renowned in the following centuries for their wisdom. They included Cleobulus, a tyrant ruler of Lindos, Solon, a legislator who framed the laws that became the Athenian democracy, Chilon, a Spartan politician who militarized their society, Bias of Priene, Thales of Miletus, the first well-known philosopher and mathematician, who used geometry to measure the pyramids, Pittacus of Mytilene, who was known for reducing the power of the nobility and Periander, a tyrant who led Corinth into their golden age.

38. Thales

He lived from around 620-546 BCE and was a pre-Socratic thinker from the Greek colony of Miletus who many consider to be the “first philosopher.” Rejecting mythical explanations of the universe’s nature, he believed that the first principle of all existence, the natural element from which all things emerged, was water. He was also a civil engineer and mathematician, and is credited with discovering that any triangle whose hypotenuse is the diameter of a circle must be a right triangle. He is sometimes thought of as the founder of a “Milesian school” of philosophy, whose other members include Anaximander and Anaximenes.

39. Epicurus

He lived from 341-270 BCE and his namesake school, believed that pleasure was the highest (or only) good, and that the absence of pain (aponia) was the highest pleasure. They also believed that human happiness consisted of a kind of tranquillity known as ataraxia. Critics of this school accused his school of promoting hedonism and making selfishness into a good, though they did not believe themselves to be hedonists. He also taught that death was the end of body and soul and the gods neither rewarded or punished humans. He taught that the events of the world are ultimately based on the motions and interactions of atoms moving in space.

40. Zeno of Elea
He lived from 490-430 BCE and was a student of Parmenides, who founded the Eleatic school in a Greek colony of the Italian peninsula. He is most famous today for his paradoxes, the best-known of which involve an arrow in flight and a race between Achilles and a tortoise. His paradoxes purport to show that physical movement is impossible, since any attempt to travel a distance must be preceded by moving half that distance, which must be preceded by moving half of half that distance, and so on.

41. Stoicism  

A school of Hellenistic philosophy founded in Athens by Zeno of Citium in the early third century BCE. They taught that destructive emotions resulted from errors in judgment and that a person of moral and intellectual perfection would not suffer such emotions. They thought that the best indication of an individual’s philosophy was not what a person said but how that person behaved. Thus, virtue is sufficient for happiness. It remained popular even during the Roman rule of Greece, especially with Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius.

42. Hippocrates

A Greek physician from the Age of Pericles in classic Greece, he lived from 460-30 BCE. He is often called the “Father of Western Medicine”. Though his works may be merged with some of those who practiced his methods, he is still significant in having established medicine as a unique discipline for the first time. A form of his oath is still taken by doctors today, although the modern one no longer starts with I swear by Apollo the physician.

43. Diogenes
        
He lived in Sinope from 410-323 BCE and was a student of Antisthenes, who founded the ancient school of philosophy known as Cynicism. (The term “cynic” comes from the Greek for “dog-like,” and is thought to have originated as an insult to the school’s members.) The Cynics rejected conventional social norms in search of a truly virtuous life. He was something of an eccentric—according to legend, he lived in a tub or a barrel on the street, and wandered Athens holding a lamp in his futile search for an honest man.

44. Solon

An Athenian statesman who lived from 538-558 BCE. In his time, he tried to legislate against political, economic and moral decline in Athens. His reforms were not successful in the short term, yet he is often credited with laying the foundation for the future Athenian democracy. He also wrote poetry as patriotic propaganda and in defense of his reforms, though occasionally he wrote just for pleasure. Since most of our knowledge of his is from authors who wrote of him long after his death like Herodotus and Plutarch, it is hard to say which of the laws of Athens are authentically his.

45. Plutarch

A Greek historian, biographer and essayist, who lived from 46-120 CE in the time of Roman control of Greece. He even became a Roman citizen. He is most known for his Parallel Lives and Moralia, which was a book on morals and customs.

46. Parallel Lives

One of the most important books in the early common era, it’s full title is Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans. It is a series of biographies of famous men, arranged in tandem (one Greek and one Roman) in order to highlight common moral virtues or failings. Twenty three pairs of biographies still exist, as well as four unpaired singletons. They are not intended to be histories, but rather to explore the influence of character on the lives and destinies of famous men. They have been a great source of information on not only the men described, but also the time in which they lived. He paired the mythic founders of Athens (Theseus) and Rome (Romulus), as well as pairing Alexander the Great with Julius Caesar.

47. Archimedes

An inventor, mathematician, physicist, engineer and astronomer, he lived in Syracuse, on the island of Sicily, from 287-212 BCE. Generally considered the greatest mathematician of antiquity and one of the greatest of all time. He defined an accurate approximation of pi, founded hydrostatics and statics, explained the priniciple of the level and invented screw pumps and compound pulleys. He is oft quoted as saying, “give me a level long enough and fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world”. The most famous anecdote about him involves his principle of measuring the volumes of irregularly shaped solids by putting them in water and seeing how much water they displace. He is supposed to have thought of this while bathing and then run naked through the streets screaming Eureka. He died during the siege of Syracuse during the Second Punic War, when he was killed by a Roman soldier despite instructions not to harm him.

48. Galen

A prominent Greek physician, surgeon and philosopher in the Roman empire, he lived from 129-200 CE and is often referred to as being of Pergamon. He is most known for his understanding of anatomy and medicine. After his dissection of monkeys and pigs, his conclusions and theories would dominate Western medicine right up until William Harvey discovered how blood circulates in 1628.    

49. Persian Achaemenid Empire

The most famous section of the empire, often referred to as their first empire. It was based in Western Asia and lasted from 550-330 BCE.  Founded by Cyrus the Great, and featuring Darius the Great and Xerxes, the dynasty was most notable for fighting the Greeks, freeing the Jews from the Babylonian Captivity and seeing the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus built in their empire. However, the most lasting legacy may be the way they ran an empire. They were the first to have a centralized government with strong bureaucratic administration, having their king serve as a king of kings, really, with satraps serving under him governing the conquered territory. They were known for their willingness to leave conquered peoples in tact and free to practice their own cultures as long as the taxes were paid. They also had a postal system, strong roads and an official language throughout the empire. Eventually, Alexander the Great put an end to this section of the empire.

50. Cyrus (II) The Great

The founder and first emperor of the Persian Achaemenid Empire. He conquered the Median Empire, the Lydian Empire and eventually the Neo-Babylonian Empire, ending the Babylonian Captivity in the process. He is known for his tolerance of other cultures in his empire, and for designing an empire with the goal of working toward the profit of his subjects, which helped ensure their loyalty. He built his capital at Pasargadae, where he is buried. Because of his ending of the Babylonian Captivity, he is especially revered by the Jewish culture.

51. Zoroastrianism

One of the oldest world religions and one of the first to teach monotheism. It was the ancient religion of the Persian Empire, and persisted as the main religion in that area for over 1000 years until the founding of Islam. The religion is ascribed to the teachings of the prophet Zoroaster. The principle deity is Ahura Mazda, with the evil counterpart named Angra Mainyu. Its principles, such as the concept of a Messiah, the Golden Rule, the presence of heaven and hell and free will, greatly influenced Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

52. Babylonian Captivity
        
A period of Jewish history where King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon conquered, the ancient Kingdom of Judah under Jehoiakim, killed the king, destroyed the city of Jerusalem, including its temple, and exiled many of the people to Babylonia around 597 BCE. Eventually, the Achaemenid Persian king Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon in 539 BCE and later let Nehemiah rebuild the temple. The Western Wall from this temple is all that remains, sometimes called the Wailing Wall, and is located in roughly the same location as the Muslim Dome of the Rock. This has created great tension in the area between the religions.

53. Darius (I) The Great

The ruler of the Achaemenid Persian Empire at the height of its power. He is known for putting down several revolts, expanding the empire and also with his attempted punishment of Athens and Eretria for aiding the Ionian Revolt, by trying to conquer all of Greece. Though he managed to completely subjugate Eritrea during the conflict and conquered all of Thrace, his hoped of conquering Athens ended with the Battle of Marathon. He is credited with dividing the empire into provinces, creating a uniform monetary system and making Aramaic the official language throughout the empire.

54. Greco-Persian Wars

A series of conflicts between the Achaemenid Empire and several Greek city-states that started in 499 BCE and continued until 449 BCE. The source of the conflict traces by to Cyrus the Great’s conquering of Ionia. The Greeks living there proved to be difficult to manage, so he appointed tyrants to do so, which eventually led to a revolt that Athens and Eritrea supported with troops. Darius I responded to this rebellion and squashed it, but also sought to punish Athens and Eritrea for their participation. In the first wave, the Achaemenids conquered Thrace and Macedon, as well as subjugating the Cyclades and razing Eretria. However, a decisive defeat at the Battle of Marathon kept them from reaching Athens. In the second wave, led by Xerxes, they defeated the Greeks at the Battle of Thermopylae and torched Athens, but failed to defeat the combined Greek fleet at the Battle of Salamis. Under Athenian leadership, the Delian League continued to expel Persian forces from Europe over decades, eventually leading to the so-called Peace of Callias.

55. Herodotus

A Greek historian who lived from 484-425 BCE and is generally referred to as the “Father of History”, a title first given to him by the Roman Cicero. In fact, the word history itself comes from his titling of his great work Histories. That work mostly centered on the 200 years of history just before his life and the Greco-Persian Wars, which dominated his lifetime. As a Greek, his account may lean a little to the pro Greek side, but in general, his work is seen is generally accurate.

56. Battle of Marathon

Persian King Darius I’s invasion of mainland Greece ended with a decisive victory for Miltiades and the Athenians here in 490 BCE. The defeated Persian commanders were Datis and Artaphernes. Among the few Athenian dead of the battle were archon Callimachus and the general Stesilaos. Legend has it that the Greek messenger Pheidippides ran to Athens with news of the victory, but collapsed upon arrival. This is the inspiration for the modern race.

    57. Xerxes I

The fourth king of kings of the ancient Achaemenid empire, most known for his mentions in the Bible and his battles over mainland Greece. Much like his father Darius I, he headed to Greece with the intention of punishing Athens. His troops defeated Greece at the famous battle of Thermopylae, which is featured in the movie 300, noted for how many men the Persians lost before being victorious. He also captured Athens, and depending on which account you believe, found it burnt to the ground by fleeing Greeks or had it torched himself. After losing the naval battle at Salamis, however, he was forced to return to Asia to deal with problems in the province of Babylon. The remnant that he left behind in Greece was defeated at Plataea, effectively ending the campaign. He is also the king of Persia mentioned in Esther who marries Esther. The commander of his royal bodyguard, Artabanus, assasinated him in 465 BCE.

58. Battle of Thermopylae

This was the first battle of the second Persian invasion of Greece in 480 BCE. Although the Persians under Xerxes I and his general Mardonius defeated the Spartans, King Leonidas and his Spartan troops put up a heroic defense of this pass which translates to the “hot gates”. The Greeks were betrayed by Ephialtes, who told the Persians about a path that led behind the Spartans. The battle was part of Themistocles’ plan to halt the advance of the Persians. The other part of his plan was to block the Persian navy at Artemisium, and a battle occurred there simultaneously

59. Naval Battle of Salamis

This was a major turning point in the Greco-Persian Wars, as it signaled the beginning of the end of Persian attempts to conquer Greece in 480 BCE. The battle is named after an island in the Saronic Gulf near Athens. Xerxes was so confident in victory that he watched the battle from a throne on the slopes of Mount Aegaleus. The Athenian general Themistocles devised a plan to lure the large, slow Persian ships into the narrow straits where the Greek ships were able to outmaneuver and destroy much of the Persian fleet. The Persian admiral Ariabignes was killed in hand-to-hand combat, and the Queen of Halicarnassus, Artemisia, had to sink some of her allies’ ships to escape.

60. Delian League

An association of Greek city-states, numbering between 150 and 173, under the leadership of Athens, whose purpose was to continue fighting the Persian Empire after the Greek victory in the Battle of Plataea at the Second Persian invasion of Greece. The league took its name from the island where their official meetings took place. Eventually, Athens began to dominate the use of the forces, moving the treasury from the island to Athens in 454 BCE and beginning to use its navy for its own purposes. Eventually, Athens heavy-handed control of it caused the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War in 431 BCE. It was dissolved at the end of that war in 404 BCE.

61. Pericles

The most prominent and influential Greek statesman, orator and general of Athens during the Athenian Golden Age. He lived from 495-429 BCE, but he is most noted for his leadership between the Persian Wars ending (449 BCE) and the Peloponnesian wars starting (431 BCE), though he was in charge of Athens from 461-429. Contemporary historian Thucydides dubbed him “the first citizen of Athens”. He turned the Delian League into his own Athenian Empire. Known as a supporter of the arts and literature, most of the structures on the Acropolis, including the Parthenon, were built in this time period.  

62. The Acropolis

An ancient Greek citadel located on a high rocky outcrop above the city of Athens. In contains the remains of several ancient buildings of great architectural and historic significance. Under the leadership of Pericles in the fifth century BCE, its most important buildings were constructed – The Parthenon, the Propylaia, the Erechtheion and the temple of Athena Nike. There is a stark contrast between the building styles there, as the Parthenon is considered the height of Doric architecture, while the Erectheion and Athena Nike are both Ionic structures.  

63. Peloponnesian War

A war between Greek city-states from 431-404 BCE, which came about largely because Athens built took over the Delian League that had been used to fight Persia and turned it into an Athenian Empire, causing Sparta and its allies (most notably Corinth and Thebes) to stand against them. It is often billed as a war between the intellectual democracy loving Athens and the military autocratic Spartans, but Athens was hardly democratic when it came to forcing other people to do what it wanted. The war was fought in three phases. The first phase, the Archidamian War, saw Sparta invading the region around Athens repeatedly, while Athens used its superior naval power to raid the coast of the Peloponnese. This ended in 421 BCE with the Peace of Nicias. That treaty was broken and in phase two, Athens disastrously attacked Syracuse in Sicily, losing its entire invasion force in 413. In the final phase, or Decelean/Ionian War, Sparta received support from Persia to defeat Athens’ fleet at the Battle of Aegospotami. Athens surrendered soon after. Though Corinth and Thebes demanded that Athens be destroyed and all its citizens be enslaved, Sparta refused to do this. In general, this marked the end of the Golden Age of Greece for all concerned.

64. Battle of Aegospotami

This battle in 405 BCE on the Hellespont (Dardanelles) ended the Peloponnesian War and the Athenian Empire. After a setback at the Battle of Arginusae in 406 BC, the Spartans reinstated Lysander as the commander of their fleet. The result was a complete victory for Sparta; only a fraction of the Athenian fleet survived, including the general Conon, and the ship Paralus, which brought the news of defeat to Athens. Following the battle, the Spartans besieged Athens and forced its surrender.

65. Thucydides

An Athenian historian, political philosopher and general who lived from 460-400 BCE. He is most noted for his History of the Peloponnesian War , which recounts the fifth century war between Sparta and Athens. He is often called the father of “scientific history” because of his strict standards of evidence-gathering and his analysis of the causes and effects without reference to intervention by the gods. He viewed the political behavior of individuals and the subsequent outcome of relations between states as ultimately mediated by and built upon the emotions of fear and self-interest.

66. Philip (II) of Macedon

The king of the Ancient Greek kingdom in the north, he lived from 382-336 BCE and ruled from 359 BCE until his assassination. He is known for unifying Greece under his rule and planning an invasion of Persia before being assassinated. He did this with the use of the phalanx military formation and specifically employing sarissas, a long spear measuring 13-23 feet, which upped the effectiveness of the phalanx. Today, he is most known not for his own accomplishments, but rather as the father of one of the greatest generals ever, Alexander the Great.

67. Alexander (III) The Great

A Macedon king that lived from 356-323 BCE and is known as one of the most successful military commanders in history. The son of Philip of Macedon, he was tutored by Aristotle in his youth. His father had managed to unify most of Greece under his rule before being assassinated, and he used this base to wage a war on the Persian Empire, as his father had planned. His mother, Olympias, was the fourth wife of his father, and at some point claimed that he was not Philip’s son at all, but instead was the son of Zeus, who had come to her in the form of a snake. He used this to his advantage as well. He was known to take on the customs of the people he conquered, thus coming off as their liberator as he tore through Egypt, the entirety of the Persian Empire and on to India, where his troops begged him to stop. He ended the Achaemenid Empire with his defeat of Darius III and his cousin Bessus. He died of a sudden fever at age 32 in Babylon, which he intended to make his capital. Some historians speculated that he was poisoned, but the fact that it took him 12 days to die of the fever seems to contradict this. He died having never lost a battle.

68. Darius III

The last king of the Achaemenid empire, he lived from 380-330 BCE and ruled for the last six years of his life. He had the misfortune of living at the same time as Alexander the Great. He came to the Persian throne when the vizier Bagoas killed the prior king, his cousin Artaxerxes III, and all his sons. Originally a puppet of Bagoas, he started acting independently, causing Bagoas to try and have him poisoned. However, he was warned and forced Bagoas to drink the poison himself. When Alexander the Great invaded Persia, he lost the Battles of Issus and Gaugamela to Alexander, forcing him to flee the capital of Persepolis to try and regroup. Alexander then looted and burned Persepolis to the ground. Alexander pursued him, but before Alexander reached him, he was killed by his cousin Bessus. Since, Bessus took the name Artaxerxes V and began calling himself King of Asia, Alexander captured, tortured and executed him.

69. Battle of Issus (Granicus)

The second major battle between Alexander the Great and the Persian Empire, and the first to feature Darius III. The battle was fought along the Pinarus River near present day Iskenderun in Turkey’s Hatay province. Before the battle, Darius was able to surprise Alexander and cut him off from the main force of Macedonians. However, the battle ended with Darius fleeing the field and the capture of his tent and family. The battle was the subject of a 1528 painting by Albrecht Altdorfer, the leader of the Danube School.

70. Bucephalas

The horse of Alexander the Great, that has taken almost mythic qualities through retelling. The horse supposedly was a massive creature with giant head, having a black coat with a white star on his brow. The horse was supposed to be untameable when offered to Alexander’s father, King Philip of Macedon. However, at age 12, Alexander tamed the horse, and rode it for the next 18 years until the death of the horse.

71. Gordian Knot

A legend associated with Alexander the Great about solving the seemingly unsolvable task. According to legend, the king of the Phyrgia dedicatted his ox cart/chariot to Zeus and fastened it to a pole with a knot that was so complex that an oracle declared that whoever untied it would be the future king of Asia. Many tried and failed for centuries until Alexander the Great reached the city. Rather than untie it, Alexander simply cut through the knot with his sword.

72. Hephaestion

The best friend, and perhaps lover, of Alexander the Great. Often seen as the Patroclus to Alexander’s Achilles. Alexander was so upset by his death that he had the doctor who treated him crucified and appealed to the oracle at Siwa to have Hephaestion honored as a god. The oracle declared instead he would be honored as a great hero, which pleased Alexander.