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Athens in the Ancient World. The city of Athens developed around the Acropolis, a rocky hill rising from the central plain of Attica about five miles (eight kilometers) from the Saronic Gulf. Traces of habitation first appear in the late Neolithic period (c. 3000 b.c.e.), and Athens became an important center in the late Bronze Age (1600-1100 b.c.e.). A Mycenaean palace stood on the Acropolis, which was girded by massive fortifications. These remains lend some support to the tradition that in this period the hero Theseus united all of Attica under Athenian leadership.
Greek Poetry in Antiquity The earliest Greek poetry was unlettered, oral, and traditional. For centuries before the appearance of the alphabet in the eighth century , Greek poets were creating songs, probably in dactylic hexameter, for entertainment, ritual, and religious purposes. Some of these poems were probably short lyrics and others were longer tales about their heroes and gods. Most, if not all, were probably intended for public performance by individuals or by choruses. Especially in longer, narrative poetry, fixed phrases such as epithets and formulas were used as mnemonic devices and compositional tools to tell and retell tales through generations.
Olympic Games in the Ancient World. Although it is unknown whether the Olympic Games actually began in 776 b.c.e., winners of each Olympic Festival were recorded from that year until 217 c.e. by the chronographer Eusebius of Caesarea. The festival provided an occasion for the disparate Greek city-states to celebrate their shared language, religion, and culture. Political disputes were suspended during all four Panhellenic athletic competitions, including the Olympic Games and Nemean Games honoring Zeus, the Pythian Games honoring Apollo, and the Isthmian Games dedicated to Poseidon at Corinth. The Olympic Games were the most prestigious and were held once every four years at the first full Moon after the summer solstice. The four-year period between Olympic Festivals was known as an Olympiad and could be used as a means of calculating dates.
Sparta. A city of Laconia (Peloponnese, southern Greece), at the northern end of the fertile Eurotas valley, protected by spectacular mountain barriers (Taygetus and Parnon) on either side. Prehistoric remains are few, although in the late Bronze (Mycenaean) Age there were habitation centers at Amyclae, three miles to the south of the later Sparta, and Therapne two miles to the southeast of the city. The Therapne settlement stood beside a sanctuary dedicated to a nature goddess and her helpers, later identified with Helen, her brothers the Dioscuri (Castor and Polydeuces [Pollux]) and her husband Menelaus; he and Helen were believed to have been buried there, and the shrine was known as the Menelaion. According to Homer's Iliad, Menelaus was the King of Sparta or Lacedaemon (a name used also, as Strabo points out, for the whole of Laconia and Messenia), whose wife's abduction by Paris supposedly caused the Trojan War.
Theatre in Ancient Greece. Greek drama traces its roots to the Dionysia, the annual festival held in celebration of Dionysus, the god of wine, revelry, and fertility. The Dionysia was in fact two separate festivals: the older, smaller Rural Dionysia, held in towns throughout Attica in the winter, and the City Dionysia or Great Dionysia, held in Athens in the spring. The ceremonies included dance and music, and as early as the seventh century BCE, a choral song called a dithyramb was added. At some point, these elements assumed a more structured form. According to Aristotle’s account in his Poetics , tragedy developed from the dithyramb and comedy from the phallic songs that were also part of Dionysian ceremonies.
Peloponnesian War In the late spring of 431 b.c.e., the tensions that had existed between Athens and Sparta since the end of the Greco-Persian War suddenly erupted into open conflict. The resulting war became known as the Peloponnesian War because Sparta’s area of greatest influence was the Peloponnese, the peninsula on which it was located. The causes of the war were long-standing. The Great Peloponnesian War (also known as the First Peloponnesian War; 459-445 b.c.e.), largely a conflict between Athens and Corinth, with Sparta also participating, had ended with a truce between Athens and Sparta, but neither side had abided completely by its terms.

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Ancient Greek Art

"Ancient Greek Pottery Lekythoi" by Gary Lee Todd, Ph.D. is licensed under CC0 1.0

"Temple of Hephaistos" by Cocoabiscuit is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

"Ancient Greek Pottery Wagon" by Gary Lee Todd, Ph.D. is licensed under CC0 1.0

"Ancient Greek Terracotta Roof-tile Figurines" by Gary Lee Todd, Ph.D. is licensed under CC0 1.0

"Ancient Greek Bronze Mirrors" by Gary Lee Todd, Ph.D. is licensed under CC0 1.0

"Ancient Greek Pottery" by Gary Lee Todd, Ph.D. is licensed under CC0 1.0

"Ancient Greek Terracotta Roof-tile Figurine" by Gary Lee Todd, Ph.D. is licensed under CC0 1.0

"PaestumRuins2" by Ruben Holthuijsen is licensed under CC BY 2.0

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The Greek Achievement: the foundation of the Western World by Charles Freeman
Call Number: DF77 .F697 1999 (Deerwood, North, South)
ISBN: 0670885150
Publication Date: 1999-08-01
The immense success of Robert Fagles's translations of The Iliad and The Odyssey has demonstrated the resurgent appeal of the ancient Greeks. Combining the best of recent scholarship with a readable narrative, Charles Freeman's The Greek Achievement

Ancient Greece	Greek Architecture	Greek Tragedy	Philosophy, Ancient
Ancient Olympics	Greek City-States	Hellenism	Religion, Ancient Greek
Athenian Democracy	Greek Temples	Peloponnesian War	Sparta and Athens

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Ancient Greek Art

"Ancient Greek Pottery Lekythoi" by Gary Lee Todd, Ph.D. is licensed under CC0 1.0

"Temple of Hephaistos" by Cocoabiscuit is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

"Ancient Greek Pottery Wagon" by Gary Lee Todd, Ph.D. is licensed under CC0 1.0

"Ancient Greek Terracotta Roof-tile Figurines" by Gary Lee Todd, Ph.D. is licensed under CC0 1.0

"Ancient Greek Bronze Mirrors" by Gary Lee Todd, Ph.D. is licensed under CC0 1.0

"Ancient Greek Pottery" by Gary Lee Todd, Ph.D. is licensed under CC0 1.0

"Ancient Greek Terracotta Roof-tile Figurine" by Gary Lee Todd, Ph.D. is licensed under CC0 1.0

"PaestumRuins2" by Ruben Holthuijsen is licensed under CC BY 2.0

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