Portal:Ancient Greece

The Ancient Greece Portal

The Parthenon, a temple dedicated to Athena, located on the Acropolis in Athens, Greece

Ancient Greece (Greek: Ἑλλάς, romanized: Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity (c. AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of culturally and linguistically related city-states and other territories—unified only once, for 13 years, under Alexander the Great's empire (336-323 BC). In Western history, the era of classical antiquity was immediately followed by the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine period.

Roughly three centuries after the Late Bronze Age collapse of Mycenaean Greece, Greek urban poleis began to form in the 8th century BC, ushering in the Archaic period and colonization of the Mediterranean Basin. This was followed by the age of Classical Greece, from the Greco-Persian Wars to the 5th to 4th centuries BC. The conquests of Alexander the Great of Macedon spread Hellenistic civilization from the western Mediterranean to Central Asia. The Hellenistic period ended with the conquest of the eastern Mediterranean world by the Roman Republic, and the annexation of the Roman province of Macedonia in Roman Greece, and later the province of Achaea during the Roman Empire.

Classical Greek culture, especially philosophy, had a powerful influence on ancient Rome, which carried a version of it throughout the Mediterranean and much of Europe. For this reason, Classical Greece is generally considered the cradle of Western civilization, the seminal culture from which the modern West derives many of its founding archetypes and ideas in politics, philosophy, science, and art. (Full article...)

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The Draconian constitution, or Draco's code, was a written law code enforced by Draco near the end of the 7th century BC; its composition started around 621BC. It was written in response to the unjust interpretation and modification of oral law by Athenian aristocrats. As most societies in Greece codified basic law during the mid-seventh century BC, Athenian oral law was manipulated by the aristocracy until the emergence of Draco's code. Around 621 BC the people of Athens commissioned Draco to devise a written law code and constitution, giving him the title of the first legislator of Athens. The literate could read the code at a central location accessible to anyone. This enactment of a rule of law was an early manifestation of Athenian democracy. (Full article...)

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Corinthian War
Olympic Games
Greek mythology
Names of the Greeks
War against Nabis
Pederasty in ancient Greece
Macedonia (terminology)
Cretan War (205–200 BC)
Ancient Olympic Games
Parthenon
List of World Heritage Sites in Greece
Zeus
Ancient Greek religion
Ancient Greek temple
Ceremonies of ancient Greece
Ancient Greek literature
Archaic Greece
Second Persian invasion of Greece
Mycenaean Greece
Classical Greece
Iliad
Odyssey
Greek Dark Ages
Peloponnesian War
Athenian democracy
Delian League
Altar of the Twelve Gods
Ancient Greek art
Hellenistic period
Koine Greek
Ancient Greek comedy
Stoicism
Athena
A True Story
Orion (mythology)
Aesop's Fables
Antigonid Macedonian army
Eleusinian Mysteries
Dionysus
Twelve Olympians
Hermes
Heracles
Apollo
Ancient Macedonians
Chariot racing
History of Macedonia (ancient kingdom)
Giants (Greek mythology)
Ancient Macedonian army
Strigil
Ancient Greek architecture
Pottery of ancient Greece
Ancient Greek sculpture
Theatre of ancient Greece
List of Ancient Greek temples
Tyrant
Ancient Greek philosophy
Pre-Socratic philosophy
Government of Macedonia (ancient kingdom)
Ionian Revolt
Battle of Marathon
First Persian invasion of Greece
Military of Mycenaean Greece

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(c) English Wikipedia user Bridesmill, CC-BY-SA-3.0

The Sanctuary of Artemis Orthia (white star) near Sparta in the Peloponnesus

The Sanctuary of Artemis Orthia, an Archaic site devoted in Classical times to Artemis, was one of the most important religious sites in the Greek city-state of Sparta, and continued to be used into the fourth century CE, when all non-Christian worship was banned during the persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire. The sanctuary was destroyed and rebuilt a few times over many centuries and has today produced many artefacts that allow historians to better understand exactly what went on in the sanctuary during that period of time. This sanctuary held many rituals, that included cult-like behaviour by both young males and females in varying ways and has also since revealed many artefacts due to multiple excavations that have helped to deliver new information on acts and behaviours that have occurred in at the temple in Orthia. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

...that around 600 BC, the wooden columns of the old Temple of Hera at Olympia underwent a material transformation, known as "petrification"?

...that although of Greek origin, the Corinthian order was seldom used in Greek architecture?

...that Greek mythology has changed over time to accommodate the evolution of their own culture?

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Sophocles (/ˈsɒfəkliːz/; Ancient Greek: Σοφοκλῆς, pronounced [so.pʰo.klɛ̂ːs]; c. 497/6 – winter 406/5 BC) is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His first plays were written later than, or contemporary with, those of Aeschylus; and earlier than, or contemporary with, those of Euripides. Sophocles wrote over 120 plays, but only seven have survived in a complete form: Ajax, Antigone, Women of Trachis, Oedipus Rex, Electra, Philoctetes and Oedipus at Colonus. For almost fifty years, Sophocles was the most celebrated playwright in the dramatic competitions of the city-state of Athens which took place during the religious festivals of the Lenaea and the Dionysia. He competed in thirty competitions, won twenty-four, and was never judged lower than second place. Aeschylus won thirteen competitions, and was sometimes defeated by Sophocles; Euripides won four.

The most famous tragedies of Sophocles feature Oedipus and Antigone: they are generally known as the Theban plays, though each was part of a different tetralogy (the other members of which are now lost). Sophocles influenced the development of drama, most importantly by adding a third actor (attributed to Sophocles by Aristotle; to Aeschylus by Themistius), thereby reducing the importance of the chorus in the presentation of the plot. He also developed his characters to a greater extent than earlier playwrights. (Full article...)

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Pericles Alcibiades Archimedes Aspasia Demosthenes Epaminondas Hippocrates Theramenes Thrasybulus Homer Cleisthenes Menander Eratosthenes Epictetus Zeno of Citium Lucian Hesiod Euclid Plato Pythagoras Aristotle Socrates Alexander the Great Aesop Solon Aristarchus of Samos Pindar Thales of Miletus

General images -

The following are images from various Ancient Greece-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Delian League ("Athenian Empire"), immediately before the Peloponnesian War in 431 BC (from Ancient Greece)
Image 2Fresco of dancing Peucetian women in the Tomb of the Dancers in Ruvo di Puglia, 4th–5th century BC (from Ancient Greece)
Image 3Gravestone of a woman with her slave child-attendant, c. 100 BC (from Ancient Greece)
Image 4Greek cities & colonies c. 550 BC (in red color) (from Ancient Greece)
(c) Berthold Werner, CC BY-SA 3.0
Image 5The remains of the Temple of Apollo at Corinth, the first Greek temple to be built in stone. (from Archaic Greece)
Image 6Map showing the early growth of the Bosporan Kingdom, before its annexation by Mithridates VI of Pontus (from Ancient Greece)
Image 7Inheritance law, part of the Law Code of Gortyn, Crete, fragment of the 11th column. Limestone, 5th century BC (from Ancient Greece)
Image 8The carved busts of four ancient Greek philosophers, on display in the British Museum. From left to right: Socrates, Antisthenes, Chrysippus, and Epicurus. (from Ancient Greece)
Image 9Ptolemaic Egypt circa 235 BC (the green areas were lost to the Seleucid Empire thirty five years later) (from Ancient Greece)
(c) I, PHGCOM, CC-BY-SA-3.0
Image 10Early Athenian coin, depicting the head of Athena on the obverse and her owl on the reverse – 5th century BC (from Ancient Greece)
Image 11The Aegean world in 200 BC; Aetolia is shown in the center (from Ancient Greece)
Image 12Ancient Greek pair of terracotta boots. Early geometric period cremation burial of a woman, 900 BC. Ancient Agora Museum in Athens. (from Greek Dark Ages)
Image 13Map of Mycenaean Greece 1400-1200 BC: Palaces, main cities and other settlements (from Ancient Greece)
Image 14Marble bust of Pericles with a Corinthian helmet, Roman copy of a Greek original, Museo Chiaramonti, Vatican Museums; Pericles was a key populist political figure in the development of the radical Athenian democracy. (from Ancient Greece)
Image 15The gymnasium and palaestra at Olympia, the site of the ancient Olympic games. The archaic period conventionally dates from the first Olympiad. (from Archaic Greece)
Image 16Greco-Bactrian Kingdom circa 170 BC (from Ancient Greece)
Image 17Finds from an early geometric Cremation Burial of a pregnant wealthy woman, from the N.W. of the Areopagus, about 850 BC, Ancient Agora Museum (Athens); exhibit 14–16: broad gold finger rings; exhibit 17–19: gold finger rings; 20: pair of gold earrings with trapezoid endings (from Greek Dark Ages)
Image 18The Delian League in 431 BC, just prior to the Peloponnesian War (from Ancient Greece)
Image 19Areas settled by Greeks by the close of the archaic period (from Archaic Greece)
Image 20Kingdom of Pontus before the reign of Mithridates VI (darkest purple), after his conquests (purple), and his conquests in the first Mithridatic wars (pink) (from Ancient Greece)
Image 21Indo-Greek Kingdom and events during the reign of Menander I c. 165 BC (from Ancient Greece)
Image 22Ruins of the Temple of Apollo within the polis of Ancient Corinth, built c. 540 BC, with the Acrocorinth (the city's acropolis) seen in the background (from Archaic Greece)
Image 23The major Hellenistic realms included the Diadochi kingdoms:
  Kingdom of Ptolemy I Soter
  Kingdom of Cassander
  Kingdom of Lysimachus
  Kingdom of Seleucus I Nicator
  Epirus
Also shown on the map:
  Greek colonies
  Carthage (non-Greek)
  Rome (non-Greek)

The orange areas were often in dispute after 281 BC. The Attalid dynasty occupied some of this area. Not shown: Indo-Greek Kingdom. (from Ancient Greece)
Image 24Geometric-style box in the shape of a barn. On display in the Ancient Agora Museum in Athens, housed in the Stoa of Attalus. From early geometric cremation burial of a pregnant wealthy woman, 850 BC. (from Greek Dark Ages)
Image 25Location of Dayuan (Ta-Yuan) around 130 BC (from Ancient Greece)
Image 26A scene from the Iliad: Hypnos and Thanatos carrying the body of Sarpedon from the battlefield of Troy; detail from an Attic white-ground lekythos, c. 440 BC. (from Ancient Greece)
Image 27The ancient Theatre of Epidaurus, 4th century BC (from Ancient Greece)
Image 28Homer, author of the earliest surviving Greek literature (from Archaic Greece)
Image 29The Victorious Youth (c. 310 BC), is a rare, water-preserved bronze sculpture from ancient Greece. (from Ancient Greece)
Image 30Map showing the major regions of mainland ancient Greece and adjacent "barbarian" lands. (from Ancient Greece)
Image 31The Seleucid Empire (light blue) in 281 BC on the eve of the murder of Seleucus I Nicator (from Ancient Greece)
Image 32Dipylon Vase of the late Geometric period, or the beginning of the Archaic period, c. 750 BC. (from Ancient Greece)
Image 33Campaigns of Pyrrhus of Epirus in Italy (from Ancient Greece)
Image 34Ruins of the Temple of Heracles, Agrigento, Sicily, built in the late 6th century BC. Sicily was the site of the earliest Greek colonies. (from Archaic Greece)
Image 35Mosaic from Pompeii depicting Plato's academy (from Ancient Greece)
Image 36The Temple of Hera at Selinunte, Sicily (from Ancient Greece)
Image 37The Antikythera mechanism was an analog computer from 150 to 100 BC designed to calculate the positions of astronomical objects. (from Ancient Greece)
Image 38The lawgiver Solon reformed the Athenian constitution at the beginning of the sixth century BC (from Archaic Greece)
Image 39A map of the Bronze Age collapse (from Greek Dark Ages)
Image 40Alexander Mosaic, National Archaeological Museum, Naples. (from Ancient Greece)
Image 41Achaean League in 150 BC (from Ancient Greece)
Image 42The Kingdom of Macedonia in 336 BC (orange) (from Ancient Greece)
Image 43The Parthenon, a temple dedicated to Athena, located on the Acropolis in Athens, is one of the most representative symbols of the culture and sophistication of the ancient Greeks. (from Ancient Greece)
Image 44Map showing events of the first phases of the Greco-Persian Wars. (from Ancient Greece)
Image 45Greek hoplite and Persian warrior depicted fighting, on an ancient kylix, 5th century BC (from Ancient Greece)
Image 46The Vix Krater, an imported Greek wine-mixing bronze vessel found in the Hallstatt/La Tène grave of the "Lady of Vix", Burgundy, France, c. 500 BC (from Archaic Greece)
Image 47Pergamon in 188 BC (from Ancient Greece)
Image 48Mount Olympus, home of the Twelve Olympians (from Ancient Greece)

Selected picture

Photo credit: Thermos

A caryatid (Greek: Καρυάτις, plural: Καρυάτιδες) is a sculpted female figure serving as an architectural support taking the place of a column or a pillar supporting an entablature on her head. The Greek term karyatides literally means "maidens of Karyae", an ancient town of Peloponnese.

Topics

Places: Aegean Sea · Hellespont · Macedonia · Sparta · Athens · Corinth · Thebes · Thermopylae · Antioch · Alexandria · Pergamon · Miletus · Delphi · Olympia · Troy · Rhodes

Life: Agriculture · Art · Cuisine · Democracy · Economy · Language · Law · Medicine · Paideia · Pederasty · Pottery · Prostitution · Slavery · Technology · Olympic Games

Philosophers: Pythagoras · Heraclitus · Parmenides · Protagoras · Empedocles · Democritus · Socrates · Plato · Aristotle · Zeno · Epicurus

Authors: Homer · Hesiod · Pindar · Sappho · Aeschylus · Sophocles · Euripides · Aristophanes · Menander · Herodotus · Thucydides · Xenophon · Plutarch · Lucian · Polybius · Aesop

Buildings: Parthenon · Temple of Artemis · Acropolis · Ancient Agora · Arch of Hadrian · Temple of Zeus at Olympia · Colossus of Rhodes · Temple of Hephaestus · Samothrace temple complex

Chronology: Aegean civilization · Minoan Civilization · Mycenaean civilization · Greek dark ages · Classical Greece · Hellenistic Greece · Roman Greece

People of Note: Alexander The Great · Lycurgus · Pericles · Alcibiades · Demosthenes · Themistocles · Archimedes · Hippocrates

Art and Sculpture: Kouroi · Korai · Kritios Boy · Doryphoros · Statue of Zeus · Discobolos · Aphrodite of Knidos · Laocoön · Phidias · Euphronios · Polykleitos · Myron · Parthenon Frieze · Praxiteles