1.
Aesop's Fables
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Aesops Fables or the Aesopica is a collection of fables credited to Aesop, a slave and storyteller believed to have lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 564 BCE. The fables originally belonged to the tradition and were not collected for some three centuries after Aesop’s death. By that time a variety of stories, jokes and proverbs were being ascribed to him. The process of inclusion has continued until the present, with some of the fables unrecorded before the later Middle Ages, the process is continuous and new stories are still being added to the Aesop corpus, even when they are demonstrably more recent work and sometimes from known authors. Manuscripts in Latin and Greek were important avenues of transmission, although poetical treatments in European vernaculars eventually formed another, on the arrival of printing, collections of Aesop’s fables were among the earliest books in a variety of languages. Through the means of later collections, and translations or adaptations of them, initially the fables were addressed to adults and covered religious, social and political themes. They were also put to use as guides and from the Renaissance onwards were particularly used for the education of children. Their ethical dimension was reinforced in the world through depiction in sculpture, painting and other illustrative means, as well as adaptation to drama. In addition, there have been reinterpretations of the meaning of fables and changes in emphasis over time, apollonius of Tyana, a 1st-century CE philosopher, is recorded as having said about Aesop. Like those who dine well off the plainest dishes, he use of humble incidents to teach great truths. The Greek historian Herodotus mentioned in passing that Aesop the fable writer was a slave who lived in Ancient Greece during the 5th century BCE, instead, any fable tended to be ascribed to the name of Aesop if there was no known alternative literary source. In Classical times there were various theorists who tried to differentiate these fables from other kinds of narration and they had to be short and unaffected, in addition, they are fictitious, useful to life and true to nature. In them could be found talking animals and plants, although humans interacting only with humans figure in a few, typically they might begin with a contextual introduction, followed by the story, often with the moral underlined at the end. Setting the context was often necessary as a guide to the interpretation, as in the case of the political meaning of The Frogs Who Desired a King and The Frogs. Sometimes the titles given later to the fables have become proverbial, as in the case of killing the Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs or the Town Mouse and the Country Mouse. In fact some fables, such as The Young Man and the Swallow, one theorist, indeed, went so far as to define fables as extended proverbs. In this they have a function, the explaining of origins such as, in another context, why the ant is a mean. Other fables, also verging on this function, are outright jokes, as in the case of The Old Woman, Some are demonstrably of West Asian origin, others have analogues further to the East
2.
Hellenistic art
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A number of the best-known works of Greek sculpture belong to this period, including Laocoön and His Sons, Venus de Milo, and the Winged Victory of Samothrace. It follows the period of Classical Greek art, while the succeeding Greco-Roman art was largely a continuation of Hellenistic trends. The term Hellenistic refers to the expansion of Greek influence and dissemination of its ideas following the death of Alexander – the Hellenizing of the world, in artistic terms this means that there is huge variety which is often put under the heading of Hellenistic Art for convenience. Each of these dynasties practiced a royal patronage which differed from those of the city-states, in Alexanders entourage were three artists, Lysippus the sculptor, Apelles the painter, and Pyrgoteles the gem cutter and engraver. The period after his death was one of prosperity and considerable extravagance for much of the Greek world. Royalty became important patrons of art, Sculpture, painting and architecture thrived, but vase-painting ceased to be of great significance. Metalwork and a variety of luxury arts produced much fine art. Some types of art were increasingly sophisticated. There has been a trend in writing history to depict Hellenistic art as a decadent style, the 18th century terms Baroque and Rococo have sometimes been applied to the art of this complex and individual period. A renewed interest in historiography as well as recent discoveries, such as the tombs of Vergina. In the architectural field, the dynasties following Hector resulted in vast urban plans, the Doric Temple was virtually abandoned. This city planning was quite innovative for the Greek world, rather than manipulating space by correcting its faults, One notes the appearance of many places of amusement and leisure, notably the multiplication of theatres and parks. The Hellenistic monarchies were advantaged in this regard in that often had vast spaces where they could build large cities, such as Antioch, Pergamon. It was the time of gigantism, thus it was for the temple of Apollo at Didyma. It was designed by Daphnis of Miletus and Paionios of Ephesus at the end of the fourth century BC, the Corinthian order was used for the first time on a full-scale building at the Temple of Olympian Zeus. Pergamon in particular is an example of Hellenistic architecture. Starting from a fortress located on the Acropolis, the various Attalid kings set up a colossal architectural complex. The buildings are fanned out around the Acropolis to take account the nature of the terrain
3.
Villa Albani
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The Villa Albani in Rome was built at the Via Salaria for Cardinal Alessandro Albani, nephew of Pope Clement XI, between 1747 and 1767 by the architect Carlo Marchionni. Albanis lifelong friend Carlo Marchionni was the architect in charge, at the Villa, after the Napoleonic upheavals the Albani heirs sold the villa to the Chigi, who eventually sold it to the Torlonia, the Roman bankers, to whom the villa still belongs. Cardinal Albanis coins and medals went to the Vatican Library, over which he had presided from 1761, the sarcophagi, columns and sculptures have been dispersed, but the famous bas-relief of Antinous remains in the villa. Cardinal Alessandro Albani had another villa and park at Porto dAnzio, that was finished in February 1732, perhaps the villa, and certainly a casina in the park were by Marchionni. Excavations in the park brought to many ancient Roman sculptures. Here J. J. Winckelmann was housed
4.
Delphi
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Delphi is famous as the ancient sanctuary that grew rich as the seat of the oracle that was consulted on important decisions throughout the ancient classical world. Moreover, it was considered as the navel of the world by the Greeks as represented by the Omphalos and it occupies an impressive site on the south-western slope of Mount Parnassus overlooking the coastal plain to the south and the valley of Phocis. It is now an archaeological site and the modern town is nearby. The site of Delphi is located in upper central Greece, on multiple plateaux/terraces along the slope of Mount Parnassus, and includes the Sanctuary of Apollo and this semicircular spur is known as Phaedriades, and overlooks the Pleistos Valley. In myths dating to the period of Ancient Greece, the site of Delphi was believed to be determined by Zeus when he sought to find the centre of his Grandmother Earth. He sent two eagles flying from the eastern and western extremities, and the path of the eagles crossed over Delphi where the omphalos, Apollo was said to have slain Python, a drako a serpent or a dragon who lived there and protected the navel of the Earth. Python is claimed by some to be the name of the site in recognition of Python which Apollo defeated. The Homeric Hymn to Delphic Apollo recalled that the ancient name of this site had been Krisa, others relate that it was named Pytho and that Pythia, the priestess serving as the oracle, was chosen from their ranks by a group of priestesses who officiated at the temple. At the settlement site in Delphi, which was a settlement of the late 9th century. Pottery and bronze work as well as tripod dedications continue in a steady stream, the victors at Delphi were presented with a laurel crown which was ceremonially cut from a tree by a boy who re-enacted the slaying of the Python. Delphi was set apart from the other sites because it hosted the mousikos agon. These Pythian Games rank second among the four stephanitic games chronologically and these games, though, were different from the games at Olympia in that they were not of such vast importance to the city of Delphi as the games at Olympia were to the area surrounding Olympia. Delphi would have been a renowned city whether or not it hosted these games, it had other attractions that led to it being labeled the omphalos of the earth, in other words, in the inner hestia of the Temple of Apollo, an eternal flame burned. The name Delphoi comes from the root as δελφύς delphys, womb. Apollo is connected with the site by his epithet Δελφίνιος Delphinios, the epithet is connected with dolphins in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, recounting the legend of how Apollo first came to Delphi in the shape of a dolphin, carrying Cretan priests on his back. The Homeric name of the oracle is Pytho, another legend held that Apollo walked to Delphi from the north and stopped at Tempe, a city in Thessaly, to pick laurel which he considered to be a sacred plant. In commemoration of this legend, the winners at the Pythian Games received a wreath of laurel picked in the Temple, Delphi became the site of a major temple to Phoebus Apollo, as well as the Pythian Games and the famous prehistoric oracle. Even in Roman times, hundreds of votive statues remained, described by Pliny the Younger, additionally, according to Plutarchs essay on the meaning of the E at Delphi—the only literary source for the inscription—there was also inscribed at the temple a large letter E
5.
Greeks
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The Greeks or Hellenes are an ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus, southern Albania, Turkey, Sicily, Egypt and, to a lesser extent, other countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world, many of these regions coincided to a large extent with the borders of the Byzantine Empire of the late 11th century and the Eastern Mediterranean areas of ancient Greek colonization. The cultural centers of the Greeks have included Athens, Thessalonica, Alexandria, Smyrna, most ethnic Greeks live nowadays within the borders of the modern Greek state and Cyprus. The Greek genocide and population exchange between Greece and Turkey nearly ended the three millennia-old Greek presence in Asia Minor, other longstanding Greek populations can be found from southern Italy to the Caucasus and southern Russia and Ukraine and in the Greek diaspora communities in a number of other countries. Today, most Greeks are officially registered as members of the Greek Orthodox Church, the Greeks speak the Greek language, which forms its own unique branch within the Indo-European family of languages, the Hellenic. They are part of a group of ethnicities, described by Anthony D. Smith as an archetypal diaspora people. Both migrations occur at incisive periods, the Mycenaean at the transition to the Late Bronze Age, the Mycenaeans quickly penetrated the Aegean Sea and, by the 15th century BC, had reached Rhodes, Crete, Cyprus and the shores of Asia Minor. Around 1200 BC, the Dorians, another Greek-speaking people, followed from Epirus, the Dorian invasion was followed by a poorly attested period of migrations, appropriately called the Greek Dark Ages, but by 800 BC the landscape of Archaic and Classical Greece was discernible. The Greeks of classical antiquity idealized their Mycenaean ancestors and the Mycenaean period as an era of heroes, closeness of the gods. The Homeric Epics were especially and generally accepted as part of the Greek past, as part of the Mycenaean heritage that survived, the names of the gods and goddesses of Mycenaean Greece became major figures of the Olympian Pantheon of later antiquity. The ethnogenesis of the Greek nation is linked to the development of Pan-Hellenism in the 8th century BC, the works of Homer and Hesiod were written in the 8th century BC, becoming the basis of the national religion, ethos, history and mythology. The Oracle of Apollo at Delphi was established in this period, the classical period of Greek civilization covers a time spanning from the early 5th century BC to the death of Alexander the Great, in 323 BC. It is so named because it set the standards by which Greek civilization would be judged in later eras, the Peloponnesian War, the large scale civil war between the two most powerful Greek city-states Athens and Sparta and their allies, left both greatly weakened. Many Greeks settled in Hellenistic cities like Alexandria, Antioch and Seleucia, two thousand years later, there are still communities in Pakistan and Afghanistan, like the Kalash, who claim to be descended from Greek settlers. The Hellenistic civilization was the period of Greek civilization, the beginnings of which are usually placed at Alexanders death. This Hellenistic age, so called because it saw the partial Hellenization of many non-Greek cultures and this age saw the Greeks move towards larger cities and a reduction in the importance of the city-state. These larger cities were parts of the still larger Kingdoms of the Diadochi, Greeks, however, remained aware of their past, chiefly through the study of the works of Homer and the classical authors. An important factor in maintaining Greek identity was contact with barbarian peoples and this led to a strong desire among Greeks to organize the transmission of the Hellenic paideia to the next generation
6.
Fable
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A fable differs from a parable in that the latter excludes animals, plants, inanimate objects, and forces of nature as actors that assume speech or other powers of humankind. Usage has not always been so clearly distinguished, a person who writes fables is a fabulist. The fable is one of the most enduring forms of literature, spread abroad, modern researchers agree. Fables can be found in the literature of almost every country, epicharmus of Kos and Phormis are reported as having been among the first to invent comic fables. Many familiar fables of Aesop include The Crow and the Pitcher, The Tortoise and the Hare and The Lion and the Mouse. The need of instructors to teach, and students to learn, African oral culture has a rich story-telling tradition. As they have for thousands of years, people of all ages in Africa continue to interact with nature, including plants, animals and earthly structures such as rivers, grandparents enjoy enormous respect in African societies and fill the new role of story-telling during retirement years. Children and, to some extent, adults are mesmerized by good story-tellers when they become animated in their quest to tell a good fable, India has a rich tradition of fabulous novels, mostly explainable by the fact that the culture derives traditions and learns qualities from natural elements. Most of the gods are some form of animals with ideal qualities, also hundreds of fables were composed in ancient India during the first millennium BC, often as stories within frame stories. Indian fables have a mixed cast of humans and animals, the dialogues are often longer than in fables of Aesop and often witty as the animals try to outwit one another by trickery and deceit. In Indian fables, man is not superior to the animals, the Indian fable adhered to the universally known traditions of the fable. The best examples of the fable in India are the Panchatantra, ben E. Perry has argued controversially that some of the Buddhist Jataka tales and some of the fables in the Panchatantra may have been influenced by similar Greek and Near Eastern ones. Earlier Indian epics such as Vyasas Mahabharata and Valmikis Ramayana also contained fables within the main story, the most famous fables from the Middle East were the One Thousand and One Nights, also known as the Arabian Nights. Fables had a long tradition through the Middle Ages. During the 17th century, the French fabulist Jean de La Fontaine saw the soul of the fable in the moral — a rule of behavior. Starting with the Aesopian pattern, La Fontaine set out to satirize the court, the church, in modern times, while the fable has been trivialized in childrens books, it has also been fully adapted to modern adult literature. Felix Saltens Bambi is a Bildungsroman — a story of a protagonists coming-of-age — cast in the form of a fable, władysław Reymonts The Revolt, a metaphor for the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, described a revolt by animals that take over their farm in order to introduce equality. George Orwells Animal Farm similarly satirized Stalinist Communism in particular, and totalitarianism in general, in the guise of animal fable
7.
Greek language
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Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece and other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean. It has the longest documented history of any living language, spanning 34 centuries of written records and its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the major part of its history, other systems, such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary, were used previously. The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Armenian, Coptic, Gothic and many other writing systems. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world, during antiquity, Greek was a widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world and many places beyond. It would eventually become the official parlance of the Byzantine Empire, the language is spoken by at least 13.2 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey, and the Greek diaspora. Greek roots are used to coin new words for other languages, Greek. Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around the 3rd millennium BC, the earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the worlds oldest recorded living language. Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now extinct Anatolian languages, the Greek language is conventionally divided into the following periods, Proto-Greek, the unrecorded but assumed last ancestor of all known varieties of Greek. The unity of Proto-Greek would have ended as Hellenic migrants entered the Greek peninsula sometime in the Neolithic era or the Bronze Age, Mycenaean Greek, the language of the Mycenaean civilisation. It is recorded in the Linear B script on tablets dating from the 15th century BC onwards, Ancient Greek, in its various dialects, the language of the Archaic and Classical periods of the ancient Greek civilisation. It was widely known throughout the Roman Empire, after the Roman conquest of Greece, an unofficial bilingualism of Greek and Latin was established in the city of Rome and Koine Greek became a first or second language in the Roman Empire. The origin of Christianity can also be traced through Koine Greek, Medieval Greek, also known as Byzantine Greek, the continuation of Koine Greek in Byzantine Greece, up to the demise of the Byzantine Empire in the 15th century. Much of the written Greek that was used as the language of the Byzantine Empire was an eclectic middle-ground variety based on the tradition of written Koine. Modern Greek, Stemming from Medieval Greek, Modern Greek usages can be traced in the Byzantine period and it is the language used by the modern Greeks, and, apart from Standard Modern Greek, there are several dialects of it. In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia, the historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of the Greek language is often emphasised. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than a foreign language and it is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, Homeric Greek is probably closer to demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English, Greek is spoken by about 13 million people, mainly in Greece, Albania and Cyprus, but also worldwide by the large Greek diaspora. Greek is the language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population
8.
Oral storytelling
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Oral storytelling is an ancient and intimate tradition between the storyteller and their audience. The storyteller and the listeners are physically close, often seated together in a circular fashion, through the telling of the story people become psychically close, developing a connection to one another through the communal experience. The storyteller reveals, and thus shares, him/her self through his/her telling, listeners also experience the urgency of a creative process taking place in their presence and they experience the empowerment of being a part of that creative process. Storytelling creates a bond with the teller and the audience. The flexibility of oral storytelling extends to the teller, each teller will incorporate their own personality and may choose to add characters into the story. As a result, there will be variations of a single story. Storytelling may be performed in many forms, in prose, in form, as a song, accompanied with dance or some kind of theatrical performance. It is likely that oral storytelling has been around as long as human language, Storytelling fulfills the need for human beings to cast their experiences in narrative form. Our ancestors probably gathered around the fires and expressed their fears, their beliefs. This long tradition of storytelling is evident in ancient cultures such as the Australian Aborigines, community storytelling offered the security of explanation, how life and its many forms began and why things happen, as well as entertainment and enchantment. Communities were strengthened and maintained through stories that connected the present, the past, telling stories is a nurturing act for the listener, who is connected to the storyteller through the story, as well as for the storyteller who is connected to the listeners through the story. Early storytelling probably originates in simple chants, People sang chants as they worked at grinding corn or sharpening tools. Our early ancestors created myths to explain natural occurrences and they assigned superhuman qualities to ordinary people, thus originating the hero tale. Early storytelling combined stories, poetry, music, and dance and those who excelled at storytelling became entertainers, educators, cultural advisors, and historians for the community. Through storytellers, the history of a culture was handed down generation to generation. The importance of stories and storytellers throughout human history can be seen in the respect afforded to professional storytellers, centuries before Scheherazade, the power of storytelling is reflected by Vyasa at the beginning of the Indian epic Mahabharata. Vyasa says, If you listen carefully, at the end youll be someone else, two of the storytellers of the court of King Edward I were two women who performed under the names of Matill Makejoye and Pearl in the Egg. Journeying from land to land, storytellers would learn various regionss stories while also gathering news to bring back with them, through exchanging stories with other storytellers, stories changed, making it difficult to trace the origins of many stories
9.
Aristotle
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Aristotle was an ancient Greek philosopher and scientist born in the city of Stagira, Chalkidice, on the northern periphery of Classical Greece. His father, Nicomachus, died when Aristotle was a child, at seventeen or eighteen years of age, he joined Platos Academy in Athens and remained there until the age of thirty-seven. Shortly after Plato died, Aristotle left Athens and, at the request of Philip II of Macedon, teaching Alexander the Great gave Aristotle many opportunities and an abundance of supplies. He established a library in the Lyceum which aided in the production of many of his hundreds of books and he believed all peoples concepts and all of their knowledge was ultimately based on perception. Aristotles views on natural sciences represent the groundwork underlying many of his works, Aristotles views on physical science profoundly shaped medieval scholarship. Their influence extended from Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages into the Renaissance, some of Aristotles zoological observations, such as on the hectocotyl arm of the octopus, were not confirmed or refuted until the 19th century. His works contain the earliest known study of logic, which was incorporated in the late 19th century into modern formal logic. Aristotle was well known among medieval Muslim intellectuals and revered as The First Teacher and his ethics, though always influential, gained renewed interest with the modern advent of virtue ethics. All aspects of Aristotles philosophy continue to be the object of academic study today. Though Aristotle wrote many elegant treatises and dialogues – Cicero described his style as a river of gold – it is thought that only around a third of his original output has survived. Aristotle, whose means the best purpose, was born in 384 BC in Stagira, Chalcidice. His father Nicomachus was the physician to King Amyntas of Macedon. Aristotle was orphaned at a young age, although there is little information on Aristotles childhood, he probably spent some time within the Macedonian palace, making his first connections with the Macedonian monarchy. At the age of seventeen or eighteen, Aristotle moved to Athens to continue his education at Platos Academy and he remained there for nearly twenty years before leaving Athens in 348/47 BC. Aristotle then accompanied Xenocrates to the court of his friend Hermias of Atarneus in Asia Minor, there, he traveled with Theophrastus to the island of Lesbos, where together they researched the botany and zoology of the island. Aristotle married Pythias, either Hermiass adoptive daughter or niece and she bore him a daughter, whom they also named Pythias. Soon after Hermias death, Aristotle was invited by Philip II of Macedon to become the tutor to his son Alexander in 343 BC, Aristotle was appointed as the head of the royal academy of Macedon. During that time he gave not only to Alexander
10.
Herodotus
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Herodotus was a Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus in the Persian Empire and lived in the fifth century BC, a contemporary of Socrates. The Histories is the work which he is known to have produced. Despite Herodotus historical significance, little is known of his personal life and his place in history and his significance may be understood according to the traditions within which he worked. His work is the earliest Greek prose to have survived intact, of these only fragments of Hecataeuss work survive yet they allow us glimpses into the kind of tradition within which Herodotus wrote his own Histories. In his introduction to Hecataeus’s work, Genealogies, This points forward to the ‘folksy’ yet ‘international’ outlook typical of Herodotus. Yet, one scholar has described the work of Hecataeus as “a curious false start to history” since despite his critical spirit. It is possible that Herodotus borrowed much material from Hecataeus, as stated by Porphyry in a recorded by Eusebius. But Hecataeus did not record events that had occurred in living memory, unlike Herodotus, Herodotus claims to be better informed than his predecessors by relying on empirical observation to correct their excessive schematism. For example, He argues for continental asymmetry as opposed to the theory of a perfectly circular earth with Europe. Yet, he retains idealizing tendencies, as in his notions of the Danube. His debt to previous authors of prose ‘histories’ might be questionable, however, this point is one of the most contentious issues in modern scholarship. It is on account of the strange stories and the folk-tales he reported that his critics in early modern times branded him “The Father of Lies”. Even his own contemporaries found reason to scoff at his achievement, similarly, the Athenian historian Thucydides dismissed Herodotus as a “logos-writer”. Moreover, Thucydides developed a historical topic more in keeping with the Greek world-view, the interplay of civilizations was more relevant to Greeks living in Anatolia, such as Herodotus himself, for whom life within a foreign civilization was a recent memory. Modern scholars generally turn to Herodotus’s own writing for reliable information about his life, supplemented with ancient yet much later sources, modern accounts of his life typically go something like this, Herodotus was born at Halicarnassus around 484 BC. His name is not mentioned later in the tribute list of the Athenian Delian League, the epic poet Panyassis – a relative of Herodotus – is reported to have taken part in a failed uprising. Herodotus expresses affection for the island of Samos, and this is an indication that he might have lived there in his youth. So it is possible that his family was involved in an uprising against Lygdamis, leading to a period of exile on Samos, Herodotus wrote his Histories in the Ionian dialect, yet he was born in Halicarnassus, which was a Dorian settlement
11.
Plutarch
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Plutarch was a Greek biographer and essayist, known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia. He is classified as a Middle Platonist, Plutarchs surviving works were written in Greek, but intended for both Greek and Roman readers. Plutarch was born to a prominent family in the town of Chaeronea, about 80 km east of Delphi. The name of Plutarchs father has not been preserved, but based on the common Greek custom of repeating a name in alternate generations, the name of Plutarchs grandfather was Lamprias, as he attested in Moralia and in his Life of Antony. His brothers, Timon and Lamprias, are mentioned in his essays and dialogues. Rualdus, in his 1624 work Life of Plutarchus, recovered the name of Plutarchs wife, Timoxena, from internal evidence afforded by his writings. A letter is still extant, addressed by Plutarch to his wife, bidding her not to grieve too much at the death of their two-year-old daughter, interestingly, he hinted at a belief in reincarnation in that letter of consolation. The exact number of his sons is not certain, although two of them, Autobulus and the second Plutarch, are often mentioned. Plutarchs treatise De animae procreatione in Timaeo is dedicated to them, another person, Soklarus, is spoken of in terms which seem to imply that he was Plutarchs son, but this is nowhere definitely stated. Plutarch studied mathematics and philosophy at the Academy of Athens under Ammonius from 66 to 67, at some point, Plutarch took Roman citizenship. He lived most of his life at Chaeronea, and was initiated into the mysteries of the Greek god Apollo. For many years Plutarch served as one of the two priests at the temple of Apollo at Delphi, the site of the famous Delphic Oracle, twenty miles from his home. By his writings and lectures Plutarch became a celebrity in the Roman Empire, yet he continued to reside where he was born, at his country estate, guests from all over the empire congregated for serious conversation, presided over by Plutarch in his marble chair. Many of these dialogues were recorded and published, and the 78 essays, Plutarch held the office of archon in his native municipality, probably only an annual one which he likely served more than once. He busied himself with all the matters of the town. The Suda, a medieval Greek encyclopedia, states that Emperor Trajan made Plutarch procurator of Illyria, however, most historians consider this unlikely, since Illyria was not a procuratorial province, and Plutarch probably did not speak Illyrian. Plutarch spent the last thirty years of his serving as a priest in Delphi. He thus connected part of his work with the sanctuary of Apollo, the processes of oracle-giving
12.
Slavery in ancient Greece
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Slavery was a very common practice in Ancient Greece, as in other places of the time. Some ancient writers considered slavery natural and even necessary and this paradigm was notably questioned in Socratic dialogues, the Stoics produced the first recorded condemnation of slavery. Modern historiographical practice distinguishes chattel slavery from land-bonded groups such as the penestae of Thessaly or the Spartan helots, the chattel helot is an individual deprived of liberty and forced to submit to an owner, who may buy, sell, or lease them like any other chattel. The academic study of Slavery in Ancient Greece is beset by significant methodological problems, documentation is disjointed and very fragmented, focusing primarily on Athens. No treatises are specifically devoted to the subject, and jurisprudence was interested in slavery only inasmuch as it provided a source of revenue, comedies and tragedies represented stereotypes while iconography made no substantial differentiation between slaves and craftsmen. The ancient Greeks had several words for slaves, which leads to ambiguity when they are studied out of their proper context. In Homer, Hesiod and Theognis of Megara, the slave was called δμώς / dmōs, the term has a general meaning but refers particularly to war prisoners taken as booty. During the classical period, the Greeks frequently used ἀνδράποδον / andrapodon, as opposed to τετράποδον / tetrapodon, quadruped, or livestock. The most common word is δοῦλος / doulos, used in opposition to free man, the verb δουλεὐω can be used metaphorically for other forms of dominion, as of one city over another or parents over their children. Finally, the term οἰκέτης / oiketēs was used, meaning one who lives in house, other terms used were less precise and required context, θεράπων / therapōn – At the time of Homer, the word meant squire, during the classical age, it meant servant. ἀκόλουθος / akolouthos – literally, the follower or the one who accompanies, also, the diminutive ἀκολουθίσκος, used for page boys. παῖς / pais – literally child, used in the way as houseboy. σῶμα / sōma – literally body, used in the context of emancipation, slaves were present through the Mycenaean civilization, as documented in numerous tablets unearthed in Pylos 140. Two legal categories can be distinguished, slaves and slaves of the god, slaves of the god are always mentioned by name and own their own land, their legal status is close to that of freemen. The nature and origin of their bond to the divinity is unclear, the names of common slaves show that some of them came from Kythera, Chios, Lemnos or Halicarnassus and were probably enslaved as a result of piracy. The tablets indicate that unions between slaves and freemen were common and that slaves could work and own land and it appears that the major division in Mycenaean civilization was not between a free individual and a slave but rather if the individual was in the palace. · There is no continuity between the Mycenaean era and the time of Homer, where social structures reflected those of the Greek dark ages, the terminology differs, the slave is no longer do-e-ro but dmōs. In the Iliad, slaves are mainly women taken as booty of war, in the Odyssey, the slaves also seem to be mostly women
13.
Samos
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It is also a separate regional unit of the North Aegean region, and the only municipality of the regional unit. In ancient times Samos was a rich and powerful city-state, particularly known for its vineyards. It is home to Pythagoreion and the Heraion of Samos, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that includes the Eupalinian aqueduct, Samian wine was well known in antiquity, and is still produced on the island. The island was governed by the semi-autonomous Principality of Samos under Ottoman suzerainty from 1835 until it joined Greece in 1912, the area of the island is 477.395 km2, and it is 43 km long and 13 km wide. It is separated from Anatolia by the approximately 1-mile-wide Mycale Strait, while largely mountainous, Samos has several relatively large and fertile plains. A great portion of the island is covered with vineyards, from which wine is made. The most important plains except the capital, Vathy, in the northeast, are that of Karlovasi, in the northwest, Pythagoreio, in the southeast, the islands population is 33,814, which is the 9th most populous of the Greek islands. The Samian climate is typically Mediterranean, with rainy winters. Samos relief is dominated by two mountains, Ampelos and Kerkis. The Ampelos massif is the larger of the two and occupies the center of the island, rising to 1,095 metres. Mt. Kerkis, though smaller in area is the taller of the two and its summit is the islands highest point, at 1,434 metres, the mountains are a continuation of the Mycale range on the Anatolian mainland. According to Strabo, the name Samos is from Phoenician meaning rise by the shore, Samos is home to many surprising species including the golden jackal, stone marten, wild boar, flamingos and monk seal. Samos is one of the sunniest places in Europe with almost 3300 hours of sunshine annually or 74% of the time and its climate is mild and wet in winter and dry in summer. In classical antiquity the island was a center of Ionian culture and luxury, renowned for its Samian wines and its most famous building was the Ionic order archaic Temple of goddess Hera—the Heraion. Concerning the earliest history of Samos, literary tradition is singularly defective, at the time of the great migrations it received an Ionian population which traced its origin to Epidaurus in Argolis, Samos became one of the twelve members of the Ionian League. By the 7th century BC it had one of the leading commercial centers of Greece. They helped to open up trade with the population lived around the Black Sea as well as with Egypt, Cyrene, Corinth. This caused them to become rivals with Miletus
14.
Maximus Planudes
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Maximus Planudes was a Byzantine Greek monk, scholar, anthologist, translator, grammarian and theologian at Constantinople. Through his translations from Latin into Greek and from Greek into Latin he brought the Greek East and he is now best known as a compiler of the Greek Anthology. Maximus Planudes lived during the reigns of the Byzantine emperors Michael VIII and he was born at Nicomedia in Bithynia in 1260, but the greater part of his life was spent in Constantinople, where as a monk he devoted himself to study and teaching. On entering the monastery he changed his original name Manuel to Maximus, Planudes possessed a knowledge of Latin remarkable at a time when Rome and Italy were regarded with some hostility by the Greeks of the Byzantine Empire. A more important result was that Planudes, especially by his translations, paved the way for the revival of the study of Greek language, traditionally, a translation of Julius Caesars De Bello Gallico has been attributed to Planudes, but this is much repeated mistake. These translations were not only useful to Greek speakers but were widely used in western Europe as textbooks for the study of Greek. It is, however, for his edition of the Greek Anthology that he is best known. J. W. Mackail in his book Select Epigrams from the Greek Anthology, has this to add of him, Among his works were translations into Greek of Augustines City of God, the restored Greek Empire of the Palaeologi was then fast dropping to pieces. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Planudes. Editions include, Fabricius, Bibliotheca graeca, ed. Harles,682, theological writings in Migne, Patrologia Graeca, cxlvii, correspondence, ed. M Treu, with a valuable commentary K. Krumbacher, Geschichte der byzantinischen Litteratur J. E. Sandys, History of Classical Scholarship, vol
15.
Thrace
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It comprises southeastern Bulgaria, northeastern Greece, and the European part of Turkey. In antiquity, it was referred to as Europe, prior to the extension of the term to describe the whole continent. The name Thrace comes from the Thracians, an ancient Indo-European people inhabiting Southeastern Europe, the word itself was established by the Greeks for referring to the Thracian tribes, from Ancient Greek Thrake, descending from Thrāix. The name of the continent Europe first referred to Thrace proper, the region obviously took the name of the principal river there, Hebros, probably from the Indo-European arg white river, according to an alternative theory, Hebros means goat in Thracian. In Turkey, it is referred to as Rumeli, Land of the Romans. The name appears to derive from an ancient heroine and sorceress Thrace, who was the daughter of Oceanus and Parthenope, the historical boundaries of Thrace have varied. In one ancient Greek source, the very Earth is divided into Asia, Libya, Europa and this largely coincided with the Thracian Odrysian kingdom, whose borders varied over time. After the Macedonian conquest, this regions former border with Macedonia was shifted from the Struma River to the Mesta River and this usage lasted until the Roman conquest. Henceforth, Thrace referred only to the tract of land covering the same extent of space as the modern geographical region. The medieval Byzantine theme of Thrace contained only what today is Eastern Thrace, the largest cities of Thrace are, İstanbul, Plovdiv, Burgas, Stara Zagora, Haskovo, Yambol, Komotini, Alexandroupoli, Xanthi, Edirne, Çorlu and Tekirdağ. Most of the Bulgarian and Greek population are Christians, while most of the Turkish inhabitants of Thrace are Muslims, Ancient Greek mythology provides them with a mythical ancestor, named Thrax, son of the war-god Ares, who was said to reside in Thrace. The Thracians appear in Homers Iliad as Trojan allies, led by Acamas, later in the Iliad, Rhesus, another Thracian king, makes an appearance. Cisseus, father-in-law to the Trojan elder Antenor, is given as a Thracian king. Homeric Thrace was vaguely defined, and stretched from the River Axios in the west to the Hellespont, Greek mythology is replete with Thracian kings, including Diomedes, Tereus, Lycurgus, Phineus, Tegyrius, Eumolpus, Polymnestor, Poltys, and Oeagrus. In addition to the tribe that Homer calls Thracians, ancient Thrace was home to other tribes, such as the Edones, Bisaltae, Cicones. Thrace is also mentioned in Ovids Metamorphoses in the episode of Philomela, Procne, Tereus, the King of Thrace, lusts after his sister-in-law, Philomela. He kidnaps her, holds her captive, rapes her, Philomela manages to get free, however. She and her sister, Procne, plot to get revenge, by killing Itys, at the end of the myth, all three turn into birds – Procne, a swallow, Philomela, a nightingale, and Tereus, a hoopoe
16.
Black Sea
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The Black Sea is a body of water between Eastern Europe and Western Asia, bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine. It is supplied by a number of rivers, such as the Danube, Dnieper, Rioni, Southern Bug. The Black Sea has an area of 436,400 km2, a depth of 2,212 m. It is constrained by the Pontic Mountains to the south and by the Caucasus Mountains to the east, the longest east-west extent is about 1,175 km. The Black Sea has a water balance, that is, a net outflow of water 300 km3 per year through the Bosphorus. Mediterranean water flows into the Black Sea as part of a two-way hydrological exchange, the Black Sea drains into the Mediterranean Sea and then the Atlantic Ocean, via the Aegean Sea and various straits. The Bosphorus Strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and these waters separate Eastern Europe and Western Asia. The Black Sea is also connected to the Sea of Azov by the Strait of Kerch, the water level has varied significantly. Due to these variations in the level in the basin. At certain critical water levels it is possible for connections with surrounding water bodies to become established and it is through the most active of these connective routes, the Turkish Straits, that the Black Sea joins the world ocean. When this hydrological link is not present, the Black Sea is a basin, operating independently of the global ocean system. Currently the Black Sea water level is high, thus water is being exchanged with the Mediterranean. The Turkish Straits connect the Black Sea with the Aegean Sea, and comprise the Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmara, the International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Black Sea as follows, On the Southwest. The Northeastern limit of the Sea of Marmara, a line joining Cape Takil and Cape Panaghia. Strabos Geographica reports that in antiquity, the Black Sea was often just called the Sea, for the most part, Graeco-Roman tradition refers to the Black Sea as the Hospitable sea, Εὔξεινος Πόντος Eúxeinos Póntos. This is a euphemism replacing an earlier Inhospitable Sea, Πόντος Ἄξεινος Póntos Áxeinos, strabo thinks that the Black Sea was called inhospitable before Greek colonization because it was difficult to navigate, and because its shores were inhabited by savage tribes. The name was changed to hospitable after the Milesians had colonized the southern shoreline and it is also possible that the epithet Áxeinos arose by popular etymology from a Scythian word axšaina- unlit, dark, the designation Black Sea may thus date from antiquity. A map of Asia dating to 1570, entitled Asiae Nova Descriptio, from Abraham Orteliuss Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, english-language writers of the 18th century often used the name Euxine Sea to refer to the Black Sea
17.
Nesebar
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Nesebar is an ancient town and one of the major seaside resorts on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast, located in Burgas Province. It is the centre of the homonymous Nesebar Municipality. Often referred to as the Pearl of the Black Sea, Nesebar is a rich city-museum defined by more than three millennia of ever-changing history. Nesebar has on several occasions found itself on the frontier of a threatened empire and its abundance of historic buildings prompted UNESCO to include Nesebar in its list of World Heritage Sites in 1983. As of December 2009, the town has a population of 11,626 inhabitants, the settlement was known in Greek as Mesembria, sometimes mentioned as Mesambria or Melsembria, the latter meaning the city of Melsas. According to a reconstruction the name derive from Thracian Melsambria. Nevertheless, the Thracian origin of name seems to be doubtful. Moreover, the tradition pertaining to Melsas, as founder of the city is tenuous and it also appears that the story of Melsas was a latter reconstruction of the Hellenistic era, when Mesembria was an important coastal city. Her work led to the identification of five periods of urbanization on the peninsula surrounding Nesebar through the end of the second millennium B. C. It remained the only Dorian colony along the Black Sea coast, at 425-424 BC the town joined the Delian League, under the leadership of Athens. Remains from the Hellenistic period include the acropolis, a temple of Apollo, a wall which formed part of the fortifications can still be seen on the north side of the peninsula. Bronze and silver coins were minted in the city since the 5th century BC, the town fell under Roman rule in 71 BC, yet continued to enjoy privileges such as the right to mint its own coinage. The Bulgarian version of the name, Nesebar or Mesebar, has been attested since the 11th century, in the 13th and 14th century a remarkable series of churches were built, St Theodore, St Paraskeva, St Michael St Gabriel, and St John Aliturgetos. Nesebar was a centre in İslimye sanjak of Edirne Province before 1878. Around the end of the 19th century Nesebar was a town of Greek fishermen. In the early 20th century, the population increased to 1,870. It developed as a key Bulgarian seaside resort since the beginning of the 20th century, after 1925 a new town part was built and the historic Old Town was restored. Nesebar is sometimes said to be the town with the highest number of churches per capita, today, a total of forty churches survive, wholly or partly, in the vicinity of the town
18.
Phrygia
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In antiquity, Phrygia was a kingdom in the west central part of Anatolia, in what is now Turkey, centered on the Sakarya River. This later Midas was, however, also the last independent king of Phrygia before Cimmerians sacked the Phrygian capital, Gordium, Phrygia then became subject to Lydia, and then successively to Persia, Alexander and his Hellenistic successors, Pergamon, Rome and Byzantium. Phrygians gradually became assimilated into other cultures by the medieval era, after the Turkish conquest of Anatolia. Phrygia describes an area on the end of the high Anatolian plateau. The climate is harsh with hot summers and cold winters, olives will not easily grow here and the land is used for livestock grazing. South of Dorylaeum, there is another important Phrygian settlement, Midas City, situated in an area of hills, to the south again, central Phrygia includes the cities of Afyonkarahisar with its marble quarries at nearby Docimium, and the town of Synnada. At the western end of Phrygia stood the towns of Aizanoi, from here to the southwest lies the hilly area of Phrygia that contrasts to the bare plains of the regions heartland. Southwestern Phrygia is watered by the Maeander and its tributary the Lycus, one of the so-called Homeric Hymns describes the Phrygian language as not mutually intelligible with that of Troy. According to ancient tradition among Greek historians, the Phrygians anciently migrated to Anatolia from the Balkans, Herodotus says that the Phrygians were called Bryges when they lived in Europe. Some classical writers also connected the Phrygians with the Mygdones, the name of two groups of people, one of which lived in northern Macedonia and another in Mysia. The classical historian Strabo groups Phrygians, Mygdones, Mysians, Bebryces, Phrygian continued to be spoken until the 6th century AD, though its distinctive alphabet was lost earlier than those of most Anatolian cultures. The so-called Handmade Knobbed Ware found in Western Anatolia during this period has been identified as an import connected to this invasion. These scholars seek instead to trace the Phrygians origins among the nations of western Anatolia who were subject to the Hittites. Some scholars dismiss the claim of a Phrygian migration as a mere legend, no one has conclusively identified which of the many subjects of the Hittites might have represented early Phrygians. Josephus called Togarmah the Thrugrammeans, who, as the Greeks resolved, were named Phrygians, however, the Greek source cited by Josephus is unknown, and it is unclear if there was any basis for the identification other than name similarity. Scholars of the Hittites believe Tegarama was in eastern Anatolia - some locate it at Gurun - far to the east of Phrygia, some scholars have identified Phrygia with the Assuwa league, and noted that the Iliad mentions a Phrygian named Asios. Another possible early name of Phrygia could be Hapalla, the name of the easternmost province that emerged from the splintering of the Bronze Age western Anatolian empire Arzawa, however, scholars are unsure if Hapalla corresponds to Phrygia or to Pisidia, further south. Herodotus also claims that Phrygian colonists founded the Armenian nation, however, little is known about these eastern Mygdones, and no evidence of Phrygian language in that region has been found
19.
Callimachus
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Callimachus was a native of the Greek colony of Cyrene, Libya. He was a poet, critic and scholar at the Library of Alexandria and enjoyed the patronage of the Egyptian–Greek Pharaohs Ptolemy II Philadelphus. Although he was never made chief librarian, he was responsible for producing a survey based upon the contents of the Library. This, his Pinakes,120 volumes long, provided the foundation for work on the history of Greek literature. As one of the earliest critic-poets, he typifies Hellenistic scholarship, Callimachus was of Libyan Greek origin. He was named after his grandfather, an elder Callimachus, who was regarded by the Cyrenaean citizens and had served as a general. Callimachus married the daughter of a Greek man called Euphrates who came from Syracuse, however, it is unknown if they had children. In later years, he was educated in Athens, when he returned to North Africa, he moved to Alexandria. Elitist and erudite, claiming to abhor all common things, Callimachus is best known for his poems and epigrams. During the Hellenistic period, a trend in Greek-language poetry was to reject epics modelled after Homer. Big book, big evil is another saying attributed to him, often thought to be attacking long, Callimachus also wrote poems in praise of his royal patrons, and a wide variety of other poetic styles, as well as prose and criticism. Some classicists, including Peter Green, speculate that this contributed to the long feud. Though Callimachus was an opponent of big books, the Suda puts his number of works at 800, suggesting that he found large quantities of small works more acceptable. In the first three books at least, the formula appears to ask a question of the Muse, of the form, Why, on Paros, why, at Argos is a month named for lambs. Why, at Leucas, does the image of Artemis have a mortar on its head, a series of questions can be reconstituted from the fragments. One passage of the Aetia, the so-called Coma Berenices, has been reconstructed from papyrus remains, the extant hymns are extremely learned, and written in a style that some have criticised as labored and artificial. The epigrams are more widely respected, and several have been incorporated into the Greek Anthology, according to Quintilian he was the chief of the elegiac poets, his elegies were highly esteemed by the Romans, and imitated by Ovid, Catullus, and especially Sextus Propertius. Many modern classicists hold Callimachus in high regard for his influence on Latin poetry
20.
Sardis
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Sardis or Sardes was an ancient city at the location of modern Sart in Turkeys Manisa Province. Sardis was situated in the middle of Hermus valley, at the foot of Mount Tmolus and it was about 4 kilometres south of the Hermus. Today, the site is located by the present day village of Sart, near Salihli in the Manisa province of Turkey, the part of remains including the bath-gymnasium complex, synagogue and Byzantine shops is open to visitors year-round. It is, however, more probable that Sardis was not the capital of the Maeonians. The city was captured by the Cimmerians in the 7th century BC, by the Persians in the 6th, by the Athenians in the 5th, and by Antiochus III the Great at the end of the 3rd century BC. In the Persian era, Sardis was conquered by Cyrus the Great and formed the end station for the Persian Royal Road which began in Persepolis, during the Ionian Revolt, the Athenians burnt down the city. Sardis remained under Persian domination until it surrendered to Alexander the Great in 334 BC, the early Lydian kingdom was very advanced in the industrial arts and Sardis was the chief seat of its manufactures. The most important of these trades was the manufacture and dyeing of delicate woolen stuffs, the stream Pactolus which flowed through the market-place carried golden sands in early antiquity, which was in reality gold dust out of Mount Tmolus. It was during the reign of King Croesus that the metallurgists of Sardis discovered the secret of separating gold from silver and this was an economic revolution, for while gold nuggets panned or mined were used as currency, their purity was always suspect and a hindrance to trade. Such nuggets or coinage were naturally occurring alloys of gold and silver known as electrum and one could never know how much of it was gold and how much was silver. Sardis now could mint nearly pure silver and gold coins, the value of which could be — and was — trusted throughout the known world and this revolution made Sardis rich and Croesus name synonymous with wealth itself. For this reason, Sardis is famed in history as the place where modern currency was invented and it was one of the great cities of western Asia Minor until the later Byzantine period. Later, trade and the organization of commerce continued to be sources of great wealth, after Constantinople became the capital of the East, a new road system grew up connecting the provinces with the capital. Sardis then lay rather apart from the lines of communication. It still, however, retained its titular supremacy and continued to be the seat of the bishop of the province of Lydia. It was enumerated as third, after Ephesus and Smyrna, in the list of cities of the Thracesion thema given by Constantine Porphyrogenitus in the 10th century. However, over the four centuries it was in the shadow of the provinces of Magnesia-upon-Sipylum and Philadelphia. When Constantinople was taken by the Venetians and Franks in 1204 Sardis came under the rule of the Byzantine Empire of Nicea, the city continued its decline until its capture by the Turco-Mongol warlord Timur in 1402
21.
Lydia
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Lydia was an Iron Age kingdom of western Asia Minor located generally east of ancient Ionia in the modern western Turkish provinces of Uşak, Manisa and inland İzmir. Its population spoke an Anatolian language known as Lydian, at its greatest extent, the Kingdom of Lydia covered all of western Anatolia. Lydia was a satrapy of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, with Sardis as its capital, tabalus, appointed by Cyrus the Great, was the first satrap. Lydia was later the name of a Roman province, coins are said to have been invented in Lydia around the 7th century BC. The endonym Śfard survives in bilingual and trilingual stone-carved notices of the Achaemenid Empire and these in the Greek tradition are associated with Sardis, the capital city of King Gyges, constructed during the 7th century BC. The region of the Lydian kingdom was during the 15th-14th centuries part of the Arzawa kingdom, the Lydian language is not part of the Luwian subgroup. An Etruscan/Lydian association has long been a subject of conjecture, however, recent decipherment of Lydian and its classification as an Anatolian language mean that Etruscan and Lydian were not even part of the same language family. The boundaries of historical Lydia varied across the centuries and it was bounded first by Mysia, Caria, Phrygia and coastal Ionia. Later, the power of Alyattes II and Croesus expanded Lydia. Lydia never again shrank back into its original dimensions, the Lydian language was an Indo-European language in the Anatolian language family, related to Luwian and Hittite. It used many prefixes and grammatical particles, Lydian finally became extinct during the 1st century BC. Lydia developed after the decline of the Hittite Empire in the 12th century BC, in Hittite times, the name for the region had been Arzawa. According to Greek source, the name of the Lydian kingdom was Maionia, or Maeonia. Homer describes their capital not as Sardis but as Hyde, Hyde may have been the name of the district in which Sardis was located. Later, Herodotus adds that the Meiones were renamed Lydians after their king Lydus, son of Atys and this etiological eponym served to account for the Greek ethnic name Lydoi. During Biblical times, the Lydian warriors were famous archers, some Maeones still existed during historical times in the upland interior along the River Hermus, where a town named Maeonia existed, according to Pliny the Elder and Hierocles. In Greek myth, Lydia had also adopted the symbol, that also appears in the Mycenaean civilization. Omphale, daughter of the river Iardanos, was a ruler of Lydia, all three heroic ancestors indicate a Lydian dynasty claiming Heracles as their ancestor
22.
Croesus
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Croesus was the king of Lydia who, according to Herodotus, reigned for 14 years, from 560 BC until his defeat by the Persian king Cyrus the Great in 546 BC. Croesus was renowned for his wealth, Herodotus and Pausanias noted that his gifts were preserved at Delphi, the fall of Croesus made a profound impact on the Greeks, providing a fixed point in their calendar. By the fifth century at least, J. A. S, evans has remarked, Croesus had become a figure of myth, who stood outside the conventional restraints of chronology.1, and Ctesias, whose account is also an encomium of Cyrus. Croesus is a descendant of Gyges, of the Myrmnadae Clan, born about 595 BC, Croesus received tribute from the Ionian Greeks but was friendlier to the Hellenes than his father had been. Croesus is credited with issuing the first true gold coins with a standardised purity for general circulation, however, they were quite crude, and were made of electrum, a naturally occurring pale yellow alloy of gold and silver. The composition of these first coins was similar to alluvial deposits found in the silt of the Pactolus river, later coins, including some in the British Museum, were made from gold purified by heating with common salt to remove the silver. King Croesus gold coins follow the first silver coins that had been minted by King Pheidon of Argos around 700 BC, in Greek and Persian cultures the name of Croesus became a synonym for a wealthy man. Croesus wealth remained proverbial beyond classical antiquity, in English, expressions such as rich as Croesus or richer than Croesus are used to great wealth to this day. According to Herodotus, Croesus encountered the Greek sage Solon and showed him his enormous wealth, Solon goes on to explain that Croesus cannot be the happiest man because the fickleness of fortune means that the happiness of a mans life cannot be judged until after his death. The interview is in the nature of a philosophical disquisition on the subject Which man is happy and it is legendary rather than historical. Thus the happiness of Croesus is presented as an exemplum of the fickleness of Tyche. The story was retold and elaborated by Ausonius in The Masque of the Seven Sages, in the Suda. According to Herodotus, Croesus desired to discover which of the well known oracles of his time gave trustworthy omens. Then on the 100th day the envoys entered the oracle of Delphi in order to ask for the omen, the Pythia answered in verse, I know the sands number, I understand the mute and hear him though he does not speak. The smell has come to my senses of a hard-shelled tortoise Being cooked in bronze together with meat, There is bronze beneath it. The envoys wrote down the answer and returned to Sardis, Croesus read all the answers brought by his envoys from all the oracles. As soon as he read the answer of the Pythia he bowed, because he was persuaded that it was the only real oracle, along with that of Amphiaraus. Indeed, on the specific date Croesus had put pieces of a tortoise and lamb to boil together in a bronze cauldron, then, Croesus wanted to thank and take on his side the oracle of Delphi
23.
Periander
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Periander, was the Second Tyrant of the Cypselid dynasty that ruled over Corinth. Periander’s rule brought about a time in Corinth’s history, as his administrative skill made Corinth one of the wealthiest city states in Greece. He is often considered one of the Seven Sages of Greece, Periander was the second tyrant of Corinth and the son of Cypselus, the founder of the Cypselid dynasty. There were rumors that she and her son Periander had an illicit affair, Periander married Lyside, daughter of Procles and Eristenea. They had two sons, Cypselus, who was said to be weak-minded, and Lycophron, a man of intelligence. According to the book Lives of the Eminent Philosophers, Periander, in a fit of rage, greek historian Herodotus has alluded to suggestions that Periander had defiled the corpse of his wife, employing a metaphor, Periander baked his bread in a cold oven. Grief for his mother and anger at his father drove Lycophron to take refuge in Corcyra, when Periander was much older and looking to have his successor at his side, he sent for Lycophron. When the people of Corcyca heard of this, they killed Lycophron rather than let him depart, the death of his son caused Periander to fall into a despondency that eventually led to his death. Periander was succeeded by his nephew, Psammetichus, who ruled for just three years and was the last of the Cypselid tyrants, Periander built Corinth into one of the major trading centers in Ancient Greece. Periander is also credited with inventing a system, the Diolkos. Tolls from goods entering Corinth’s port accounted for all the government revenues, which Periander used to build temples and other public works. He had the poet Arion come from Lesbos to Corinth for a festival in the city. Periander held many festivals and built buildings in the Doric style. The Corinthian style of pottery was developed by an artisan during his rule, Periander was said to be a patron of literature, who both wrote and appreciated early philosophy. He is said to have written a didactic poem 2,000 lines long, Periander is referenced by many of his contemporaries in relation to philosophy and leadership. Most commonly he is mentioned as one of the Seven Sages of Ancient Greece, a group of philosophers and rulers from early Greece, in Lives of the Eminent Philosophers, Diogenes Laertius, a philosopher of the 3rd century AD, lists Periander as one of these seven sages. Ausonius also refers to Periander as one of the Sages in his work The Masque of the Seven Sages, some scholars have argued that the ruler named Periander was a different person from the sage of the same name. And Neanthes of Cyzicus makes the assertion, adding, that the two men were cousins to one another
24.
Corinth
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Corinth is a city and former municipality in Corinthia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality of Corinth, of which it is the seat and it is the capital of Corinthia. It was founded as Nea Korinthos or New Corinth in 1858 after an earthquake destroyed the settlement of Corinth. Corinth derives its name from Ancient Corinth, a city-state of antiquity, in 1858, the old city, now known as Archaia Korinthos, located 3 kilometres SW of the modern city, was totally destroyed by a magnitude 6.5 earthquake. Nea Korinthos or New Corinth was then built a few kilometers away on the coast of the Gulf of Corinth, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake in 1928 devastated the new city, which was then rebuilt on the same site. It was rebuilt again after a fire in 1933. The Municipality of Corinth had a population of 58,192 according to the 2011 census, the second most populous municipality in the Peloponnese Region after Kalamata. The municipal unit of Corinth had 38,132 inhabitants, of which Corinth itself had 30,176 inhabitants, placing it in place behind Kalamata. The municipal unit of Corinth includes apart from Corinth proper the town of Archaia Korinthos, the town of Examilia, the municipal unit has an area of 102.187 km2. Corinth is an industrial hub at a national level. Corinth Refineries are one of the largest oil refining Industrial complex in Europe, copper cables, petroleum products, leather, medical equipment, marble, gypsum, ceramic tiles, salt, mineral water and beverages, meat products, and gums are produced nearby. As of 2005, a period of deindustrialization has commenced as a large complex, a textile factory. Corinth is a road hub. The A7 toll motorway for Tripoli and Kalamata, branches off the A8/European route E94 toll motorway from Athens at Corinth, Corinth is the main entry point to the Peloponnesian peninsula, the southernmost area of continental Greece. KTEL Korinthias provides intercity bus service in the peninsula and to Athens via the Isthmos station southeast of the city center, local bus service is also available. The city has connected to the Proastiakos, the Athens suburban rail network, since 2005. The port of Corinth, located north of the city centre and close to the northwest entrance of the Corinth Canal, at 3756. 0’ N /2256. 0’ E, serves the needs of industry. It is mainly a cargo exporting facility and it is an artificial harbour (depth approximately 9 metres, protected by a concrete mole
25.
Seven Sages of Greece
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Traditionally, each of the seven sages represents an aspect of worldly wisdom which is summarized by an aphorism. Although the list of sages sometimes varies, the ones usually included are the following, Cleobulus of Lindos and he governed as tyrant of Lindos, in the Greek island of Rhodes, c.600 BC. Solon of Athens, Nothing in excess, solon was a famous legislator and reformer from Athens, framing the laws that shaped the Athenian democracy. Chilon of Sparta, Do not desire the impossible, chilon was a Spartan politician from the 6th century BC, to whom the militarization of Spartan society was attributed. Bias of Priene, Most men are bad, bias was a politician and legislator of the 6th century BC. Thales is the first well-known philosopher and mathematician and his advice, Know thyself, was engraved on the front facade of the Oracle of Apollo in Delphi. Pittacus of Mytilene, Know thy opportunity, pittacus governed Mytilene along with Myrsilus. He tried to reduce the power of the nobility and was able to govern with the support of the popular classes, Periander of Corinth, Be farsighted with everything. Periander was the tyrant of Corinth in the 7th and 6th centuries BC, during his rule, Corinth knew a golden age of unprecedented stability. The oldest explicit mention on record of a standard list of seven sages is in Platos Protagoras, because this was the manner of philosophy among the ancients, a kind of laconic brevity. According to Demetrius Phalereus, it was during the archonship of Damasias that the seven first become known as the wise men, Diogenes points out, however, that there was among his sources great disagreement over which figures should be counted among the seven. Perhaps the two most common substitutions were to exchange Periander or Anacharsis for Myson, both Ephorus and Plutarch substituted Anacharsis for Myson. Later tradition ascribed to each sage a pithy saying of his own, Most likely they were popular proverbs, which tended later to be attributed to particular sages. According to a number of stories, there was a golden tripod which was to be given to the wisest. Allegedly, it passed in turn one of the seven sages to another, beginning with Thales. According to Diogenes, Dicaearchus claimed that the seven were neither wise men nor philosophers, but merely shrewd men, who had studied legislation. And according to at least one scholar, the claim is correct, With the exception of Thales. Plutarchs The Dinner of the Seven Wise Men, in the Loeb Classical Library, Seven Sages of Greece with illustrations and further links
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Solon
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Solon was an Athenian statesman, lawmaker, and poet. He is remembered particularly for his efforts to legislate against political, economic and his reforms failed in the short term, yet he is often credited with having laid the foundations for Athenian democracy. He wrote poetry for pleasure, as propaganda, and in defense of his constitutional reforms. Ancient authors such as Herodotus and Plutarch are the source of information, yet they wrote about Solon long after his death. Fourth century orators, such as Aeschines, tended to attribute to Solon all the laws of their own, Solon was born in Athens around 638 B. C. His family was distinguished in Attica as they belonged to a noble or Eupatrid clan although only possessing moderate wealth, Solons lineage, therefore, could be traced back to Codrus, the last King of Athens. According to Diogenes Laërtius, he had a brother named Dropides who was an ancestor of Plato, according to Plutarch, Solon was related to the tyrant Peisistratos for their mothers were cousins. Solon was eventually drawn into the pursuit of commerce. When Athens and Megara were contesting for the possession of the Salamis Island, after repeated disasters, Solon was able to increase the morale and spirits of his body of troops on the strength of a poem he wrote about the islands. Supported by Peisistratos, he defeated the Megarians either by means of a trick or more directly through heroic battle around 595 B. C. The Megarians however refused to give up their claim to the island, the dispute was referred to the Spartans, who eventually awarded possession of the island to Athens on the strength of the case that Solon put to them. According to Diogenes Laertius, in 594 B. C, Solon was chosen archon or chief magistrate. As archon, Solon discussed his intended reforms with some friends, knowing that he was about to cancel all debts, these friends took out loans and promptly bought some land. Suspected of complicity, Solon complied with his own law and released his own debtors and his friends never repaid their debts. After he had finished his reforms, he travelled abroad for ten years, there, according to Herodotus he visited the Pharaoh of Egypt Amasis II. According to Plutarch, he spent some time and discussed philosophy with two Egyptian priests, Psenophis of Heliopolis and Sonchis of Sais, according to Platos dialogues Timaeus and Critias, he visited Neiths temple at Sais and received from the priests there an account of the history of Atlantis. Next Solon sailed to Cyprus, where he oversaw the construction of a new capital for a local king, Solons travels finally brought him to Sardis, capital of Lydia. According to Herodotus and Plutarch, he met with Croesus and gave the Lydian king advice, Croesus had considered himself to be the happiest man alive and Solon had advised him, Count no man happy until he be dead
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The Frogs Who Desired a King
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The Frogs Who Desired a King is one of Aesops Fables and numbered 44 in the Perry Index. Throughout its history, the story has given a political application. According to the earliest source, Phaedrus, the story concerns a group of frogs who called on the great god Zeus to send them a king and he threw down a log, which fell in their pond with a loud splash and terrified them. Eventually one of the frogs peeped above the water and, seeing that it was no longer moving, soon all hopped upon it, then the frogs made a second request for a real king and were sent a water snake that started eating them. Once more the frogs appealed to Zeus, but this time he replied that they must face the consequences of their request, in later variations of the story, the water snake is often replaced with a stork or heron. The original context of the story, as related by Phaedrus and his closing advice is to be content for fear of worse. By the time of William Caxton, who published the first version in English, in his version, it is a heron rather than a snake that is sent as king. A later commentator, the English Royalist Roger LEstrange, sums up the situation thus, yet another view was expressed by German theologian Martin Luther in his On Governmental Authority. There he speaks of the fewness of good rulers, taking this lack as a punishment for human wickedness and he then alludes to this fable to illustrate how humanity deserves the rulers it gets, frogs must have their storks. The author Christoff Mürer has a similar sentiment in his emblem book XL emblemata miscella nova, under the title Freheit there is a verse that warns that those who do not appreciate freedom are sent a tyrant by divine will. It is likely he was aware of its interpretation in favour of contentment with the status quo, jean de la Fontaines fable of Les grenouilles qui desirent un roi follows the Phaedrus version fairly closely and repeats the conclusion there. In setting the scene, however, he pictures the frogs as tiring of their democratic state, as soon as the French had their own experience of regime-change, illustrators began to express their feelings through this fable particularly. In the following century, the caricaturist Grandville turned to book illustration after a law made life difficult for him. Ernest Griset was the son of French political refugees from yet another change of regime and his horrific picture of a gruesome skeletal stork seated on a bank and swallowing his prey appeared in an edition of Aesops fables from the 1870s. It is his comment on the second Napoleonic regime that had driven his parents into exile, the gloom of 19th-century illustrators was mitigated by a more light-hearted touch in the following century. In the 1912 edition of Aesops Fables, Arthur Rackham chose to picture the carefree frogs at play on their King Log, but the French artist Benjamin Rabier, having already illustrated a collection of La Fontaines fables, subverted the whole subject in a later picture, Le Toboggan. In this, the stork too has become a plaything of the frogs as they gleefully hop onto his back. The majority of allusions to Aesops fable contrast the passivity of King Log with the policy of King Stork
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Peisistratos
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Peisistratos, Latinized Pisistratus, the son of Hippocrates, was a ruler of ancient Athens during most of the period between 561 and 527 BC. Peisistratos championing of the class of Athens, the Hyperakrioi, is an early example of populism. Peisistratus was the brother-in-law of Cleisthenes, however, Peisistratus was much older, Peisistratids is the common term for the three tyrants who ruled in Athens from 546 to 510 BC, namely Peisistratos and his two sons, Hipparchus and Hippias. Peisistratos was a distant relative of Solon from northern Attica and he had made a name for himself by capturing the port of Nisaea in nearby Megara by creating a successful coup in 564 BC. Peisistratos was backed by the Men of the Hill, the poorer and this victory opened up the unofficial trade blockage that had been contributing to food shortage in Athens during the past several decades. In the period after the Megaran defeat, several factions competed for control in the government of Athens. These groups were both economically and geographically partitioned, Pedieis, the population that resided on the plains, led by Lycurgus. These landowners produced grain, giving them leverage during the food shortage, with the Megarans patrolling the sea, much of Athens import/export power was limited. Hyperakrioi, not previously represented by party, dwelled primarily in the hills and were by far the poorest of the Athenian population. Their only production was barter in items like honey and wool, Peisistratos organised them into the Hyperakrioi, or hill dwellers. This party grossly outnumbered the other two parties combined and his role in the Megaran conflict gained Peisistratos popularity in Athens, but he did not have the political clout to seize power. Herodotus tells us how he intentionally wounded himself and his mules in order to demand from the Athenian people bodyguards for protection, by obtaining support from the vast number of the poorer population as well as bodyguards, he was able to seize the Acropolis and the reins of government. The Athenians were open to a similar to that under Solon – and possible stability and internal peace –. With this in his possession, and the collusion of Megacles and his party, Peisistratos was ousted from political office and exiled twice during his reign. The first occurrence was circa 555 BC after the two parties, normally at odds with each other, joined forces and removed Peisistratos from power. Actual dates after this point become unclear, Peisistratos was exiled for 3 to 6 years during which the agreement between the Pedieis and the Paralioi fell apart. Peisistratos returned to Athens and rode into the city in a golden chariot accompanied by a tall woman appearing to be Athena, many returned to his side, believing he had the favour of the goddess. Differing sources state that he held the tyranny for one to six years before he was exiled again, during his second exile, he gathered support from local cities and resources from the Laurion silver mines near Athens
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Alexander romance
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The Romance of Alexander is any of several collections of legends concerning the mythical exploits of Alexander the Great. The earliest version is in the Greek language, dating to the 3rd century, several late manuscripts attribute the work to Alexanders court historian Callisthenes, but the historical person died before Alexander and could not have written a full account of his life. The unknown author is sometimes known as Pseudo-Callisthenes. The text was transformed into various versions between the 4th and the 16th centuries, in Medieval Greek, Latin, Armenian, Syriac, Hebrew, Alexander was a legend during his own time. In a now-lost history of the king, the historical Callisthenes described the sea in Cilicia as drawing back from him in proskynesis, writing after Alexanders death, another participant, Onesicritus, invented a tryst between Alexander and Thalestris, queen of the mythical Amazons. Throughout Antiquity and the Middle Ages, the Romance experienced numerous expansions and revisions exhibiting a variability unknown for more formal literary forms, Latin, Armenian, Georgian and Syriac translations were made in Late Antiquity. The Celticist Kuno Meyer received his doctorate for his thesis Eine irische Version der Alexandersage, the Latin Alexandreis of Walter of Châtillon was one of the most popular medieval romances. The Syriac version generated Middle Eastern recensions, including Arabic, Persian, Ethiopic, Hebrew, Ottoman Turkish, the story of Dhul-Qarnayn in the Quran matches the Gog and Magog episode of the Romance, which has caused some controversy among Islamic scholars. Islamic accounts of the Alexander legend, particularly in Persia, combined the Pseudo-Callisthenes material with indigenous Sasanian Middle Persian ideas about Alexander, the oldest version of the Greek text, the Historia Alexandri Magni, can be dated to the 3rd century. It was subjected to various revisions during the Byzantine Empire, some of them recasting it into poetical form in Medieval Greek vernacular, Recensio α is the source of a Latin version by Julius Valerius Alexander Polemius, and an Armenian version. Most of the content of the Romance is fantastical, including many miraculous tales, Recensio α sive Recensio vetusta, W. Kroll, Historia Alexandri Magni, vol. Berlin, Weidmann,1926 Recensio β, L. Bergson, stockholm, Almqvist & Wiksell,1965 Recensio β L. Bergson, Der griechische Alexanderroman. Stockholm, Almqvist & Wiksell,1965 Recensio β, L. Bergson, stockholm, Almqvist & Wiksell,1965 Recensio γ, U. von Lauenstein, Der griechische Alexanderroman. Recensio γ, H. Engelmann, Der griechische Alexanderroman, Recensio γ, F. Parthe, Der griechische Alexanderroman. Recensio δ, G. Trumpf, Anonymi Byzantini vita Alexandri regis Macedonum, konstantinopulos and A. C. Lolos, Ps. -Kallisthenes‑ Zwei mittelgriechische Prosa-Fassungen des Alexanderromans,2 vols Recensio φ, G. Veloudis, Ἡ φυλλάδα τοῦ Μεγαλέξαντρου. Διήγησις Ἀλεξάνδρου τοῦ Μακεδόνος Recensio Byzantina poetica, S. Reichmann, Das byzantinische Alexandergedicht nach dem codex Marcianus 408 herausgegeben Recensio E, vernacular, V. L. Konstantinopulos and A. C. Lolos, Ps. -Kallisthenes, Zwei mittelgriechische Prosa. Fassungen des Alexanderromans,2 vols Recensio V, K. Mitsakis, Der byzantinische Alexanderroman nach dem Codex Vind. The rhymed version There are several Old and Middle French and one Anglo-Norman Alexander romances, fuerre de Gadres by a certain Eustache, later used by Alexandre de Bernay and Thomas de Kent Decasyllabic Alexander, anonymous from 1160–70
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Isis
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Isis is a goddess from the polytheistic pantheon of Egypt. She was first worshiped in ancient Egyptian religion, and later her worship spread throughout the Roman Empire, Isis was worshipped as the ideal mother and wife as well as the patroness of nature and magic. She was the friend of slaves, sinners, artisans and the downtrodden, Isis is often depicted as the mother of Horus, the falcon-headed deity associated with king and kingship. Isis is also known as protector of the dead and goddess of children, as the personification of the throne, she was an important representation of the pharaohs power. The pharaoh was depicted as her child, who sat on the throne she provided. Her cult was popular throughout Egypt, but her most important temples were at Behbeit El Hagar in the Nile delta, and, beginning in the reign with Nectanebo I, on the island of Philae in Upper Egypt. In the typical form of her myth, Isis was the first daughter of Geb, god of the Earth, and Nut, goddess of the Sky and she married her brother, Osiris, and she conceived Horus with him. Isis was instrumental in the resurrection of Osiris when he was murdered by Set, using her magical skills, she restored his body to life after having gathered the body parts that had been strewn about the earth by Set. This myth became very important during the Greco-Roman period, for example, it was believed that the Nile River flooded every year because of the tears of sorrow which Isis wept for Osiris. Osiriss death and rebirth was relived each year through rituals, the worship of Isis eventually spread throughout the Greco-Roman world, continuing until the suppression of paganism in the Christian era. The popular motif of Isis suckling her son Horus, however, the Greek name version of Isis is close to her original, Egyptian name spelling. Isis name was written with the signs of a throne seat. The grammar, spelling and used signs of Isis name never changed during time in any way, however, the symbolic and metaphoric meaning of Isis name remains unclear. The throne seat sign in her name might point to a role as a goddess of kingship. Thus, her name could mean she of the kings throne, but all other Egyptian deities have names that point to clear cosmological or nature elemental roles, thus the name of Isis shouldnt be connected to the king himself. The throne seat symbol might alternatively point to a meaning as throne-mother of the gods and this in turn would supply a very old existence of Isis, long before her first mentioning during the late Old Kingdom, but this hypothesis remains unproven. A third possible meaning might be hidden in the egg-symbol, that was used in Isis name. The egg-symbol always represented motherhood, implying a role of Isis
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Francis Barlow (artist)
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Francis Barlow was an English painter, etcher, and illustrator. He ranks among the most prolific book-illustrators and printmakers of the 17th century, working across several genres, natural history, hunting and recreation, politics, and decoration and design. Barlow is known as the father of British sporting painting, he was Britains first wildlife painter, beginning a tradition that reached a high-point a century later, Barlow was born c.1626 in Lincolnshire. The exact day of Barlows death is unknown but he was buried on 11 August 1704, Barlows first major work was the illustration of poet Edward Benlowes Theophila. In Barlows favour, Bullen said in 1885 that the volume valued rather for the engravings than for the text, according to Manchesters Chethams Library, no two copies of Benlowes Theophila are the same, and no copy survives in good condition. The Victoria and Albert Museum holds two different copies, one of which includes a drawing by Barlow. Barlow designed the one hundred and ten woodcuts for John Ogilbys translation of Aesops Fables, published in 1665, hollar,1671, published by John Overton. A case in point is A Decoy, Barlows allegory on the threat posed to England by Roman Catholicism and these were more recently housed at Clandon Park, an 18th-century mansion near Guildford, Surrey, becoming one of the largest collections of Barlows surviving work. Barlows work miraculously survived a fire at Clandon Park on 29 April 2015. Examples of Barlows work can be seen at Ham House, examples are held, too, by, Tate Britain, the National Portrait Gallery, the British Museum, and the Victoria and Albert Museum. Barlow frequently signed the initials of his name, F. B. instead of inserting it at full length, Barlow has come to be regarded as a surprisingly neglected artist. English art List of British artists External sources Francis Barlow, c, 1626-1702, From, A New General Biographical Dictionary, Projected and partly arranged by the late Rev. Principal of Kings College, London Hodnett, Edward, Francis Barlow, first master of English book illustration. Berkeley, University of California Press,1978, https, //www. lambiek. net/artists/b/barlow_francis. htm Attribution This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Bullen, Arthur Henry
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Aristophanes
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Aristophanes, son of Philippus, of the deme Kydathenaion, was a comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete and these, together with fragments of some of his other plays, provide the only real examples of a genre of comic drama known as Old Comedy, and are used to define it. Also known as the Father of Comedy and the Prince of Ancient Comedy and his second play, The Babylonians, was denounced by the demagogue Cleon as a slander against the Athenian polis. In my opinion, he says through the Chorus in that play, less is known about Aristophanes than about his plays. In fact, his plays are the source of information about him. It was conventional in Old Comedy for the Chorus to speak on behalf of the author during a called the parabasis. However, these facts relate almost entirely to his career as a dramatist, Aristophanes claimed to be writing for a clever and discerning audience, yet he also declared that other times would judge the audience according to its reception of his plays. He sometimes boasts of his originality as a dramatist yet his plays consistently espouse opposition to new influences in Athenian society. He caricatured leading figures in the arts, in politics, such caricatures seem to imply that Aristophanes was an old-fashioned conservative, yet that view of him leads to contradictions. It has been argued that Aristophanes produced plays mainly to entertain the audience, an elaborate series of lotteries, designed to prevent prejudice and corruption, reduced the voting judges at the City Dionysia to just five in number. These judges probably reflected the mood of the audiences yet there is uncertainty about the composition of those audiences. The theatres were certainly huge, with seating for at least 10000 at the Theatre of Dionysus, the conservative views expressed in the plays might therefore reflect the attitudes of the dominant group in an unrepresentative audience. The production process might also have influenced the views expressed in the plays, throughout most of Aristophanes career, the Chorus was essential to a plays success and it was recruited and funded by a choregus, a wealthy citizen appointed to the task by one of the archons. Thus the political conservatism of the plays may reflect the views of the wealthiest section of Athenian society, when Aristophanes first play The Banqueters was produced, Athens was an ambitious, imperial power and the Peloponnesian War was only in its fourth year. His plays often express pride in the achievement of the older generation yet they are not jingoistic, the plays are particularly scathing in criticism of war profiteers, among whom populists such as Cleon figure prominently. However it is whether he led or merely responded to changes in audience expectations. Aristophanes won second prize at the City Dionysia in 427 BC with his first play The Banqueters and he won first prize there with his next play, The Babylonians. Some influential citizens, notably Cleon, reviled the play as slander against the polis, Cleon also seems to have had no real power to limit or control Aristophanes, the caricatures of him continued up to and even beyond his death
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Sophocles
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Sophocles is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His first plays were later than those of Aeschylus. He competed in 30 competitions, won 18, and was never judged lower than second place, Aeschylus won 14 competitions, and was sometimes defeated by Sophocles, while Euripides won 5 competitions. Sophocles influenced the development of drama, most importantly by adding a third actor and he also developed his characters to a greater extent than earlier playwrights such as Aeschylus. Sophocles, the son of Sophilus, was a member of the rural deme of Hippeios Colonus in Attica, which was to become a setting for one of his plays. Sophocles was born a few years before the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC, Sophocles was born into a wealthy family and was highly educated. Sophocles first artistic triumph was in 468 BC, when he took first prize in the Dionysia theatre competition over the master of Athenian drama. According to Plutarch, the victory came under unusual circumstances, instead of following the usual custom of choosing judges by lot, the archon asked Cimon and the other strategoi present to decide the victor of the contest. Plutarch further contends that following this loss Aeschylus soon left for Sicily, although Plutarch says that this was Sophocles first production, it is now thought that his first production was probably in 470 BC. Triptolemus was probably one of the plays that Sophocles presented at this festival, in 480 BC Sophocles was chosen to lead the paean, celebrating the Greek victory over the Persians at the Battle of Salamis. Early in his career, the politician Cimon might have one of his patrons, although if he was, there was no ill will borne by Pericles, Cimons rival. In 443/2 he served as one of the Hellenotamiai, or treasurers of Athena, in 420 BC, he welcomed and set up an altar for the image of Asclepius at his house, when the deity was introduced to Athens. For this, he was given the posthumous epithet Dexion by the Athenians and he was also elected, in 413 BC, one of the commissioners who responded to the catastrophic destruction of the Athenian expeditionary force in Sicily during the Peloponnesian War. Sophocles died at the age of ninety or ninety-one in the winter of 406/5 BC, as with many famous men in classical antiquity, his death inspired a number of apocryphal stories. The most famous is the suggestion that he died from the strain of trying to recite a long sentence from his Antigone without pausing to take a breath, another account suggests he choked while eating grapes at the Anthesteria festival in Athens. A third holds that he died of happiness after winning his final victory at the City Dionysia, one of his sons, Iophon, and a grandson, also called Sophocles, also became playwrights. Several ancient sources mention Sophocles homosexuality or bisexuality, Athenaios reported that Sophocles loved boys like Euripides loved women. The poet Ion of Chios relates an anecdote involving Sophocles seducing a serving boy at a symposium, Aeschylus, who dominated Athenian playwriting during Sophocles early career, followed suit and adopted the third character into his own work towards the end of his life
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Euripides
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Euripides was a tragedian of classical Athens. He is one of the few plays have survived, with the others being Aeschylus, Sophocles. Some ancient scholars attributed 95 plays to him but according to the Suda it was 92 at most, of these,18 or 19 have survived more or less complete and there are also fragments, some substantial, of most of the other plays. This new approach led him to pioneer developments that later writers adapted to comedy, yet he also became the most tragic of poets, focusing on the inner lives and motives of his characters in a way previously unknown. He was also unique among the writers of ancient Athens for the sympathy he demonstrated towards all victims of society and his contemporaries associated him with Socrates as a leader of a decadent intellectualism, both of them being frequently lampooned by comic poets such as Aristophanes. Whereas Socrates was eventually put on trial and executed as an influence, Euripides chose a voluntary exile in old age. Recent scholarship casts doubt on ancient biographies of Euripides, for example, it is possible that he never visited Macedonia at all, or, if he did, he might have been drawn there by King Archelaus with incentives that were also offered to other artists. Upon the receipt of a saying that his son was fated to win crowns of victory. In fact the boy was destined for a career on the stage and he served for a short time as both dancer and torch-bearer at the rites of Apollo Zosterius. His education was not confined to athletics, he studied painting and philosophy under the masters Prodicus. He had two marriages and both his wives—Melite and Choerine —were unfaithful. He became a recluse, making a home for himself in a cave on Salamis, there he built an impressive library and pursued daily communion with the sea and sky. Eventually he retired to the court of King Archelaus in Macedonia. However, as mentioned in the introduction, biographical details such as these should be regarded with scepticism and this biography is divided into three sections corresponding to the three kinds of sources. The apocryphal account that he composed his works in a cave on Salamis island was a late tradition, much of his life and his whole career coincided with the struggle between Athens and Sparta for hegemony in Greece but he didnt live to see the final defeat of his city. In an account by Plutarch, the failure of the Sicilian expedition led Athenians to trade renditions of Euripides lyrics to their enemies in return for food. Tragic poets were often mocked by comic poets during the dramatic festivals Dionysia and Lenaia, Aristophanes scripted him as a character in at least three plays, The Acharnians, Thesmophoriazusae and The Frogs. Yet Aristophanes borrowed rather than just satirized some of the methods, he was once ridiculed by a colleague, Cratinus, as a hair-splitting master of niceties
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The North Wind and the Sun
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The North Wind and the Sun is one of Aesops Fables. It is type 298 in the Aarne-Thompson folktale classification, the moral it teaches about the superiority of persuasion over force has made the story widely known. It is also known for being a text for phonetic transcriptions. The story concerns a competition between the North Wind and the Sun to decide which is the stronger of the two, the challenge was to make a passing traveler remove his cloak. However hard the North Wind blew, the traveler only wrapped his cloak tighter to keep warm, but when the Sun shone and it relates how Sophocles had his cloak stolen by a boy to whom he had made love. Euripides joked that he had had that boy too, and it did not cost him anything and you are unwise, you who sow in anothers field, to accuse Eros of being a snatch-thief. The Latin version of the fable first appeared centuries later in Avianus, as De Vento et Sole, early versions in English and it was only in mid-Victorian times that the title The North Wind and the Sun began to be used. In fact the Avianus poem refers to the characters as Boreas and Phoebus, the gods of the wind and the sun. Gilles Corrozet, who had compiled a collection in French verse earlier than La Fontaine. It is titled with the moral “More by gentleness than strength”, victorian versions of the fable give the moral as Persuasion is better than force, but it had been put in different ways at other times. Most of these examples draw a lesson, but La Fontaine hints at the political application that is present also in Avianus conclusion. Jean Restout made a painting of La Fontaines fable for the Hôtel de Soubise in 1738 and this shows a traveller on horseback among mountains under a stormy sky. In his print of the subject, Jean-Baptiste Oudry reverses the perspective to show the god riding a cloud chariot with the horseback traveller merely a small figure below. This is also the perspective of Gustave Moreaus watercolour in the series he began painting about 1880, in modern times the fable has been made into a 3-minute animated film for children by the National Film Board of Canada. It also figured as part of a 1987 set of Greek stamps, the fable was the third of five in Anthony Plogs Aesop’s Fables for narrator, piano and horn, it is also one of the five pieces in Bob Chilcotts Aesops Fables for piano and choir. The English composer Philip Godfrey has also composed a setting for childrens choir and its creator has commented on the fables theme that it demonstrates peoples vulnerability to cosmic forces and the inner links there are between natural events and our life as humans. But for the Scottish artist Jane Topping, who referenced The North Wind and the Sun in her 2009 installation, the fable is to be interpreted in the context of subliminal persuasion via images. In 2011 Anat Pollack used solo ballet as part of her video installation The North Wind and her artistic statement points out that Advanced communication and information systems are altering how information is interpreted and perceived
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Socrates
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Socrates was a classical Greek philosopher credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy. He is a figure known chiefly through the accounts of classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon. Platos dialogues are among the most comprehensive accounts of Socrates to survive from antiquity, though it is unclear the degree to which Socrates himself is hidden behind his best disciple, nothing written by Socrates remains extant. As a result, information about him and his philosophies depends upon secondary sources, furthermore, close comparison between the contents of these sources reveals contradictions, thus creating concerns about the possibility of knowing in-depth the real Socrates. This issue is known as the Socratic problem, or the Socratic question, to understand Socrates and his thought, one must turn primarily to the works of Plato, whose dialogues are thought the most informative source about Socrates life and philosophy, and also Xenophon. These writings are the Sokratikoi logoi, or Socratic dialogues, which consist of reports of conversations apparently involving Socrates, as for discovering the real-life Socrates, the difficulty is that ancient sources are mostly philosophical or dramatic texts, apart from Xenophon. There are no straightforward histories, contemporary with Socrates, that dealt with his own time, a corollary of this is that sources that do mention Socrates do not necessarily claim to be historically accurate, and are often partisan. For instance, those who prosecuted and convicted Socrates have left no testament, historians therefore face the challenge of reconciling the various evidence from the extant texts in order to attempt an accurate and consistent account of Socrates life and work. The result of such an effort is not necessarily realistic, even if consistent, amid all the disagreement resulting from differences within sources, two factors emerge from all sources pertaining to Socrates. It would seem, therefore, that he was ugly, also, Xenophon, being an historian, is a more reliable witness to the historical Socrates. It is a matter of debate over which Socrates it is whom Plato is describing at any given point—the historical figure. As British philosopher Martin Cohen has put it, Plato, the idealist, offers an idol, a Saint, a prophet of the Sun-God, a teacher condemned for his teachings as a heretic. It is also clear from other writings and historical artefacts, that Socrates was not simply a character, nor an invention, the testimony of Xenophon and Aristotle, alongside some of Aristophanes work, is useful in fleshing out a perception of Socrates beyond Platos work. The problem with discerning Socrates philosophical views stems from the perception of contradictions in statements made by the Socrates in the different dialogues of Plato and these contradictions produce doubt as to the actual philosophical doctrines of Socrates, within his milieu and as recorded by other individuals. Aristotle, in his Magna Moralia, refers to Socrates in words which make it patent that the virtue is knowledge was held by Socrates. Within the Metaphysics, he states Socrates was occupied with the search for moral virtues, however, in The Clouds, Aristophanes portrays Socrates as accepting payment for teaching and running a sophist school with Chaerephon. Also, in Platos Apology and Symposium, as well as in Xenophons accounts, more specifically, in the Apology, Socrates cites his poverty as proof that he is not a teacher. Two fragments are extant of the writings by Timon of Phlius pertaining to Socrates, although Timon is known to have written to ridicule, details about the life of Socrates can be derived from three contemporary sources, the dialogues of Plato and Xenophon, and the plays of Aristophanes
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Ennius
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Quintus Ennius was a writer during the period of the Roman Republic, and is often considered the father of Roman poetry. He was an Oscan from Calabria, although only fragments of his works survive, his influence in Latin literature was significant, particularly in his use of Greek literary models. Ennius was born at Rudiae, a predominantly Oscan town historically founded by the Messapians. Here Oscan, Greek, and Latin languages were in contact with one another, according to Aulus Gellius 17.17.1, Ennius referred to this heritage by saying he had three hearts, Greek, Oscan and Latin. Ennius continued the nascent literary tradition by writing praetextae, tragedies, and palliatae, as well as his most famous work, other minor works include the Epicharmus, the Euhemerus, the Hedyphagetica, and Saturae. The Epicharmus presented an account of the gods and the operations of the universe. In it, the poet dreamed he had been transported after death to some place of heavenly enlightenment, the Euhemerus presented a theological doctrine of a vastly different type in a mock-simple prose style modelled on the Greek of Euhemerus of Messene and several other theological writers. The Hedyphagetica took much of its substance from the epic of Archestratus of Gela. The eleven extant hexameters have prosodical features avoided in the more serious Annales, the remains of six books of Saturae show a considerable variety of metres. There are signs that Ennius varied the metre sometimes even within a composition, a frequent theme was the social life of Ennius himself and his upper-class Roman friends and their intellectual conversation. The Annales was a poem in fifteen books, later expanded to eighteen. It was the first Latin poem to adopt the dactylic hexameter metre used in Greek epic and didactic poetry, the Annals became a school text for Roman schoolchildren, eventually supplanted by Virgils Aeneid. A copy of the work is among the Latin rolls of the Herculaneum library, Ennius was said to have considered himself a reincarnation of Homer. Early in the poem Homer appears to the narrator, claiming that Ennius now has Homers soul, quod est ante pedes nemo spectat, caeli scrutantur plagas. - No one regards what is before his feet, everyone gazes at the stars, fragment from the lost tragedy Iphigenia. Simia quam similis turpissima bestia nobis, - The ape, vilest of beasts, how like to us. As quoted by Cicero in De Natura Deorum, Book I, Chapter XXXV As quoted by Cicero in De Officiis, Book I, XVI Who kindly shows the way to one lost, No less shines his, when he the others has lit. More quotations at, Wikiquote, Ennius Prosody Quinto Ennio, brooks, Robert A. Ennius and Roman tragedy
38.
Demetrius of Phalerum
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Demetrius of Phalerum was an Athenian orator originally from Phalerum, a student of Theophrastus, and perhaps of Aristotle, himself, and one of the first Peripatetics. He was exiled by his enemies in 307 BC, and he went first to Thebes and he wrote extensively on the subjects of history, rhetoric, and literary criticism. Demetrius was born in Phalerum, c.350 BC and he was the son of Phanostratus, a man without rank or property. He was educated, together with the poet Menander, in the school of Theophrastus and he began his public career about 325 BC, at the time of the disputes concerning Harpalus, and soon acquired a great reputation by the talent he displayed in public speaking. He belonged to the party of Phocion, and he acted in the spirit of that statesman. When Xenocrates was unable to pay the new tax on metics c.322 BC, after the death of Phocion in 317 BC, Cassander placed Demetrius at the head of the administration of Athens. He filled this office for ten years, instituting extensive legal reforms, the Athenians conferred upon him the most extraordinary distinctions, and no fewer than 360 statues were erected to him. According to Stephen V. Tracy, the story about the statues was not historical and he remained in power until 307 BC when Cassanders enemy, Demetrius Poliorcetes captured Athens, and Demetrius was obliged to take to flight. Carystius of Pergamum mentions that he had a lover by the name of Diognis, after his exile, his enemies contrived to induce the people of Athens to pass the death sentence upon him, in consequence of which his friend Menander nearly fell a victim. All his statues, with the exception of one, were demolished, during his stay at Alexandria, he devoted himself mainly to literary pursuits, ever cherishing the recollection of his own country. On the accession of Ptolemy Philadelphus, Demetrius fell into disfavour, and was sent into exile to Upper Egypt and his death appears to have taken place soon after the year 283 BC. Demetrius was the last among the Attic orators worthy of the name and his orations were characterised as being soft, graceful, and elegant, rather than sublime like those of Demosthenes. These works, which were historical, partly political, partly philosophical. The work On Style which has come down under his name, is the work of a later writer, the performance of tragedy had fallen into disuse in Athens, on account of the great expense involved. In order to afford the people less costly and yet intellectual amusement, he caused the Homeric, according to Strabo, Demetrius inspired the creation of the Mouseion, the location of the Library of Alexandria, which was modeled after the arrangement of Aristotles school. The Mouseion contained a peripatos, a syssition and an organization of scrolls. Other sources claim it was created under the reign of his son Ptolemy II. Diogenes Laërtius devotes a section of his The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers to Demetrius Phalereus, what the exact source was for Hegels claim is unclear
39.
Suda
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The Suda or Souda is a large 10th-century Byzantine encyclopedia of the ancient Mediterranean world, formerly attributed to an author called Suidas. It is a lexicon, written in Greek, with 30,000 entries, many drawing from ancient sources that have since been lost. The Suda is somewhere between a grammatical dictionary and an encyclopedia in the modern sense and it explains the source, derivation, and meaning of words according to the philology of its period, using such earlier authorities as Harpocration and Helladios. The articles on history are especially valuable. These entries supply details and quotations from authors whose works are otherwise lost and they use older scholia to the classics, and for later writers, Polybius, Josephus, the Chronicon Paschale, George Syncellus, George Hamartolus, and so on. This lexicon represents a convenient work of reference for people who played a part in political, ecclesiastical, the chief source for this is the encyclopedia of Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, and for Roman history the excerpts of John of Antioch. Krumbacher counts two main sources of the work, Constantine VII for ancient history, and Hamartolus for the Byzantine age, the system is not difficult to learn and remember, but some editors—for example, Immanuel Bekker – rearranged the Suda alphabetically. Little is known of the compilation of work, except that it must have been written before it was quoted from extensively by Eustathius who lived from about 1115 AD to about 1195 or 1196. It would thus appear that the Suda was compiled sometime after 975, passages referring to Michael Psellus are considered later interpolations. It includes numerous quotations from ancient writers, the scholiasts on Aristophanes, Homer, other principal sources include a lexicon by Eudemus, perhaps derived from the work On Rhetorical Language by Eudemus of Argos. The work deals with biblical as well as subjects, from which it is inferred that the writer was a Christian. A prefatory note gives a list of dictionaries from which the portion was compiled. Although the work is uncritical and probably much interpolated, and the value of its articles is very unequal and its quotations from ancient authors make it a useful check on their manuscript traditions. A modern translation, the Suda On Line, was completed on 21 July 2014, the Suda has a near-contemporaneous Islamic parallel, the Kitab al-Fehrest of Ibn al-Nadim. Compare also the Latin Speculum Maius, authored in the 13th century by Vincent of Beauvais and this article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Sūïdas. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Herbermann, Charles. Ancient Greek Scholarship, a guide to finding, reading, and understanding scholia, commentaries, lexica, Oxford, New York, Oxford University Press,2006. Tachypaedia Byzantina, The Suda On Line as Collaborative Encyclopedia, Digital Humanities Quarterly 3.1, an on-line edition of the Ada Adler edition with ongoing translations and commentary by registered editors
40.
Augustus
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Augustus was the founder of the Roman Principate and considered the first Roman emperor, controlling the Roman Empire from 27 BC until his death in AD14. He was born Gaius Octavius into an old and wealthy equestrian branch of the plebeian gens Octavia and his maternal great-uncle Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC, and Octavius was named in Caesars will as his adopted son and heir, then known as Octavianus. He, Mark Antony, and Marcus Lepidus formed the Second Triumvirate to defeat the assassins of Caesar, following their victory at the Battle of Philippi, the Triumvirate divided the Roman Republic among themselves and ruled as military dictators. The Triumvate was eventually torn apart by the ambitions of its members. Lepidus was driven into exile and stripped of his position, in reality, however, he retained his autocratic power over the Republic as a military dictator. By law, Augustus held a collection of powers granted to him for life by the Senate, including supreme military command, and it took several years for Augustus to develop the framework within which a formally republican state could be led under his sole rule. He rejected monarchical titles, and instead called himself Princeps Civitatis, the resulting constitutional framework became known as the Principate, the first phase of the Roman Empire. The reign of Augustus initiated an era of peace known as the Pax Romana. Augustus dramatically enlarged the Empire, annexing Egypt, Dalmatia, Pannonia, Noricum, and Raetia, expanding possessions in Africa, expanding into Germania, beyond the frontiers, he secured the Empire with a buffer region of client states and made peace with the Parthian Empire through diplomacy. Augustus died in AD14 at the age of 75 and he probably died from natural causes, although there were unconfirmed rumors that his wife Livia poisoned him. He was succeeded as Emperor by his adopted son Tiberius, Augustus was known by many names throughout his life, At birth, he was named Gaius Octavius after his biological father. Historians typically refer to him simply as Octavius between his birth in 63 until his adoption by Julius Caesar in 44 BC, upon his adoption, he took Caesars name and became Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus in accordance with Roman adoption naming standards. He quickly dropped Octavianus from his name, and his contemporaries referred to him as Caesar during this period, historians. In 27 BC, following his defeat of Mark Antony and Cleopatra and it is the events of 27 BC from which he obtained his traditional name of Augustus, which historians use in reference to him from 27 BC until his death in AD14. While his paternal family was from the town of Velletri, approximately 40 kilometres from Rome and he was born at Ox Head, a small property on the Palatine Hill, very close to the Roman Forum. He was given the name Gaius Octavius Thurinus, his cognomen possibly commemorating his fathers victory at Thurii over a band of slaves. Due to the nature of Rome at the time, Octavius was taken to his fathers home village at Velletri to be raised. Octavius only mentions his fathers equestrian family briefly in his memoirs and his paternal great-grandfather Gaius Octavius was a military tribune in Sicily during the Second Punic War
41.
Babrius
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Babrius, also known as Babrias or Gabrias, was the author of a collection of Greek fables, many of which are known today as Aesops Fables. Practically nothing is known of him and he is supposed to have been a Hellenized Roman, whose original name may have been Valerius. He lived in the East, probably in Syria, where the fables seem first to have gained popularity. The address to a son of King Alexander has caused much speculation, the Alexander referred to may have been Alexander Severus, who was fond of having literary men of all kinds about his court. There is no mention of Babrius in ancient writers before the beginning of the 3rd century AD, as appears from surviving papyrus fragments, his work is to be dated before c.200 AD. The first critic who made Babrius more than a name was Richard Bentley. Tyrwhitt followed up the researches of Bentley, and for some time the efforts of scholars were directed towards reconstructing the original of the prose fables. In 1842 the Greek Minoides Mynas came upon a manuscript of Babrius in the convent of St Laura on Mount Athos and this manuscript contained 123 fables out of the supposed original number,160. They are arranged alphabetically, but break off at the letter O, the fables are written in choliambic, that is, limping or imperfect iambic verse, having a spondee as the last foot, a meter originally appropriated to scurrilous verse. The style is extremely good, the expression being terse and pointed, the correct and elegant. The genuineness of this collection of the fables was generally admitted by scholars, in 1857, Mynas professed to have discovered at Mount Athos another manuscript containing 94 fables and a preface. As the monks refused to sell this manuscript, he made a copy of it, which was sold to the British Museum and this, however, was soon proved to be a forgery. Six more fables were brought to light by P Knoll from a Vatican manuscript edited by A. Eberhard, crusius, De Babrii Aetate Ficus, De Babrii Vita J Weiner, Quaestiones Babrianae Conington, Miscellaneous Writings, ii. 460-491 Marchiano, Babrio Fusci, Babrio Christoffersson, Studia de Fabvlis Babrianis, early translations in English were made by Davies and in French by Levêque, and in many other languages. More contemporary translations are by Denison B. Hull and Ben E. Perry, in 1941, Heritage Press produced a fine book edition of Aesop, translated and adapted by Munro Leaf as juvenalia and lavishly illustrated by Robert Lawson. In 1998, Penguin Classics released a new translation by Olivia and Robert Temple entitled, Aesop, The Complete Fables in reference to the fact that some previous translations were partial
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