1.
Leontinoi
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Lentini, historically Leontini or Leontinoi, is a town and comune in the Province of Syracuse, South East of Sicily. The city was founded by colonists from Naxos as Leontini in 729 BC and it is virtually the only Greek settlement in Sicily that is not located on the coast, founded around 6 miles inland. The site, originally held by the Sicels, was seized by the Greeks owing to their command on the plain in the north. The city was reduced to subject status in 494 BC by Hippocrates of Gela, in 476 BC, Hieron of Syracuse moved the inhabitants from Catana and Naxos to Leontini. Later on, the city of Leontini regained its independence, however, as a part of the inhabitants efforts to retain their independence, they invoked more than once the interventions of Athens. It was mainly the eloquence of Gorgias of Leontini which led to the abortive Athenian expedition of 427 BC, in 422 BC, the Greek city-state of Syracuse supported the oligarchs against the people and received them as citizens, Leontini itself being forsaken. This led to a renewed Athenian intervention, initially as a diplomatic one, the exiles of Leontini joined the envoys of Segesta in persuading Athens to undertake the great Sicilian Expedition of 415 BC. After the failure of the Expedition, Leontini became subject to Syracuse once more, the citys independence was guaranteed by the treaty of 405 BC between Dionysius and the Carthaginians, but it was soon lost again. The city was stormed by Marcus Claudius Marcellus in 214 BC. In Roman times it seems to have been of small importance and it was destroyed by the Saracens in 847 AD, and almost completely ruined by the earthquake of 1693. Until the middle of the 20th century, Lentini was regarded by travellers as a stopover to Syracuse of minor historical importance. The ancient city is described by Polybius as lying in a valley between two hills, and facing north, on the western side of this valley there was a river flowing with a row of houses on its western bank below the hill. At each end was a gate, the gate leading to the plain. On each side of the valley there was an acropolis, lying between precipitous hills with flat tops, over which buildings extended, the eastern hill still has the remains of a strongly fortified medieval castle, in which some writers are inclined to recognize portions of the Greek masonry. Lentinis prime monuments include, The Baroque Chiesa madre Santa Maria la Cava e SantAlfio and it has a basilica plan with a nave and two aisles, the three-order façade is from the 18th century. Something noteworthy is the portal with scenes of the martyrdoms of St. Alfio. The interior holds a Byzantine icon from the 12th century, the Chiesa of Santissima Trinità e San Marziano, which was built over the ruins of the 16th century Palazzo La Palumba. It has a pavement in ceramics of Caltagirone and a polyptych of Antonello da Messinas school
2.
Pre-Socratic philosophy
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Pre-Socratic philosophy is ancient Greek philosophy before Socrates and schools contemporary to Socrates that were not influenced by him. In Classical antiquity, the Presocratic philosophers were called physiologoi, Aristotle called them physikoi because they sought natural explanations for phenomena, as opposed to the earlier theologoi, whose philosophical basis was supernatural. Diogenes Laërtius divides the physiologoi into two groups, Ionian, led by Anaximander, and the Italiote, led by Pythagoras, hermann Diels popularized the term pre-socratic in Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker in 1903. However, the term pre-Sokratic was in use as early as George Grotes Plato, edouard Zeller was also important in dividing thought before and after Socrates. Major analyses of pre-Socratic thought have been made by Gregory Vlastos, Jonathan Barnes and it may sometimes be difficult to determine the actual line of argument some Presocratics used in supporting their particular views. While most of them produced significant texts, none of the texts has survived in complete form, all that is available are quotations by later philosophers and historians, and the occasional textual fragment. The Presocratic philosophers rejected traditional mythological explanations of the phenomena they saw them in favor of more rational explanations. These philosophers asked questions about the essence of things, From where does everything come, how do we explain the plurality of things found in nature. How might we describe nature mathematically, others concentrated on defining problems and paradoxes that became the basis for later mathematical, scientific and philosophic study. Later philosophers rejected many of the answers the early Greek philosophers provided, furthermore, the cosmologies proposed by them have been updated by later developments in science. Western philosophy began in ancient Greece in the 6th century BCE, the Presocratics were mostly from the eastern or western fringes of the Greek world. Their efforts were directed to the investigation of the ultimate basis and they sought the material principle of things, and the method of their origin and disappearance. As the first philosophers, they emphasized the unity of things. Only fragments of the writings of the presocratics survive. The knowledge we have of them derives from accounts - known as doxography - of later philosophical writers, the first Presocratic philosophers were from Miletus on the western coast of Anatolia. Thales is reputedly the father of Greek philosophy, he declared water to be the basis of all things, next came Anaximander, the first writer on philosophy. He assumed as the first principle an undefined, unlimited substance without qualities, out of which the primary opposites, hot and cold, moist and dry, became differentiated. His younger contemporary, Anaximenes, took for his air, conceiving it as modified, by thickening and thinning, into fire, wind, clouds, water
3.
Western philosophy
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Western philosophy is the philosophical thought and work of the Western world. The word philosophy itself originated from the Hellenic, philosophia, literally, the scope of philosophy in the ancient understanding, and the writings of the ancient philosophers, were all intellectual endeavors. Western Philosophy is generally said to begin in the Greek cities of western Asia Minor with Thales of Miletus and his most noted students were respectively Anaximander and Anaximenes of Miletus. Pythagoras, from the island of Samos off the coast of Ionia, pythagoreans hold that all is number, giving formal accounts in contrast to the previous material of the Ionians. They also believe in metempsychosis, the transmigration of souls, or reincarnation, Socrates The key figure in Greek philosophy is Socrates. Socrates studied under several Sophists but transformed Greek philosophy into a unified, Socrates used a critical approach called the elenchus or Socratic method to examine peoples views. He aimed to study human things, the life, justice, beauty. Although Socrates wrote nothing himself, some of his many disciples wrote down his conversations and he was tried for corrupting the youth and impiety by the Greek democracy. He was found guilty and sentenced to death, although his friends offered to help him escape from prison, he chose to remain in Athens and abide by his principles. His execution consisting in drinking the poison hemlock and he died in 399 B. C, Plato Socrates most important student was Plato. Plato founded the Academy of Athens and wrote a number of dialogues, some central ideas of Platos dialogues are the immortality of the soul, the benefits of being just, that evil is ignorance, and the Theory of Forms. Forms are universal properties that constitute reality and contrast with the changeable material things he called becoming. Aristotle Platos most outstanding student was Aristotle, Aristotle was perhaps the first truly systematic philosopher and scientist. He wrote books on physics, biology, zoology, metaphysics, aesthetics, poetry, theater, music, rhetoric, politics, Aristotelian logic was the first type of logic to attempt to categorize every valid syllogism. Aristotelian philosophy exercised considerable influence on almost all western philosophers, including Greek, Roman, Christian, Jewish, the Neoplatonic and Christian philosophers of Late Antiquity. Early medieval philosophy was influenced by the likes of Stoicism, neo-Platonism, but, above all, the prominent figure of this period was St. Augustinianism was the preferred starting point for most philosophers up until the 13th century. The foundations of many northern European universities were built in the Middle Ages by waves of Irish, Scottish & English monks from the Celtic Church begun by Columba, see Celtic Christianity. Erigena is said to have been stabbed to death by his students with their pens and his theology would today be called pantheistic, in keeping with Celtic resolutions of pagan and Christian philosophy
4.
Ontology
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Ontology is the philosophical study of the nature of being, becoming, existence or reality as well as the basic categories of being and their relations. Although ontology as an enterprise is highly hypothetical, it also has practical application in information science and technology. Some philosophers, notably of the Platonic school, contend that all refer to existent entities. Other philosophers contend that nouns do not always name entities, between these poles of realism and nominalism, stand a variety of other positions. An ontology may give an account of which refer to entities, which do not, why. Principal questions of ontology include, What can be said to exist, into what categories, if any, can we sort existing things. What are the meanings of being, what are the various modes of being of entities. Various philosophers have provided different answers to these questions, one common approach involves dividing the extant subjects and predicates into groups called categories. Such an understanding of ontological categories, however, is merely taxonomic, what does it mean for a being to be. Is existence a genus or general class that is divided up by specific differences. Which entities, if any, are fundamental, how do the properties of an object relate to the object itself. What features are the essential, as opposed to merely accidental attributes of a given object, how many levels of existence or ontological levels are there. Can one give an account of what it means to say that an object exists. Can one give an account of what it means to say that an entity exists. What constitutes the identity of an object, when does an object go out of existence, as opposed to merely changing. Do beings exist other than in the modes of objectivity and subjectivity, i. e. is the subject/object split of modern philosophy inevitable. e. Being, that which is, which is the present participle of the verb εἰμί, eimí, i. e. to be, I am, and -λογία, -logia, i. e. logical discourse. The first occurrence in English of ontology as recorded by the OED came in a work by Gideon Harvey, Archelogia philosophica nova, or, New principles of Philosophy
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Epistemology
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Epistemology is the branch of philosophy concerned with the theory of knowledge. Epistemology studies the nature of knowledge, justification, and the rationality of belief, the term Epistemology was first used by Scottish philosopher James Frederick Ferrier in 1854. However, according to Brett Warren, King James VI of Scotland had previously personified this philosophical concept as the character Epistemon in 1591 and this philosophical approach signified a Philomath seeking to obtain greater knowledge through epistemology with the use of theology. The dialogue was used by King James to educate society on various concepts including the history, the word epistemology is derived from the ancient Greek epistēmē meaning knowledge and the suffix -logy, meaning a logical discourse to. J. F. Ferrier coined epistemology on the model of ontology, to designate that branch of philosophy which aims to discover the meaning of knowledge, and called it the true beginning of philosophy. The word is equivalent to the concept Wissenschaftslehre, which was used by German philosophers Johann Fichte, French philosophers then gave the term épistémologie a narrower meaning as theory of knowledge. Émile Meyerson opened his Identity and Reality, written in 1908, in mathematics, it is known that 2 +2 =4, but there is also knowing how to add two numbers, and knowing a person, place, thing, or activity. Some philosophers think there is an important distinction between knowing that, knowing how, and acquaintance-knowledge, with epistemology being primarily concerned with the first of these, while these distinctions are not explicit in English, they are defined explicitly in other languages. In French, Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch to know is translated using connaître, conhecer, conocer, modern Greek has the verbs γνωρίζω and ξέρω. Italian has the verbs conoscere and sapere and the nouns for knowledge are conoscenza and sapienza, German has the verbs wissen and kennen. The verb itself implies a process, you have to go from one state to another and this verb seems to be the most appropriate in terms of describing the episteme in one of the modern European languages, hence the German name Erkenntnistheorie. The theoretical interpretation and significance of linguistic issues remains controversial. In his paper On Denoting and his later book Problems of Philosophy Bertrand Russell stressed the distinction between knowledge by description and knowledge by acquaintance, gilbert Ryle is also credited with stressing the distinction between knowing how and knowing that in The Concept of Mind. This position is essentially Ryles, who argued that a failure to acknowledge the distinction between knowledge that and knowledge how leads to infinite regress and this includes the truth, and everything else we accept as true for ourselves from a cognitive point of view. Whether someones belief is true is not a prerequisite for belief, on the other hand, if something is actually known, then it categorically cannot be false. It would not be accurate to say that he knew that the bridge was safe, because plainly it was not. By contrast, if the bridge actually supported his weight, then he might say that he had believed that the bridge was safe, whereas now, after proving it to himself, epistemologists argue over whether belief is the proper truth-bearer. Some would rather describe knowledge as a system of justified true propositions, plato, in his Gorgias, argues that belief is the most commonly invoked truth-bearer
6.
Rhetoric
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Rhetoric is the art of discourse, wherein a writer or speaker strives to inform, persuade or motivate particular audiences in specific situations. As a subject of study and a productive civic practice. Its best known definition comes from Aristotle, who considers it a counterpart of both logic and politics, and calls it the faculty of observing in any case the available means of persuasion. The five canons of rhetoric, which trace the traditional tasks in designing a persuasive speech, were first codified in classical Rome, invention, arrangement, style, memory, along with grammar and logic, rhetoric is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. From Ancient Greece to the late 19th century, it was a part of Western education. Scholars have debated the scope of rhetoric since ancient times, although some have limited rhetoric to the specific realm of political discourse, many modern scholars liberate it to encompass every aspect of culture. Contemporary studies of rhetoric address a diverse range of domains than was the case in ancient times. Many contemporary approaches treat rhetoric as human communication that includes purposeful, Public relations, lobbying, law, marketing, professional and technical writing, and advertising are modern professions that employ rhetorical practitioners. Because the ancient Greeks highly valued public political participation, rhetoric emerged as a tool to influence politics. Consequently, rhetoric remains associated with its political origins, however, even the original instructors of Western speech—the Sophists—disputed this limited view of rhetoric. According to the Sophists, such as Gorgias, a successful rhetorician could speak convincingly on any topic and this method suggested rhetoric could be a means of communicating any expertise, not just politics. In his Encomium to Helen, Gorgias even applied rhetoric to fiction by seeking for his own pleasure to prove the blamelessness of the mythical Helen of Troy in starting the Trojan War. Looking to another key rhetorical theorist, Plato defined the scope of rhetoric according to his opinions of the art. He criticized the Sophists for using rhetoric as a means of deceit instead of discovering truth, in Gorgias, one of his Socratic Dialogues, Plato defines rhetoric as the persuasion of ignorant masses within the courts and assemblies. Rhetoric, in Platos opinion, is merely a form of flattery and functions similarly to cookery, thus, Plato considered any speech of lengthy prose aimed at flattery as within the scope of rhetoric. Aristotle both redeemed rhetoric from his teacher and narrowed its focus by defining three genres of rhetoric—deliberative, forensic or judicial, and epideictic, when one considers that rhetoric included torture, it is clear that rhetoric cannot be viewed only in academic terms. However, the enthymeme based upon logic was viewed as the basis of rhetoric, however, since the time of Aristotle, logic has changed. For example, Modal logic has undergone a major development that also modifies rhetoric, yet, Aristotle also outlined generic constraints that focused the rhetorical art squarely within the domain of public political practice
7.
Empedocles
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Empedocles was a Greek pre-Socratic philosopher and a citizen of Acragas, a Greek city in Sicily. Empedocles philosophy is best known for originating the theory of the four classical elements. He also proposed forces he called Love and Strife which would mix as well as separate the elements and these physical speculations were part of a history of the universe which also dealt with the origin and development of life. Influenced by the Pythagoreans, Empedocles was a vegetarian who supported the doctrine of reincarnation and he is generally considered the last Greek philosopher to have recorded his ideas in verse. Some of his survives, more than is the case for any other pre-Socratic philosopher. Empedocles death was mythologized by ancient writers, and has been the subject of a number of literary treatments, Empedocles was born, c.490 BC, at Acragas in Sicily to a distinguished family. Very little is known about his life and his father Meto seems to have been instrumental in overthrowing the tyrant of Agrigentum, presumably Thrasydaeus in 470 BC. Empedocles continued this tradition by helping to overthrow the succeeding oligarchic government, Empedocles was acquainted or connected by friendship with the physicians Pausanias and Acron, with various Pythagoreans, and even, it is said, with Parmenides and Anaxagoras. The only pupil of Empedocles who is mentioned is the sophist, according to Aristotle, he died at the age of sixty, even though other writers have him living up to the age of one hundred and nine. The contemporary Life of Empedocles by Xanthus has been lost, Empedocles is considered the last Greek philosopher to write in verse and the surviving fragments of his teaching are from two poems, Purifications and On Nature. Lucretius speaks of him with enthusiasm, and evidently viewed him as his model, the two poems together comprised 5000 lines. About 550 lines of his survive, although because ancient writers rarely mentioned which poem they were quoting. Some scholars now believe there was only one poem. We possess only about 100 lines of his Purifications and it seems to have given a mythical account of the world which may, nevertheless, have been part of Empedocles philosophical system. Humans, animals, and even plants are such spirits, the moral conduct recommended in the poem may allow us to become like gods again. There are about 450 lines of his poem On Nature extant, the poem originally consisted of 2000 lines of hexameter verse, and was addressed to Pausanias. It was this poem which outlined his philosophical system, although acquainted with the theories of the Eleatics and the Pythagoreans, Empedocles did not belong to any one definite school. An eclectic in his thinking, he combined much that had been suggested by Parmenides, Pythagoras and he was a firm believer in Orphic mysteries, as well as a scientific thinker and a precursor of physical science
8.
Parmenides
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Parmenides of Elea was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher from Elea in Magna Graecia. He was the founder of the Eleatic school of philosophy, the single known work of Parmenides is a poem, On Nature, which has survived only in fragmentary form. In this poem, Parmenides describes two views of reality, in the way of truth, he explains how reality is one, change is impossible, and existence is timeless, uniform, necessary, and unchanging. In the way of opinion, he explains the world of appearances, in which ones sensory faculties lead to conceptions which are false, Parmenides was born in the Greek colony of Elea, which, according to Herodotus, had been founded shortly before 535 BC. He was descended from a wealthy and illustrious family,450 BC, which, if true, suggests a year of birth of c.515 BC. He was said to have been a pupil of Xenophanes, and regardless of whether they knew each other. Diogenes Laërtius also describes Parmenides as a disciple of Ameinias, son of Diochaites, the Pythagorean, the first hero cult of a philosopher we know of was Parmenides dedication of a heroon to his teacher Ameinias in Elea. Parmenides was the founder of the School of Elea, which also included Zeno of Elea, of his life in Elea, it was said that he had written the laws of the city. His most important pupil was Zeno, who according to Plato was 25 years his junior, Parmenides had a large influence on Plato, who not only named a dialogue, Parmenides, after him, but always spoke of him with veneration. William Smith also wrote in Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, Reason is our guide, on the latter the eye that does not catch the object and re-echoing hearing. Thought and that which is thought of coinciding, the passages of Plato, Aristotle, Theophrastus, and others. Parmenides is one of the most significant of the pre-Socratic philosophers and his single known work, a poem conventionally titled On Nature, has survived only in fragments. Approximately 160 verses remain today from a total that was probably near 800. The poem was divided into three parts, A proem, which introduced the entire work, A section known as The Way of Truth. The proem is a sequence in which the narrator travels beyond the beaten paths of mortal men to receive a revelation from an unnamed goddess on the nature of reality. Aletheia, an estimated 90% of which has survived, and doxa, in the proem, Parmenides describes the journey of the poet, escorted by maidens, from the ordinary daytime world to a strange destination, outside our human paths. Carried in a chariot, and attended by the daughters of Helios the Sun. The goddess resides in a well-known mythological space, where Night and its essential character is that here all opposites are undivided, or one
9.
Zeno of Elea
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Zeno of Elea was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher of Magna Graecia and a member of the Eleatic School founded by Parmenides. Aristotle called him the inventor of the dialectic and he is best known for his paradoxes, which Bertrand Russell has described as immeasurably subtle and profound. Little is known for certain about Zenos life, although written nearly a century after Zenos death, the primary source of biographical information about Zeno is Platos Parmenides and he is also mentioned in Aristotles Physics. In the dialogue of Parmenides, Plato describes a visit to Athens by Zeno and Parmenides, at a time when Parmenides is about 65, Zeno is nearly 40 and Socrates is a very young man. Assuming an age for Socrates of around 20, and taking the date of Socrates birth as 469 BC gives a date of birth for Zeno of 490 BC. Plato says that Zeno was tall and fair to look upon and was in the days of his youth … reported to have been beloved by Parmenides, according to Diogenes Laertius, Zeno conspired to overthrow Nearchus the tyrant. Eventually, Zeno was arrested and tortured, when Nearchus leaned in to listen to the secret, Zeno bit his ear. He did not let go until he lost his life and the tyrant lost that part of his body, within Men of the Same Name, Demetrius said it was the nose that was bit off instead. Zeno may have interacted with other tyrants. According to Laertius, Heraclides Lembus, within his Satyrus, said these events occurred against Diomedon instead of Nearchus, valerius Maximus recounts a conspiracy against the tyrant Phalaris, but this would be impossible as Phalaris had died before Zeno was even born. According to Plutarch, Zeno attempted to kill the tyrant Demylus, after failing, he had, with his own teeth bit off his tongue, he spit it in the tyrant’s face. Although many ancient writers refer to the writings of Zeno, none of his works survive intact, the main sources on the nature of Zenos arguments on motion, in fact, come from the writings of Aristotle and Simplicius of Cilicia. Plato says that Zenos writings were brought to Athens for the first time on the occasion of the visit of Zeno and Parmenides. Plato also has Zeno say that work, meant to protect the arguments of Parmenides, was written in Zenos youth, stolen. According to Proclus in his Commentary on Platos Parmenides, Zeno produced not less than forty arguments revealing contradictions, Zenos arguments are perhaps the first examples of a method of proof called reductio ad absurdum, literally meaning to reduce to the absurd. Parmenides is said to be the first individual to implement this style of argument and this form of argument soon became known as the epicheirema. In Book VII of his Topics, Aristotle says that an epicheirema is a dialectical syllogism and it is a connected piece of reasoning which an opponent has put forward as true. The disputant sets out to break down the dialectical syllogism, Zeno is also regarded as the first philosopher who dealt with the earliest attestable accounts of mathematical infinity
10.
Plato
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Plato was a philosopher in Classical Greece and the founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. He is widely considered the most pivotal figure in the development of philosophy, unlike nearly all of his philosophical contemporaries, Platos entire work is believed to have survived intact for over 2,400 years. Along with his teacher, Socrates, and his most famous student, Aristotle, Plato laid the foundations of Western philosophy. Alfred North Whitehead once noted, the safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato. In addition to being a figure for Western science, philosophy. Friedrich Nietzsche, amongst other scholars, called Christianity, Platonism for the people, Plato was the innovator of the written dialogue and dialectic forms in philosophy, which originate with him. He was not the first thinker or writer to whom the word “philosopher” should be applied, few other authors in the history of Western philosophy approximate him in depth and range, perhaps only Aristotle, Aquinas and Kant would be generally agreed to be of the same rank. Due to a lack of surviving accounts, little is known about Platos early life, the philosopher came from one of the wealthiest and most politically active families in Athens. Ancient sources describe him as a bright though modest boy who excelled in his studies, the exact time and place of Platos birth are unknown, but it is certain that he belonged to an aristocratic and influential family. Based on ancient sources, most modern scholars believe that he was born in Athens or Aegina between 429 and 423 BCE. According to a tradition, reported by Diogenes Laertius, Ariston traced his descent from the king of Athens, Codrus. Platos mother was Perictione, whose family boasted of a relationship with the famous Athenian lawmaker, besides Plato himself, Ariston and Perictione had three other children, these were two sons, Adeimantus and Glaucon, and a daughter Potone, the mother of Speusippus. The brothers Adeimantus and Glaucon are mentioned in the Republic as sons of Ariston, and presumably brothers of Plato, but in a scenario in the Memorabilia, Xenophon confused the issue by presenting a Glaucon much younger than Plato. Then, at twenty-eight, Hermodorus says, went to Euclides in Megara, as Debra Nails argues, The text itself gives no reason to infer that Plato left immediately for Megara and implies the very opposite. Thus, Nails dates Platos birth to 424/423, another legend related that, when Plato was an infant, bees settled on his lips while he was sleeping, an augury of the sweetness of style in which he would discourse about philosophy. Ariston appears to have died in Platos childhood, although the dating of his death is difficult. Perictione then married Pyrilampes, her mothers brother, who had served many times as an ambassador to the Persian court and was a friend of Pericles, Pyrilampes had a son from a previous marriage, Demus, who was famous for his beauty. Perictione gave birth to Pyrilampes second son, Antiphon, the half-brother of Plato and these and other references suggest a considerable amount of family pride and enable us to reconstruct Platos family tree
11.
Antisthenes
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Antisthenes was a Greek philosopher and a pupil of Socrates. Antisthenes first learned rhetoric under Gorgias before becoming an ardent disciple of Socrates and he adopted and developed the ethical side of Socrates teachings, advocating an ascetic life lived in accordance with virtue. Later writers regarded him as the founder of Cynic philosophy, Antisthenes was born c.445 BC and was the son of Antisthenes, an Athenian. In his youth he fought at Tanagra, and was a disciple first of Gorgias and he never forgave his masters persecutors, and is said to have been instrumental in procuring their punishment. He survived the Battle of Leuctra, as he is reported to have compared the victory of the Thebans to a set of schoolboys beating their master. He is said to have lectured at the Cynosarges, a gymnasium for the use of Athenians born of foreign mothers, Diogenes Laërtius says that his works filled ten volumes, but of these, only fragments remain. His style was pure and elegant, and Theopompus even said that Plato stole from him many of his thoughts, cicero, after reading some works by Antisthenes, found his works pleasing and called him a man more intelligent than learned. Two declamations have survived, named Ajax and Odysseus, which are purely rhetorical, and he held virtue to be sufficient in itself to ensure happiness, since it needed nothing else except the strength of a Socrates. Antisthenes was a pupil of Socrates, from whom he imbibed the fundamental ethical precept that virtue, everything that the wise person does, Antisthenes said, conforms to perfect virtue, and pleasure is not only unnecessary, but a positive evil. He is reported to have pain and even ill-repute to be blessings. The supreme good he placed in a life lived according to virtue, – virtue consisting in action, which when obtained is never lost, and exempts the wise person from error. It is closely connected with reason, but to enable it to itself in action. His work on Natural Philosophy contained a theory of the nature of the gods, in which he argued there were many gods believed in by the people. He also said that God resembles nothing on earth, and therefore could not be understood from any representation, in logic, Antisthenes was troubled by the problem of universals. G. that silver is like tin in colour, thus he disbelieved the Platonic system of Ideas. A horse, said Antisthenes, I can see, but horsehood I cannot see, definition is merely a circuitous method of stating an identity, a tree is a vegetable growth is logically no more than a tree is a tree. Antisthenes apparently distinguished a general object that can be aligned with the meaning of the utterance from an object of extensional reference. This suggests that he makes a distinction between sense and reference, aristotle, writing a generation later refers several times to Antisthenes and his followers the Antistheneans, but makes no reference to Cynicism
12.
Pericles
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Pericles was a prominent and influential Greek statesman, orator and general of Athens during the Golden Age—specifically the time between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars. He was descended, through his mother, from the powerful, Pericles had such a profound influence on Athenian society that Thucydides, a contemporary historian, acclaimed him as the first citizen of Athens. Pericles turned the Delian League into an Athenian empire, and led his countrymen during the first two years of the Peloponnesian War. Pericles promoted the arts and literature, it is principally through his efforts that Athens holds the reputation of being the educational and cultural center of the ancient Greek world and he started an ambitious project that generated most of the surviving structures on the Acropolis. This project beautified and protected the city, exhibited its glory, Pericles also fostered Athenian democracy to such an extent that critics call him a populist. Pericles was born c.495 BC, in Athens, Greece and he was the son of the politician Xanthippus, who, though ostracized in 485–484 BC, returned to Athens to command the Athenian contingent in the Greek victory at Mycale just five years later. Agariste was the great-granddaughter of the tyrant of Sicyon, Cleisthenes, according to Herodotus and Plutarch, Agariste dreamed, a few nights before Pericles birth, that she had borne a lion. Interestingly, legends say that Philip II of Macedon had a dream before the birth of his son. Pericles belonged to the tribe of Acamantis and his early years were quiet, the introverted young Pericles avoided public appearances, instead preferring to devote his time to his studies. His familys nobility and wealth allowed him to pursue his inclination toward education. He learned music from the masters of the time and he is considered to have been the first politician to attribute importance to philosophy and he enjoyed the company of the philosophers Protagoras, Zeno of Elea, and Anaxagoras. Anaxagoras, in particular, became a friend and influenced him greatly. Pericles manner of thought and rhetorical charisma may have been in part products of Anaxagoras emphasis on emotional calm in the face of trouble and his proverbial calmness and self-control are also often regarded as products of Anaxagoras influence. In the spring of 472 BC, Pericles presented The Persians of Aeschylus at the Greater Dionysia as a liturgy, Plutarch says that Pericles stood first among the Athenians for forty years. If this was so, Pericles must have taken up a position of leadership by the early 460s BC- in his early or mid-thirties, throughout these years he endeavored to protect his privacy and to present himself as a model for his fellow citizens. For example, he would often avoid banquets, trying to be frugal, in 463 BC, Pericles was the leading prosecutor of Cimon, the leader of the conservative faction who was accused of neglecting Athens vital interests in Macedon. Although Cimon was acquitted, this proved that Pericles major political opponent was vulnerable. The leader of the party and mentor of Pericles, Ephialtes, the Ecclesia adopted Ephialtes proposal without opposition
13.
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
14.
Greece
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Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, historically also known as Hellas, is a country in southeastern Europe, with a population of approximately 11 million as of 2015. Athens is the capital and largest city, followed by Thessaloniki. Greece is strategically located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, situated on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to the northeast. Greece consists of nine regions, Macedonia, Central Greece, the Peloponnese, Thessaly, Epirus, the Aegean Islands, Thrace, Crete. The Aegean Sea lies to the east of the mainland, the Ionian Sea to the west, the Cretan Sea and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Greece has the longest coastline on the Mediterranean Basin and the 11th longest coastline in the world at 13,676 km in length, featuring a vast number of islands, eighty percent of Greece is mountainous, with Mount Olympus being the highest peak at 2,918 metres. From the eighth century BC, the Greeks were organised into various independent city-states, known as polis, which spanned the entire Mediterranean region and the Black Sea. Greece was annexed by Rome in the second century BC, becoming a part of the Roman Empire and its successor. The Greek Orthodox Church also shaped modern Greek identity and transmitted Greek traditions to the wider Orthodox World, falling under Ottoman dominion in the mid-15th century, the modern nation state of Greece emerged in 1830 following a war of independence. Greeces rich historical legacy is reflected by its 18 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, among the most in Europe, Greece is a democratic and developed country with an advanced high-income economy, a high quality of life, and a very high standard of living. A founding member of the United Nations, Greece was the member to join the European Communities and has been part of the Eurozone since 2001. Greeces unique cultural heritage, large industry, prominent shipping sector. It is the largest economy in the Balkans, where it is an important regional investor, the names for the nation of Greece and the Greek people differ from the names used in other languages, locations and cultures. The earliest evidence of the presence of human ancestors in the southern Balkans, dated to 270,000 BC, is to be found in the Petralona cave, all three stages of the stone age are represented in Greece, for example in the Franchthi Cave. Neolithic settlements in Greece, dating from the 7th millennium BC, are the oldest in Europe by several centuries and these civilizations possessed writing, the Minoans writing in an undeciphered script known as Linear A, and the Mycenaeans in Linear B, an early form of Greek. The Mycenaeans gradually absorbed the Minoans, but collapsed violently around 1200 BC and this ushered in a period known as the Greek Dark Ages, from which written records are absent. The end of the Dark Ages is traditionally dated to 776 BC, the Iliad and the Odyssey, the foundational texts of Western literature, are believed to have been composed by Homer in the 7th or 8th centuries BC. With the end of the Dark Ages, there emerged various kingdoms and city-states across the Greek peninsula, in 508 BC, Cleisthenes instituted the worlds first democratic system of government in Athens
15.
Philosophy
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Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. The term was coined by Pythagoras. Philosophical methods include questioning, critical discussion, rational argument and systematic presentation, classic philosophical questions include, Is it possible to know anything and to prove it. However, philosophers might also pose more practical and concrete questions such as, is it better to be just or unjust. Historically, philosophy encompassed any body of knowledge, from the time of Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle to the 19th century, natural philosophy encompassed astronomy, medicine and physics. For example, Newtons 1687 Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy later became classified as a book of physics, in the 19th century, the growth of modern research universities led academic philosophy and other disciplines to professionalize and specialize. In the modern era, some investigations that were part of philosophy became separate academic disciplines, including psychology, sociology. Other investigations closely related to art, science, politics, or other pursuits remained part of philosophy, for example, is beauty objective or subjective. Are there many scientific methods or just one, is political utopia a hopeful dream or hopeless fantasy. Major sub-fields of academic philosophy include metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics, political philosophy, logic, philosophy of science, since the 20th century, professional philosophers contribute to society primarily as professors, researchers and writers. Traditionally, the term referred to any body of knowledge. In this sense, philosophy is related to religion, mathematics, natural science, education. This division is not obsolete but has changed, Natural philosophy has split into the various natural sciences, especially astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology and cosmology. Moral philosophy has birthed the social sciences, but still includes value theory, metaphysical philosophy has birthed formal sciences such as logic, mathematics and philosophy of science, but still includes epistemology, cosmology and others. Many philosophical debates that began in ancient times are still debated today, colin McGinn and others claim that no philosophical progress has occurred during that interval. Chalmers and others, by contrast, see progress in philosophy similar to that in science, in one general sense, philosophy is associated with wisdom, intellectual culture and a search for knowledge. In that sense, all cultures and literate societies ask philosophical questions such as how are we to live, a broad and impartial conception of philosophy then, finds a reasoned inquiry into such matters as reality, morality and life in all world civilizations. Socrates was an influential philosopher, who insisted that he possessed no wisdom but was a pursuer of wisdom
16.
Leontini
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Lentini, historically Leontini or Leontinoi, is a town and comune in the Province of Syracuse, South East of Sicily. The city was founded by colonists from Naxos as Leontini in 729 BC and it is virtually the only Greek settlement in Sicily that is not located on the coast, founded around 6 miles inland. The site, originally held by the Sicels, was seized by the Greeks owing to their command on the plain in the north. The city was reduced to subject status in 494 BC by Hippocrates of Gela, in 476 BC, Hieron of Syracuse moved the inhabitants from Catana and Naxos to Leontini. Later on, the city of Leontini regained its independence, however, as a part of the inhabitants efforts to retain their independence, they invoked more than once the interventions of Athens. It was mainly the eloquence of Gorgias of Leontini which led to the abortive Athenian expedition of 427 BC, in 422 BC, the Greek city-state of Syracuse supported the oligarchs against the people and received them as citizens, Leontini itself being forsaken. This led to a renewed Athenian intervention, initially as a diplomatic one, the exiles of Leontini joined the envoys of Segesta in persuading Athens to undertake the great Sicilian Expedition of 415 BC. After the failure of the Expedition, Leontini became subject to Syracuse once more, the citys independence was guaranteed by the treaty of 405 BC between Dionysius and the Carthaginians, but it was soon lost again. The city was stormed by Marcus Claudius Marcellus in 214 BC. In Roman times it seems to have been of small importance and it was destroyed by the Saracens in 847 AD, and almost completely ruined by the earthquake of 1693. Until the middle of the 20th century, Lentini was regarded by travellers as a stopover to Syracuse of minor historical importance. The ancient city is described by Polybius as lying in a valley between two hills, and facing north, on the western side of this valley there was a river flowing with a row of houses on its western bank below the hill. At each end was a gate, the gate leading to the plain. On each side of the valley there was an acropolis, lying between precipitous hills with flat tops, over which buildings extended, the eastern hill still has the remains of a strongly fortified medieval castle, in which some writers are inclined to recognize portions of the Greek masonry. Lentinis prime monuments include, The Baroque Chiesa madre Santa Maria la Cava e SantAlfio and it has a basilica plan with a nave and two aisles, the three-order façade is from the 18th century. Something noteworthy is the portal with scenes of the martyrdoms of St. Alfio. The interior holds a Byzantine icon from the 12th century, the Chiesa of Santissima Trinità e San Marziano, which was built over the ruins of the 16th century Palazzo La Palumba. It has a pavement in ceramics of Caltagirone and a polyptych of Antonello da Messinas school
17.
Sicily
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Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is an autonomous Region of Italy, along with surrounding minor islands, Sicily is located in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula, from which it is separated by the narrow Strait of Messina. Its most prominent landmark is Mount Etna, the tallest active volcano in Europe, the island has a typical Mediterranean climate. The earliest archaeological evidence of activity on the island dates from as early as 12,000 BC. It became part of Italy in 1860 following the Expedition of the Thousand, a revolt led by Giuseppe Garibaldi during the Italian unification, Sicily was given special status as an autonomous region after the Italian constitutional referendum of 1946. Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially regard to the arts, music, literature, cuisine. It is also home to important archaeological and ancient sites, such as the Necropolis of Pantalica, the Valley of the Temples, Sicily has a roughly triangular shape, earning it the name Trinacria. To the east, it is separated from the Italian mainland by the Strait of Messina, about 3 km wide in the north, and about 16 km wide in the southern part. The northern and southern coasts are each about 280 km long measured as a line, while the eastern coast measures around 180 km. The total area of the island is 25,711 km2, the terrain of inland Sicily is mostly hilly and is intensively cultivated wherever possible. Along the northern coast, the ranges of Madonie,2,000 m, Nebrodi,1,800 m. The cone of Mount Etna dominates the eastern coast, in the southeast lie the lower Hyblaean Mountains,1,000 m. The mines of the Enna and Caltanissetta districts were part of a leading sulphur-producing area throughout the 19th century, Sicily and its surrounding small islands have some highly active volcanoes. Mount Etna is the largest active volcano in Europe and still casts black ash over the island with its ever-present eruptions and it currently stands 3,329 metres high, though this varies with summit eruptions, the mountain is 21 m lower now than it was in 1981. It is the highest mountain in Italy south of the Alps, Etna covers an area of 1,190 km2 with a basal circumference of 140 km. This makes it by far the largest of the three volcanoes in Italy, being about two and a half times the height of the next largest, Mount Vesuvius. In Greek Mythology, the deadly monster Typhon was trapped under the mountain by Zeus, Mount Etna is widely regarded as a cultural symbol and icon of Sicily. The Aeolian Islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea, to the northeast of mainland Sicily form a volcanic complex, the three volcanoes of Vulcano, Vulcanello and Lipari are also currently active, although the latter is usually dormant
18.
Protagoras
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Protagoras was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher and is numbered as one of the sophists by Plato. In his dialogue, Protagoras, Plato credits him with having invented the role of the professional sophist, Protagoras was born in Abdera, Thrace, opposite the island of Thasos. According to Aulus Gellius, he made his living as a porter. Democritus realized that Protagoras had tied the load together with such perfect geometric accuracy that he must be a mathematical prodigy, Democritus promptly took him into his own household and taught him philosophy. Protagoras became well known in Athens and even became a friend of Pericles, the dates of his lifetime are not recorded, but extrapolated from writings that have survived the ages. In Protagoras Plato wrote that, before a gathering of Socrates, Prodicus and this suggests a birth date of not later than 490 BC. In the Meno he is said to have died at approximately the age of 70, after 40 years as a practicing Sophist. His death, then, may be presumed to have occurred circa 420 BC, was his death to be attributed to the javelin, to the man who threw it, or to the authorities responsible for the conduct of the games. Even though he was mentored by Democritus, Protagoras did not share his enthusiasm for the pursuit of mathematics, Protagoras was skeptical about the application of theoretical mathematics to the natural world, he did not believe they were really worth studying at all. According to Philodemus, Protagoras said that The subject matter is unknowable, nonetheless, mathematics was considered to be by some a very viable form of art, and Protagoras says on the arts, art without practice and practice without art are nothing. Protagoras also was known as a teacher who addressed subjects connected to virtue and he especially was involved in the question of whether virtue could be taught, a commonplace issue of fifth century BC Greece, that has been related to modern readers through Platos dialogue. He also seems to have had an interest in orthoepeia—the correct use of words—although this topic is strongly associated with his fellow sophist Prodicus. In his eponymous Platonic dialogue, Protagoras interprets a poem by Simonides, focusing on the use of words, their meaning. This type of education would have been useful for the interpretation of laws, Diogenes Laërtius reports that Protagoras devised a taxonomy of speech acts such as assertion, question, answer, command, etc. Aristotle also says that Protagoras worked on the classification and proper use of grammatical gender, the titles of his books such as, Technique of Eristics prove that Protagoras also was a teacher of rhetoric and argumentation. Diogenes Laërtius states that he was one of the first to part in rhetorical contests in the Olympic games. Protagoras also said that on any matter, there are two opposed to one another, and according to Aristotle, Protagoras was criticized for having claimed to make the weaker argument stronger. Protagoras is credited with the philosophy of relativism, which he discusses in his work, by this, Protagoras meant that each individual is the measure of how things are perceived by that individual
19.
Nihilism
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Nihilism is a philosophical doctrine that suggests the lack of belief in one or more reputedly meaningful aspects of life. Most commonly, nihilism is presented in the form of existential nihilism, moral nihilists assert that there is no inherent morality, and that accepted moral values are abstractly contrived. Nihilism may also take epistemological, ontological, or metaphysical forms, meaning respectively that, in some aspect, knowledge is not possible, movements such as Futurism and deconstruction, among others, have been identified by commentators as nihilistic. Nihilism has many definitions, and thus can describe multiple arguably independent philosophical positions, extreme metaphysical nihilism is commonly defined as the belief that nothing exists as a correspondent component of the self-efficient world. The American Heritage Medical Dictionary defines one form of nihilism as a form of skepticism that denies all existence. A similar skepticism concerning the world can be found in solipsism. However, despite the fact that both deny the certainty of objects true existence, the nihilist would deny the existence of self whereas the solipsist would affirm it, both these positions are considered forms of anti-realism. Epistemological nihilism is a form of skepticism in which all knowledge is accepted as being possibly untrue or as being unable to be confirmed true and this interpretation of existence must be based on resolution. Therefore, there is no way to surmise or measure the validity of mereological nihilism. Thus, the resolution with which the ant views the world it exists within is an important determining factor in how the ant experiences this within the world feeling. Existential nihilism is the belief that life has no meaning or value. With respect to the universe, existential nihilism posits that a human or even the entire human species is insignificant, without purpose. The meaninglessness of life is explored in the philosophical school of existentialism. For example, a moral nihilist would say that killing someone, in this way a moral nihilist believes that all moral claims are void of any truth value. An alternative scholarly perspective is that moral nihilism is a morality in itself, cooper writes, In the widest sense of the word morality, moral nihilism is a morality. An influential analysis of political nihilism is presented by Leo Strauss, the Russian Nihilist movement was a Russian trend in the 1860s that rejected all authority. Their name derives from the Latin nihil, meaning nothing, after the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881, the Nihilists gained a reputation throughout Europe as proponents of the use of violence for political change. The Nihilists expressed anger at what they described as the nature of the Eastern Orthodox Church and of the tsarist monarchy
20.
Attica
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Attica is a historical region that encompasses the city of Athens, the capital of Greece. The historical region is centered on the Attic peninsula, which projects into the Aegean Sea, the modern administrative region of Attica is more extensive than the historical region and includes the Saronic Islands, Cythera, and the municipality of Troizinia on the Peloponnesian mainland. The history of Attica is tightly linked with that of Athens, Attica is a triangular peninsula jutting into the Aegean Sea. It is naturally divided to the north from Boeotia by the 10 mi long Cithaeron mountain range, to the west, it is bordered by the sea and the canal of Corinth. The Saronic Gulf lies to the south, and the island of Euboea lies off the north, mountains separate the peninsula into the plains of Pedias, Mesogaia, and Thriasion. The mountains of Attica are the Hymettus, the portion of the Geraneia, the Parnitha, the Aigaleo. Four mountains—Aigaleo, Parnitha, Penteli and Hymettus —delineate the hilly plain on which the Athens-Piraeus metroplex now spreads, Athens water reservoir, Lake Marathon, is an artificial lake created by damming in 1920. Pine and fir forests cover the area around Parnitha, Hymettus, Penteli, Myrrhinous and Laurium are forested with pine trees, whereas the rest are covered by shrubbery. The Kifisos is the longest river of Attica, according to Plato, Atticas ancient boundaries were fixed by the Isthmus, and, toward the continent, they extended as far as the heights of Cithaeron and Parnes. The boundary line came down toward the sea, bounded by the district of Oropus on the right, during antiquity, the Athenians boasted about being autochthonic, which is to say that they were the original inhabitants of the area and had not moved to Attica from another place. The traditions current in the classical period recounted that, during the Greek Dark Ages, Attica had become the refuge of the Ionians, who belonged to a tribe from the northern Peloponnese. Supposedly, the Ionians had been forced out of their homeland by the Achaeans, supposedly, the Ionians integrated with the ancient Atticans, who, afterward, considered themselves part of the Ionian tribe and spoke the Ionian dialect. Many Ionians later left Attica to colonize the Aegean coast of Asia Minor, during the Mycenaean period, the Atticans lived in autonomous agricultural societies. The main places where prehistoric remains were found are Marathon, Rafina, Nea Makri, Brauron, Thorikos, Agios Kosmas, Eleusis, Menidi, Markopoulo, Spata, Aphidnae, all of these settlements flourished during the Mycenaean period. According to tradition, Attica comprised twelve small communities during the reign of Cecrops, strabo assigns these the names of Cecropia, Tetrapolis, Epacria, Decelea, Eleusis, Aphidna, Thoricus, Brauron, Cytherus, Sphettus, Cephisia, and possibly Phaleron. These were said to have been incorporated in an Athenian state during the reign of Theseus. Modern historians consider it likely that the communities were progressively incorporated into an Athenian state during the 8th. Until the 6th century BC, aristocratic families lived independent lives in the suburbs, only after Peisistratoss tyranny and the reforms implemented by Cleisthenes did the local communities lose their independence and succumb to the central government in Athens
21.
Attic Greek
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Attic Greek is the Greek dialect of ancient Attica, including of the city of Athens. Of the ancient dialects, it is the most similar to later Greek and is the form of the language that is studied in ancient Greek language courses. Attic Greek is sometimes included in the Ionic dialect, together, Attic and Ionic are the primary influences on Modern Greek. Greek is the member of the Hellenic branch of the Indo-European language family. In ancient times, Greek had already come to exist in several dialects, mycenaean Greek represents an early form of Eastern Greek, the group to which Attic also belongs. Later Greek literature wrote about three main dialects, Aeolic, Doric, and Ionic, Attic was part of the Ionic dialect group, ruling from Alexandria, Ptolemy launched the Alexandrian period, during which the city of Alexandria and its expatriate Greek-medium scholars flourished. The earliest Greek literature, which is attributed to Homer and is dated to the 8th or 7th centuries BC, is written in Old Ionic rather than Attic. The first extensive works of literature in Attic are the plays of the dramatists Aeschylus, the military exploits of the Athenians led to some universally read and admired history, as found in the works of Thucydides and Xenophon. Slightly less known because they are technical and legal are the orations by Antiphon, Demosthenes, Lysias, Isocrates. The Attic Greek of the philosophers Plato and his student Aristotle dates to the period of transition between Classical Attic and Koine, Attic Greek, like other dialects, was originally written in a local variant of the Greek alphabet. In other respects, Old Attic shares many features with the neighbouring Euboean alphabet, like the latter, it used an L-shaped variant of lambda and an S-shaped variant of sigma. It lacked the consonant symbols xi for /ks/ and psi for /ps/, expressing these sound combinations with ΧΣ, moreover, like most other mainland Greek dialects, Attic did not yet use omega and eta for the long vowels /ɔ, / and /ɛ, /. Instead, it expressed the vowel phonemes /o, oː, ɔː/ with the letter Ο and /e, eː, moreover, the letter Η was used as heta, with the consonantal value of /h/ rather than the vocalic value of /ɛː/. In the 5th century, Athenian writing gradually switched from this system to the more widely used Ionic alphabet, native to the eastern Aegean islands. This new system, also called the Eucleidian alphabet, after the name of the archon Eucleides, the classical works of Attic literature were subsequently handed down to posterity in the new Ionic spelling, and it is the classical orthography in which they are read today. Proto-Greek long ā → Attic long ē, but ā after e, i, r, ⁓ Ionic ē in all positions. ⁓ Doric and Aeolic ā in all positions, Proto-Greek and Doric mātēr → Attic mētēr mother Attic chōrā ⁓ Ionic chōrē place, country However, Proto-Greek ā → Attic ē after w, deleted by the Classical Period. Proto-Greek korwā → early Attic-Ionic *korwē → Attic korē Proto-Greek ă → Attic ě, Doric Artamis ⁓ Attic Artemis Compensatory lengthening of vowel before cluster of sonorant and s, after deletion of s
22.
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
23.
Syracuse, Sicily
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Syracuse is a historic city in Sicily, the capital of the province of Syracuse. The city is notable for its rich Greek history, culture, amphitheatres, architecture and this 2, 700-year-old city played a key role in ancient times, when it was one of the major powers of the Mediterranean world. Syracuse is located in the southeast corner of the island of Sicily, the city was founded by Ancient Greek Corinthians and Teneans and became a very powerful city-state. Syracuse was allied with Sparta and Corinth and exerted influence over the entirety of Magna Graecia, described by Cicero as the greatest Greek city and the most beautiful of them all, it equaled Athens in size during the fifth century BC. It later became part of the Roman Republic and Byzantine Empire, after this Palermo overtook it in importance, as the capital of the Kingdom of Sicily. Eventually the kingdom would be united with the Kingdom of Naples to form the Two Sicilies until the Italian unification of 1860, in the modern day, the city is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site along with the Necropolis of Pantalica. In the central area, the city itself has a population of around 125,000 people, the inhabitants are known as Siracusans. Syracuse is mentioned in the Bible in the Acts of the Apostles book at 28,12 as Paul stayed there, the patron saint of the city is Saint Lucy, she was born in Syracuse and her feast day, Saint Lucys Day, is celebrated on 13 December. Syracuse was founded in 734 or 733 BC by Greek settlers from Corinth and Tenea, there are many attested variants of the name of the city including Συράκουσαι Syrakousai, Συράκοσαι Syrakosai and Συρακώ Syrako. The nucleus of the ancient city was the island of Ortygia. The settlers found the fertile and the native tribes to be reasonably well-disposed to their presence. The city grew and prospered, and for some time stood as the most powerful Greek city anywhere in the Mediterranean, colonies were founded at Akrai, Kasmenai, Akrillai, Helorus and Kamarina. The descendants of the first colonists, called Gamoroi, held power until they were expelled by the Killichiroi, the former, however, returned to power in 485 BC, thanks to the help of Gelo, ruler of Gela. Gelo himself became the despot of the city, and moved many inhabitants of Gela, Kamarina and Megera to Syracuse, building the new quarters of Tyche, the enlarged power of Syracuse made unavoidable the clash against the Carthaginians, who ruled western Sicily. In the Battle of Himera, Gelo, who had allied with Theron of Agrigento, a temple dedicated to Athena, was erected in the city to commemorate the event. Syracuse grew considerably during this time and its walls encircled 120 hectares in the fifth century, but as early as the 470s BC the inhabitants started building outside the walls. The complete population of its territory approximately numbered 250,000 in 415 BC, Gelo was succeeded by his brother Hiero, who fought against the Etruscans at Cumae in 474 BC. His rule was eulogized by poets like Simonides of Ceos, Bacchylides and Pindar, a democratic regime was introduced by Thrasybulos
24.
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
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Isocrates
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Isocrates, an ancient Greek rhetorician, was one of the ten Attic orators. Among the most influential Greek rhetoricians of his time, Isocrates made many contributions to rhetoric and education through his teaching, Greek rhetoric is commonly traced to Corax of Syracuse, who first formulated a set of rhetorical rules in the fifth century BC. His pupil Tisias was influential in the development of the rhetoric of the courtroom, within two generations, rhetoric had become an important art, its growth driven by social and political changes such as democracy and courts of law. Isocrates was born to a family in Athens and received a first-rate education. He was greatly influenced by his sophist teachers, Prodicus and Gorgias, after the Peloponnesian War, his family lost its wealth, and Isocrates was forced to earn a living. His professional career is said to have begun with logography, he was a hired courtroom speechwriter, Athenian citizens did not hire lawyers, legal procedure required self-representation. Instead, they would hire people like Isocrates to write speeches for them, Isocrates had a great talent for this since he lacked confidence in public speaking. Around 392 BC he set up his own school of rhetoric, and proved to be not only an influential teacher and his fees were unusually high, and he accepted no more than nine pupils at a time. Many of them went on to be philosophers, legislators and historians, as a consequence, he amassed a considerable fortune. According to Pliny the Elder he could sell a single oration for twenty talents, according to George Norlin, Isocrates defined rhetoric as outward feeling and inward thought of not merely expression, but reason, feeling, and imagination. Like most who studied rhetoric before and after him, Isocrates believed it was used to persuade ourselves and others, Isocrates described rhetoric as that endowment of our human nature which raises us above mere animality and enables us to live the civilized life. Isocrates unambiguously defined his approach in the treatise Against the Sophists and this polemic was written to explain and advertise the reasoning and educational principles behind his new school. Also, while Isocrates is viewed by many as being a rhetor and practicing rhetoric, against the Sophists is Isocrates first published work where he gives an account of philosophia. His principal method is to contrast his ways of teaching with Sophistry, while Isocrates does not go against the Sophist method of teaching as a whole, he emphasizes his disagreement with bad Sophistry practices. Isocrates program of rhetorical education stressed the ability to use language to address practical problems and he emphasized that students needed three things to learn, a natural aptitude which was inborn, knowledge training granted by teachers and textbooks, and applied practices designed by educators. He also stressed civic education, training students to serve the state, students would practice composing and delivering speeches on various subjects. He considered natural ability and practice to be more important than rules or principles of rhetoric, rather than delineating static rules, Isocrates stressed fitness for the occasion, or kairos. His school lasted for fifty years, in many ways establishing the core of liberal arts education as we know it today, including oratory, composition, history, citizenship, culture
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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
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Alcibiades
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Alcibiades, son of Cleinias, from the deme of Scambonidae, was a prominent Athenian statesman, orator, and general. He was the last famous member of his mothers family, the Alcmaeonidae. He played a role in the second half of that conflict as a strategic advisor, military commander. During the course of the Peloponnesian War, Alcibiades changed his political allegiance several times, in Sparta, he served as a strategic adviser, proposing or supervising several major campaigns against Athens. In Sparta too, however, Alcibiades soon made powerful enemies, there he served as an adviser to the satrap Tissaphernes until his Athenian political allies brought about his recall. He then served as an Athenian general for years. Once restored to his city, however, he played a crucial role in a string of Athenian victories that eventually brought Sparta to seek a peace with Athens. He favored unconventional tactics, frequently winning cities over by treachery or negotiation rather than by siege and his mother was Deinomache, the daughter of Megacles, and could trace her family back to Eurysaces and the Telamonian Ajax. His maternal grandfather, also named Alcibiades, was a friend of Cleisthenes, after the death of Cleinias at the Battle of Coronea, Pericles and Ariphron became his guardians. According to Plutarch, Alcibiades had several teachers, including Socrates. He was noted, however, for his behavior, which was mentioned by ancient Greek. It was believed that Socrates took Alcibiades as a student because he believed he could change Alcibiades from his vain ways, Xenophon attempted to clear Socrates name at trial by relaying information that Alcibiades was always corrupt and that Socrates merely failed in attempting to teach him morality. Alcibiades took part in the Battle of Potidaea in 432 BC, Alcibiades had a particularly close relationship with Socrates, whom he admired and respected. According to Plutarch, Alcibiades feared and reverenced Socrates alone, Alcibiades was married to Hipparete, the daughter of Hipponicus, a wealthy Athenian. According to Plutarch, Hipparete loved her husband, but she attempted to divorce him because he consorted with courtesans and she lived with him until her death, which came soon after, and gave birth to two children, a daughter and a son, Alcibiades the Younger. Alcibiades first rose to prominence when he began advocating aggressive Athenian action after the signing of the Peace of Nicias, disputes over the interpretation of the treaty led the Spartans to dispatch ambassadors to Athens with full powers to arrange all unsettled matters. He urged them to renounce their diplomatic authority to represent Sparta, the representatives agreed and, impressed with Alcibiades, they alienated themselves from Nicias, who genuinely wanted to reach an agreement with the Spartans. The next day, during the Assembly, Alcibiades asked them what powers Sparta had granted them to negotiate and they replied, as agreed and this ploy increased Alcibiadess standing while embarrassing Nicias, and Alcibiades was subsequently appointed General
28.
Thucydides
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Thucydides was an Athenian historian and general. His History of the Peloponnesian War recounts the 5th century BC war between Sparta and Athens to the year 411 BC and his text is still studied at both universities and military colleges worldwide. The Melian dialogue remains a work of international relations theory while Pericles Funeral Oration is widely studied in political theory, history. More generally, Thucydides showed an interest in developing an understanding of nature to explain behaviour in such crises as plague, massacres, as in that of the Melians. In spite of his stature as a historian, modern historians know relatively little about Thucydidess life, the most reliable information comes from his own History of the Peloponnesian War, which expounds his nationality, paternity and native locality. Thucydides informs us that he fought in the war, contracted the plague and was exiled by the democracy and he may have also been involved in quelling the Samian Revolt. Thucydides identifies himself as an Athenian, telling us that his fathers name was Olorus and he survived the Plague of Athens that killed Pericles and many other Athenians. He also records that he owned gold mines at Scapte Hyle, because of his influence in the Thracian region, Thucydides wrote, he was sent as a strategos to Thasos in 424 BC. During the winter of 424–423 BC, the Spartan general Brasidas attacked Amphipolis, eucles, the Athenian commander at Amphipolis, sent to Thucydides for help. Thus, when Thucydides arrived, Amphipolis was already under Spartan control, Amphipolis was of considerable strategic importance, and news of its fall caused great consternation in Athens. It was blamed on Thucydides, although he claimed that it was not his fault, using his status as an exile from Athens to travel freely among the Peloponnesian allies, he was able to view the war from the perspective of both sides. During his exile from Athens, Thucydides wrote his most famous work History of the Peloponnesian War, because he was in exile during this time, he was free to speak his mind. This is all that Thucydides wrote about his own life, but a few facts are available from reliable contemporary sources. Herodotus wrote that the name Olorus, Thucydidess fathers name, was connected with Thrace, Thucydides was probably connected through family to the Athenian statesman and general Miltiades, and his son Cimon, leaders of the old aristocracy supplanted by the Radical Democrats. Cimons maternal grandfathers name was also Olorus, making the connection exceedingly likely, another Thucydides lived before the historian and was also linked with Thrace, making a family connection between them very likely as well. Finally, Herodotus confirms the connection of Thucydidess family with the mines at Scapté Hýlē, in essence, he was a well-connected gentleman of considerable resources who, by then retired from the political and military spheres, decided to fund his own historical project. The remaining evidence for Thucydidess life comes from rather less reliable later ancient sources, pausanias goes on to say that Thucydides was murdered on his way back to Athens. Many doubt this account, seeing evidence to suggest he lived as late as 397 BC, Plutarch claims that his remains were returned to Athens and placed in Cimons family vault
29.
Agathon
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Agathon was an Athenian tragic poet whose works have been lost. He is best known for his appearance in Platos Symposium, which describes the banquet given to celebrate his obtaining a prize for his first tragedy at the Lenaia in 416 and he is also a prominent character in Aristophanes comedy the Thesmophoriazusae. Agathon was the son of Tisamenus, and the companion of Pausanias. Together with Pausanias, he moved to the court of Archelaus, king of Macedon. Agathon was also the first playwright to write choral parts which were independent from the main plot of his plays. Agathon is portrayed by Plato as a young man, well dressed, of polished manners, courted by the fashion, wealth and wisdom of Athens. In the later play Frogs, Aristophanes softens his criticisms, Agathon was also a friend of Euripides, another recruit to the court of Archelaus of Macedon. Agathons extraordinary physical beauty is brought up repeatedly in the sources, the most detailed surviving description of Agathon is in the Thesmophoriazousae, in which Agathon appears as a pale, clean-shaven young man dressed in womens clothes. Scholars are unsure how much of Aristophanes portrayal is fact and how much mere comic invention. Agathon has been thought to be the subject of Lovers Lips, another translation reads, Kissing Agathon, I found my soul at my lips. It went there, hoping--to slip across, although the authenticity of this epigram was accepted for many centuries, it was probably not composed for Agathon the tragedian, nor was it composed by Plato. Stylistic evidence suggests that the poem was written some time after Plato had died, its form is that of the Hellenistic erotic epigram. According to 20th-century scholar Walther Ludwig, the poems were spuriously inserted into a biography of Plato sometime between 250 BC and 100 BC and adopted by later writers from this source. Of Agathons plays, only six titles and thirty-one fragments have survived, Fragments in A Nauck, μόνου γὰρ αὐτοῦ καὶ θεὸς στερίσκεται, ἀγένητα ποιεῖν ἅσσ᾽ ἂν ᾖ πεπραγμένα. Even God cannot change the past, as quoted in Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Book VI, sect. 2, 1139b List of speakers in Platos dialogues The Drama, Its History, Literature and Influence on Civilization, volume 1,100 Lovers Lips by Plato in the Project Gutenberg eText Select Epigrams from the Greek Anthology by J. W. Mackail. Media related to Agathon at Wikimedia Commons Quotations related to Agathon at Wikiquote Agathon Poems
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Apollo
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Apollo is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in classical Greek and Roman religion and Greek and Roman mythology. The ideal of the kouros, Apollo has been recognized as a god of music, truth and prophecy, healing, the sun and light, plague, poetry. Apollo is the son of Zeus and Leto, and has a twin sister, Apollo is known in Greek-influenced Etruscan mythology as Apulu. As the patron of Delphi, Apollo was an oracular god—the prophetic deity of the Delphic Oracle. Medicine and healing are associated with Apollo, whether through the god himself or mediated through his son Asclepius, yet Apollo was also seen as a god who could bring ill-health and deadly plague. Amongst the gods custodial charges, Apollo became associated with dominion over colonists, as the leader of the Muses and director of their choir, Apollo functioned as the patron god of music and poetry. Hermes created the lyre for him, and the instrument became an attribute of Apollo. Hymns sung to Apollo were called paeans, Apollo and Helios/Sol remained separate beings in literary and mythological texts until the 3rd century CE. The name Apollo—unlike the related older name Paean—is generally not found in the Linear B texts, the etymology of the name is uncertain. The spelling Ἀπόλλων had almost superseded all other forms by the beginning of the common era and it probably is a cognate to the Doric month Apellaios, and the offerings apellaia at the initiation of the young men during the family-festival apellai. According to some scholars the words are derived from the Doric word apella, apella is the name of the popular assembly in Sparta, corresponding to the ecclesia. R. S. P. Beekes rejected the connection of the theonym with the noun apellai, several instances of popular etymology are attested from ancient authors. Thus, the Greeks most often associated Apollos name with the Greek verb ἀπόλλυμι, in the ancient Macedonian language πέλλα means stone, and some toponyms may be derived from this word, Πέλλα and Πελλήνη. The role of Apollo as god of plague is evident in the invocation of Apollo Smintheus by Chryses, the Hittite testimony reflects an early form *Apeljōn, which may also be surmised from comparison of Cypriot Ἀπείλων with Doric Ἀπέλλων. A Luwian etymology suggested for Apaliunas makes Apollo The One of Entrapment, Apollos chief epithet was Phoebus, literally bright. It was very commonly used by both the Greeks and Romans for Apollos role as the god of light, like other Greek deities, he had a number of others applied to him, reflecting the variety of roles, duties, and aspects ascribed to the god. However, while Apollo has a number of appellations in Greek myth. Aegletes, from αἴγλη, light of the sun Helius, literally sun Lyceus light, the meaning of the epithet Lyceus later became associated with Apollos mother Leto, who was the patron goddess of Lycia and who was identified with the wolf
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Larissa
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Larissa is the capital and largest city of the Thessaly region, the fifth most populous in Greece and capital of the Larissa regional unit. It is an agricultural centre and a national transportation hub, linked by road and rail with the port of Volos. Larissa, within its municipality, has 162,591 inhabitants, legend has it that Achilles was born here, and that Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine, died here. Today, Larissa is a commercial and industrial centre in Greece. The region is linked to the rest of Europe through the International Airport of Central Greece located in Nea Anchialos a short distance from Larissa. Larissa lies on the river Pineios, the municipality Larissa has an area of 335.98 km2, the municipal unit Larissa has an area of 122.586 km2, and the community Larissa has an area of 88.167 km2. The Larissa Chasma, a gash in the surface of Dione. The climate of Larissa is transitional, the winter is cold and wet, and some snowstorms may occur. The summer is hot, and temperatures of 40 °C may occur, thunderstorms or heavy rain may cause agricultural damage. Larissa receives 450 mm of rain per year, according to Greek mythology it is said that the city was founded by Acrisius, who was killed accidentally by his grandson, Perseus. There lived Peleus, the hero beloved by the gods, in mythology, the nymph Larissa was a daughter of the primordial man Pelasgus. In this paragraph, Homer shows that the Pelasgians, Trojan allies and it is likely that this city of Larissa was different to the city that was the birthplace of Achilles. The Larissa that features as a Trojan ally in the Iliad was likely to be located in the Troad, traces of Paleolithic human settlement have been recovered from the area, but it was peripheral to areas of advanced culture. The area around Larissa was extremely fruitful, it was agriculturally important, the name Larissa is in origin a Pelasgian word for fortress. There were many ancient Greek cities with this name, the name of Thessalian Larissa is first recorded in connection with the aristocratic Aleuadai family. Larissa is thought to be where the famous Greek physician Hippocrates, when Larissa ceased minting the federal coins it shared with other Thessalian towns and adopted its own coinage in the late 5th century BC, it chose local types for its coins. The obverse depicted the nymph of the spring, Larissa, for whom the town was named. The reverse depicted a horse in various poses, the horse was an appropriate symbol of Thessaly, a land of plains, which was well known for its horses
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Thessaly
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Thessaly is a traditional geographic and modern administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient region of the same name. Before the Greek Dark Ages, Thessaly was known as Aeolia, Thessaly became part of the modern Greek state in 1881, after four and a half centuries of Ottoman rule. Since 1987 it has formed one of the countrys 13 regions and is further sub-divided into 5 regional units and 25 municipalities, the capital of the region is Larissa. Thessaly lies in central Greece and borders the regions of Macedonia on the north, Epirus on the west, Central Greece on the south, the Thessaly region also includes the Sporades islands. In Homers epic, the Odyssey, the hero Odysseus visited the kingdom of Aeolus, the Plain of Thessaly, which lies between Mount Oeta/Othrys and Mount Olympus, was the site of the battle between the Titans and the Olympians. According to legend, Jason and the Argonauts launched their search for the Golden Fleece from the Magnesia Peninsula, Thessaly was home to extensive Neolithic and Chalcolithic cultures around 6000–2500 BC. Mycenaean settlements have also discovered, for example at the sites of Iolcos, Dimini. In Archaic and Classical times, the lowlands of Thessaly became the home of baronial families, in the summer of 480 BC, the Persians invaded Thessaly. The Greek army that guarded the Vale of Tempe evacuated the road before the enemy arrived, not much later, Thessaly surrendered to the Persians. The Thessalian family of Aleuadae joined the Persians subsequently, in the 4th century BC, after the Greco-Persian Wars had long ended, Jason of Pherae transformed the region into a significant military power, recalling the glory of Early Archaic times. Shortly after, Philip II of Macedon was appointed Archon of Thessaly, the Avars had arrived in Europe in the late 550s. They asserted their authority over many Slavs, who were divided into numerous petty tribes, many Slavs were galvanized into an effective infantry force, by the Avars. In the 7th century the Avar-Slav alliance began to raid the Byzantine Empire, laying siege to Thessalonica, relations between the Slavs and Greeks were probably peaceful apart from the initial settlement and intermittent uprisings. Being agriculturalists, the Slavs probably traded with the Greeks inside towns and it is likely that the re-Hellenization had already begun by way of this contact. This process would be completed by a newly reinvigorated Byzantine Empire, with the abatement of Arab-Byzantine Wars, the Byzantine Empire began to consolidate its power in those areas of mainland Greece occupied by Proto-Slavic tribes. Following the campaigns of the Byzantine general Staurakios in 782–783, the Byzantine Empire recovered Thessaly, apart from military expeditions against Slavs, the re-Hellenization process begun under Nicephorus I involved transfer of peoples. Many Slavs were moved to other parts of the such as Anatolia. In return, many Greeks from Sicily and Asia Minor were brought to the interior of Greece, to increase the number of defenders at the Emperors disposal, even non-Greeks such as Armenians were transferred to the Balkans
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Pseudo-Aristotle
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Such falsely attributed works are known as pseudepigrapha. The first Pseudo-Aristotelian works were produced by the members of the Peripatetic school which was founded by Aristotle, however, many more works were written much later, during the Middle Ages. It is generally not clear whether the attribution to Aristotle of a work was done by its own author or by others who sought to popularize such works by using his name. In the Middle Ages more than a hundred Pseudo-Aristotelian works were in circulation and these can be separated in three groups based on the original language used for the work, namely Latin, Greek or Arabic. The category of Latin works is the smallest while the Arabic works are most numerous, many Arabic works were translated to Latin in the Middle Ages. The majority of these cover occult subjects such as alchemy, astrology, chiromancy, others treated Greek philosophical subjects, more often the Platonic and Neoplatonic schools rather than the thought of Aristotle. The Arabic Secretum Secretorum was by far the most popular Pseudo-Aristotelian work and was more widely diffused than any of the authentic works of Aristotle. The release of Pseudo-Aristotelian works continued for long after the Middle Ages, aristotles Masterpiece was a sex manual which published first in 1684 and became very popular in England. It was still being sold in the twentieth century and was probably the most widely reprinted book on a medical subject in the eighteenth
34.
Arete (moral virtue)
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Arete, in its basic sense, means excellence of any kind. The term may also mean moral virtue, in its earliest appearance in Greek, this notion of excellence was ultimately bound up with the notion of the fulfillment of purpose or function, the act of living up to ones full potential. The term from Homeric times onwards is not gender specific, Homer applies the term of both the Greek and Trojan heroes as well as major female figures, such as Penelope, the wife of the Greek hero Odysseus. In the Homeric poems, Arete is frequently associated with bravery, the man or woman of Arete is a person of the highest effectiveness, they use all their faculties—strength, bravery and wit—to achieve real results. In the Homeric world, then, Arete involves all of the abilities and potentialities available to humans, in some contexts, Arete is explicitly linked with human knowledge, where the expressions virtue is knowledge and Arete is knowledge are used interchangeably. The highest human potential is knowledge and all other human abilities are derived from this central capacity, the Ancient Greeks applied the term to anything, for example, the excellence of a chimney, the excellence of a bull to be bred and the excellence of a man. The meaning of the word changes depending on what it describes, since everything has its own peculiar excellence and this way of thinking comes first from Plato, where it can be seen in the Allegory of the Cave. By the 5th and 4th centuries BC, arete as applied to men had developed to include quieter virtues, Plato attempted to produce a moral philosophy that incorporated this new usage, but it was in the work of Aristotle that the doctrine of arete found its fullest flowering. Aristotles Doctrine of the Mean is an example of his thinking. Arete has also used by Plato when talking about athletic training. Stephen G. Miller delves into this usage in his book Ancient Greek Athletics, Aristotle is quoted as deliberating between education towards arete. or those that are theoretical. Educating towards arete in this means that the boy would be educated towards things that are useful in life. But even Plato himself says that arete is not something that can be agreed upon and he says, Nor is there even an agreement about what constitutes arete, something that leads logically to a disagreement about the appropriate training for arete. It was commonly believed that the mind, body, and soul each had to be developed and prepared for a man to live a life of arete and this led to the thought that athletics had to be present in order to obtain arete. They did not need to consume ones life, merely exercise the body into the condition for arete, just like the mind. In Homers Iliad and Odyssey, arete is used mainly to describe heroes and nobles and their mobile dexterity, with reference to strength and courage. Penelopes arete, for example, relates to co-operation, for which she is praised by Agamemnon, the excellence of the gods generally included their power, but, in the Odyssey, the gods can grant excellence to a life, which is contextually understood to mean prosperity. Arete was also the name of King Alcinouss wife, according to Bernard Knoxs notes found in the Robert Fagles translation of The Odyssey, arete is also associated with the Greek word for pray, araomai
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