1.
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
2.
Greek lyric
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Greek lyric is the body of lyric poetry written in dialects of Ancient Greek. It is primarily associated with the early 7th to the early 5th centuries BC, sometimes called the Lyric Age of Greece, culturally, Greek lyric is the product of the political, social and intellectual milieu of the Greek polis. Much of Greek lyric is occasional poetry, composed for public or private performance by a soloist or chorus to mark particular occasions, the symposium was one setting in which lyric poems were performed. Lyric indicates that these poems were conceived of as belonging to the tradition of poetry sung or chanted to the accompaniment of the lyre, also known as melic poetry. Modern surveys of Greek lyric often include relatively short poems composed for similar purposes or circumstances that were not strictly song lyrics in the sense, such as elegies. Greek lyric poems celebrate athletic victories, commemorate the dead, exhort soldiers to valor, and offer religious devotion in the forms of hymns, paeans, partheneia, maiden-songs, were sung by choruses of maidens at festivals. Love poems praise the beloved, express unfulfilled desire, proffer seductions, in this last mood, love poetry might blur into invective, a poetic attack aimed at insulting or shaming a personal enemy, an art at which Archilochus, the earliest known Greek lyric poet, excelled. The themes of Greek lyric include politics, war, sports, drinking, money, youth, old age, death, the heroic past, the gods, and hetero- and homosexual love. In the 3rd century BC, the movement at Alexandria produced a canon of the nine melic poets, Alcaeus, Alcman, Anacreon, Bacchylides, Ibycus, Pindar, Sappho, Simonides. Only a small sampling of lyric poetry from Archaic Greece, the period when it first flourished, survives. For example, the poems of Sappho are said to have filled nine papyrus rolls in the Library of Alexandria, today, only one of Sapphos poems exists intact, with fragments from other sources that would scarcely fill a chapbook. Greek poetry meters are based on patterns of long and short syllables, apart from the shift between long and short syllables, stress must be considered when reading Greek poetry. The interplay between the metric shifts, the syllables and caesuras is an integral part of the poetry. It allows the poet to stress certain words and shape the meaning of the poem. The nine melic poets composed in complex triadic forms of strophe, antistrophe, Iambic and trochaic meters, most commonly iambic trimeter and trochaic tetrameter, alternate long and short syllables. Iambic meters were thought to reflect most closely the rhythms of Greek as spoken in everyday life, earlier, it was usually used for invective or satire, as suggested by the word iambos, which meant lampoon or scurrilous abuse, and as found in Archilochus and Hipponax. Semonides of Amorgos uses iambic trimeter for both his misogynistic satirizing of women and for his poem on the theme of the vanity of human wishes, literary histories usually treat elegies, a category which includes any poetry written in elegiac couplets, as part of the lyric tradition. Since the first line of a couplet is dactylic hexameter
3.
Reggio Calabria
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Reggio di Calabria, commonly known as Reggio Calabria listen or simply Reggio in Southern Italy, is the biggest city and the most populated comune of Calabria, Southern Italy. It is the capital of the Metropolitan City of Reggio Calabria, Reggio is located on the toe of the Italian Peninsula and is separated from the island of Sicily by the Strait of Messina. It is situated on the slopes of the Aspromonte, a long, about 560,000 people live in the metropolitan area, recognised in 2015 by Italian Republic as a metropolitan city. The region has been subject to earthquakes and it is a major economic center for regional services and transport on the southern shores of the Mediterranean. Reggio, with Naples and Taranto, is home to one of the most important archaeological museums, Reggio is the seat, since 1907, of the Archeological Superintendence of Bruttium and Lucania. The city center, consisting primarily of Liberty buildings, has a development along the coast with parallel streets. The city was an Italian candidate to become the European Capital of Culture. in 2019, during its 3, 500-year history Reggio has often been renamed. Each name corresponds with the major historical phases, Recion. Erythrà, the pre-Greek settlement populated by the Italic people, Rhégion, the Greek city from the archaic age to the Magna Grecia age, from the 8th to the 3rd centuries BC. Febèa, a period under Dionysius II of Syracuse, in the 4th century BC. Regium, its first Latin name, during the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, rhègium Julium, as a noble Roman city during the Imperial age. Rivàh, Arabic name under the domination by Emirate of Sicily. Rìsa, under the Normans, between the 11th and 12th centuries, regols, Aragonese name under the Crown of Aragon, in the late 13th century. Reggio or Regio, usual Italian name in the Middle and Modern age, règgio di Calàbria, post Italian Unification. The toponym of the city is derived from Chaldean word Rec or maybe from the Greek one régnȳmi referring to the Straits between Calabria and Sicily as a break in the land. The sculptor Léarchos was at Reggio at the end of the 15th century BC, the land around Reggio was first known as Saturnia, or Neptunia, and later Italia, which in Roman times became the name of the whole Italian peninsula. After Cumae, Reggio is one of the oldest Greek colonies in southern Italy, the colony was settled by the inhabitants of Chalcis in 730 or 743 BC on the site of the older settlement, Erythrà, meaning the Red one. This dated back to the 3rd millennium BC and was established by the Ausones
4.
Magna Graecia
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The settlers who began arriving in the 8th century BC brought with them their Hellenic civilization, which was to leave a lasting imprint in Italy, such as in the culture of ancient Rome. Most notably the Roman poet Ovid referred to the south of Italy as Magna Graecia in his poem Fasti, according to Strabo, Magna Graecias colonization started already at the time of the Trojan War and lasted for several centuries. Also during that period, Greek colonies were established in places as widely separated as the eastern coast of the Black Sea, Eastern Libya and they included settlements in Sicily and the southern part of the Italian Peninsula. The Romans called the area of Sicily and the foot of Italy Magna Graecia since it was so densely inhabited by the Greeks, the ancient geographers differed on whether the term included Sicily or merely Apulia and Calabria, Strabo being the most prominent advocate of the wider definitions. With colonization, Greek culture was exported to Italy, in its dialects of the Ancient Greek language, its religious rites, an original Hellenic civilization soon developed, later interacting with the native Italic civilisations. Many of the new Hellenic cities became very rich and powerful, like Neapolis, Syracuse, Acragas Paestum, other cities in Magna Graecia included Tarentum, Epizephyrian Locri, Rhegium, Croton, Thurii, Elea, Nola, Ancona, Syessa, Bari and others. Following the Pyrrhic War in the 3rd century BC, Magna Graecia was absorbed into the Roman Republic, a remarkable example of the influence is the Griko-speaking minority that still exists today in the Italian regions of Calabria and Apulia. Griko is the name of a language combining ancient Doric, Byzantine Greek, there is a rich oral tradition and Griko folklore, limited now but once numerous, to around 30,000 people, most of them having become absorbed into the surrounding Italian element. Some scholars, such as Gerhard Rohlfs, argue that the origins of Griko may ultimately be traced to the colonies of Magna Graecia, one example is the Griko people, some of whom still maintain their Greek language and customs. For example, Greeks re-entered the region in the 16th and 17th century in reaction to the conquest of the Peloponnese by the Ottoman Empire, especially after the end of the Siege of Coron, large numbers of Greeks took refuge in the areas of Calabria, Salento and Sicily. Greeks from Coroni, the so-called Coronians, were nobles, who brought with them substantial movable property and they were granted special privileges and tax exemptions. Other Greeks who moved to Italy came from the Mani Peninsula of the Peloponnese, the Maniots were known for their proud military traditions and for their bloody vendettas, many of which still continue today. Another group of Maniot Greeks moved to Corsica, Ancient Greek dialects Greeks in Italy Italiotes Graia Graïke Graecus Griko people Griko language Hellenic civilization Names of the Greeks Cerchiai L. Jannelli L. Longo F. The Greek Cities of Magna Graecia and Sicily, in Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. 21 June,2005,17,19 GMT18,19 UK, salentinian Peninsula, Greece and Greater Greece. Traditional Griko song performed by Ghetonia, traditional Griko song performed by amateur local group. Second Interdisciplinary Symposium on the Hellenic Heritage of Southern Italy, the Greeks in the West, genetic signatures of the Hellenic colonisation in southern Italy and Sicily
5.
Samos
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It is also a separate regional unit of the North Aegean region, and the only municipality of the regional unit. In ancient times Samos was a rich and powerful city-state, particularly known for its vineyards. It is home to Pythagoreion and the Heraion of Samos, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that includes the Eupalinian aqueduct, Samian wine was well known in antiquity, and is still produced on the island. The island was governed by the semi-autonomous Principality of Samos under Ottoman suzerainty from 1835 until it joined Greece in 1912, the area of the island is 477.395 km2, and it is 43 km long and 13 km wide. It is separated from Anatolia by the approximately 1-mile-wide Mycale Strait, while largely mountainous, Samos has several relatively large and fertile plains. A great portion of the island is covered with vineyards, from which wine is made. The most important plains except the capital, Vathy, in the northeast, are that of Karlovasi, in the northwest, Pythagoreio, in the southeast, the islands population is 33,814, which is the 9th most populous of the Greek islands. The Samian climate is typically Mediterranean, with rainy winters. Samos relief is dominated by two mountains, Ampelos and Kerkis. The Ampelos massif is the larger of the two and occupies the center of the island, rising to 1,095 metres. Mt. Kerkis, though smaller in area is the taller of the two and its summit is the islands highest point, at 1,434 metres, the mountains are a continuation of the Mycale range on the Anatolian mainland. According to Strabo, the name Samos is from Phoenician meaning rise by the shore, Samos is home to many surprising species including the golden jackal, stone marten, wild boar, flamingos and monk seal. Samos is one of the sunniest places in Europe with almost 3300 hours of sunshine annually or 74% of the time and its climate is mild and wet in winter and dry in summer. In classical antiquity the island was a center of Ionian culture and luxury, renowned for its Samian wines and its most famous building was the Ionic order archaic Temple of goddess Hera—the Heraion. Concerning the earliest history of Samos, literary tradition is singularly defective, at the time of the great migrations it received an Ionian population which traced its origin to Epidaurus in Argolis, Samos became one of the twelve members of the Ionian League. By the 7th century BC it had one of the leading commercial centers of Greece. They helped to open up trade with the population lived around the Black Sea as well as with Egypt, Cyrene, Corinth. This caused them to become rivals with Miletus
6.
Polycrates
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Polycrates, son of Aeaces, was the tyrant of Samos from c.538 BC to 522 BC. He had a reputation as both a warrior and an enlightened tyrant. He took power during a festival of Hera with his brothers Pantagnotus and Syloson and he then allied with Amasis II, Pharaoh of Egypt, as well as the tyrant of Naxos Lygdamis. He also conquered the island of Rhenea, which he chained to nearby Delos as a dedication to Apollo. On Samos Polycrates built an aqueduct, a temple of Hera. Polycrates was probably a patron of the poets Anacreon, and Ibycus, according to Herodotus, Amasis thought Polycrates was too successful, and advised him to throw away whatever he valued most in order to escape a reversal of fortune. Polycrates followed the advice and threw a ring into the sea, however, a few days later. While Polycrates cooks were preparing the fish for eating, they discovered the ring inside of it, Polycrates told Amasis of his good fortune, and Amasis immediately broke off their alliance, believing that such a lucky man would eventually come to a disastrous end. It is more likely that the alliance was ended because Polycrates allied with the Persian king Cambyses II against Egypt, by this time, Polycrates had created a navy of 40 triremes, probably becoming the first Greek state with a fleet of such ships. They defeated Polycrates at sea but could not take the island and they then sailed to mainland Greece and allied with Sparta and Corinth, who invaded the island. After 40 days they withdrew their unsuccessful siege, Herodotus also tells the story of Polycrates death. The manner is not recorded by Herodotus, as it was apparently an undignified end for a glorious tyrant, the prophecy was fulfilled as when it rained he was washed by Zeus and when the sun shone he was anointed by Helios, as the moisture was sweated from him. Polycrates complex Mētiokhos kai Parthenopē Livius, Polycrates of Samos by Jona Lendering
7.
Hellenistic period
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It is often considered a period of transition, sometimes even of decadence or degeneration, compared to the enlightenment of the Greek Classical era. The Hellenistic period saw the rise of New Comedy, Alexandrian poetry, the Septuagint, Greek science was advanced by the works of the mathematician Euclid and the polymath Archimedes. The religious sphere expanded to include new gods such as the Greco-Egyptian Serapis, eastern deities such as Attis and Cybele, the Hellenistic period was characterized by a new wave of Greek colonization which established Greek cities and kingdoms in Asia and Africa. This resulted in the export of Greek culture and language to new realms. Equally, however, these new kingdoms were influenced by the cultures, adopting local practices where beneficial, necessary. Hellenistic culture thus represents a fusion of the Ancient Greek world with that of the Near East, Middle East and this mixture gave rise to a common Attic-based Greek dialect, known as Koine Greek, which became the lingua franca through the Hellenistic world. Scholars and historians are divided as to what event signals the end of the Hellenistic era, Hellenistic is distinguished from Hellenic in that the first encompasses the entire sphere of direct ancient Greek influence, while the latter refers to Greece itself. The word originated from the German term hellenistisch, from Ancient Greek Ἑλληνιστής, from Ἑλλάς, Hellenistic is a modern word and a 19th-century concept, the idea of a Hellenistic period did not exist in Ancient Greece. Although words related in form or meaning, e. g, the major issue with the term Hellenistic lies in its convenience, as the spread of Greek culture was not the generalized phenomenon that the term implies. Some areas of the world were more affected by Greek influences than others. The Greek population and the population did not always mix, the Greeks moved and brought their own culture. While a few fragments exist, there is no surviving historical work which dates to the hundred years following Alexanders death. The works of the major Hellenistic historians Hieronymus of Cardia, Duris of Samos, the earliest and most credible surviving source for the Hellenistic period is Polybius of Megalopolis, a statesman of the Achaean League until 168 BC when he was forced to go to Rome as a hostage. His Histories eventually grew to a length of forty books, covering the years 220 to 167 BC, another important source, Plutarchs Parallel Lives though more preoccupied with issues of personal character and morality, outlines the history of important Hellenistic figures. Appian of Alexandria wrote a history of the Roman empire that includes information of some Hellenistic kingdoms, other sources include Justins epitome of Pompeius Trogus Historiae Philipicae and a summary of Arrians Events after Alexander, by Photios I of Constantinople. Lesser supplementary sources include Curtius Rufus, Pausanias, Pliny, in the field of philosophy, Diogenes Laertius Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers is the main source. Ancient Greece had traditionally been a collection of fiercely independent city-states. After the Peloponnesian War, Greece had fallen under a Spartan hegemony, in which Sparta was pre-eminent but not all-powerful
8.
Alexandria
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Alexandria is the second largest city and a major economic centre in Egypt, extending about 32 km along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country. Its low elevation on the Nile delta makes it vulnerable to rising sea levels. Alexandria is Egypts largest seaport, serving approximately 80% of Egypts imports and exports and it is an important industrial center because of its natural gas and oil pipelines from Suez. Alexandria is also an important tourist destination, Alexandria was founded around a small Ancient Egyptian town c.331 BC by Alexander the Great. Alexandria was the second most powerful city of the ancient world after Rome, Alexandria is believed to have been founded by Alexander the Great in April 331 BC as Ἀλεξάνδρεια. Alexanders chief architect for the project was Dinocrates, Alexandria was intended to supersede Naucratis as a Hellenistic center in Egypt, and to be the link between Greece and the rich Nile valley. The city and its museum attracted many of the greatest scholars, including Greeks, Jews, the city was later plundered and lost its significance. Just east of Alexandria, there was in ancient times marshland, as early as the 7th century BC, there existed important port cities of Canopus and Heracleion. The latter was rediscovered under water. An Egyptian city, Rhakotis, already existed on the shore also and it continued to exist as the Egyptian quarter of the city. A few months after the foundation, Alexander left Egypt and never returned to his city, after Alexanders departure, his viceroy, Cleomenes, continued the expansion. Although Cleomenes was mainly in charge of overseeing Alexandrias continuous development, the Heptastadion, inheriting the trade of ruined Tyre and becoming the center of the new commerce between Europe and the Arabian and Indian East, the city grew in less than a generation to be larger than Carthage. In a century, Alexandria had become the largest city in the world and and it became Egypts main Greek city, with Greek people from diverse backgrounds. Alexandria was not only a center of Hellenism, but was home to the largest urban Jewish community in the world. The Septuagint, a Greek version of the Tanakh, was produced there, in AD115, large parts of Alexandria were destroyed during the Kitos War, which gave Hadrian and his architect, Decriannus, an opportunity to rebuild it. On 21 July 365, Alexandria was devastated by a tsunami, the Islamic prophet, Muhammads first interaction with the people of Egypt occurred in 628, during the Expedition of Zaid ibn Haritha. He sent Hatib bin Abi Baltaeh with a letter to the king of Egypt and Alexandria called Muqawqis In the letter Muhammad said, I invite you to accept Islam, Allah the sublime, shall reward you doubly. But if you refuse to do so, you bear the burden of the transgression of all the Copts
9.
Nine lyric poets
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The Nine Lyric or Melic Poets were a canonical group of ancient Greek poets esteemed by the scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria as worthy of critical study. In the Palatine Anthology, they are stated to have established lyric song, the ancient scholars defined the genre on the basis of the musical accompaniment, not the content. Thus, some types of poetry which would be included under the label lyric poetry in modern criticism—namely, the Nine Lyric Poets are traditionally divided among those who primarily composed choral and those who composed monodic verse. This division is, however, contested by modern scholars
10.
Stesichorus
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Stesichorus was the first great lyric poet of the West. As one scholar observed in 1967, Time has dealt more harshly with Stesichorus than with any other major lyric poet, Stesichorus exercised an important influence on the representation of myth in 6th century art and on the development of Athenian dramatic poetry. Stesichorus was born in Metauros in Calabria, Southern Italy c.630 BC, Some say that he came from Himera in Sicily, but that was due to him moving from Metauros to Himera later in life. When exiled from Pallantium in Arcadia he came to Katane and when he died there was buried in front of the gate which is called Stesichorean after him, in date he was later than the lyric poet Alcman, since he was born in the 37th Olympiad. He died in the 56th Olympiad and he had a brother Mamertinus who was an expert in geometry and a second brother Helianax, a law-giver. His poems are in the Doric dialect and in 26 books and they say that he was blinded for writing abuse of Helen and recovered his sight after writing an encomium of Helen, the Palinode, as the result of a dream. He was called Stesichorus because he was the first to establish a chorus of singers to the cithara, aristotle quoted a speech the poet is supposed to have made to the people of Himera warning them against the tyrannical ambitions of Phalaris. The Byzantine grammarian Tzetzes also listed him as a contemporary of the tyrant, according to Lucian, the poet lived to 85 years of age. Hieronymus declared that his poems became sweeter and more swan-like as he approached death, eusebius dated his floruit in Olympiad 42.2 and his death in Olympiad 55.1. The Sudas claim that Hesiod was the father of Stesichorus can be dismissed as yet it is also mentioned by Tzetzes. According to another tradition known to Cicero, Stesichorus was the grandson of Hesiod yet even this verges on anachronism since Hesiod was composing verses around 700 BC, Stesichorus might be regarded as Hesiods literary heir and maybe this was the source of confusion about a family relationship. According to Stephanus of Byzantium and the philosopher Plato the poets father was named Euphemus, the poets mathematically inclined brother was named Mamertinus by the Suda but a scholiast in a commentary on Euclid named him Mamercus. It was also a sympathetic environment for his most famous poem, The Palinode, composed in praise of Helen, on the other hand, the western Greeks were not very different from their eastern counterparts and his poetry cannot be regarded exclusively as a product of the Greek West. His poetry included a description of the river Himera as well as praise for the named after it. His possible exile from Arcadia is attributed by one scholar to rivalry between Tegea and Sparta. Traditional accounts indicate that he was active in Magna Graeca. Aristotle mentions two public speeches by Stesichorus, one to the people of Himera, warning them against Phalaris, philodemus believed that the poet once stood between two armies and reconciled them with a song — but there is a similar story about Terpander. Moreover the name wasnt unique — there seems to have more than one poet of this name
11.
Athenaeus
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Athenaeus of Naucratis was a Greek rhetorician and grammarian, flourishing about the end of the 2nd and beginning of the 3rd century AD. The Suda says only that he lived in the times of Marcus Aurelius, but the contempt with which he speaks of Commodus and he was a contemporary of Adrantus. Several of his publications are lost, but the fifteen-volume Deipnosophistae mostly survives, Athenaeus himself states that he was the author of a treatise on the thratta, a kind of fish mentioned by Archippus and other comic poets, and of a history of the Syrian kings. The Deipnosophistae, which means dinner-table philosophers, survives in fifteen books, the first two books, and parts of the third, eleventh and fifteenth, are extant only in epitome, but otherwise the work seems to be entire. It is an immense store-house of information, chiefly on matters connected with dining, but also containing remarks on music, songs, dances, games, courtesans, and luxury. Nearly 800 writers and 2500 separate works are referred to by Athenaeus, were it not for Athenaeus, much valuable information about the ancient world would be missing, and many ancient Greek authors such as Archestratus would be almost entirely unknown. Book XIII, for example, is an important source for the study of sexuality in classical and Hellenistic Greece, and it is thus a dialogue within a dialogue, after the manner of Plato, but the conversation extends to enormous length. The topics for discussion generally arise from the course of the dinner itself, the guests supposedly quote from memory. The actual sources of the preserved in the Deipnosophistae remain obscure. The twenty-four named guests include individuals called Galen and Ulpian, but they are all probably fictitious personages, the complete version of the text, with the gaps noted above, is preserved in only one manuscript, conventionally referred to as A. The epitomized version of the text is preserved in two manuscripts, conventionally known as C and E, the standard edition of the text is Kaibels Teubner. The standard numbering is drawn largely from Casaubon, one of Athenaeus friends, Timocrates, wrote about the untimely death of Athenaeus in the Athenaeum. It describes the tale of angry peasants who believed that Athenaeus writings directly contradicted their beliefs of the Mithras cult. One night in 191 A. D. they kidnapped him, when they discovered that he continued writing the Deipnosophistae, twenty-three men stormed into his home and strangled him to death. It is unclear whether Athenaeus finished his work on his own or Timocrates finished it for him, Athenaeus described what may be considered the first patents. He mentions that in 500 BC, in the Greek city of Sybaris, the victor was given the exclusive right to prepare his dish for one year. Swallow song of Rhodes David Braund and John Wilkins, Athenaeus and his world, reading Greek culture in the Roman Empire, Exeter, christian Jacob, The Web of Athenaeus, Washington, DC, Center for Hellenic Studies at Harvard University,2013. D. Yonge, at The Literature Collection The Deipnosophists, long excerpts in searchable HTML format, at attalus
12.
Charites
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In Greek mythology, a Charis or Grace is one of three or more minor goddesses of charm, beauty, nature, human creativity, and fertility, together known as the Charites /ˈkærᵻtiːz/ or Graces. The usual list, from youngest to oldest is Aglaea, Euphrosyne, in Roman mythology they were known as the Gratiae, the Graces. In some variants, Charis was one of the Graces and was not the form of their name. The Charites were usually considered the daughters of Zeus and Eurynome, though they were said to be daughters of Dionysus and Aphrodite or of Helios. Other possible names of their mother by Zeus are Eurydome, Eurymedousa, Homer wrote that they were part of the retinue of Aphrodite. The Charites were also associated with the Greek underworld and the Eleusinian Mysteries, the river Cephissus near Delphi was sacred to them. An ancient vase painting attests the following names as five, Antheia, Eudaimonia, Paidia, Pandaisia, Pannychis - all referring to the Charites as patronesses of amusement and festivities. Moreover, they are aware that he established three as the number of the Graces, but they have no tradition of the names he gave them. The Lacedaemonians, however, say that the Graces are two, and that they were instituted by Lacedaemon, son of Taygete, who gave them the names of Cleta and Phaenna. These are appropriate names for Graces, as are given by the Athenians. It was from Eteocles of Orchomenus that we learned the custom of praying to three Graces, and Angelion and Tectaus, sons of Dionysus, who made the image of Apollo for the Delians, set three Graces in his hand. Again, at Athens, before the entrance to the Acropolis, pamphos was the first we know of to sing about the Graces, but his poetry contains no information either as to their number or about their names. Homer makes one the wife of Hephaestus, giving her the name of Charis and he also says that Sleep was a lover of Pasithea, and in the speech of Sleep there is this verse, Verily that he would give me one of the younger Graces. Hence some have suspected that Homer knew of older Graces as well, hesiod in the Theogony says that the three Graces are daughters of Zeus and Eurynome, giving them the names of Aglaia, Euphrosyne and lovely Thalia. The poem of Onomacritus agrees with this account, antimachus, while giving neither the number of the Graces nor their names, says that they are daughters of Aegle and the Sun. The elegiac poet Hermesianax disagrees with his predecessors in that he makes Persuasion also one of the Graces, nonnus gives their three names as Pasithea, Peitho and Aglaia. Sostratus gives the names as Pasithea, Cale and Euphrosyne, Pasithea for Aglaia and Cale for Thalia, on the representation of the Graces, Pausanias wrote, Who it was who first represented the Graces naked, whether in sculpture or in painting, I could not discover. During the earlier period, certainly, sculptors and painters alike represented them draped
13.
Horae
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In Greek mythology the Horae or Horai or Hours were the goddesses of the seasons and the natural portions of time. They were originally the personifications of nature in its different seasonal aspects and they bring and bestow ripeness, they come and go in accordance with the firm law of the periodicities of nature and of life, Karl Kerenyi observed, Hora means the correct moment. Traditionally, they guarded the gates of Olympus, promoted the fertility of the earth, the course of the seasons was also symbolically described as the dance of the Horae, and they were accordingly given the attributes of spring flowers, fragrance and graceful freshness. For example, in Hesiods Works and Days, the fair-haired Horai, together with the Charites, in Argos, two Horae, rather than three, were recognised presumably winter and summer, Auxesia and Damia. In late euhemerist interpretations, they were seen as Cretan maidens who were worshipped as goddesses after they had been stoned to death. The earliest written mention of Horai is in the Iliad where they appear as keepers of Zeuss cloud gates, hardly any traces of that function are found in the subsequent tradition, Karl Galinsky remarked in passing. They were daughters of Zeus and Themis, half-sisters to the Moirai, Auxo or Auxesia was worshipped in Athens as one of their two Charites, Auxo was the Charis of spring and Hegemone was the Charis of autumn. One of the Horae, and the goddess and personification of the season of summer, she is the protector of vegetation and plants and she was an attendant to Persephone, Aphrodite and Hera, and was also associated with Dionysus, Apollo and Pan. At Athens, two Horae, Thallo and Carpo, also appear in rites of Attica noted by Pausanias in the 2nd century AD. Thallo, Auxo and Carpo are often accompanied by Chione, an Aurae, a daughter of Boreas and Orithyia/Oreithyia, along with Chione, Thallo, Auxo and Carpo were a part of the entourage of the goddess of the turn of the seasons, Persephone. Of the second triad associated to Themis and Zeus for law and order, Diké was the goddess of justice, she ruled over human justice. Eunomia was the goddess of law and legislation, the same or a different goddess may have been a daughter of Hermes and Aphrodite. Eirene or Irene, was the personification of peace and wealth, and was depicted in art as a young woman carrying a cornucopia, scepter. Hyginus identifies a set of Horae, Pherusa, Euporie or Euporia. Nonnus in his Dionysiaca mentions a distinct set of four Horae, quintus Smyrnaeus also attributes the Horae as the daughters of Helios and Selene, and describes them as the four handmaidens of Hera. The Greek words for the four seasons of year, Eiar, Theros, Phthinoporon, finally, a quite separate suite of Horae personified the twelve hours, as tutelary goddesses of the times of day. List of Greek mythological figures Hora Grimal, Pierre, The Dictionary of Classical Mythology, Wiley-Blackwell,1996, Horae p.217 Smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London. Horae The dictionary definition of Horae at Wiktionary Media related to Horae at Wikimedia Commons Theoi Project, Horai Theoi Project, Twelve Horae
14.
Aphrodite
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Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of love, beauty, pleasure, and procreation. She is identified with the planet Venus, and her Roman equivalent is the goddess Venus, as with many ancient Greek deities, there is more than one story about her origins. According to Hesiods Theogony, she was born when Cronus cut off Uranuss genitals and threw them into the sea, according to Homers Iliad, she is the daughter of Zeus and Dione. In Plato, these two origins are said to be of hitherto separate entities, Aphrodite Ourania and Aphrodite Pandemos, Aphrodite had many lovers—both gods, such as Ares, and men, such as Anchises. She played a role in the Eros and Psyche legend, and was lover and surrogate mother of Adonis. Many lesser beings were said to be children of Aphrodite, Aphrodite is also known as Cytherea and Cypris after the two cult sites, Cythera and Cyprus, which claimed to be her place of birth. Myrtle, roses, doves, sparrows and swans were sacred to her, the ancient Greeks identified her with the Ancient Egyptian goddess Hathor. Aphrodite had many names such as Acidalia and Cerigo, each used by a different local cult of the goddess in Greece. The Greeks recognized all of these names as referring to the single goddess Aphrodite, despite the differences in what these local cults believed the goddess demanded of them. The Attic philosophers of the 4th century, however, drew a distinction between a celestial Aphrodite of transcendent principles, and a separate, common Aphrodite who was the goddess of the people, hesiod derives Aphrodite from aphrós sea-foam, interpreting the name as risen from the foam. Michael Janda, accepting this as genuine, claims the birth myth as an Indo-European mytheme. Likewise, Witczak proposes an Indo-European compound *abʰor- very and *dʰei- to shine and it has been argued that etymologies based on comparison with Eos are unlikely since Aphrodites attributes are entirely different from those of Eos or the Vedic deity Ushas. A number of improbable non-Greek etymologies have suggested in scholarship. One Semitic etymology compares Aphrodite to the Assyrian barīrītu, the name of a demon that appears in Middle Babylonian. Hammarström looks to Etruscan, comparing prϑni lord, an Etruscan honorific loaned into Greek as πρύτανις and this would make the theonym in origin an honorific, the lady. Hjalmar Frisk and Robert Beekes reject this etymology as implausible, especially since Aphrodite actually appears in Etruscan in the borrowed form Apru, the medieval Etymologicum Magnum offers a highly contrived etymology, deriving Aphrodite from the compound habrodíaitos, she who lives delicately, from habrós and díaita. The alteration from b to ph is explained as a characteristic of Greek obvious from the Macedonians. Aphrodite is usually said to have been born near her chief center of worship, Paphos, on the island of Cyprus, however, other versions of her myth have her born near the island of Cythera, hence another of her names, Cytherea
15.
Peitho
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Peitho is also the name of an Oceanid. See 118 Peitho for the asteroid, in Greek mythology, Peitho /piː. θɔː/ is the goddess who personifies persuasion and seduction. Her Roman name is Suadela or Suada, pausanias reports that after the unification of Athens, Theseus set up a cult of Aphrodite Pandemos and Peitho on the south slope of Acropolis of Athens. According to the author, they had also a sanctuary. In her role as an attendant or companion of Aphrodite, Peitho was intimately connected to the goddess of love, ancient artists and poets explored this connection in their works. The most desirable women drew many suitors, and persuasive skill often determined their success. Aphrodite and Peitho were sometimes conflated to an extent, with the name Peitho appearing in conjunction with, or as an epithet of. This helps to demonstrate how the relationship between persuasion and love was important in Greek culture, however, Hesiods classification of Peitho as an Oceanid is contradicted by other sources. When Zeus ordered the creation of the first woman, Pandora, Peitho and the Graces put golden necklaces around her neck, Peitho was one of the Charites mentioned by Hermesianax. Nonnus in his Dionysiaca gives their three graces were Pasithea, Peitho, and Aglaia, the daughters of Dionysus and Aphrodite and she is most commonly considered a daughter of Aphrodite. In Nonnus Dionysiaca, Peitho was the wife of Hermes, the messenger of the gods, in another source, Peitho is also the wife of Phoroneus, and the mother of Aegialeus and Apia. Dictionnaire de la Mythologie Grecque Et Romaine, north, Helen F. Emblems of Eloquence. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London. The Theoi Project, PEITHO Images of Political Personifications, Peitho
16.
Hesiod
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Hesiod was a Greek poet generally thought by scholars to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. He is generally regarded as the first written poet in the Western tradition to regard himself as a persona with an active role to play in his subject. Ancient authors credited Hesiod and Homer with establishing Greek religious customs, modern scholars refer to him as a major source on Greek mythology, farming techniques, early economic thought, archaic Greek astronomy and ancient time-keeping. The dating of his life is an issue in scholarly circles. Epic narrative allowed poets like Homer no opportunity for personal revelations, however, Hesiods extant work comprises didactic poems in which he went out of his way to let his audience in on a few details of his life. There are three references in Works and Days, as well as some passages in his Theogony that support inferences made by scholars. Some scholars have seen Perses as a creation, a foil for the moralizing that Hesiod develops in Works and Days. Gregory Nagy, on the hand, sees both Persēs and Hēsiodos as fictitious names for poetical personae. The family association with Cyme might explain his familiarity with eastern myths, evident in his poems, however, while his poetry features some Aeolisms there are no words that are certainly Boeotian—he composed in the main literary dialect of the time, Ionian. Pausanias asserted that Boeotians showed him an old tablet made of lead on which the Works were engraved. If he did write or dictate, it was perhaps as an aid to memory or because he lacked confidence in his ability to produce poems extempore and it certainly wasnt in a quest for immortal fame since poets in his era had no such notions. However, some suspect the presence of large-scale changes in the text. Possibly he composed his verses during idle times on the farm and he was in fact a misogynist of the same calibre as the later poet, Semonides. He resembles Solon in his preoccupation with issues of good versus evil and how a just and he resembles Aristophanes in his rejection of the idealised hero of epic literature in favour of an idealised view of the farmer. Yet the fact that he could eulogise kings in Theogony and denounce them as corrupt in Works, two different—yet early—traditions record the site of Hesiods grave. This tradition follows a familiar ironic convention, the oracle that predicts accurately after all, the other tradition, first mentioned in an epigram by Chersias of Orchomenus written in the 7th century BC claims that Hesiod lies buried at Orchomenus, a town in Boeotia. Eventually they came to regard Hesiod too as their hearth-founder, later writers attempted to harmonize these two accounts. Greeks in the fifth and early 4th centuries BC considered their oldest poets to be Orpheus, Musaeus, Hesiod
17.
Pandora
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In Greek mythology, Pandora was the first human woman created by the gods, specifically by Hephaestus and Athena on the instructions of Zeus. As Hesiod related it, each god helped create her by giving her unique gifts, Zeus ordered Hephaestus to mold her out of earth as part of the punishment of humanity for Prometheus theft of the secret of fire, and all the gods joined in offering her seductive gifts. Her other name—inscribed against her figure on a white-ground kylix in the British Museum—is Anesidora, the Pandora myth is a kind of theodicy, addressing the question of why there is evil in the world. Hesiod, both in his Theogony and in Works and Days, gives the earliest version of the Pandora story, the Pandora myth first appears in lines 560–612 of Hesiods poem in epic meter, the Theogony, without ever giving the woman a name. After humans received the gift of fire from Prometheus, an angry Zeus decides to give humanity a punishing gift to compensate for the boon they had been given. He commands Hephaestus to mold from earth the first woman, a beautiful evil whose descendants would torment the human race, after Hephaestus does so, Athena dresses her in a silvery gown, an embroidered veil, garlands and an ornate crown of silver. This woman goes unnamed in the Theogony, but is presumably Pandora, whose myth Hesiod revisited in Works, when she first appears before gods and mortals, wonder seized them as they looked upon her. But she was sheer guile, not to be withstood by men, the more famous version of the Pandora myth comes from another of Hesiods poems, Works and Days. In this version of the myth, Hesiod expands upon her origin, finally, Hermes gives this woman a name, Pandora – All-gifted – because all the Olympians gave her a gift. In this retelling of her story, Pandoras deceitful feminine nature becomes the least of humanitys worries, for she brings with her a jar containing burdensome toil and sickness that brings death to men, diseases and a myriad other pains. Prometheus had warned his brother Epimetheus not to accept any gifts from Zeus, but Epimetheus did not listen, he accepted Pandora, who promptly scattered the contents of her jar. As a result, Hesiod tells us, the earth and sea are full of evils, one item, however, did not escape the jar, Hesiod does not say why hope remained in the jar. Hesiod closes with this moral, Thus it is not possible to escape the mind of Zeus, Thus, Pandora was created as the first woman and given the jar which releases all evils upon man. Archaic and Classic Greek literature seem to no further mention of Pandora, though Sophocles wrote a satyr play Pandora. Sappho may have reference to Pandora in a surviving fragment. Later, mythographers filled in minor details or added postscripts to Hesiods account, for example, the Bibliotheca and Hyginus each make explicit what might be latent in the Hesiodic text, Epimetheus married Pandora. They each add that they had a daughter, Pyrrha, who married Deucalion, however, the Hesiodic Catalogue of Women, fragment #5, had made a Pandora one of the daughters of Deucalion, and the mother of Graecus by Zeus. In a major departure from Hesiod, the 6th-century BC Greek elegiac poet Theognis of Megara tells us, in this, he appears to follow a possibly pre-Hesiodic tradition, preserved by the second-century fabulist Babrius, that the gods sent a jar containing blessings to humans
18.
Byzantine Empire under the Macedonian dynasty
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The cities of the empire expanded, and affluence spread across the provinces because of the new-found security. The population rose, and production increased, stimulating new demand while also helping to encourage trade, culturally, there was considerable growth in education and learning. Ancient texts were preserved and patiently re-copied, Byzantine art flourished, and brilliant mosaics graced the interiors of the many new churches. The latter in particular favoured culture at the court, and, with a financial policy. The rise of the Macedonian dynasty coincided with developments which strengthened the religious unity of the empire. Despite occasional tactical defeats, the administrative, legislative, cultural and economic situation continued to improve under Basils successors, the theme system reached its definitive form in this period. These favourable conditions contributed to the ability of the emperors to wage war against the Arabs. The process of reconquest began with variable fortunes, the temporary reconquest of Crete was followed by a crushing Byzantine defeat on the Bosporus, while the emperors were unable to prevent the ongoing Muslim conquest of Sicily. The threat from the Arab Muslims was meanwhile reduced by inner struggles and it took several campaigns to subdue the Paulicians, who were eventually defeated by Basil I. In 904, disaster struck the empire when its second city, the Byzantines responded by destroying an Arab fleet in 908, and sacking the city of Laodicea in Syria two years later. The situation on the border with the Arab territories remained fluid, Kievan Rus, who appeared near Constantinople for the first time in 860, constituted another new challenge. The soldier emperors Nikephoros II Phokas and John I Tzimiskes expanded the empire well into Syria, defeating the emirs of north-west Iraq and reconquering Crete, at one point under John, the empires armies even threatened Jerusalem, far to the south. The emirate of Aleppo and its neighbours became vassals of the empire in the east, the traditional struggle with the See of Rome continued, spurred by the question of religious supremacy over the newly Christianized Bulgaria. This prompted an invasion by the powerful Tsar Simeon I in 894, but this was pushed back by the Byzantine diplomacy, the Byzantines were in turn defeated, however, at the Battle of Bulgarophygon, and obliged to pay annual subsidies to the Bulgarians. Later Simeon even had the Byzantines grant him the crown of basileus of Bulgaria and had the young emperor Constantine VII marry one of his daughters, when a revolt in Constantinople halted his dynastic project, he again invaded Thrace and conquered Adrianople. Adrianople was captured again in 923 and in 924 the Bulgarian army laid siege to Constantinople, pressure from the North was alleviated only after Simeons death in 927. Under the emperor Basil II, Bulgaria became target of campaigns by the Byzantine army. The war was to drag on for twenty years
19.
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
20.
Croesus
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Croesus was the king of Lydia who, according to Herodotus, reigned for 14 years, from 560 BC until his defeat by the Persian king Cyrus the Great in 546 BC. Croesus was renowned for his wealth, Herodotus and Pausanias noted that his gifts were preserved at Delphi, the fall of Croesus made a profound impact on the Greeks, providing a fixed point in their calendar. By the fifth century at least, J. A. S, evans has remarked, Croesus had become a figure of myth, who stood outside the conventional restraints of chronology.1, and Ctesias, whose account is also an encomium of Cyrus. Croesus is a descendant of Gyges, of the Myrmnadae Clan, born about 595 BC, Croesus received tribute from the Ionian Greeks but was friendlier to the Hellenes than his father had been. Croesus is credited with issuing the first true gold coins with a standardised purity for general circulation, however, they were quite crude, and were made of electrum, a naturally occurring pale yellow alloy of gold and silver. The composition of these first coins was similar to alluvial deposits found in the silt of the Pactolus river, later coins, including some in the British Museum, were made from gold purified by heating with common salt to remove the silver. King Croesus gold coins follow the first silver coins that had been minted by King Pheidon of Argos around 700 BC, in Greek and Persian cultures the name of Croesus became a synonym for a wealthy man. Croesus wealth remained proverbial beyond classical antiquity, in English, expressions such as rich as Croesus or richer than Croesus are used to great wealth to this day. According to Herodotus, Croesus encountered the Greek sage Solon and showed him his enormous wealth, Solon goes on to explain that Croesus cannot be the happiest man because the fickleness of fortune means that the happiness of a mans life cannot be judged until after his death. The interview is in the nature of a philosophical disquisition on the subject Which man is happy and it is legendary rather than historical. Thus the happiness of Croesus is presented as an exemplum of the fickleness of Tyche. The story was retold and elaborated by Ausonius in The Masque of the Seven Sages, in the Suda. According to Herodotus, Croesus desired to discover which of the well known oracles of his time gave trustworthy omens. Then on the 100th day the envoys entered the oracle of Delphi in order to ask for the omen, the Pythia answered in verse, I know the sands number, I understand the mute and hear him though he does not speak. The smell has come to my senses of a hard-shelled tortoise Being cooked in bronze together with meat, There is bronze beneath it. The envoys wrote down the answer and returned to Sardis, Croesus read all the answers brought by his envoys from all the oracles. As soon as he read the answer of the Pythia he bowed, because he was persuaded that it was the only real oracle, along with that of Amphiaraus. Indeed, on the specific date Croesus had put pieces of a tortoise and lamb to boil together in a bronze cauldron, then, Croesus wanted to thank and take on his side the oracle of Delphi
21.
Cithara
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The cithara or kithara was an ancient Greek musical instrument in the lyre or lyra family. In modern Greek the word kithara has come to mean guitar, the kithara was a professional version of the two-stringed lyre. As opposed to the lyre, which was a folk-instrument. The kitharas origins are likely Asiatic, the barbiton was a bass version of the kithara popular in the eastern Aegean and ancient Asia Minor. In the Middle Ages, cythara was used generically for stringed instruments including lyres. The use of the name throughout the Middle Ages looked back to the original Greek cithara, the kithara had a deep, wooden sounding box composed of two resonating tables, either flat or slightly arched, connected by ribs or sides of equal width. At the top, its strings were knotted around the crossbar or yoke or to rings threaded over the bar, the other end of the strings was secured to a tail-piece after passing over a flat bridge, or the tail-piece and bridge were combined. The kithara was played primarily to accompany dances and epic recitations, rhapsodies, odes and it was also played solo at the receptions, banquets, national games, and trials of skill. The music from this instrument was said to be the lyre for drinking parties and is considered an invention of Terpander, aristotle said that these string instruments were not for educational purposes but for pleasure only. The kithara was the instrument, generally known as taking a great deal of skill. Sappho is closely associated with music, especially string instruments like the kithara and she was a woman of high social standing and composed songs that focused on the emotions. A Greek mythology story goes that she ascended the slopes of Mount Parnassus where she was welcomed by the Muses. She wandered through the grove and came upon the cave of Apollo. The sacred nymphs danced while she stroked the strings with much talent to bring forth sweet musical melodies from the resonant kithara, Music and Image in Classical Athens, New York, Cambridge University Press Schlesinger, Kathleen. MMA staff, The Kithara in Ancient Greece | Thematic Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, retrieved 2016-10-25 Hagel, Stefan, Ancient Greek Music, Oeaw. ac. In its recording DEuripide aux premiers chretiens, musique de lantiquité grecque et romaine, pictures of its instruments can be seen on their website
22.
Anacreon
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Anacreon was a Greek lyric poet, notable for his drinking songs and hymns. Later Greeks included him in the canonical list of nine lyric poets, Anacreon wrote all of his poetry in the ancient Ionic dialect. Like all early lyric poetry, it was composed to be sung or recited to the accompaniment of music, Anacreons poetry touched on universal themes of love, infatuation, disappointment, revelry, parties, festivals and the observations of everyday people and life. Anacreon was born at Teos, an Ionian city on the coast of Asia Minor, the name and identity of his father is a matter of dispute, with different authorities naming four possibilities, Scythianus, Eumelus, Parthenius, or Aristocritus. It is likely that Anacreon fled into exile with most of his fellow-townsmen who sailed to Thrace when their homeland was attacked by the Persians, there they founded a colony at Abdera, rather than remaining behind to surrender their city to Harpagus, one of Cyrus the Greats generals. Cyrus was, at the time, besieging the Greek cities of Asia Minor, Anacreon seems to have taken part in the fighting, in which, by his own admission, he did not distinguish himself. From Thrace he travelled to the court of Polycrates of Samos, in return for his favour and protection, Anacreon wrote many complimentary odes about his patron. Like his fellow-lyric poet, Horace, who was one of his great admirers, John Addison, writing in 1735, relates a story told by Stobaeus about Anacreon. Having received a treasure of five gold talents from Polycrates, Anacreon couldnt sleep for two nights in a row and he then returned it to his patron, saying, However considerable the sum might be, its not an equal price for the trouble of keeping it. In Athens he became acquainted with the poet Simonides, and other members of the brilliant circle which had gathered around Hipparchus, according to others, before returning to Teos, he accompanied Simonides to the court of Echecrates, a Thessalian dynast of the house of the Aleuadae. Lucian mentions Anacreon amongst his instances of the longevity of eminent men, for a long time, Anacreon was popular in Athens, where his statue was to be seen on the Acropolis, together with that of his friend Xanthippus, the father of Pericles. On several coins from Teos he is represented holding a lyre in his hand, sometimes sitting, a marble statue found in 1835 in the Sabine district, and now in the Galleria Borghese, is said to represent Anacreon. Anacreon wrote all of his poetry in the ancient Ionic dialect, like all early lyric poetry, it was composed to be sung or recited to the accompaniment of music, usually the lyre. Anacreons verses were primarily in the form of monody rather than for a chorus, in keeping with Greek poetic tradition, his poetry relied on meter for its construction. Metrical poetry is a rhythmic form, deriving its structure from patterns of phonetic features within. The phonetic patterning in Anacreons poetry, like all the Greek poetry of the day, is found in the alternation of long. The Ionic dialect also had an aspect to it that lends a natural melodic quality to the recitation. The Greek language is well suited to this metrical style of poetry
23.
Herodotus
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Herodotus was a Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus in the Persian Empire and lived in the fifth century BC, a contemporary of Socrates. The Histories is the work which he is known to have produced. Despite Herodotus historical significance, little is known of his personal life and his place in history and his significance may be understood according to the traditions within which he worked. His work is the earliest Greek prose to have survived intact, of these only fragments of Hecataeuss work survive yet they allow us glimpses into the kind of tradition within which Herodotus wrote his own Histories. In his introduction to Hecataeus’s work, Genealogies, This points forward to the ‘folksy’ yet ‘international’ outlook typical of Herodotus. Yet, one scholar has described the work of Hecataeus as “a curious false start to history” since despite his critical spirit. It is possible that Herodotus borrowed much material from Hecataeus, as stated by Porphyry in a recorded by Eusebius. But Hecataeus did not record events that had occurred in living memory, unlike Herodotus, Herodotus claims to be better informed than his predecessors by relying on empirical observation to correct their excessive schematism. For example, He argues for continental asymmetry as opposed to the theory of a perfectly circular earth with Europe. Yet, he retains idealizing tendencies, as in his notions of the Danube. His debt to previous authors of prose ‘histories’ might be questionable, however, this point is one of the most contentious issues in modern scholarship. It is on account of the strange stories and the folk-tales he reported that his critics in early modern times branded him “The Father of Lies”. Even his own contemporaries found reason to scoff at his achievement, similarly, the Athenian historian Thucydides dismissed Herodotus as a “logos-writer”. Moreover, Thucydides developed a historical topic more in keeping with the Greek world-view, the interplay of civilizations was more relevant to Greeks living in Anatolia, such as Herodotus himself, for whom life within a foreign civilization was a recent memory. Modern scholars generally turn to Herodotus’s own writing for reliable information about his life, supplemented with ancient yet much later sources, modern accounts of his life typically go something like this, Herodotus was born at Halicarnassus around 484 BC. His name is not mentioned later in the tribute list of the Athenian Delian League, the epic poet Panyassis – a relative of Herodotus – is reported to have taken part in a failed uprising. Herodotus expresses affection for the island of Samos, and this is an indication that he might have lived there in his youth. So it is possible that his family was involved in an uprising against Lygdamis, leading to a period of exile on Samos, Herodotus wrote his Histories in the Ionian dialect, yet he was born in Halicarnassus, which was a Dorian settlement
24.
Eusebius
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Eusebius of Caesarea, also known as Eusebius Pamphili, was a Greek historian of Christianity, exegete, and Christian polemicist. He became the bishop of Caesarea Maritima about 314 AD, together with Pamphilus, he was a scholar of the Biblical canon and is regarded as an extremely well learned Christian of his time. He wrote Demonstrations of the Gospel, Preparations for the Gospel, as Father of Church History he produced the Ecclesiastical History, On the Life of Pamphilus, the Chronicle and On the Martyrs. Little is known about the life of Eusebius and his successor at the See of Caesarea, Acacius, wrote a Life of Eusebius, a work that has since been lost. Eusebius own surviving works probably only represent a portion of his total output. Beyond notices in his extant writings, the sources are the 5th-century ecclesiastical historians Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret. There are assorted notices of his activities in the writings of his contemporaries Athanasius, Arius, Eusebius of Nicomedia, Eusebius pupil, Eusebius of Emesa, provides some incidental information. In his Ecclesiastical History, Eusebius writes of Dionysius of Alexandria as his contemporary, if this is true, Eusebius birth must have been before Dionysius death in autumn 264, most modern scholars date the birth to some point in the five years between 260 and 265. He was presumably born in the town in which he lived for most of his adult life and he was baptized and instructed in the city, and lived in Palestine in 296, when Diocletians army passed through the region. Eusebius was made presbyter by Agapius of Caesarea, S. Wallace-Hadrill, deem the phrase too ambiguous to support the contention. By the 3rd century, Caesarea had a population of about 100,000 and it had been a pagan city since Pompey had given control of the city to the gentiles during his command of the eastern provinces in the 60s BC. The gentiles retained control of the city for the three centuries to follow, despite Jewish petitions for joint governorship, gentile government was strengthened by the citys refoundation under Herod the Great, when it had taken on the name of Augustus Caesar. In addition to the settlers, Caesarea had large Jewish. Eusebius was probably born into the Christian contingent of the city.46 states that Zacchaeus was the first bishop, through the activities of the theologian Origen and the school of his follower Pamphilus, Caesarea became a center of Christian learning. Origen was largely responsible for the collection of information, or which churches were using which gospels. On his deathbed, Origen had made a bequest of his library to the Christian community in the city. Together with the books of his patron Ambrosius, Origens library formed the core of the collection that Pamphilus established, Pamphilus also managed a school that was similar to that of Origen. Pamphilus was compared to Demetrius of Phalerum and Pisistratus, for he had gathered Bibles from all parts of the world, like his model Origen, Pamphilus maintained close contact with his students
25.
Pythagoras
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Pythagoras of Samos was an Ionian Greek philosopher, mathematician, and the putative founder of the movement called Pythagoreanism. Most of the information about Pythagoras was written centuries after he lived. He was born on the island of Samos, and travelled, visiting Egypt and Greece, around 530 BC, he moved to Croton, in Magna Graecia, and there established some kind of school or guild. In 520 BC, he returned to Samos, Pythagoras made influential contributions to philosophy and religion in the late 6th century BC. He is often revered as a mathematician and scientist and is best known for the Pythagorean theorem which bears his name. Many of the accomplishments credited to Pythagoras may actually have been accomplishments of his colleagues, some accounts mention that the philosophy associated with Pythagoras was related to mathematics and that numbers were important. It was said that he was the first man to himself a philosopher, or lover of wisdom, and Pythagorean ideas exercised a marked influence on Plato. Burkert states that Aristoxenus and Dicaearchus are the most important accounts, Aristotle had written a separate work On the Pythagoreans, which is no longer extant. However, the Protrepticus possibly contains parts of On the Pythagoreans and his disciples Dicaearchus, Aristoxenus, and Heraclides Ponticus had written on the same subject. These writers, late as they are, were among the best sources from whom Porphyry and Iamblichus drew, while adding some legendary accounts. Herodotus, Isocrates, and other writers agree that Pythagoras was the son of Mnesarchus and born on the Greek island of Samos. His father is said to have been a gem-engraver or a wealthy merchant, a late source gives his mothers name as Pythais. As to the date of his birth, Aristoxenus stated that Pythagoras left Samos in the reign of Polycrates, at the age of 40, around 530 BC he arrived in the Greek colony of Croton in what was then Magna Graecia. There he founded his own school the members of which he engaged to a disciplined. He furthermore aquired some political influence, on Greeks and non-Greeks of the region, following a conflict with the neighbouring colony of Sybaris, internal discord drove most of the Pythagoreans out of Croton. Pythagoras left the city before the outbreak of civil unrest and moved to Metapontum, after his death, his house was transformed into a sanctuary of Demeter, out of veneration for the philosopher, by the local population. In ancient sources there was disagreement and inconsistency about the late life of Pythagoras. His tomb was shown at Metapontum in the time of Cicero, according to Walter Burkert, Most obvious is the contradiction between Aristoxenus and Dicaearchus, regarding the catastrophe that overwhelmed the Pythagorean society
26.
Plutarch
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Plutarch was a Greek biographer and essayist, known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia. He is classified as a Middle Platonist, Plutarchs surviving works were written in Greek, but intended for both Greek and Roman readers. Plutarch was born to a prominent family in the town of Chaeronea, about 80 km east of Delphi. The name of Plutarchs father has not been preserved, but based on the common Greek custom of repeating a name in alternate generations, the name of Plutarchs grandfather was Lamprias, as he attested in Moralia and in his Life of Antony. His brothers, Timon and Lamprias, are mentioned in his essays and dialogues. Rualdus, in his 1624 work Life of Plutarchus, recovered the name of Plutarchs wife, Timoxena, from internal evidence afforded by his writings. A letter is still extant, addressed by Plutarch to his wife, bidding her not to grieve too much at the death of their two-year-old daughter, interestingly, he hinted at a belief in reincarnation in that letter of consolation. The exact number of his sons is not certain, although two of them, Autobulus and the second Plutarch, are often mentioned. Plutarchs treatise De animae procreatione in Timaeo is dedicated to them, another person, Soklarus, is spoken of in terms which seem to imply that he was Plutarchs son, but this is nowhere definitely stated. Plutarch studied mathematics and philosophy at the Academy of Athens under Ammonius from 66 to 67, at some point, Plutarch took Roman citizenship. He lived most of his life at Chaeronea, and was initiated into the mysteries of the Greek god Apollo. For many years Plutarch served as one of the two priests at the temple of Apollo at Delphi, the site of the famous Delphic Oracle, twenty miles from his home. By his writings and lectures Plutarch became a celebrity in the Roman Empire, yet he continued to reside where he was born, at his country estate, guests from all over the empire congregated for serious conversation, presided over by Plutarch in his marble chair. Many of these dialogues were recorded and published, and the 78 essays, Plutarch held the office of archon in his native municipality, probably only an annual one which he likely served more than once. He busied himself with all the matters of the town. The Suda, a medieval Greek encyclopedia, states that Emperor Trajan made Plutarch procurator of Illyria, however, most historians consider this unlikely, since Illyria was not a procuratorial province, and Plutarch probably did not speak Illyrian. Plutarch spent the last thirty years of his serving as a priest in Delphi. He thus connected part of his work with the sanctuary of Apollo, the processes of oracle-giving
27.
Friedrich Schiller
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Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller was a German poet, philosopher, physician, historian, and playwright. During the last seventeen years of his life, Schiller struck up a productive, if complicated, friendship with the already famous and they frequently discussed issues concerning aesthetics, and Schiller encouraged Goethe to finish works he left as sketches. This relationship and these led to a period now referred to as Weimar Classicism. They also worked together on Xenien, a collection of satirical poems in which both Schiller and Goethe challenge opponents to their philosophical vision. Friedrich Schiller was born on 10 November 1759, in Marbach, Württemberg as the son of military doctor Johann Kaspar Schiller. Schiller grew up in a religious family and spent much of his youth studying the Bible. His father was away in the Seven Years War when Friedrich was born and he was named after king Frederick the Great, but he was called Fritz by nearly everyone. Kaspar Schiller was rarely home during the war, but he did manage to visit the family once in a while and his wife and children also visited him occasionally wherever he happened to be stationed. When the war ended in 1763, Schillers father became an officer and was stationed in Schwäbisch Gmünd. Due to the high cost of living—especially the rent—the family moved to nearby Lorch, although the family was happy in Lorch, Schillers father found his work unsatisfying. He sometimes took his son with him, in Lorch, Schiller received his primary education. The quality of the lessons was fairly bad, and Friedrich regularly cut class with his older sister, because his parents wanted Schiller to become a pastor, they had the pastor of the village instruct the boy in Latin and Greek. Pastor Moser was a teacher, and later Schiller named the cleric in his first play Die Räuber after him. As a boy, Schiller was excited by the idea of becoming a cleric and often put on black robes, in 1766, the family left Lorch for the Duke of Württembergs principal residence, Ludwigsburg. Schillers father had not been paid for three years, and the family had been living on their savings but could no longer afford to do so, so Kaspar Schiller took an assignment to the garrison in Ludwigsburg. There the Schiller boy came to the attention of Karl Eugen and he entered the Karlsschule Stuttgart, in 1773, where he eventually studied medicine. During most of his life, he suffered from illnesses that he tried to cure himself. While at the Karlsschule, Schiller read Rousseau and Goethe and discussed Classical ideals with his classmates, the plays critique of social corruption and its affirmation of proto-revolutionary republican ideals astounded its original audience
28.
Catania
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Catania is an Italian city on the east coast of Sicily facing the Ionian Sea. It is the capital of the Metropolitan City of Catania, one of the ten biggest cities in Italy, the population of the city proper is 315,601 while the population of the conurbation is estimated to be 767,003. The metropolitan city has 1,115,310 inhabitants, Catania has had a long and eventful history, having been founded in the 8th century BC. In 1434, the first university in Sicily was founded in the city, in the 14th century and into the Renaissance period, Catania was one of Italys most important cultural, artistic and political centres. The city has a culture and history, hosting many museums, restaurants, churches, parks. Catania is well known for its street food, Catania is located on the east coast of the island of Sicily, at the foot of Mount Etna. As observed by Strabo, the location of Catania at the foot of Mount Etna has been both a curse and a blessing, two subterranean rivers run under the city, the Amenano, which surfaces at one single point south of Piazza Duomo, and the Longane. The ancient indigenous population of the Sicels named their villages after geographical attributes of their location, the Sicilian word, katane, means grater, flaying knife, skinning place or a crude tool apt to pare. Other translations of the name are harsh lands, uneven ground, sharp stones, the latter etymologies are easily justifiable since, for many centuries following an eruption, the city has always been rebuilt within its black-lava landscape. Around 729 BC, the ancient village of Katane became the Chalcidian colony of Katánē where the population was rapidly Hellenized. The Naxian founders, coming from the adjacent coast, later used the name for their new settlement along the River Amenano, around 263 BC, the city was variously known as Catĭna and Catăna. The former has been used for its supposed assonance with catina. Catinus has two meanings, a gulf, a basin or a bay and a bowl, a vessel or a trough, around 900, when Catania was part of the emirate of Sicily, it was known in Arabic as Balad al-fīl and Madinat al-fīl. The former means The Village of the Elephant, while the latter means The City of the Elephant, the Elephant is the lava sculpture over the fountain in Piazza Duomo. Another Arab toponym was Qaṭāniyyah, allegedly from the Arabic word for the leguminous plants, pulses like lentils, beans, peas, broad beans, and lupins were chiefly cultivated in the plains around the city well before the arrival of Aghlabids. Afterwards, many Arabic agronomists developed these crops and the orchards in the area around the city. The toponym Wadi Musa, or Valley of Moses, was rarely used, Catania was founded as a Greek colony named Κατάνη, of Chalcidic origin, under the guidance of a leader named Euarchos. The exact date of its foundation is not recorded, but it appears from Thucydides that it came into existence slightly later than Leontini, the only event of its early history that is known about is the legislation of Charondas, The exact date of which is uncertain
29.
Himera
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Himera, was an important ancient Greek city of Sicily, situated on the north coast of the island, at the mouth of the river of the same name, between Panormus and Cephaloedium. Its remains lie within the borders of the comune of Termini Imerese. Himera was the first Greek settlement on this part of the island and was a strategic outpost just outside the boundary of the Carthaginian-controlled west. Thucydides says it was the only Greek city on this coast of Sicily, mylae, which was also on the north coast and certainly of Greek origin, was a dependency of Zancle. However, it is likely that the power of Himeria in the immediate vicinity of the Carthaginian settlements of Panormus and Solus had already caused concern among the Carthaginians. Hence it was against Himera that the first efforts of Hamilcar were directed, Theron, who had thrown himself into the city with all the forces at his command, was able to maintain its defence until the arrival of Gelon of Syracuse. The same feeling probably gave rise to the tradition or belief and this victory left Theron in the undisputed possession of the sovereignty of Himera, as well as of that of Agrigentum. He appears to have focused on Agrigentum, and leftthe government of Himera to his son Thrasydaeus, but the young man, by his violent and oppressive rule, soon alienated the minds of the citizens. They applied for relief to Hieron of Syracuse, at time on terms of hostility with Theron. The Syracusan despot, however, betrayed their overtures to Theron and he took vengeance on the Himeraeans, putting to death a large number of the disaffected citizens and driving others into exile. Himera adopted the institutions and followed the policy of the other Doric states of Sicily, a few years after this the prosperity of the city was brought to a sudden and abrupt termination by the great Carthaginian expedition to Sicily. The ostensible object of the expedition, as it had been of the Athenian, was the support of the Segestans against their neighbors, the Carthaginians, though, had greater ambitions. Immediately after the destruction of Selinus, Hannibal Mago, who commanded the expedition and that city was ill-prepared for defence, its fortifications were of little strength, but the citizens made a desperate resistance, and by a vigorous sally inflicted severe loss on the Carthaginians. Their defenses failed and the city was taken by storm. A large part of the citizens were killed and at least 3000 of them, the city itself was utterly destroyed, its buildings razed to the ground, and even the temples themselves were not spared. Diodorus, who relates the destruction of Himera, tells us expressly that it was never rebuilt. Diodorus gives a different account of the foundation of Thermae. It appears to have become a considerable town, though it continued, with few and brief exceptions
30.
Sicyon
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Sicyon was an ancient Greek city state situated in the northern Peloponnesus between Corinth and Achaea on the territory of the present-day regional unit of Corinthia. An ancient monarchy at the times of the Trojan War, the city was ruled by a number of tyrants during the Archaic and Classical period, Sicyon was celebrated for its contributions to ancient Greek art, producing many famous painters and sculptors. In Hellenistic times it was also the home of Aratus of Sicyon, Sicyon was built on a low triangular plateau about two miles from the Corinthian Gulf. Between the city and its port lay a fertile plain with olive groves, in Mycenean times Sicyon had been ruled by a line of twenty-six mythical kings and then seven priests of Apollo. The king-list given by Pausanias comprises twenty-four kings, beginning with the autochthonous Aegialeus, the penultimate king of the list, Agamemnon, compels the submission of Sicyon to Mycenae, after him comes the Dorian usurper Phalces. After the Dorian invasion the city remained subject to Argos, whence its Dorian conquerors had come, the community was now divided into the ordinary three Dorian tribes and an equally privileged tribe of Ionians, besides which a class of serfs lived on and worked the land. For some centuries the suzerainty remained, but after 676 BC Sicyon regained its independence under a line of tyrants called the Orthagorides after the name of the first ruler Orthagoras. The most important however was the founders grandson Cleisthenes, the uncle of the Athenian legislator Cleisthenes who ruled from 600 to 560 BC and his successor Aeschines was expelled by the Spartans in 556 BC and Sicyon became an ally of the Lacedaemonians for more than a century. During this time, the Sicyonians developed the various industries for which they were known in antiquity, as the abode of the sculptors Dipoenus and Scyllis it gained pre-eminence in woodcarving and bronze work such as is still to be seen in the archaic metal facings found at Olympia. Its pottery, which resembled Corinthian ware, was exported with the latter as far as Etruria, in Sicyon also the art of painting was supposed to have been invented. Henceforth, its policy was usually determined either by Sparta or Corinth, during the Persian Wars, the Sicyonians participated with fifteen triremes in the Battle of Salamis and with 3,000 hoplites in the Battle of Plataea. On the Delphic Serpent Column celebrating the victory Sicyon was named in place after Sparta, Athens, Corinth. In September 479 BC a Sicyonian contingent fought bravely in the Battle of Mycale, later in the 5th century BC, Sicyon, like Corinth, suffered from the commercial rivalry of Athens in the western seas, and was repeatedly harassed by squadrons of Athenian ships. The Sicyonians fought two battles against the Athenians, first against their admiral Tolmides in 455 BC and then in a battle against Pericles with 1000 hoplites in 453 BC. In the Peloponnesian War Sicyon followed the lead of Sparta and Corinth, when these two powers quarrelled during the peace of Nicias, it remained loyal to the Spartans. At the reprise of the war, during the Athenian expedition in Sicily, at the beginning of the 4th century, in the Corinthian war, Sicyon sided again with Sparta and became its base of operations against the allied troops round Corinth. In 369 BC Sicyon was captured and garrisoned by the Thebans in their attack on the Peloponnesian League. From 368 to 366 BC Sicyon was ruled by Euphron who first favoured democracy, Euphron was killed in Thebes by a group af Sicyonian aristocrats, but his compatriots buried him in his home town and continued to honour him like the second founder of the city
31.
Sparta
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Sparta was a prominent city-state in ancient Greece. In antiquity the city-state was known as Lacedaemon, while the name Sparta referred to its settlement on the banks of the Eurotas River in Laconia. Around 650 BC, it rose to become the dominant military land-power in ancient Greece, given its military pre-eminence, Sparta was recognized as the overall leader of the combined Greek forces during the Greco-Persian Wars. Between 431 and 404 BC, Sparta was the enemy of Athens during the Peloponnesian War, from which it emerged victorious. Spartas defeat by Thebes in the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC ended Spartas prominent role in Greece, however, it maintained its political independence until the Roman conquest of Greece in 146 BC. It then underwent a period of decline, especially in the Middle Ages. Modern Sparta is the capital of the Greek regional unit of Laconia, Sparta was unique in ancient Greece for its social system and constitution, which completely focused on military training and excellence. Its inhabitants were classified as Spartiates, mothakes, perioikoi, Spartiates underwent the rigorous agoge training and education regimen, and Spartan phalanges were widely considered to be among the best in battle. Spartan women enjoyed more rights and equality to men than elsewhere in the classical world. Sparta was the subject of fascination in its own day, as well as in the West following the revival of classical learning and this love or admiration of Sparta is known as Laconism or Laconophilia. At its peak around 500 BC the size of the city would have been some 20,000 –35,000 free residents, plus numerous helots, olliers theory of the Spartan mirage has been widely accepted by scholars. The ancient Greeks used one of three words to refer to the location of the Spartans. The first refers primarily to the cluster of settlements in the valley of the Eurotas River. The second word was Lacedaemon, this was used sometimes as an adjective and is the name commonly used in the works of Homer. Herodotus seems to denote by it the Mycenaean Greek citadel at Therapne and it could be used synonymously with Sparta, but typically it was not. It denoted the terrain on which Sparta was situated, in Homer it is typically combined with epithets of the countryside, wide, lovely, shining and most often hollow and broken. The hollow suggests the Eurotas Valley, Sparta on the other hand is the country of lovely women, a people epithet. The name of the population was used for the state of Lacedaemon
32.
Argos
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Argos is a city in Argolis, Peloponnese, Greece and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. It is also a bishopric and present Latin Catholic titular see. It is the biggest town in Argolis and a center for the area. Since the 2011 local government reform it has been part of the municipality of Argos-Mykines, the municipal unit has an area of 138.138 km2. It is 11 kilometres from Nafplion, which was its historic harbour, a settlement of great antiquity, Argos has been continuously inhabited as at least a substantial village for the past 7,000 years. The city is a member of the Most Ancient European Towns Network, a resident of the city of Argos is known as an Argive. However, this term is used to refer to those ancient Greeks generally who assaulted the city of Troy during the Trojan War. Numerous ancient monuments can be found in the city today, the most famous of which is the Heraion of Argos, agriculture is the mainstay of the local economy. The name of the city is ancient and several etymological theories have been proposed as an explanation to its meaning. The most popular one maintains that the name of the city is a remainder from the Pelasgian language, i. e. the one used by the people who first settled in the area, in which Argos meant plain. Alternatively, the name is associated with Argos, the king of the city in ancient times. It is also believed that Argos is linked to the word αργός, which meant white, possibly, according to Strabo, the name could have even originated from the word αγρός by antimetathesis of the consonants. As a strategic location on the plain of Argolis, Argos was a major stronghold during the Mycenaean era. There is evidence of settlement in the area starting with a village about 7000 years ago in the late Neolithic. It was colonized in prehistoric times by the Pelasgian Greeks, since that time, Argos has been continually inhabited at the same geographical location. Its creation is attributed to Phoroneus, with its first name having been Phoronicon Asty, the city is located at a rather propitious area, among Nemea, Corinth and Arcadia. It also benefitted from its proximity to lake Lerna, which, during the Dorian invasion, c.1100 BC, Argos was divided into four neighbourhoods, each of them inhabited by a different phyle. Argos experienced its greatest period of expansion and power under the energetic 7th century BC ruler King Pheidon, under Pheidon, Argos regained sway over the cities of the Argolid and challenged Sparta’s dominance of the Peloponnese
33.
Palatine Anthology
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The Palatine Anthology, sometimes abbreviated AP, is the collection of Greek poems and epigrams discovered in 1606 in the Palatine Library in Heidelberg. It is based on the lost collection of Constantine Cephalas of the 10th century and it contains material from the 7th century BC until 600 AD and later on was the main part of the Greek Anthology which also included the Anthology of Planudes and more material. The manuscript of the Palatine Anthology was discovered by Saumaise in 1606 in the Palatine library at Heidelberg. In 1623, after the Thirty Years War, it was sent with the rest of the Palatine Library to Rome as a present from Maximilian I of Bavaria to Pope Gregory XV and it was kept in the Vatican Library. In 1797 it was taken to Paris by order of the French Directory and in 1816 it was returned to Heidelberg when the war ended, the manuscript of the Palatine Anthology consists of 709 pages. It was written by four scribes around 980, one of the scribes made comments and additions and part of the manuscript was corrected by a Corrector. Epigrammatum anthologia palatina cum planudeis et appendice nova, Johann Friedrich Dübner-Cougny,3 voll, parisiis, editore Ambrosio Firmin-Didot, Instituti francici typographo, 1881-90, vol. Greek text at Perseus Digital Library of the Tufts University, in five volumes, volume 1, volume 2, volume 3, volume 4, bilingual edition at the Internet Archive, originals with English translation,1,2,3,4,5
34.
Sappho
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Sappho was an archaic Greek poet from the island of Lesbos. Sapphos poetry was lyric poetry, and she is best known for her poems about love, most of Sapphos poetry is now lost, and survives only in fragmentary form. As well as poetry, three epigrams attributed to Sappho are preserved, but these are in fact Hellenistic imitations. Little is known of Sapphos life and she was from a wealthy family from Lesbos, though the names of both of her parents are uncertain. Ancient sources say that she had three brothers, the names of two of them are mentioned in the Brothers Poem discovered in 2014 and she was exiled to Sicily around 600 BC, and may have continued to work until around 570. Sapphos poetry was well-known and greatly admired through much of antiquity, today, Sapphos poetry is still considered extraordinary, and her works have continued to influence other writers up until the modern day. Beyond her poetry, she is known as a symbol of love. There are three sources of information about Sapphos life, her own poetry, other ancient sources. The only contemporary source for Sapphos life is her own poetry, despite this, though they are a valuable source on the reception of Sappho in antiquity, it is difficult to assess how accurate a picture they paint of Sapphos life. The testimonia are almost entirely derived from Sapphos poetry, and the inferences made by ancient scholars, Sappho was from Mytilene on the island of Lesbos, and was probably born around 630 BC. Tradition names her mother as Cleïs, though ancient scholars may simply have guessed this name for Sapphos mother, Sapphos fathers name is less certain. The Suda gives eight possible names, suggesting that he was not explicitly named in any of Sapphos poetry, in Ovids Heroides, Sapphos father died when she was seven, Campbell suggests that this may have been based on a now-lost poem of Sappho. Sappho was said to have three brothers, Erigyius, Larichus, and Charaxus, according to Athenaeus, Sappho often praised Larichus for pouring wine in the town hall of Mytilene, an office held by boys of the best families. This indication that Sappho was born into a family is consistent with the sometimes rarefied environments that her verses record. One ancient tradition tells of a relation between Charaxus and the Egyptian courtesan Rhodopis, herodotus, the oldest source of the story, reports that Charaxus ransomed Rhodopis for a large sum and that Sappho wrote a poem rebuking him for this. Sappho may have had a daughter called Cleïs, who is referred to in two fragments, therefore, it has been suggested, Cleïs was one of Sapphos younger lovers, rather than her daughter. Judith Hallett argues, however, that the used in fragment 132 suggests that Sappho was referring to Cleïs as her daughter. According to the Suda, Sappho was married to Kerkylas of Andros, thus, the name can be translated as Dick Allcock from the Isle of Man
35.
Alcaeus of Mytilene
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Alcaeus of Mytilene was a lyric poet from the Greek island of Lesbos who is credited with inventing the Alcaic stanza. He was included in the canonical list of nine lyric poets by the scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria and he was an older contemporary and an alleged lover of Sappho, with whom he may have exchanged poems. He was born into the governing class of Mytilene, the main city of Lesbos. The broad outlines of the life are well known. Alcaeus and his brothers were passionately involved in the struggle. Sometime before 600 BC, Mytilene fought Athens for control of Sigeion and it is thought that Alcaeus travelled widely during his years in exile, including at least one visit to Egypt. His older brother, Antimenidas, appears to have served as a mercenary in the army of Nebuchadnezzar II, Alcaeus reference to Sappho in terms more typical of a divinity, as holy/pure, honey-smiling Sappho, may owe its inspiration to her performances at the festival. Alexandrian scholars numbered him in their canonic nine, among these, Pindar was held by many ancient critics to be pre-eminent, but some gave precedence to Alcaeus instead. Even the private reflections of Alcaeus, ostensibly sung at dinner parties, critics often seek to understand Alcaeus in comparison with Sappho, The Roman poet, Horace, also compared the two, describing Alcaeus as more full-throatedly singing — see Horaces tribute below. The works of Alcaeus are conventionally grouped according to five genres, commenting on Alcaeus as a political poet, the scholar Dionysius of Halicarnassus once observed that. if you removed the meter you would find political rhetoric. Drinking songs, According to the grammarian Athenaeus, Alcaeus made every occasion an excuse for drinking, the latter poem in fact paraphrases verses from Hesiod, re-casting them in Asclepiad meter and Aeolian dialect. Hymns, Alcaeus sang about the gods in the spirit of the Homeric hymns, to entertain his companions rather than to glorify the gods, there are for example fragments in Sapphic meter praising the Dioscuri, Hermes and the river Hebrus. According to Porphyrion, the hymn to Hermes was imitated by Horace in one of his own sapphic odes, love songs, Almost all Alcaeus amorous verses, mentioned with disapproval by Quintilian above, have vanished without trace. There is a reference to his love poetry in a passage by Cicero. Horace, who wrote in imitation of Alcaeus, sketches in verse one of the Lesbian poets favourite subjects — Lycus of the black hair. It is possible that Alcaeus wrote amorously about Sappho, as indicated in an earlier quote, miscellaneous, Alcaeus wrote on such a wide variety of subjects and themes that contradictions in his character emerge. — possibly imitated by Horace in an ode in the same meter and he also wrote Sapphic stanzas on Homeric themes but in unHomeric style, comparing Helen of Troy unfavourably with Thetis, the mother of Akhilles. Like many of his poems, it begins with a verb, Alcaeus rarely used metaphor or simile and yet he had a fondness for the allegory of the storm-tossed ship of state
36.
Ionia
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Ionia is an ancient region of central coastal Anatolia in present-day Turkey, the region nearest İzmir, which was historically Smyrna. It consisted of the northernmost territories of the Ionian League of Greek settlements, never a unified state, it was named after the Ionian tribe who, in the Archaic Period, settled mainly the shores and islands of the Aegean Sea. Ionian states were identified by tradition and by their use of Eastern Greek and it was bounded by Aeolia to the north, Lydia to the east and Caria to the south. The cities within the region figured large in the strife between the Persian Empire and the Greeks, according to Greek tradition, the cities of Ionia were founded by colonists from the other side of the Aegean. Their settlement was connected with the history of the Ionic people in Attica, which asserts that the colonists were led by Neleus and Androclus, sons of Codrus. So intricate is the coastline that the voyage along its shores was estimated at four times the direct distance. A great part of area was, moreover, occupied by mountains. None of these mountains attains a height of more than 1,200 metres, the geography of Ionia placed it in a strategic position that was both advantageous and disadvantageous. Ionia was always a maritime power founded by a people who made their living by trade in peaceful times, the coast was rocky and the arable land slight. The native Luwians for the most part kept their fields further inland, the coastal cities were placed in defensible positions on islands or headlands situated so as to control inland routes up the rift valleys. The people of those valleys were of different ethnicity, the populations of the cities came from many civilizations in the eastern Mediterranean. Ancient demographics are available only from literary sources, Herodotus states that in Asia the Ionians kept the division into twelve cities that had prevailed in Ionian lands of the north Peloponnese, their former homeland, which became Achaea after they left. These Asian cities were Miletus, Myus, Priene, Ephesus, Colophon, Lebedos, Teos, Erythrae, Clazomenae and Phocaea, together with Samos and Chios. Smyrna, originally an Aeolic colony, was occupied by Ionians from Colophon. These cities do not match those of Achaea, moreover, the Achaea of Herodotus time spoke Doric, but in Homer it is portrayed as being in the kingdom of Mycenae, which most likely spoke Mycenaean Greek, which is not Doric. If the Ionians came from Achaea, they departed during or after the change from East Greek to West Greek there, Mycenaean continued to evolve in the mountainous region of Arcadia. Miletus and some other cities founded earlier by non-Greeks received populations of Mycenaean Greeks probably under the name of Achaeans, the tradition of Ionian colonizers from Achaea suggests that they may have been known by both names even then. In the Indian historic literary texts, the Ionians are referred to as yavanar or yona, in modern Turkish, the people of that region were called yunan and the country that is now Greece is known as Yunanistan
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Epinikion
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The epinikion or epinicion is a genre of occasional poetry also known in English as a victory ode. Major poets in the genre are Simonides, Bacchylides, and Pindar, victory odes are also associated with the Dioscuri, Pindar uses the term Castor-song, and Polydeuces, the mortal twin of Castor, was a boxer. Although the best-known epinikia appear to have composed for a chorus. Pindar says that a lyric by Archilochus was sung at Olympia, the performance of these songs seems to have led in the 6th century BC to aristocratic commissions for more elaborate numbers. The earliest epinikia, surviving only in fragments, were composed by Simonides of Ceos in the 520s BC, many of Pindars odes can be identified by event, champion, and year. The epinikion was performed not at the games, but at the surrounding the champions return to his hometown or perhaps at the anniversary of his victory. The odes celebrate runners, pentathletes, wrestlers, boxers, and charioteers, the Pindaric ode has a metrical structure rivaled in its complexity only by the chorus of Greek tragedy, and is usually composed in a triadic form comprising strophe, antistrophe, and epode. The odes were performed by a chorus that sang and danced to the accompaniment of the phorminx or aulos. The victory ode, notes Mary Lefkowitz, is a curious, simon Goldhill has described the epinikion as practiced by Pindar as a performance hired to mark the place of an individual within his city. The epinikion praised the victorious athlete as a representative of the community and of the aristocratic class. But the athlete was also admonished against hubris, not to seek to become Zeus, a later contributor to the genre was Callimachus. Mathiesen, Thomas J. Epinikion and encomium, in Apollos Lyre, Greek Music and Music Theory in Antiquity and the Middle Ages. University of Nebraska Press,2000, pp. 135–141 online, in A Companion to the Greek Lyric Poets. The Strangeness of Song Culture, Archaic Greek Poetry, in Literature in the Greek World
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Simonides of Ceos
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Simonides of Ceos was a Greek lyric poet, born at Ioulis on Ceos. The scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria included him in the canonical list of nine lyric poets, along with Bacchylides, both Bacchylides and Pindar benefited from his innovative approach to lyric poetry and he was more involved than either of them in the major events and personalities of their times. Such accounts include fanciful elements yet he had a influence on the sophistic enlightenment of the classical era. His fame as a poet rests largely on his ability to present basic human situations with affecting simplicity, few clear facts about Simonides life have come down to modern times in spite of his fame and influence. Ancient sources are uncertain even about the date of his birth, according to the Byzantine encyclopaedia, Suda, He was born in the 56th Olympiad or according to some writers in the 62nd and he survived until the 78th, having lived eighty-nine years. Other ancient sources also have awkward consequences, however, the Parian Marble is known to be unreliable and possibly it was not even the grandfather but a grandson that won the aforementioned victory in Athens. According to the Suda, this grandson was yet another Simonides, Simonides is identified in the Suda as the son of a Leoprepes. He was born in Ioulis on Ceos, the outermost island of the Cyclades, the innermost island, Delos, was the reputed birthplace of Apollo, where the people of Ceos regularly sent choirs to perform hymns in the gods honour. Carthaea, another Cean town, included a choregeion or school where choirs were trained, indeed, the grandfather of Simonides nephew, Bacchylides, was one of the islands notable athletes. These were two of the most powerful families in the Thessalian feudal aristocracy yet they seemed notable to later Greeks such as Theocritus only for their association with Simonides, thessaly at that time was a cultural backwater, remaining in the Dark Ages until the close of the 5th century. According to an account by Plutarch, the Ionian poet once dismissed the Thessalians as too ignorant to be beguiled by poetry, among the most colourful of his ignorant patrons was the head of the Scopadae clan, named Scopas. Simonides embellished his ode with so many references to the twins Castor, Simonides however ended up getting much more from the mythical twins than just a fee, he owed them his very life. According to this story he was called out of the feast hall to see two visitors who had arrived and were asking for him – presumably Castor and Pollux, as soon as he left the hall, it collapsed, killing everyone within. These events were said to have inspired him to develop a system of mnemonics based on images and places called the method of loci, the method of loci is one component of the Art of memory. According to Plutarch, the Cean had a statue of himself made about this time, the last years of the poets life were spent in Sicily where he became a friend and confidant of Hieron of Syracuse. According to a scholiast on Pindar, he acted as peace-maker between Hieron and another Sicilian tyrant, Theron of Acragas, thus ending a war between them. Scholiasts are the authority for stories about rivalry between Simonides and Pindar at the court of Hieron, traditionally used to explain some of the meanings in Pindars victory odes. However, Pindar scholiasts are generally considered unreliable and there is no reason to accept their account, the Hellenistic poet Callimachus revealed in one of his poems that Simonides was buried outside Acragas and that his tombstone was later mis-used in the construction of a tower
39.
Doric Greek
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Doric or Dorian was an Ancient Greek dialect. Together with Northwest Greek, it forms the Western group of classical Greek dialects and it is widely accepted that Doric originated in the mountains of Epirus and Macedonia, northwestern Greece, the original seat of the Dorians. It was expanded to all regions during the Dorian invasion. The presence of a Doric state in central Greece, north of the Gulf of Corinth, local epigraphical evidence is restricted to the decrees of the Epirote League and the Pella curse tablet, as well to the Doric eponym Machatas first attested in Macedonia. Where the Doric dialect group fits in the classification of ancient Greek dialects depends to some extent on the classification. Several views are stated under Greek dialects, the prevalent theme of most views listed there is that Doric is a subgroup of West Greek. Some use the terms Northern Greek or Northwest Greek instead, the geographic distinction is only verbal and ostensibly is misnamed, all of Doric was spoken south of Southern Greek or Southeastern Greek. Be that as it may, Northern Greek is based on a presumption that Dorians came from the north, when the distinction began is not known. Thus West Greek is the most accurate name for the classical dialects, tsakonian, a descendant of Laconian Doric, is still spoken on the southern Argolid coast of the Peloponnese, in the modern prefectures of Arcadia and Laconia. Today it is a source of considerable interest to linguists, the dialects of the Doric Group are as follows, Laconian was spoken by the population of Laconia in the southern Peloponnese and also by its colonies, Tarentum and Herakleia in Magna Graecia. Sparta was the seat of ancient Laconia, Laconian is attested in inscriptions on pottery and stone from the seventh century BC. A dedication to Helen dates from the quarter of the seventh century. Tarentum was founded in 706 and its founders must already have spoken Laconic, many documents from the state of Sparta survive, whose citizens called themselves Lacedaemonians after the name of the valley in which they lived. Homer calls it hollow Lacedaemon, though he refers to a pre-Dorian period, the seventh century Spartan poet, Alcman, used a dialect that some consider to be predominantly Laconian. Philoxenus of Alexandria wrote a treatise On the Laconian dialect, argolic was spoken in the thickly settled northeast Peloponnese at, for example, Argos, Mycenae, Hermione, Troezen, Epidaurus, and as close to Athens as the island of Aegina. As Mycenaean Greek had been spoken in this region in the Bronze Age. The Dorians went on from Argos to Crete and Rhodes, ample inscriptional material of a legal, political and religious content exists from at least the sixth century BC. Corinthian was spoken first in the region between the Peloponnesus and mainland Greece, that is, the Isthmus of Corinth
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Aeolic Greek
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In linguistics, Aeolic Greek is the set of dialects of Ancient Greek spoken mainly in Boeotia, Thessaly, in the Aegean island of Lesbos, and the Greek colonies of Asia Minor. The Aeolic dialect shows many archaisms in comparison to the other Ancient Greek dialects, Aeolic Greek is widely known as the language of Sappho and of Alcaeus of Mytilene. Aeolic poetry, which is exemplified in the works of Sappho, mostly uses four classical meters known as the Aeolics, Glyconic, hendecasyllabic verse, Sapphic stanza, by contrast, PIE *kʷ changed to Attic/Ionic, Arcadocypriot, and Doric t before e and i. PIE *kʷetwores → Lesbian písures, Boeotian péttares ~ Attic téttares, Ionic tésseres, Doric tétores four Similarly PIE/PGk *gʷ always became b, labiovelars were treated the same way in the P-Celtic languages and the Sabellic languages. A Proto-Greek consonant cluster with h and a sonorant changed to a sonorant in Aeolic by assimilation. In Attic/Ionic and Doric, the h assimilated to the vowel before the consonant cluster, PIE VsR or VRs → Attic/Ionic-Doric VVR. PIE *h₁ésmi → Proto-Greek *ehmi → Aeolic emmi ~ Attic/Ionic ēmi I am Lesbian Aeolic lost in initial h- from Proto-Indo-European s- or y-, by contrast, Ionic sometimes retains it, and Attic always retains it. PIE wekʷ-es- → Boeotian, Doric wépos ~ Attic-Ionic épos word, epic In Aeolic and Doric, by contrast, in Attic, long ā changes to long ē in most cases, in Ionic, it changes everywhere. PIE *meh₂ter- → Aeolic, Doric mātēr ~ Attic/Ionic mētēr mother In Boeotian, Attic/Ionic potamós ~ Lesbian pótamos river Contracted or vowel-stem verbs that are thematic in Attic/Ionic are often athematic in Aeolic. Ionic philéō, Attic philô ~ Aeolic phílēmi I love The same is found in Irish. Aeolic athematic infinitive active ends in -men or -menai, Lesbian émmen, émmenai, Thessalian, Boeotian eîmen ~ Attic/Ionic eînai to be In the Lesbian dialect this ending also extends to the thematic conjugation, where Attic/Ionic has -ein. All three of these Aeolic endings occur in Homer, homeric agémen Proto-Greek -ans and -ons → -ais and -ois. The participle has ois and ais for Attic ōs, ās. bastraches βλεερεῖ bleerei Cf. eleairei γάδου gadou Δεύς Deus instead of Zeus, attested also in Laconian and Rhodian. ἐμπυρία empyria divination ζεκελτίδες zekeltides gourds Amerias zakeltides ἴδηφιν idephin sweet-voiced, ἰστάκη istake scythe ἰυγοδρομεῖν iugodromein ἰώ iō and hiōn Καραιός Karaios Boeotian epithet for Zeus meaning tall, head. κῦῤῥος kyrrhos or kyrros sir, master Μακετοὺν Maketoun Macedonian man (Thessalian -ουν-oun suffix for Attic ων ōn in both nominative and genitive of participles, pronouns and nouns
41.
Menelaus
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In Greek mythology, Menelaus was a king of Mycenaean Sparta, the husband of Helen of Troy, and a central figure in the Trojan War. He was the son of Atreus and Aerope, brother of Agamemnon, king of Mycenae and, according to the Iliad, although early authors such as Aeschylus refer in passing to Menelaus’ early life, detailed sources are quite late, post-dating 5th-century BC Greek tragedy. According to these sources, Menelaus father, Atreus, had been feuding with his brother Thyestes over the throne of Mycenae, after a back-and-forth struggle that featured adultery, incest and cannibalism, Thyestes gained the throne after his son Aegisthus murdered Atreus. As a result, Atreus’ sons, Menelaus and Agamemnon, went into exile and they first stayed with King Polyphides of Sicyon, and later with King Oeneus of Calydon. But when they thought the time was ripe to dethrone Mycenae’s hostile ruler, assisted by King Tyndareus of Sparta, they drove Thyestes away, and Agamemnon took the throne for himself. When it was time for Tyndareus’ step-daughter Helen to marry, many kings, among the contenders were Odysseus, Menestheus, Ajax the Great, Patroclus, and Idomeneus. Tyndareus would accept none of the gifts, nor would he send any of the suitors away for fear of offending them, Odysseus promised to solve the problem in a satisfactory manner if Tyndareus would support him in his courting of Tyndareus’s niece Penelope, the daughter of Icarius. Tyndareus readily agreed, and Odysseus proposed that, before the decision was made, then it was decreed that straws were to be drawn for Helen’s hand. The suitor who won was Menelaus, the rest of the suitors swore their oaths, and Helen and Menelaus were married, Menelaus becoming a ruler of Sparta with Helen after Tyndareus and Leda abdicated the thrones. Menelaus and Helen had a daughter Hermione as supported, for example, by Sappho and their palace has been discovered in Pellana, Laconia, to the north-west of modern Sparta. Other archaeologists consider that Pellana is too far away from other Mycenaean centres to have been the capital of Menelaus, in a return for awarding her a golden apple inscribed to the fairest, Aphrodite promised Paris the most beautiful woman in all the world. Homers Iliad is the most expansive source for Menelaus’s exploits during the Trojan War, in Book 3, Menelaus challenges Paris to a duel for Helen’s return. Menelaus soundly beats Paris, but before he can kill him and claim victory, in Book 4, while the Greeks and Trojans squabble over the duel’s winner, Athena inspires the Trojan Pandarus to shoot Menelaus with his bow and arrow. However, Athena never intended for Menelaus to die and she protects him from the arrow of Pandarus, Menelaus is wounded in the abdomen, and the fighting resumes. Later, in Book 17, Homer gives Menelaus an extended aristeia as the hero retrieves the corpse of Patroclus from the battlefield, according to Hyginus, Menelaus killed eight men in the war, and was one of the Greeks hidden inside the Trojan Horse. During the sack of Troy, Menelaus killed Deiphobus, who had married Helen after the death of Paris, there are four versions of Menelaus’ and Helen’s reunion on the night of the sack of Troy, Angry at Helen, Menelaus looked for and found her. In a fit of rage, he decided to kill her for leaving him for Paris, in a split second, Menelaus wrath went away instantly. He took pity on her, and decided to take her back as wife, Menelaus resolved to kill Helen but her striking beauty prompted him to drop his sword and take her back to his ship “to punish her at Sparta”, as he claimed
42.
Helen of Troy
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In Greek mythology, Helen of Troy, also known as Helen of Sparta, or simply Helen, was the daughter of Zeus and Leda, and was a sister of Castor, Pollux, and Clytemnestra. In Greek myths, she was considered the most beautiful woman in the world, by marriage she was Queen of Laconia, a province within Homeric Greece, the wife of King Menelaus. Her abduction by Prince Paris of Troy brought about the Trojan War, elements of her putative biography come from classical authors such as Aristophanes, Cicero, Euripides and Homer. In her youth, she was abducted by Theseus, a competition between her suitors for her hand in marriage sees Menelaus emerge victorious. An oath sworn beforehand by all the suitors requires them to military assistance in the case of her abduction. When she marries Menelaus she is very young, whether her subsequent involvement with Paris is an abduction or a seduction is ambiguous. The legends recounting Helens fate in Troy are contradictory, Homer depicts her as a wistful figure, even a sorrowful one, who comes to regret her choice and wishes to be reunited with Menelaus. Other accounts have a treacherous Helen who simulates Bacchic rites and rejoices in the carnage, ultimately, Paris was killed in action, and in Homers account Helen was reunited with Menelaus, though other versions of the legend recount her ascending to Olympus instead. A cult associated with her developed in Hellenistic Laconia, both at Sparta and elsewhere, at Therapne she shared a shrine with Menelaus and she was also worshiped in Attica and on Rhodes. Her beauty inspired artists of all time to represent her, frequently as the personification of ideal beauty, Christopher Marlowes lines from his tragedy Doctor Faustus are frequently cited, Was this the face that launchd a thousand ships/And burnt the topless towers of Ilium. However, in the play this meeting and the ensuing temptation are not unambiguously positive, closely preceding death, images of her start appearing in the 7th century BC. In classical Greece, her abduction by—or elopement with—Paris was a popular motif, in medieval illustrations, this event was frequently portrayed as a seduction, whereas in Renaissance painting it is usually depicted as a rape by Paris. The fact that rape and kidnapping were interchangeable terms lends additional ambiguity to the story, the etymology of Helens name continues to be a problem for scholars. Georg Curtius related Helen to the moon, Émile Boisacq considered Ἑλένη to derive from the noun ἑλένη meaning torch. It has also suggested that the λ of Ἑλένη arose from an original ν. Linda Lee Clader, however, says none of the above suggestions offers much satisfaction. Inversely, others have connected this etymology to a hypothetical proto-indo-european sun goddess, in particular, her marriage myth may be connected to a broader indo-european marriage drama of the sun goddess, and she is related to the divine twins, just as many of these goddesses are. The origins of Helens myth date back to the Mycenaean age, the first record of her name appears in the poems of Homer, but scholars assume that such myths invented or received by the Mycenaean Greeks made their way to Homer
43.
Eurypides
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Euripides was a tragedian of classical Athens. He is one of the few plays have survived, with the others being Aeschylus, Sophocles. Some ancient scholars attributed 95 plays to him but according to the Suda it was 92 at most, of these,18 or 19 have survived more or less complete and there are also fragments, some substantial, of most of the other plays. This new approach led him to pioneer developments that later writers adapted to comedy, yet he also became the most tragic of poets, focusing on the inner lives and motives of his characters in a way previously unknown. He was also unique among the writers of ancient Athens for the sympathy he demonstrated towards all victims of society and his contemporaries associated him with Socrates as a leader of a decadent intellectualism, both of them being frequently lampooned by comic poets such as Aristophanes. Whereas Socrates was eventually put on trial and executed as an influence, Euripides chose a voluntary exile in old age. Recent scholarship casts doubt on ancient biographies of Euripides, for example, it is possible that he never visited Macedonia at all, or, if he did, he might have been drawn there by King Archelaus with incentives that were also offered to other artists. Upon the receipt of a saying that his son was fated to win crowns of victory. In fact the boy was destined for a career on the stage and he served for a short time as both dancer and torch-bearer at the rites of Apollo Zosterius. His education was not confined to athletics, he studied painting and philosophy under the masters Prodicus. He had two marriages and both his wives—Melite and Choerine —were unfaithful. He became a recluse, making a home for himself in a cave on Salamis, there he built an impressive library and pursued daily communion with the sea and sky. Eventually he retired to the court of King Archelaus in Macedonia. However, as mentioned in the introduction, biographical details such as these should be regarded with scepticism and this biography is divided into three sections corresponding to the three kinds of sources. The apocryphal account that he composed his works in a cave on Salamis island was a late tradition, much of his life and his whole career coincided with the struggle between Athens and Sparta for hegemony in Greece but he didnt live to see the final defeat of his city. In an account by Plutarch, the failure of the Sicilian expedition led Athenians to trade renditions of Euripides lyrics to their enemies in return for food. Tragic poets were often mocked by comic poets during the dramatic festivals Dionysia and Lenaia, Aristophanes scripted him as a character in at least three plays, The Acharnians, Thesmophoriazusae and The Frogs. Yet Aristophanes borrowed rather than just satirized some of the methods, he was once ridiculed by a colleague, Cratinus, as a hair-splitting master of niceties
