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Oedipus the King
Definition

Oedipus the King

Oedipus the King (429-420 BCE), also known as Oedipus Rex or Oedipus Tyrannos ('Tyrannos' signifies that the throne was not gained through an inheritance) is the most famous surviving play written by the 5th-century BCE poet and...
Hetaira
Definition

Hetaira

A hetaira (pl. hetairai) was an educated female prostitute in ancient Greece and a common participant in symposia or drinking parties in private homes. Sometimes referred to in English as a courtesan, the Greek term hetaira was a euphemism...
Caryatid
Definition

Caryatid

Caryatid is the name given to an architectural column which takes the form of a standing female figure. The first examples come from ancient Greek architecture and indeed, the most celebrated examples are found in the south porch of...
Greek Colonization
Definition

Greek Colonization

From around 800 BCE, ancient Greek city-states, most of which were maritime powers, began to look beyond Greece for land and resources. As a consequence, they founded colonies across the Mediterranean. Trade was usually the...
Ancient Greece
Definition

Ancient Greece

Greece is a country in southeastern Europe, known in Greek as Hellas or Ellada, and consisting of a mainland and an archipelago of islands. Ancient Greece is the birthplace of Western philosophy (Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle...
The Anthesteria
Definition

The Anthesteria

The Anthesteria celebrated two seemingly disparate things: wine and the dead. Both Dionysos and Hermes Chthonios (Hermes of the Underworld) were celebrated as part of this festival. In many ways, the Anthesteria is similar to...
Minotaur
Definition

Minotaur

In Greek mythology, the Minotaur was a monster with the body of a man and the head and tail of a bull. The Minotaur was the offspring of the Cretan Queen Pasiphae and a majestic bull. Due to the Minotaur's monstrous form, King Minos...
Battle of Plataea
Definition

Battle of Plataea

The Battle of Plataea was a land battle between Greeks and Persians near the small town of Plataea in Boeotia in 479 BCE. Following up their naval victory at the Battle of Salamis in September 480 BCE against the same enemy...
Marsyas
Definition

Marsyas

Marsyas the satyr, or silen, was seen as a mythological founder of aulos playing or a divine judge of it by the ancient Greeks. The way in which his aulos playing enraptured his audience was likened to the way in which Socrates mesmerised...
Pankration
Definition

Pankration

Pankration is an ancient martial art which mixes wrestling and boxing. The sport can be traced as far back as the second millennium BCE in the territory of ancient Greece. Its name derives from the ancient Greek words pan (all) and...
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