Greece Articles

The Colossus of Rhodes was an enormous statue depicting the city's patron god, Helios (the god of the sun), and stood in Mandraki Harbour. Though it stood for little more than 50 years fully intact, its grand size and imposing presence at the coastal entrance of Rhodes made it an undeniable candidate as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World... [continue reading]

The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, as first recorded by Philo of Byzantium in 225 BCE in his work, `On The Seven Wonders’, were: The Great Pyramid at Giza, Egypt; The Hanging Gardens of Babylon; The Statue of Zeus at Olympia, Greece; The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus; The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus; The Colossus of Rhodes and the Lighthouse... [continue reading]

Trade was a fundamental aspect of the ancient Greek world and following territorial expansion, an increase in population movements and innovations in transport, goods could be bought, sold and exchanged in one part of the Mediterranean which had their origin in a completely different and far distant region. Food, raw materials and manufactured goods... [continue reading]

The Metropolitan Museum is fortunate in having among its Greek collections three antique ceramics of exceptional interest, since they tell in a graphic way something of textile art in Europe’s oldest nation, several centuries before Christ. As research brings to light more of Greek life and customs, we find a distinctive charm in their humbler crafts... [continue reading]

They [fundamental elements] prevail in turn as the cycle moves round, and decrease into each other and increase in appointed succession. For these are the only real things, and as they run through one another they become men and the kinds of other animals, at one time coming into one order through love, at another again being borne away from each... [continue reading]

Did Greek city-states create colonies in the ancient world in order to expand their sphere of influence? If the answer is yes, then why did one of these colonies break away from its mother-city in order to better itself? The answer is a complicated one and is subject to analysis on both a macro and micro level. The primary example of a colony that found... [continue reading]

This book is about court culture in the broadest sense. It discusses the social and formal aspects of court society, palace architecture, cultural and scientific patronage, and royal ritual. There are several reasons why I have committed myself to writing this book. The most important of these is the wish to fill a gap. Historians have long recognised... [continue reading]

The traditional games of children are the maximum exponent of a people’s culture of play, and though these games are sometimes derived from adult ceremonies, in spirit they belong to the world of children. Most authors assume that games depend on biological, cultural and psychological influences; they are considered a typical anthropological phenomenon... [continue reading]

Within the field of extant Greek historical writing on the subject of the Assyrian and Babylonian kingdoms the fragments of Berossus’ History of Babylonia, written by a so-called “Chaldean” priest, but addressed to a Greek-speaking audience, deserve our special attention. How could Berossus’ account correspond to the legendary... [continue reading]

The aim of this paper is to identify and analyse some of the main poetic and artistic manifestations of the pair peace / wealth, adopting a diachronic and comparative perspective and trying to isolate the most frequent images, metaphors and epithets in relation to that subject. The study of the selected passages intends to clarify how both poets and plastic... [continue reading]