| Socrates was the first major Greek philosopher |
Philosophers |
| Socrates was executed for “corrupting the young” with his ideas |
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| Plato was the first to mention Atlantis |
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| Aristotle was a student of Plato, but his ideas were more practical |
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| Aristotle was the tutor of Alexander the Great |
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| Zeus was king of the gods and father to many. Most by different mothers |
Gods |
| Zeus' wife was Hera. She was also his sister! |
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| Zeus and his siblings overthrew the Titans. The Titans were their parents |
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| The Romans adopted many Greek gods but gave them new names |
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| The gods were thought to dwell atop Mount Olympus |
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| There were about 1500 city-states in Ancient Greece |
City States |
| The Greek word for a city was “polis.” It's related to "police" and "politics" |
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| The two most powerful cities were Athens and Sparta |
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| Athens was one of the first states to have a democratic government |
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| Spartan boys were trained as warriors from the age of 7 |
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| After 4,000 years of effort, it was the Greeks who found the value of Pi |
Discoveries |
| The Greeks knew Earth orbited the Sun back in the 3rd Century BCE |
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| They knew it was round even earlier - in the 6th Century BCE |
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| And they discovered its circumference in 240 BCE |
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| They also measured the size and distance of the Sun and Moon |
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| Odysseus' homeward journey after the Trojan War took 10 years |
Heroes |
| The Argonauts were so named because they sailed the ship "Argo" |
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| Theseus killed the minotaur and is credited with founding democracy |
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| Perseus, great-grandfather of Heracles, killed the gorgon Medusa |
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| Heracles was the most famous hero. His 12 labours are legendary |
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| The Greeks loved their stories. They recited poems and had theatres |
Culture |
| The Greeks performed plays wearing masks |
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| There were 3 types of play: tragedy, comedy and satyr |
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| Myths were told orally for centuries before they were written down |
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| The most famous of all Greek poets was Homer. He was allegedly blind |
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| The Greeks and Persians fought a 50 year war in the 5th Century BCE |
Persian Wars |
| We know what happened because of the Greek historian, Herodotus |
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| The Battle of Marathon was part of that war. The race is named after it |
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| The film "300" is based on the Battle of Thermopylae |
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| The wars ended in 448 BCE with no clear winner |
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| The Sirens lured sailors to their deaths. They were half woman, half bird |
Monsters |
| Harpies were flying monsters described as beautiful and hideous |
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| The Hydra had several heads. If one was cut off a new one grew! |
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| Cyclopes were one-eyed giants. One of them was blinded by Odysseus |
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| Cerberus was a three-headed dog who guarded the entrance to Hades |
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| Alexander fought many battles but he never lost a single one |
Alexander the Great |
| Many of the cities Alexander conquered are named after him |
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| Alexander conquered the largest empire the world had ever seen |
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| We don't know how Alexander died. He may have been poisoned |
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| Alexander’s body was preserved in a vat of honey |
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| The Greeks invented the water wheel in the 3rd Century BCE |
Inventions |
| Named after Mt Olympus, the Olympic Games are a Greek invention |
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| Hippocrates, "the father of medicine" was the first to study illnesses |
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| Arched bridges were a Greek invention. The oldest surviving is in Greece |
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| The first spiral staircase was in a Greek temple in Sicily |
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