Portal:Ancient Greece/DYK

Did you know...

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  ...that agriculture was the foundation of the Ancient Greek economy ?

• ...that to the ancient Greeks, Paideia (παιδεία) was "the process of educating man into his true form, the real and genuine human nature.

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  ...that Troy was a real city ?

• ...that Gela in 7th and 6th century BC was the most important Greek colony in Sicily ?

• ...that in ancient Athens, only men had the right to vote or be elected to the government. Women were not sent to school. They were trained in housework and married by the time they were 13?
  
  

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  ... that the Greeks did not have a term for "religion" ?

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  ... that Ancient Greek cuisine was characterized by its frugality, reflecting agricultural hardship?

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  ... that the economy of ancient Greece was characterized by the extreme importance of agriculture, all the more so because of the relative poverty of Greece's soil?
  
  

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  ... that by the time of his death, Alexander the Great had conquered most of the world known to the ancient Greeks?

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  ...that the Acropolis of Athens was also known as Cecropia, after the legendary serpent-man, Kekrops or Cecrops, the first Athenian king?

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  ...that the Temple of Zeus housed one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World — the monumental statue of Zeus by Phidias ?

• ... that there was a man called Herakles, and he was part god because he was the son of Zeus and had super strength and had 12 hard labours and still completed all of them!
  
  

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  ...that Crete, although now Greek, had its own civilization well before Ancient Greece in the Minoan culture?

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  ...that Philip II of Macedon was killed at the hands of one of his own bodyguards in Aegae, Pausanias of Orestis, and then the assassin was killed by some of the other bodyguards?

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  ...that Tsakonian Greek, a dialect of Greek that is found on the Peloponnese, is actually descended from the Dorians?
  
  

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  ... that the Parthenon replaced an older temple of Athena, called the Pre-Parthenon or Older Parthenon, that was destroyed in the Persian invasion of 480 BC ?

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  ... that the ancient Greeks admired ancient Egyptian medicine ?

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  ... that together with his teacher, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the philosophical foundations of Western culture ?
  
  

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  ...that around 600 BC, the wooden columns of the old Temple of Hera at Olympia underwent a material transformation, known as "petrification"?

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  ...that although of Greek origin, the Corinthian order was seldom used in Greek architecture?

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  ...that Greek mythology has changed over time to accommodate the evolution of their own culture?
  
  

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• ...that the historical origins of the Ancient Olympic Games are unknown, but several legends and myths survive?

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  ...that the Ancient Greeks had many words to describe slaves ?

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  ...that the Colossus of Rhodes was a huge statue of the Greek god Helios, erected on the Greek island of Rhodes?
  
  

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  ... that the place of Aesop's birth was and still is disputed?

• ... that the first known Greek medical school opened in Cnidus in 700 BC?

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  ... that Spartan women enjoyed a status, power and respect that was unknown in the rest of the classical world?
  
  

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• ... that after the battle of Plataea, the Greeks swore never to rebuild their sanctuaries, destroyed by the Persians during their invasion of Greece, but to leave them in ruins, as a perpetual reminder of barbarian ferocity?

• ...that Thebes, Greece played an important role in the fabric of Greek myth, being the site of the stories of Cadmus, Oedipus, Dionysus, and others?

• ...that the art of ancient Greece has exercised an enormous influence on the culture of many countries from ancient times until the present, particularly in the areas of sculpture and architecture?
  
  

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• ... that the Greeks did not have a term for "religion"?

• ... that Ancient Greek cuisine was characterized by its frugality, reflecting agricultural hardship?

• ... that the economy of ancient Greece was characterized by the extreme importance of agriculture, all the more so because of the relative poverty of Greece's soil?
  
  

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