/r/ancientgreece

Photograph via snooOG

Sub for posts about Ancient Greek history, archaeology, language, philosophy, art, poetry, theatre - anything interesting about the culture and history of the ancient Hellenes, from around 1500 BCE until the demise of the Ancient World (approximately 400 CE).

This is a history sub, so try to keep it on topic. Conspiracies, memes and pseudo history are not welcome.

So Χαίρετε to you all!

"The road up and the road down are one and the same." - Heraclitus c.540 - c.480 BC

This is a sub for posts about Ancient Greek history, archaeology, language, philosophy, art, poetry, theatre - basically anything interesting about the culture and history of the ancient Hellenes.

Their culture went through many phases, but essentially we are talking about the Hellenic speaking peoples of Europe, Asia and Africa from around 1500 BCE until the demise of the Ancient World (approximately 400 CE).

Remember though that this is a history sub, so try to keep it on topic. Conspiracies, memes and pseudo history are not welcome, and posters of this will be banned.

So Χαίρετε to you all!

Other reddits about civilizations that have come and gone

Other reddits you may like:

A great list of books on Ancient Greek religion:

/r/ancientgreece

43,790 Subscribers

0

Troy, 1200 BC

1 Comment
2024/10/31
06:49 UTC

1

More on Plato's theory of love

0 Comments
2024/10/31
01:55 UTC

18

Pericles Dissuading Athens Against Pursuing Their Empire

I seem to remember something from a class about Pericles saying (maybe in the funeral oration) not to pursue the Athenian Empire during war with Sparta. This would have been broken by things like the Sicilian Expedition. He could've said something closer to don't use resources away from Attica. If anyone knows what I'm talking about and could point me in the right direction of where this is, I'd be grateful.

6 Comments
2024/10/30
00:42 UTC

5

Are the mods active?

4 Comments
2024/10/29
16:36 UTC

15

Why didn't the rest of the Greeks respect animals the way Pythagoras did?

This was an original post at the askphilosophy sub:

From my reading Pythagoras was one of the first Greeks to start fleshing philosophy out and he was big on respecting animals, going as far as to give them lectures out in nature, allegedly anyway. But I've never understood why Pythagoras was so unique among Greeks in how he considered them.

I understand even in his time he was considered a bit on the mystical side of things rather than rational so people may have not taken him too seriously here. I have a hard time discerning which of his beliefs others took as silly vs serious. It's obviously pretty inconvenient in ancient times to start respecting animals in similar ways to humans but the Greeks were so rich and well off, I don't feel like that explains why none of them afterwards seemed to carry this respect of animals as well.

It seems like all of the other Greeks we commonly learn of after him were fairly explicit that animals are well beneath humans, quite the contrast from a few hundred years prior.

11 Comments
2024/10/28
18:42 UTC

2

Agamemnon by Aeschylus (Videobook)

0 Comments
2024/10/28
17:39 UTC

5

Argos had temples dedicated to Athena and Apollo, how did they justified having temples to Zeus’ out of wedlock children since they had Hera as patron deity?

3 Comments
2024/10/27
13:50 UTC

3

Currency

In The Anabasis of Alexander by Arrian, he mentions talents being used by the Aspendians: "...they went back; but he ordered them to give him fifty talents as pay for his army..."

What were talents worth in relation to other currencies and would they actually be used outside of Greece?

4 Comments
2024/10/26
22:40 UTC

3

Early Celtic Tribes - Historical Documentary

0 Comments
2024/10/24
17:14 UTC

9

History of the Peloponnesian War: Book 2 by Thucydides

0 Comments
2024/10/24
16:51 UTC

970

The Corinthian Helmet is what the average person thinks of when talking about ancient Greece, but how common was this style?

I'm just curious how widely used this helmet style would have been. I know it was eventually phased out on favor of lighter gear and the pilos helmet, but was this the go to helmet for many hoplites?

Also when was the peak of this Hemet style?

Did the Spartans use these commonly? Many depictions favor the pilos it seems

39 Comments
2024/10/23
19:27 UTC

20

Greek end of the world

Im doing research for a story i am writing. I was wondering if anyone knew any source or if anyone knows directly where like the greeks would have believed the end of the world is, westward wise. Im more asking if there was a believe entrance to the Realm of Haides.

7 Comments
2024/10/21
18:45 UTC

0

If an Ancient Greek from the classical era was brought to the modern day, which country and culture would he choose to live in?

It is definitely hypothetical, but if we could bring a non-Spartan Ancient Greek from the classical era, maybe a century earlier or later, how would he view the modern world and where he would finally choose to settle? Let’s say he lands in modern Greece. Would he like this world? Personally I think that he is going to write off the Western world entirely sooner or later. Then he will focus to East Asia, but still find problems. Then he would try SE Asia, then Russia and finally he would settle to somewhere like Afghanistan. He would probably be 50 50 on sub-Saharan Africa.

12 Comments
2024/10/21
10:17 UTC

4

ca. 1250 BCE - Usage of Iron Discus

We know from many sources that during the time Homer wrote about in the Iliad (not the time from which he was writing, but the time of the events in the story) iron was used but was a very rare resource.

However, in the Iliad, one of the prizes Achilles offers in the Funeral Games (Book 23) is a big piece of iron that a king he killed used to use as a discus. Achilles goes out of his way to explain how valuable that iron is, and how someone would be set financially for 5years if he owned it. He's saying this despite being royalty himself.

What I'm wondering is, if even the royal prince Achilles considers this iron to be so valuable, why would a king (I think it was Eetion? But I don't remember) use it as a discus to throw around the field? Obviously Homer was drawing from some kind of passed-down historical knowledge. But do we have any records or evidence of this practice among people around 1250 BCE (Iliad's setting), and why would they do it with such a valuable commodity?

3 Comments
2024/10/21
06:47 UTC

4

At what age did Ancient Greeks usually start exercising?

9 Comments
2024/10/20
16:46 UTC

15

Does anyone know what this is?

I got this decorative owl a while ago from my great grandmother and i just realized the person in the middle might be someone important and my first thought was Athena because it's an owl but I don't know. Does anyone have an answer about what this is?

5 Comments
2024/10/20
12:55 UTC

4

The REAL Story of Hyperborea

0 Comments
2024/10/18
21:33 UTC

3

Ancient Greek Arson

At the end of the Siege of Halicarnassus, the Persians set the city on fire. How did they do this? As in, what did they burn specifically and what substance did they use?

1 Comment
2024/10/18
19:33 UTC

7

History of the Peloponnesian War: Book 1 by Thucydides (Long Summary)

0 Comments
2024/10/17
22:49 UTC

3

why does κράζω make its perfect time as κέκραγα?

Where does that γ come from?

perfect tense*

4 Comments
2024/10/17
14:09 UTC

11

Best resources on the Minoans?

I’m not an archeologist so I shouldn’t complain, but I wish there was more to know about these people!

Are there any cultural/mythological connections between the Minoans and the classical ancient Greeks?

Thanks!

8 Comments
2024/10/17
05:54 UTC

25

What did a city in the Mycenaean civilization look like at its peak?

I visited the Mycenaean acropolis today. I understand the city surrounding the acropolis included likely tens of thousands of people.

Are there any artistic renderings of what the city, or another city in the Mycenaean civilization looked like? I'm curious what they look like. I assume a lot of farm land and dwellings? I tried googling what did the area surrounding the mycenaean acropolis look like and similar phrases but nothing relevant came up.

8 Comments
2024/10/16
21:12 UTC

5

Scholarly Sources!

Hi! I was recommended to come here from another server!

So I'm a college student writing a term paper for a classics class, and my topic is androgyny in 5-6th century Ancient Greece! I'm having a hard time finding things to read and cite, so if anyone has anything interesting I'd love to hear about it!! Thank you so much.

1 Comment
2024/10/16
15:08 UTC

2

Naming Conventions

Hi there! I'm writing a book about Alexander the Great from Hephaestion's perspective, and I'm going to stop there for brevity's sake, but I have some questions about naming conventions.

I am not using Hephaistion nor Alexandros, but what about Parmenion (Parmenio), Cleitus (Clitus) or cities such as Termessus (Termessos), etc.?

Why are there two spellings of lots of names and which should I use?

3 Comments
2024/10/15
19:50 UTC

Back To Top