DK Travel : Athens : History & Culture

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The Iliad, Homer

One small episode in the Trojan War, told in the greatest epic ever written.
The Minotaur

Crete’s Queen Pasiphae conceived this bull-headed, human-bodied monster with a bull sent by Poseidon.
The Naming of Athens

Athena and Poseidon, god of the sea, competed for patronage of the great city in Attica by offering their best gifts. Poseidon struck his trident into the rock of the Acropolis and out gushed salt water. But Athena offered the olive tree, and the Olympian gods awarded her the city.
The Odyssey, Homer

Odysseus’s adventures with sirens, nymphs and Cyclops on his way home from Troy.
The Oresteia, Aeschylus

Brilliant trilogy about the the House of Atreus, the most dysfunctional family in ancient Greece.
The Rape of Philomela

Erichtonius’s son Pandion had two daughters, Procne and Philomela. When Procne’s husband Tereus raped Philomela and cut out her tongue, Procne took revenge by serving the flesh of their son to Tereus. The sisters then turned for help to the gods, who made Philomela into a swallow, Tereus into a hoopoe and Procne into a nightingale (which cries “Tereu”).
The Sirens

The beautiful sirens with their bewitching songs nearly lured Odysseus’s sailors to their deaths on a rocky shore.
The Theban Tragedies, Sophocles

Terrible events unfold when Oedipus kills his father and marries his mother. Read on a visit to Delphi and Thebes.
The Trial of Orestes

Orestes, after murdering his mother, Klytemnestra (to avenge her murder of his father, Agammemnon), was pursued to Athens by the Furies (underworld goddesses of vengeance). Athena decreed that instead of being killed, Orestes should stand trial. He was acquitted, and the trial marked a turning point in Athens, from blood feuds to rule of law.
Theatre

The earliest form of theatre can be traced back to an ancient Greek pagan ritual, which developed into an annual drama competition in the 6th century BC (see Moments in the History of Theatre and Music). Plays were performed outside in daylight in purpose-built amphitheatres, and actors wore a range of masks to indicate different characters. The oldest plays emphasize values such as Greek patriotism, reverence to the gods, liberty and hospitality.