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Built in the 4th century BC, this is one of the best preserved theatres of ancient Greece. It also offers a sweeping view of the whole site, especially the dramatically varied landscape that makes Delphi feel so sacred.

This general (c.527–460 BC) championed the navy as a force to expand the empire.

Legendary Athenian king who represented the qualities of youth, beauty, intelligence, good fortune and heroism.

After a dispute between Aegeus and his brother Minos, King of Crete, Minos demanded Athens send regular tributes of 14 youths and maidens, who were sacrificed to the monstrous Minotaur. One year, Theseus asked to be sent and, with the help of Minos’s daughter, Ariadne, he killed the Minotaur, saving hundreds of future Athenians.

Theseus, son of Athens’ King Aegeus, was secretly raised far from court. At 16, armed with a sword left by his father, Theseus left for Athens, en route slaying dozens of monsters terrorizing Attica. He became Athens’ greatest king and hero.

This was one of the most important cities of the Mycenaean civilization. Its fortifications of limestone were so massive that later Greeks believed they could have been built only by the giant Cyclops – archaeologists still refer to the walls as “Cyclopean”. Although not as grand as Mycenae, Tiryns is better-preserved, especially the ancient palace and great hall.

In 1821 Greeks rose up against Ottoman domination, initially alone and then, as of 1827, with the aid of Britain, France and Russia. Although the war ended in 1829, the Ottomans held the Acropolis until 1834, when the new king, Otto I, entered the city. Athens became capital of the new Greek state and was rebuilt, largely in Neo-Classical style.

Mussolini declared war on Greece in October 1940, and the German army entered Athens in April 1941, raising the swastika over the Acropolis. The Third Reich used the Hotel Grande Bretagne as wartime headquarters.

The Pantheon’s supreme god ruled the skies and fathered hundreds of heroes with his supernatural libido.

The quintessential modern Greek novel.