traveldk.com

The beginning of monumental Greek art, with the first marble temples and sculptures. These earliest sculptures of young men and women, called koroi , and made for religious purposes, were heavily influenced by Egyptian art: stiff and still, with muscles and facial features carved mostly as decorations to the form.

The Syracusan-born Greek mathematician Archimedes (287–212 BC) invented an ingenious water pump, which became known as Archimedes’ screw. It consisted of a tube coiled around a rod, which is set at an angle, with the bottom end in water and a handle at the top. When the handle is rotated, the entire device turns and the tube collects water which is thus transported upwards.

Believed to be the longest continually inhabited town in Greece, the modern town sits right on top of the ancient one, leaving much to wonder about but little to see. Fortunately, the4th-century theatre and excellent museum are well worth visiting, and, if you have a car, drive to the medieval castles of Larissa and Aspis overlooking the plain immortalized by Homer.

The greatest comic playwright of Greece was a welcome breath of fresh air after the age of the great tragedians. Aristophanes’ raunchy, hilarious Lysistrata , in which the women of warring Sparta and Athens refuse to sleep with their husbands until they stop fighting, is one of the greatest anti-war messages of all time.

After studying with Plato, Aristotle tutored Alexander the Great. He later set up the Lyceum, a competitor to Plato’s Academy. His Poetics is still one of the most important works of literary criticism, and his Nichomachean Ethics among the greatest treatises on ethics.

Apollo’s twin sister was goddess of the moon and the hunt, and remained a virgin.

In the 5th century BC, courtesan Aspasia gained acceptance in Athens’ male-dominated intellectual and political circles.

In Ancient Greek mythology, Athena (see Athenian Legends) became the patron of Athens.

Zeus’s daughter was a virgin warrior goddess of wisdom and philosophy. She was also goddess of weaving and patron of Athens.

As goddess of spinning and weaving, Athena decided to help a poor but talented weaver called Arachne. Arachne won great admiration but took all the praise without crediting the goddess, and so Athena challenged her protégé to a weaving contest. Arachne’s work depicted the inappropriate love affairs of the gods; Athena, furious with indignation, turned Arachne into the first spider.