Ancient greeks were much like the greeks of today. Many of the ancient greeks living over two thousand years ago are similar to ancient greeks in the peloponese... Laconia, Sparta.
ODYSSEUS
Page III
Ancient greeks were much like the greeks of today. Many of the ancient greeks living over two thousand years ago are similar to ancient greeks in the peloponese... Laconia, Sparta.
ODYSSEUS
Page III
On
Odysseus' journey home from the Trojan
wars he stopped at an island where 
Polyphemus,
a Cyclops lived. Polyphemus took Odysseus and his crew captive in
his cave and even ate some of them . Odysseus made a stake and set
it on fire, then thrust it into Polyphemus's eye. Odysseus through
his 
cleverness
escaped with his men. Polyphemus though... prayed to Poseidon to punish
Odysseus for blinding him.
Odysseus blinded the Cyclops not knowing he was one of Poseidons sons, for this reason Poseidon not only delayed the hero's homeward return from the Trojan War but caused him to face many perils at sea. Here we see Poseidon preparing to whip up the otherwise calm sea and cause a storm so severe that Odysseus will be shipwrecked. Poseidon prevents Odysseus's return home to Ithaca for many years to his beloved wife who is besieged by would be new husbands. Athena though helps him throughout his many adventures on the way back . She loved his cunning mind and shrewd ways. After ten years, Athena felt he had been punished more than a fair amount. However, Poseidon was a very stubborn god, and would still not allow Odysseus to return to Ithaca.
to be continued...
Troy
As little boy Heinrich Schliemann
was obsessed by the idea that Homer had given an account of true history
in his great epic poems - the Iliad and the Odyssey, and that Troy
had really existed.
Heinrich Schliemann said that when he was eight years old in 1830 in Mecklenburg, Germany, his father told him the story of the Iliad... about Helen, wife of the King of Sparta, and Paris, son of Priam of Troy, and how their love resulted in a war that lasted 10 long years. That story awoke in him a burning desire when older to search for the archaeological proof of the existence of this legendary city...Troy.
Eventually after a lot of study and many years of investigation, he tracked down the lost City of Troy on his own, by treating many of the stories in Homers Iliad as fact... even though they are 4,000 years old.
Although he had not studied archaeology, he achieved
the greatest discovery in the history of archaeology.. and because
of this we must be ever thankful to him!
He did all to find this famous place and achieved one of the greatest moments of archaeology:
The discovery of Troy... also known as Ilium.
And now!
A recent search 'locates' Homer's
The real island's location discovered at last!
In the Bronze age Troy was a great power because of its strategic position between Europe and Asia.
In the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC Troy was a powerful cultural centre. But soon after the Trojan Wars the site was virtually abandoned from 1100 to 700 BC..
Then circa 700 BC Greek settlers began to occupy the region. Troy was resettled and named as Ilium.
Alexander the Great ruled over the area successively around the 4th century BC.
Then in 85 BC the Romans captured Troy and it was restored partially by the Roman general Sulla.
Although after the occupation of Constantinople (Istanbul), Troy lost its importance.and vanished from the minds of men.
An
Ancient Astrological Computer ?
In
the last century 1901... a shipwreck was uncovered revealing an unexpected
find. The ship dated from the first century BC was sailing from the
Greek island of Rhodes and was sunk near Antikythera. In its cargo...
Marble & Bronze Statues
Gold Jewelry
Utensils & Tableware
Amphorae
and an amazing complicated bronze gear mechanism in a deteriorated
state about the size of a cigar box.
The device... now called the Antikythera mechanism... was analyzed to be an ancient planetarium in which the positions of the heavenly bodies were indicated by dials on the face of the device.
The bronze gears are as complicated as those in a modern mechanical clock and represent the earliest substantial evidence of an advanced metallic instrument predating the computer by 2,000 years !
.........................
Eratosthenes 276 BC - 194 BC
Eratosthenes was born in Cyrene 'Libya'. After studying in Alexandria and Athens... he became the director of the Great Library in Alexandria.
Famous for
measurement of distance from the earth to
the sun... now called the astronomical unit (804,000,000 stadia).
The measurement of the distance to the Moon (780,000 stadia).
.
He completeded a star catalogue containing 675 stars...unfortunatley
this has not survived.
A map of the Nile's route as far as Khartoum.
A map of the entire known world... from Northern Britain to Ceylon...
and from the Caspian Sea to Ethiopia.
About 200 BC Eratosthenes
is thought to have coined the word geography... the descriptive study
of the Earth.
Although most of Eratosthenes' writings are lost, many are contained in the writings of commentators.
..................................
EQUIPPED WITH A BRONZE BATTERING RAM
FOR
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE AEGEAN KIND THE TRIREME WAS THE ULTIMATE
GREEK ATTACK SHIP. A TRIREME COULD CARRY APPROXIMATELY 200 MEN...
170 OARSMEN, 13 SAILORS, 10 WARRIORS. THE OARSMEN (THETES)
WERE NOT SLAVES BUT PAID MARINES FROM THE LOWEST RANK OF ATHENIAN
SOCIETY. THESE SHIPS PLAYED A DECISIVE ROLE IN THE GREAT NAVAL BATTLE
AFTER THE SPARTANS DEFEAT AT THERMOPYLAE.
THE NAVAL BATTLE OF SALAMIS IN 480 BC WAS TO TURN THE TIDE FOR EVER... WHEN LESS THAN 400 GREEK SHIPS DEFEATED THE MIGHTY PERSIAN NAVY WHO OUTNUMBERED THEM THREE TO ONE.
THIS TIME WAS BOUGHT FOR THEM BY THE SPARTAN SACRAFICE AT THERMOPYLAE.
THE SAILS WERE SHIPPED WHEN BATTLE WAS IMMINENT AND THREE BANKS OF OARS DROVE THE SHIP FORWARD AT SPEEDS OF UP TO 10MPH. THE ATHENIANS LURED THE ENEMY BOATS INTO THE NARROW WATERS BETWEEN THE ISLAND OF SALAMIS AND THE MAINLAND. THIS NULLIFIED THE ADVANTAGE OF THE PERSIANS FASTER SHIPS IN THE CONFINED WATERS AND THE BATTERING RAMS AND HOPOLITE BOARDING PARTIES SWIFTLY LAY WASTE TO THE PERSIAN FLEET...
HOPOLITE MARINES
.
Athletic
games
were an important part of many religious festivals from early on
in ancient Greek culture. In the Iliad... the famous warrior Achilles
held games as part of the funeral rights for his best 
friend
Patroclus. The events in them include a footrace, a chariot race,
a discus event and a combined wrestling and boxing match called
pankration.
The word Pankration means "all powers" in ancient greek
Pankration was a sporting event in the ancient Greek Olympic games {held every 4 years} that was first introduced in 648 BC. The rules of the sport were very basic, no biting or eye gouging and victory was achieved through submission/knockout or death. The historical records of pankration are shrouded and mixed with Greek mythology and it is not known whether such feats of strength of contestants were myth or actual factual accounts. Just like the boxers and wrestlers of the Olympic games the Pankration competitors refined their skills through hundreds of years and became extremely proficient at all aspects of ground fighting... submission holds... and standing fighting by using many strikes. These holds, throws and striking techniques can be seen on the pottery, statues and drawings. It was one of the most brutal games in the Olympics. Ancient greek schools can book us to visit them and give ancient greek lessons to children about ancient greek life.
SPARTANS PREPARE BY REGULAR TRAINING
To the Ancient Greeks there were many gods... and goddesses!
However... not all Greek Philosophers believed in the idea of a God... or Gods?
Epicurus
(circa 341-270 B.C.E.)
Is God willing to prevent evil,
but not able?
Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing?
Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing?
Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing?
Then why call him God?
Epicurus grew up in the Athenian colony of Samos, an island in the Mediterranean, and taught that the basic building blocks of the world were atoms. Small uncuttable pieces of matter that move through empty space in a state of collision. He also rejected the existence of a soul, and said that the gods had no influence on peoples lives. Epicurus believed that we could gain knowledge of the world about us by relying upon our senses. He taught that the point of all peoples actions was to gain pleasure for themselves, and that tranquility could be reached by limiting one's desires and by banishing the fear of the gods and of death. Epicurus believed that nothing came into existence from nothing... therefore he suggested that the universe had no beginning, but had always existed, and will always exist. Therefore atoms, as the basic building blocks of existance have always existed.
Many communities of Epicureans flourished and shared in this belief for centuries after his death.
DECIDE TO STAY AND FIGHT TO THE LAST WITH THE SPARTANS AT THERMOPYLAE 480 BC.
