The Parthenon is part of our collective imagination as an exceptional monument. It is interesting to note that, according to Douglas Frame, the name Parthenon was officially given to it later. §3.44 In concrete form it was of course the Parthenon that displayed Athena parthénos most impressively to the city and to the world. Paradoxically this building, constructed between 447 and 432 BC, did not begin to be called the… Read more
We were excited to welcome Julia L. Shear for an Open House entitled “Lysias, his Funeral Oration, and Collective Memories in Classical Athens.” The event took place on Friday, March 5 at 11:00 a.m. EST and was recorded. To get ready for the event, you might like to read: Lysias 2, the Funeral Oration Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War 2.34, description of the burial of the war-dead. You can… Read more
By 433 BCE, the trade network of Athens reached from the Crimea to Egypt and as far west as Marseille. The navy served to protect the trade routes between the colonies and the mētropolis. Corinth was an ally of Sparta. Corcyra (Corfu) was an unwilling colony of Corinth and not part of either the Athenian or the Peloponnesian League. Corcyra operated a fleet of 120 galleys.[1] Figure 1: Gorgon at… Read more
The Apology is one of the so-called Early Dialogues of Plato.[1] In it, Socrates makes his own defense of the accusations he had received for corrupting the youths and introducing new gods in the city of Athens. To start with, it is interesting to note that this dialogue does not take a proper noun (the name of one of the characters in the dialogue concerned) as a title but chooses… Read more
In 460 BCE the Athenians were underway to carry out a mission—a raid on Cyprus to collect some more of the treasures of that island—when they was ordered by Perikles, after a voting process in Athens, to divert his fleet to Egypt.[1] The objective was to give naval support to the Libyan ruler Inaros II, who was leading a revolt against the Persian presence in that area. Charitimides led the… Read more