The History of Ancient Greece

In this episode, we discuss the Lenaia, the intricacies of Old Comedy, and what is known about the lives and works of the earliest comedic poets, who set the stage for Aristophanes and his eleven surviving works that effectively define the genre today Show Notes:  http://www.thehistoryofancientgreece.com/2017/09/054-old-comedy-and-aristophanes.html  

In this episode, we discuss the historical context and major themes of Euripides' surviving plays that he produced against the backdrop of the Peloponnesian War, which include Children of Herakles , Andromache , Hekabe ,  Suppliants , Elektra , Madness of Herakles , Trojan Women , Iphigenia in Tauris , Ion , Helene , Phoenician Women , Orestes , and Iphigenia at Aulis (excluding Bakkhai) Show Note...

In this episode, we discuss the life,  theatrical  innovations, and  tragic  works of the third great Athenian playwright, Euripides; and the historicity and some of the major themes of his earliest surviving plays,  which include  Cyclops , Rhesus , Alcestis , Medea , and Hippolytus Show Notes:  http://www.thehistoryofancientgreece.com/2017/08/052-early-euripides.html   Intro by Sam Hume of The H...

In this episode, we discuss the life, theatrical innovations, and tragic works of the second great Athenian playwright, Sophokles; and the historical context and major themes of his seven surviving plays, which include Antigone , Ajax , Oidipous Tyrannos , Women of Trachis , Philoktetes , Elektra , and Oidipous at Kolonos Show Notes:  http://www.thehistoryofancientgreece.com/2017/08/051-sophocles....

In this episode, we discuss what is known about the lives and works of the earliest tragic poets who set the stage for the first great Athenian playwright, Aischylos, to make all sorts of theatrical innovations at the onset of the Classical Period; and the historical context and major themes of his seven surviving plays, which include Persians , Prometheus Bound , Seven Against Thebes , Suppliants...

In this episode, we discuss the origins of drama in the Attic countryside, its relation to the cult of Dionysos, and its introduction to Athens in the late 6th century BC; its evolution from a chorus of satyrs singing dithyrambs to the addition of actors (aka Thespians from the first one, Thespis);  the Dionysia festivals celebrating the cultivation of vines, both "Rural" throughout Attica during...

In this episode, we discuss how, when, and where different subgroups of ancient Greeks consumed food each day; what particular foods were part of each subgroups' diet; some famous early cookbook authors; viticulture and the economic, religious, and medicinal role of wine; the festival of Anthesteria in the month of Anthesterion (late February/early March), which celebrated the beginning of spring...

In this episode, we discuss the iconography of the hero Herakles (also known as Hercules); his early myths, his infamous twelve labors, and his later life; his heroic persona, how he was worshipped as a pan-Hellenic divine hero, and some of his cults, including those in initiatory and pederastic contexts, as a guardian of the city, and as a military and wrestling champion; and his role as a founde...

In this episode, we discuss the importance of heroes in Greek myth, the creation of various beasts and monsters, and the lives and accomplishments of various mythic heroes who often times fought against these monsters; including Kadmos of Thebes and the Ismenian Dragon, Perseus of Argos and the Gorgon Medousa;  Bellerophon of Korinth, Pegasos, and the Chimaira; the cursed family of Pelops and the...

In this episode, we discuss the various types of ancient Greek musical instruments during the Classical Period; how and for what purpose they were used; and the lives and works of the three great 5th century BC lyric poets who pioneered the genre of the epinikion (victory ode)—Simonides of Keos (556-468 BC), Bacchylides of Keos (ca. 525-450 BC), and Pindar of Thebes (522-443 BC), as well as their...

In this episode, we discuss the democratic machinations of Classical Athens in the mid-to-late 5th century BC; including the role that the Athenian statesman Perikles had on the radicalization of Athenian democracy, the magistracies, the Pynx and the ekklesia, the boule and prytaneis, the law courts and jury system, law and order, contemporary critiques of Athenian democracy, and the economics of...

In this episode, we discuss the years spanning 454-446 BC, covering Athens' increasingly imperialistic behavior and the final years of the First Peloponnesian War Show Notes:  http://www.thehistoryofancientgreece.com/2017/05/043-imperial-athens.html   Intro by Rob and Jamie of the Totalus Rankium Podcast Website:  https://totalusrankium.podbean.com Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/romanemperors...

In this episode, we discuss the years spanning 461-454 BC, covering the early part of the First Peloponnesian War / "The Undeclared War" Show Notes:  www.thehistoryofancientgreece.com/2017/05/…war.html   Intro by Ahmet Ozakca of the Groovy Historian Podcast Website:  https://groovy-historian.com Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/GroovyHistorian Twitter:  https://twitter.com/GroovyHistorian

In this episode, we discuss the 460s BC, including the battle of the Eurymedon River (in Asia Minor), which sees Kimon winning a dual land and naval victory over the Persians; Sparta's clashes with the anti-Spartan coalition of Argos, Tegea, Eleia, and Mantineia; the assassination of Xerxes and eventual ascension to the Persian throne of his son, Artaxerxes; Themistokles' medism trial and his defe...

In this episode, we discuss the aftermath of the Persian Wars and how the Athenians and Spartans both come to terms with the new state of affairs; the formation of the Delian League under Athens to carry on the war effort against Persia at sea; and the post-war political factions in Athens (Themistokles and Xanthippos vs Kimon and Aristeides) and in Sparta (Leotychidas and Pausanias vs Pleistarcho...

In this episode, we discuss the tensions between the Spartan-Athenian alliance during the winter of 480/79 BC over how to deal with the lingering Persian threat; Mardonios' strategy of turning the Athenians and Spartans against each other; the eventual makeup (sort of) of Athens and Sparta; the combined Greek counterattack against the Persians in the spring of 479 BC, culminating in the twin victo...

In this episode, we discuss the aftermath of the Greek loss at Thermopylai, as the Persians advanced southwards to Athens and the rest of the Greeks fled to Salamis and to the Peloponnesos; the lead-up to and the naval Battle of Salamis itself (in 480 BC), in which Themistokles tricked the Persians into fighting in the narrows between Attika and Salamis, resulting in a stunning Greek victory at se...

In this episode, we discuss the death of Dareios and the ascension of his son Xerxes to the Persian throne; Xerxes' preparations for a much larger, second Persian invasion of Greece (in 480 BC); the formation of the Hellenic League and their own preparations and tactical maneuverings in order to defend Greek liberty against Persia; the simultaneous multi-day land and naval battles at Thermopylai a...

In this episode, we discuss the events leading up to the first Persian invasion of Greece (in 490 BC), including both sides' preparations for war, shifting alliances amongst the Greeks and Persians, and regnal squabbles at Sparta; the Battle of Marathon itself and its aftermath; the folklore that surrounded the battle afterwards and its monuments; the ongoing military feud between the Athenians an...

In this episode, we discuss the events of the "Ionian Revolt," in which the eastern Greeks revolted from the Persian Empire, including the failed Naxos expedition, Miletos' role in the rebellion and its spread throughout the western coast of Asia Minor and Kypros, the Greek sack of Sardeis, the three-pronged Persian counteroffensive in Kypros, Karia, Ionia, the Hellespont, and the Propontis, the P...

In this episode, we discuss the final subjugation of the Ionian poleis to Persian-backed tyrannies, Dareios' failed invasion of Skythia, Megabazos' conquest of Thrake, and the submission of Makedon that brought Persia right up to the foothills of Mount Olympos, at the very borders of mainland Greece; the diplomatic follies of the Athenians; and whether war was or was not inevitable, at least in th...

In this episode, we discuss the ascension of Dareios to the Persian throne; his consolidation of the empire and eastern campaigns into the Indus River valley; Zoroastrianism and the role Ahura-Mazda played in his reign; and his reform program, with a special focus on his creation of a new script (Old Persian), his new capital of Persepolis, a tour of the bureaucratic satrapies, the Royal Road, his...

In this episode, we discuss events in the eastern Mediterranean during the reign of the Persian king, Kambyses, with a focus on the achievements and the political maneuverings between the Egyptian kings Amasis II and Psammetichos III, the Kyrenean kings Battos III and Arkesilaos III, the Samian tyrant Polykrates, and the Naxian tyrant Lygdamis; Kambyses' successful conquests of Kypros and Egypt; h...

In this episode, we discuss Kyros' conquests of the Lydian kingdom, the Greek city-states in western Anatolia, the nomadic step-tribes of central Asia, and the Neo-Babylonian Empire; the contingents and battle tactics of his multi-ethnic military; the administration of his multi-state empire that stretched from Anatolia in the west to the Hindu-Kush Mountains in the east and to the Aral Sea and th...

In this episode, we discuss the life, influences, drawbacks, and positives of the "Father of History", Herodotos; and the political events of the Near East in the 7th and early 6th centuries BC, including the rise of the Medians and Neo-Babylonians and their destruction of the diminishing Assyrian Empire, and culminating with a young vassal king from the Persian city of Anshan, named Kyros, who ov...