Tag Archives: Ancient greek

Wine as pharmakon: Persian drinking in the Histories

Written by Ronan McLaverty-Head, Contributing Writer, Classical Wisdom Herodotus tells us that the Persians were “very partial to wine,” something he illustrates with the following anecdote: “If an important decision is to be made, they [the Persians] discuss the question when they are drunk, and the following day the master of the house where the

Written on October 7, 2020 at 1:54 pm, by KristinD

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Categories: Symposium

Tags: Ancient greek, Herodotus, Persia, wine

Healthy Skepticism for Better Debates

By Jacob Bell, Associate Editor, Classical Wisdom One would have thought that in this age of information, logical fallacies would cease to exist. But, amazingly, the exact opposite has happened despite our incredible access to information. After all, we can open up an internet browser and within a few minutes we have thousands of pages

Written on March 8, 2019 at 10:47 am, by Jacob Bell

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Categories: Philosophy

Tags: Ancient greek, Greek Philosophy, Logic, Philosophy, Pyrrho of Elis, Sextus Empiricus, Skepticism

[Video] Classics Challenge: Ancient Greek Memorization Techniques

In ancient Greece, prior to being written down, stories were recounted orally. Due to that, memory played an important part in the life of an ancient Greek storyteller. The Odyssey for instance, had 12,110 lines – and each one of those had to be recited by memory – a seemingly impossible task today. Did the

Written on January 3, 2019 at 4:37 pm, by plato

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Categories: Media

Tags: Ancient greek, Cicero, Loci Memorization technique, memorization technique, Memory Palace, Simonides of Ceos

Armillary Spheres: Following Celestial Objects in the Ancient World

By Ḏḥwty, Contributing Writer, Ancient Origins Astronomy is often considered to be one of the oldest branches of science. In many ancient societies, astronomical observations were used not only for the practical job of determine the rhythm of life, (e.g. the various seasons of the year, the celebration of festivals, etc.) but also for the

Written on October 6, 2018 at 2:12 am, by plato

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Categories: Astronomy

Tags: al-Fazari, Ancient greek, armillary sphere, astronomy, Gerbert d’Aurillac, Ptolemy

The Unlucky Seven Against Thebes

Seven warriors killing seven other soldiers in front of seven gates. You’d think that story would forever condemn the number to enmity. But Aeschylus’ Seven Against Thebes makes no comment on the conspicuous symmetry of the legend’s numeral element. Maybe the seven city portals warranted warriors to both attack and protect them. Unfortunately if you are seeking

Written on May 4, 2017 at 10:04 am, by anya

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Categories: Oedipus Trilogy

Tags: Aeschylus, Ancient greek, Antigone, myth, Oedipus, Seven against Thebes, Thebes, war

5 Top Ancient Greek Olympians

By Ben Potter In a our world where are mainstream sporting heroes are millionaires, prima donnas, sex-offenders, and drug-cheats, the Olympics, can provide countries the world over with real sporting icons, icons worthy of that over- and misused term ‘role-model’. However, the glory that our gold-medallists enjoy nowadays pales into insignificance when compared to that

Written on February 19, 2014 at 11:16 pm, by Ben Potter

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Categories: Sport

Tags: Ancient greek, Ancient Greek Olympics, Astylos of Croton, Coroebus of Elis, Diagoras of Rhodes, Leonidas of Rhodes, Milo of Croton, Olympic winners, Olympics