Ancient Greece

'Here's our next stop, Agent: the ancient Greeks. There are many things that Ophelia Chill can do here that will really mess up history, so pay close attention!'

Greek civilization began on the island of Crete, about 3000 BC. The people of Crete built a city called Knossos. The king of Knossos was named Minos, and his name was applied to the people of the city, who were called Minoans. Legends sprung about a beast who guarded the twisting corridors of the labyrinth in Knossos. The creature was half-man and half-bull and was called the minotaur. According to myth, a hero named Theseus defeated the minotaur in battle.

One of the greatest storytellers and poets in ancient Greece was Homer.

No one knows what Homer looked like, or even if he was just one person, or two of the epic poems he told still exist today.

The first epic poem tells the story of the Trojan War, and is called The Iliad. The hero of The Iliad is known as Achilles.

The second poem is called The Odyssey, and it tells the story of Odysseus (who was also known as Ulysses). He was a hero of the Trojan War. The poem is about his journey home by sea after the war, and the adventures he had along the way.

Let's head over to Athens now, Agent. Athens was the greatest city of the ancient Greek world. By the middle of the 9th century BC it had grown to a thriving city-state.

There was a period of peace and prosperity in Athens from 479 BC until 431 BC. The leader of the Athenians during most of that time was a general and statesman known as Pericles.

During his rule, education and culture flourished within the city. A splendid columned temple to the goddess Athena was built by the Greeks within the Acropolis, a fortified area on the highest hill in Athens. The temple was called the Parthenon, and much of it is still standing today.

This period of Greek history was known as the Golden Age of Athens, and also as the Age of Pericles.

Now let's visit three Greek philosophers, Agent.

From 469 BC to 322 BC, there were three famous thinkers who lived in Greece. The first was called Socrates, and he was known as a philosopher, which is the Greek word for "lover of wisdom." Socrates scared some of the important people in Athens because he questioned almost every aspect of Athenian life and thought. Eventually, he was put on trial for his beliefs, and he ended his own life with a poison made from hemlock in 399 BC.

One of Socrates' students, a philosopher named Plato, wrote down many of the lessons of Socrates, and founded a school known as the Academy.

One of Plato's students was named Aristotle, and he was a philosopher and thinker who became the teacher of Alexander the Great. Alexander was born in Macedonia in 356 BC. He was the son of King Philip II of Macedonia. Alexander studied under the Greek philosopher Aristotle, and began leading armies at the age of 16.

He became king at the age of 20 when his father was assassinated. By age 28, he had conquered the Persian Empire, and ruled western Asia, Egypt, and Greece.

In 332 BC, he founded the city of Alexandria in Egypt and it soon became the center for trade, literature and science for the Greeks. Alexander died of an illness in 323 BC.

'You may not know this, Agent, but the Greeks loved plays, and were the first to write them down. They were performed in outdoor amphitheaters.'

Many of the Greek plays were tragedies, which told about people who suffer as a result of their mistakes. The greatest Greek writers of tragedies were Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides.

The Greeks also liked comedies, which were written to amuse the audience and poke fun at current people and ideas. The greatest writer of Greek comedies was Aristophanes.

The ancient Greeks kept a record of what they considered to be the Seven Wonders of the World.

I'll list them here in no particular order, Agent.

There was the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, the tomb of King Mausolus. The word "mausoleum" is still used to describe an elaborate tomb.

Next was the Temple of Artemis, a great temple to the Greek goddess of the hunt and harvest. It was located at Ephesus in Greece.

Then there was the Colossus of Rhodes, which was an enormous bronze statue of the god Helios that stood guard in the harbor of the Greek island of Rhodes, near the coast of Turkey.

Let's not forget the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, built by King Nebuchadnezzar. We talked about him earlier, if you recall.

There was also the Statue of Zeus, a massive statue made of ivory and gold. It stood in the Temple of Zeus in Olympia.

There was the Pharos of Alexandria, a huge lighthouse, which guided ships into the harbor of Alexandria.

Finally, there was the Great Pyramids, built by the ancient Egyptians in Giza. Unfortunately for those of us in the present day, only one of the Seven Wonders remains: the Great Pyramids. The rest have been destroyed by time and mankind himself.

Additional Research
There's a lot to learn about Greek history, Agent, and I suggest you explore the following topics at your local library:
 * 1) Greek myths, gods, and heroes including Zeus, Hermes, Apollo, Athena, Hercules, Perseus, and Jason.
 * 2) Sparta and the Spartans
 * 3) Helen of Troy and the Trojan War