“Clash of the Gods.” History Vault, watch.historyvault.com/shows/clash-of-the-gods. Accessed 6 Sept. 2022. Medusa Met Her Fate in the Parthenon, which was Athena’s Temple. Poseidon – God of Sea and Storms and Earthquakes Poseidon raped the Virginal Medusa. Athena punished Medusa by turning her into a monster whose hair was a nest of writhing, poisonous snakes. To make…
Category: Ancient Greek History
Danae and the Tower – The Birth of Perseus
When you think of a hero, you think of a man who does brave, unselfish deeds. But to the Hellenes or Greeks a hero was one who was half god, half man—whose one parent was a god while the other was a mortal. So the god Zeus was the father of Perseus, the hero of…
Neoclassicism and the Classical Ideal
In terms of art history, the Classical Period of Art was Created During the Eras of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. Marble statue of Aphrodite 1st or 2nd century A.D. Roman – Copy of a Greek statue of the 3rd or 2nd century B.C. “The goddess of love is shown as though surprised at her…
Bull-Leaping Fresco from the Palace of Knossos
Bull-leaping fresco from the east wing of the palace of Knossos (reconstructed), c. 1400 B.C.E., fresco, 78 cm high (Archaeological Museum of Heraklion, photo: Jebulon, CC0) Taking the bull by the horns “Bull sports—including leaping over them, fighting them, running from them, or riding them—have been practiced all around the globe for millennia. Perhaps the…
Minoan Art
“The Bronze Age culture of Crete, called Minoan, after King Minos of Crete from Greek mythology, is one of the most vibrant and admired in all of European prehistory. Coastline of Crete in 2017 (photo: belpo, CC BY-NC 2.0) “The island itself is no doubt part of the story; at the watery intersection of Asia,…
Knossos – An Ancient Greek Palace
“The Aegean world is a very beautiful one. The Islands rise out of the sea like jewels sparkling in the sunshine. It is a world associated with spring, of “fresh new grass and dewey lotus, and crocus and hyacinth,”[1] a land where the gods were born, one rich in legend and myth and fairy tale,…
The Snake Goddess from Knossos
An enticing mystery “It has been said that the image of the Snake Goddess, discovered by Sir Arthur Evans at Knossos on Crete, is one of the most frequently reproduced sculptures from antiquity. Whether or not this is true, it is certainly the case that she is a powerful and evocative image. What she meant to the…
The Book of the Ancient Greeks
Dorothy Mills – 1925 Mills, Dorothy. The Book of the Ancient Greeks. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1925. CRETE AND THE CIVILIZATION OF THE EARLY AEGEAN WORLD CHAPTER I THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD To the people of the ancient world the Mediterranean was “The Sea”; they knew almost nothing of the great ocean that lay beyond the…
Persephone and the Great God Pan
THE GREAT GOD PAN by Mary MacGregor MacGregor, Mary. The Story of Greece. London, T. C. and E. C. JACK, Ltd., 1914. The supreme god of the Hellenes was Zeus. He dwelt in the sky, yet on earth, too, he had a sanctuary amid the oak-woods of Dodona. When the oak-leaves stirred, his voice was heard,…
The Story of Greece by Mary MacGregor
The Story of Greece by Mary MacGregor MacGregor, Mary. The Story of Greece. London, T. C. and E. C. JACK, Ltd., 1914. CHAPTER I WONDERLAND The story of Greece began long, long ago in a strange wonderland of beauty. Woods and winds, fields and rivers, each had a pathway which led upward and onward into the…