The Arts

The ancient Greeks were great thinkers: ancient Greece was home to a lot of famous and great philosophers, people like Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and Pythagoras. All of these people played a very important part in our current ways of thinking and are still studied today by many millions of people.

The first European piece of literature, called The Iliad, was written by Homer and is all about a key part of Greek history: the siege of Troy.


Theatre

The Greeks are very fond of the theatre: they invented it! They realised that the way to show performances to a lot of people was to create a theatre where the seats are higher up the further to the back you are.

In ancient Greece, writers like Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes would perform their art in such theatres. Today there are shows in both ancient and modern theatres that people can go to.


Architecture

There were also many Greek artists and architects: Iktinos, Kallikratis. Pheidias built the Parthenon, which is probably one of the most famous buildings in Athens.




Archaeological Sites

The monuments that can be found all over Greece are a very important part of our history. They tell us a lot about the beginnings of Western civilization! People travel far and wide in order to see them and learn about our past.

Sites are still being discovered today and these can tell us even more about the past and our ancient civilization.


The Olympic Games

The Olympic games started in Olympia more than 2,000 years ago: the very first one was in 774 BC! The first modern Olympic Games was held in Athens in 1896.

Modern Olympic games still respects the ancient tradition of the Olympic flame: the Olympic flame starts its journey, and travels to the country that is hosting the games. In ancient Greece, the winner got an olive branch, and it was a very well respected achievement.

The next Olympic Games in 2004 will be hosted in Athens once again, so the Olympic flame won’t have far to go and it should be a very special occasion!


Language

Did you know that the Greek language has been in existence for over three and a half millennia? And there are some similarities that still exist between the modern Greek language and the language which was used by the Ancient Greeks.

The Greek alphabet is very different to the alphabet that is used for the English language, but some parts of Western languages can be traced back to the language used by the Ancient Greeks.

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