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Syssitia
The syssitia ( ''syssítia'', plural of ''syssítion'') were, in ancient Greece, common meals for men and youths in social or religious groups, especially in Crete and Sparta, but also in Megara in the time of Theognis of Megara (sixth century BCE) and Corinth in the time of Periander (seventh century BCE). The banquets spoken of by Homer relate to the tradition. Some reference to similar meals can be found in Carthage and according to Aristotle (''Politics'' VII. 9), it prevailed still earlier amongst the Oenotrians of Calabria. The syssitia in the Carthginian constitution may have been called in the Phoenician origin " marzēaḥ". The origin of the ''syssítia'' is attributed to Rhadamanthus, the legendary lawgiver of Knossos of Crete. This is explained by Cleinias of Crete in conversation with an Athenian and a Spartan, in Plato's dialogue the Laws. Lycurgus of Sparta certainly made use of the practice in Sparta. Sparta In Sparta, where the system was most evolve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Black Soup
Black soup was a dish in the cuisine of ancient Sparta, made with boiled pork meat and blood, using only salt and vinegar to flavour. The soup was well known during antiquity in the Greek world, but no original recipe of the dish survives today.Maciej Kokoszko, "''Mélas Zomós'' (μέλας ζωμός), or on a Certain Spartan Dish. A Source Study," in ''Studies on Ancient Sparta,'' eds. Ryszard Kulesza and Nicholas Sekunda, Akanthina, no. 14, ed. Nicholas Sekunda (Gdańsk: Gdańsk University Press, 2020), 9-28. . OCLC 1225234705. The earliest recorded mention of the soup can be dated to the fifth century BC, in a comedy titled ''The Miners'', written by Pherecrates. The ancient sources provide contradictory accounts on whether the soup was a luxurious meal served only at banquets or a dish that could be afforded by all Spartiates. Throughout history, black soup has been praised by and associated with figures such as Benjamin Rush and Adolf Hitler, although Hitler was ( debat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dicaearchus
Dicaearchus of Messana (; ''Dikaiarkhos''; ), also written Dikaiarchos (), was a Greek philosopher, geographer and author. Dicaearchus was a student of Aristotle in the Lyceum. Very little of his work remains extant. He wrote on geography and the history of Greece, of which his most important work was his ''Life of Greece''. Although modern scholars often consider him a pioneer in the field of cartography, this is based on a misinterpretation of a reference in Cicero to Dicaearchus's ''tabulae'', which does not refer to any maps made by Dicaearchus but is a pun on account books and refers to Dicaearchus's ''Descent into the Sanctuary of Trophonius.'' He also wrote books on ancient Greek poets, philosophy and politics. Life He was the son of one Pheidias, and born at Messana in Sicily, Magna Graecia, though he passed part of his life in Greece, and especially in Athens and the Peloponnesus. He also travelled to make his measurements of mountains. He was a disciple of Aristotle a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Agoge
The ( in Attic Greek, or , in Doric Greek) was the training program prerequisite for Spartiate (citizen) status. Spartiate-class boys entered it at age seven, and would stop being a student of the agoge at age 21. It was considered violent by the standards of the day, and was sometimes fatal. The was divided into three age groups, paides, paidiskoi, and hēbōntes, roughly corresponding to young boys (7-12), adolescents (12-20), and young men (20-30). The deliberately deprived boys of food, sleep, and shelter. It involved cultivating loyalty to Sparta through military training (e.g., pain tolerance), hunting, dancing, singing, and rhetoric. There seems to have been ritual beating. It was intensely competitive, and the boys were encouraged to use violence against each other; by Plutarch's account, this included sexual violence by hēbōntes against paides, while Xenophon says the relationships were widely but wrongly considered to be sexual. Participants were required to li ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rhadamanthus
In Greek mythology, Rhadamanthus () or Rhadamanthys () was a wise king of Crete. As the son of Zeus and Europa (mythology), Europa he was considered a demigod. He later became one of the Greek underworld#Judges of the underworld, judges of the dead and an important figure in Greek mythology. His name, whose etymology is obscure, was later used to allude to persons showing stern and inflexible judgement. Family Rhadamanthus was, according to Bulfinch's ''The Age of Fable'', the son of Zeus and Europa (mythology), Europa and brother to Sarpedon (brother of Minos), Sarpedon and Minos (also a king and later a judge of the dead). Together with his brother, Rhadamanthus was raised by Asterion (king of Crete), Asterion, their stepfather. He had two sons, Gortys (mythology), Gortys (associated with Gortyn, Crete) and Erythrus (founder of Erythrae). A different tradition represents Rhadamanthys as the son of Hephaestus, Hephaestus as a son of Talos, and Talos as a son of Cres (mytho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece () was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity (), that comprised a loose collection of culturally and linguistically related city-states and communities. Prior to the Roman period, most of these regions were officially unified only once under the Kingdom of Macedon from 338 to 323 BC. In Western history, the era of classical antiquity was immediately followed by the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine period. Three centuries after the decline of Mycenaean Greece during the Bronze Age collapse, Greek urban poleis began to form in the 8th century BC, ushering in the Archaic period and the colonization of the Mediterranean Basin. This was followed by the age of Classical Greece, from the Greco-Persian Wars to the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC, and which included the Golden Age of Athens and the Peloponnesian War. The u ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laws (dialogue)
The ''Laws'' () is Plato's last and longest dialogue. The conversation depicted in the work's twelve books begins with the question of who is given the credit for establishing a civilization's laws. Its musings on the ethics of government and law have frequently been compared to Plato's more widely read ''Republic''. Some scholars see this as the work of Plato as an older man having failed in his effort to guide the rule of the tyrant Dionysius II of Syracuse. These events are alluded to in the '' Seventh Letter''. The text is noteworthy as the only Platonic dialogue not to feature Socrates. Setting Characters Unlike most of Plato's dialogues, Socrates does not appear in the ''Laws''. The conversation is instead led by an Athenian Stranger * An Athenian "Stranger" () * Cleinias of Knossos * Megillus of Sparta Summary The Athenian Stranger joins the other two on their religious pilgrimage from Knossos, on Crete to the cave of Zeus on Mount Ida. The entire dialogue takes p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aegina
Aegina (; ; ) is one of the Saronic Islands of Greece in the Saronic Gulf, from Athens. Tradition derives the name from Aegina (mythology), Aegina, the mother of the mythological hero Aeacus, who was born on the island and became its king. Administration Municipality The municipality of Aegina consists of the island of Aegina and a few offshore islets. It is part of the Islands (regional unit), Islands regional unit, Attica (region), Attica region. The municipality is subdivided into the following five communities (population in 2021 in parentheses): * Aegina (6,976) * Kypseli (2,166) * Mesagros (1,473) * Perdika (847) * Vathy (1,449) The regional capital is the town of Aegina, situated at the northwestern end of the island. Due to its proximity to Athens, it is a popular vacation place during the summer months, with quite a few Athenians owning second houses on the island. The buildings of the island are examples of Neoclassical architecture with a strong folk element, bu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barley
Barley (), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains; it was domesticated in the Fertile Crescent around 9000 BC, giving it nonshattering spikelets and making it much easier to harvest. Its use then spread throughout Eurasia by 2000 BC. Barley prefers relatively low temperatures and well-drained soil to grow. It is relatively tolerant of drought and soil salinity, but is less winter-hardy than wheat or rye. In 2023, barley was fourth among grains in quantity produced, 146 million tonnes, behind maize, rice, and wheat. Globally, 70% of barley production is used as animal feed, while 30% is used as a source of fermentable material for beer, or further distilled into whisky, and as a component of various foods. It is used in soups and stews and in barley bread of various cultures. Barley grains are commonly made into malt using a traditional and ancient method of preparatio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Athenaeus
Athenaeus of Naucratis (, or Nαυκράτιος, ''Athēnaios Naukratitēs'' or ''Naukratios''; ) was an ancient Greek rhetorician and Grammarian (Greco-Roman), grammarian, flourishing about the end of the 2nd and beginning of the 3rd century AD. The ''Suda'' says only that he lived in the times of Marcus Aurelius, but the contempt with which he speaks of Commodus, who died in 192, implies that he survived that emperor. He was a contemporary of Adrantus. Athenaeus himself states that he was the author of a treatise on the ''thratta'', a type of fish mentioned by Archippus (poet), Archippus and other comic poets, and of a history of the Syrian kings. Both works are lost. Of his works, only the fifteen-volume ''Deipnosophistae'' mostly survives. The ''Deipnosophistae'' The ''Deipnosophistae'', which means 'dinner-table philosophers', survives in fifteen books. The first two books, and parts of the third, eleventh and fifteenth, are extant only in epitome, but otherwise the w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polemarch
A polemarch (, from , ''polémarchos'') was a senior military title in various ancient Greek city states ('' poleis''). The title is derived from the words '' polemos'' ('war') and ''archon'' ('ruler, leader') and translates as 'warleader' or 'warlord'. The name indicates that the polemarch's original function was to command the army; presumably the office was created to take over this function from the king. The title held a high position in Athenian society, alongside the ''archon eponymos'' and the ''archon basileus''. In Athens the polemarch was the commander-in-chief of the armed forces of the city-state. Ancient Greece Athens In Athens, the ''polemarchos'' was one of nine annually appointed ''archontes'' () and functioned as the commander of the military, though to what extent is debated among historians. At the Battle of Marathon Herodotus described the vote of the ''polemarchos'', Callimachus, as the deciding factor during debate over engagement in battle; it is dispute ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alcman
Alcman (; ''Alkmán''; fl. 7th century BC) was an Ancient Greek choral lyric poet from Sparta. He is the earliest representative of the Alexandrian canon of the Nine Lyric Poets. He wrote six books of choral poetry, most of which is now lost; his poetry survives in quotation from other ancient authors and on fragmentary papyri discovered in Egypt. His poetry was composed in the local Doric dialect with Homeric influences. Based on his surviving fragments, his poetry was mostly hymns, and seems to have been composed in long stanzas made up of lines in several different meters. Biography Alcman's dates are uncertain, but he was probably active in the late seventh century BC. The name of his mother is not known; his father may have been called either Damas or Titarus. Alcman's nationality was disputed even in antiquity. The records of the ancient authors were often deduced from biographic readings of their poetry, and the details are often untrustworthy. Antipater of Thessalon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pederasty In Ancient Greece
Pederasty in ancient Greece was a socially acknowledged relationship between an older male (the ''erastes'') and a younger male (the '' eromenos'') usually in his teens. It was characteristic of the Archaic and Classical periods. Some scholars locate its origin in initiation ritual, particularly rites of passage on Crete, where it was associated with entrance into military life and the religion of Zeus. It has no formal existence in the Homeric epics, and may have developed in the late 7th century BC as an aspect of Greek homosocial culture, which was characterized also by athletic and artistic nudity, delayed marriage for aristocrats, symposia, and the social seclusion of women. Pederasty was both idealized and criticized in ancient literature and philosophy. The argument has recently been made that idealization was universal in the Archaic period; criticism began in Athens as part of the general Classical Athenian reassessment of Archaic culture. Scholars have de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
