Visit Plato's Academy

 

A visit to the site of Plato's Academy (NY Times)

Guide to finding the Academy in Athens

Pergamon at the Met

The above is a fragment containing what might be the oldest bits of Homer that we have. The words are from the Odyssey, and was featured at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Pergamon exhibit. Below is a bust believed to represent Homer.

Click on Herakles for few more images from that exhibit:

Outsized gestures: Aeschylus in Syracuse

Given our recent preoccupation with Greek plays, and given the recent turns of fortune for Greece and those fleeing from even more dire conditions, this account of Aeschylus' The Suppliants performed in an ancient amphitheater in Sicily speaks to the incomparable relevance of the classical form.

Greek drama, with its open-air setting, calls for loud voices and outsized gestures; poetry transforms the shouting into oratory and dance lends the gestures a stylized grace. Syracuse is a magical place to do this. The theater rises next to a quarry with a curving cave that Caravaggio, who visited in 1608, compared to an ear because of its uncanny reverberation.

Olympian I - some context

Great city of Syracuse, Sacred precinct of Ares, plunged deep in war, 

Divine nurse of men and horses who rejoice in steel, 

For you I come from splendid Thebes bringing this song (Pythian 2) 

For those seeking a bit of context for Pindar's 1st Olympian, which is termed an Epinikion, or victory ode, a few links:

Hieron I

Hieron I (Greek: Ἱέρων Α΄) was the son of Deinomenes, the brother of Gelon and tyrant of Syracuse in Sicily from 478 to 467 BC. In succeeding Gelon, he conspired against a third brother Polyzelos. During his reign, he greatly increased the power of Syracuse.

During his reign, he greatly increased the power of Syracuse. He removed the inhabitants of Naxos and Catana to Leontini, peopled Catana (which he renamed Aetna) with Dorians, concluded an alliance with Acragas (Agrigentum) . . .

His most important military achievement was the defeat of the Etruscans and Carthaginians at the Battle of Cumae (474 BC), by which he saved the Greeks of Campania from Etruscan domination. A bronze helmet (now in the British Museum), with an inscription commemorating the event, was dedicated at Olympia. 

Hieron's reign was marked by the creation of the first secret police in Greek history, but he was a liberal patron of literature and culture. The poets Simonides, Pindar, Bacchylides, Aeschylus, and Epicharmus were active at his court, as well the philosopher Xenophanes. He was an active participant in panhellenic athletic contests, winning several victories in the single horse race and also in the chariot race. He won the chariot race at Delphi in 470 (a victory celebrated in Pindar's first Pythian ode) and at Olympia in 468 (this, his greatest victory, was commemorated in Bacchylides' third victory ode). Other odes dedicated to him include Pindar's first Olympian Ode, his second and third Pythian odes, and Bacchylides' fourth and fifth victory odes.

Pindar's First Pythian

χρυσέα φόρμιγξ, Ἀπόλλωνος καὶ ἰοπλοκάμων 

σύνδικον Μοισᾶν κτέανον: τᾶς ἀκούει μὲν βάσις, ἀγλαΐας ἀρχά, 

πείθονται δ᾽ ἀοιδοὶ σάμασιν, 

ἁγησιχόρων ὁπόταν προοιμίων ἀμβολὰς τεύχῃς ἐλελιζομένα. 

Golden lyre, rightful joint possession of Apollo and the violet-haired Muses, to which the dance-step listens, the beginning of splendid festivity; and singers obey your notes, whenever, with your quivering strings, you prepare to strike up chorus-leading preludes. [5] You quench even the warlike thunderbolt of everlasting fire. And the eagle sleeps on the scepter of Zeus, relaxing his swift wings on either side, the king of birds; and you pour down a dark mist over his curved head, a sweet seal on his eyelids. Slumbering, he ripples his liquid back, [10] under the spell of your pulsing notes.

Even powerful Ares, setting aside the rough spear-point, warms his heart in repose; your shafts charm the minds even of the gods, by virtue of the skill of Leto's son and the deep-bosomed Muses. But those whom Zeus does not love are stunned with terror when they hear the cry of the Pierian Muses, on earth or on the irresistible sea; more...

Tyrant  

In ancient Greece, tyrants were influential opportunists that came to power by securing the support of different factions of a deme. The word "tyrannos", possibly pre-Greek, Pelasgian or eastern in origin,[5] then carried no ethical censure; it simply referred to anyone, good or bad, who obtained executive power in a polis by unconventional means. Support for the tyrants came from the growing middle class and from the peasants who had no land or were in debt to the wealthy landowners. It is true that they had no legal right to rule, but the people preferred them over kings or the aristocracy. The Greek tyrants stayed in power by using mercenary soldiers from outside of their respective city-state. To mock tyranny, Thales wrote that the strangest thing to see is "an aged tyrant" meaning that tyrants do not have the public support to survive for long. More.

Gelo (Hieron's brother)

Gelo’s first major contribution to Greek, and more specifically Sicilian, history was the foundation of Syracuse as his capital, which he turned into “the greatest Greek city in the west.” The location of the city itself made it a prime spot for such a role. The city was located on an island, connected to the mainland by a peninsula constructed in the 6th century BC. The city faced east towards the Greek mainland and had its own harbour. 

Gelo constructed a wall that ran from the fort of Achradina on the mainland to the sea, making Syracuse virtually impregnable. Also, by bringing in the wealthy citizens from conquered cities, a tactic never before used in Sicily, he greatly increased the prosperity of the city. He constructed a theatre which improved the city’s culture, and following the victory at Himera, he built an ornate temple dedicated to the goddess Athena. 

The other great contribution of Gelo was the victory at Himera over the Carthaginians. More.

Chariot driving details

Some interesting points about charioteering, and about the sport that became the panacea of the masses, panem et circenses, according to Juvenal, in this article noted on rogueclassicism:

Roman drivers steered their chariots using their body weight. They would tie the reins around their torso and lean to whichever side they desired to turn. This was done in order to free up their hands in order to use a whip or whatnot. 

Another good piece about the sport here.

More about chariots here.

A curse tablet in Jerusalem

Speaking of curses and charmed language: 1,700 years ago, a tablet in Jerusalem called upon a motley assortment of gods to curse Iennyes:

A lead curse tablet, dating back around 1,700 years and likely written by a magician, has been discovered in a collapsed Roman mansion in Jerusalem, archaeologists report. 

The mansion, which is being excavated by the Israel Antiquities Authority in the Givati Parking Lot, is located in what is known as the "City of David," an area that holds at least 6,000 years of human occupation. The mansion itself covers at least 2,000 square meters (about half an acre) and contains two large open courtyards adjacent to each other. It was in use between the late third century and A.D. 363, when it was destroyed in a series of earthquakes on May 18 or 19. 

The text is written in Greek and, in it a woman named Kyrilla invokes the names of six gods to cast a curse on a man named Iennys, apparently over a legal case. [See Photos of the Ancient Curse Tablet]

"I strike and strike down and nail down the tongue, the eyes, the wrath, the ire, the anger, the procrastination, the opposition of Iennys," part of the curse reads in translation. Kyrilla asks the gods to ensure that "he in no way oppose, so that he say or perform nothing adverse to Kyrilla … but rather that Iennys, whom the womb bore, be subject to her…" 

To obtain her goal Kyrilla combined elements from four religions, Robert Walter Daniel, of the Institut für Altertumskunde at the University of Cologne, told LiveScience in an email. Of six gods invoked, four of them are Greek (Hermes, Persephone, Pluto and Hecate), one is Babylonian (Ereschigal) and one, Abrasax, is Gnostic, a religion connected to early Christianity. Additionally, the text contains magic words such as "Iaoth" that have a Hebrew/Judaism origin.

Figures from the National Archive of Monuments

Bull Leaper, Knossos, 1600-1450 BC

The (Hellenic) National Archive of Monuments has digitized selected pieces from its priceless collections and is putting them online. Links to six collections are found below.

From the Prehistoric Collection:

Frying Pan with Image of Boat 2800-2300 BC

From the Sculptures Collection:

Aphrodite, Eros and Pan, 100 BC

National Archaeological Museum - Vase Collection

National Archaeological Museum - Sculptures Collection

National Archaeological Museum - Prehistoric Collection

Pins from Thessaloniki

National Archaeological Museum - Metallurgy Collection

Archaelogical Museum of Thessaloniki

Archaeological Museum of Herakleion

Troezen, Argos and the Peloponnese

A useful map for understanding the geography of the ancient Peloponnese:

In Argolis, Troezen was founded by Pittheus, a son of Pelops. In the Hippolytus Troezen is called the forecourt of Argos. Two fateful events in the life of Theseus took place there:

According to Greek mythology, Troezen came into being as a result of two ancient cities, Hyperea and Anthea, being unified by Pittheus, who named the new city in honor of his deceased brother Troezen.[3] 

Troezen was the place where Aethra, daughter of Pittheus, slept with both Aegeus and Poseidon the same night, and fell pregnant with the great Greek hero Theseus. Before returning to Athens, Aegeus left his sandals and sword under a large boulder in Troezen, and requested that when the child was able to prove himself by moving the boulder he must return the items to his father in Athens; Theseus did indeed lift the boulder when he came of age.[4] 

Troezen is also the setting of the Euripides tragedy Hippolytus, which recounts the story of the eponymous son of Theseus who becomes the subject of the love of his stepmother,Phaedra. While fleeing the city, Hippolytus is killed when his chariot is attacked by a bull rising from the sea. Other plays on the same subject have been written by Seneca and Jean Racine, also set in Troezen 

The ancient city also possessed a spring, supposedly formed where the winged horse Pegasus once came to ground.