Miletus

To assess the validility and value of Herodotus' Historys there are multiple factors one must consider. Why did he write his works?; who did he write them for and how did he gather his information? Though these questions are still the subject of debate among many scholars, it is fairly well accepted that more than two centuries passed before the past had been bound to any kind of chronology that was to be compiled in the writings of Herodotus(Finley 1986, 17). For his sources Herodotus gathered…

The ancient Greek polis of Athens was a economic, military, and cultural superpower during the Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic periods. With a domain that controlled the cities of Naxos, Carystus in Euboea, and Miletus in Ionia at it’s peak. Their rival, Sparta, a military juggernaut supposedly built on strict military conduct and no comforts. The aim of this essay is to determine just how different and how similar these two poleis are, and to establish how atypical Athens is when compared…

They did not have the visions of Heaven and Hell as we do now. Specifically, the idea that living a good life will lead one to a pleasant afterlife and that living a bad or immoral life will lead one to an unpleasant afterlife. The ancient Greeks saw life after death as something only attainable through glory in their present lives. As Achilles said in the Iliad (1997 trans.), “If I hold out here and I lay siege to Troy, my journey home is gone, but my glory never dies. If I voyage back to the…