A sphinx is a mythical creature with the head of a human, a falcon, a cat, or a sheep and the body of a lion with the wings of an eagle.
Demetrias was a Greek city in Magnesia in ancient Thessaly, situated at the head of the Pagasaean Gulf, near the modern city of Volos.
A stele, or occasionally stela, when derived from Latin, is a stone or wooden slab, generally taller than it is wide, erected in the ancient world as a monument. The surface of the stele often has text, ornamentation, or both. These may be inscribed, carved in relief, or painted.
Soli, often rendered Soli/Pompeiopolis, was an ancient city and port in Cilicia, 11 km west of Mersin in present-day Turkey.
The Spartia temple is an ancient Greek cult site excavated at the foot of the hill of Spartia, north of the village of Sesklo, in the Magnesia regional unit. An inscribed dedication suggests the worship there of the Greek mythological figures Heracles and Alcmene.
In Ancient Greek Religion, Enodia is a distinctly Thessalian Ancient Greek goddess, identified in certain areas or by certain ancient writers with Artemis, Hecate or Persephone. She was paired with Zeus in cult and sometimes shared sanctuaries with him. Enodia was primarily worshipped in Ancient Thessaly and was well known in Hellenistic Macedonia.
The Thracian horseman is the name given to a recurring motif of a horseman depicted in reliefs of the Hellenistic and Roman periods in the Balkans. Inscriptions found in Romania identify the horseman as Heros, apparently the word heros used as a proper name.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to ancient Greece:
The Exaltation of the Flower is the modern title given to an early Classical Greek marble fragment of a funerary stele from the 5th century BC. It was discovered in 1863 by Léon Heuzey and Henri Daumet at a church in Farsala, Thessaly, Greece. Carved in bas-relief in the severe style, the extant upper fragment of the marble relief stele depicts two women holding what appear to be flowers or fungi and another object in their hands. The work is held by the Louvre museum in the Department of Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Antiquities.
The theme of death within ancient Greek art has continued from the Early Bronze Age all the way through to the Hellenistic period. The Greeks used architecture, pottery, and funerary objects as different mediums through which to portray death. These depictions include mythical deaths, deaths of historical figures, and commemorations of those who died in war. This page includes various examples of the different types of mediums in which death is presented in Greek art.
Athletics were an important part of the cultural life of Ancient Greeks. Depictions of boxing and bull-leaping can be found back to the Bronze Age. Buildings were created for the sole use of athletics including stadions, palaestra, and gymnasiums. Starting in the Archaic Period, Panhellenic Games, including the Olympic Games, begin taking place each year. These games gave people from all over Greece the chance to gain fame for their athletic prowess. Athletics in Greece became one of the most commonly depicted scenes of everyday life in their art.
The Apobates Base is a marble statue base featuring the scene of an Apobates competition or chariot race. The base, which is part of the collection at the Acropolis Museum in Athens, stands at 42 centimetres (17 in) in height and 86 centimetres (34 in) in width. A charioteer, armed athlete or warrior, and four horse-drawn chariot are depicted in profile relief. Named for the Greek “Apobatai” – literally the “Dismounters” – the base's relief depicts the racing event or Apobates race, which was a ceremonial part of the Panathenaic Games. In this event athletes would race against other athletes by dismounting and remounting moving chariots for prizes and renown.
This marble fragment of a funerary stele depicting a boxer is dated at circa 540 BC. The individual's depiction as a boxer is apparent in his broken nose, cauliflower ear, and the strapped wrist that he holds aloft - these straps were used by the Ancient Greeks to secure knuckle-guards for boxing competitions. It is considered one of the earliest examples of a highly individualized athlete depiction in Ancient Greek sculpture, and "nearer to a portrait than any other work surviving from Archaic Greece". It utilizes relief carving techniques to characterize a subject long before high degrees of individual characterization were apparent in freestanding sculpture.
The Arezzo 1465 vase is an Attic volute krater attributed to Euphronios, that dates to the Late Archaic period. It is a red-figure style vase, which became popular during the time of its making, and it was found in Arezzo, Italy in the Etruria region in 1465 due to the vast trade network stemming from Athens. The vase is currently housed in Arezzo, in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale.
The Grave Stele of Dexileos, is the stele of the tomb of an Athenian cavalryman named Dexileos who died in the Corinthian War against Sparta in 394 BC. The stele is attributed to “The Dexileos Sculptor”. Its creation can be dated to 394 BC, based on the inscription on its bottom, which provides the dates of birth and death of Dexileos. The stele is made out of an expensive variety of Pentelic marble and is 1.86 metres tall. It includes a high relief sculpture depicting a battle scene with an inscription below it. The stele was discovered in 1863 AD in the family plot of Dexileos at the Dipylon cemetery in Kerameikos, Athens. It was found in situ, but was moved during World War II and is now on display in the Kerameikos Museum in Athens.
The Kerameikos steles are a collection of sculptures used as grave-markers in the Kerameikos necropolis of Attica. Kerameikos is located outside the Themistoclean Wall's Dipylon Gate. Stelai come in various shapes/designs and depict images varying from pottery to narrative scenes. They were often marble or limestone, and were carved or sculpted to depict the person being memorialized sometimes with relatives or slaves. Reliefs decorating the graves were meant to show the dead in their best light, using imagery to recognize their bravery in battle, or pathos, or wealth. These monuments marked the graves of Athenian men, fallen warriors, as well as non-citizens. Women were also included in Kerameikos but typically it was the wealthiest or prominent women who were given stele. In many vase paintings of grave scenes wreaths are seen resting at the base of stele. This was likely a popular way to adorn the graves of Greek loved ones.
The hoplites were soldiers from Ancient Greece who were usually free citizens. They had a very uniform and distinct appearance; specifically they were armed with a spear (dory) in their right hand and a heavy round shield in their left.
Mycenae is a city in the Argolid, in the Peloponnese peninsula of Greece. It was first excavated by Heinrich and Sophia Schliemann in the 1870s and is believed to have flourished in the Mid- to Late Bronze Age. The fortifications of Mycenae were built with the use of Cyclopean masonry. With the citadel built on a cliff, the architects created protection not only for the upper class that lived within the walls, but the lower-class farmers in the surrounding areas, who could find refuge there in times of war. Due to high competition in the Mid to Late Bronze Age, the citadel wall expanded significantly with the inclusion of Grave Circle A and the addition of the Lion Gate.
Dr Maria Stamatopoulou is a Greek Classical archaeologist specialising in Central Greece, and Thessaly in particular. She is Associate Professor of Classical Archaeology at the University of Oxford, and a Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford.
The Battle of Mount Labus was a battle fought in 209 BCE between the Seleucid Empire under Antiochus the Third and the Parthians of Arsaces the Second. The battle ended in a Seleucid victory and the Parthians becoming Seleucid vassals
