Attica: Did you mean...?

Athens, Greece, with its famous Acropolis, has come to symbolize the whole of the country in the popular imagination, and not without cause. It not only has its iconic ruins and the famous port of Piraeus but, thanks to ancient writers, its...

Helen of Troy (sometimes called Helen of Sparta) is a figure from Greek mythology whose elopement with (or abduction by) the Trojan prince Paris sparked off the Trojan War. Helen was the wife of Menelaus, the king of Sparta, and considered...

Theseus is a legendary hero from Greek mythology who was considered an early king of Athens. Famously killing villains, Amazons, and centaurs, Theseus' most celebrated adventure was his slaying of the fearsome Minotaur in the labyrinth of...

The Thirty Tyrants (οἱ τριάκοντα τύραννοι) is a term first used by Polycrates in a speech praising Thrasybulus (Arist. Rhet. 1401a) to describe the brief 8-month oligarchy which governed Athens after the Peloponnesian War – roughly late-summer...

Ino is a princess of Thebes and the wife of King Athamas of Boeotia in Greek mythology. She helped to raise Dionysos, the god of wine, but the most famous myth associated with her is her descent into madness and the tragic fate of her family...

The Pentecontaetia (Pentekontætia, πεντηκονταετία) or “the account of the fifty years” is a term first used by Thucydides to describe, in Book 1, Sections 89 to 117 (1.89-117) of his History of the Peloponnesian War, the period between the...

A Greek ceramic plate used for serving fish and seafood. A central depression collected any excess oil. The shape was popular in both Attica and Magna Graecia. Attic dishes almost always have the fish painted with their underside towards...

The Temple of Athena Nike, on the southwest bastion of the Acropolis, is smaller than the other buildings behind it but no less impressive. It was completed in 420 BCE during the restoration of Athens after the Persian invasion of 480 BCE...

Pausanius (l. 110-180 CE) was a geographer and historian who traveled extensively, taking notes on points of interest, then wrote on them in guide books which could be used by tourists visiting the sites described. His works have long been...

Training in oratory was a crucial part of Roman education; it was associated with a young boy's transition into adult life. As Athens was considered the intellectual centre of the eastern Mediterranean, many students undertook long journeys...