In the history of ancient Greece, the Archaic period is usually dated to between ca. 800 and 500 BC. Often, the date is extended down to around 480 BC Some authors hold that the Archaic period proper starts with the first supposedly historic event, the Olympic Games of 776 BC. Others have the Archaic period start at around 700 BC.
“Heroic” nudity?
Naked men in ancient Greek art
Conventional wisdom regards nudity in Greek art as a “heroizing” element. But the reality is, of course, a bit more complex.
Aeneas before Virgil
Early Greek sources about the Trojan hero
The Trojan hero Aeneas, made famous by Virgil’s epic poem, has been the subject of ancient texts and art going as far back as Homer.
Enhancing the gods
Pheidias and the Siphnian Frieze
The sculptor Pheidias, responsible for the reliefs of the Parthenon in Athens, may have been inspired by the Siphnian Treasury in Delphi.
Cleobis and Biton
The story of the Argive youths Cleobis and Biton gives an idea of how different the ancient Greek world view was from our own.
The ancient Greek hoplite
Roel Konijnendijk, Joshua Hall, Matthew Lloyd, Owen Rees, and Josho Brouwers talk about the ancient Greek hoplite.
The Battle of the Champions
One of the most interesting battles mentioned by the Greek historian Herodotus is perhaps the “Battle of the Champions”, fought between the Spartans and the Argives.
Dionysius the Phocaean
An Archaic pirate
Even though the ancient Mediterranean was rife with piracy, relatively few pirates are known to us by name.
A warrior on a red-figure cup
The collection of the Allard Pierson Museum includes this beautiful red-figure cup with a picture of a warrior.
A Cypriot chariot in Amsterdam
The Allard Pierson Museum in Amsterdam features a reconstruction of a chariot found in a tomb on the island of Cyprus.
How Corinthian is the Corinthian helmet?
The best known type of Greek helmet is known as “Corinthian”. Is this because there is incontrovertible evidence that ancient Corinth was the place where this type of helmet was first invented?