Quatr.us experts wrote all of these simple, free articles.
Ancient Greece history
Looking for a quick summary of Greek history? Start with the Stone Age and work your way to the Bronze Age, the Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic. Or did you want more daily life stuff? Check out our simple articles on Greek food, Greek clothing, women and slavery in ancient Greece, Greek schools, and Greek doctors. You’ll find introductions to Greek philosophy and Greek religion.
Basic Ancient Greece facts
Do you need something more specific? We have articles on Cleisthenes and Athenian democracy, the Ionian Revolt, Salamis, Thucydides and the Melian dialogue, Xenia, Herodotus, the Olympic Games, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, and of course Alexander the Great.
More articles on ancient Greece
There are also pro-level articles – but they’re still easy to read and understand! Read about ancient Greek swings and see-saws, swimming, the invention of the astrolabe, and Greek sailing technology.
Greek History
- Stone Age Greece: The Paleolithic to the beginning of farming
- Early Bronze Age: Lerna and the House of the Tiles
- Middle Bronze Age: the Indo-European invasions
- Minoan Crete: the palace at Knossos
- Late Bronze Age: The Mycenaeans and the Trojan War
- Greek Dark Ages: Collapse and flight
- Archaic Greece: Colonization, oligarchy, hoplites
- Hippias, tyrant of Athens
- Classical Greece: the height of Athenian power
- Persian Wars between Greece and the Persian Empire
- Ionian Revolt: the beginning of the Persian Wars
- Marathon: the Persians invade Greece
- Pheidippides runs to Sparta for help
- Second Persian War: Xerxes invades Greece again!
- Defeat at Thermopylae: the Spartans die fighting
- Victory at Salamis: finally, the Greeks win a battle
- Battle of Plataea: and then they win the war
- Peloponnesian War: But soon the Greeks are fighting each other
- Hellenistic Greece: The end of democracy in Greece
- Alexander the Great conquers the Persian Empire
- Victorious Army Problem: what can he do with his big army?
- St. Paul and Roman Greece: Christianity comes to Greece
- Byzantine Greece: Constantinople and the Normans
Daily Life in Greece
- Greek Clothing: tunics, pallas, diapers and cloaks
- Greek Food, from apples to nuts, soup and bread and fish
- Olive Oil: the main cooking oil of ancient Greece
- Wine in ancient Greece
- Greek Schools: reading, poetry, music, and arithmetic
- Ancient Greek Houses: the courtyard house
- Slavery in Greece: What was it like to be enslaved in ancient Greece?
- Games and Toys: juggling, field hockey, and knucklebones
- Swings and Seesaws in ancient Greece
- Greek Olympic Games: who could participate? what were the events?
- Greek Friendship
- Xenia (Hospitality): hosts and guests in ancient Greece
- Barbarians – the Scythians, the Persians, and more
- Greek Families
- Women in ancient Greece
- The Environment in Ancient Greece
- Greek Weather: hot in the summer, but sometimes snowy in winter!
Greek Literature
- The Greek Alphabet and its origins in Phoenicia
- Homer, who wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey
- Iliad – the story of Achilles and the Trojan War
- Odyssey: how Odysseus got home from the Trojan War
- Aeschylus: the earliest of the great Greek play-writers
- Archilochus: a poet from Archaic Greece
- Aristophanes: the great comedies
- Damon and Pythias: the story of two best friends
- Demosthenes: a politician and lawyer in ancient Greece
- Euripides, who wrote many great tragic plays
- Hero and Leander: the story of lovers who died tragically
- Herodotus: the world’s first historian
- Hesiod and his poems from Archaic Greece
- Menander: a Hellenistic play-writer
- Sappho: a woman poet from Archaic Greece
- Sophocles, who wrote the Oedipus plays
- Thucydides and the Melian Dialogue
- Xenophon, the philosopher and general who marched to Iran
Greek Plays
- Agamemnon: a play about treachery and murder
- Antigone: is it always right to obey the law?
- Bacchae: what happens when you’re too uptight to dance?
- Eumenides: if you’ve killed your mom to avenge your dad, what then?
- Libation Bearers: What if your mom killed your dad?
- Oedipus the King: What if *you* killed your dad?
- The Riddle of the Sphinx: can you answer it?
- Oedipus at Colonus: When should we show mercy? When should we forgive?
- Medea: a play about foreigners, refugees, and child custody
- Phaedra: a tragedy about sexual assault and false accusations
- Trojan Women: What happened to the women, after the Trojan War?
Greek Philosophy
- Hubris: pride goes before a fall
- Agon: a fight? a contest? a contrast?
- Nomos and Physis: order, or nature?
- Arete: being the best you can be
- Socrates: the first great Greek philosopher
- Plato: Socrates’ student, also a philosopher
- Aristotle: a great scientist and philosopher
- Skeptics: who can know what is even real?
- Epicureans: how to have a happy life
- Stoics: how to reach inner peacefulness
Greek Sculpture
- Stone Age: painted Cycladic figurines
- Bronze Age: Minoan and Mycenaean sculpture
- Dark Ages: little figurines again
- Archaic Sculpture: life size stone statues! Kouroi and korai
- Severe Style Greek Sculpture: the ideal young man
- Women in Severe Style sculpture: with their clothes on
- Classical Sculpture: movement and grace
- Hellenistic Sculpture: realism – drunk people, babies, death
Greek Art
- Greek Painting
- Minoan and Mycenaean Painting
- Classical Greek Painting
- Music in ancient Greece
- Musicians in ancient Greece
Maps of Greece
Greek Religion
- The Greek gods
- Greek Mythology
- Aphrodite
- Apollo
- Ares
- Artemis
- Athena
- Demeter
- Dionysos
- Furies
- Rhea and Ouranos
- Gaia and Cronos
- Hades
- Hephaistos
- Hera
- Hermes
- Hestia
- Muses
- Persephone
- Poseidon
- Prometheus
- Zeus
- Sacrifice
- Delphi
- Oracles
- Mystery Cults
- Eleusis
- Underworld
Greek Architecture
- Stone Age
- Bronze Age
- Mycenae
- Archaic
- Classical
- Pediments
- Architraves
- Metopes
- Fluted columns
- Doric
- Ionic
- Corinthian
- Rhythm and Greek temples
- Parthenon
- Houses in ancient Greece
- Peristyles
- Hellenistic
- Theaters
- Mosaic Floors
Greek Pottery
- Stone Age Pottery
- Early Bronze Age
- Minoan and Mycenaean
- Greek pottery in the Dark Age
- Geometric
- Black Figure
- Exekias
- Red Figure
- Berlin Painter
Ancient Greece Projects
- Oil Lamp
- Vase-Painting
- Olympics
- Play Reading
- Make a Greek Shield
- Discus
- Greek coins
- Gold bowl
- Lyre
- Clay Seals
- Spinning
- Listening to foreign languages
- Greek Gods Bingo
- Tyrant game
- Persephone project
- Achilles debate project
- Proving the Pythagorean Theorem
Greek Science
- Greek Numbers
- Pythagoras
- Pythagorean Theorem
- Greek Mathematics
- Anaxagoras
- Euclid
- Archimedes
- Eratosthenes
- Thales
- Anaximander
- Aristarchus
- Greek Astronomy
- The Earth
- The Moon
- The Sun
- Hipparchus
- Invention of the astrolabe
- What is parallax?
- Greek Medicine
State and Economy
- Athens
- Athenian Trials
- Corinth
- Sparta
- Economy of ancient Greece
- Greek Coins
- Silver and silver mining
- Water and sewage in ancient Greece
- Archaic Economy
- Oligarchy
- City-State
- Hoplites
- Tyranny
- Cancellation of Debts
- Classical Economy
- Democracy
- Hellenistic Economy
- Greek Warfare
- Warships in ancient Greece
- Greek Boats and Ships
- Cargo Ships in ancient Greece
Olympic Games
Greek Mythology
- Achilles
- Actaeon
- Ajax
- Amazons
- Antaeus
- Arachne
- Arion
- Atalanta
- Atreus
- Busiris
- Cassandra
- Daedalus and Icarus
- Europa
- Geryon
- Helen of Troy
- Herakles
- Augean Stables
- Garden of the Hesperides
- Nemean Lion
- Hydra
- Herakles and Cerberos
- Iphigeneia
- Jason and the Golden Fleece
- Jason, Medea, and Pelias
- Kleobis and Biton
- Medusa
- Menelaus
- Minotaur
- Niobe
- Pandora’s Box
- Judgment of Paris
- Pelops
- Penthesileia
- Perseus and Medusa
- Phaethon
- Tantalus
- Theseus and the Minotaur
- Trojan Horse
Looking for more? You’ll find some great Ancient Greece resources at Kidinfo!