Thebes bell in the shape of a person, 700 BC (Louvre Museum, Paris) In Greek mythology, Thebes was where Oedipus lived with his mother-wife Jocasta. It was where Oedipus' daughter Antigone died, and where Dionysos drove Pentheus mad. In Thebes, Niobe boasted about her children, and Medea killed her children. The Athenians (who we get [...]
The end of Sparta: a Spartan hoplite soldier Peloponnesian War In 441 BC, the Spartans decided that the Athenians were pushing everybody around too much, and they got an alliance of other city-states together (mainly Corinth) and attacked Athens to break up Athenian power. This is known as the Peloponnesian War, because Sparta [...]
A Spartan war helmet Even after Spartans grew up and got married, Spartan men ate all their meals with the other soldiers, instead of with their families. Meanwhile, Messenian (helot) families did stay together, but they all had to work very hard on the farms, and were treated badly by their Spartan masters. [...]
The ruins of Sparta and the valley around it Sparta in the Bronze Age Sparta was a town in southern Greece. It was already a town in the Late Bronze Age. So it appears in Homer's Odyssey as the kingdom of Menelaus and Helen. More about Menelaus The Late Bronze Age All about [...]
