Travel, Art & Architecture

Top 10 Interesting Facts About Ancient Greece

Ancient Greece had lots of city-states

Ancient Greece was divided into many city-states that you may have heard of. The most popular are Sparta, Athens, and Olympia. Each city had different laws, governments, and even its own army!

Marathons came from Ancient Greek times

You may have seen marathons where you live or on TV. In ancient Greece,  a man named Pheidippides is said to have walked 26 miles from Marathon to Athens. He wanted to announce the news of winning the marathon battle. This is the beginning of the race, why is it so long?

 

One-third of the Ancient Greeks were slaves

Different city-states had different types of slaves. In Sparta, state slaves were called “helots”. They had to grow crops and were forced to give some part of the crops to the state. They had to grow crops and were forced to donate part of their crops to the state. Athens gave slaves little favor and welcomed them into their family homes with ceremonies. They also worked as police officers, and handymen, and some even served in the navy. Slaves were not paid.

The juries were huge!

At trials, he installed large juries, sometimes as many as 500 jurors. Much more so than the jury we use today. Court decisions were often made by majority vote, which was not very fair because there were so many people involved.

They worshipped many Gods and Goddesses

The ancient Greeks worshiped many gods and goddesses for different purposes! They built temples and shrines where they could be worshiped. You may recognize some of them here! Aphrodite: Goddess of love and fertility. Apollo: god of the sun and music. Athena: Goddess of War. Hermes: messenger of the gods. Zeus: A kind of god.

Gods Who lived on Mount Olympus

Yes, on Olympus he was believed to be inhabited by twelve gods. Apparently, there was discussion and discussion there as well. However, some very important gods did not live there. Such as Hades, the god who lived in the underworld.

Greeks called themselves ‘Hellenes’

The Greeks never called themselves Greeks! The name actually comes from the Romans. They call themselves “Hellenes”. Because the country of Greece was called “Hellas” in the Greek language.

The Romans copied the Greeks!

Much of what the  Romans did actually came from the Greeks. You may have seen  Romans lying down while eating. They got it from the Greeks! The worship of the gods, their language, and even their architectural styles were very similar.

The yo-yo was invented by the Ancient Greeks!

Scientists claim that the Greeks invented the yo-yo. This was after discovering a  very similar device dating back to 500 BC. B.C. The yo-yo is believed to be her second oldest toy in the world.

They also invented the first alarm clock!

An engineer named Ctesibus created a system for dropping pebbles on gongs. Then it makes a loud noise. it’s very different from the music and beeps you hear now.

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