The Parthenon and the Colosseum. Public Domain “Greece, conquered Greece, her conqueror subdued, And Rome grew polished, who till then was rude.” Horace, the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus. In 146 BC, Greece yielded to the military might of the Roman Republic; sixty years later, when Athens and other Greek city-states rebelled against Rome, the Roman general Lucius Cornelius Sulla destroyed the city of Socrates and Plato, laying waste to the famous Academy where Aristotle had studied. However, the traditions of Greek cultural life continued to flourish during the centurie ..read more

The Mosque in Thessaloniki was turned into a museum. Credit: Ggia, CC BY-SA 3.0 Hundreds of faithful gathered on Wednesday for the Eid Muslim prayers at Thessaloniki’s Yeni Mosque which opened for the first time in more than 100 years in Greece. Crowds were seen arriving to pray early in the morning at the iconic Mosque led by the Egyptian Imam Taha Abd El-Galil, a Greek citizen and member of the religious committee of the Islamic mosque in Athens. The prayer, which concluded after half an hour, was conducted in Arabic, followed by a sermon in both Arabic and Greek. The decision by Gree ..read more

The Venus de Milo is an ancient Greek sculpture from the Hellenistic period. Credit: Bradley N. Weber/CC BY 2.0 On this day in 1820, a Greek farmer discovered the Aphrodite of Milo, better known as the Venus de Milo, one of the most representative statues of the Hellenistic period of Greek sculpture, and one of the most famous sculptures of ancient Greece. Created sometime between 130 BC and 100 AD, it is believed that it represents Aphrodite (called Venus in Roman mythology), the goddess of love and beauty. The statue was found half-buried, in two pieces, on April 8, 1820, when a Milos island ..read more

An inscribed gemstone with an ancient Greek love poem shows how the spoken language actually sounded, according to new research. Credit: Peter Komjathy/BHMAquincum Archaeological Museum and Park Reading like the lyrics to a popular song or poem from modern times, two ancient Greek inscriptions in the form of rhyming poetry have prompted new insights into the way the language was spoken in those times. Ultimately, it is not possible to determine exactly how any ancient language sounded when spoken. But one clue has always been the changing of spellings over time — especially in those writings a ..read more

Ptolemaic-Roman mummy portrait displayed at the Allard Museum in Amsterdam. Credit: Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities A new exhibition at the Allard Museum in Amsterdam displays Greek mummy portraits discovered in Fayoum, Egypt. These were found in a monumental funerary building dating back to the Ptolemaic and Roman periods. Having been uncovered in December 2022 at the Garza village archaeological site, it was the first time in 110 years that such a significant discovery was made in the region. The collection of post-Ptolemaic Egyptian funerary paintings is known as “the Fayum portraits ..read more

The Theater at Epidaurus. Credit: Hansueli Krapf/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 3.0 The 2024 Athens Epidaurus Festival opens on June 1, with 93 productions over 85 days and the participation of 2,500 performers and creators from around the world, including a diverse program with outstanding global performers and new creators. Events will include dance performances, concerts, performances, screenings, discussions, educational programs, publications, parties, free events, retrospectives, new collaborations, and special platforms for professionals in the performing arts. “Our performances this year a ..read more

Two Romeyka speakers in a traditional house on a summer meadow in Çaykara, Trabzon Province, Turkey. Credit: İhsan Deniz Kılıçoğlu / Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 3.0 Romeyka, an endangered dialect of Greek spoken in the region of Trabzon (Trapezounta) and Pontus in northern Turkey, may get a new lease of life. Ioanna Sitaridou, a professor of Spanish and historical linguistics at the University of Cambridge, who has been studying the dialect for years, has launched The Crowdsourcing Romeyka project inviting native speakers across the world to upload a recording of themselves talking in the langu ..read more

The British Museum is in talks with four unnamed governments about returning artifacts. Credit: Kashif Haque. CC BY 2.0/flickr The British Museum chiefs are in talks with four unnamed foreign governments regarding the return of certain artifacts in its collection – after George Osborne negotiated a deal to loan the Elgin Marbles back to Greece. The British Museum is holding private discussions with four foreign governments about the return of artifacts in its collection, though the museum will not reveal what artifacts have been discussed. This comes after reports of a ‘negotiated deal’ betwee ..read more

The majestic remnants of the Temple of Olympian Zeus, with a view of Athens’ iconic Acropolis in the distance. Credit: Jean-Pierre Dalbéra, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0 The novel by Greek cinematographer Thodoros Maragos titled “The Teacher of Arcadia and the TALOS 21st Century,” is a riveting and timely book that has the power to inspire and change your life, help you rethink the conventional story of modern Greece. By Evaggelos Vallianatos My artist friend Evi Sarantea from the island of Euboea introduced me to the Greek cinematographer Thodoros Maragos. I watched several of his documentarie ..read more

  Greek king of India Menander I Soter. Credits: CNG Coins / Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0 King Menander began as a Greek general of King Demetrius of the Euthydemid dynasty. He is considered as probably the most successful Greek king of India, and ruled a huge empire from Gandhara to the Hindu holy city of Mathura. But lets start at the beginning! Euthydemid Dynasty As per W. W. Tarn in his book ‘Greeks in Bactria and India’, to omit the Euthydemid dynasty from Hellenistic (Greek) history, as has usually been done, and to confine that history to the four dynasties which bordered on the Mediterr ..read more