Chaos and Compromise: Early Athens and the Reforms of Solon
At the start of the 6th century BCE, Athens had only recently escaped a tyranny. Draco's published law code made the law accessible to more people but did nothing to alleviate the crushing debt that a...
1 Mars 45min
Nothing Queer About It: Same-Sex Relationships in Ancient Greece
Modern labels like “straight” and “gay” don’t map neatly onto ancient Greek culture. While same-sex relationships were considered normal and even expected, there were still taboos and rules of proper ...
15 Feb 42min
This... Is... Sparta!!!
Imagine a state where no citizen works for a living; where children are kept hungry to encourage them to steal; where the most powerful military force in the known world is reluctant to fight far from...
1 Feb 59min
Poetry Slam: Early Greek Politics in Verse
No one was writing history in Greece during the 7th and 6th centuries BCE. But that doesn't mean we have no voices speaking to us from that time. Fragments of works by early Greek poets can provide re...
15 Jan 32min
Not Such an Ugly Word: Tyranny in Archaic Greece
In modern English, a “tyrant” is someone who rules oppressively. To the ancient Greeks, the word tyrannoscould just refer to a king, but more specifically it meant an autocrat who had come to power by...
1 Jan 48min
Light Infantry, Cavalry and Mercenaries: What Were They, Chopped Liver?
The hoplite infantry was the backbone of a Greek city-state's land army. But hoplites weren't the only ones who served. Those who couldn't afford hoplite armor served as light infantry, hurling javeli...
15 Dec 202523min
Tales of the City-State: The Rise and Flourishing of the Greek Polis
The polis was the defining sociopolitical system of ancient Greece. It was the environment where Greek drama, architecture, philosophy, and other cultural developments reached their peak. In this epis...
1 Dec 20251h 1min
Delphi: The Magic Eight Ball of Greece
In Greek myth, Delphi was the literal center of the world. In real-world religious practice, it lived up to its reputation. People came from all over the Greek world — and even outside it — to seek Ap...
15 Nov 202539min
