The banner of Lesbos, home of the famous poet Sappho, was inspired by one of the most interesting monetary types in antiquity.
Unlike others cities, Lesbos changed monetary types from one issuance to another. This provided great variety - notably this unusual depiction of two female heads overlapping.
Lesbos's cities were members of the Delian league from the start. They provided ships to the alliance, but then revolted in 428 BCE and the victorious Athenians sent clerouchs (settlers) to occupy the island.
Field camps were built at the end of a day's march to provide protection in case of a surprise enemy attack.
They were widely-used when attacking cities during sieges. The camps are where soldiers would eat, sleep, and store their weapons, food rations and spoils - often for months at a time. It's also where a soldier would take refuge when and if things went badly in battle.
Building a good fortified camp or fortifying a village or small city in the enemy's territory may have meant the difference between victory and defeat.
As sieges would stretch on, a good fortified camp meant that an army could safely remain in unfriendly lands and exert pressure on the enemy. This could be done by burning or taking their crops, by preventing resupply, or simply by exerting their demoralizing presence.
Establishing a fortified position in enemy lands in order to constantly raid it was a common tactic in the Peloponnesian War. Athens employed it at Pylos from 425 to 409 BCE, and so did the Spartans with a more devastating effect over a weakened Athens when they fortified Dekeleia from 413 to 404 BCE.
Soldiers on the move mostly slept under the sky on beds of reeds, for in most cases tent materials were too great a burden.
They ate two meals a day - one at mid-day [except when battle was expected), and then dinner. They usually cooked these meatls themselves. In most cases, the meal consisted of maza, a sort of barley porridge. The Spartans did things differently; they had dedicated cooks in their armies.
When the soldiers need to relieve themselves, they simply went wherever they could outside of camp, as there was no special location for this act.
There was little in the way of entertainment in military camps. The Spartans, however, did have some techniques for avoiding boredom. After their regular practice and exercise, they had a sort of contest of singing songs by the poet Tyrtaios, and the winner received a prize in meat.
Even in a war camp, the gods had to be honored. Whenever possible, sacrifices were made and seers were consulted, often about the tides of battle.
(Behind the scenes)
Lesbos is an island situated in the north-east of the Aegean
Sea. Lesbos rebelled against the Athenians, leading to its
eventual surrender to Athens. Lesbos is notable in real life for
its 18-million-year-old petrified forest, a UNESCO World
Heritage Site, home to fossilized remains of a once vast
swathe of vegetation and forest. The art team used their
artistic license to grow the trees into dense forests of tangled
roots and branches, a maze for our hero to navigate. The
atmosphere of the forest is oppressive, with temple ruins
appearing from the murky background, and a sense of dread
lingering behind every corner.
Finished concepts by Hugo Puzzuoli show the red and yellow
accents in the rock of the petrified trees, caused by intense
volcanic activity millions of years ago.
The Medusa has been portrayed in many different ways over
the years, from a beautiful young woman, to a monstrous
creature with a serpent's body and tail. The art team decided
to move away from these depictions, concentrating on the
details of her appearance. The snakes are based on actual
Greek species found on the islands and mainland Greece. Her
dress is made from targe swathes of snake skin, suggesting
even bigger serpents once existed. “Medusa is represented in
her Greek form, as a humanoid woman, rather than in the
Roman version that would follow," explains art director
Thierry Dansereau. She is, after all, a woman transformed by
an ancient artifact, rather than the will of the gods.
Perseus was the Greek hero who ultimately killed Medusa. He
was the son of Zeus and Danai, and he promised to obtain the
head of Medusa to King Polydektes. Medusa was a gorgon, a
female monster that had living snakes on her head instead of
locks of hair. Her gaze petrified all who locked eyes with her,
and turned them to stone.
Perseus went to the Hesperides to acquire the weapon that
would help him defeat Medusa. They also gave him a sack to
hold her head (kibisis). He received a sword [harpe) from
Zeus, winged sandals from Hermes, a shiny shield from
Athena, and the ability to hide from Hades.
When Perseus entered Medusa's cave, he used the shield's
reflection to avoid eye contact, and successfully decapitated
her.
Perseus used the head of Medusa as a weapon, but later gave
itas a gift to Athena, who placed the head of the gorgon
(gorgoneion) on her shield, or the Aegis.
Where better to have the home of the notorious Medusa,
famous for turning her victims to stone, than in a petrified
forest. As one of the most well-known creatures from Greek
myth, featuring in countless books, movies, and historical
records, it was a challenge for the development team to strip
away the previous incarnations and start fresh. In mythology,
Medusa was one of the three Gorgons, sisters with wings and
snakes for hair, able to petrify onlookers. The Medusa in
Assassin's Creed Odyssey is a woman, transformed by a First
Civilization artifact into a creature of great power. As such,
her temple features the classic geometry and architecture of
First Civilization constructions, and is the only open-air First
Civilization temple in game.
The third labor of Herakles was to capture the Keryneian Hind,
a beast notoriously faster than an arrow.
This particular labor was not about strength, but about speed
and patience. Herakles chased the hind on foot for over a year
-in Thrace, and as far as Istria in the Adriatic Sea. However,
there's more than one legend that tells of its capture. In one
version, Herakles caught the hind when it was asleep with a
trap-net or a thrown arrow. In another, it was Artemis -
whose sacred animal was the hind - who helped Herakles
after he told the goddess that he didn't intend on desecrating
the animal.
The Greeks have long been known as a naval powerhouse. The
development team created multiple ship models, covering the
Trireme (with three rows of oars], the bireme (with two),
merchant ships and other smaller boats. Historical pop
culture sources, including a visit to a life-size replica of a
trireme, 3rd century BCE graffiti, depictions on vases and
stone relief, and movies like Hercules [1958], Jason and the
Argonauts (1963) and many others, all served to inform the
design team to create realistic and functional digital replicas
of these classic ships.
The color and animal based designs of the ships are also
significant. To the far right, the Athenian ship is clear, not just
from its blue coloring but also the owl adorning its sail - the
owl being the symbol of wisdom, associated with Athena, the
protector goddess of Athens. In the center is a darker colored
ship common among pirates, to the left a Spartan ship, and in
the far left, the smaller and less streamlined ship is a fishing
boat.
3D renders of the figureheads featured in Odyssey range from
the proud griffin and Pegasos to the terrible hydra and
medusa.
Euboea was an important source of grain and cattle - its
name even means “rich in cattle”. Knowing this, it isn't that
surprising to find depictions of bulls on their coins.
The banner was inspired by the head of a bull, taken from the
silver drachmae of the Euboean league. Bulls are sometimes
presented in full on other Euboean coinages, like those of
Eretria, Karystos, or Histiaia.
Because of its resources, Euboea was a strategic region to
control, and Athens invaded in 506 BCE. The Athenians
defeated Chalkis, confiscated the land, and gave it to 4,000
settlers [clerouch] who could retain their Athenian
citizenship.
Metal workshops of different sizes coexisted in ancient
Greece. By the second half of the óth century BCE, the
development of armament workshops [ergasteria] employing
a few craftsmen or up to a few dozen slaves is quite
noticeable. Larger production units soon appeared, making
metalworking one of the most lucrative crafts in Classical
Greece - at least, it is assumed so by historians. As with many
other crafts, metalworking was exclusively practiced by men.
The smallest workshops for local supply might have been
comprised of only three workers: one smith, and two slaves to
assist him. On the other hand, the largest workshops
resembled factories. They could be very large and employ
more than fifty slaves. For example, in Athens, on the slopes
of the Akropolis, four giant 40-meter-long workshops dating
back from 470-440 BCE have been excavated. The Athenian
metic Kephalos might have possessed such a weapons
workshop, since it was said that he had 120 slaves working for
him. By contrast, the metal workshops found in the sanctuary
of Nemea are smaller, but they are not necessarily the more
common scale.
The overall trend was super-specialization; the sword
makers, for example, were not the same as helmet or shield
makers. There were doryksoi [lance makers) and
machairopoioi, who crafted swords or knives. Helmets
workshops could also produce greaves, but the cuirasses,
especially the “muscle armors”, were manufactured by
specific craftsmen. Moreover, in the large workshops, one
could assume that all the workers were assigned very
narrowly-defined tasks.
The Bronze Statue of Poseidon at the Archaeological Museum
of Athens [National Museum of Athens) depicts either Zeus or
Poseidon. It is one of the few remaining original bronze
statues from Greece's Classical period, but it is also one of the
most impressive.
The statue depicts a thick-bearded, curly-haired god with a
muscular, well-detailed anatomy. It is missing its eyes, which
were made of a different material - perhaps semi-precious
stone or glass. The statue's right hand clutched either a
lightning bolt, if it depicted Zeus, or a trident, if it depicted
Poseidon. For the purposes of the game, we decided it was
Poseidon.
The sculpture was made by an artist of great skill. It's
possible it was created by the renowned sculptor Kalamis.
The offensive weapon of triremes was the ram [embolos). The
objective of all naval tactics was to bring the ram to bear on
the enemy's flank or quarter. The ram was made of bronze
and attached to a protruding plank at the front of the ship. The
ram was a warship's most expensive piece of equipment, but
luckily, it could be salvaged and reused when a ship was
broken up.
The ram was located at the forward tip of the keel. This area
was heavily-armored and built up to a sharp point with three
chisel-like blades just above water level. Building a ram
required a high level of metallurgical expertise and
complicated foundry facilities, as they were cast in one single
huge piece. The ram's tip flared into fins rather than coming
to a pointin order to prevent it from getting wedged into the
hull of its opponent, and the timbers that the bronze casing
covered were carefully designed to distribute the shock of
impact over the entire length of the Light hull. The ram could
smash a hole in an enemy vessel and therefore cripple it, but
could not literally sink it. The shape of the ram was designed
to cause maximum damage without penetrating the hull too
far, and make it difficult for the attacking vessels to back off.
The prow, with its ram and heavy buildup of timbers, was both
the offensive weapon and the best-protected area of the ship.
The stern and sides were its vulnerable quarters. As long as a
warship kept its prow toward the enemy, it was poised for
both offensive and defensive action. Its role was to disable
other ships in battle. The Athenians in particular were very
adept at maneuvering their ships to utilize this weapon
effectively.
Miltos is a type of red fine-grained ochre made up of red iron-
oxides often mixed with earth, sand, clay, wax, resin or other
impurities, creating a reddish pitch. It played a vital role in
waterproofing and ship maintenance due to its astringent,
binding, and drying properties.
lts use is attested to in Mycenaean clay tablets, inscribed in
the script known as "Linear Bº and dating from the 2nd
millennium BCE. Specifically, by the Classical period, miltos
from Kea was prized in Athens due to its effectiveness in the
maintenance of ships, protecting the hull from rot and
infestation. The high lead levels meant that the powder, once
mixed into an organic medium, would make a very effective
anti-fouling agent, preventing the growth of bacterial colonies
on vessel hulls that could slow the ship down. In this way,
applying lead-rich miltos paint mixed with pitch to the hull of
a ship could inhibit biotic growth and prevent fouling.
The prow of a trireme was often decorated to look like the
head of an animal, with the ram as its snout. Aischytos called
the triremes "the dark-eyed ships”. The eye was a regular
decoration for the triremes. It was made from a piece of
polished marble, then shaped and painted to resemble an eye.
Sometimes oculi could be rather large and, if not painted,
were an inlaid decoration occasionally made of expensive
materials. Seafarers attached oculi to their ship because they
looked upon their vessel as a living entity that needed eyes to
find its way. Black warships with red or purple painted bows
and large dark-blue enamel oculi seen sailing on the dark
seas would have had a powerful effect on any observer -
especially enemy forces.
The various kinds of ships used by the Greeks could be divided
into two main types: ships of war, and ships of burden. The
latter were not designed for quick movement or rapid sailing,
but to carry the greatest possible quantity of goods. Their
structure was therefore bulky, their bottom round, and
although they were not without rowers, the chief means by
which they were propelled were their sails.
The most common ships of war were triremes. This warship
was an example of ancient engineering at its highest level.
The trireme derives its name from its three rows of oars, with
one man per oar. They were very fast and maneuverable,
which gave them a critical advantage in the close-quarter
battles that were typical of ancient naval engagements. The
triremes could move fast under sail, reaching maximum
speeds of perhaps fourteen knots under the most favorable
weather conditions, while their speed without the sails was
probably around eight knots.
They'd also become waterlogged if left in the sea for too long. To prevent this fromm happening, ships would have to be pulled
from the water, and kept and maintained in shipsheds, These
were buildings built on limestone bedrock. They incorporated
an inclined slipway which the triremes were normally hauled
up on when not at sea. The remains of the Zea shipsheds at
the Athenian port of Piraeus offer useful archaeological
evidence about triremes' maximum dimensions: about 115-
120 feet long, 16 feet wide and about 8% feet tall above the
waterline. As for the order of the rowers and their positioning,
valuable information could be extracted by the famous
Lenormant relief, which shows the middle of a trireme, with
three clear levels of oars coming out at different angles.
The trireme was first used in Greece during the óth century
BCE by the tyrant of Korinth, Periander, and then by
Polykrates, the tyrant of Samos. It became the dominant
warship type of the eastern Mediterranean, playing a vital role
in the Greco-Persian Wars, the creation of the Athenian
maritime empire, and its downfall in the Peloponnesian War.
The Achaian banner appropriately depicts a trireme, since the
region includes Patrai, which served as naval base for the
Spartans during the Peloponnesian War.
The trireme was the most famous Greek ship. It was first built
in Korinth in the 7th century BCE and became an important
war ship for centuries - a fleet of triremes defeated the
Persians in Salamis.
Ships are a common image in iconography. They're present on
vases and also on coins, with most of them depicting only the
prow, like this bronze coin from Megaris.
The source material concerning weapon manufacturing in
Ancient Greece is not prolific. However, we do know that as
early as the 7th century BCE, more specialized-production
centers emerged in regions already known for their
metallurgical activities.
Chalkis, in Euboea, specialized in the production of swords,
while Korinth was renowned for its bronze helmets - both
crucially important elements of hoplite equipment. Sykyon, in
the Peloponnese peninsula, provided the iron for the
manufacture of Spartan weapons. Athens, famous especially
for its cuirass workshops, was also an important location in
the world of Greek weapons production.
During what's called the “Dark Ages” in Greek history [1200-
800 BCE), a transition took place in weaponry. The material
used switched from bronze to iron - a substance that was
lighter, tougher, and able to take a sharper edge. Swords
became shorter and larger than the preceding bronze
specimens. Both conical helmets with ornamented crests and
all shapes of shields may have also been made of that metal.
Around the 7th century BCE, a new tactical formation, the
phalanx, gradually made its appearance in Greece. It marked
the return of the use of bronze in weaponry. The new
infantryman, the hoplite, was required to pay for his panoply,
a set of weapons and pieces of equipment including a cuirass,
greaves, helmet with cheek plates, shield, spear, and sword.
Bronze was used to make all or some parts of the body armor,
shield, and helmet, while the sword and spearhead were
crafted with iron.
The costliness of the panoply made it difficult or altogether
impossible for lower-class citizens to purchase one.
Therefore, only members of the elite could afford the entire
set.
The ancients often made bees and honey into symbols related
to the deities. Honey was considered heavenly since it never
expired, and was a typical offering placed on altars for the
gods. These offerings were given to rustic deities such as Pan
and Priape, who were protectors of beekeepers, but also to
Chthonian deities worshiped in mystery cults such as Hermes,
Dionysos, and Demeter. Honey and bees were also a symbol of
resurrection.
Honey was considered a gift - a remnant of the Golden Age -
that the gods kindly gave to men. It guaranteed long life and
good health. In this way, it was connected to nectar and
ambrosia - drinks of the immortal gods. In childhood, Zeus
was nourished with honey and milk. Mead was seen as a
substitute for these divine drinks. Honey's religious
symbolism was all the more important since it could be food
for newborns - a young Plato was said to be fed with honey -
but also for the dead.
Naxos was the largest island in the Kyklades. lts protective
deity was Dionysos, god of wine, who was born on the island
according to mythology. The money of Naxos served as model
for the banner, and is linked with the god as the coins show a
kantharos - a wine cup.
Naxos produced wine, but was more famous for its marble. It
was exported and widely used. For example, it was used in
Olympia and on the Akropolis in Athens. Its craftsmen were
pioneers in the development of monumental marble
sculptures and architecture.
Greek soil contains great geological diversity. Since the
beginning of the Early Cycladic period, the Greeks used
marble in architecture, sculpture, figurines, and more. The
word marble, from the Greek term marmaros, means
“resplendent stone”. It quickly became a luxury furniture in
Greek cities, and it played a big part in the Greek economy.
Some regions stand out for their marble-related wealth,
including Naxos, Paros, Thasos, Attika, the Peloponnese, and
Euboea Island.
Marble is made up of different colors (red, pink, yellow), and
each has a different texture (translucent, wavy, streaked,
swirly, etc.). For example, Peloponnesian marble was red with
touches of black. Pentelic marble, found near Athens, was
greenish with a grainy pattern. The most prestigious marble
of the time came from Paros, and was greyish white.
The city of Orchomenos in Boeotia has origins going back to
the Neolithic period. Discovered in the 19th century, it was
excavated by Heinrich Schliemann - the same person who
discovered and searched for the cities of Troy, Mycenae, and
Tiryns.
The excavations left few details. Remains of fortifications
dated to the 4th century BCE were discovered. A tholos tomb
known as the Treasury of Minyas was also uncovered. The
possible remains of a Mycenaean palace on the flank of the
akropolis would have been found just above the spring of the
Charites. Fragments of paintings have also been found in the
vast architectural complex between the 9th century church
and the theater. Clues suggest that the church, one of the
oldest in Greece, was built on the remnants of the Charites
temple. The remains of a theater also dating back to the 4th
century BCE are still visible today.
The main god of the sea was Poseidon. There were temples
dedicated to him in many coastal cities, such as Cape Sounion
south of Athens.
Fish, like other animals, were offered as sacrifices for the
gods. A painting described by Athenaios showed Poseidon
offering a tuna to Zeus just before he gave birth to Athena. It
was believed that in order to get a good tuna harvest, one
needed to sacrifice eels to Poseidon.
Fish were also used in divination. The Lykians, for example,
practiced ichthyomancy. Meat was thrown into a special
sinkhole to attract fish, and depending on which species were
attracted, the response from the gods was determined.
(Behind the scenes)
Assassin's Creed Odyssey's focus on the details is what really
takes the game to the next Level in terms of immersion. The
sheer variety of textures that make up the layered background
to the cities and landscapes are what give the locations their
character and quality. The art and development team are
constantly pushing the boundaries, aiming for bigger, better,
and higher quality than ever before. The textures here are a
fraction of what appears in the game. Even the simplest white
stone blocks are not plain but richly detailed with grains and
imperfections. The colorful tiles and murals speak to the
craftsmanship of Greece itself, giving history and life to each
wall and column.
The Boeotian banner naturally depicts the Boeotian shield,
which was the main type of coinage of Thebes, and later of the
Boeotian confederation.
The shield is the most important weapon of defense. Greek
soldiers usually used a round-shaped shield, the aspis, but
Boeotians eventually developed an oval shield with a
semicircular indentation on either side of the middle. This
would have reduced its weight, and allowed the bearer to
thrust and stab while staying protected.
None of these shields have survived, which may suggest they
were made from animal hides instead of bronze or wood like
other shields.
(Behind the scenes)
In Greek mythology, the Sphinx was a creature with the face of
a human, the wings of a bird, and the body of a lion. The
Assassin's Creed Odyssey team have melded more than one
mythological creature into their Sphinx, adding elements off
the mythological Chimera, like the tail ending in a snake head.
The Sphinx offers a different challenge to the Hero, explains
Thierry Dansereau, “You cannot defeat her by force, instead
you must answer her riddle.” In traditional myth, those who
cannot answer her riddle suffer a terrible fate: killed and
devoured by the beast.
“It was challenging to try to create a menacing creature but
still have a feeling of beauty to transpire.” - Gabriel Blain
The Persians's crushing defeat at the Battle of Salamis in 480
BCE greatly discouraged King Xerxes from continuing his
invasion. However, one of Xerxes's military commanders,
Mardonios, convinced the king that their campaign could
continue,
Mardonios's hopes were dashed the following year at the
Battle of Plataia. The Greeks, who were outnumbered by the
Persians, held their own in the open countryside. They fought
until they were victorious, killing Mardonios in the process
and putting an end to the second Persian invasion of Greece.
(Behind the scenes)
“What impressed me was the way historians and
archaeologists found out about the color that the Greek artists
would use on their creations. Before working on this project, |
always thought that the artists of the Classical age would
leave the marble uncolored. By using ultra-violet light,
archaeologists were able to debunk what we thought to be
true. The colors revealed by this process were dazzling and
bright, exactly the opposite of what | would have expected
them to be.” - Vincent Pamerleau
The lion was chosen for the banner of Samos, as it is a
frequent image of ancient Greek iconography.
A lion scalp was the emblem of the coinage of Samos. This
lion's head was specifically related to Herakles's task of
killing the Nemean lion.
This legendary lion ravaged the plain of Argolis, and had skin
so thick that Herakles couldn't kill it with his arrows. The her
chose instead to strangle it.
The battle against the Nemean lion symbolized combat
against savagery and barbarism, and became the model of
athletic fighting - a very popular event of the Olympics.
The area of Messara is the largest plain of the island of Krete.
The symbol of the region is inspired by the coins of Knossos,
which bear a labyrinth on the reverse, referencing the famous
Kretan Minotaur myth.
The minotaur was half-human, half-bull. King Minos of Krete
made the mistake of sacrificing a bull, and thus angered
Poseidon. The god then instilled “passion” for the bull into
Minos' wife, who later gave birth to the minotaur.
The minotaur was kept in the labyrinth built by Daidalos. On a
regular basis, fourteen young men and women were given to
the beast in tribute, until the hero Theseus killed him.
The seventh labor of Herakles was to kill a great bull that had
destroyed crops and property in Krete.
Herakles went to King Minos of Krete, who gave him
permission to get rid of the bull. Herakles managed to capture
the beast, suppressing it with his hands, but he ultimately
didn't kill it. Instead, he shipped the bull to Eurystheas so he
could confirm that the labor was successful, and then the
animal was released.
Koulourai are large, stone-walled pits that can be found in a
number of major sites in Krete, including Knossos, Malia, and
Phaistos. All of them were constructed around 1850-1750
BCE.
While the exact purpose of the koulourai is still debated, there
are three prominent theories as to what they were used for.
Arthur Evans believed they functioned as refuse or garbage
pits. Conversely, Chapouthier and Pernier theorized that they
were used as ancient cisterns. However, this theory is flawed
since kouroulai did not have the same waterproofing as other
Knossian structures of the time.
The most widely accepted theory is that koulourai were used
to store grain. This assumption gains even more ground when
paired with the theory that Minoan palaces were not palaces
at all, but massive agricultural redistribution centers.
In the "History of Animals” by Aristotle, he provides a guide to
the species present in the Mediterranean: 105 fish, twenty-
four shells, twenty-four marine or crustacean animals, and
five cetaceans and amphibious animals.
Philosophers and moralists had little regard for fishermen.
Plato deemed the activity unworthy of a well-born man. But
there was solidarity between sailors, and the specificity of the
trade was important enough to even become a Literary theme;
it's known that Aischylos had written a piece entitled
“Diktyoulkoi” (Net-Haulers), and Menander wrote a piece
called “The Fishermen”.
These authors were much more interested in the psychology
of the fisherman than the real sociology of the profession. A
fisherman is often alone, practicing his profession all year
long. He has to be intelligent and cunning, but he also must be
lucky.
Navigation on the Mediterranean was difficult. Most sailing
depended on the winds, and was done in the summer. The
storm season started in late September or early October, and
ended in late February or early March. During these months,
navigation was highly dangerous. In addition, the nature of th
currents made certain areas dangerous. The sea monsters
Charybdis and Skylla in “The Odyssey” would be the pictorial
representation of the strong current of the Strait of Messina
that separates the western tip of the south of Magna Graecia
with Sicily.
There were several methods of fishing in ancient Greece.
Plato and Oppian discussed fishing with nets, laces, baskets,
hooks or tridents, and angling. t was also possible to fish for
mollusks, shellfish, crustaceans, and fish thrown from the
sea to the shores.
In some cases, the fish was caught by hand, like in octopus
fishing. Fishing could also be done with lanterns - as fish
were attracted to the light source - or could simply be
“picked" during sleep.
There were also more unusual methods, such as the smell
fishery where fish were attracted with foul food, excrement,
or salted octopus. There was also the method of “poisoning
fishing”, where plants like hellebore or conia were used to
catch fish and octopus.
(Behind the scenes)
The seventh biome of the game, the Hero explores the
underwater world of the Aegen Sea looking for treasure and
artifacts. The sea teems with all manner of life including
dangerous sharks and beautiful corals. “By exploring the
depths of the ocean the player can choose to take a dive
amongst long forgotten ruins. Here they can take on fights
with deadly sharks as they search for hidden treasures,” adds
Benjamin Hall. Featuring shipwrecks, ruins and remnants of
ancient civilizations as shown in these concept arts by Hugo
Puzzuoli, this biome is just as diverse and intricate as the rest.
Salt harvesting was known to humankind at least from the
Neolithic age, on account of the considerable quantities of
fragmented ceramic molds accumulated around salt springs.
There were two main ways of collecting salt.
The first one was to simply harvest it where it was accessible
- that is, near salt lakes, marshes, or near the sea. Pans were
used to let collected water evaporate in the sun and then
harvest the resulting salt.
The other method was extracting it from the earth. This was -
difficult in mainland Greece since the soil did not provide
much yield in this fashion. Collecting salt from water was
therefore the more utilized method.
We know for sure that salt played a role in magic. For
example, eating salty cakes on a special day was thought to
allow young girls to dream of their future husbands. It was
also used in some religious practices. Even in Homeric times,
salt was offered to the gods and used when sacrificing
animals and making libations. Furthermore, salt played an
important part in some Greek festivals - such as the
Eleusinian Mysteries, celebrated in the town of Eleusis in
Attika to honor Demeter, the goddess of the crops, and her
daughter, Persephone.
The banner of Lokris shows a griffin - a mythological creature
with the body, legs, and tail of a lion, and the head and wings
of an eagle.
The griffin is inspired by the Lokris Opuntii coinage which
depicted Ajax, the Lokrian hero of the Trojan War. His shield
bore a griffin on the interior side.
Griffins were known for guarding treasure - especially if it
belonged to the gods - and were a symbol of strength and
vigilance.
In providing for their fleet and for the public building
program, the main problem the Athenians faced was finding
timber of first-class quality, and particularly timber of long
lengths. From the late 5th century BCE at least, and
throughout the 4th century BCE, there is ample evidence that
Athens relied primarily on Makedonia for her ship-timber.
As for the timber needed for housing, the rich, who were
more concerned with quality, possibly preferred the greater
variety and finer quality materials available from Makedonia,
Italy, or Ásia Minor. In addition, what Attika was unable to
supply could probably have been bought in Euboea.
The eighth labor of Herakles was to bring back the mares of
Diomedes. Diomedes, the king of Thrace and son of Ares and
Cyrene, fed his horses human flesh. This drove the horses
mad, making them wild.
Herakles captured the beasts with the help of his young
companion Abderos, and left the horses with him while he
chased down Diomedes. In Herakles's absence, the crazed
horses ate the young boy. Seeking revenge, Herakles then fed
Diomedes to the horses, and founded the city of Abdera
nearby in his friend's honor. When Eurystheas received the
horses, he dedicated them to Hera.
In the Classical era, metal armor coexisted alongside lighter
cuirasses (corselets) called “linothoraxes”. This was because
procuring an actual set of bronze armor was beyond the
means of many citizens - especially in poorer cities.
Linothoraxes were also sometimes preferred in situations
where hoplites had to be Lighter and more mobile.
The linothorax consisted of a linen breastplate that could be
strengthened with shoulder pieces, bronze scales, or bronze-
sheeted mantling. To protect the Lower abdomen and the
groin, two layers of pteruges - “wings” in ancient Greek —
were attached to the bottom edge of the armor.
Linen armor was one of the oldest types of armor in Greece. It
even appears in “The Iliad" - a story that is believed to have
taken place long before the Classical period.
If a hoplite's spear broke or if he had to fight hand to hand -
as was the case for the 300 Spartans in the final stages of the
battle of Thermopylai - he could always fall back on his
sword.
In the 4th century BCE, the most common sword had a thick
cruciform hilt with a blade that swelled near the tip. Hoplites
carried their sword in a sheath under their Left arm, enabling
them to quickly seize their weapon with their right hand.
Ancient Greeks had specific names to refer to different types
of swords, but it's difficult for modern historians to match
these names with their corresponding weapon. While “xiphos”
was the standard name for swords in ancient Greek, words
like “machaira” and “kopis" were also used. It is believed that
the previous two words may have referred to recurved
swords, while xiphos described straight-bladed weapons.
A hoplite's equipment consisted of a bronze cuirass (or lighter
armor], bronze greaves, a spear, and a sword.
Although the comic playwright Aristophanes was probably
exaggerating when he wrote that crafted armor cost 1,000
drachmae - about ten times the monthly wages of a skilled
craftsman - the bronze-muscle cuirass was one of the
costliest pieces of a hoplite's equipment. As such, only the
wealthiest individuals could afford it.
A soldier's body armor could be completed by a pair of
greaves to protect their shins. The greaves were made of
hammered bronze, and had to be well-adjusted to the
hoplite's legs. They also had to be made thin so as not to
weigh the soldier down. Since shin greaves were also
expensive, many lower-class citizens opted not to buy them,
instead purchasing armor that covered more vital parts of
their body.
Altogether, an entire set of armor was known as a “panoply”.
Hoplites were heavily armored infantrymen. Their most
important piece of equipment was arguably the “aspis”, a
round shield large enough to protect both its wearer and the
man to the left of him. The aspis was light and could
effectively parry spear and sword thrusts. However, according
to its depiction on ancient vases, it was ineffective against
javelins and arrows.
Hoplite helmets were similarly designed to be light, but they
could endure direct blows and offered a reasonable amount of
protection. There were many varieties of helmet, but the most
widespread seems to have been the Korinthian helmet.
Made of a single sheet of bronze that covered much of the
head and neck, the Korinthian helmet offered only a small, t-
shaped opening at the front to allow soldiers to see and
breathe. Because the helmet was closed in on itself, it most
likely impaired the sight and hearing of the soldiers who wore
it.
Helmets could also be adorned with crests of dyed horsehair
to make the hoplites wearing them look more imposing.
Hoplites mainly fought using spears.
Called “dory” in ancient Greek, the spear was a wooden shaft
with a Length of up to three meters. It was probably made
from the wood of ash trees, since the trees provided strong
material that was also light enough to be handled with ease.
The spear-head and butt were manufactured in metal
workshops. The spear-head was usually made of iron - but
could also be made of bronze - and was fixed to the slender
end of the wooden shaft with pitch or nails. The spear-butt
allowed the weapon to be planted in the ground when not
being used. It's possible that the spear-butt could also have
served as a spare head, but there's little evidence to support
this theory.
The spear also had a hand grip which may have been made of
leather.
According to the myth told by Ovid, when Aphrodite met the
infant Adonis, she was immediately smitten with him. She
decided to take care of him by hiding him in a chest, and
asked Persephone, the queen of the underworld, to educate
him. However, Persephone also fell in Love with Adonis.
On the day Aphrodite descended into the underworld to
retrieve the young Adonis, Persephone refused to return the
boy, who had become her lover. The two women turned to
Zeus to judge who should have Adonis, and Zeus asked the
muse Kalliope to make the decision.
In the end, it was decided that Adonis would spend fourth
months with Aphrodite, four with Persephone, and four alone
to rest. However, Adonis decided - either on his own or
through Aphrodite's magical influence - to spend his four
months of “rest” with Aphrodite.
Aphrodite and Adonis continued their passionate relationship
until one day, Adonis was mortally wounded while hunting a
boar. Aphrodite heard her lover's moans of pain from her
flying chariot, but by the time she arrived by his side, it was
too late to save him. The goddess cried tears of blood that fell
onto the ground, and from them sprouted either the purple
anemone flower or the rose, depending on the version of the
story.
In mythology, Aphrodite was the wife of Hephaistos, the god of
metallurgy. However, she also had an affair with Ares, the god
of war.
One night, after spending too long together, Ares and
Aphrodite were caught by Helios, who informed Hephaistos of
his wife's infidelity. In a fit of rage, Hephaistos captured Ares
and Aphrodite in an unbreakable net, then summoned the rest
of the gods to bear witness to his dishonor.
Afterwards, Aphrodite went to Paphos to renew her virginity in
the sea. This virginity did not last, however, as she later had a
relationship with Hermes which resulted in the birth of
Hermaphroditos, a being of two sexes.
Eurystheas asked Herakles to bring him the belt of Hippolyta
for the ninth labor; it would be offered to his daughter
Admete.
The belt was a gift from the god Ares to his daughter
Hippolyta, the queen of Amazons - a tribe of women-warriors.
With a group of companions, Herakles reached Themiskyra,
the city in the Black Sea were Hippolyta lived, and convinced
the Amazon to give him the belt. However, Hera had spread
rumors amongst the Amazons, so they attacked him. Herakles
had no choice but to kill Hippolyta. He then brought the belt
back to Eurystheas.
The banner of Korinthia was inspired by the coinage of
Korinth, which depicts Pegasos.
Pegasos, the mythical winged horse, was captured in Korinth
by Bellerophon near the Peirene fountain. The hero then rode
him to defeat the monstrous creature Chimera. When
Bellerophon fell from Pegasos while trying to reach Mount
Olympos, Zeus gave Pegasos the task of carrying
thunderbolts. The god later granted Pegasos the honor of
becoming a constellation.
(Under the scenes)
"To produce our Merchant Boar, we were really pleased to be
able to use as reference the remains of the very well
preserved “Kyrenia Ship” found in 1965. Having this boat
replicated with the highest historic fidelity helped us to give
life to our beautiful world and to show that there was not only
war ships sailing in the great ancient Greek Sea." - David
Therrien
Four methods were used to harvest olives. Picking the fallen
fruits on the ground was the easiest, and could be sufficient to
meet the needs of a small household.
Another method was to have men shake the branches, while
others collected the olives in wide baskets.
Handpicking was preferable for preserves since it does not
damage the fruits, but it was a long process.
A less labor-intensive method was to beat the branches with
long sticks to make the olives fall on the ground or onto
pieces of cloth. However, this method damaged the branches
and a rough beating could hinder the following year's
production.
Olives were a widespread and traditional food staple, often
consumed with bread and onions. They could be bought in
almost every city from street peddlers.
Olive production was an important feature of the ancient
Greek agrarian economy. Both olives and olive oil were used
on many significant occasions.
Olive trees generally only produce a crop every other year,
and production is very variable from harvest to harvest. This
unpredictability was a reason against farmers becoming
exclusive olive producers, so mixed farming remained the
norm.
Planting olive trees was one of the most important means of
increasing the productivity of land and its long-term value. It
allowed landowners to create usable farmland from slopes
and other marginal land that would otherwise have been left
for grazing.
While an olive tree might produce a small return after eight to
ten years, it may take twenty or thirty years to come into full
production.
But, olive trees live for a very long time. If a landowner
planted olives on his land, it was his children and
grandchildren that would harvest the fruit.
In the Phokis region was Delphi, the site of the Panhellenic
oracle of Apollo.
A prophecy would be given by the Pythia who sat on the
Delphic tripod, a three-legged piece of furniture. This tripod,
one attribute of Apollo, is depicted on the banner with two
dolphins on either side. Dolphins were also dedicated to
Apollo, and their name in Greek (delphis) recalled the name of
Delphi.
Tripods and dolphins appeared on some of the coins of Delphi,
but this composition derived from the coinage of Megaris.
(Under the scenes)
“What would be Greece without the typical olive groves? Early
on, some key nature elements were chosen in order to feel
the Greek landscape.” - Vincent Lamontagne.
Greece is known for its monuments, temples, and statues,
some of which still exist today. But even in 431 BCE, Greece
had ruins of even older civilizations. In Phokis, thought of as
the Land of the Gods and center of the world, stands the
Sanctuary of Delphi, sitting on the slopes of Mount Parnassos,
along with other temples and structures from the pre-
classical Greek age. While drawing on real-life examples,
historical research, plus popular culture in the form of movies
and comics, the art team also had to construct some
monuments from nothing but myth, and to give life to these
magnificent structures.
Greek Mythology is a fascinating and enduring collection of
fantastical stories, ones that the art team had great fun
recreating for Assassin's Creed Odyssey. Drawing on the
myths, Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, and representations in
classic artwork and popular culture, the mythological world
becomes real for the Hero.
The myths are instantly recognizable in the artwork on these
pages. The Titan Tityos, who attempted to violate Leto, the
daughter of Titan Coeus and Phoebe, was punished for his
transgression by being tied to a rock in Tartarus. His liver was
eaten each day by two vultures, only to regrow overnight to
begin the torment again.
The theater of Delphi was situated above the Temple of Apollo.
It offered an expansive view of sanctuary and the valley below,
and could accommodate around 5000 spectators in its seats.
The theater hosted different artistic contests, especially
during competitions like the Pythian Games. These contests
included plays, poetry readings, and musical performances,
and were held not only for the audience, but also for Apollo,
the god of arts - among other things.
Built by the Knidians between 475-450 BCE, the Lesche was a
clubhouse renowned for displaying two paintings by
Polygnotos of Thasos, one of ancient Greece's most famous
artists. According to Pausanias, the paintings depicted the
Capture of Troy and a Nekyia [necromantic ritual),
respectively.
The Lesche was most likely constructed after the battle of
Eurymedon in 467 BCE, which resulted in Knidos's liberation
from the Persians.
Tripods were pieces of furniture used during offerings and
rituals. They were most associated with the god Apollo, and
the Pythia sat on a sacred Delphic Tripod when delivering her
prophecies
The golden Tripod of Plataia was dedicated after a victory over
the Persians at Plataia in 479 BCE. The tripod rested atop a
twisted 8-meter tall bronze column that ended in snake
heads. The column stood in Delphi until 324 CE, when the
Roman Emperor Constantine relocated it to what is now
known as Istanbul.
Next to the tripod was the bronze Palm Tree of Eurymedon,
which was dedicated by Athenians after Kimon's defeat of the
Persians at the Eurymedon river.
The Apollo of Salamis stood in front of the Temple of Apollo,
and was dedicated to Delphi after Themistokles's famous
naval victory at Salamis in 480 BCE. The bronze statue was
6 meters tall, and held an aphlaston (a ship's stern ornament)
in its hand as a symbol of the battle.
Oedipus was son of Laius and lokasta of Thebes. His father
was terrified of a prophecy from Delphi predicting that
Oedipus would end up killing him and marrying his wife, so he
banished his newborn to the mountains to die.
The baby was saved by a shepherd, who gave him to King
Polybos and Queen Merope of Korinth to raise him as their
own. As he grew, Oedipus heard of the Delphic prophecy, and,
believing that it was related to Polybos and Merope, fled
Korinth and directed himself to Thebes.
Laius had died by then - killed by Oedipus, who did not yet
know the king was his father - and the city was at the mercy
of a monster, the Sphinx, with a human head and a body of a
lion. She consumed those who couldn't solve her riddle:
“Which creature has one voice and yet becomes four-footed
and two-footed and three-footed?” It was Oedipus who replied
that the creature was man: they crawl on all fours as a baby,
walk with two feet as they age, and use a cane for support
when they grow old.
Oedipus solved the riddle, and the defeated Sphinx either fell
from a high rock or ate herself and perished, depending on
the legend. Oedipus became king of Thebes and married none
other than lokasta, his mother. He unknowingly fulfilled the
prophecy and became one of the most tragic figures in Greek
mythology.
A sybil was a prophetess.
Legends say there were ten sibyls in the ancient world, with
each one located at different sacred sites. One sybil even
called Delphi her home long before the appearance of the
Pythia, and allegedly delivered her prophecies from atop a
stone.
Built between 600-550 BCE, the Bouleuterion of Delphi is one
of the oldest monuments in the sanctuary. The building was
the seat of the boule, a council that handled judicial and
financial matters.
The council was composed of randomly appointed citizens, all
of whom usually served a one-year term. In Delphi, a total of
thirty bouleutes were appointed during a year, with fifteen
chosen every six months.
Today, the building is in poor condition, but has been
identified based on texts and inscriptions discovered in its
proximity, including two accounts from the council itself.
The Athenians dedicated this treasury to Apollo between 490-
485 BCE, following their victory over the Persians at
Marathon.
Built with marble from Paros, the treasury was ornamented
with thirty metopes depicting the exploits of Herakles and
Theseus.
Today it is the best-preserved monument in Delphi, thanks to
restoration efforts by French archaeologists between the
years 1903 and 1906.
Ancient Greek treasuries were small temple-like buildings
that housed offerings to the gods. They resembled a vestibule
with two columns in front.
The Sikyonian Treasury dates back to the end of the óth
century BCE. It was constructed upon the remains of an older
structure, and incorporated pieces from buildings erected
during the reign of the tyrant Kleisthenes. The Sikyonians
dismantled said buildings after Kleisthenes's death, and
reused their pieces in the treasury to mark the beginning of a
new era in Sikyonian politics.
The city of Argos dedicated several monuments to Delphi,
including the Monument of Epigones. The statues depicted the
leaders of the mythological expedition against Thebes.
This expedition, further explored in one of Aiskhylos's
tragedies, revolved around the sons of Oedipus: Eteokles and
Polynices. Originally, the two had agreed to rule Thebes on
alternating years, but conflict arose when Eteokles refused to
give up power to his brother. With the help of Adrastos, the
king of Argos, Polynices put together a group of seven
attackers to reclaim the city.
The Monument of Epigones served as a tribute to Greek
soldiers willing to fight and die for what was theirs.
The twelfth and final labor of Herakles was the capture of
Cerberos, the three-headed hound protecting the entrance to
the underworld.
Herakles first visited Eleusis and participated in the
Eleusinian Mysteries to prepare himself for the descent. The
entrance was believed to be in Cape Tenaron, at the far end of
Lakonia.
Hades agreed to give Cerberos to Herakles, but only if he
managed to subdue the hound without any weapons. Herakles
was successful in his task.
When Herakles brought Cerberos to Eurystheas, Eurystheas
begged him to return the beast to the underworld, then
released Herakles from any future labors.
Giving a proper funeral to the dead was considered one of the
most important gestures in a person's life. It was believed
that the soul left the body upon death, and if not properly
buried, the soul wouldn't find peace in the underworld. Burial
therefore had a spiritual purpose, but also a practical one in
minimizing the festering of decaying bodies.
This pollution of decay and the impiety of leaving the bodies
without burial was a key explanation for the widespread
practice of allowing defeated enemies to collect their dead
after battle.
The fifth labor of Herakles consisted of cleaning the stables of
Augeas, king of Elis. This was a rather humiliating task, since
the cattle that lived in the stables were immortal. Not only
that, but they were more than one thousand in number, and
produced an enormous amount of dung. The stables had been
filthy for thirty years, which made the task nearly impossible.
In this case, Herakles used his brain instead of this brawn. He
redirected the rivers Alpheus in the Peloponnese and Pineios
in Thessaly to the site. The water went through the stables
and thoroughly cleaned them.
Untike the other labors, it appears that Herakles was paid for
the task. He asked for one tenth of the cattle if he managed to
clean the stables in one day. However, he killed Augeas when
the king didn't honor the deal, and gave the kingdom to
Phyleas, Augeas's son.
The fourth labor of Herakles was considered very dangerous.
Eurystheas asked Herakles to bring to him the boar that lived
on the mountain Eurymantos. Centaurs, half horses and half-
men renowned for being wise, lived on the same mountain. It
was the famous centaur Chiron - who later became the tutor
of Achilles - who advised Herakles on how to catch the boar.
Herakles drove the boar into the snow, captured it, and
carried it back to Eurystheas, who was so afraid of the animal
that he hid himself inside a pithos [container].
The site of Olympia is dominated on the northern side by the
Hill of Kronos. This Titan, who was the father of Zeus and the
Olympians, was worshipped on the top of the hill.
Prophecy told that Kronos would be dethroned by one of his
children. Because of this, he devoured the children he had
with Rhea as soon as they were born. But when Zeus was
born, Rhea fooled Kronos by hiding Zeus in Krete and
replacing him with a stone wrapped in clothes.
Once he had grown up, Zeus managed to free his brothers and
sisters and make them his allies. The following war between
Olympians and Titans for the supremacy of the universe is
called the Titanomachy. Zeus also freed the Cyclopes who
created the thunderbolt for him.
Zeus and his allies won the war and imprisoned the Titans in
Tartaros. The Titan Atlas received another punishment as he
was ordered to hold up the sky. Zeus became king of the gods,
and thus began the age of the Olympians.
(Behind the scenes)
Hilltop forts formed the main line of defense against the
invading armies. They are built of stone packed around
wooden frames as demonstrated in the fort at the bottom of
the page, created by Michael Guimont. It's up to the Hero to
infiltrate these to bring them down from the inside, allowing
the army to advance, as shown in concept art by Caroline
Soucy (far right). But these are not simple structures, as
Benjamin Hall explains, “Forts are some of the most complex
challenges design wise. These locations need to offer
something different for the player from both a visual and
gameplay point of view."
The Bouleuterion of Olympia was one of the first buildings
constructed in the site.
The council of Olympia met in the Bouleuterion to discuss
matters regarding the sanctuary. They appointed priests,
arbitrated conflicts between athletes and hellanodikai
(judges), and decided which victors to erect statues for, as
well as where to put them.
The Bouleuterion also housed archives of records from
previous Olympiads, in addition to the statue of Zeus Horkios,
in front of which athletes and trainers swore their Olympic
oath.
The sanctuary is very ancient. Its use goes back to the third
millennium BCE. At first, it was only a sacred forest. From
about 1000 BCE onward, a cult of Zeus developed on the site
of Olympia.
The traditional date of the first Olympic festival is 776 BCE,
which is also the date of the first recorded winner of the
Games: Koroibos of Elis, who won the stadion race.
The Olympic Games have their origins in ritual funeral games.
Funeral games were held to honor the deceased, and might
have celebrated civic heroes or private individuals.
In “The Iliad”, Homer related that Achilles held games for his
friend Patroklos who died in the Trojan War. It is the most
ancient mention of this ritual, but they are attested to well into
the Hellenistic period.
Brasidas, the Spartan general, died in the battle of Amphipolis
during the Peloponnesian War. He was honored as the new
founder of the city, and funeral games were organized and
became an annual event.
The modern Olympics were inspired by the ancient Games of
Olympia. A French nobleman, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, was
convinced of the parallel importance of the development of
mind and body, and he saw this ideal in ancient Greek culture.
He had the idea to revive the Games, and started to promote
this notion. At this time, excavations had begun at the original
site of Olympia. The ancient site was rediscovered in 1766 by
Richard Chandler, an English antiquarian, but the first
excavation was carried out in 1829.
The excavation reports inspired de Coubertin, who became
obsessed with the athletic ideal of Olympia, which he thought
would inspire competitiveness and team spirit amongst
nations.
The first modern games were held in 1896 in Athens.
Athletes were primarily from the upper class. They had to be
rich to afford the expenses of training and their participation
in the Games. Alkibiades, an aristocrat from an eminent
family, was one of these very wealthy athletes.
His preference was for horse races - these events were
reserved for the wealthiest participants. A good illustration of
his financial power was during the Olympic Games of 416 BCE.
He participated with a whopping seven chariots in the
quadriga race, and won first, second, and fourth place.
He was the first to ever enroll this many chariots in one race,
and in the context of the Peloponnesian War, this was a
demonstration that Athens was still powerful. Alkibiades
increased that impression with a magnificent feast, and even
used official Athenian gold and silver plates for the occasion.
Though not part of the official competition, the first day ofthe
Olympic festival featured recitals and teachings from poets
and philosophers.
Because Olympia was a public space, it provided these orators
an excellent opportunity to earn the ear of wealthy aristocrats
with the goal of turning them into future patrons.
Oral tradition was so important in ancient Greece that some
Panhellenic festivals - like the Pythian Games in Delphi -
included orating contests as part of the official program.
Elis is most famous for its sanctuary of Olympia where the
Olympics were held. The main divinity of the sanctuary was
Zeus; its main temple was dedicated to him, and housed the
famous gold and ivory statue of Zeus made by Phidias.
Zeus was known as the king of gods and god of thunder. One
of his attributes was the thunderbolt, which was given to him
by the Cyclopes.
The coinage of Elis is associated with Olympia, and Zeus is
often depicted on the coins. They sometimes feature a head of
Zeus, but he's also commonly represented by his thunderbolt
- which served as the model for the region's banner - or his
signifying animal, the eagle.
Until up to 584 - 580 BCE, the Olympic Games were organized
by the Oxylides, an aristocratic family from the city of Elis.
Over time, however, the family seemingly died out, and the
responsibility of organizing the Games passed on to other
members of the Elaian aristocracy who were chosen
randomtly by lot.
The first organizers of the games were originally called
agonothetai - literally “those who held the games” - but their
name was eventually changed to hellanodikai.
Ancient Greek heroes were viewed as intermediates between
gods and men. Consequently, hero-cults were a distinctive
feature of Greek religion.
Most heroes originated from heroic epics, such as Pelops in
Olympia, but this quality was not always necessary. For
example, Erechtheus of Athens had a local hero-cult without
ties to an epic. On some occasions, extraordinary humans -
such as the founders of cities - could also become the objects
of a cult, like Brasidas in Amphipolis.
Hero-shrines, or heroons, were often constructed around the
hero's real for suspected) tombs.
One exception amongst hero-cults was the cult of Herakles.
Herakles was considered as much as god as hero, and his cult
was widespread. There were many large sanctuaries
dedicated to the demigod, such as the Herakleion in Thasos,
where he was viewed as one of the city's protectors.
Some athtetes achieved a level of fame that bordered on
mythical. The wrestler Milon of Kroton was one of them. In the
éth century BCE, he won events in every Panhellenic Game,
granting him the rare privilege of the title of periodonikes. He
won six victories in Olympia, in addition to several other titles
in the Panhellenic Games of Delphi, Nemea, and Isthmos.
He was appointed general by his city, and led an army during
the war between Kroton and Sybaris. In the battle that Led to
the destruction of Sybaris, Milon dressed like Herakles,
wearing a lion-skin and carrying a club.
Milon's strength was Legendary. He is reported to have carried
his own bronze statue to its place in Olympia. However, he
was not invincible. When he participated in his seventh
Otympiad, he competed against a fellow from Kroton in the
final. Before combat started, the opponent bowed as a sign of
respect, then managed to defeat Milon. Even so, it is Milon's
name that history remembers.
Although women were not allowed to compete in the Olympic
Games, it was still possible for them to win the equestrian
events. This is because horse and chariot races awarded not
the jockeys or chariot drivers, but the owner of the horses.
The first woman to participate in (and win) one of these races
was the Spartan princess Kyniska. She won events both in 396
BCE, and in the following Olympiad, and her victories made
her world-famous. She even erected a statue of herself and
her horses in Olympia. After her death, she was made a hero
in Sparta, and a shrine was builtin her honor.
Following Kyniska, other women like Euryleonis of Sparta,
Berenike, queen of Egypt, Belistiche of Makedonia, and
Timareta of Elis also went on to win equestrian events.
The modern concept of lighting of the Olympic Flame - a
practice started during the 1936 Games in Berlin - has its
roots in antiquity.
The carrying of the torch was at least partially inspired by the
lampadedromia, a relay-race that required runners to reach
the finish line while holding a still-burning torch.
However, although the lLampadedromia was held at many
religious festivals and sporting events, it was not an event in
the ancient Olympic Games.
Instead, the most important flame in Olympia was the sacred
Fire of Hestia, which was used to light the sanctuary's altars
during the festival.
The Kladeos river borders the western side of Olympia. lts
name comes from the river-god Kladeos, who according to
Pausanias shared an altar with Demeter behind the
sanctuary's temple of Hera.
Originally, Olympia's gymnasion and baths were erected along
the river's banks, but part of the gymnasion was destroyed
when the river changed course in the 4th century CE.
The river's new trajectory - along with flooding from the
Alpheios river in the Middle Ages - buried Olympia in
approximately four meters of silt, and the site was only
rediscovered in the 19th century.
The cult personnel of Olympia was made up of priests who
fulfilled different sacred purposes.
Theêkoloi were responsible for the general organization of the
cult, and performed sacrifices every month. They burned
incense mixed with grain kneaded in honey on the site's
different altars, and poured libations of wine.
Two soothsayers fulfilled the divining role previously hetd by
Olympia's Oracle of Zeus, and four spondophoroi worked as
libation bearers.
Meanwhile, exegetes were in charge of explaining Olympia's
rituals to foreigners who came to the sanctuary to sacrifice.
There was also a mageiros, who was something of a butcher
and cook. The mageiros killed the animal being sacrificed, cut
it, and cooked it so it could be served at a later banquet. The
very first Olympic winner, Koroibos of Elis, was a mageiros.
The main buildings where athletes trained were the
gymnasion and the palaistra.
In the gymnasion, athletes trained for races and pentathlon
events. In the palaistra, they trained for wrestling and boxing.
Wrestlers and boxers could train in the Korykeion room,
where a suspended leather bag full of sand [korykos] served
as a sort of punching bag.
All athletes competed and trained nude. The reason for the
introduction of athletic nudity is not immediately clear. The
etymology of gymnasion pointed to nudity, as the Greek word
gymnos means “nude”. According to Thucydides, this
innovation came from Sparta. He says that Lakedaimonians
were the first to practice sports naked. Tradition says that
Acanthos of Sparta, who won the diaulos and the dolichos
races in the Olympic Games of 720 BCE, would have been the
first to do this.
But Pausanias had another version of the story. He tells that
the first to run naked in Olympia was Orhippos of Megaris in
720 BCE. He supposedly did this believing that nudity would
help him run faster.
Sounion held a festival every four years. While not much is
known about the specifics of the festival, it probably occurred
during the 5th century BCE, and was important enough for
officials to commandeer a ship specifically to travel to
Sounion for the occasion.
Sounion hosted sacrifices as well, as evidenced by a ramp
leading through the central door meant to Lead animals to the
sanctuary. Fragments of Kouroi statues have also been found,
suggesting dedications were occasionally offered to the
sanctuary. However, when the first version of the temple was
destroyed by Persians, these dedications were probably
wrecked or stolen.
Fortunately, one large Kouros statue, probably from the 7th
century BCE, has remained mostly intact. It's possible the
statue - which depicts a naked young man with long hair -
survived the destruction of the temple by being hidden from
the Persians during their invasion.
Poseidon was the god of horses, earthquakes, and most
famously, the sea. Not to be confused with Pontos, the ancient
Greek personification of the sea, Poseidon's name means
“Lord of the earth” or “husband of the earth”.
Poseidon's family tree includes his father Kronos, his mother
Rhea, and his brothers, Zeus and Hades. Together, Poseidon
and his brothers deposed Kronos, after which Poseidon was
granted the kingdom of the sea.
His weapon and symbol was the trident. According to Hesiod,
much like Zeus's thunderbolts, Poseidon's trident was made
for him by three Cyclopes.
Sounion is located approximately 70 kilometers south of
Athens, at the southern tip of the Attika region. Prehistoric
tombs in the area suggest that Sounion was first inhabited
around 3000 BCE.
The sanctuary of Poseidon stood at Sounion's highest point. It
was an imposing structure that overlooked the sea from steep
cliffs - Appropriate, for a place dedicated to the powerful god
of the ocean.
(Behind the scenes)
Concept artwork on this spread by Gabrield Blain and Fred
Rambaud showcases the variety of opponents to be found in
Athens, Attika, and all over Greece. The Athenian army is
similar to the Spartans', but does have key differences. The
Athenian breastplates are smooth, favoring motifs and
symbols over representation of muscles. And there is of
course the color: Athenians are always represented in blue so
they are recognizable to the player.
Philipiddes was a “hemerodrome”, a professional runner who
served Athens as a herald.
According to Herodotos, Athens sent Philipiddes to ask Sparta
for aid at Marathon. During his journey, he encountered the
god Pan in the mountains. Pan - who was half-man, half-goat
= complained that the Athenians did not honor him as much as
they should have - especially since he could render helpful
services like sowing panic and terror in the ranks of their
enemies. Following the Battle of Marathon, the Athenians
corrected their neglectful attitude towards Pan, and thanked
him for his help in their victory.
A tumulus was a special tomb in which the ashes of cremated
bodies were collected in purple cloth - purple being the mark
of royalty. The ashy remains were then placed in a bronze urn.
There is a large tumulus in the Kerameikos that was used
from the 560's BCE to the end of the 5th century BCE.
In Greece, hoplites were heavy infantrymen. They carried
round shields large enough to protect both themselves and
anyone to their left, and wore helmets, cuirasses, and
leggings.
Hoplites normally advanced in a phalanx formation of five to
seven lines deep. The phalanx allowed them to attack with
spears, and simultaneously defend themselves from any
cavalry and archers attacking from the front.
(Behind the scenes)
“Realizing an enormous battle on the scale of ancient Greek
warfare was quite a technical and design challenge. We
wanted to remain as true as possible to the tactics and
warfare of the time, but plenty of compromises were made for
gameplay, excitement, and technical constraints.” - Scott
Phillips
“Even making the Discovery Tour was a challenge as we
needed to show battlefields without explicitly showing a
battlefield. We opted for flags instead of violence to
communicate the events.” - Paul Green, Assistant Level
Design Director on Discovery Tour: Ancient Greece
Hippias was the son of Peisistratos, the tyrant of Athens. He
succeeded his father in 528 BCE, ruled with absolute power,
and brutally disposed of his enemies.
In spite of this, Athens was surprisingly peaceful and
prosperous under Hippias's rule. His reign ended in 510 BCE,
when a Spartan invasion of Attika led to his downfall.
Hippias fled to Asia Minor, where he came in contact with the
Persian king Darius. The disgraced tyrant would eventually
convince the Persians to land their forces at Marathon.
The Telesterion was the most important building of the
sanctuary at the far end of the Sacred Way. This was the
temple that was dedicated to Demeter, and the place where
the cults and mysteries took place. It was here that the climax
of the Eleusinian ceremonies happened, and it was in the
Telesterion that the priestesses revealed their visions, and the
initiates were prohibited from discussing the events that took
place.
The Telesterion was a square or rectangular building of
approximately fifty meters across with two entrances on each
side, with an exception on the western side that was built on
the rock. Inside there were eight rows of seats, and forty
columns supported the roof. In the center of the roof there
was a hole from where the light would enter the temple.
In the center of the Telesterion was a rectangular room called
the anaktoron, where all the sacred objects of the cult were
kept, and where only the Hierophant could enter.
Today the architectural remains visible on the site are those
of the Classical building.
Following the Greco-Persian Wars, Themistokles
recommended that Athens fortify both the city and the port of
Piraeus.
The fortifications started under Themistokles and were
further strengthened by Perikles and Kimon. Their efforts
contributed to the creation of the so-called "Long Walls” that
ensured Athens always had access to its port, even in times of
war.
Shipsheds were used to store ancient vessels called triremes.
The sheds were essential, as triremes required methodical
overhauling during the winter months when there was little to
no naval navigation.
The earliest shipsheds were built in the time of Themistokles,
and Perikles later built more sheds for the sum of 1000
talents. The sheds were originally made of wood before
transitioning to stone in the 4th century BCE.
In addition to being a trading center, Piraeus also functioned
as an industrial center that contained several factories -
many of which manufactured weapons during the
Peloponnesian War.
The former slave Pasion owned a shield factory, as did the
brothers Lysias and Polemarchos. The orator Demosthenes,
meanwhile, owned a factory that produced swords. These
factories all employed a large number of slaves, and were
extremely lucrative for their owners.
Maritime trade was a risky business, and not every ship
reached its destination.
For example, a merchant ship was wrecked near Kyrenia in
the 4th century BCE, and underwater excavations of its
remains have revealed much information about ancient Greek
shipbuilding.
The wreck's wooden hull was made of pine, and suggests the
ship was made using the “shell-first” technique, wherein the
shell of the boat was constructed before the rest of its parts.
The ship's cargo included jars filled with almonds, and over
400 wine amphoras. It also carried 29 milltstones that were
used as ballast to stabilize the vessel, and 300 lead net
weights that were likely used for fishing.
Originally, ports used fire to help guide ship navigators to
land. The innovation of placing fire on top of a platform led to
the development of the Lighthouse.
Ancient lighthouses started appearing in the archaic period,
around the 6th-5th centuries BCE. The island of Thasos had
three marble lighthouses that took the shape of small circular
towers placed on promontories.
One of the most famous lighthouses was the Pharos of
Alexandria, which stood at a height of over 100 meters.
Maritime trade was essential for Greek cities, and certain
products could only be acquired from overseas.
Large-scale trade occurred in the emporion. Greeks
conducted business amongst themselves, but also with other
places like Egypt.
Traded goods included grapes, olives, wine amphoras, grain,
wood, metal ore, textiles, and slaves.
The Athenian banner is inspired by the coinage of Athens in
the 5th century BCE. These coins show the main goddess of
the city, Athena, on one side, and an owl on the reverse.
Athena had several known attributes, but was mainly
associated with warfare, handicraft, and wisdom. She was the
patron of Athens - to which she gave her name.
The owl of Athena symbolized the goddess's wisdom and
protection, and was often depicted beside her in iconography.
These Athenian coins were so emblematic that they were
called the glaukes (owls) in antiquity.
The Themistoklean Walls were built out of slabs of stone
connected by iron bolts and fixed with molded lead.
Thucydides noted that it was easy to see that they were built in
a hurry in the face of Spartan opposition.
The Long Walls were meant to protect Athens in a different
manner than a regular wall of the time. Since they connected
the city with its two main harbors, they isolated Athens from
the mainland and, as long as she had a navy - the most
powerful one in the entire Greek world - it was technically
impossible to starve Athens into submission.
The very existence of these walls made possible the whole
strategy of Perikles during the Peloponnesian War, which was
to endure the Spartan invasions in the territory and to launch
counter-attacks by landing troops wherever Sparta and her
allies were vulnerable, gradually weakening them.
The walls were about six kilometers long, and they were
enforced with towers and ditches.
During the Peloponnesian War, Perikles's strategy was to
avoid land combat with the Spartans in favor of taking
advantage of Athens's naval supremacy. He also
recommended that the population of Attika leave their houses
and take refuge within Athens's walls.
The latter action ended up vastly increasing the city's
population. Many of the refugees ended up camping in
Piraeus, which became crowded as a result.
Within the same year, a plague began spreading through
Piraeus. Due to the dense population, the epidemic quickly
spread to Athens, killing approximately twenty-five percent of
the population - including Perikles himself.
In the 5th century BCE, the great statesman Perikles invited
Kephalos of Syracuse - father of the orator Lysias - to Athens,
where he wished him to open a weapons workshop. Kephalos
accepted, and settled in the Piraeus, the city's harbor. His
workshop revolved around the production of shields, and was
particularly extensive; it's is said that as many as 120 slaves
“worked” there.
In comparison, the father of Demosthenes, another Athenian
orator, owned a sword-making workshop that employed thirty
or so slaves, but brought in 3,000 drachmae a year - with the
wages of a skilled worker being one drachma a day.
Yet another illustrious Athenian, Sophokles, was born to a
wealthy manufacturer of armor. Unfortunately, we have little
information on these large or small workshops, which where
probably numerous in ancient Greece.
Miners used a variety of tools in their work.
To cut galleries, they mostly used an iron chisel with a
hammer, along with levels and wedges. Ore and sterile rocks
were later removed from these galleries with either leather
sacks or baskets of woven grass.
Oil lamps and torches, meanwhile, provided lighting for the
miners. The lights were designed to last for an entire work
shift.
Finally, mine maps were drawn on plates and stones to depict
topography.
The remnants of the Laurion mines remain impressive today.
Around 2,000 shafts and 140km of galleries have been
discovered, and some ancient cisterns and washeries are still
visible.
Much of the silver mined in Laurion was later transformed
into coins for Athens.
Coin production was a two-step process. The first step was
producing small disks of metal called "flans”, and the second
was striking the flans into coins.
Every coin produced had a specific weight that corresponded
to its value. To achieve this precision, ancient Greeks used
small pellets of silver to calculate the exact weight, then put
the pellets into a mold. While smelting, the pellets melded
together to form flans of a specific weight.
The striking process involved hammering images onto the
flans to turn them into coins. It is estimated that up to a few
thousand coins could be produced in a single day.
Copper and tin were very important to the ancient Greeks, as
they were used to make the bronze from which objects like
statues, tripods, and weapons were formed.
Lead was an important mineral as well, and was used in the
construction of water pipes and other features of architecture,
such as tenons and column drums. It was also used as a stain
in ornamental painting.
Iron, meanwhile, was the most widely available metal in
ancient Greece, and served to make arms and tools.
Mercury - or liquid silver - was used as an ointment
ingredient, as well as a pigment of the color red.
(Behind the scenes)
Greece is known for blistering hot sun, crystal clear seas, and
sandy beaches, but there is much more to the weather in
Odyssey than that. The weather system is huge and systemic,
the density of the clouds change to allow for storms and rain
to rollin off the sea. As art director Thierry Dansereau jokes,
“Since Syndicate, the team knows a lot about the rain!"
The weather also changes between biomes, complementing
the different topographies and creating a dynamic,
unpredictable environment. In these images, adverse weather
highlights very different atmospheres for the player to
navigate, giving the game a more immersive and realistic feel.
“To Enter the city of Athens, you had to walk through a
cemetery and pass near numerous corpses of criminals
sentenced to death...Nothing there to make you smile.
Imagine when it was raining...” - Caroline Soucy.
Honoring the dead was a duty expected by the gods.
Desecrating their bodies, allowing the bodies to be
desecrated, or forgetting them in the open air was a heinous
crime. It was expected to give the dead a proper funeral -
especially for fallen soldiers.
Bodies were commontly buried or consumed in the flames of a
funeral pyre. The pyre was especially common for dead
soldiers, as the heat and light of the fire were considered
appropriate send-offs.
Greek monuments were always painted, including the steles
erected to commemorate the dead. Some extensive traces of
red and black pigments can be seen even today.
The steles usually showed the deceased person in different
positions - one of the most common images being a hand-
shake with a family member.
Whether it was monsters battling gods, famous (or infamous)
lovers, or heartbreaking tragedies, artists used their clay as a
canvas to depict whatever they desired.
Vases made in the Kerameikos told many stories, ranging
from scenes from everyday life, such as two young Athenians
flirting with each other, to phenomenal cosmic battles, like
Perseus slaying Medusa. By the 5th century BCE, painters and
potters drew on a wide variety of inspirations for their work.
Although some Athenian vases are lauded today as
masterpieces, their exact value in ancient Greece is often a
matter of debate. Workers in the Kerameikos were craftsmen,
and operated largely outside the elite social spheres they
often depicted on their pottery. This fact, combined with
surprisingly low price indications on even the largest and
most elaborate Athenian vases, suggest that vases were not
exorbitantly expensive. However, certain dedications made by
craftsmen like Euphronios hint that some workshops were
very successful.
Most vases made in Athens ended up far away from the
Kerameikos, traveiling as far France, the Near East, and
Egypt. Boatloads of Athenian pottery were also shipped across
the Mediterranean Sea to be sold in Italy, where they made
their way into homes, religious sanctuaries, and graves.
One of the richest export markets for pottery was Etruria in
central Italy. As a result, Etruria is the source of some of the
best-preserved Athenian vases. Some of these vases have
even been marked with Etruscan graffiti that allows
archaeologists to learn more about their functions.
Sometime at the end of the óth century BCE, the Kerameikos
hosted a group of artists now known as the Pioneers. The
Pioneers were colleagues who worked in the at-the-time new
red-figure style, exploring its artistic potential in
revolutionary ways. Artists like Euthymides, Euphronios,
Phintias, and Smikros - identified by signatures on their work
almost 2500 years later - brought new innovations to
portrayals of everything from aristocratic parties to
mythological duels. The members of the Pioneers even
playfully painted each other into different scenes.
Among the Pioneers, Euphronios is one of the most famous.
He is recognized for his skillful rendering of the human body,
as well as the experimental perspectives he employed to
bring scenes to life.
Ancient Greek pottery came in all shapes, sizes, and colors,
and served a multitude of different purposes. Unfortunately,
there are few clues as to what different kinds of vases were
called. However, modern scholars have assigned certain
Greek words to different vases based on their size and
possible function.
Pottery vessels were ubiquitous in the ancient world, and
were used for everyday activities Like eating and drinking.
They were also used in religious functions and athletic
competitions, and some even served as baby rattles.
The types of vases associated with symposia - the all-male
drinking parties of the Athenian elite - are some of the most
well-known examples of Athenian pottery. For example,
amphoras held wine, while mixing bowls called kraters were
used to dilute the wine with water. Meanwhile, oinochoe
functioned as pitchers, and kylixes were used as shallow wine
cups.
In the 5th century BCE, all citizens could theoretically attend
the Athenian assembly, which governed not only civic affairs
but also the affairs of an entire empire. Needless to say,
managing the assembly was complex, and one of the main
challenges was ensuring the meetings were conducted in a
timely fashion.
It was especially important that every citizen was given the
same amount of time to speak. For this reason, a water clock
known as a klepsydra was set up at the Pnyx to ensure every
orator spoke for the same allotted time.
A klepsydra was made up of two large vases, one above the
other, and a small tube. The tube poured water into the
bottom vase over the course of six minutes, then the vases
were switched and the process repeated itself.
In addition to keeping time at assembly meetings, klepsydrae
were also important in courts of law, where they ensured both
the prosecution and the defense had equal time to speak.
One of the Athenian democracy's unique features was the
practice of ostracism. Originally implemented to prevent the
rise of another tyrant, ostracism involved the temporary
exiling of an Athenian by his fellow citizens.
Every year, citizens would vote in the assembly over whether
or not an ostracism would take place. If they voted yes,
another vote would later be held in the agora to determine
which citizen would be ostracized. Each citizen wrote the
name of a potential candidate on a fragment of pottery called
an ostraka. If more than 6,000 votes were cast, the person
who was named most frequently had 10 days to leave the city,
after which he would remain in exile for 10 years.
From 487 BCE to 415 BCE, a number of prominent Athenians
were ostracized for a variety of reasons. Relatives of Hippias,
the last tyrant of Athens, were exiled after they were
suspected of wanting to overthrow the city's democracy. The
general Kimon, meanwhile, was ostracized for pursuing an
unsuccessful policy of friendship with Sparta. But perhaps the
most famous ostracism was that of Themistokles, a general
renowned for his exemplary service in the Greco-Persian
Wars.
Despite the luxuriousness of public buildings, the streets of
Athens were, for the most part, narrow and tortuous.
Nevertheless, efforts were made to improve urban planning,
such as in the Sth century BCE, when architect Hippodamos of
Miletos created a grid plan of the city with parallel streets and
rectangular intersections.
Greek cities in the 5th century BCE also became more sanitary
thanks to innovations like clean running water and sewers for
waste removal.
In Athens, streets and public places were placed in the care of
special magistrates known as astynomoi, or “police officers”.
The principal duty of these officials was to keep streets and
sanctuaries clean, and to organize the efficient disposal of
garbage outside the city walls.
Perikles was one of the most influential men in Athenian
politics during the second half of the 5th century BCE.
Historians even refer to the period he was in power as “The
Age of Perikles”.
Athens flourished under Perikles's leadership. With his
guiding hand, the Delian League transformed into the
Athenian empire, and all the League's members were made to
regularly pay tribute to the city. Because of this new income,
Athens was able to erect extravagant monuments on the
Akropolis, such as the famous Parthenon.
During the Peloponnesian War, Perikles's strategy was to
conduct a naval war, preferring to keep himself within the
walls of Athens. However, as a consequence of the city's
overpopulation, a plague spread through the population and
killed many people, including Perikles himself.
The Greek household was protected by many gods.
Zeus Herkeios - or “Zeus of the Fence” -- was worshipped at a
courtyard altar, and supposedly protected the house from
outside aggressors.
Zeus Ktesios - "Zeus of the Property” - was linked to a
house's family and their wealth. He was represented by a two-
handled jar wrapped in a white woolen fillet and filled with
various seeds, water, and olive oil.
Other gods include Hestia, who was the eponymous goddess
of the domestic hearth, as well as Hermes and Apollo, who
are both mentioned as being guardians of the front door.
Representations of Herakles were also known to stand near
houses, possibly to protect them from crime and the forces of
evil.
Bedrooms in antiquity were generally small and sparsely
furnished. Greek bedrooms usually contained a Kline (couch],
tables, klismoi [chairs], stools, incense burners, and chests to
store clothes and other objects. In general, the amount of
furniture corresponded to the wealth of the family, with richer
people able to afford more furniture.
According to ancient architects, the ideal place for bedrooms
was on the western side of the courtyard to catch the morning
sun. This explains why most bedroom windows had shutters
to keep the light out.
While Greek houses had windows, they usually looked out
onto the central courtyard, as opposed to the outside streets.
They were placed either on the first floor, or on a high wall so
passers-by couldn't peek inside.
The windows were small and without glass. They were often
made of wood, but could also be simple holes in the wall.
Some windows also had massive stone lintels and
embrasures.
The windows were probably closed by means of wooden
shutters, large grilles of wood or metal, or stone slabs.
The geranos (cranel, or mechane [machine], was located on
the right end of the stage, and could suspend and carry actors
through the air. This was especially useful for portraying
characters like gods or heroes.
On top of the skene, there was also a roof called the
theologeion ("where the gods speak”) that was reserved for
the appearance of divine beings.
Greek dramatists would often employ gods to resolve difficult
and complicated conflicts. The god would first be lifted
through the air by the geranos, then land on the theologeion
before resolving the drama with a neat solution.
This process inspired the expression “deus ex machina” - or
“theos apo mechanes” in Greek. The expressing refers to the
sudden resolution of a seemingly unresolvable situation.
An altar consecrated to Dionysos is believed to have stood in
the center of the theater's orchestra. This central altar would
have been the focal point of the choral dance. However, some
archaeologists have suggested the altar was actually on the
side of the orchestra, and there has also been debate about
whether or not it was a permanent fixture in the theater.
The altar was used in religious ceremonies before and after
performances. Dionysos was worshipped with food offerings
and the sacrificing of animals like cattle, sheep, pigs, and
goats. He was also offered wine libations, befitting his title as
the god of wine.
In addition to its sacred uses, the altar could also function as a
stage property in various plays, like Agamemnon's tomb in
“Choephoroi”, and the omphalos of Delphi in “The
Eumenides”.
The skene was a backstage area where costumes and
accessories were stored. It was also where actors went for
costume and mask changes.
The word “skene” means “tent” or “hut”, suggesting that
older versions of the structure were made of perishable
material and were only meant to be temporary. Over time,
however, the skene underwent many changes.
The first permanent stage-house was built in Athens in 330
BCE. It had projecting structures called paraskenia at each
end, and a forestage called a proskenion was added sometime
later.
Together with the proskenion came elevated Logeion, and an
upper façade known as the episkenion which had large
openings called thyromata.
Together, all these structures provided actors with several
different ways of entering and exiting the stage.
During the Classical period, Dionysos was the most important
Athenian deity after Athena herself. He was worshipped both
inside and outside the city, and the festival dedicated to him -
the Great Dionysia - integrated not only citizens, but also
metics and foreigners from the colonies.
Dionysos was portrayed as a double-faced god: both human
and animal, male and effeminate, young and old. He dealt
with murders, madness, and violence, but was also the nicest
of the gods when it came to mortals.
“The Bacchae”, a tragedy by Euripides, emphasizes Dionysos's
duality. In the play, the god's worshippers are sweet and
joyful, but a king named Pentheos is also murdered in his
name.
(Behind the scenes)
“Music was everywhere in Ancient Greece and we wanted to
reflect this in the game. Musicians played in the sanctuaries,
the Olympics, the villages and the cities.
Music had many uses, including singing and playing during
ceremonies, creating rhythm during combat training and for
entertainment.
Working closely with our musicians in the UK, Canada and
Greece, we created original songs that reflected important
moments in the story, instrumental music to provide
entertainment throughout the world, and ancient Greek
sailors songs for the boat” - Lydia Andrew
The easternmost building on the Akropolis was the open-air
walled sanctuary of Pandion, built ca. 450 BCE.
Pandion was a mythical Athenian hero invented in order to
explain the beginnings of old rituals dedicated to certain gods
- in this case, Zeus. He was probably credited with being the
first to perform the rites of Pandia, a festival believed to have
been dedicated to Zeus. The sanctuary housed his statue and
served as a heroon, or a hero's shrine.
Modern scholars believe this sanctuary's Pandion to be one of
the two Legendary Athenian kings: either Pandion |, son of
Erichthonius, or Pandion Il, father of Aigeus.
When Kleisthenes established Athens's democracy in 507 BCE
and divided the population in 10 newly created tribes, Pandion
was selected to give his name to the Pandionis tribe, thus
becoming one of the eponymous protectors of the Athenian
population. Another statue of him was raised in the Agora -
Athens's marketplace and public square - as part of the
sculptural ensemble of the 10 eponymous heroes.
The most important element of ancient Greek cults was the
sacrifice to gods. Consequently, the most important
structures were the altars where the sacrifices were
slaughtered and burnt. Therefore, the Great Altar of Athena
Polias, the patron deity of Athens, was the holiest and most
significant monument on the Akropolis.
The exact location of the altar is unknown, but it seems that it
was erected to the east of the Erechtheion, in the northern,
most sacred part of the Akropolis. While other buildings were
frequently dismantled and erected anew, the altar's position
did not change for hundreds of years.
In Perikles's time, the altar built ca. 525 BCE by the sons of
the great tyrant Peisistratos was probably remodeled as an
impressive stepped structure, so that it could easily host
sacrifices as large as the Panathenaia festival's hecatomb,
which involved the slaughtering of 100 cattle, as implied by its
name (hekaton = “one hundred”; bous = “ox").
A karyatid is an ancient architectural pillar or column in the
shape of a young maiden.
Many ancient buildings had karyatids, but the most famous of
them is the Erechtheion. Its south porch was embellished with
six karyatids, which were known in ancient Athens as korai, or
“young maidens”.
According to the Roman architect Vitruvius, the maiden-
shaped columns were inspired by the women of the Lakonian
town of Karyze, near Sparta. Karya's inhabitants betrayed the
Greeks by plotting with the Persians, and as a consequence
for this crime, the male population of the city was
slaughtered, while the women were enslaved; hence their
depiction as burden-baring piltars. Other, more positive myths
suggest that the karyatids were inspired by the tall and
beautiful maidens of Karyze, who would dance for the goddess
Artemis.
The karyatids' usage in the Erechtheion, where they stand
above Kekrops's tomb, might be related to the king's funerary
cult, as they originally held phialai - vessels for pouring
libations to the dead.
In the aftermath of the Battle of Thermopylai, the Athenian
authorities announced it was up to the city's own population to
protect their families from the oncoming Persian threat.
Athens's people scattered to Salamis, Aegina, and Argolis,
and it's said that even the sacred snakes that protected the
Akropolis fled the city.
By the time the Persian army arrived in Athens, the only
people left on the Akropolis were the sacred treasurers and
the people who had stayed behind to barricade the citadel.
The Persians killed the remaining Greeks and set fire to all of
the Akropolis, including the Olive Tree of Athena. Allegedly,
the sacred tree miraculousty grew back the following day - a
hopeful image that ties in nicely with the Greeks' victory at the
Battle of Salamis in 480 BCE.
Trials were presided over by official magistrates, and the jury
was composed of citizens, or heliasts. Any citizen could make
an accusation, and if the defendant was convicted, the
accuser received a portion of the sentenced fine. This practice
led to the eventual appearance of professional accusers
known as Sycophants.
The accuser and defendant were given equal time to speak,
and their allotted time was measured by a water clock called
a “klepsydra”. Their speeches were often prepared by
professionals known as logographs.
After the speeches, jurors secretly cast their votes by putting
a token in one of two urns. Interestingly, if the accusation was
unfounded, the accuser could be convicted instead.
Today, an olive tree grows on the western side of the
Erechtheion. Although it was planted in 1952 by members of
the American School of Archaeology, it is conveniently
believed to be descended from a sacred olive tree planted
during the foundation of Athens.
Myth says that when Athena and Poseidon competed to
become the patron deity of the new city, they were required to
bring gifts to its citizens. Athena struck the Akropolis with her
spear, and the sacred olive tree sprouted from the ground.
For these reasons, ancient Greeks thought that Athenian olive
trees were the holiest in all of Hellas.
Herodotos and Pausanias both report that the Persians
burned the tree in 480 BCE, only for it to grow again from its
ashes on the very same day. This miraculous revival is the
archetype for all the other subsequent resurrections of the
tree.
The Chalkotheke, meaning “bronze storehouse”, was built in
the available space between the Parthenon, the temple of
Artemis Brauronia, and the Akropolis's southern wall.
The building was used as a storehouse for the bronze and iro
items of Athens's treasury, either around 450 BCE, during the
reform of the first Delian League, or in the 370s BCE, when
Athenian imperial ambitions were once again on the rise after
recovering from their defeat in the Peloponnesian War.
Most information on the Chalkotheke was preserved on four
4th century BCE inscriptions, which were displayed nearby
and contained detailed inventories of the building's items,
including metal vases, statues, and above all, weapons and
armor. The Chalkotheke therefore also functioned as a
military arsenal, as further evidenced by the stockpile of
artillery and naval equipment the Athenians stored in the
building in 320 BCE.
In ancient Greece, priests and priestesses were either
designated or elected from among citizens and clerical
families.
They performed sacred rituals on special occasions like
festivals, or when otherwise required.
Priest houses are often linked with the priesthood, but priests
did not actually live in them, preferring to stay at their own
homes in the city's residential quarter.
Instead, the main purpose of priest houses was to provide
priests with a space to carry out their rituals during specific
days on the religious calendar.
Priest houses were considered too sacred for the mundane
activities of daily life, and priests had to perform purification
rituals - such as a period of chastity - before they were
allowed to enter.
The Stoa of Zeus Eleutherios stood out because of its
architecture. It followed the form of most civic buildings, but
with the addition of two projecting wings on either side. On top
of each of these wings were akroterion of Nike, the goddess of
victory.
The cult of Zeus Eleutherios, the "Zeus of Freedom”, was
established after the Battle of Plataia in 479 BCE - the Greek :
victory that ended the second Persian invasion. The Stoa was
built in the latter half of the 5th century BCE.
According to Pausanias, the shields of those who died fighting
for the liberty of Athens were prominently displayed on the
monument.
This altar dedicated to the twelve gods seems to have served
as both a place of refuge and a topographical point of
reference. Herodotos used the altar to give sample distances,
and it functioned as a milestone for all distances in Attika.
The altar was dedicated by the archon Peisistratos in 522 BCE.
The exact identity of the twelve gods is still debated, but itis
commonly accepted that they were the same twelve Olympian
gods that were represented on the east frieze of the
Parthenon.
Apollo was a complex deity with several different attributions.
He was the god of art, music and poetry, Light and knowledge,
prophecies, and medical healing.
He was the son of Zeus and Leto, and the brother of Artemis.
Since Hera was very jealous of Zeus's extramarital lovers,
Leto was forced to seek refuge in Delos to bear her child.
Apolto was depicted as a young, beardless, and beautiful man.
His main symbols were the lyre, the bow, the tripod, and the
laurel branch.
Apollo had several sanctuaries in Greece, but the most
famous was the sanctuary in Delphi, where his Oracle resided.
Bills passed by the prytaneis had to be submitted to the citizen
assembly, the ekklesia.
The boule and the ekklesia worked together in coordinating
and calling the assembly. When laws were voted on, they sent
the relevant decrees to the city's magistrates and inhabitants.
They were the link between decisions made in the assembly
and their implementation.
The boule also supervised other matters like city finances,
magistrate coordination, sacred affairs, etc.
The Monument of the Eponymous Heroes was built in honor of
the heroes from whom the ten founding tribes of Athens took
their names. The bronze statues were erected on a marble
base that also served as an official notice board for the
Athenian people.
Athens was divided into ten tribes when Kleisthenes
reorganized the political system in 508 BCE. The tribes' ten
heroes were chosen from amongst the mythical figures of
Athens by the Oracle at Delphi. The chosen figures were
Erechtheus, Aigeus, Pandion, Leos, Akamas, Oeneus,
Kekrops II, Hippothoon, Ajax, and Antiochos.
Athens's tribal structure meant that citizens voted by tribes,
and the council of the Boule featured a rotation of tribal
delegations.
In the precinct of the Hephaisteion, excavators have
discovered archaeological traces of the "Garden of
Hephaistos”. According to their findings, trees and shrubs
used to be planted in rows running parallel to the main
structure.
The South Stoa was, unsurprisingly, Located on the south side
of the agora. Built during the first decade of the
Peloponnesian War, the building was about 80 meters long,
and large enough to contain sixteen rooms.
Based on evidence of dining couches lining the walls, itis
thought that some of these rooms were dining halls where
magistrates were fed at public expense.
The purpose of another room was inferred by the discovery of
an inscription that suggested it was used by the metronomoi,
the magistrates in charge of weights and measures.
It's possible the other rooms had similar commercial
functions, as excavations in the building have turned up
numerous coins.
Water was supplied to the agora through fountain houses.
Aqueducts delivered the water to a reservoir, and the overflow
was evacuated through a drain. Fountain houses are amongst
the earliest public buildings in the agora.
Athenian coinage was the most abundant Greek coinage in the
5th century BCE. The coins came in many denominations,
from tiny coins weighing approximately 0.15g to larger
tetradrachms weighing 17.20g.
At one point, Athens even struck an issue of dekadrachms
weighing 43.209. These large coins dated back to the 460s
BCE, and have been linked to either the Athenian victory over
the Persians at the Eurymedon River - which resulted in an
enormous amount of seized booty - or the capture of Thasos
and its rich mines.
Athens also occasionally struck gold coins, and from the end
of the 5th century BCE, they minted bronze coinage as well.
Persian siege tactics were a bit more advanced than those of
the Greeks, for they knew how to build ramps to get their
troops past the city walls, and they also knew how to
undermine them - this explains their successes in taking the
lonian cities in Asia Minor that revolted before the outbreak of
the Greco-Persian Wars.
It would take another 200 years for the Greeks to Learn how to
properly build siege machines that were capable of breaching
walls.
Usual siege tactics involved two main approaches. The first
was starving a city into submission, but that was time
consuming and exposed the besieging army to the same
hardship as the besieged, and it was almost impossible if the
city in question was supplied by sea - this being the case of
Athens during these times. The second method involved
having spies or collaborators within the city walls that would
open the gates for the besiegers.
Therefore, the most common option for the attacker was to
devastate the fields of the defender to provoke the latter to
accept an open battle. This explains, in a way, the
development of the hoplite phalanx rather than hit and run
tactics using skirmishers. The phalanx was formed of a line
consisting of the very same citizens that were interested in
defending their belongings and their crops, while hit and run
tactics risked the destruction of those same crops.
Kore Phrasikleia is one of the most important works of
archaic sculpture. It depicts a young woman [kore], and was
found in Attika during excavations next to a young male
statue.
The statue is dated to 550-530 BCE and depicts a Kore wearing
sandals, a full length sleeved chiton, and a tall kalathos
decorated with flowers. In her hand, she holds a lotus bud.
She is also wearing earrings, a necklace, and two bracelets.
The height of the statue is 1.79 meters, and the preservation
of its polychromy is astonishing. Recent research confirms
the use of eleven different colorants, as well as gold and lead
foil.
We know the name of the deceased Phrasikleia because it is
inscribed on the base of the statue. Her young age is also
implied, as she is called maiden in the inscription, meaning
she died before she got married. On the left side of the base is
the name of the sculptor, Aristion of Paros. The base was not
buried with the Kore, but was used as a building material in a
nearby church, where it was recovered.
Aristion fabricated and signed other statues as well, which
allow us to date the creation of the statue of Phrasikleia to
between 550 and 530 BCE. It's not impossible that the artist
was associated with the sphere of power of the tyrants of
Athens, and that the statue might have belonged to the
Peisistratid family.
Eleusis is a city in West Attika, at the northern end of the
Saronic Gulf and at a distance of 20 kilometers from the
center of Athens.
The city of Eleusis was practically unknown until the 1930's,
when excavations determined the shape of the Classical city.
High on the summit, the akropolis of Eleusis was fortified
since the Mycenaean period, and the Sanctuary of Demeter
was situated lower down the hill and outside the fortification.
According to the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, Demeter herself
introduced the mysteries at Eleusis during the quest for her
daughter, Persephone. At some point, Demeter stopped at the
palace of King Keleos, and as a gift for his hospitality, she
taught Triptolemos the art of agriculture. From him, the rest
of Greece was educated in agriculture, anditis inin
Demeter's honor that the people of Eleusis built a sanctuary.
Demeter also taught the people the rites to the "Mysteries”, a
secret cult restricted to initiates.
The hymn to Demeter provides the association between myth
and ritual, and builds the necessary connection for the
establishment of the Eleusis cult.
Demeter and Persephone were worshiped together at Eleusis
and were referred to as “goddesses”. They were distinguished
from each other as “the older” (Demeter) or “the younger”
(Persephone).
The Battle of Salamis took place in 480 BCE, and ended in a
stunning victory for the Greeks. The battle marked the
beginning of the end of the second Persian invasion of Greece.
After the Greek loss at the Battle of Thermopylai, central
Greece was open to invasion by King Xerxes and his Persian
forces. Xerxes was closer than ever to the vengeance he
sought for the humiliations his father Darius suffered during
the first Persian invasion of Greece.
However, the city of Athens was much stronger than it had
been during Darius's time. Rich with resources from the
Laurion silver mines, the city used its considerable funds to
finance its military effort, with the general Themistokles
ordering the construction of 200 triremes.
The Athenians' strength was bolstered by their cooperation
with other Greek cities. At Salamis, the Greeks faced their
enemy together.
The battle itself occurred at sea, in a small closed bay west of
Athens. It was hard-fought on both sides, but in the end, the
Persians suffered far more casualties than the Greeks.
The last step in the funeral process was placing the deceased
into their tomb - an act known as “the deposition”. Although
this was a holy ceremony, the presence of a priest was not
required.
Women handled almost all preparations. Small offerings were
made to the dead - like when Achilles offered his hair to his
dead friend Patroklos.
A banquet called a perideipnon was held for mourners, and
was typically prepared by the grieving women. This is why
women were almost always the first to leave the funeral
proceedings while others lingered.
Even in their earliest days, Greeks used perfume in funeral
rites, as seen in Achilles's anointing of Hector's body in “The
Iliad”.
Perfume helped prepare and preserve the body for its
“journey to the beyond”. Flasks of perfume also accompanied
the deceased to their grave as a mark of social status and a
balm for “the eternal banquets”. If the deceased was too poor
to afford these bottles, they were painted on their coffins as a
sort of empty consolation.
Even when a body was burned on a pyre, mourners threw
incense in the fire, and afterwards mixed the ashes and bones
with precious ointments before enclosing them in funeral
urns.
While Athens did not have a bureaucracy in place to
permanently run the city and the rest of its empire, it did elect
more than 1,000 officials every year to manage its affairs.
Most of these officials had very minor responsibilities, and
therefore only worked part-time.
The vast majority of officiais were chosen by lot, but the most
important ones were elected by popular vote in the Athenian
assembly. In both cases, citizens who wished to hold one of
the positions had to first nominate themselves.
Citizens had to be thirty years old to qualify for an official
position, and even then, they could still be dismissed. Despite
these limitations, however, up to 5% of all Athenian citizens
were appointed or elected to official positions on a yearly
basis, or became part of the Council of 500.
Depending on the year, up to 100 officials were elected. The
most important of these were the ten generais, or strategoi.
The generals were officially in charge of military matters, but
over the course of the 5th century BCE, their influence
expanded to political matters as well. For example, Perikles
was elected general 15 times between 443 and 429 BCE, and
used that time to cement his hold on Athenian politics.
Religion was an important aspect of Greek private life. Though
the walls of the house provided physical protection, the family
needed divine protection as well, and for this they turned to
Zeus. Every house had an altar dedicated to Zeus Herkeios [of
the Fencel] that the family could worship at by offering
sacrifices and libations in the god's honor.
Sacrifices were also performed in the house on special
occasions like weddings, births, or for the festival of Zeus
Ktesios. The Greek dramatist Menander mentions that
worshippers would circle the altar with sacrificial tools like a
vessel of holy water. They sprinkled the water around the
altar to purify it, then began the sacrifice proper. Household
sacrifices could be animals, but also offerings of incense and
vegetables.
The ceremony of Amphidromia celebrated the presentation of
a newborn, and might have taken place in the courtyard. The
ceremony was held when the baby was five days old, and
symbolized its acceptance into the family. Friends were
invited to the occasion, and the house's exterior was
decorated differently depending on the sex of the child: olive
branches indicated a boy, while garlands of wool signaled a
girl.
The most central part of the Amphidromia was the circling the
house's hearth with the newborn, followed by the presenting
of the child to both the house's gods and the rest of the family.
The newborn also received their name during the ceremony.
The Panathenaia was the most important religious festival in
ancient Athens. It was held each year at the end of July and
beginning of August. Every four years, the festival was
celebrated on an even greater scale - this was known as the
Great Panathenaia.
According to some scholars, the Great Panathenaia was
expanded from the Lesser Panathenaia by the tyrant
Peisistratos in 566 BCE, to serve as Athens's own version of
the Olympic Games.
The celebrations included a day procession of Athenian
citizens and resident aliens, athletic games, music and
rhapsodic contests, a night procession with a torch relay race,
great sacrifices, and communal feasting.
The festival was so important to ancient Athenians that many
iconographic, sculptural, and written testimonies of the
celebrations were preserved. Furthermore, numerous
Panathenaic amphoras (containers) were discovered all over
the Greek world. They were great vessels filled with the most
expensive Athenian olive oil, and were awarded to the winners
of the Panathenaic games. The amphoras were decorated
with specific scenes - such as young men running or Athena
Promachos wearing military equipment - and they could be
sold by the champions for significant amounts of money.
Besides Athena Polias and Poseidon-Erechtheus, Athenians
believed their city was also protected by Zeus Polieos (of the
city). This was based on Zeus being the judge of Athena and
Poseidon's mythical competition to become Athens's chief
deity.
Consequently, a small walled open-air sanctuary was erected
to Zeus Polieos ca. 500 BCE. There are no traces left of it,
other than cuttings in the bedrock interpreted by
archaeologists to be either remnants of a barn for sacrificial
animals, or chutes designed to lead the animals to slaughter.
The main ritual dedicated to Zeus Polieos was the Bouphonia
("the ox murder”), which took place each summer during the
greater festival of Dipolieia. Two working oxen, whose
sacrifice was normally prohibited, were led to the sanctuary
altar, where grain was spread. The first ox to eat the grain
was considered to consent to being sacrificed, and was slain
by a member of the Thaulonidai family, who subsequently had
to throw aside his axe and flee the Akropolis. That man and
his companions were later tried for “murder”, but always
acquitted. In the end the sacrificial axe (or knife) was found
guilty and thrown into the sea.
The ritual, believed to be very archaic, was based on the myth
of a priest who accidentally killed a ploughing ox and had to
expiate the sin through annual sacrifices to Zeus. It reminded
the ancient Athenians that laboring beasts should not be
sacrificed, and that they should respect the sacred laws of
raising special sacrificial animals. Modern scholars also think
the ritual was a means to explain how humanity passed from
grain and honey offerings to animal sacrifices.
There was no professional qualification needed to become a
priest or a priestess. A wealthy family, luck, and, less often,
the will of the Public Assembly were the only criteria that
mattered. Many priesthoods stayed within the same families
or clans for generations, as the appointment of priests outside
the members of the clan was strictly prohibited. For example,
in Athens, both the priestess of Athena Polias and Poseidon-
Erechtheus had to come from the Eteoboutadai.
Priests and priestesses were in charge of the sacrifices to the
gods, and of any other cultic duties preserved by tradition.
They also assisted political leaders and other citizens who
wished to correctly perform public and private religious
activities. Lastly, they presided over the affairs and resources
of their assigned sanctuary.
They were held in high esteem by their fellow citizens, and
their political opinions carried a lot of weight in public
debates. In certain cities, the annual priesthood of the main
cult was even used as a way of measuring time. Priests and
priestesses also received significant shares of the sacrifices
they performed.
Although priests generally enjoyed the same freedoms and
rights as citizens - like that of living at their own homes - they
also had to follow restrictive rules. Besides more general
requirements such as fasting and undergoing a period of
chastity before certain rituals, there were also strange
restrictions. For example, in Attika, the priestess of Athena
Polias was not allowed to eat cheese.
The myth of Poseidon and Athena's competition for Athens's
patronage was one of the most well-known in Periklean
Athens, and was even depicted on the West Pediment of the
Parthenon. It was recounted later by many Greek and Roman
writers, and in many different forms.
The basic version of the story states that the half-man half-
serpent Kekrops, the first king of a newly founded city in
Attika, needed the location to have a patron deity. Poseidon
was the first to apply, and struck the rock of the Akropolis
with his trident, turning it into a salty spring that he offered to
Kekrops's subjects as a gift [in later versions, the spring is
replaced by a horse, Poseidon's favorite creature). Athena
struck the rock as well, and an olive tree sprouted from the
ground. Depending on the version of the myth, either Kekrops
or a divine jury ruled that Athena's gift was more precious,
and so she became the patron goddess of the city that was
thenceforth known as Athens.
The salty spring and the olive tree, which were both visible on
the Akropolis, were seen as symbols of seafaring and
agriculture, respectively. The earliest versions of the myth,
devised by landed elites, favored Athena and depicted
Poseidon as a vengeful ruffian who flooded part of Attika after
he had lost. However, after the naval battle of Salamis in 480
BCE and the creation of Athens's maritime empire, the sea-
minded Athenian democracy elaborated a new version of the
myth where the two gods are reconciled. Reconciliation was
reflected in the building of the Erechtheion, which was
dedicated both to Athena Polias [of the city) and to Poseidon
(Erechtheos).
Theseus is a hero linked with the mythological origins of
Athens. He was responsible for the political unification of
Attika, and as such, was considered a symbol of Athenian
democracy.
The myth of Theseus goes back to the 7th century BCE, but it
wasn't until the 5th century BCE that he started to be
incorporated into Athens's civic ideology as the founder of the
city.
Theseus was the son of Aegeus, king of Athens, and Aithra,
daughter of Pittheus. Aithra was also possessed by Poseidon,
which means Theseus had a divine father in addition to a
mortal one.
Aithra gave birth to Theseus on the island of Sphairos. After
growing up, Theseus travelled from Sphairos to Athens,
accomplishing several labors along the way.
These labors include killing the bandits Periphetes, Kerkyon,
and Prokruste, and killing the Krommyonian Sow, a wild pig
that was ravaging the region of Krommyon.
However, Theseus is best known for his capture of the bull of
Marathon, and his killing of the ferocious Minotaur.