Greek culture, scholars and thinkers

The epics the “Iliad” and the “Odyssey” are attributed to the Greek poet Homer; they build on legends of the Trojan War. According to the legend, Paris, son of the king of Troy, carried off Helen, wife of the king of Sparta, and the Greeks went to war against Troy. The “Iliad” tells of the last, tenth year of the war, with Achilles as the main hero. The wooden horse trick is known from later accounts (it is mentioned in the “Odyssey” and told fully in Virgil’s “Aeneid”); the phrases “Trojan horse” and “Achilles’ heel” are still used today. In the 19th century the German scholar Heinrich Schliemann dug at the Hisarlik mound in Turkey and found the ruins of Troy. Theatre appeared in Greece about 2,500 years ago; performances were held at festivals, and men played all the roles wearing masks. Sad plays are called tragedies (Sophocles — “Oedipus the King”, “Antigone”) and funny ones comedies (Aristophanes). Temples were built of stone; the most famous, the Parthenon in Athens, is of marble. The sculptor Phidias led the Parthenon’s construction; his statue of Zeus at Olympia counted among the Seven Wonders of the ancient world.