Greek culture, scholars and thinkers

Greek philosophers tried to explain the structure of the world and the meaning of life. Heraclitus said “everything flows, everything changes” and held that all things came from fire. Democritus taught that everything consists of tiny invisible particles — atoms. Diogenes approved of a simple life and, the story goes, lived in a barrel. Herodotus (5th century BCE) wrote the “Histories” and is called the “father of history”. Aristotle divided knowledge into separate sciences and was the teacher of Alexander the Great. Archimedes (in Syracuse, 3rd century BCE) worked out the law of the lever; his cry “Eureka!” (“I have found it!”) is famous. Socrates of Athens (469–399 BCE) cared about the moral education of citizens and presented his ideas orally; his teachings reached us through his pupil Plato. Socrates’ motto: “Know thyself!” He was sentenced to death for criticizing Athenian practices and refused to escape. Hippocrates was a famous figure in medicine, Euclid in geometry and Pythagoras in mathematics.