The Olympic Games: How they all Began

By: James Sickinger

When we think of democracy, we usually think of the ancient Greeks, but identifying the exact origins of political practices can be tricky.

By: Michael B. Poliakoff

Three ancient Olympic combat events—wrestling, boxing and pancratium—reveal much about the aspirations and values of ancient Greece, about what was deemed honorable, fair and beautiful, both in the eyes of those of who competed and those who traveled to Olympia to watch.

By: Jelle Zeilinga de Boer and John R. Hale

According to Strabo and other sources, the Pythia who gave prophecies on behalf of Apollo was inspired by mysterious vapors. Is there evidence that intoxicating gases actually drifted through the Temple of Apollo at Delphi?

By: Theodore Feder

A wall painting found in the House of the Physician in Pompeii contains the earliest known depiction of a Biblical scene. Two onlookers in the crowd appear to be the Greek philosophers Socrates and Aristotle, according to author Theodore Feder. What do the onlookers reveal about the place of Biblical culture in the Greco-Roman world?

By: Daniel Ogden

When seeking “hidden” knowledge, ancient Greeks and Romans visited sacred oracles and consulted necromancers, who communed with the dead. The necromancer’s art often involved strange journeys, sleep-and-dreaming rituals and even blood sacrifices—since the ghostly shades were thought to need a tonic of fresh blood to become reanimated. Our modern fascination with exorcism and vampires suggests that necromancy is hardly dead.

By: J. Harold Ellens

Ptolemy’s grandest project, begun in 306 B.C.E., was the Library of Alexandria, a research center that held one million books by the time of Jesus.

By: David Gilman Romano

Beginning in 776 B.C. as a simple foot race, the quadrennial Olympic Games grew—during a span of 1,200 years—into the most prestigious athletic/religious festival of the Greek-speaking world.

By: Harrison Eiteljorg, II

The rebuilding of the Acropolis in the fifth century B.C.E. was the inspiration of the leader Pericles (c. 495–429 B.C.E.), who appointed the sculptor Phidias to supervise the entire project.

By: Ellen White

What does the ancient Aegean world in the west have to do with the Biblical world in the east? Quite a lot, according to Aegean archaeology specialist Louise Hitchcock.

By: Diane Harris Cline

One way we protect our things is to label them. Ancient Greeks were no different when it came to such practices, including two famous fifth-century B.C.E. Athenians.