50 Fun Facts About Ancient Athens

In myth, which gift won the goddess Athena the patronage of Athens in a contest with a sea god?

An olive tree beat the sea god's rival gift, which in the best-known telling was a spring that turned out to be salty and undrinkable.

Which poison did the philosopher Socrates drink after an Athenian jury sentenced him to death in 399 BC?

Hemlock ended the life of Socrates at about 70, after he turned down his friends' offer to help him escape from prison.

Which Athenian lawgiver, whose code punished even cabbage theft with death, gave English a word for harshness?

Draco gave Athens its first written laws around 621 BC, replacing blood feuds with courts, and unforgiving rules have been called draconian ever since.

On what did Athenians scratch the name of a citizen they wanted banished from Athens for ten years?

Pottery shards were the scrap paper of Athens, and their Greek name, ostraka, is why shutting someone out is still called ostracism.

What method chose most public officials in democratic Athens, including the 500 members of the city council?

A random lottery struck Athenians as fairer than elections, which favoured the rich, so stone allotment machines called kleroteria drew the names.

Which Athenian temple was blown apart in 1687 when a Venetian shell hit gunpowder stored inside by the Ottomans?

The Parthenon had survived more than 2,000 years largely intact, serving as a temple, then a church, then a mosque, before the explosion wrecked it.

Which 490 BC battle did the citizens of Athens win against a Persian invasion force, aided only by little Plataea?

Marathon later became a race because of a legend that a messenger ran to Athens with news of the victory, a story revived for the first modern Olympics in 1896.

Which bird, sacred to the goddess Athena, was stamped on the reverse of the famous coins of Athens?

An owl was Athena's bird, and Athenians nicknamed the coins 'little owls'; the design barely changed for about two centuries.

Which philosopher lived in a large clay storage jar in Athens and carried a lit lantern in daylight?

Diogenes owned almost nothing on principle, and Athenians reportedly liked him enough to replace his jar when a young man broke it.

Which philosopher founded the Academy in a sacred grove outside the walls of Athens around 387 BC?

Plato's school took its name from the grove of the legendary hero Akademos, which is why places of learning are still called academies.

Which statesman led Athens through its golden age and began the building programme that crowned the Acropolis?

Pericles dominated Athenian politics from about 461 to 429 BC and paid for his temples out of the treasury that Athens' allies had funded for their common defence.

Which rival city-state forced Athens to surrender in 404 BC, ending the 27-year Peloponnesian War?

Sparta, a land power, won only after building a navy of its own, and a long siege then starved Athens into giving up.

In which 480 BC sea battle did an outnumbered Greek fleet lure the Persian navy into narrow straits near Athens?

Salamis was won by a trick: the Athenian general Themistocles sent the Persian king a message that tempted his ships into the cramped channel.

Which metal from the mines of Laurion paid for the war fleet Athens built on the advice of Themistocles?

Silver from a rich new seam found in 483 BC could have been handed out among the citizens, but the assembly was persuaded to spend it on a fleet instead.

Which type of warship, driven by 170 oarsmen and armed with a bronze ram, was the backbone of the Athenian navy?

The trireme took its name from its three rows of oars, and most of its rowers sat where they could not see out, so they had to pull blind in perfect time.

Which mythical king of Athens was said to have slain the Minotaur in the Labyrinth on Crete?

Theseus was Athens' national hero: his victory ended a grim tribute of seven boys and seven girls shipped off to feed the monster.

What was the name of the open marketplace northwest of the Acropolis that served as the civic heart of Athens?

The Agora doubled as a meeting place and law-court district, and records show women working there as innkeepers and stallholders.

Athenian tragedy and comedy were first staged at a spring festival held in honour of which god?

Dionysus was the god of wine, and the plays were performed in his theatre on the south slope of the Acropolis after a procession carrying his wooden statue.

Which Athenian playwright wrote Oedipus Rex and Antigone and was also elected one of the ten generals?

Sophocles wrote more than 120 plays, of which only seven survive complete, and went on campaign against the island of Samos as a general in 441 BC.

Which British ambassador had many of the Acropolis temple sculptures removed and shipped to Britain from 1801?

Lord Elgin's haul was bought by Parliament in 1816 and placed in the British Museum, and Greece formally asked for its return in 1983.

Which Athenian statesman and poet cancelled debts in the 590s BC in a reform nicknamed the shaking off of burdens?

Solon's own friends are said to have exploited the plan: tipped off in advance, they took out loans to buy land and never repaid them.

Which aristocrat, often called the father of Athenian democracy, sorted citizens into ten tribes by where they lived?

Cleisthenes broke up the four old family-based tribes in 508 BC so that noble clans could no longer run politics through their kinship networks.

Which Roman emperor finally completed the Temple of Olympian Zeus in Athens, some 638 years after work began?

Hadrian, a devoted admirer of Greek culture, dedicated the temple in AD 132, and the people of Athens raised a colossal statue of him behind it in thanks.

Which Persian king ordered Athens to be burned in 480 BC after his army overran the defenders of the Acropolis?

Xerxes captured an almost empty city, because most Athenians had already been evacuated by sea with the help of the Greek fleet.

Which harbour town, with three deep natural harbours, became the fortified home base of the Athenian fleet?

Piraeus replaced the open sandy bay that Athens had used before, and in the classical period its naval base held 372 ship sheds.

Which island did Athens invade in 415 BC, only to lose almost the entire expedition two years later?

Sicily swallowed the expedition: after a failed siege of Syracuse, nearly every Athenian who had sailed was killed, captured or sold into slavery.

From which sacred island was the treasury of the Athenian-led alliance moved to Athens in 454 BC?

Delos gave the Delian League its name, and moving the money, officially to keep it safe from Persia, tightened Athens' grip on its allies.

Which Athenian general, exiled for failing to save Amphipolis, wrote the classic history of the Peloponnesian War?

Thucydides spent twenty years in exile, which he said gave him the leisure to observe both sides of the conflict closely.

Which sculptor is credited with the colossal gold-and-ivory statue of Athena made for the Acropolis of Athens?

Phidias used more than a ton of gold on the statue, and the city treated it as a last financial reserve that could be melted down in an emergency.

What did public slaves use to herd loitering citizens from the marketplace into meetings of the Athenian assembly?

A red-stained rope did the job, and any citizen caught with the dye on his clothes had to pay a fine.

Which steppe people supplied the 300 enslaved archers who are said to have policed Athens in the fifth century BC?

Scythians were famed for their bowmen, though historians doubt the Athenian force really carried bows; the evidence is mostly vase paintings and comic plays.

On which rocky rise west of the Acropolis did the citizen assembly of Athens meet to debate and vote?

The Pnyx still keeps its bema, the flat stone speakers' platform from which orators addressed thousands of their fellow citizens.

What disaster struck Athens in 430 BC, killing about a quarter of the people crowded inside its walls?

A plague arrived in the second year of a long war and came back twice; some 30 different diseases have since been proposed as the culprit.

The six famous supporting columns on the south porch of the Erechtheion in Athens are carved in the shape of what?

Maidens in stone, known as caryatids, carry the roof on their heads; one of the six was removed in the early 1800s and taken to the British Museum.

In which Athenian sanctuary of Apollo did Aristotle set up his own school after returning to the city in 335 BC?

The Lyceum became home to what has been called the first European library, built from the books Aristotle collected while lecturing there.

Which school of philosophy is named after the painted colonnade in Athens where Zeno of Citium taught?

Stoicism takes its name from the Stoa Poikile, or Painted Portico, a covered walkway where Zeno lectured from around 300 BC until his death.

What name is given to the oligarchs installed to rule Athens after its surrender at the end of the Peloponnesian War?

The Thirty Tyrants held power for only eight months, yet they are reported to have executed 1,500 people without trial and seized citizens' property.

Which Athenian orator is said to have overcome a stammer by practising speeches with pebbles in his mouth?

Demosthenes also reportedly built an underground study to rehearse in and shaved half his head so that he would be too embarrassed to go out.

Which performer, winner of the first recorded tragedy contest at Athens in 534 BC, gave English a word for actors?

Thespis is credited with stepping apart from the chorus to speak as a character, using masks to tell his roles apart, which is why actors are called thespians.

Which northern kingdom defeated the allied armies of Athens and Thebes at the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC?

Macedon's king, Philip II, followed the victory by binding the Greek states into the League of Corinth, with himself as guarantor of the peace.

What is the name of the triangular peninsula in central Greece that formed the home territory of Athens?

Attica takes in Athens, its surrounding plains and the mining district near Cape Sounion, with Boeotia lying across its northern border.

What was an Athenian after-dinner drinking party called, at which guests reclined on couches for music and talk?

A symposium literally meant 'drinking together', and a typical room held only seven to nine couches, set against the walls away from the door.

Which sixth-century ruler regained power in Athens by arriving in a chariot beside a tall woman dressed as Athena?

Pisistratus sent heralds ahead to announce that the goddess herself was bringing him home, and the awestruck Athenians are said to have welcomed him back.

What were the free foreign residents of Athens called, who paid a yearly tax of twelve drachmas per household?

Metics included Aristotle, who as a foreigner could not buy property in Athens and so had to rent the buildings for his school.

Which mountain northeast of Athens supplied the high-quality marble used to build much of the Acropolis?

Pentelicus marble is white with a faint yellow tint, which makes buildings made from it glow gold in sunlight.

Which crime was the Areopagus, the Athenian council that met on a rock near the Acropolis, best known for trying?

Murder suited the spot: in myth the war god Ares was tried there for killing a son of Poseidon, and the outcrop was known as the Hill of Ares.

In kottabos, a game played at Athenian drinking parties, what did reclining guests flick at a target across the room?

Wine dregs were flung from the cup with a turn of the forearm, and one version of the game aimed to hit a small disc balanced on a bronze lamp stand.

What name was given to the 6 km fortifications that tied Athens to its harbours so it could outlast a siege?

The Long Walls kept the city supplied by sea while enemies held the countryside, which is why the victors made their demolition a condition of the peace.

Which mythical king of Athens killed himself on seeing a black sail and is said to have given a sea its name?

Aegeus had asked his son to hoist a white sail if he came home alive from Crete; the son forgot, and the king assumed the worst.

Which philosopher founded a school at Athens known as the Garden, whose members unusually included women and slaves?

Epicurus taught that philosophy was best pursued in a self-sufficient life among friends, and his circle was known for its simple meals.