Pherecydes

Philosopher (c.600 BC – c.520 BC)

Pherecydes was a pre-Socratic philosopher, poet and mystic from the island of Syros, as well as teacher of Pythagoras, who flourished during the 6th century BC, regarded as the first Greek writer to write in prose in recorded Greek literature. His work, influenced by Orphic thought, deals with cosmogony and recounts some of the earliest descriptions on the creation of the Universe based on the ancient Greek mythos, which he attempted to rationalize. 

Pherecydes, a contemporary of philosophers Thales and Anaximander, was student of Pittacus, one of the Seven Sages of antiquity, although to a large extent an autodidact. He founded his own school in Samos, where Pythagoras became his student. Indeed, Pherecydes exerted significant influence to Pythagoras and is said that when he died, Pythagoras was the one who buried him in Delos, the birthplace of Apollo.

His book Pentemychus or On the Nature of Gods is perhaps his most well known surviving treatise. This book is an esoteric interpretation of the creation of the Universe. It consisted of ten different tomes. It furthermore delved into the nature of the primordial deities and their genealogy. It is likely that he used Hesiod’s Theogony as a guidebook.

According to Pherecydes, in the beginning, there were Zeus, Time and Chthonie, the three eternal beings, which gave birth to the existing world. On the third day of Zeus’ and Chthonie’s marriage, Zeus bestowed Chthonie a veil, created by Time, on which were embroidered the Earth and the Ocean. This veil covered a floating oak tree. This and numerous other myths recounted by Pherecydes serve as allegories to his philosophy on the creation of the world, the transmigration of souls and the principles that govern the physical world. He was the first to personify Time, which was later incorporated in the figure of Cronus (Saturn).

As one of the earliest recorded thinkers in Greek history, Pherecydes’ philosophical logos helped shape Pythagoreanism and influenced important thinkers after him, such as Aristotle and Plutarch. His teachings are also said to have reached Egypt, where they became quite popular.

Bibliography:

1. Λεκάκης, Γεώργιος. Ὁ Ὀρφικὸς Φιλόσοφος Φερεκύδης, απὀ τὴν Σῦρο, διδάσκαλος τοῦ Πυθαγόρα. Ἀρχεῖον Πολιτισμοῦ. http://www.arxeion-politismou.gr/2022/01/orfikos-Ferekydis.html
2. Φερεκύδης. Νεότερο Ἐγκυκλοπαιδικό Λεξικό τοῦ Ἡλίου. Ἀθῆναι: 1952.
3. Stamatellos, Giannis. Pherecydes of Syros. Available at: https://www.philosophy.gr/presocratics/pherecydes.htm

Autolycus of Pitane

Mathematician, Astronomer (c.360 BC – c.300 BC)

Autolycus, whose name means he who shines himself like the Sun, was an eminent mathematician, astronomer and geographer from Asia Minor, teacher of the great philosopher Arcesilaus, whose works on astronomy influenced significantly mankind’s understanding on the movements of the plants and the stars. 

Modern researchers have come to know Autolycus’ work primarily through two of his surviving treatises. In the first entitled On the Moving Sphaere, by using a self-constructed replica of a sphere, with both poles, equators and parallel circles, he analyzes 12 issues on the astronomy of the sphaeres as well as on the geometry of celestial bodies. It is a treatise on mathematical astronomy that explores the mathematical/geometrical aspects of astronomy, and which was studied and incorporated by Euclid in his Phenomena.

In Autolycus’ second surviving treatise called On Risings and Settings of Stars, 13 astronomical theorems and propositions are presented, including on the visibility of the stars during day and night as well as on the zodiac cycle and its signs.

Autolycus’ two surviving treatises are two oldest existing works on astronomy in the world. They were extensively distributed in the East and the West, being translated into Latin and Arabic early on. Today, one of the largest impact craters on the Mare Ibrium of the Moon bares his name in his honour.

Bibliography:

1. “Autolycus of Pitane .” Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. . Encyclopedia.com. 12 Dec. 2023 <https://www.encyclopedia.com&gt;.
2. Γεωργακόπουλος, Κωνσταντῖνος. Ἀρχαῖοι Ἕλληνες Θετικοὶ Ἐπιστήμονες. β’ ἔκδοση. Ἐκδόσεις Γεωργιάδης. Ἀθῆναι: 1995.

Epaminondas

General of Thebes (419 – 360 BC)

Epaminondas, general and statesman of the legendary city of Thebes, was one of the greatest military figures in Greek history. A man of formidable might and unparalleled ethos, he transformed the city of Thebes from a small agricultural town to the most powerful city-state of the Greek peninsula, thus consolidating Thebes’ hegemony in all of Greece. 

Epaminondas descended directly from the line of Cadmus, the mythical king and founder of Thebes. In spite of his ancestry, he was poor for his entire life, denouncing riches and instead living a life of virtue and moral conduct. He studied under Lysis, an exiled Pythagorean philosopher, who imbued to him the traits of the first citizen of Thebes. It was said among his political successors that the most difficult thing to imitate about Epaminondas was not his military brilliance, but his philanthropy. Revered by many both as a statesman and as a person, Diodorus of Sicily refers to him as a man of preeminent virtue, while Cicero does not hesitate on naming him “the greatest of the Greeks”,

Serving two terms as Boeotarch (leader of the Boeotians), at a time when tensions between Athens and Sparta were still high as a result of the Peloponnesian War, Epaminondas was chosen to represent the city of Thebes in the panhellenic peace conference in 371 BC, organized by the Peloponnesian League, where he orated in favour of peace and justice between the Greek city-states. No agreement was reached, and war against neighbouring city-states ensued. Epaminondas was to play a decisive role in the forthcoming events.

There are two major battles of historical significance ardently connected with Epaminondas’ name. The Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC and the Battle of Mantinea in 362 BC. The Battle of Leuctra, fought between Spartans and Thebans was the battle which sealed Epaminondas’ name is history. He implemented the oblique order, a military tactic first conceived by him and which would secure his victory. The oblique order proved so effective that it would become a staple military tactic used in modern warfare, particularly by Napoleon and Frederick II of Prussia. The Battle of Leuctra marked the end of Sparta’s long dominance over Greece and rose the city of Thebes to power. 

He founded the city of Megalopolis in Peloponnesus, a city still inhabited today with over 10.000 population and one of the biggest exporters of lignite in Greece. He furthermore liberated the Messenians from Spartan rule and granted them autonomy. Within just 18 months, Epaminondas had established Thebes as the dominant city-state of Greece.

In 362 BC Epaminondas led the Thebans against the Spartans in the battle of Mantinea, when the neighbouring city-states retaliated alongside Sparta. Even though the battle was ultimately won once again by the Thebans, Epaminondas was fatally injured and killed in battle. He was buried at the site of the battle. At the time of his death, Thebes was the most powerful city-state in Greece, with allied city-states including most of the former allies of Athens such as Byzantium, Chios and Rhodes. 

While his legacy remained eternal, the same can not be said of Thebes.The city quickly fell into anarchy and was soon overshadowed by the kingdom of Macedonia, ruled by Philip II.

Bibliography:

1. Βολωνάκης. Ἰωάννης. Τῆς Ἀρχαίας Ἑλλᾶδος οἱ Μεγάλοι Ἡγέται. β᾽ ἔκδοσις. Ἐκδόσεις Γεωργιάδης. Ἀθῆναι: 1997
2. Ἐπαμεινώνδας. Νεότερο Ἐγκυκλοπαιδικό Λεξικό τοῦ Ἡλίου. Ἀθῆναι: 1952.

Alcmaeon

Philosopher, Physician (6th century BC)

Alcmaeon, by some regarded as the father of scientific psychology, by others the father of neuroscience, was a 6th century pre-Socratic philosopher, naturalist, cosmologist and physician. He performed some of the very first anatomical and experimental dissections in recorded history, made significant contributions in the field of human physiology, in particular in neurophysiology and the function of the brain, and attempted to explain the nature of the soul.

Before Hippocrates and Galen, Alcmaeon was considered as the leading physician of his time, who introduced the scientific method in medicine. He was the director of the medical school of Croton, where Democedes, another great physician studied. Alcmaeon was a Pythagorean philosopher and as such, many of his theories and observations were influenced by Pythagoras.

He was the first to postulate that the brain is the seat of intellect, as well as the center where all sensations are processed. He correctly identified the nerves that conduct the visual information from the eyes to the brain. He named them poroi or sensory channels. Today they are known as the optic nerve. Alcmaeon studied all of the sensory organs extensively, except for the tactile sensation of the skin. He crudely bur correctly explained how the ear received sound stimuli and conveyed them to the brain. By processing all sensory information relayed to it, the brain produced memories as well as higher functions of the soul. 

He believed the soul to be immortal and attributed its immortality to the similarity of the celestial bodies. Both moved in perpetual motion, and both moved themselves. This internal capacity of the soul and the celestial bodies to move themselves granted both with a divine attribute. On studying sleep, Alcmaeon believed that sleep is the result of decreased blood flow to the brain through the cerebral veins. When they were refilled with blood it would result in awakening. On the contrary, complete cessation of blood flow to the brain resulted in death. 

Alcmaeon’s theories in physiology and biology were significant influences in Hippocrates’ medical theories on health and disease and subsequently in the evolution of medicine. Health was maintained by the isonomy (the equal distribution or equilibrium) of the quantities of matter that constituted the human body. When one of those constituents was came into excess or deficiency, it encroached on the other quantities and so disease ensued. The human body would thus always try to achieve the equilibrium or the harmony of those inner forces. Alcmaeon was also the only one who in describing the states of health and disease borrowed political terminology such as isonomy, as previously mentioned, monarchy or hegemony (the hegemonic role of the brain as an organ). This comes to show how intertwined the human body and human society Alcmaeon believed to be.

Alcmaeon believed that the human sperm originated in the brain and that the human embryo was the product of both male and female components, not just from the sperm of the father. The sex of the foetus he believed was determined by the sex of the parent with the greatest amount of semen. 

Many of Almcaeon’s theories and observations evidently influenced philosophers such as Empedocles, Plato and Aristotle, who praise him in their writings for his originality and his reasoning. Arab scholars of medicine as well as alchemists such as Geber also incorporated a large part of Alcmaeon’s knowledge in their own medical practice. 

Bibliography:

1. Γεωργούλης. Κ. Δ. Ἀλκμαίων. Νεότερο Ἐγκυκλοπαιδικό Λεξικό τοῦ Ἡλίου. Ἀθῆναι: 1952.
2. 2. Huffman, Carl, “Alcmaeon”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2021 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2021/entries/alcmaeon/&gt;
3. Zemełka, A.M. (2017). Alcmaeon of Croton – Father of Neuroscience? Brain, Mind and Senses in the Alcmaeonâs Study. Journal of Neurology and Neuroscience, 8.

Scopas

Sculptor, Architect (4th century BC)

One of the greatest sculptors of antiquity, together with Praxiteles and Lysippus, Scopas achieved tremendous recognition as a marble sculptor, crafting some of the most renowned marble statues of Gods and heroes of the ancient world, imbuing them with life. A pioneer at imparting soul to his creations, Scopas is the one to have perfected the art of expression on marble figures through the eyes and movement. 

He was born in the island of Paros, to a family of artists. He left early for Peloponnesus where together with his father Aristander they reconstructed the dilapidated temple of Athena Alea in Tegea, a temple which incorporated all three orders of classical architecture. Scopas also sculpted the statues which adorned the temple.

At the prime of his career, Scopas settled his workshop in Athens, where he crafted some of his most prestigious creations, namely the complex of the two Eumenides, the statue of Hermes, the anathema of Eros next to the cupids Pothos and Imerus, the statue of Artemis at Artemisium and the statue of Apollo of Ramnous. One of Scopas’ most lauded work, the statue of Maenad the Chimaerophon, was sculpted at that time, described as one of the most perfect depiction of the Maenad. 

Later in his life, Scopas relocated his workshop in Asia Minor, where he worked with numerous commissioners of the East. In 352 BC, together with Bryaxis, Timotheus and Leochares, Scopas was commissioned to build the statues and the frieze that decorated the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. 

Many of Scopas’ statues from that era, either fragments of the originals or Roman replicas are housed in modern museums of Europe. The statue of Meleager in the Museum of Pio-Clementino in Rome, the marble complex of Venus of Samothrace and Pothos, which was commissioned for the Kavirian Mysteries, a relief depicting the abduction of Alcestis by Hades found on a commemorative column from Artemisium of Ephesus in the British Museum alongside parts of the frieze of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus. The list goes on.

Scopas was the main expressionist of the artistic wave that dominated the 4th century BC. He brought the art of marble sculpture to its apogee, thereafter, few artists managed to surpass his craftsmanship. 

Bibliography:

1. Θεοφανείδης, Β.Δ. Σκόπας. Νεότερο Ἐγκυκλοπαιδικό Λεξικό τοῦ Ἡλίου. Ἀθῆναι: 1952.

Menander

Playwright, Poet (c.342 BC – c.291 BC)

The prime representative of the “New Comedy”, Menander was the most popular and beloved playwright in ancient Greece following in Aristophanes’ footsteps, and succeeding his uncle’s Alexis’  Middle Comedy. Menander enjoyed widespread acclaim during his relatively short but highly prolific life, having written and taught 108 comedies in a timespan of only 30 years. His plays won first place a total of 8 times. He pioneered the field of comic poetry, introducing themes which declined from the usual mythological context, focusing instead on the ideals and morals of everyday life such as the values of friendship and its instability, the challenges of human relationships and the evaluation of man’s moral conduct. The comic poetry of the Romans is to a great extent a copy of Menander’s New Comedy.

Following the death of Aristophanes, the Attic comedy underwent a period of significant changes; the Chorus was abolished and replaced by the dialogue of the characters, who dealt with themes and issues more relatable to everyday life, albeit with heavy satire and ironic honesty. Love occupied a central theme in many ancient comedies, as became the passions and the turmoils of people’s daily lives and how they coped with them within society. These changes created the New Comedy, which was represented mainly by Philemon and most notably Menander.

A contemporary of Alexander the Great, Menander lived during a period of social and political upheaval. Nevertheless, none of his plays were influenced by the political events which characterized his generation. Today, his entire work survives only in fragments retrieved from papyri and from mimicries written by Roman poets. Perhaps his most well-known and best preserved play is Dyskolos (The Bad Tempered Man), followed by Perikeiromene (The Girl with the Short-Cut Hair) and Samia. The first one is a coming of age story concerning a young wealthy man who falls in love with a peasant girl, but whose love is unapproved by the girl’s misanthropic father Knemon. This is the play which influenced Moliere to write The Misanthrope. The second play, Perikeiromene is a story of love and infidelity while Samia shares a similar premise to Dyskolos. Perhaps one of Menander’s most important work, which was only recently discovered is Epitrepontes (Arbitration), a play on the conflict between two slaves Daos and Syros, who compete each other for a valuable bracelet worn by an abandoned baby that was discovered by Daos and given to Syros to raise.

Menander achieved enormous recognition during his lifetime, hailed as the “Shining Star of Athens” according to the Palatine Anthology. Plutarchus and especially Epicurus, who was also a contemporary of Menander, were known to be avid readers of his plays, while the Romans were not shy on mimicking Menander’s work extensively, not infrequently incorporating lines and stanzas from his works directly into their own into Latin. Such was their appreciation towards Menander that the Roman pedagogue Quintilianus wrote that Menander was “the living image of everyday life and the shining light in the midst of the darkness of the night”, referring to his other fellow playwrights. It is thanks to the Romans that Menander’s work remained known throughout the ages.

Bibliography:

1. Καλονᾶρος, Πέτρος, Π. Μένανδρος. Νεότερο Ἐγκυκλοπαιδικό Λεξικό τοῦ Ἡλίου. Ἀθῆναι: 1952.

Chersiphron

Architect (6th century BC)

Chersiphron was one of the greatest architects of the 6th century and of the entire Greek antiquity who, together with his son Metagenes, are honoured by Greek history to have designed and constructed the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. 

Originally from Crete, Chersiphron was an engineer working in the palace of Knossos before being hired by the Ephesians on account of his skilled mastery and merit to reconstruct the destroyed Temple of Artemis from the ground up in 550 BC. For this to be achieved he devised certain engineering methods and employed the use of specially designed machines which would be necessary in constructing the temple. They used sacks filled with sand attached to mechanical cranes to lift the marble stones, while the shafts of the marble columns were used as wheels to drive the marble stones from the quarry to the construction site. Chersiphron and Metagenes also wrote a book detailing the making of the temple.

The temple was built on an antiseismic marshy ground base. It was around 110×55 meters long, had a hight of around 15 meters and numbered a total of 106 columns. It followed the Ionian rhythmic art and inside housed a massive statue of the goddess Artemis, sculpted by the Greek sculptor Endios. The temple stood for 120 years until it was destroyed by arson by Herostratus, coincidentally on the same night that Alexander the Great was born.

Ancient writers and historiographers such as Pliny and Vitruvius speak with remarkable admiration about not just the sheer level of ingenuity that was put into creating the temple of Artemis but also about the unparalleled beauty of it. Of note, the Greek poet Antipater of Sidon, whose poems are among the first that enlist the Seven Wonders of the World said in one of his writings: “I have gazed at the wall of lofty Babylon on which is a road for chariots, and the statue of Zeus by the Alpheus, and the hanging gardens, and the Colossus of the Sun, and the huge labour of the high pyramids, and the vast tomb of Mausolus; but when I saw the house of Artemis that mounted to the clouds, those other marvels lost their brilliancy, and I said, “Lo, apart from Olympus, the Sun never looked on aught so grand”.

Bibliography:

1. Γεωργακόπουλος, Κωνσταντῖνος. Ἀρχαῖοι Ἕλληνες Θετικοὶ Ἐπιστήμονες. β’ ἔκδοση. Ἐκδόσεις Γεωργιάδης. Ἀθῆναι: 1995.
2. Sparavigna, Amelia Carolina. (2011). Chersiphron & Son Engineers. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/51948942_Chersiphron_Son_Engineers 

Cleisthenes

Lawgiver, Statesman (570 BC – c.500 BC)

Together with Solon they are the founders of democracy in the western civilization, with Solon laying down the foundations of a democratic system of governance and Cleisthenes further elaborating on Solon’s laws, founding a system which was not only democratically superior but also axiocratic, which enabled Athenians to govern themselves by virtue not of nobility but of the majority.

Cleisthenes’ reforms were introduced in ancient Athens in 508 BC when democratic reforms were also being introduced in ancient Sparta, in fact at a faster pace. The democratization of Athens by Cleisthenes, however, developed to a greater extent over time and reached levels very different from those of ancient Sparta, which had a profound effect on the cultural renaissance of Athens. This system came to be known as Athenian Democracy.

Cleisthenes divided the people of Athens into 10 tribes named after 10 mythical heroes of Attica. These tribes formed the electoral council and served to diminish the power formerly held by the governing aristocracy. These ten tribes were further subdivided into districts, from which 500 representatives of the Parliament were elected. Furthermore, he introduced the law of ostracism whereupon people could dispose of statesmen peacefully, bestowed greater judiciary power over to the people and replaced the voting system in favour of election by allotment. Thus free male citizens of Athens could partake in the decision making of their homeland instead of a handful of aristocrats.

If Solon is considered the founder of democracy by Aristotle, Cleisthenes is regarded as early as his own contemporary times as he who perfected democracy and established the most libertarian constitution known at the time.

Bibliography:

1. Lendering, Jona. Cleisthenes. livius.org. Available at: https://www.livius.org/articles/person/cleisthenes/
2. Ἱστορία τοῦ Ἑλληνικοῦ Ἔθνους, Ἀρχαία Ἑλλάδα: ἡ Ἀρχαϊκὴ Περίοδος, Μέρος Α’, Τόμος 03. Ἐκδοτικὴ Ἀθηνῶν Α.Ε. 2021.
3. Κλεισθένης. Νεότερο Ἐγκυκλοπαιδικό Λεξικό τοῦ Ἡλίου. Ἀθῆναι: 1952.

Milo of Croton

Athlete (6th century BC)

The legendary wrestler of ancient Greece, renowned for his unrivalled physical strength, Milo won the Olympic Games a total of 6 times, his first victory being at the 60th Olympiad in 540 BC as a child. He was further crowned champion in 2 Pythean Games, 9 Nemean and in a total of 10 Isthmian Games, all in the field of wrestling.

Milo came from Croton, South Italy, then part of Greater Greece. He would often exhibit his superhuman strength to the curious public in a number of ways. He would hold tightly a pomegranate to his hand and would ask for people to try to remove it from him, which no one could accomplish. At another occasion, he would ask people to to bend the little finger of his hand, which nobody could do. According to other accounts, Milo once ran across the stadium carrying a large bull on his shoulders, which he had killed with his fists and later consumed entirely within a single day.

Milo also served as a commander in chief when the neighbouring city of Sybaris clashed with Croton. Owing to his immense physical strength Milo was successful in fending off the forces of the neighbouring colony. It is said he did so dressed in a lion’s skin and wielding a wooden club, akin to Hercules. A devout Pythagorean, he once saved his teacher Pythagoras and his fellow students when he held the collapsed roof of a building with his hands from falling on top of them.

The end of one of the greatest Olympians who ever lived is told in legend. When Milo was traversing a forest, he found a tree trunk with wedges placed in it by carpenters. In attempt to test his strength he placed his arms inside them to tear apart the trunk, only to have his hands trapped inside them. He remained there unable to free himself until he was attacked and killed by wild beasts, supposedly by wolves.

Bibliography:

1. Μίλων. Νεότερο Ἐγκυκλοπαιδικό Λεξικό τοῦ Ἡλίου. Ἀθῆναι: 1952.
2. Milo of Croton. tufts.edu. Available at: https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Olympics/milo.html. Retrieved June 18, 2023.

Sappho

Poet (c.630 BC – 530 BC)

The greatest female poet of antiquity, the “tenth Muse” according to Plato and one of the Nine Lyric Poets, Sappho of Eresos is perhaps the most esteemed female literary figure in Greek history, whose poems never ceased to enchant the intellectual world during the past 2500 years.

Sappho was the founder of the House of the Muses, a non-profit school devoted to the education of young girls. They were taught poetry, music, fine arts and proper etiquette with the aim of becoming individuals of the same social merit as men. Her students have been parallelized to those of Socrates by Soterios Maximus.

Her work as a lyric poet has been lauded by numerous philosophers of antiquity. It deals primarily with love, beauty and pathos. Of the seven books which compiled her poetry only few fragments survived to this day, enough, however, to have a glimpse of her poetic genius. Her poem Ode to Aphrodite remains the most complete and well-known among them.

Sappho achieved widespread fame during her own lifetime and her poems were read by some of the most prestigious men of Greece’s ancient history. It is said that Solon was so fascinated by her writings that he attempted to learn some of them by heart. Others are recounted as referring to her as the “Poetess” just as they refer to Homer simply as “The Poet”.

Bibliography:

1. Κοντονικολάου, Σταματία. Σαπφώ, ἡ μεγάλη ποιήτρια. filosofikilithos.gr. Available at: https://www.filosofikilithos.gr/sapfo-i-megali-poiitria/
2. Σαπφώ. Νεότερον Ἐγκυκλοπαιδικόν Λεξικὸν Ἥλιος. Ἀθῆναι: 1946
3. Τζιροπούλου, Ἄννα – Εὐσταθίου. Σαπφώ, η ποιήτρια. Ἐκδόσεις Αἰγηΐς. Αθῆναι: 2016