Classics Archives - Page 26 of 33 - Tales of Times Forgotten

Were There Any Female Rulers in Ancient Greece?

We are often accustomed to hearing how utterly oppressed women were in ancient Greece. To a large extent, it is true that the rights of women in ancient Greece were extremely restricted. Nonetheless, the picture we have of women in ancient Greece being totally excluded from any semblance of power is not completely accurate. Although female rulers were certainly very rare in ancient Greece compared to the number of male rulers, there were, in fact, surprisingly many of them overall.

Several of the ancient Greek female rulers on this list, such as Artemisia I and Artemisia II of Karia, are still relatively famous today. Many of the others on this list, such as Kratesipolis of Makedonia, are fairly obscure, but deserve more attention. For the main part of this list, I am confining myself strictly to Greek female rulers who ruled in their own names in Greece or western Asia Minor during the Classical and Hellenistic Periods, although there will be section at the end briefly listing some others who ruled outside of Greece. I am sure there are probably a few others that I have missed as well.

Was Hypatia of Alexandria Black?

A lot of people today seem to have quite a fascination with the subject of race in the ancient world. I frequently encounter questions on Quora asking whether various historical figures from ancient times were “Black” or “white.” Elsewhere online, I often encounter claims about the racial identities of people from ancient times.

Back in September 2019, I wrote an article in response to various articles I had encountered claiming that the Roman emperor Septimius Severus was Black. In that article, I concluded that, while you could certainly describe Septimius Severus as what we today would call a “person of color,” it would be misleading to describe him as Black without any kind of careful qualification.

Another historical figure from ancient times whose racial identity seems to provoke a great deal of controversy is the early fifth-century AD Neoplatonist philosopher and mathematician Hypatia of Alexandria, who is often cited (quite anachronistically) as an example of a Black woman who excelled in STEM. In this article, I will answer the question: “Was Hypatia of Alexandria really Black?”

The Bizarre Origin Story of the Demogorgon

Most people are familiar with the term Demogorgon. It is the name of a monster in Dungeons and Dragons and also the name of a monster in the American science fiction horror web television series Stranger Things. The story of how the name Demogorgon came about, though, is actually really bizarre.

As it turns out, this famous monster most likely originates from a single scribal error made by an unknown copyist in an unknown manuscript sometime around 2,000 years ago or so. Somehow, from these humble origins, Demogorgon went on to be mentioned by great writers including Christopher Marlowe and John Milton before eventually becoming one of the most iconic monsters of today.

Was Aristotle an Objectivist?

Aristotle seems to get frequently brought up in conversation along with a certain twentieth-century Russian-American writer who has acquired something of a cult following among present-day Libertarians. You all of course know who I am talking about: Ayn Rand. The association between Rand and Aristotle is one Rand herself promoted—yet, as I will demonstrate, it is, for the most part, quite spurious. I think that, if Aristotle saw how egregiously Rand misconstrued his philosophy, he would not be pleased.

Greek Heroes Who Lived to Old Age

We are all accustomed to hearing stories about Greek mythological heroes who died young. Indeed, at times, it seems as though a young death is an essential element of heroism in Greek mythology. According to Book Nine of the Iliad, the young Achilleus was offered a choice: he could either live short, glorious life and live on forever in stories and songs or live a long, peaceful life and never win any glory. Achilleus chose the former option. It may come as a surprise to some people, then, that there are actually quite a few Greek heroes who are said to have lived to old age. Here are a few of the most famous:

Ancient Greek Murder Mysteries

Murder mysteries are always a subject of popular fascination. From Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories to modern CSI television shows, everybody loves a good whodunit. Today, we are going to be looking at three famous murder trials from ancient Athens. We do not know the outcomes of any of these trials, which means that, from our perspective, you could classify these murders as technically “unsolved.”

Why Do Ancient Greek Sculptures All Have Such Tiny Penises?

Whenever I talk about ancient Greek sculpture, there is always one question that everyone always asks me. It is not “How did the style of Hellenistic sculptures differ from the style of earlier Classical sculptures?” Nor is it “Can you tell me more about how ancient Greek sculptures were originally painted?” No, of course, not. The question everyone always asks me is “Why do they all have such tiny penises?” I have been asked this question so many times that I feel compelled to answer it.

No, the Romans Did Not Just “Steal” All the Greek Deities

Lots of people seem to wrongly assume that the Romans “stole” the Greek gods and just renamed them. People often portray this as though it were an act of plagiarism, like one student copying another student’s homework. It is easy to see how they have gotten this impression, since they know the Greeks came first and that the names of the Greek and Roman deities are used today interchangeably. The problem is that this is not at all what actually happened.

In reality, the ancient Greeks and Romans originally had separate deities with different names, different mythologies, and different attributes. These deities were worshipped in different and unique ways that were specific to the culture in which they were venerated. In other words, the Romans had their own deities. Then, due to immense Greek cultural influence in Italy, the Romans gradually came to identify their own native deities with the Greek ones.

In the process, the Romans adopted the traditional stories and distinctive divine attributes belonging to the Greek deities and attributed them to their own deities as well. Eventually, by around the first century AD or thereabouts, the Greek and Roman deities had become largely indistinguishable from each other and they were widely seen as the same deities only with different names.

King Midas Was Actually a Real Person

We have no evidence whatsoever for the existence of the vast majority of figures that appear in classical mythology. For instance, we have no evidence for the existence of Perseus, Herakles, Theseus, Achilleus, or Odysseus. Nonetheless, there is at least one major figure from classical mythology who was definitely a real person: King Midas.

No, really. I am not kidding. Believe it or not, King Midas—the king who, according to legend, was so greedy and foolish that he wished for everything he touched to turn to gold—was actually a historical king of the ancient kingdom of Phrygia who ruled in the late eighth century BC.

We know Midas was a real king because he is mentioned in contemporary Assyrian records as having attacked King Sargon II of Assyria and there are surviving inscriptions from his reign. Nonetheless, even though King Midas was a real person, the famous story of the golden touch is undoubtedly ahistorical.

Heinrich Schliemann Debunked

Anyone who has studied archaeology has heard of Heinrich Schliemann. He is popularly acclaimed as the bold, talented, German-American amateur archaeologist who discovered the lost city of Troy at Hisarlık in what is now northwest Turkey. In truth, this image is largely a fabrication of Schliemann’s own making. The real Heinrich Schliemann was a lying, cheating, grifting, thieving charlatan and overall scumbag who only became famous because he was extremely rich and highly skilled in the art of lying to make himself seem more impressive than he really was.

Even though Schliemann is popularly credited as the “discoverer” of Troy, he was not the first person to identify Hisarlık as Troy. He was not even the first person to excavate there. Furthermore, his attempts to excavate the ruins of Troy were so hopelessly incompetent that he ended up actually destroying most of the ancient site.