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Ancient Origins Tour IRAQ

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Euripides

A 19th-century interpretation of Charon's crossing by Alexander Litovchenko.

Charon, Son of Night and Shadow, Ferrier of the Dead

In days of old, the dead were buried with a silver coin (the shiner the better) so that the souls of the faithful departed could pay the toll to the deathless demon ferryman of the underworld: Charon...
Orestes Pursued by the Furies by William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1862) (Public Domain)

Aristophanes and Euripides: The Comedy and Tragedy of Fifth Century BC Greek Women

Euripides (circa 480 – 406 BC) was the last of the three great tragedians of Classical Greece - the other two being Aeschylus, the ‘Father of Tragedy’ who, among many others wrote Agamemnon (458 BC)...
Tragic Comic Masks Hadrian's Villa mosaic

Ancient Greek Theater: Is it a Man’s World?

By Ben Potter / Classical Wisdom The two major Athenian theatrical festivals, The Lenaia and The City Dionysia were held in honor of the god Dionysus . Calling them theatrical, whilst not misleading...
Bust of Euripides. Marble, Roman copy after a Greek original from ca. 330 BC. Codex Hierosolymitanus Sancti Sepulcri 36, p. 539.

Overwriting Euripides: Hidden Classical Texts Were Washed Over in Medieval Times

The idea to reduce, re-use, and recycle is not a modern phenomenon. Over the last few years, there have been several instances in which scientists and historians have found ancient texts being...
Mosaic, shown Gargoyles in form of Theatrical masks of Tragedy and Comedy. Roman artwork, 2nd century AD.

Masks, Sex, Laughter, and Tears: The Exciting Evolution of Ancient Greek Theater

The city of theater was Athens. Athens birthed drama, bred drama, and ultimately was responsible for cultivating it into the premiere art of the Classical world—at least according to Greek...
A vase depicting a scene from Aristophanes’ play ‘The Birds.

The Controversial Plays of Aristophanes: How the Ancient Greek Father of Comedy Created a Legacy

In the theater of Ancient Greece, one of the three main dramatic forms was comedy (the other two being tragedy and satyr plays). Greek comedy has been divided by the Alexandrian grammarians into...
‘Siege of Lachish’. Credit: The British Museum; photo by C. Reeder. This relief from Sennacherib’s palace in Nineveh celebrates the Assyrian destruction of the Judaean city of Lachish. Women and children, followed by a man driving oxen, flee from the besieged city.

Looking to ancient wisdom for guidance on modern day refugee crisis

Berlin recently agreed to curb the number of migrants it welcomed after a backlash against Angela Merkel’s suspension of EU rules limiting numbers. It followed previous scenes of crowds welcoming new...
Ancient Greek Manuscript

Ancient philosophical writings found hidden beneath a medieval text

A group of scientists and historians have made an incredible discovery relating to some writings made on parchments that were produced in medieval times. Using cutting-edge technology, the...