People in Ancient Greece and Rome were just as obsessed with falling in love as we are. And their romantic tribulations bring plenty of timeless advice.
A 2,500 year old drawing by a Greek shepherd on a hill near Athens may solve the mystery of a large temple on the Acropolis that predates the Parthenon.
The Parthenon Marbles in the British Museum.
EWY Media/Shutterstock
What makes us human? Greek and Roman thinkers were preoccupied with this question. And some of their observations of animals foreshadowed recent findings in the behavioural sciences.
David Albertson, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Conventional stereotypes about romance portray it as a passionate, irrational game. Ancient philosophers, on the other hand, viewed love as something dangerous − but also enlightening.
Ancient bas-relief on grave stele in Kerameikos in Athens, Greece depicting two wrestlers in action.
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Without the internet, television, radio or any widespread means of communication, ancient Greek athletes had to struggle to make their success known and easily communicated to a broad public.
Michigan’s redistricting commission consists of ordinary citizens with no special qualifications. A court has disapproved their initial effort.
AP Photo/Carlos Osorio
Timothy J. Moore, Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis
The use of music in theater goes back to ancient Greece, and its popularity has grown to the modern-day productions of ‘Hamilton.’
A painting from the ancient Egyptian tomb of Niankhkhum and Khnumhotep, royal servants whom some scholars have interpreted to be lovers.
kairoinfo4u/Flickr
Tina Chronopoulos, Binghamton University, State University of New York
Writing about same-sex relationships and gender beyond a strict male-female binary was more common in ancient Greece and Rome than students assume, a scholar writes.
Visitors walk by the Parthenon Marbles at the British Museum.
Shutterstock/IR Stone
From ill-thought renovation schemes to the latest row over the repatriation of the Parthenon marbles, this is not the first time the British Museum reckons with a custodianship crisis.
Helen Mirren playing Caesonia in Tinto Brass’ 1979 historical drama film, Caligula .
Following a number of films featuring debauched emperors, it is nowadays commonplace to associate the Greek-Roman antiquity with orgies. But is this historically accurate?
An incantation bowl with an Aramaic inscription around a demon from Nippur, Mesopotamia.
Wikimedia Commons
From snake-like creatures with claws to jealous virgin ghosts, female monsters have long been a part of women’s lore. Such figures were Intimately tied to childbirth, sexuality and child mortality.
Ordinary Greeks wielded power via direct democracy.
Alamy/Met/Bot