#ancient greeks

[2seeitall]

Torso of a youth, probably Apollo (4th cent. B.C)

The Ancient Agora of Athens

[hornyforpoetry]

Achilles and Patroclus // Apollo and Hyacinthus

Ganymede // Hylas

Narcissus // Orpheus

Artemis // Tiresias

LGBTQ+ Icons in Greek Mythology

- in the honour of Pride Month 2024

In order: ”Achilles Lamenting the Death of Patroclus” by Gavin Hamilton // ”The Death of Hyacinthus” Nicolas-Rene Jollain // ”The Abduction of Ganymede” by Peter Paul Rubens // ”Hylas and the Nymphs” by John William Waterhouse // ”Narcissus” by Caravaggio // „Orpheus” by Paul Duqueylar // „Artemis” statue replica after Leochares // „Tiresias” by Johann Ulrich Kraus

[gemsofgreece]

Not wanting to sound like a 19th century racial anthropologist lol, but is the greek nose that common among greeks ? Most greeks i know have big noses, so do i have just a shitty sample or was the greek nose named greek for some strange reasons ?

You do sound a bit like that hahaha

No, there's just a series of misconceptions you are making here.

The "Greek nose" is not a Greek-born concept. It was the Western Europeans who started speaking of a "Greek nose" stereotype by observing ancient Greek statues.

The Greek nose has nothing to do with size. The Greek nose refers to the straight nose, the nose that has no upturned or downturned tilt. It can be massive, so to speak, as long as it's straight.

Many ancient Greek statues have a characteristic nose that also has a straight bridge, a bridge that seems to be completely aligned with the forehead, without any bump at all or any upwards inclination. This was an artistic choice, it seemed to be some sort of beauty ideal to them, which means it could perhaps have existed but it was rare. In our times, such a feature kind of exists but is indeed quite rare, not just amongst Greeks, but amongst human phenotypes in general.

The way you can tell this was a beauty ideal and not a common reality is that this straight bridged nose is in most statues depicting gods or idealised conceptions of youth (like kouros and kore) yet hardly in statues of actual Greek mortals that truly existed. And I think one of the biggest flaws in the comparisons foreign people are so keen in trying to do between ancient Greeks and modern Greeks is that they compare modern Greeks to ancient Greek gods and not ancient Greek mortals...!

Judging by living amongst modern Greeks and by looking at statues of ancient Greek mortals, I will say that both groups seem to have had pretty diverse noses, maybe with a tendency towards a medium or a moderately large size and, indeed, a straight shape. That's not to say that there aren't numerous Greeks with tiny noses, delicate noses, upturned noses, very large noses, hooked noses, bumpy noses, downturned noses, round noses, wide noses.

I will say however that the most standard or super common characteristics you will see in a Greek's nose is to be pretty defined, on the pointier rather than the rounder side, and again mostly straight, usually medium to moderately large, and more often with narrow nostrils, without that meaning that all the "less common" traits are not totally present in the population as well. A prime example being Socrates in fact, who had a very uncharacteristic nose for a Greek, but he was in fact an Ancient Greek native Athenian. The rarest traits in Greek noses are a nose being too short or too rounded or too wide. Socrates had all that.

But I am a little confused by you sort of suggesting that modern Greeks have large noses "as opposed to ancient Greek statues" because to my eyes ancient Greek statues - both of mortals and even idealised ones - tend to have prominent noses, maybe more often on the large rather than the small side. A small nose is actually kind of rare in Greek statues, no?

Here are some examples of statues of Ancient Greeks who actually existed:

...You know? The smallest nose here is medium. And there is a lot of diversity in shapes.

(Obviously realistic looking mortal female statues are harder to find in a quick search, so I just went for famous Ancient Greek men. Alexander is not included, because his statues were always highly idealised / deified.)

BTW during my search of Greek statues I found this image. Has a variety of noses too!

* how dare the person who made this not know Psarantonis’ name, when they know everyone else, this is sacrilegious!

As for your sample, I wouldn’t use the term shitty but it is limited indeed, not because it is not representative of Greeks but because it is not diverse enough nose-wise.

[nickysfacts]

The Trojan Horse: that time Odysseus weaponized gift giving!😄

📜🐴⚔️

[hellenicgoddess]

🌿Compilation of ancient greek art🌿

[cowperviolet]

When they saw Patroklos dead

—so brave and strong, so young—

the horses of Achilles began to weep;

their immortal nature was upset deeply

by this work of death they had to look at.

They reared their heads, tossed their long manes,

beat the ground with their hooves, and mourned

Patroklos, seeing him lifeless, destroyed,

now mere flesh only, his spirit gone,

defenseless, without breath,

turned back from life to the great Nothingness.

Zeus saw the tears of those immortal horses and felt sorry.

“At the wedding of Peleus,” he said,

“I should not have acted so thoughtlessly.

Better if we hadn’t given you as a gift,

my unhappy horses. What business did you have down there,

among pathetic human beings, the toys of fate.

You are free of death, you will not get old,

yet ephemeral disasters torment you.

Men have caught you up in their misery.”

But it was for the eternal disaster of death

that those two gallant horses shed their tears. 

- Horses of Achilles, by Constantine Cavafy

[thepursuitofunderstanding]

Before you heal someone, ask him if he's willing to give up the things that make him sick.

Hippocrates

[lazyarrogance]

[gwydpolls]

Time Travel Library of Alexandria/Lost Literature Winners Match Up 3:

Winners head to head.

[er-cryptid]

Associates of Socrates

Patreon

[arthurdrakoni]

Flags of the Athenian Empire

These are the flags of the Athenian Empire.  I couldn’t decide which I liked better, so I went with both of them.  They come from a world where Athens won the Peloponnesian War.  Following the defeat of Sparta, the Delian League was expanded to include the Greek colonies in Italy, the city-states in Anatolia and all of Greece.  All of this new territory meant more treasure for Athens' coffers.  Athens used much of this new-found wealth to expand its military and navy.  The unification of the Greek city-states meant that the Macedonian Conquest never occurred, and Alexander the Great never came to power.  Though it was still known as the Delian League, in reality, all of the city-states knew that they were now part of the Athenian Empire.

The threat of Persia was an ever-looming concern.  Athens funded many rebellions against Persia in regions such as Egypt and the Levant.  Eventually, Athens declared war on the Persian Empire and conquered it in short order.  However, most of the territory was lost within a few generations.  Athens also went on to conquer Carthage, the fledgling Roman Republic and expanded its territory into Gaul.  Athens also expanded into Hispania and the British Isles, but never for too long.  

Following this series of conquest Athens began to focus more intellectualism and the acquisition of knowledge.  Many libraries and centers of learning were founded across the Athenian Empire.  The Athenian Empire never truly fell, but over the years it did lose territory; at its smallest, it was comprised of Greece and Anatolia.  However, Greek influence on language, art and culture is felt throughout its former empire and the world at large.  In many ways, the Athenian Empire can be seen as the Western world's equivalent of China in terms of influence and culture.  

The flags feature an owl clutching an olive branch, symbols of Athens patron goddess Athena.  The colors of the flags are black and orange in reference to Ancient Greek pottery.  The black on the first flag is also a reference to the black sails of Theseus, mythical king of Athens.

Link to the original flags on my blog: http://drakoniandgriffalco.blogspot.com/2017/09/flags-of-athenian-empire.html?m=1

[2seeitall]

Statue of Dionysus, god of wine.

Archeological Museum of Butrint, Albania

Found during the excavations of Ninfeo of Butrint in 1929.

[hornyforpoetry]

Ancient Agora Museum // Athens // Greece

[swaglexander-the-great]

Found Alexander the Great's musical key signature

[nickysfacts]

Pancakes are one of humanities greatest and tastiest inventions!🥞

🥞🍯🥞