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Greek language

(Encyclopedia)Greek language, member of the Indo-European family of languages (see Indo-European). It is the language of one of the major civilizations of the world and of one of the greatest literatures of all tim...

Helicon

(Encyclopedia)Helicon hĕlˈĭkŏn [key], Gr. Elikón, mountain group, c.20 mi (30 km) long, central Greece, in Boeotia; it rises to 5,736 ft (1,748 m). Helicon formed part of the border between ancient Boeotia and...

Dionysius of Halicarnassus

(Encyclopedia)Dionysius of Halicarnassus hălˌĭkärnăsˈəs [key], fl. late 1st cent. b.c., Greek rhetorician and historian. He taught at Rome and was one of the most celebrated of ancient critics. Among his ext...

city-state

(Encyclopedia)city-state, in ancient Greece, Italy, and Medieval Europe, an independent political unit consisting of a city and surrounding countryside. The first city-states were in Sumer, but they reached their p...

Eudoxus of Cnidus

(Encyclopedia)Eudoxus of Cnidus yo͞odŏkˈsəs, nīˈdəs [key], 408?–355? b.c., Greek astronomer, mathematician, and physician. From the accounts of various ancient writers, he appears to have studied with Plat...

Sestos

(Encyclopedia)Sestos sĕsˈtŏs [key], ancient town on the Thracian shore of the Hellespont (now Dardanelles) opposite Abydos (in present-day Turkey). It was the scene of the story of Hero and Leander. It was there...

Epidaurus

(Encyclopedia)Epidaurus ĕpĭdôrˈəs [key], ancient city of Greece, on an inlet of the Saronic Gulf, NE Peloponnesus. It was celebrated as the site of the temple of Asclepius, which dates from the 4th cent. b.c. ...

Mitchison, Naomi

(Encyclopedia)Mitchison, Naomi, 1897–1999, British writer, b. Scotland, educated at Oxford; daughter of the biologist J. S. Haldane. She wrote many types of novels on a variety of subjects. They include historica...

Tiryns

(Encyclopedia)Tiryns tīˈrĭnz [key], ancient city of Greece, in the NE Peloponnesus, 2.5 mi (4 km) N of Nauplia (now Návplion) and near Argos. The site seems to have been inhabited since the 3d millennium b.c. I...

Parnassós

(Encyclopedia)Parnassós pärnăˈsəs [key], mountain, c.8,060 ft (2,460 m) high, Phocis, central Greece. In ancient Greece it was sacred to Apollo, Dionysus, and the Muses. The fountain of Castalia was on its slo...