Resources, Web Links, Lessons, and Notes

The Greek Legacies

This travel/study project takes a look at both ancient and modern Greece by studying ancient history, philosophy, culture, and the origins of Western Civilization. We will visit Athens, Delphi, Olympia, Nauplion, and Santorini among many other destinations. Travelers/Students may explore ancient Greece through a combination of classical archaeological site visits, lectures, and the works of ancient philosophers such as Homer, Plato, and Aristotle. The program features an optional cruise to the Greek Islands.

Even after 3,000 years, we're still using ancient Greek ideas in maths, science, and art. Our alphabet is based on the Greek one. Check a dictionary and you’ll find hundreds of words that come from the Greek language.

To learn about art and archaeology, we will hike to the top of the Acropolis to see the Parthenon that Pericles built. We will visit the Oracle at Delphi that pronounced Socrates the wisest human being. We will tour the ancient Agora where Socrates practiced his “street philosophy,” and we will visit the Pnyx where the Athenian democracy assembled for its deliberations.

Additional information can be found at this link. The link is a comprehensive collection of lesson plans, maps, quizzes, and facts about Greece.

The Legacy of Greece

Ancient Greece is called 'the birthplace of Western civilisation'. About 2500 years ago, the Greeks created a way of life that other people admired and copied. Greek culture provides the basis for many of our ideas about the classical literature, mythology, language, democracy, governance, Christianity, war, science, medicine, education, art, architecture, and sports.

Greece gave us Homer, Plato, Aristotle, and democracy. Her colonies ingrained Hellenic culture from Spain to Asia.

Greece stopped Persia from conquering Europe. The British Museum of Art has a good website about Greek Philosopher.

Alexander the Great unified the Greek independent city-states as a foundation for one of the largest empires of Antiquity. Apostle Paul used her language to spread Christianity across the Mediterranean.

Greece truly represents the cradle of western civilization; no other country surpasses Greek beautiful landscapes, whether rugged mountain ranges or the many islands gracing the bluest waters of the Aegean.

The following graphics summarizes the Greek legacy on our daily lives:

To learn more about Greece, please see the slide show at this link.

Arrival of Christianity and rise of Byzantine Empire

To increase your knowledge of early Christianity and the Bible, we will visit the cities and places that were visited by the Apostle Paul and his co-workers, as well as sites that have a bearing on Christianity.

Christianity arrived in Greece with the preachings of St. Paul during the 1st century AD, and eventually spread throughout Greece and the Roman Empire. In the 4th century, Roman Emperor Constantine the Great legalized Christian worship and declared it the state religion of the empire. He moved the capital of the empire from Rome to Byzantium (present-day Istanbul), which he renamed Constantinople. Internal divisions eventually divided the Roman Empire into a western half (the West Roman Empire) and an eastern half (East Roman Empire.) The West was eventually invaded and sacked by invaders from northern Europe, while the East survived for another millennium as the Byzantine Empire with Constantinople as its capital.

See the Paul's Journey to Greece at the following map:

Vital Statistics about Greece:

External Links to learn more about Greece:

• Everything you need to know about Greece

• 9 things I wish I knew before visiting Greece

• 10 Things You Should Definitely Know Before Visiting Greece

• 10 Awesome Things You Can Do In Greece

• Matt Barrett's Greece Travel Guide

• 49 Reasons To Love Greece

• What Makes a Greek A Greek?

• Visit Ancient Greece

• A Guide to Greece's World Heritage Sites

• Greece General Information

• Greece Country Profile by BBC

• Encyclopedia of Britannica

• Ancient Greece

• Odyssey Greece

• Greece Mythology

• Greece History

• Greece.mrdonn

• Greece mfa gr

• ancientgreece.com/

• Greek Mythology Worksheets & Coloring Pages

• Greek Mythology

• Greek Mythology 3

• Visit Greece

• The Greeks by PBS

• Why Visit Greece

• 100 Best Things to do in Greece

• 25 Free Things to Do in Athens

• Greek Art by Khan Academy

• Secrets of Parthenon

• The DON'Ts of Visiting Greece

• Travel Mistakes Everyone Makes

• 17 Rules to Observe When Visiting Greece

• Fifteen Wacky Facts About Greece

• 12 Mistakes Most Tourists Make in Greece

• What to Do When In Athens

• US State Department on Greece

• Look inside Meteora, a remote complex of monasteries built thousands of feet above the ground in Greece

• The Ancient City of Athens www.stoa.org/athens/

Very useful site created by Kevin T. Glowacki of Indiana University mainly as a photographic archive, but including much useful commentary as well.

• Athenian Agora Excavations www.agathe.gr

• The web-site of the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, who has been responsible for excavating the Agora for many decades now. JSTOR www.jstor.org

• The Scholarly Journal Archive, including several relevant classical studies and archaeology journals. The Perseus Digital Library www.perseus.tufts.edu

• A wealth of information relevant to our subject: Ancient texts and translations, extensive photo archives of an impressive range of sites, and plenty of secondary material. Get to know this site as soon as possible.

• The Stoa Consortium www.stoa.org

• ‘A Consortium for Electronic Publication in the Humanities’, with links to many projects of interest.

• 5 simple yoga stretches to survive a long flight

• For the weather in Greece, click on the link.

• 20+1 Fun Facts about Greece that most Greeks do not know

Optional Reading Materials for the Greece Trip