1. First Democracy - Ancient Athens is the world's first democracy around 508 BCE. However, only free adult male citizens could vote.
2. The Olympic Games - The Olympic Games started in 776 BCE in Olympia as a festival honoring Zeus. Only Greek men were allowed to compete, and events included running, wrestling, and chariot racing..
3. Spartan Warriors - Sparta was a military-focused city-state where boys began military training at age 7 in a brutal system.
4. Greek Gods and Mythology - The Greeks believed in gods who lived on Mount Olympus, including Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Athena, and Apollo.
5. The Trojan War Might Be Real - While the war described in The Iliad is considered mythological, archaeological evidence suggests that a real war may have occurred in Troy around 1200 BCE.
6. Theater was a Greek Invention - The Greeks invented tragedy and comedy with famous playwrights like: Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes writing plays that are still performed today.
7. Philosophy's Birthplace - Philosophers like: Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle laid the foundations for Western philosophy, influencing ethics, politics, and science .
8. The Optical Illusion we all know - The Parthenon in Athens was designed with slight curves and angles to appear perfectly straight to the human eye.
People:
9. Aristotle - Student of Plato and tutor to Alexander the Great; a key thinker in many fields.
10. Alexander the Great - King of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history.
11. El Greco - Famed Renaissance painter of Greek origin (born Domenikos Theotokopoulos).