part_of megistias
The Battle of Marathon ( Greek : , " Mach tou Marathnos ") took place in 490 BC , during the ___MASK28___ . It was fought between the citizens of Athens , aided by Plataea , and a Persian force commanded by Datis and Artaphernes . The battle was the culmination of the first attempt by Persia , under King Darius I , to subjugate Greece . The Greek army decisively defeated the more numerous Persians , marking a turning point in the Greco - Persian Wars . Argos ( ___MASK91___ :  ; Ancient Greek :  ) is a ___MASK40___ in Argolis , Peloponnese , Greece and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world . It is also a former bishopric and present Latin Catholic titular see . It is the biggest town in Argolis and a major ___MASK25___ for the area . Since the 2011 local ___MASK57___ reform it has been part of the municipality of Argos - Mykines , of which it is a municipal unit . The municipal unit has an area of 138 . 138 km . It is from Nafplion , which was its historic harbour . A settlement of great antiquity , Argos has been continuously inhabited as at least a substantial village for the past 7 , 000 years . The ___MASK40___ is a member of the Most Ancient European Towns Network . Pylos , historically also known under its Italian ___MASK75___ Navarino , is a town and a former municipality in Messenia , Peloponnese , Greece . Since the 2011 local ___MASK57___ reform it is part of the municipality Pylos - Nestoras , of which it is the seat and a municipal unit . It was the capital of the former Pylia Province . It is the main harbour on the ___MASK39___ of Navarino . Nearby villages include Gialova , Pyla , Elaiofyto , Schinolakka , and Palaionero . The town of Pylos has 2 , 767 inhabitants , the municipal unit of Pylos 5 , 287 ( 2011 ). The municipal unit has an area of 143 . 911 km . ___MASK4___ ( from Latin " divinare " " to foresee , to be inspired by a god ", related to " divinus ", divine ) is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic , standardized process or ritual . Used in various forms throughout ___MASK93___ , diviners ascertain their interpretations of how a querent should proceed by reading signs , events , or omens , or through alleged contact with a supernatural agency . A sophist or sophister was a specific kind of teacher in both ___MASK74___ and in the ___MASK7___ . Many sophists specialized in using the tools of philosophy and rhetoric , though other sophists taught subjects such as music , athletics , and mathematics . In general , they claimed to teach " arete " (" excellence " or " virtue ," applied to various subject areas ), predominantly to young statesmen and nobility . There are not many writings from and about the first sophists . The early sophists ' practice of charging money for education and providing wisdom only to those who could pay resulted in the condemnations made by Socrates through Plato in his Dialogues , as well as by Xenophon in Memorabilia and , somewhat controversially , by Aristotle who , being paid to tutor Alexander the Great , could be accused of being a Sophist ( although Aristotle did not actually accept payment from Philip , Alexander ' s father , but requested that , in lieu of payment , Philip reconstruct Aristotle ' s home town of Stagira , which Philip had destroyed in a previous campaign , terms which Philip accepted ). Author of " The ___MASK93___ and Theory of Rhetoric : An Introduction " James A . Herrick wrote ,  In " De Oratore ", Cicero blames Plato for separating wisdom and eloquence in the philosopher  s famous attack on the Sophists in " Gorgias ". The classical tradition of rhetoric and composition refers more to philosophers like Aristotle , Cicero , and Quintilian than to the sophists . Despite these criticisms , however , many sophists flourished in later periods , especially during the era of Roman ___MASK93___ known as the Second Sophistic . Alexandria ( or ; ___MASK88___ : '; '; "") is the second largest city and a major economic centre in Egypt , extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean ___MASK59___ in the north central part of the country . Its low elevation on the Nile delta makes it highly vulnerable to rising ___MASK59___ levels . Alexandria is Egypt ' s largest seaport , serving approximately 80 % of Egypt ' s imports and exports . It is an important industrial center because of its natural gas and oil pipelines from Suez . Alexandria is also an important tourist destination . Bacchylides (" Bakkhylíds "; century ) was a Greek lyric poet . Later ___MASK22___ included him in the canonical list of nine lyric poets which included his uncle Simonides . The elegance and polished style of his lyrics have been noted in Bacchylidean scholarship since at least Longinus . Some scholars , however , have characterized these qualities as superficial charm . He has often been compared unfavourably with his contemporary , Pindar , as " a kind of Boccherini to Pindar ' s Haydn ", yet the differences in their styles don ' t allow for easy comparison , with translator Robert Fagles writing that " to blame Bacchylides for not being Pindar is as childish a judgement as to condemn ... Marvel for missing the grandeur of Milton ." His career coincided with the ascendency of dramatic styles of poetry , as embodied in the works of Aeschylus or Sophocles , and he is in fact considered one of the last poets of major significance within the more ancient tradition of purely lyric poetry . The most notable features of his lyrics are their clarity in expression and simplicity of thought , making them an ideal introduction to the study of Greek lyric poetry in general and to Pindar ' s verse in particular . Sparta ( Doric Greek : ; Attic Greek : ) was a prominent ___MASK40___ - state in ___MASK74___ . In antiquity ___MASK83___ - state was known as Lacedaemon , while the name Sparta referred to its main ___MASK35___ on the banks of the Eurotas River in Laconia , in south - eastern Peloponnese . Around 650 BC , it rose to become the dominant ___MASK70___ land - power in ___MASK74___ . In ___MASK72___ , Acarnan (  ; " genitive "  ) was a son of Alcmaeon and Callirrhoe , and brother of Amphoterus . Their father was murdered by Phegeus ( or , in some sources , his sons Agenor and Pronous ), when they were yet very young , and Calirrhoe prayed to Zeus to make her sons grow quickly , that they might be able to avenge the death of their father . The prayer was granted , and Acarnan with his brother slew Phegeus , his wife , and his two sons . The inhabitants of Psophis , where the sons had been slain , pursued the murderers as far as Tegea , where however they were received and rescued . At the request of Achelous they carried the necklace and peplos of Harmonia to Delphi , and from thence they went to Epirus , where Acarnan founded the state called after him Acarnania . The Ionian ___MASK59___ (, , ) is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean ___MASK59___ , south of the Adriatic ___MASK59___ . It is bounded by southern Italy including Calabria , Sicily , and the Salento peninsula to the west , southern Albania to the north , and the west coast of Greece . Simonides of Ceos ( ___MASK90___ . 556  468 BC ) was a Greek lyric poet , born at Ioulis on Ceos . The scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria included him in the canonical list of nine lyric poets , along with Bacchylides ( his nephew ) and Pindar ( reputedly a bitter rival ). Both Bacchylides and Pindar benefited from his innovative approach to lyric poetry and he was more involved than either of them in the major events and personalities of their times . His fame owes much to traditional accounts of his colourful life , as one of the wisest of men , as a greedy miser , as an inventor of a system of mnemonics and also of some letters of the Greek alphabet . Such accounts include fanciful elements yet he had a real influence on the sophistic enlightenment of the classical era . His fame as a poet rests largely on his ability to present basic human situations with affecting simplicity . In the words of the Roman rhetorician Quintilian : Thermopylae ( Ancient and Katharevousa Greek : , Demotic :  : " hot gates ") is a place in Greece where a narrow coastal passage existed in antiquity . It derives its ___MASK75___ from its hot sulphur springs . The Hot Gates is " the place of hot springs " and in ___MASK72___ it is the cavernous entrances to Hades ". Aetolia - Acarnania is one of the regional units of Greece . It is ___MASK95___ of the geographic region of Central Greece and the administrative region of West Greece . A combination of the historical regions of Aetolia and Acarnania , it is the country ' s largest regional unit . Its capital is Missolonghi for historical reasons , with its biggest city and economic centre at Agrinio . The area is now connected with the Peloponnese peninsula via the ___MASK92___ - Antirio ___MASK2___ . The surrounding regional units take in Arta in Epirus , a narrow length bordering Karditsa of Thessaly , Evrytania to the northeast , and Phocis to the east . The ___MASK51___ ( 480  479 BC ) occurred during the Greco - Persian Wars , as King Xerxes I of Persia sought to conquer all of Greece . The invasion was a direct , if delayed , response to the defeat of the first Persian invasion of Greece ( 492  490 BC ) at the Battle of Marathon , which ended Darius I ' s attempts to subjugate Greece . After Darius ' s death , his son Xerxes spent several years ___MASK56___ for the second invasion , mustering an enormous army and navy . The Athenians and Spartans led the Greek resistance . About a tenth of the Greek city - states joined the ' Allied ' effort ; most remained neutral or submitted to Xerxes . The Battle of Thermopylae (; Greek : , " Mach tn Thermopyln ") was fought between an alliance of Greek ___MASK40___ - states , led by King Leonidas of Sparta , and the Persian ___MASK52___ of Xerxes I over the course of three days , during the second Persian invasion of Greece . It took place simultaneously with the naval battle at Artemisium , in ___MASK47___ or September 480 BC , at the narrow coastal pass of Thermopylae (" The Hot Gates "). The Persian invasion was a delayed response to the defeat of the first Persian invasion of Greece , which had been ended by the Athenian victory at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC . Xerxes had amassed a huge army and navy , and set out to conquer all of Greece . The Athenian general Themistocles had proposed that the allied ___MASK22___ block the advance of the Persian army at the pass of Thermopylae , and simultaneously block the Persian navy at the Straits of Artemisium . A ___MASK21___ is a narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to take place within human ___MASK93___ and demonstrating human values , and which possesses certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude . Legend , for its active and passive participants , includes no happenings that are outside the realm of " possibility ", but may include miracles . Legends may be transformed over time , in order to keep them fresh and vital , and realistic . Many legends operate within the realm of uncertainty , never being entirely believed by the participants , but also never being resolutely doubted . The ___MASK28___ , during the Persian Wars , began in 492 BC , and ended with the decisive Athenian victory at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC . The invasion , consisting of two distinct campaigns , was ordered by the Persian king Darius I primarily in ___MASK34___ to punish the city - states of Athens and Eretria . These cities had supported the cities of Ionia during their revolt against Persian rule , thus incurring the wrath of Darius . Darius also saw the opportunity to extend his empire into Europe , and to secure its western frontier . Dionysus (" Dionysos ") is the god of the ___MASK26___ harvest , winemaking and wine , of ritual madness , fertility , theatre and religious ecstasy in ancient Greek ___MASK66___ and myth . Wine played an important role in Greek culture , and the cult of Dionysus was the main religious focus for its unrestrained consumption . He may have been worshipped as early as ___MASK90___ . 1500  1100 BC by Mycenean Greeks ; traces of Dionysian - type cult have also been found in ancient Minoan Crete . His origins are uncertain , and his cults took many forms ; some are described by ancient sources as Thracian , others as Greek . In some cults , he arrives from the east , as an Asiatic foreigner ; in others , from Ethiopia in the South . He is a god of epiphany , " the god that comes ", and his " foreignness " as an arriving outsider - god may be inherent and essential to his cults . He is a major , popular figure of ___MASK72___ and ___MASK66___ , becoming increasingly important over time , and included in some lists of the twelve Olympians , as the last of their number , and the only god born from a mortal mother . His festivals were the driving force behind the development of Greek theatre . Corinth (" Kórinthos ") is a ___MASK40___ and former municipality in Corinthia , Peloponnese , Greece . Since the 2011 local ___MASK57___ reform it is part of the municipality of Corinth , of which it is the seat and a municipal unit . It is the capital of Corinthia . Hesiod ( or ; " Hsíodos ") was a Greek poet generally ___MASK32___ by scholars to have been active between 750 and 650 BC , around the same time as Homer . He is generally regarded as the first written poet in the Western tradition to regard himself as an individual persona with an active role to play in his subject . Ancient authors credited Hesiod and Homer with establishing Greek religious customs . Modern scholars refer to him as a major source on ___MASK72___ , farming techniques , early economic ___MASK32___ ( he is sometimes considered history ' s first economist ), archaic Greek astronomy and ancient time - keeping . In ___MASK72___ , Melampus (" Melampous "), was a legendary soothsayer and healer , originally of Pylos , who ruled at Argos . He was the introducer of the worship of Dionysus , according to Herodotus , who asserted that his powers as a seer were derived from the Egyptians and that he could understand the language of animals . A number of pseudepigraphal works of divination were circulated in Classical and Hellenistic times under the name Melampus . According to Herodotus and Pausanias ( vi . 17 . 6 ), on the authority of Hesiod , his father was Amythaon , whose name implies the " ineffable " or " unspeakably great "; Thus Melampus and his heirs were " Amythaides " of the " House of Amythaon ". Marcus Fabius Quintilianus ( ___MASK90___ . 35  ___MASK90___ . 100 AD ) was a Roman rhetorician from Hispania , widely referred to in medieval schools of rhetoric and in Renaissance writing . In English translation , he is usually referred to as Quintilian , although the alternate spellings of Quintillian and Quinctilian are occasionally seen , the latter in older texts . Pindar (" Pindaros ") ( ___MASK90___ . 522  ___MASK90___ . 443 BC ) was an Ancient Greek lyric poet from Thebes . Of the canonical nine lyric poets of ancient Greece , his work is the best preserved . Quintilian wrote , " Of the nine lyric poets , Pindar is by far the greatest , in virtue of his inspired magnificence , the beauty of his thoughts and figures , the rich exuberance of his language and matter , and his rolling flood of eloquence , characteristics which , as Horace rightly held , make him inimitable ." His poems can also , however , seem difficult and even peculiar . The Athenian comic playwright Eupolis once remarked that they " are already reduced to silence by the disinclination of the multitude for elegant learning ". Some scholars in the modern age also found his poetry perplexing , at least until the 1896 discovery of some poems by his rival Bacchylides ; comparisons of their work showed that many of Pindar ' s idiosyncrasies are typical of archaic genres rather than of only the poet himself . His poetry , while admired by critics , still challenges the casual reader and his work is largely unread among the general public . Greece (' ), officially the Hellenic Republic ( Greek : ' ), historically also known as Hellas ("" ), is a ___MASK1___ in southeastern ___MASK67___ . Greece ' s ___MASK5___ is approximately 10 . 955 million as of 2015 . Athens is the nation ' s capital and largest city , followed by Thessaloniki . Xerxes I ( x - š - y - a - r - š - a " ruling over ___MASK12___ ", Greek ; 518  465 BC ), called Xerxes the Great , was the fourth king of kings of the Achaemenid dynasty of Persia . He ruled from 486 BC until his assassination in 465 BC at the hands of Artabanus , the commander of the royal bodyguard . Acarnania is a region of west - central Greece that lies along the Ionian ___MASK59___ , west of Aetolia , with the Achelous River for a boundary , and north of the gulf of Calydon , which is the entrance to the Gulf of Corinth . Today it forms the western part of the regional unit of Aetolia - Acarnania . The capital and principal city in ancient times was Stratos . The north side of Acarnania of the Corinthian Gulf was considered part of the region of Epirus . The Gulf of Corinth or the Corinthian Gulf (" Korinthiaks Klpos ") is a deep inlet of the Ionian ___MASK59___ separating the Peloponnese from western mainland Greece . It is bounded in the east by the Isthmus of Corinth which includes the shipping - designed Corinth Canal and in the west by the Strait of Rion which widens into the shorter Gulf of Patras ( part of the Ionian ___MASK59___ ) and of which the narrowest point is crossed since 2004 by the Rio - Antirio Bridge . The gulf is bordered by the large administrative divisions ( prefectures ): Aetolia - Acarnania and Phocis in the north , Boeotia in the northeast , Attica in the east , Corinthia in the southeast and south and Achaea in the southwest . The gulf is in tectonic movement comparable to movement in parts of Iceland and Turkey , growing by per year . Megistias ( Greek :  , `` the greatest one '' ) or Themisteas ( Greek :  ) was a soothsayer from Acarnania who died in the Battle of Thermopylae . He traced his lineage to Melampus . Despite knowing that death was certain , Megistias stayed and fought . An inscription was written by Simonides of Ceos , a personal friend of Megistias , to honor him . Themistocles (" Themistokls "; " Glory of the ___MASK68___ "; ___MASK90___ . 524  459 BC ) was an Athenian politician and general . He was one of a new breed of non - aristocratic politicians who rose to prominence in the early years of the Athenian democracy . As a politician , Themistocles was a populist , having the support of lower class Athenians , and generally being at odds with the Athenian nobility . Elected archon in 493 BC , he convinced the polis to increase the naval power of Athens , a recurring theme in his political career . During the first Persian invasion of Greece , he fought at the Battle of Marathon , and was possibly one of the ten Athenian " strategoi " ( generals ) in that battle . Herodotus (" Hródotos ") was a Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus in the Persian ___MASK52___ ( modern - ___MASK85___ Bodrum , Turkey ) and lived in the fifth century BC ( 484  425 BC ), a contemporary of Socrates . He is widely referred to as " The Father of History " ( first conferred by Cicero ); he was the first historian known to have broken from Homeric tradition to treat historical subjects as a method of investigation  specifically , by collecting his materials systematically and critically , and then arranging them into a historiographic narrative . " The Histories " is the only work which he is known to have produced , a record of his " inquiry " ( or " historía ") on the origins of the Greco - Persian Wars , including a wealth of geographical and ethnographical information . Some of his stories were fanciful and others inaccurate ; yet he states that he was reporting only what was told to him and was often correct in his information . Despite Herodotus ' historical significance , little is known of his personal history . In ___MASK72___ , Amythaon (" gen ".:  ) was a son of Cretheus and Tyro and brother of Aeson and Pheres . He dwelt at Pylos in Messenia , and by Idomene , his niece , or by Aglaia became the father of Bias , Melampus , and Aeolia . His wife Idomene is sometimes said to be daughter of Abas , king of Argos . According to Pindar , he and several other members of his family went to Iolcus to intercede with Pelias on behalf of Jason . Pausanias mentions him among those to whom the restoration of the Olympic Games was ascribed . A part of Elis was thought to have been named Amythaonia after him . Ioulis or Ioulida , locally called Khora like the main towns of most Greek ___MASK55___ and sometimes known by the island ___MASK75___ of Kea or Keos ( or earlier Zea ), is the capital of the island of Kea in the ___MASK18___ . Calydon (" gen ".:  ) was an ancient Greek ___MASK40___ in Aetolia , situated on the west bank of the river Evenus , 7 . 5 Roman miles ( approx . 11 km ) from the ___MASK59___ . Its name is most famous today for the Calydonian Boar that had to be overcome by heroes of the Olympian age . History . According to ___MASK72___ , the ___MASK40___ took its name from its founder Calydon , son of Aetolus . Close to the ___MASK40___ stood Mount Arakynthos ( Zygos ), the slopes of which provided the setting for the hunt of the Calydonian Boar . A ___MASK40___ - state is a sovereign state that consists of a ___MASK40___ and its dependent territories . Historically , this included cities such as Rome , Athens , Carthage , and the Italian ___MASK40___ - states during the ___MASK3___  but today only a handful of sovereign ___MASK40___ - states exist , with some disagreement as to which are ___MASK40___ - states . A great deal of consensus exists that the term properly applies to Singapore , Monaco , and Vatican ___MASK40___ . A mnemonic (: , : the first " m " is silent ) device , or ___MASK10___ device is any ___MASK78___ technique that aids information retention in the human ___MASK10___ . Mnemonics make use of elaborative encoding , retrieval cues , and imagery as specific tools to encode any given information in a way that allows for efficient storage and retrieval . Mnemonics aid original information in becoming associated with something more meaningful  which , in turn , allows the ___MASK27___ to have better retention of the information . Commonly encountered mnemonics are often used for lists and in auditory form , such as short poems , acronyms , or memorable phrases , but mnemonics can also be used for other types of information and in visual or kinesthetic forms . Their use is based on the observation that the human mind more easily remembers spatial , personal , surprising , physical , sexual , humorous , or otherwise " relatable " information , rather than more abstract or impersonal forms of information . Epirus is a geographical and historical region in southeastern ___MASK67___ , now shared between Greece and Albania . It lies between the Pindus Mountains and the Ionian ___MASK59___ , stretching from the ___MASK39___ of Vlorë and the Acroceraunian mountains in the north to the Ambracian Gulf and the ruined Roman city of Nicopolis in the south . It is currently divided between the region of Epirus in northwestern Greece and the counties of Gjirokastër , Vlorë , and Berat in southern Albania . The largest city in Epirus is Ioannina , seat of the region of Epirus , with Gjirokastër the largest city in the Albanian part of Epirus . ___MASK72___ is the body of myths and teachings that belong to the ancient Greeks , concerning their gods and heroes , the nature of the world , and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices . It was a part of the religion in ancient Greece . Modern scholars refer to and study the myths in an attempt to shed light on the religious and political institutions of Ancient Greece and its civilization , and to gain understanding of the nature of myth - making itself . Aetolia is a mountainous region of Greece on the north coast of the Gulf of Corinth , forming the eastern ___MASK95___ of the modern regional unit of Aetolia - Acarnania .