Oh my, the shock!

No, in fact, the term kordax refers to something completely different… something which may make you look a little differently upon Aquaman’s ancestor the next time you pick up a copy of The Atlantis Chronicles.

The kordax, in Ancient Greek history, was a dance performed by men during comedic plays, such as those written by playwright Aristophanes.

The dance itself was… less of a piece of “choreographed movement” than other Greek dances performed by choruses. Those other dances were taught to young soldiers as part of their military training in formation and strategic movement. The kordax? Well, it was more like… drunken frat party carousing.

Scholars have referred to the kordax as “lascivious”, “vulgar”, “obscene”, and “lewd”. There is some debate over whether the dance had received this kind of connotation during the 6th-century when it was performed, or whether that’s a more recent development. Either way, the depictions of the dance on Ancient Greek vases show men with certain “enhancements” in “unique” poses (Scribe’s note: We’re trying to keep this family friendly, here…) that are believed to be artistic depictions of the men in costume and performing the kordax.

There are also some who believe the kordax was a masked solo performance, which makes it very unlike the large-group chorus dances performed during tragedies and other plays. From what scholars can interpret based on artistic and written information, it was a vigorous, acrobatic dance that relied mostly on leg movements, with padding placed around the belly and buttocks (ie. the “enhancements” previously mentioned…).

It’s thought to have originated as a fertility dance, which makes an odd sort of sense, considering the ties of comedy to Dionysus, drinking, and grapes (which were all symbolic of fertility in one way or another).

And while we don’t have Ancient Greek YouTube videos to show us exactly how the dance was done, at least we have DC Comics, who likely didn’t expect anyone to put the originally meaning of “kordax” together with their character’s name… talk about an awkward moment, hmm?

Ah, yes. Hemlock. The deadly plant that killed one of the world’s most famous philosophers. But how much do you really know about this ancient plant? And were you aware that it still exists today, and can be just as deadly?

Hemlock’s fame originates from one of the most famous trials in history—the trial and execution of ancient Greek philosopher Socrates in 399 BC. Accused and convicted of impiety, Socrates was sentenced to death by drinking a hemlock-based liquid. Accounts of the trial can be read in his student Plato’s dialogues and the historian Xenophon’s Apology of Socrates to the Jury. While some experts still debate how accurate these records are in terms of Socrates’ words as he died, it’s typically agreed that there’s no mistaking the accuracy of the description of how the poison acted once ingested.

Conium maculatum, or hemlock, is an herb that becomes toxic once ingested by humans or most domestic animals. The stems of the plant can grow up to two meters high, and are characterized by bunches of small, white flowers (known as umbels). The poison of the plant is a neurotoxin, which means it disrupts the function of the central nervous system, leading to respiratory failure and death. Muscular paralysis sets in at the feet & legs first, works its way up the body, and eventually paralyses the lungs & heart so that no blood or oxygen can circulate!

The ancient Greeks knew a thing or two about this poison, because not only did they use it for execution, but some evidence has shown that they may have used it in small doses for other ailments such as arthritis, as a sedative, or to prevent or treat muscular spasms. Unfortunately, this may not always have been a successful venture, because the difference between a helpful dose and a fatal dose is very small.

Either way, when it came to executions, it certainly kept the mess down!

In 2003, archaeologists working on the island of Crete uncovered several bones, tusks, and teeth of an enormous prehistoric mammal. Previous to that, additional bones and skulls of the same creature were uncovered elsewhere on the island. The animal is believed to have been an ancestor to today’s modern elephant, but what makes this mammal so special is the single hole in the center of the skull.

Today’s biologists have looked at the skulls and theorized that, in comparison our modern elephant, this ancient creature must have had a very pronounced trunk, much bigger than what we see today. However, to the Ancient Greeks, the skulls of these animals may have provided the foundation for their belief in ancient one-eyed monsters.

Remember, the people popularly referred to as “Ancient Greeks” (typically referencing to 5th-century Athens) had ancestors as well, and they were acutely aware of their heritage. Archaeologist Thomas Strasser from California State University has explained how the Ancient Greeks might have understood their own past: “The idea that mythology explains the natural world is an old idea, you’ll never be able to test the idea in a scientific fashion, but the ancient Greeks were farmers and would certainly come across fossil bones like this and try to explain them. With no concept of evolution, it makes sense that they would reconstruct them in their minds as giants, monsters, sphinxes, and so on.”

Scientists estimate that the Deinotherium giganteum, or “really huge, terrible beast”, stood around 15 feet tall, with 4.5 foot long tusks, making it one of the largest mammals who ever walked the Earth. They lived during the Miocene and Pliocene eras before their extinction, roaming Europe, Asia, and Africa. Much like today’s elephants, this creature was likely a strong swimmer, and would have reached Crete by swimming from Turkey during a period of lower sea levels.

As for the Ancient Greeks, they likely found the skulls and explained their existence as best they could. One of the best-known examples of Cyclops in mythology comes from Homer’s epic poem (The Odyssey) about the Trojan War hero Odysseus’ 10-year journey home after the war: When Odysseus  and his men were trapped in a cave with a Cyclops—who started eating Odysseus’ men—they fooled the giant by getting him drunk, stabbing him in the eye, and sneaking out of the cave by tying themselves underneath the giant’s sheep as they were let out to pasture.

Image: Dwarf elephant skull, copyright D. Finnan/AMNH

Other Mycenaean artifacts were found at the same dig. They included parts of a palace, murals, giant terrace walls and even proof of a drainage system. The Mycenaeans had a very advanced civilization and were able to dominate much of Greece between 1600 BCE and 1100 BCE. The civilization became legendary after Homer mentioned them in his work, the Ilead, which is an account of their war with Troy.

The tablet measures 1 inch tall by 1.5 inches wide. It was written using a writing system known as Linear B. This system was made up of 87 different signs that represented syllables rather than individual letters. The system was usually used to record financial matters that may have been of interest to the ruling elite at the time. This holds true for the pottery fragment that was discovered. Archaeologists have been able to determine that the syllable appearing on the fragment had to do with manufacturing although it is unknown what the rest of the piece would have said in its entirety.

There is also text on the back of the piece as well. This piece of writing includes a list of names as well as numbers. Archaeologists believe that this may have been part of a property list. There are a number of reasons why this find is so big.

The first reason is that the tablets were only meant to last a season and were therefore not made out of clay that was fired. They were dried in the sun and this made them extremely fragile. Because they were so brittle very few of the tablets have been found. They usually turn up in major palaces rather than at digs like the one at Iklaina.

It was believed that the tablet was only preserved as a fluke of luck. It appears as though the tablet was thrown into a fire pit where garbage was being burned. The heat from the burning garbage fired the clay and made it durable enough to last for thousands of years.

It is important to remember that while this is the oldest known sample of writing in Europe it is not the earliest known sample of writing that has been discovered to date. The oldest samples include pieces found in China, Egypt and Mesopotamia. The writing that has been found in those areas dates back to as early as 3,000 BCE. Scientists are hoping to be able to find evidence of an earlier writing system known as Linear A that may have been related to Egyptian hieroglyphics. Scientists and archaeologists have been unable to translate any of the Linear A writings that have been found to date.

Scientists are also hoping that the Linear B writing will give information on how Greek kingdoms may have been organized.

He still had a ways to go, however, before he could reach the city and claim his birthright as one of Aegeus’ sons. He still had two more enemies to defeat before he could reach Athens and meet his father.

At Eleusis, an important religious site and the location of the Eleusinian Mysteries Theseus met up with King Cercyon. Cercyon was extremely strong. Some legends say that he was also a son of Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea. Other legends state that he was the son of Branchus and the grandson of Apollo. Cercyon challenged Theseus to a wrestling match. In the past, Cercyon had always managed to defeat his opponents and would kill them after he had defeated them. But he had met his match in Theseus. Instead of being defeated and slain, Theseus was able to defeat Cercyon and killed him after the wrestling match was over.

After defeating Cercyon at Eleusis, Theseus continued along the route to Athens. He met the final enemy that he would have to defeat on the plain of Eleusis. His final battle was with Procrustes. Procrustes was also known as “The Stretcher”.

Procrustes was a rather nasty man. He would force passers-by to lay down in an iron bed. He would then measure them against the bed. If they were too tall for it he would cut off their legs. If they were too short to fit in the bed he would stretch them out until they fit. Of course, nobody ever fit the bed. This was because Procrustes actually had two beds. One was shorter and one was longer. Nobody would ever fit the beds. Theseus defeated Procrustes and forced him to lie down in his own bed. When Procrustes did not fit, Theseus cut off his legs and then decapitated him using Procrustes’ own axe.

With these enemies defeated, Theseus could continue on to Athens and meet up with his father, Aegeus. Instead of immediately announcing his parentage Theseus decided to lay low. His father was suspicious of who this powerful young stranger was. Aegeus’ wife Medea recognized him and was not happy that he was there. She worried that Aegeus’ son would supplant her own son as ruler of the kingdom.

Medea decided that she wanted Theseus to be killed. She set him the task of capturing the Marathonian Bull. She thought that he would likely die in the attempt and she would no longer have to worry about him taking the throne away from her son Medus. Theseus left on this task and Medea thought she could sit back and relax. But could she?

Tomorrow: What really happened with Theseus and the Marathonian Bull.

It was perhaps this supernatural strength that had allowed Theseus to move the giant rock that Aegeus had placed over his sandals, sword and shield. Aegeus did so and had told Aethra that his son would be able to move the rock if he were heroic enough. According to Aegeus, his son needed to be able to present the sword, shield and sandals to him in order to prove his royal heritage and heroic status.

Theseus had been travelling around the Saronic Gulf on his way to Athens. In the process he had fought a number of bandits as well as some enemies that had divine parentage as well. His first encounter of this sort came at Epidaurus. Theseus defeated the clubber Periphetes who used a massive metal club to beat his opponents. Next came Sinis, a man who would tie travelers to two pine trees and allow them to be ripped apart.

His next encounter was at Crommyon. There he had an encounter not with a semi-divine human but with an enormous pig. This creature was wild and it roamed through the countryside around Crommyon (which is also known as Krommyon). This was a town that was located east of the Isthmus of Corinth. In some Greek legends the pig was a boar and in others it was a sow. It was large enough and fierce enough to kill humans. Theseus slew both the pig and its owner, an old crone named Phaia.

A fourth encounter was with a robber named Sciron who was the son of the God Poseidon and a nymph named Iphimedeia. This encounter came near the town of Megara. The path was very narrow and made its way along the face of a cliff. Sciron did not rob travelers. Instead, he required them to wash his feet if they wanted to move past him. The path was narrow enough that travelers had to do what Sciron wanted or they would not be able to travel the rest of the way to Athens. Unfortunately for the travelers, Sciron would wait until they had knelt down and then he would push them off the cliff. In some legends he is eaten by a sea monster. In others, the creature that devoured the travelers was a giant turtle.

Theseus did not fall for the same trick that so many travelers had before. Instead of being pushed off the cliff he threw Sciron off where, theoretically, he would have been eaten by the same monster that had devoured so many unlucky travelers before.

Tomorrow: The final two trials that Theseus had to face on his way to Athens

He had chosen a route around the Saronic Gulf even though it was more treacherous than a sea route would have been. On the way to Athens, he encountered six entrances to the Greek Underworld. The first was at a place known as Epidaurus. This tiny town was sacred to the Greek God Apollo and was reputed to have been the birthplace of his son Asclepius. Asclepius was the Greek God of healing. His staff, entwined with serpents is still used today as a symbol for medicine.

Apollo was not the problem at Epidarus and neither was Asclepius. Instead, Theseus had to face a man by the name of Periphetes. In some legends, Periphetes was also known as Korynetes. He was an outlaw who didn’t have much going for him even though he was the son of Hephaestus, the god of blacksmiths, craftsmen, metal and many other similar things. Periphetes was lame and wielded a massive wooden club that was wrapped in bronze. Periphetes was lame like his father and only had one eye. He lived in Epidauros but was actively robbing travelers on the road from Athens to Troezen and killing them with his club.

The battle was a fairly quick one. Periphetes tried to strike Theseus in the head with the club but Theseus was able to grab the club from Periphetes and strike him with it, killing him. Theseus then was able to take the club for himself and was shown in many drawings as carrying the weapon and using it in future encounters. In some accounts, the club was made of iron instead of steel.

After defeating Periphetes, Theseus continued along his path until he came to the next entrance to the underworld. This was located on an isthmus. There, he encountered a robber named Sinis. Sinis was a relative of Theseus as he also was the son of Poseidon. Sinis was a giant whose name meant “pine bender” This was an accurate name for the giant who killed travelers in a rather unpleasant way.

He would force travelers to help him bend two pine trees to the ground and then suddenly let them go. As a result, the pine trees would straighten up and the force would rip unwary travelers in two. In some legends, Sinis tied the people directly to the pine trees and in others he had them help him bend them down. Theseus managed to tie Sinis to his own pine trees and allowed them to rip him apart. It was a fitting end to someone who killed travelers in a most unpleasant way. Once Sinis was dead, Theseus was able to continue on his way to Athens.

Tomorrow: Theseus’ journey to Athens to claim his birthright.

He was said to have reformed Athens. His mortal father Aegeus had ruled Athens before Theseus however Theseus was considered to have founded many of the traditions that were part of Athenian daily life. Different poets, authors and playwrights attributed many different things to Theseus.

One legend states that Theseus grew up in Troezen, the city state where his mother lived. in order to claim that he was the son of Aegeus, Theseus had to recover his father’s sandals and sword from under a huge rock. When he did, his mother was permitted to tell Theseus who his father was. Because the task marked Theseus as a hero, he was able to journey to Athens and claim his place as Aegeus’ son. Since Aethra had slept with Poseidon on the same evening that she had lain with Aegeus it was believed that Theseus had both human and divine qualities that allowed him to perform truly heroic feats.

After Theseus had retrieved his father’s sandals and sword he was then given a choice between two routes to Athens. The first was by sea. This was considered to be a much safer route. The second, the route that Theseus ultimately chose, followed a path around the Saronic Gulf. The gulf is part of the Aegean Sea. This was a treacherous route and Theseus would have to complete a number of tasks.

Completing tasks was a fairly common theme in Greek mythology. Hercules, for example, had to complete twelve tasks that are known as the Labors of Hercules. In the case of Theseus, he would have overcome the bandits who guarded six separate entrances to the Greek Underworld.

Even after Theseus arrived in Athens, he had other tasks to complete. He didn’t introduce himself to his father right away. His father’s wife, Medea, did recognize him and wanted to make sure that Theseus would not live long enough to claim his rightful place on the throne. She sent him on an errand to capture the Marathonian Bull. He was able to bring the bull back to Athens where it was sacrificed. Medea was upset that this plan had not worked but she had other tricks up her sleeve. Her last attempt on Theseus’ life was to poison him with a cup of wine. Luckily, Aegeus recognized the shield, sword and sandals that he had buried under the rock. He realized that Theseus was his son and prevented the poisoning from taking place.

Tomorrow: The first of Theseus’ encounters with the bandits who guarded entrances to the Greek Underworld.

The year was 430 BCE. The Peloponnesian War was in full swing. It had started a year earlier. Athens and the other members of the Delian League were fighting against Sparta and the rest of the Peloponnesian League. The war was terrible. There were many atrocities committed by the forces on both sides. The city states abandoned the formalized combat that had been so common during Greece’s Golden Age and went at each other without mercy. They destroyed the countryside and destroyed cities in their hunger to win.

The war seemed like it was going well for Athens. The forces were fairly evenly matched in some ways. Sparta’s forces were devastating on land while Athens dominated the seas. While Sparta was launching attacks by land, Athens was busy sneaking in by sea and attacking cities along the coast. Then, in the second year of the war, disaster struck Athens. It was 430 BCE and the Athenians were holed up behind Athens’ city walls.

People from the surrounding area began to move into the city of Athens itself. Suddenly, the crowded conditions became a great place for illness to multiply. The illness was very contagious and people began to die at an alarming rate. As people became ill, law and order in the city began to break down. People suddenly began to ignore the laws or go on wild spending sprees.

The plague caused the eyes to become red and inflamed. The breath became fetid as individuals bled from the throat and tongue. They started to sneeze and became hoarse. Victims felt that they were burning from within although they were not hot to the touch. The skin became red and developed pustules and ulcers. They often took seven to eight days to die. If they did not die, they often recovered but lost fingers, toes or eyes.

People who tended the ill were at great risk of getting sick themselves. Because of this, it was not uncommon to find that people were left alone once they became sick. They were often left to die in buildings or in the street. Some were dumped into mass graves or burned on communal pyres. In fact, the flames from the pyres were so large that they caused the Spartans to back away from the city in an attempt to avoid catching the plague.

It returned several times during the Peloponnesian War. At the end, Athens was crushed and reduced to a shadow of its former glory. While they did try to rally and mount a final attack in 415 BCE, they were never able to defeat the Spartans.

It is still not known what the Plague of Athens actually was. Scientists are fairly certain that it was not caused by the bubonic plague as was thought in the past. Scientists are now thinking it may have been a mutant form of some other illness that has not been seen since it last appeared in 427/6 BCE.

One man who fought at the Battle of Marathon was the Athenian general and politician Themistocles. He lived from 524 BCE to 459 BCE. One of his main goals was to increase the naval power of Athens and began his campaign to do so after being elected to the position of archon in 493 BCE. It is believed that he acted as one of 10 Athenian generals during the Battle of Marathon.

After the Greeks defeated the Persians, there was a temptation on behalf of the Athenians to divert money away from the navy into other areas that needed funding. Themistocles didn’t agree with this plan. He wanted the Athenian navy to remain strong and managed to convince the Athenians that the people of Aegina were an ongoing danger to Athens. This wasn’t actually the case but because of this, the Athenians were willing to build a new fleet made up of 100 triremes which made them a powerful naval force that was very difficult to defeat.

Themistocles used subterfuge in order to give Athenians the advantage during the second Persian invasion, which took place from 480 BCE to 479 BCE. This time, instead of Darius trying to punish Athens and Eretria, the second invasion was an attempt by Darius’ son, King Xerxes I, to completely conquer Greece altogether. It was believed that Themistocles was sending messages to Xerxes. He claimed that some of Xerxes’ allies, the Ionians, were actually much less loyal than they actually were. He also sent messages to the Persians which stated that the allied Greek navy was in a much worse condition than it actually was.

Not only did Themistocles manage to cause problems within the Persian army, he was also able to find out important information that gave the Greek soldiers the advantage at the battle of Salamis. This gave the Greeks the upper hand and made it possible for them to eventually defeat the Persians at the Battle of Plataea that ended the second invasion.

After the second Persian invasion, Themistocles’ career began to go downhill. He continued to be an important political figure in Athens but in the process, he earned the hostility of Sparta, a sister state of Athens. He ended up alienating the people of Athens and was ultimately ostracized in either 471 BCE or 472 BCE. After that happened, he travelled to the Argos where he lived in exile. Ultimately, he ended up in the service of the Persians under King Artaxerxes I. He ended up becoming a governor of Magnesia, an ancient Greek city that was located in Anatolia. He ultimately died in 459 BCE of natural causes.