The Battle of Marathon in 490 BC – when against all odds the Athenians (with a bit of help from the Plataeans) defeated the Persians was too good a PR opportunity for the Athenians to ignore and they made the most of it. In this lecture Dr Gillian Shepherd looks at the imagery associated with war and especially the Battle of Marathon and the series of victory monuments erected in Athens, Attica and Delphi. Marathon entered Athenian mythology: the gods themselves – Athena, Herakles, Theseus and Echetlaos no less - had turned up at Marathon to help the Athenians.

Copyright 2013 Gillian Shepherd / La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

The Battle of Marathon in 490 BC – when against all odds the Athenians (with a bit of help from the Plataeans) defeated the Persians was too good a PR opportunity for the Athenians to ignore and they made the most of it. In this lecture Dr Gillian Shepherd looks at the imagery associated with war and especially the Battle of Marathon and the series of victory monuments erected in Athens, Attica and Delphi. Marathon entered Athenian mythology: the gods themselves – Athena, Herakles, Theseus and Echetlaos no less - had turned up at Marathon to help the Athenians. Copyright 2013 Gillian Shepherd / La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

Art, Myth and Marathon (handout)

In this subject students are introduced to the diversity of the ancient Greek achievement, which has exercised a fundamental and continuing influence upon later European literature and culture. The subject commences with a detailed treatment of Homer's Iliad and the myth of the Trojan war. This is one of the dominant myths in the Greek tradition and is narrated in some detail in epic poetry, in drama, and in art and architecture. We explore how myths are 'read' in their historical context, especially in the contexts of the Persian and Peloponnesian wars of the 5th Century BC. A variety of sources are treated to enable students to build up a picture of Greek society as a whole.

Share Art, Myth and Marathon (handout)

Sign up to save your podcasts

Art, Myth and Marathon (handout)

Art, Myth and Marathon (handout)

More shows like Ancient Greece: Myth, Art, War

Media Studies

History of Children's Literature

Australian Aboriginal History

Early Imperial Russia

The Roman World

Ancient Greece: City and Society

Hume

Epics of Rome

The Philosophy of Descartes

The Ancients