Modern Day Greece

The Greek economy was one of the fastest growing in the Europe from 2000 to 2007, but since late 2009 Greece has been developing a economic debt crisis. Fears of a sovereign debt crisis, where the government is able to pay back its debt in full, and the people of Greece, such as investors, were lost of confidence in the government. As of 2010, Greece's National Debt was at €300 Billion, and is still on the rise.

The Persian War

The Persian Wars was a series of wars between the invading Persian Empire against the city-states of Greece. By 522 BC Persia held control over the Ionian Greek city-states in Anatolia. They revolted unsuccessfully in the Ionian Revolts, but was helped by Athens, one of the most powerful city-states at the time. Darius I, the King of Persia was upset with Athens, and attacked in the Battle of Marathon. The Persians were badly beat, and sent home in shame.
     In 480, Persian's new leader Xerxes I invaded Greece once again, this time seeking revenge. The most famous of these fights was the Battle of Thermopylae, where a miniscule band of a few thousand Spartans, under Leonidas courageously fought the Persian army, consisting of hundreds of thousands of men. The Spartan ended up losing, but this battle had gone down in history because of the amount of time it took the large Persian Army to defeat the small group of Spartans. Later, when Xerxes reached Athens, they were destroyed in the Battle of Salamis. In 479, Xerxes withdrew it to Persia. His army was defeated at the Battle of Plataea the same year, and driven from Greece.

This video explains basically why the Spartans where such a powerful force.

Ancient Greece

The Most Ancient, and perhaps the most well known times of Greece was the era of mythology. This time frame is between the 8th BC and 6th century AD, where tales of mythical Gods and Heroes taking place around 1100BC. These famous myths was a way for the early people of Greece to invent a reason to life and an answer all of life's unanswerable questions. Greece's Classical Period writers, like Homer - author of the epics: the Iliad and the Odyssey, opened up Greek literature to very high standard. Such stories are still taught throughout High School and College english courses.


My favorite Greek Myth is about Theseus and the Minotaur. It all started when King Aegeus required that, every ninth year, seven Athenian youths and seven maidens were to be sent to the Minotaur as a sacrifice. When the third sacrifice approached, Theseus, the son of Aegeus, volunteered to slay the monster. He promised to his father, Aegeus, that he would put up a white sail on his journey back home if he was successful and would have the crew put up black sails if he was killed. Theseus was able to slay the Minotaur and retrace his way out of the labyrinth, but unfortunately, he neglected to put up a white sail. King Aegeus committed suicide upon seeing the black sails head into the harbor, thinking his son was dead. Because of this Theseus was given the throne. What's your favorite myth?

The History of Greece can be traced back past modern times, to the Mycenaean era where the tales of Homer and the Greek Gods thrived. In between this span of thousands of years, many historical events took place, including the bloody days of the Peloponnesian  and the Persian wars. This topic is very interesting, and I am looking forward to blog about it.