Ancient Greece

  • Heraclitus
    535 BCE

    Heraclitus

    He had many different and strange ideas. He said life is always changing, and that you can't step in the same river twice.
  • Aechylus
    525 BCE

    Aechylus

    He wrote a play sponsored by Pericles in 474 BC about the Persian War. He also wrote the famous trilogy, The Orchestra. He wrote over eighty plays, but only seven survived.
  • Sophocles
    496 BCE

    Sophocles

    He played a leading role in a play about the victory over the Persians in Salamis.He was thirty years younger, but was still Aeschylus' rival. He was famous for his play, Oedipus the King.
  • Empedocles
    495 BCE

    Empedocles

    He believed everything came from earth, air, fire, and water.
  • Pericles
    494 BCE

    Pericles

    He was a leader and general of Athens. He supported dramatists, painters, sculptors, and architects. He also rebuilt the Acropolis. His key to success was his skill as an orator, or public speaker.
  • Euripides
    480 BCE

    Euripides

    During his lifetime he wrote eighty to ninety plays, but he received less awards. He was popular with many Athenian audiences.
  • Socrates
    470 BCE

    Socrates

    He was known for asking questions that made people examine their lives. He said people that knew the difference between right and wrong couldn't choose to do wrong. He was arrested for corrupting the youth, and was forced to drink hemlock, a type of poison.
  • Aristophanes
    455 BCE

    Aristophanes

    In his plays,he made fun of statesmen like Pericles, dramatists like Euripides, and philosophers like Socrates.
  • Plato
    427 BCE

    Plato

    He was a student of Socrates. Plato tried to understand what the ideal of goodness was. He liked math because it led to a pure abstract truth.
  • Aristotle
    384 BCE

    Aristotle

    He was a student of Plato. He believed there was always another way to explain something.He started his own school, called The Lyceum.