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Ask the Chatbot Games & Quizzes History & Society Science & Tech Biographies Animals & Nature Geography & Travel Arts & Culture ProCon Money Videos
14 Things You Didn’t Know About Ancient Greece
  • Introduction
  • There’s a reason why we call them ancient Greeks…though they didn’t
  • That’s what she—no, the ancient Greeks—said
  • The theorem may not have been Pythagoras’s
  • Mourners for hire at ancient Greek funerals
  • Ancient Greeks didn’t exactly use toilet paper
  • The Minotaur? Scary. Beans? TERRIFYING!
  • Steve Jobs, step aside please
  • Before Grease, there was Greece
  • The most famous hero you know by the wrong name
  • Sneezes could bless you. Or curse you.
  • The Delphic oracle was not a myth
  • The statues were not white. Neither was history.
  • Not all Greek tales ended in tragedy
  • Helen of…where exactly?
References & Edit History
Images & Videos
Acropolis: Erechtheum broad beans Antikythera mechanism Two images of the same Ancient Greek Trojan Archer statue: the top shows the original white marble, and the bottom shows a reconstruction with bright polychrome colors. Jacques-Louis David: Cupid and Psyche
A large wooden Trojan horse is labeled with a blue box reading "FICTION" and an arrow pointing to it, illustrating myth versus reality in Homer's Odyssey.

14 Things You Didn’t Know About Ancient Greece: References & Edit History

Article Contributors

Primary Contributors

  • Estela Morais Westphalen

Other Encyclopedia Britannica Contributors

  • Gitanjali Roy

Article History

Type Description Contributor Date
Think you know ancient Greece? Think again. Beyond the myths lies a world of onion pregnancy tests, phallic comedy, shared sponge sticks, and plenty of historical misconceptions.
  • Gitanjali Roy
  • Estela Morais Westphalen
Oct 09, 2026
View Changes:
Article History
Revised:
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