Ancient Festivals
- Anthesteria
- -the name Anthesteria means "festival of flowers", and it was celebrated by drinking the season's new wine (giving it an an obvious connection to Dionysos)
- Aphrodisia
- -as the name of this festival suggests, it was dedicated to the goddess Aphrodite
- Brauronia
- -the Brauronia festival was dedicated to the cult of the goddess Artemis
- Dionysia
- -festivals held in honor of the god Dionysos; the ancient Greeks had both Rural Dionysia and City Dionysia
- Eleusinian Mysteries
- - the Eleusinian Mysteries are understood to be sacred events that were connected to the goddess Demeter and her daughter Persephone (also known as Kore)
- Olympieia
- -celebrated in the Spring, this festival in honor of Zeus combined religious festivities with athletic events
- Panathenaia
- -held in honor of the goddess Athena's birthday, the Panathenaia festival was one of the most important in ancient Athens
- Theogamia
- -this event was held to celebrate of the "hieros gamos", or sacred wedding, of Zeus and Hera
- Thesmophoria
- -the Thesmophoria was a fertility festival associated with Demeter, in which the participants were exclusively women.
One of the great paradoxes of history is that the next hesitant advance of
European civilization the development of the first city-states - took place not on the fertile open central European plains, but in a remote island to the south of the Aegean Sea which was completely lacking in metal resources.
While the glittering mounted warrior-princes of central Europe dissipated their creative energy in warefare, a highly cultured yet peaceful society, built on trade and an agricultural surplus, emerged on Crete.