Athens Known People
Aeschylus (525 BC – 456 BC)
one of the great Greek tragedy poets ; 490 BC He takes part for Athens in the battle of Marathon against the Persians; 472 BC His drama “The Persians” is premiered in Athens
Anakreon (around 550/580? BC – 495 BC)
Greek poet who died in Athens; the anacreontic, the shepherd’s poetry, is named after him
Theodoros Angelopoulos (1935-2012)
Greek film director born in Athens. He died on January 24, 2012 in Neo Faliro, Piraeus.
Aristophanes (around 448 BC – around 385 BC)
Greek comedy poet born and died in Athens; his most famous work were “The Frogs”
Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC)
One of the most important Greek philosophers; also natural scientist and founder of numerous disciplines; studied from 367 BC For 20 years in Plato’s Academy in Athens; 335 BC He founded his own school there, the Lykeion; one of his works deals with the “state of the Athenians”
Attalus II Philadelphos (220 BC – 138 BC)
King of Pergamon and builder of the famous Stoa of Attalus in Athens
Demetrios I Poliorketes (around 336 BC – 283 BC)
from 294 BC. Macedonian king; occupied Athens twice (307 and 294 BC) and asserted himself as king of Macedonia and Thessaly in 294 BC during the Athenian controversy for the throne
Demosthenes (384 BC – 322 BC)
most important orator of ancient Greece; from his speeches one can gain deep insights into the life and culture of the democratic Athens of its time. See computerminus for more about Athens.
Drakon (? – around 650 BC)
Athenian law reformer; drew around 621 BC BC on all criminal provisions known at that time in Athens and introduced significant innovations in criminal law
Euripides (480 BC / 485/484? BC – 406 BC)
one of the great classical Greek poets; led between 455 and 408 BC BC regularly tetralogies in the Agon at Athens
Walter Gropius (1883-1969)
German architect and founder of the Bauhaus style; one of his most important works is in Athens: the US embassy, which he was able to complete in 1961
Herodotus of Halicarnassus (around 484 BC – 425 BC)
Greek historian, geographer and ethnologist; is considered the “father of historiography” (Cicero); The only surviving work are the histories, which deal with the wars of the Greeks against the Persians (6th – 5th centuries BC); around 447 BC. he came to Athens and had contact with the greatest personalities of the time (e.g. Sophocles and Pericles)
Hipparchus (? – 514 BC)
from 527 to 514 BC. BC tyrant of Athens
Hippias (? – 490 BC)
from 527 to 510 BC. BC tyrant of Athens
Irini of Athens (752 – 803)
Athens-born Empress of the Eastern Roman Empire
Isocrates (436 BC – 338 BC)
Ancient Greek rhetorician and writer born in Athens
Justinian I (approx. 482-565)
also called “the great”; from 527 to 565 Eastern Roman emperors; closed the last schools of philosophy in Athens in 529, which is considered the end of classical Athens
Kleisthenes (around 570 BC – around 507 BC)
Athenian state reformer; disempowered around 508 BC Through his famous (Kleisthenian reforms) the oligarch party and thus introduced democracy in Athens
Kodros
legendary last king of Attica and supposedly last king of Athens
Cylon
one of the first historically tangible personalities of ancient Athens; tried 632 BC To seize power in Athens through a coup d’état, but failed and was stoned to death (“Cylon sacrilege”)
Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix (around 138/134 BC – 78 BC)
Roman politician and general; 86 BC He conquered Athens as punishment for supporting Mithridates VI. (= responsible for the killing of about 80,000 Italians in Greece in 88 BC, which went down in history as “Vespers of Ephesus”)
Maria Callas (1923-1977)
Greek soprano, originally born as Maria Anna Sofia Cecilia Kalogeropoulos in New York; is considered one of the most important opera singers of the 20th century; made his debut at the Athens Opera in 1938 at the age of 15
Mehmet II. Fatih (1430 – 1481)
Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and conqueror (= “Fatih”) Constantinople (1453); In 1456 he also conquered Athens
Peisistratos (around 607 BC – 528 BC)
ancient Greek politician; became tyrant of Athens through a coup d’état
Pericles (around 490 BC – 429 BC)
Most important Athenian statesman and general in ancient Greece; had the Acropolis built and led Athens to high democracy
Phidias (around 500 BC – 432 BC)
Greek sculptor who was born and died in Athens
Plato (427 BC – 347 BC)
One of the most important ancient Greek philosophers; lived in Athens
Publius Aelius Hadrianus (76 – 138)
Roman emperor from 117 to 138; was a great admirer of Greek culture and visited Athens several times; donated many buildings to the city, including the Hadrian’s Library, Hadrian’s Gate, completed the Temple of Olympian Zeus and expanded the Roman Agora
Johann Ludwig Heinrich Julius Schliemann (1822 – 1890)
businessman and pioneer of field archeology; his house in Athens can be visited on University Street (= Panepistimiou); after his death in Naples in 1890 his body was transferred to Athens by friends and buried there in the Proto Nekrotafeion Athinon cemetery
Simonides von Keos (557/556 BC – 468/467 BC)
Greek poet; lived in Athens for a while during the Persian warriors (490-480 BC); was a close friend of the Athenian Themistocles
Socrates (469 BC – 399 BC)
One of the main figures in Greek philosophy; he lived and worked in Athens
Solon (around 640 BC – 559 BC)
Greek poet and statesman from Athens; carried out extensive legislative reforms in Athens; he is counted among the seven wise men of Greece
Sophocles (496 BC – 406/405 BC)
Classical Greek poet who died in Athens; his two main works were “King Oedipus” and “Antigone”
Themistocles (around 525 BC – 459 BC)
General of Athens during the Persian threat to Greece
Thucydides (around 460 BC – between 399 and 396 BC)
general and historian from Athens
Tommy Lee (born 1962)
American drummer and rock singer; was born in Athens
Xenophon (around 426 BC – after 355 BC)
writer, politician and general from Athens
Xerxes I (around 519 BC – 465 BC)
Persian great king, called “Ahasuerus” in the Old Testament; sacked Athens in 480 BC And transferred various art treasures from the city to Persepolis and Susa
Ernst Moritz Theodor Ziller (1837 – 1923)
German-Greek architect and building researcher who died in Athens in 1923; His most famous buildings in Athens include the Crown Prince’s Palace (1870) and today’s Numismatic Museum (1870)
