Athenian Greece at its height created a wave of classic, time withstanding, poems and plays that has never been matched. This wave of creative writing brought about poems such as Oedipus Rex, Antigone, the Iliad, and the Odyssey. These poems are wrought with themes and characteristics that reflect the intellect and opulence of the Athenian culture. These themes include the intervention of gods, power of reasoning and science, and temptation, themes that were not always used in previous writing. New philosophies and an enriched culture allowed for the Athenians to believe that "Man is the measure of all things" and this belief was epitomized through their writing.
Ancient Athens valued a person's sense of self enough to inscribe it on their temple of Delphi. The inscriptions on the temple were "Know thyself" and "Nothing in excess". This was to remind the Athenians that self-moderation lead to prosperity while greed and temptation led them to act like the barbaric tribes that......
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