35 Historic Facts about Ancient Greeks

The word "echo" comes from Greek Mythology. Hera (Goddess of women and marriage) was so annoyed at echo that she punished her by taking away her voice, except in repetition of another's shouted words. Thus, all Echo could do was repeat the voice of another.

27. Aristotle's Eudemian Ethics, which is about happiness and what makes life worth living, was only published for the first time in a modern language in 2011.

28. Plato, the famous ancient Greek philosopher, believed people have knowledge "from past incarnations" and that learning is a matter of "rediscovering" it.

29. Aristotle believed that the brain was just a minor organ for cooling the blood and heart and a place for the spirit to reside.

30. A few thousand years before Plato described Atlantis there really was a big island which disappeared in the middle of the North Sea.

The word "panic" comes from the Greek woodland God Pan who was believed to be the source of mysterious forest sounds that would cause contagious, groundless fear in animals and humans alike.

32. There is a Greek man named Vassilis Palaikostas also known as "Robin of the Poor" who stole money from the rich, gave it to the poor and has escaped from the same high-security prison twice.

33. Ancient Greeks built a 7-mile wall from Athens to the port of Piraeus to guarantee safe passage to the sea.

34. In Greek Mythology, the God 'Phosphorus' represented the planet Venus, or the 'Morning Star', as the Bringer of Light. The Latin translation of Phosphorus is Lucifer.

35. Commas were originally invented by the ancient Greeks in order to show actors where to pause and breathe.