490–399 BC
Classical Greece: From Marathon to Socrates
In 490 BC a small Athenian army beat the mighty Persian Empire at Marathon, 300 Spartans held the pass at Thermopylae, and the Greek fleet crushed Persia at Salamis. Free Athens then blossomed: Pericles built the Parthenon, citizens voted on laws, and thinkers like Socrates, Plato and Aristotle asked questions we still argue about, until a long war with Sparta ended the golden age.
Why artists painted it
Later painters used Greece as a picture of what free people can do. David showed Leonidas and Socrates as models of courage, and Raphael painted all the great philosophers together in one room to say the Renaissance was ancient Athens reborn.
The Battle of Salamis · Wilhelm von Kaulbach, 1868
Leonidas at Thermopylae
Jacques-Louis David · 1814
🕰️ Painted about 2,210 years later
Three hundred Spartans hold the pass while the Persian army pours toward them. David painted the calm before the last stand, with the warriors combing their hair for battle.
Pheidippides Announcing the Victory at Marathon
Luc-Olivier Merson · 1869
🕰️ Painted about 2,270 years later
According to legend, a runner named Pheidippides raced from the battlefield of Marathon to Athens to announce that the Greeks had beaten the Persians, then collapsed and died.
The Battle of Salamis
Wilhelm von Kaulbach · 1868
🕰️ Painted about 2,270 years later
Wilhelm von Kaulbach shows the sea battle of 480 BC in which the Greek ships crushed the Persian fleet of King Xerxes in the narrow waters near Athens.
The Death of Socrates
Jacques-Louis David · 1787
🕰️ Painted about 2,190 years later
Socrates, sentenced by Athens in 399 BC, calmly reaches for the cup of poison while his friends fall apart.
Phidias Showing the Frieze of the Parthenon to His Friends
Lawrence Alma-Tadema · 1868
🕰️ Painted about 2,270 years later
The sculptor Phidias shows Pericles and a circle of Athenian friends the carved marble frieze made for the Parthenon, the great temple on the Acropolis.
The School of Athens
Raphael · 1511
🕰️ Painted about 1,910 years later
Raphael filled a Vatican room with the great thinkers of ancient Greece: Plato points up at the sky of ideas while Aristotle holds out a hand toward the Earth.
Alcibiades Receiving a Lesson from Socrates
François-André Vincent · 1776
🕰️ Painted about 2,180 years later
The philosopher Socrates teaches the young Alcibiades, a brilliant and very spoiled Athenian aristocrat who later became a famous general and then a traitor.
Socrates and Alcibiades
Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg · 1815
🕰️ Painted about 2,210 years later
Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg paints the wise old Socrates and the handsome young Alcibiades in the Athens of the 400s BC.
The Symposium (After Plato)
Anselm Feuerbach · 1874
🕰️ Painted about 2,270 years later
Guests recline at a dinner party in ancient Athens, taking turns to give speeches about love, in a scene from Plato's dialogue The Symposium.
Plague in an Ancient City
Michiel Sweerts · 1652
🕰️ Painted about 2,050 years later
A terrible illness has struck an ancient city and people are dying in the streets.
Aristotle with a Bust of Homer
Rembrandt · 1653
🕰️ Painted about 2,050 years later
The philosopher Aristotle, dressed in rich 1600s clothes, rests a hand on a bust of the poet Homer and seems lost in thought about wisdom, fame and money.
The Funeral of Miltiades
Jean-François Pierre Peyron · 1782
🕰️ Painted about 2,180 years later
Miltiades, the Athenian general who won at Marathon, died in disgrace, and his son Cimon agreed to take his place in prison so that his father could have a proper funeral.
The Parthenon
Frederic Edwin Church · 1871
🕰️ Painted about 2,270 years later
The Parthenon, the temple built in the golden age of Athens in the 400s BC, stands in golden light on the Acropolis.
Parthenon
Vasily Polenov · 1881
🕰️ Painted about 2,280 years later
Vasily Polenov, a Russian painter, shows the ruined Parthenon standing high above Athens, the temple Pericles built in the golden age.