| Corinth once made pottery decorated without | | | | and according to Greek literature, lived on a |
| any paint. Instead a watery clay mixture was | | | | high rock outside of the city of Thebes. The |
| used. When the pot was fired in a kiln, the | | | | Great Sphinx that stands at Giza near the |
| areas painted with clay mixture turned black. | | | | Great Pyramid in Egypt is 240 feet long and |
| Unpainted areas turned a light brown or | | | | approximately 66 feet high and is one of the |
| reddish brown color, depending on the type of | | | | most famous monuments in the world. |
| clay. | | | | |
| | | | The ancient Greeks were the firs to develop a |
| For 200 years the Corinthians sold their | | | | democratic way of life. More than 200 years |
| pottery all over the Greek world, and Corinth | | | | age, they started the idea that every citizen |
| became a wealthy and busy trading center. In | | | | should take an active part in Government, |
| metalworking and pottery, the work was very | | | | historians regard them as the founder of |
| hard. The potters could be found in a part | | | | western civilization. Greek civilization was |
| of Athens known as the Kerameikos, or | | | | far more advanced than any other historians |
| Potters' Quarter. They acquired their clay | | | | were. Orators, philosophers, and poets were |
| from the quarries at Cape Colias, six miles | | | | Greek. The Greeks were the first to study |
| from the city. They mixed it with ochre or | | | | botany, geometry, medicine, physic and |
| vermilion to color it yellow or red, and | | | | zoology on a scientific basic. They also |
| turned it on simple wheels. The molded | | | | held the first athletic games. |
| articles were then dried in the sun and | | | | |
| specialized painters decorated them by hand. | | | | The ancient Greeks called themselves |
| The Sphinx, an imaginary creature of ancient | | | | Hellenes, and their land Hellas. They never |
| myths, is most remembered for the riddle | | | | formed a national government, but a common |
| given to her by the Muses, "What creature has | | | | culture, religious, and language united them. |
| only once voice walks sometimes on four, | | | | Greeks called anyone whose active language |
| sometimes on three, and sometimes on two, and | | | | was Greek a Hellene, even if he did not live |
| is weakest when it walks on four? "Man!" | | | | in Greece, and anyone not speaking Greek a |
| She often sat perched on Mount Phicium, | | | | barbarian. Greek civilization developed on |
| asking each passing person a riddle. If they | | | | a rocky, mountainous peninsula that juts onto |
| answered her wrong, she would eat them. It | | | | the Mediterranean Sea from southeastern |
| is also believed that The Sphinx leaped to | | | | Europe, and on the Islands in the nearby sea. |
| her death when she asked Oedipus a riddle and | | | | The people of each plain and island formed |
| was given the correct answer. The Egyptians, | | | | an independent community called a city-state. |
| Greeks and peoples of the Near East all had | | | | No city-state had enough good land to |
| stories about such a creature. The Egyptian | | | | support its entire people. Communities |
| Sphinx usually had the head of a man and the | | | | quarreled with one another instead of |
| body, legs, feet and tail of a lion. The | | | | uniting. Athens and Sparta became the most |
| Greek Sphinx usually had the head of a woman | | | | famous city-states. |