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The Centauromachy was a mythical battle between the Lapith people, who were members of the ancient Greek tribe of Aeolians who lived in Thessaly, and the mythical centaurs—half-horse, half-man creatures in Greek mythology. Who were the Centaurs and the Lapiths? The Lapiths and the centaurs of ancient Greece were said to be related in that the clans supposedly descended—and acquired their names—from two mythical brothers: Lapithes and Centaurus. Centaurus, according to ancient Greek mythology, was the first being to group the stars into constellations, and taught others how to read them. It is said he formulated a picture of himself...

Archaeologists have discovered ashes from one of the biggest ever volcanic eruptions in recorded history. Excavations in Turkey’s ancient city of Smyrna, now located in Izmir, have revealed details from a Minoan eruption that took place some 3,600 years ago. Smyrna was established about 5,000 years ago by the Greek tribe of Aeolians and later inhabited by Ionians. It was mostly abandoned after it was captured by the Anatolian kingdom of Lydia in the 6th century B.C. Archaeologists say the ashes will tell them a lot about the history. “Now that we have identified those ashes with a more extensive...