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The Ancient Greeks and Steganography
 
Cryptology 101 - Part 1
History:
The ancient Greeks were the first people use means of concealing messages. While their methods cannot be classified as cryptography, because they did not change the written message to make it appear as nonsense, these ancients took the first step at evolving the ancient art.

The ancient Greeks used steganography to conceal messages from prying eyes. Steganography comes from the Greek meaning "covered or hidden writing." It is the art and science of writing a hidden message that only the sender and receiver can read. The ancient art traces back to 440 B.C. The famous historian Herodotus mentions two cases in his Histories.

In the Histories Herodotus mentions Histiaeus, a king taken out of power by the Persians. Wishing to return to power, he sent a hidden message telling his people to revolt against the foreign occupation. Since the Persians controlled the region, then certainly any message of rebellion would be discovered if sent by messenger?

To hide his message Histiaeus shaved the head of his most trusted slave and tattooed his message onto the slave's head. When the slave's hair regrew the king sent the slave to deliver the message. When he arrived he shaved his head revealing the King's message.

He also tells the story of Demaratus, King of Sparta, who sent a message to Greece about the forthcoming attack by writing it on a wooden panel and covering it with wax. Wax tablets were used in that time as reusable writing surfaces, so no treachery was suspected. When the tablets reached their destination the wax was melted revealing the hidden message.

Generally a steganographic message will appear to be something else like a picture, an article, a grocery list etc. The advantage is that the hidden message does not draw attention to the sender or receiver, as a mass of jumbled letters will immediately arouse suspicion.

Continue to Methods of Concealment -->

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PCM does use third-party advertising companies, such as google, to serve ads when you visit our website. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address, or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, click here.

 

 

 

 

Pop Culture Madness is your one-stop information location for Popular Culture, Popular Music, Trivia, Jokes and a bunch of other stuff! We update our Pop Culture News daily and our Pop Music section has hundreds of pages featuring the best and worst songs of all time. Our aim is to maintain a family-friendly, "PG" site. We have no swearing and no gory stuff, although some humor may need a creative explanation for younger visitors.

Our motto: "All The Pop Culture News That Fits, We Print!" We are adding more information daily. Well, semi-regularly. If you don't see a link for what you're looking for, then it's your responsibility to write something up, and send it in. WE NEED WRITERS!!!

By the way, PCM does NOT allow sneaky spyware. Nor do we link to sites that have excessive Pop-ups, spyware or inappropriate (all ages) material. If you find one, please let us know and they are toast!
Also, since we're too proud (so far) to ask for donations, we'd like to proudly point out some of our carefully chosen advertisers throughout the site. They have some cool stuff that should be sitting in your room, or wrapped like a present for a friend.
Please check 'em out!

  
 

 

All logos and pictures are copyright of the individual creators, teams and owners. All rights are reserved for them. We don't pretend or assume that we have anything to do with any professional, semi-professional, or entertainment sports or publishing organizations. This e-zine website's purpose is news, information,opinion, trivia, statistical information, and retail representation of product. If you feel that we are unfairly infringing on any of your "intellectual property", and want us to take down any pictures or copyright material on this site, we will gladly work with you to stop any problem.
If we think you are out of line, we will tell the world that you're a big jerk, or words to that effect.
We do not condone illegal downloads, reprinting uncredited or unauthorized works or derivitives.
Everything else Copyright © 1999-2009 Pop Culture Madness.com.
If we made an error, we will do whatever is reasonable to fix it. Otherwise, we're all friends, right?
 
Advertise on PopCultureMadness ~ Contact Us ~ Blog ~ MySpace
  
Privacy Statement: We will not sell, give or share any personal information, including e-mail addresses, of any of our visitors to anyone outside of Pop Culture Madness.com or our affiliated sites. We do not accept any stealth or spyware advertisers or third party sponsors of such programs. Pop Culture Madness.com and affiliated sites do not send spam, offer get-rich-quick schemes, offer or suggest "enhancement" devices or medications via e-mail.
PCM does use third-party advertising companies, such as google, to serve ads when you visit our website. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address, or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, click here.