Lec 2: Greek Culture

Vocabulary flashcards defining major terms, locations, social classes, and religious practices from the Ancient Greece lecture transcript.

Mediterranean Triad

The core components of the ancient Greek diet, consisting of bread, olives, and wine.

Polis

A Greek city-state comprising a central large city and its surrounding countryside integrated as a single political and cultural unit.

Trireme

An advanced Greek warship funded by wealthy citizens for maintenance and rowed by a large population of poorer citizens who earned income through row service.

Metics

Foreign citizens living in Greek city-states who legally possessed fewer rights and protections in court than full citizens.

Delos

An island that served as a major center for the slave trade in the Mediterranean.

Epimetheus

A mythological figure whose name means hindsight; he delivered Pandora to earth and later regretted it.

Panhellenism

The cultural concept of "All Greeks" that bound independent city-states together through shared language, customs, religion, and games.

Agon

A contest, struggle, or competition through physical athletics or other means by which Greeks sought to gain honor and glory.

Barbarians

A term used by the Greeks for non-Greek foreigners whose unknown languages sounded to them like "bar bar bar bar".

Ephebes

Young men undergoing physical exercise and intellectual education within Greek gymnasia.

Gymnasia

Key Greek institutions utilized for physical training and intellectual education, often serving as settings for pederastic relationships.

Pederasty

A recognized social relationship in ancient Greece between an older man and a younger boy.

Dionysiac/Bacchic Cults

Mystery cults that enabled participants to experience the divine through wine, inebriation, sexual activity, and general revelry.

Eleusinian Cult

An initiation-based mystery cult honoring Demeter and Persephone featuring a multi-day hallucinogenic experience, promising status, wealth in life, and a happy afterlife.

Orphism

A mystery cult focused on the purification of the soul in preparation for reincarnation.