Myth & Archeology Quiz 2

Demodocus

A blind poet in the Odyssey who sings about the Trojan War, bard of the Phaeacians

Unitarians

(Literary critics): Homeric epics show artistic unity -> work of a single mind.

Analysts

(Philologists from 19th century on): Epics composed by many hands, at the very least Iliad and the Odyssey by different poets

Rhapsode

A person who recites epic poems (sews songs together)

Homeric Formula

Repeated phrases or epithets used in Homer's epics, such as "rosy-fingered Dawn" or "swift-footed Achilles", which helped maintain the rhythm of oral poetry.

Griot

Similar to the Homeric rhapsode, a Guslar is a traditional singer or bard from the Balkans who preserves epic tales, echoing the function of Homer's oral poets.

Imbongi

Traditionally a male who recites emotive poetry, sings, explains family relations, re-tells historical events, and comments on current affairs (South African)

Guslar

Balkan folk singer and oral poet. Illiterate, sings 12,000-line epics.

Griot

West African historian, storyteller, praise singer, poet, or musician.

Calliope

Muse of epic poetry

Phalanx

Military formation of heavily armed soldiers standing in close ranks, shoulder to shoulder. Evidence of Phalanx in Homeric warfare and recovered artifacts.

Myrmidons

The crack troops who followed Achilles to Troy

Promachoi

Men fighting in the first rank of the phalanx.

Pylos Combat Agate

Minoan sealstone of the Mycenaean era (artifact), depicts two fighters engaging in hand to hand combat with a 3rd lying on the ground. 1.3 inches big!

Heroic/ideal nudity

concept in classical scholarship to describe the use of nudity in classical sculpture to indicate that a sculpture's apparently mortal human subject is in fact a hero or semi-divine being. This convention began in archaic and classical Greece and was later adopted by Hellenistic and Roman sculpture

Figure-of-Eight Shield

Most common type of Achaean body-shield; several layers of toughened bull's hide were glued & stitched to a wicker structure

Tower Shield

Most famous example is that of Ajax, made of seven cowhides with a layer of bronze

Pyrrha ("the red-haired girl")

The fake name that Achilles used while disguised as a woman at the court of King Lycomedes (trying to avoid going to Troy).

Boar's tusk helmet

Made through the use of slivers of boar tusks which were attached to a leather base, padded with felt, in rows (appears in Illiad)

Cuirass

A piece of armor covering the body from neck to waist; also : the breastplate of such a piece

Cist grave

A coffin-like box built with stone

Shaft grave

An enlarged cist grave entered through the roof from a shaft several feet deep. Shaft graves may be roofed by timbers, reeds or twigs, and waterproofing clay, or by large flat slabs.

Tumulus

A mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves

Stele

Upright stone slab/column, often serving as gravestone, typically bearing relief design

Tholos (Beehive Tomb)

Circular building/tomb with a conical or vaulted roof

Chamber tomb

Typically cut into sloping, soft limestone hills. Composed of a chamber, separated by a stomion (doorway) from a rectangular dromos (entrance passage).

Dromos

Passage into tholos tomb or chamber tomb

Larnax

Terracotta coffin used for either inhumation or cremation. Referenced in Iliad.

Pithos

Large, wide-mouthed jar used for storage in ancient Greece and other Mediterranean civilizations

Heroon

Shrine dedicated to Greek hero, often constructed over supposed site of his tomb

(50m x 13.8m!

Constructed ca. 950 BCE, middle of EIA: 1200-800 BCE)

Aspsidal building

A structure with a semi-circular end, or apse, that extends from a rectangular building

Cheiron

Unrelated to other centaurs. Teacher of multiple heroes, including hercules, jason, and achilles. "Most righteous of the Centaurs" → referred to as such in the Iliad.

Leonidas

King of the great city-state of Sparta. Led 300 Spartan Warriors at the Battle of Thermopylae to fend off Persian soldiers.

Ephialtes

Greek renegade during the Greco-Persian Wars. Born to Eurydemus of Malis, he betrayed his homeland and people to the Achaemenid Empire by revealing the existence of a path around the Greek coalition's position at Thermopylae.

Eugenics

the practice of selectively breeding and controlling the population to enhance desirable traits and eliminate undesirable ones.

Helot

A member of a class of serfs in ancient Sparta, intermediate in status between slaves and citizens.

Agoge

rigorous, state-sponsored training program in ancient Sparta, Greece, designed to instill Spartan values and create highly disciplined, capable warriors and citizens from young boys.

Krypteia

an ancient Spartan state institution. Principally sought out and killed helots across Laconia and Messenia as part of a policy of terrorizing and intimidating the enslaved population (could be military training too)

Sussitia

Communal meals shared by men and youths in social or religious groups, serving as a key element of Spartan society and promoting a sense of brotherhood.

Homoio

the full-citizen, elite male warriors who underwent rigorous military training (the agoge) and were supported by the labor of helots (slaves)

Panoply

The full suit of armor worn by Spartan Warriors.

Mnemosyne (titan)

Titan goddess of memory and the mother of the nine Muses by Zeus

Epic/Trojan Cycle

8 epics in cycle//reason for war to last voyage home//for all epics outside of Iliad and Odyssey, only summaries survive.

Cypria

First epic//wedding of Peleus & Thetis//Judgement of Paris//First 9 years of War

Aethiopis

3rd epic//arrival of Trojan Allies//Memnon//Penthesileia//Death of Achilles

Little Iliad

Fourth epic//Ajax vs. Odysseus//Palladium, Diomedes//Trojan Horse

Iliou Press

Fifth epic//Sack of Ilium & Troy

Nostoi

Sixth epic//literal definition -> returns // returns of greek heroes, and events upon arrival; ends with Agamemnon and Menelaus in Egypt

Telegony

8th epic//after odysessus's death, telegonus transports body, and Penelope & Telemachus to his mother's island, where circe makes them immortal. Telegonus then marries Penelope, and Telemachus marries Circe.

Alexandros

Another name for Paris: The protected our the Protector

Memnon

Corinthian Black figure krater, Middle Corinthian Period

Penthesileia

Queen of the Amazons

Areté

Honor based on excellence (character)

Timé

Honor based on possessions and power (material)

Chryseis

War prize of Agamemnon (daughter of Chryses)

Bryseis

Agamemnon takes her from Achilles as compensation after being forced to return Chryseis, a woman he had claimed as his own prize, to her father (highlights dispute)

Potlatch

Giving away or destroying wealth or valuable items in order to demonstrate a leader's wealth and power

Patronymic

Name derived from a paternal ancestor

Tantalus

Start of the House of Atreus, cursed his family by serving the Gods his son Pelops as a feast

Atreus

King of Mycenae, son of Pelops, and father of Agamemnon and Menelaus

Thyestean Feast

After Thyestes seduced the wife of his brother, Artreus then murdered Thyestes' sons and served them to him at a feast.

Aegisthus

Thyestes' son fated to kill Atreus, give throne to Thyestes

Iphigeneia

Daughter of Agamemnon, sacrificed to appease the Gods so Greeks could sail.

Clytemnestra

Wife of Agamemnon who had him murdered when he returned from the Trojan War for killing Iphigenia and cause of her affair with Aegisthus.

Orestes

Son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, kills his mother and Aegisthus to avenge his father.

Erinyes

the furies who chase after Orestes after his killings because they stand for vengeance righting any false oaths (family piety).

Eumenides

"Kindly Ones"; new name for the Furies (Erinyes) after being tamed by Athena.

Schliemann's Trench

56 feet deep. Massive destruction of levels later than Troy II

Excavation in Hissarlik (Turkey) between 1871 and 1890.

Wilhelm Dorpfield

Successor to Schliemann. 1893-94. Troy VI as Homeric Troy / for Homer because of guge limestone walls and Mycenean pottery

Carl Blegen

1932-1938. Another successor to Schliemann. Troy VIIa as Homer's Troy because of fire, skeletons, weapons, and extra storage.

Manfred Korfmann

1998 to 2005. Another successor to Schliemann. Found lower city and the defensive ditch. Discovered Tory was 15x bigger than previously thought.

Ernst Pernicka

2006-2012. Another successor to Schliemann. Found proof that defensive ditch was not a foundation trench. Estimated population of 5,000 to 10,000.

Rüstem Aslan

Chief archeologist of Turkey. Troy as old as earliest cities in Mesopotamia

Aulé

Courtyard in Mycenaean Palace

Thalamos

Bedroom in Mycenaean Palace

Megaron

Reception hall in Mycenaean Palace

Tripartite Division

The three rooms, porch, vestibule, and throne room, in the megaton (reception hall)

Perseus

Grandfather of Eurystheus & great-uncle by marriage of Hercules. Ultimately kills Acrisuis.

Danae

a prophecy foretold that Acrisius would be killed by his daughter's son (Danae), leading him to imprison her to prevent her from having children, but Zeus impregnated her, resulting in the birth of Perseus.

Diomedes

Greek mythological hero who fought in the Trojan War. In Homer's The Iliad, Diomedes is described as a brave, wise, and fierce warrior.

Hercules

Tasked with with completing 12 labors as punishment for killing his wife and children by Eurystheus.

Aristeia

Hero's moment of excellence in battle.

Nestor

Aged warrior and counselor

Mycenae

Site of a palace complex in southern Greece that controlled a Late Bronze Age kingdom. Base of Agamemnon.

Pylos

Same thing as Mycenae, but Palace of Nestor!

Menelaion

Palace of Menelaus

Seal/Sealstone

Soft stone used for a variety of purposes: administration, decoration, and identification

Hieroglyph

a stylized picture of an object representing a word, syllable, or sound, as found in ancient Egyptian and other writing systems.

Glaucus

Grandson of Bellerophon

Xenia

Greek code of hospitality; guest friendship passed down from generation to generation

Writing Tablet

Tablets used for written document of sealstones. An example is the Uluburun

Cuneiform

Wedge-shaped script.

Linear A

An undeciphered writing system used by the Minoan civilization. Predates Linear B.

Linear B

An ancient script used by the Mycenaean Greeks, and was primarily used for administrative, economic, and religious records.

Pictogram

A symbol that conveys meaning through its resemblance to a concept, object, activity, place, or event.

Ideogram

A symbol which represents the idea of something without indicating the sequence of sounds used to pronounce it.

Logogram

A character or symbol that represents a word or phrase.

Rosetta Stone

One of the most significant archaeological discoveries because it provided the key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs. Contains three of the same text written in three scripts:, Hieroglyphic, Demotic, and Greek

Luwian

This language consists of cuneiform and Hieroglaphics. It was pre-Hittite culture. First prehistoric written evidence found in Troy (VIIb)

Hittite

People who formed first major civilizations of Bronze Age West Asia. Referenced in written evidences by Troy.