Ancient Greco-Roman Worldview and Plato's Theory of Reality

Vocabulary flashcards covering Greco-Roman religious concepts, Greek linguistic terms, and Plato's theory of reality.

εἴδωλον (eidōlon)

A Greek word meaning "idol."

εἰκών (eikōn)

A Greek word meaning "image."

εἰδωλολατρία (eidololatria)

A Greek word meaning "image-worship" or "the worship of idols."

Aphrodite / Venus

The goddess whom Greeks and Romans believed one had to placate if they wanted a child; she had a major temple located in the city of Aphrodisias.

Aphrodisias

The city that housed a major temple dedicated to the goddess Aphrodite/Venus.

Acts 17

The biblical chapter that recounts the apostle Paul's visit and ministry in Athens.

Sadducees

A Jewish group that formed an alliance of sorts with pagans, sharing their rejection of the notion of resurrection.

Plato's Theory of Reality

The philosophical view that everything in human experience is limited within a temporary realm of time and space, while true, eternal reality exists outside of time and space as immaterial soul and pure forms.

The Eternal Realm

In Plato's reality framework, the realm existing outside the circle of time and space, characterized as eternal, universal, immaterial, incorruptible, unlimited, infinite, timeless, and associated with soul, mind, reason, and knowledge.

Time and Space Continuum

In Plato's reality framework, the realm of human experience characterized as temporary, particular, material, corruptible, limited, finite, and associated with the body, senses, objects, experience, opinion, conceptual abstraction, history, and ignorance.

The Forms / Ideas

Objective, pure realities located in Plato's eternal realm, including the Good, truth, justice, beauty, and courage.

Dialectic and Recollection

Intellectual recollection, reasoning, and discussion about the pure forms, identified by Plato as the only way to experience the eternal realm while living on earth.

"Prison House"

The phrase used by Plato to describe the physical human body, which confines the eternal soul during its existence in time and space.

Evil (Platonic definition)

In Plato's philosophy, that which is limited and that which is in the body.

The Soul (Platonic view)

An eternal entity that is "pre-existent in" eternity, existent in time/space within the body, and "post-existent in" eternity, embodying the principle that everything starts as soul and returns to soul.

The Pantheon

A temple dedicated to all the gods in Rome, originally constructed between 27 and 25 BC by Marcus Agrippa and completely rebuilt around 125–128 AD by Emperor Hadrian.

Marcus Agrippa

The Roman leader who built the original Pantheon between 27 and 25 BC.

Emperor Hadrian

The Roman emperor who completely rebuilt the Pantheon that stands today around 125–128 AD.

Hesiod’s Theogony

An ancient Greek poetic work describing the origins and genealogies of the gods.

Pythia

A virgin woman residing in the temple at Delphi who foretold the future; her name means "snake" and is associated with Apollo.

Oracle of Apollo at Delphi

A sanctuary where the Pythia delivered prophecies, located above active geological faults producing natural gas vapors that she is believed to have inhaled.