Golden Age of Greece - Key Terms and Concepts (Aristophanes Clouds, Socrates)

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms, people, places, and ideas from the Golden Age of Greece notes, including Aristophanes’ Clouds, Socrates, the Sophists, and related concepts.

Pythagoras

Greek mathematician who created the Pythagorean Theorem.

Clouds (play)

Play by Aristophanes that mocks philosophy as sophistry and portrays Socrates and his followers as delusional and head-in-the-clouds.

Aristophanes

Playwright who defends traditional Athens values and satirizes philosophy in Clouds.

Thinkery

A place Strepsiades wants to send his son to learn persuasive techniques from the Sophists.

Strepsiades

Main character who seeks to avoid debt by learning to persuade and become a conman; trades his cloak for a flea-ridden blanket.

Pheidippides

Strepsiades’ son; tan, long-haired, race-loving youth who dreads the Thinkery and losing his “jock” identity.

Sophists

Professional teachers of rhetoric who teach winning debates through rhetorical tricks and fallacies, often denying objective truth and promoting skepticism/relativism.

Skepticism

Philosophical view that knowledge is uncertain and cannot be known with absolute certainty.

Relativism

View that truth is relative to individuals or societies, denying universal objective truth.

Ad Hominem

Fallacy of attacking the person rather than addressing the argument (appeal to the man).

Logical Fallacy

Flaw in reasoning that weakens or invalidates an argument; noted in the Clouds portrayal as faulty reasoning.

Peloponnesian War

War between Athens and Sparta (431–404 BCE) contributing to the decline of the Golden Age.

Alcibiades

A figure who led attempts to overthrow Athens’ democracy during the Peloponnesian War.

Critias

Figure who attempted another overthrow of Athenian democracy during the Peloponnesian War.

Philosophers

Lovers of wisdom who seek truth through reason and inquiry.

Philosophy

Love and pursuit of wisdom; broad field concerned with questions about knowledge, truth, and existence.

Socrates’ Death Conviction

Execution for impiety and corrupting the youth, as depicted in Aristophanes and historical accounts.