Classics Terms

Etiological

Explains why things occur

Myths

Authoritative Speech. story or plot

Logos

Account

Mythology

The study of myths

Trado

Handed down (tradition)

Folktales

Stories of the gods, heroes, and myths passed down through oral tradition

Thalassocracy

Sea power

Linear A Tablets

An undeciphered script used by Minoans in Crete

Thalos

Beehive tombs

Linear B Tablets

Is the earliest known form of ancient Greek, written on clay tablets used for administrative records by the Mycenaean civilization

Dark Age 1150-800 BCE

Invasion by the domains from North and East, descendants of Heracles, loss of written language (linear B) and Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses 3 refers to warning Sea Peoples

Archaic Period (800-400) BCE

Greek alphabet is invented, Homer and Hesiod wrote their works, Greek colonial expansion-Coast of Italty, and encounters with the Persians

Polis

Independent city-state

Classical Period (480-323 BCE)

Athenian expansion, golden age of Pericles-Parthenon Greek plays. Athens Vs Sparta war

Hellenistic Period (323-330 BCE)

The death of Alexander the great, Greek ways dominated the Near East/Middle East, ended with the death of Cleopathra Vll in 30 BC

Oral Tradition

The transmission of cultural materials, stories, and history from one generation to another through speech or song rather than writing

Milman Parry (1902-1935)

Was a classicist whose research on Yugoslavian oral epic poetry proved that the Homeric epics were composed and transmitted through oral tradition, fundamentally changing out understanding of how ancient oral literature was created

Alfred Lord

He worked closely with Millman Parry to show how oral poets used specific formulas and themes to improvise epic stories during performance

Dactylic Hexameter

A rhythmic structure consisting of six feet per line, where each foot is either a dactyl (one long syllable followed by two short) or a spondee (two long syllables), commonly used in ancient Greek and Latin epic poetry

Rhapsode

The one who stitches together poetry

Enuma Elish-Mesopotamia

Is the Babylonian creation myth, which describes the birth of the gods and the rise of the god Marduk to supremacy after his victory over the primordial sea goddess, Tiamat

Storm God

The storm god is the son of Kamarbi who defeats his mother.

Theogony

Birth of the gods

Cosmogony

Birth of the cosmos/universe

Cosmology

The explanation or account of the world

Hades

The god of the underworld

Persephone

Daughter of Demeter, goddess of spring, grain crops and vegetation. When she goes in the underworld, we get winter time because of Demeter grief.

Tartarus

Is the deep, dark abyss used as a dungeon of torment for the wicked and a prison for the Titans

Mnemosyne

Memory

Calliope

Goddess of epic poetry. Part of the nine muses

Clio

Goddess of history, part of the 9 muses

Erato

Goddess of love poetry, part of the 9 muses

Euterpe

Goddess of lyric poetry, part of the 9 muses

Melpomene

Goddess of tragedy, part of the 9 muses

Polyhymnia

Goddess of hymns, part of the 9 muses

Terpsichore

Goddess of dance, part of the 9 muses

Thalia

Goddess of comedy, part of the 9 muses

Urania

Goddess of astronomy, part of the 9 muses

Chaos

The primeval, yawning emptiness, abyss, or dark space that existed before anything else.

Gaia

The personification of the solid Earth

Eros

The primordial force of love, sexual desire, and attraction

Parthenogenesis

Gods that appeared asexuality

Parthenogenetically

Is a form of asexual reproduction where an embroyo develops form an unfertilized egg. Chaos had two children this way, Erebos and Nyx

Erebos

God of darkness

Nyx

Goddess of night

Aither

Knightness

Hermara

Personification of Day

Ouranos

Personification of Sky

Ouren

Personification of Mountains

Pantos

Personification of Sea

Helios

Personification of Sun

Selene

Personification of Moon

Eos

Personification of Dawn

Promethus

A Greek Titan God of forethought, craft counsel, and the champion who brought fire and civilization to humanity

Epimetheus

After thought or the one who thinks too late

Atlas

The Titan forced to hold up the celestial heavens on his shoulders for eternity

Phoebe

The Titaness of the moon

Themis

The Titaness of Divine law

Coeus

The Titan of Intelligent

Crius

The Titan of constellations

Rhea

is also an Earth Goddess like her mother

Cronos

The leader and youngest of the Titans. Had ate his children, father of the Olympian gods. King of Titans

Adamantine

Gaia created this, its an indestructible mineral

Erinyes

The Furies

Cyclopes

The first generation of Cyclopes has Brontes, Steropes, and Arges. Children of Uranus and Gaia, born before the Titans

Brontes

Cyclopes Thunderer

Steropes

Cyclopes flasher/Lightning like the lightning bolt

Arges

Cyclopes brighener like the vivid flash

Hecatonchires

Hundred handers

Pausanians (110-180 CE)

A Greek geogpraphers, saw the stone displayed at Delphi

Titanomachy

Is the war of the titans

Mache

War

Nectar

The divine drink of the gods

Ambrosia

The divine food of the gods

Gigantomachy

Battle of the giants

Typhoeus

A monstrous serpentine giant and the deadliest creature in Greek Mythology

Patriarchy

Men hold the primary power

Sequestered

Kept separate, isolated, or hidden away from others

Anthropomorphic

Looking human when they are not like the Gods take on human shapes and characteristics

Ichor

The ethereal, golden fluid that flows through the veins of Greek gods and immortals instead of red mortal blood

Pantheon

All of the gods

Ganymede

A homosexual allusion

Metis

Zeus first wife before he ate her, mother of Athena

Themis

Zeus second wife, they have six children the Horai-3 seasons/hours and 3 Moirai-faiths

Horai

3 Hours/Seasons

Moirai

3 Faiths

Three fates

Named spinner (clotho), Allotter (Lachesis), and Inevitable/inflexible (Atropos)

Clotho (Spinner)

She spins the thread of life using a spindle

Lachesis (Allotter)

She measures the length of the thread of life

Atropos (Inevitable/inflexible)

She cuts the thread of life to end a mortal’s existence

Heracles name meaning

Means glory/to Hera

Forethought

Prometheus has foreknowledge passed on to him from his mother Themis. This does not mean. however. that he knows the future

Hope

The feeling of desire and expectation for a future event or condition, combined with confidence or belief in its possibility

IO

An Argive princess, a priestess of Hera, and mortal lover of Zeus

Ortygia and Delos

The island Leto gave birth to Apollo and Artemis. Only two islands Hera allowed her to stay.

Tityus

A giant that assaulted Leto out of lust. Apollo and Artemis intervened and killed the giant with arrows.

Telphousa

A river numph who did not want Apollo to set up a shrine near her so she decieved him to going to a different place. At the new place a she-serpent tried killing Apollo but Apollo and the sun’s rays caused the snake to rot.

Pyth

Rot in ancient Greek

Pythia

The priestess for Apollo

Delphinos

Means dolphin