gtx midterm - fall 2026

When do the Homeric epics date to, and how are they described?

8th century BC; "orally derived," the best surviving artifacts of a far older performance tradition

Which historian shows Homer and Hesiod were central to Greek cultural and religious identity by the late 5th century BC?

Herodotus

Phemios and Demodokos

The two bards in the Odyssey (Phemius sings for the suitors on Ithaca; Demodocus sings at the Phaeacian court); the best examples of the oral tradition behind the epics

What was Homer likely like, according to the facts sheet?

Too early for a factual biography; likely a singer who excelled at weaving traditional tales into an expansive whole

Sophists

Arose in the 5th century BC; their approaches to Homer and rhetoric became a foundation of ancient education that lasted into the middle ages

Library of Alexandria

Founded early in the 3rd century BC; scholars developed methods to preserve, edit, and explain the poems, then extended them to other subjects

Byzantine vulgate

The medieval textual tradition our translation is based on (more or less); it derives from Alexandrian editions

Peisistratos

Athenian tyrant (6th century BC) tied to legends of an early consolidation of Homer's poems; whether this is historical is an open question

Panhellenic (the poem's dialect)

The poem's language is an amalgamated dialect, giving it a panhellenic (all-Greek) character

Fixed epithet

A repeated descriptive phrase (e.g., "man of many turns"); evidence of oral composition

Type-scene

A recurring pattern (e.g., sacrifice, feast, arrival at a hall); evidence of oral composition

Simile

An extended comparison; a characteristic Homeric device (e.g., Odysseus weeping likened to a woman mourning her husband)

Ring composition

A structure that returns to its starting point; shapes speeches and the whole epic

Reciprocity

Voluntary requital: benefit for benefit (positive) or harm for harm (negative); the starting point for understanding timē, kleos, xenia, and tisis

Timē

Esteem, honor, prerogative; what the suitors violate in Odysseus' household and what he restores

Kleos

Renown; fame carried by song (e.g., Odysseus' boast to Polyphemus)

Xenia

The guest-host relationship, guaranteed by Zeus; the moral test of nearly every community Odysseus meets

Tisis

Payback; revenge as the completion of reciprocity (Poseidon's anger, the slaughter of the suitors)

Hubris

Abusive, overweening action or word (the suitors' behavior, Odysseus' boast, the crew eating the cattle of the Sun)

Aristoi

"Best"; the best men, the chieftains

Arete

"Excellence"; Odysseus' excellence includes cunning and endurance

Geras

"Prize-of-honor, booty"; the honor-portion due a leader; gifts given to guests

Philos

"Friend, ally, dear"; the loyal (Eumaeus, Telemachus, Eurycleia, Argos)

Xenos

"Guest-host-stranger"; one word for all three roles, showing the relationship is reciprocal

Nostos

Homecoming; the central goal of the Odyssey

Mētis

Cunning intelligence; the quality of Odysseus and Penelope

Polytropos

"Man of many turns" (twists and turns); the poem's opening epithet for Odysseus

In medias res

Starting in the middle of the story; the Odyssey begins with Odysseus already on Calypso's island

Telemachy

Books 1-4; Telemachus' coming of age as he seeks news of his father

Apologoi

Books 9-12; Odysseus' own first-person account of his adventures told to the Phaeacians

Nekyia

Book 11; the journey to the underworld (Tiresias, Anticleia, Agamemnon, Achilles)

Odysseus

King of Ithaca; "man of many turns"; hero defined by cunning, endurance, disguise, and desire for home; his boast to Polyphemus causes years of suffering

Penelope

Odysseus' faithful, clever wife; the weaving trick and the bed test show she equals him in mētis; contrast with Clytemnestra

Telemachus

Odysseus' son; moves from passivity to action; fights beside his father; shows the passing of heroic values to the next generation

Athena

Goddess of wisdom and war; Odysseus' patron; guides Telemachus (as Mentes and Mentor) and Odysseus

Poseidon

God of the sea and Polyphemus' father; the main divine antagonist who delays Odysseus' return

Zeus

King of the gods; guarantor of xenia; says mortals blame the gods for troubles they bring on themselves

Calypso

Nymph who holds Odysseus for years and offers him immortality; he refuses to go home as a mortal

Circe

Sorceress who turns Odysseus' men into swine; Hermes' herb moly protects him; he stays a year

Polyphemus

Cyclops, son of Poseidon; eats his guests (inversion of xenia); blinded by Odysseus; his prayer to Poseidon causes Odysseus' suffering

Nausicaa

Phaeacian princess who helps the shipwrecked Odysseus; model of modest hospitality

Alcinous and Arete

King and queen of the Phaeacians; model hosts who send Odysseus home; Arete's authority parallels Penelope's

Tiresias

Blind Theban prophet Odysseus meets in the underworld; predicts his return, the suitors' death, and his own eventual death

Achilles (in Odyssey 11)

Says he would rather be a living servant than king of the dead; challenges the Iliad's glory ethic

Agamemnon

Murdered by Clytemnestra and Aegisthus on his return; the warning contrast to Penelope

Eumaeus

The swineherd, a slave who is the best host on Ithaca; shows virtue is not limited to rank

Eurycleia

Old nurse who recognizes Odysseus by his scar

Argos

Odysseus' old dog; recognizes him after twenty years and dies; symbol of loyalty

Antinous

The most insolent suitor; throws a stool at the beggar Odysseus; first to die

Eurymachus

Smoother, calculating suitor; killed second

Melanthius and Melantho

Disloyal goatherd and maid who side with the suitors; punished in the revenge

Laertes

Odysseus' father; the weaving shroud was for him; appears in Book 24

Helen and Menelaus

King and queen of Sparta; host Telemachus in Book 4; Menelaus tells how he learned Odysseus is alive

Nestor

King of Pylos; model host and elder hero of Troy; Telemachus' first stop

Helios

The sun god; the crew eats his cattle and Zeus destroys their ship

Odyssey: a man tells a giant his name is "Nobody" and later shouts his real name (Book 9)

Mētis saves the men from Polyphemus, but the boast (kleos/hubris) lets the Cyclops pray to Poseidon; also an inversion of xenia

Odyssey: a blind bard sings of Troy and the hero in the audience weeps (Book 8)

Demodocus at the Phaeacian court; shows oral tradition, kleos, and Odysseus hearing his own story as song

Odyssey: a nurse washing a beggar's foot finds a scar (Book 19)

Eurycleia recognizes Odysseus; a recognition scene about identity, disguise, and loyalty

Odyssey: a wife tests a stranger by saying her bed must be moved (Book 23)

Penelope's final test; the bed is built around a living olive tree; marriage as rooted knowledge; her mētis equals his

Odyssey: the dead Achilles says he would rather be a servant among the living (Book 11)

Challenges the Iliad's kleos ethic and supports the Odyssey's emphasis on life and nostos

Odyssey: Penelope unweaves a shroud each night (Book 2)

Her trick to delay the suitors; shows her mētis and loyalty

Odyssey: Calypso offers immortality and he refuses (Book 5)

Odysseus chooses mortality and home over immortality; nostos over eternal life

Odyssey: crew eats the cattle of the Sun (Book 12)

The crew's folly and impiety destroy them; why Odysseus returns alone; Zeus punishes

Odyssey: a hero strings a bow and shoots through twelve axes (Book 21)

Only Odysseus can pass the suitors' test; begins the revenge

Odyssey: suitors are killed in the hall (Book 22)

Tisis (payback); Odysseus spares Phemius and Medon; disloyal maids and Melanthius punished

Odyssey: dog Argos recognizes his master (Book 17)

Loyalty and recognition despite disguise; Argos dies after seeing him

Odyssey: poet asks the Muse to sing of the man of twists and turns (Book 1 opening)

The invocation announces the hero, nostos, and the crew's own recklessness as the cause of their ruin

Odyssey theme: xenia

Hosts who feed and protect strangers are rewarded (Nestor, Eumaeus, the Phaeacians); abusers are punished (Polyphemus, the suitors)

Odyssey theme: kleos versus nostos

Odysseus wants fame but his main goal is homecoming; Achilles in the underworld questions glory itself

Odyssey theme: cunning and disguise

Intelligence over strength: "Nobody," beggar disguise, Penelope's weaving and bed test

Odyssey theme: recognition and identity

Scar, Argos, the bow, and the bed each test who people truly are

Odyssey theme: divine justice and responsibility

Zeus says mortals bring troubles on themselves; the crew and the suitors ruin themselves by ignoring warnings

Odyssey theme: mortality and choice

Odysseus refuses Calypso's immortality; Achilles shows how bleak death is

Which two events shaped 5th-century Greece?

The Persian Wars and the Peloponnesian War

490 BC

The Persians attacked Athens in retribution for aid to a regional revolt; the expedition failed

480-479 BC

Full Persian invasion of Greece; the Persians were defeated again

Salamis and Plataea

Decisive battles of the invasion: Salamis (sea, Athenians decisive) and Plataea (land, Spartans decisive)

Delian League

Formed after the invasion for mutual defense and to drive the Persians from the Aegean; Athens supplanted Sparta as head and turned it into a maritime empire under Pericles

Peloponnesian War

431-404 BC; Sparta and other city-states fought Athens out of jealousy and fear of its ambition; Athens lost

When do the complete surviving Greek tragedies fall?

Between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars

Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides

The three tragic poets whose works survive: Aeschylus eldest (Persian Wars veteran), Sophocles born between the two Persian attacks, Euripides about a decade later

Where and when were tragedies performed?

In the temenos (sacred precinct) of Dionysus on the south slope of the Acropolis, at the City (or Greater) Dionysia

Tetralogy

What each tragic poet submitted: three tragedies plus a satyr-play; each play's plot typically stood alone

Conventions of tragic performance

Only three actors on stage at a time, all male, with masks to identify character types

Sophocles' civic life

He was an active participant in Athenian civic life

Peripeteia

Reversal of fortune; in Oedipus the King it happens together with recognition

Anagnorisis

Recognition; discovering the truth about identity

Hamartia

Error or flaw; debated for both Oedipus and Antigone/Creon

Catharsis

Aristotle's term for the emotional release tragedy provides

Dramatic irony

The audience knows more than the character

Miasma

Pollution caused by an unpunished crime or an unburied body that must be removed

Parodos

The chorus' entrance song

Stasimon

A choral song between scenes

Exodos

The final scene of a tragedy

Tyrannos

A ruler who holds power through his own ability rather than inheritance (neutral in Oedipus the King)

Oedipus the King: what background does the play assume?

An oracle told Laius and Jocasta their son would kill his father; they exposed the baby; he was raised in Corinth, fled the oracle, killed Laius at a crossroads, solved the Sphinx's riddle, and married Jocasta

Oedipus (Oedipus the King)

King of Thebes who solved the Sphinx's riddle; great intelligence and temper; discovers he killed his father and married his mother; Aristotle's model tragic hero

Priest (Oedipus the King)

Leads the suppliants who open the play; begs Oedipus to save Thebes from the plague, showing the citizens' trust in him

Creon (Oedipus the King)

Jocasta's brother; calm foil to Oedipus; brings back the Delphi oracle; rules at the end

Chorus (Oedipus the King)

Theban elders; voice the city's piety and fear; their ode questioning religious rites shows a crisis of faith