All Key Terms

Daimonion

A divine sign that prevents Socrates from doing certain things.

Socratic Method

The method of question-and-answer cross-examination as practiced by Socrates in public and at private symposia.

Sophists

Teachers and philosophers who charged for their services, and many of whom specialised in rhetorical argument.

Stoics

Followers of a philosophical school founded in the late 4th century which advocated belief in one cosmic god.

Monotheism

Denial of the existence of all gods but one as, for example, in Judeo-Christian culture.

Pre Socratic Philosophers

Philosophers living before Socrates, who was born in 469 BC.

Megaron

Underground chamber for ritual offerings.

Chthonic Deities

Deities of the Underworld.

Priestess of Athena Polias

Key participant in the Panathenaic procession, carrying the peplos of Athena.

Dadouchos

Torchbearer, second most important priest in the Eleusinian Mysteries, drawn from the family of the Kerykes.

Promanteia

The right to consult the oracle first.

Temenos

A piece of land marked off for specific religious usage.

Treasury

This building has the same appearance and architectural orders of temples and was set up by city-states to house religious dedications and acted as a religious offering in itself.

Omphalos

Belly button.

Naos

The main room of the temple where the god’s image was kept.

Adyton

The ‘forbidden room’ behind the naos, at the back of the temple.

Peribolos

The sanctuary itself, the sacred land, distinguished from the profane by a wall or boundary stones.

Pythia

The priestess who spoke the oracle at Delphi, said to be apparently selected from the best and most valued families in Delphi and once chosen, she had to lead a life of chastity and exercise.

Caryatid

A female figure used in place of a column to support an architectural structure.

Ionic Frieze

Identified by a continuous area, which could be sculpted.

Doric Frieze

Identified by alternating triglyphs, which were three horizontal lines engraved in the marble, and metopes, a rectangular space that could be sculpted.

Pediment

The triangular space at the top of the eastern and western sides of the temple, which could be sculpted.

Euandrion

Literally, ‘fine manliness’: a contest judging the most beautiful male figure, who would lead the procession the following day.

Apobates

Literally, 'dismounting': an equestrian race unique to the Great Panathenaia, taking place along the Panathenaic Way, in the centre of Athens.

Peplos

A rectangular piece of clothing worn by women, folded down from the neck and belted and tied or sewn at the shoulder but sleeveless.

Acropolis

A citadel or summit of a city, typically built on a hill.

Hecatomb

A great public sacrifice of 100 oxen.

Trireme

The state-of-the-art warship of the 5th century Greek world.

Stoa

A colonnaded portico where people could take shelter from rain, wind and sun, and which could also house shops inside.

Miasma

Impiety or pollution in relation to the gods.

Archon

An Athenian magistrate.

Oikos

The family, the household or the home.

Polis

A Greek word often translated as ‘city-state’, referring to a city and all the land it controlled as one political entity.

Incubation

Sleeping in the shrines of Asclepius.

Kykeon

Brew made from barley and pennyroyal, which is said to have had psychotropic effects.

Hierophant

Leading priest at the Eleusinian Mysteries, always drawn from the Eumolpidae family.

Archon Basileus

King Archon responsible for all things sacred in Athens.

Myst

Person wishing to be initiated or in the process of being initiated.

Mystagogue

Already initiated person who is also able to initiate others.

Elysian Fields

Mythical place, conception of afterlife initially reserved for gods, heroes and mortals related to them.

Epopteia

Revelation of the secret at the end of the Eleusinian Mysteries.

Initiation

Individual admission into a cult bound to specific rules and regulations.

Deme

A village or district which was the smallest political constituency in the Athenian democratic system.

Panhellenic

Literally, ‘all’ (pan) ‘Greeks’ (Hellenes): Panhellenic sanctuaries were open to all Greeks.

Heroisation

The process by which a living person becomes a hero/ is made a hero.

Oracle

A person or an agency that provides advice or guidance about the future through prophetic power believed to derive from the gods.

Phratry

A ‘brotherhood’ - a subdivision of the four old tribes of Athens which was carried over into the new democratic system after 508/7.

Agora

The marketplace (common in Greek cities) where economic, political, social and religious events took place.

Epithet

An adjective that accompanies someone’s name, which denotes a quality or characteristic about the individual.

Votive Offering

A dedication to a god by an individual as part of a ‘contract’ or vow made between mortal and deity.

Anthropomorphism

The attribution of human characteristics and emotions to non-human forms.

Aetiology

The reason or cause for something, often deriving from a historical or mythical explanation.