CLASS 221

Epic

‘Aoide’ or ‘song’ inside poems, preformed by specialized wandering poets.

Pan-hellenism

Movement through the Archaic period toward a broad conception of a shared ‘greekness,’ loose cultural unity, not united as one people or political entity.

Panathenaia

A Pan-Hellenic festival celebrated at athens, as early as the 700s BCE

The Epic Tradition

Shared themes, contents, characters, story patterns, but individualized performances. With formulaic speech, composed-in-performance, for local feasts and religious rituals.

The Trojan Cycle

A collection of traditional war stories centered around the Trojan war

Kleos

A form of Immortality, a recompense for the hero’s death as continued existence in the form of song.

Aidôs

‘Shame, self-respect, reverence’: a fear of criticism from superiors, family and comrades, and a feeling of concern for the vulnerable, like beggars and strangers.

Timē

‘Value, honour’: both the status of an individual in a group and recognition of that status by others. 

Aretē

‘Excellence’: being the best at something (fighting, speaking, singing, etc.) having the best of an innate quality (the most beautiful, the bravest).

Gerās

‘Reward, gift of honour’: privileges or things to which one is entitled due to martial performance or status.

Xania

‘Hospitality, guest–host friendship’: a reciprocal, even contractual, relationship between host and guest. Whole families or individuals could become guest-friends (xenoi).

Nostos

‘Safe-return’: the successful return home, often after an extensive and perilous journey.

Supplication

Ritual begging; someone is desperately requesting using a formula

Proem

Preface/preamble to a poem

Pantheon

A group of the most important gods in myth

Mt Olympus

Highest Mountain in Greece, Home of the Gods

Speech Act

An utterance considered as an action, or invoking a god/goddess in prayer

Kēdos

‘Care, concern for others, particularly for the dead.’

Philia

Feeling of love/friendship

Philos

“One who is an extension of yourself” “friend” “One’s own”

Ring Composition

Oral Poetic technique that emphasizes the centre and closure. (A-B-C-D-C-B-A pattern)

Parallelism

A component of literary style in which coordinate ideas are arranged in mirror image to balance one element with another of equal importance. The repetition of sounds, meanings, and structures serves to order, emphasize, and point out relations.

Metis

“Cunning intelligence, craftiness” the quality of being able to use your wits and the environment to find (successful) solutions to threatening problems

Dikê

What is right or just is what ought to happen or what is expected, fulfillment of expected customs, habits, or relationships. It is social correctness rather than a law.

Atasthalia

When one blatantly or recklessly disregards the conventional rules of behavior.

Tisis

“Negative reciprocity, the immediate return of an identical harm.” Repayment in the form of vengeance. Expected that the harmed person will seek to return harm.

Tisis Narrative Pattern

1) The master is absent.

2) Unheeded warning: grounds for atasthalia

3) Plotting and preparation

4) Retributive action (vengeance)

5) New conditions: former order is restored.

Okios

“Household, house,” the fundamental residential, economic and social unit in Homeric Society. Includes the physical house and the social group that occupies it.

Recognition Scene

Any scene where a character reveals his/her identity or acknowledges the identity of another

Numina

A deity or spirit presiding over a thing or place

Sacrificium

Sacrifices or offerings formed the chief part of the worship of the ancients

Vestal Virgin 

Six priestesses, representing the daughters of the royal house, who tended the state cult of Vesta, the goddess of the hearth

Mos Maiorum

Customs of the ancestors, moral concept (concepts of honor, duty, respect for ancestors/gens)

Virtus

Masculine virtue, military. Could lead to political/military appointments.

Pietas

The typical Roman attitude of dutiful respect towards gods, fatherland, and parents and other kinsmen; “justice towards gods.”

Fides

‘Trust’ or ‘loyalty’

Auctoritas

‘Authority’, refers to a type of authority held by an individual

Dignitas

‘Dignity’, encompasses a person’s social standing, reputation, and honour – perception of someone.

Pax Romana 

“The Roman Peace”

Ekphrasis

A piece of poetry/literature that describes a piece of physical art/architecture/artistic work. Literary or poetic device 

Two types: Actual & Notional (fictional) 

Drama

The Ancient Greeks took their entertainment very seriously and used ____ as a way of investigating the world they lived in, and what it meant to be human.

Tragedy

One of three genres, a play in which the protagonist, usually a person of importance and outstanding personal qualities, falls to disaster.

Dithyramb

A passionate hymn (usually in honour of Dionysus)

Paean

A god (who was the physician of the gods) and a song – in invocation of or thanksgiving to a deity

The Great Dionysia

The Festival of Dionysus, every year in the spring playwrights would compete to entertain the masses.

Satyr Plays

Genre of ancient Greek drama that preserves the structure and characters of tragedy while adopting a happy atmosphere and a rural background.

Comedy

One of three genres, a representation of laughable people and involves some kind of blunder or ugliness which does not cause pain or disaster.

Agon Logan

Contest of speeches, about the best argument persuading the audience

Epinikia

written for specific, named and often famous, athletic victor, from a named community, in a named event at a named contest.

The Argonauts

a band of heroes in Greek mythology, who in the years before the Trojan War accompanied Jason to Colchis in his quest to find the Golden Fleece

Exthros

Enemy

Miasma

Ritual pollution

Perpeteia

“Reversal” the turning point in a tragedy after which the plot moves steadily to the conclusion.

Deus ex machina

a god from a machine. The machine refers to the crane that is used to a hold a god over the
stage in ancient Greek and Roman dramas.

Epithalamium

Performed at, or composed for a wedding
Praises and encourages the bridal couple.

Dramatic Irony

a gap of difference between the apparent and the real

Stoicism

indifference to pleasure and pain; rationality

Dramatic Irony

A gap or difference between the apparent and the actual.

Defixiones

curse tablets

Pharmakon

any powerful substance effective for good OR evil

Pharmakeia

women, who utilize their specialize knowledge for love magic or harmful magic

Erictho

Ugliness and the Grotesque; Command over demons/spirits, practices necromancy, mastery of “unnatural” magic, reanimates corpses 

Infanticide

Killing of ones own children.