Greek Civ terms

city state (singular and plural)

a little over 1000 known of

polis

poleis

asty

urban center

where agora was

where assembly met

agora

town square

where trials were held

chora

countryside, villages

where most of the people lived

eleutheria

“freedom” from external constraints (like being pushed around by larger polis)

autonomia

“autonomy” to make own laws

almost all poleis had some degree of this

dēmos (and who qualifies)

the masses

all freeborn adult males

koine

common dialect in ancient Greece that emerged around 300 B.C.E.

polemos

war between city states

stasis

civil war

often between rich and poor

Linear B

script that scribes wrote in during the Bronze Age

Al Mina

trading post and helped spread ideas from Phoenicians to ancient Greeks

Nestor’s cup

had earliest inscriptions of Greek alphabet

oath of Tyndareus (Iliad)

oath by Helen’s suitors to protect whoever wins the drawing of straws

timē

honor

hubris

public disrespecting/dishonoring someone

aristos

best

aristeia

unstoppable on the battlefield

xenos

foreigner

xenia

guest friendship (they will take care of each other when in the other’s town)

metapoetry

poetry about poetry

atē (3 points)

mental blindness

sent by Zeus

makes one think they cannot fail

Delphi Maxims

“know thyself”

“nothing in excess”

kleos

glory, fame, what people have heard about them

kleos apthitan

everlasting glory, what all heroes wante

logos, pathos, ethos

logic, emotions, character

hero’s bargain

short life, great glory after death

anagkē

overall fate

moira

individual fate

kaloi

beautiful

agathoi

good

esthloi

noble

kakoi

bad

deiloi

cowardly

ekphrasis

literary description of visual art

proaulia

time woman spends getting ready for her wedding with female relatives, could last a couple of days

propompe

wedding procession through town to groom’s home

engyesis

betrothal

“blood money”

money paid to compensate for murder

kleros

plot of land allotted to citizen

theogony

birth of the gods

Calliope

beautiful voiced

skēptron (3 points)

scepter

symbol of authoritative speech

given by Zeus

anthropomorphic

zoomorphic

gods look like ideal humans

gods look like animals (like in Egypt)

titanomachy

titan battle

dikē

justice

technē

technology

Pandora

all-gifted

pithos

storage jar

aidōs

shame

nemisis

punishment

pistis

fathfulness

lambus

public, verbal attack

genre of poetry that harshly criticized somebody

choral lyric

monodic lyric

sung by choir

sung by individual

dactylic hexameter

epic meter

Homer and Hesiod

ring structure

used by Sappho

ABA form

andrōn

“men’s place”

room where symposium was held

skolia

drinking songs

kōmos

procession through town of symposium attendees

hetairai

educated women, companions, for symposia

kalos

attractive adolescent males

erastes

eromenos

eros

philia

the lover

the beloved

to love

friendship

gnomic

poetry that gives advice and elite morals

sympotic

poetry written for symposium

apoikia

independent colony

metropolis

city that formed colony

oikistēs

the man who ran a colony until it was up and running

helots

perioikoi

permanent slave class in Sparta

semifree dwellers around Sparta who led their own communities but had to fight in Spartan wars

crypteia

Spartan police force that once a year went out and got rid of “threatening” helots

eunomia

good order

name of one of Tyrtaeus’ poems

gerousia

council of elders

homoioi

the same ones

what the Spartans called themselves

hoplite

hoplon

heavily armed infantryman

shield

phalanx

packed formation of hoplites

• phalanxes would run into each other

Eupatridae (and what it means)

“those from good fathers”, Athenian elite

hectemoiroi

Athenian masses

seisachtheia

“shaking off the burdens”

when Solon abolished debt

late geometric period (who?)

Homer and Hesiod

750-700 B.C.E.

prothesis

public viewing of a dead body

Smikros vase

self portrait at a symposium

male statue (singular and plural)

kouros, kouroi

female statue

korē, korai

archaic smile

did not express happiness, shows good fortune

pediment

grave stele

top of a temple where statues often were placed

figures attached to a solid background of same material

pediment of Heketompedon

on a temple on Athenian acropolis, torn down 490 and replaced with Parthenon

“Mnemones”

officials in a polis charged with remembering laws in song for Charondas

thesmos

nomos

old word for law, by lawgiver

new word for law, by masses

epigraphists

those who study inscriptions

Law of Chios

block with writing on all four sides

horizontal on one size, vertical the other three

established boule

boulē

council that heard appeals, could impose fines, dealt with concerns of the demos

50 men from each of four tribes

Draco’s law stone

written in stoichedon, 50 letters per line

ex post facto law

changes decisions made before law was in place