HUMN 2113 Kyle Kemp CH 2 Vocab

Allegory

A literary device in which objects, persons, or actions are equated with secondary, figurative meanings that underlie their literal meaning.

Altar

A table or flat-topped block used as the focus for a religious ritual, especially for
making sacrifices or offerings to a deity.

Aulos

An ancient Greek wind instrument, a double pipe played with a double reed.

Canon

A set of rules or standards used to establish proportions.

Classical/neoclassical

“Classicism” refers to the art produced in antiquity or to later art inspired by that of antiquity; “Neoclassicism” refers to art inspired by that of antiquity and
thus is contained within the broader meaning of “Classicism.”

Comedy

Seems to have developed out of village revels celebrating seasonal rebirth.

Democracy

A government in which the supreme power is vested in the people.

Dialectical method

A question-and-answer style of inquiry made famous by Socrates.

Empirical method

A method of inquiry dependent on direct experience.

Epicureans

Taught that happiness depended on avoiding all forms of physical excess; they
valued plain living and the perfect union of body and mind.

Ethics

That branch of philosophy that study designed to improve a player’s performance
technique.

Faience

Earthenware treated with colorful glazes.

Frieze

In architecture, a sculptured or ornamented band.

Gable

The triangular section of a wall at the end of a pitched roof.

Genre

A particular category in literature or art, such as the essay (in literature) and portraiture (in painting).

Golden Mean

The middle ground between any two extremes of behavior

Hellenic/Hellenistic

The imitation or adoption of ancient Greek language, thought, customs,
art, etc.

Humanism

How Greek art and literature - and art and literature in that tradition- puts the
human experience at the center of events

Hymn

A lyric poem offering divine praise or glorification.

Idealism

(Platonic) the theory that holds that things in the material world are manifestations
of and independent realm of unchanging, immaterial ideas or forms.

Ionic/Doric/Corinthian

Three major classical orders.

Kithara

A large version of the lyre (having seven to eleven strings) and the principal instrument
of ancient Greek music.

Krater

A vessel used in ancient Greece for mixing wine and water.

Lost-wax

A method of bronze casting using a clay core and a wax coating placed in a mold. The
wax is melted in the mold and drained out, and bronze poured into the space left, producing a hollow bronze figure when the core is discarded.

Metope

The square panel between the beam ends under the roof of a structure.

Mode (music)

A type of musical scale characterized by a fixed pattern of pitch and tempo
within the octave.

Module

A unit of measurement used to determine proportion.

Monophonic

Is any time in a piece of music where only one melody is heard without
harmonies or pitched instrumental.

Octave

The series of eight tones forming a major or minor scale.

Ode

A lyric poem expressing exalted emotion in honor of a person or special occasion.

Oligarchy

A government in which power lies in the hands of an elite minority.

Orchestra

The circular “dancing space” in front of the stage.

Order (architecture)

Any of several styles of classical or Neoclassical architecture that are defined by the particular type of column and entablature they use as a basic unit.

Pediment

The triangular space forming the gable of a two pitched roof in classical
architecture; any similar triangular form found over a portico, door, or window.

Polis

A city state in ancient Greece, especially as considered in its ideal form for philosophical purpose.

Portico

A porch with a roof supported by columns.

Proscenium

The stage of an ancient Greek or Roman theatre.

Protagonist

The leading character in a drama or novel.

Realism

A style (in art) that seeks truthfulness to life and fidelity to nature, often used
interchangeably with naturalism.

Scales

A series of tones arranged in ascending or descending consecutive order.

Skene

A building behind the playing area that was originally a hut for the changing of masks
and costumes but eventually became the background before which the drama was enacted.

Skeptics

Denies the possibility of knowing anything with certainty.

Sophists

Any of a class of ancient Greek teachers of rhetoric, philosophy, and the art of successful living prominent about the middle of the fifth century B.C.

Stoics

Is a philosophy of life that maximizes positive emotions, reduces negative emotions and
helps individuals to hone their virtues of character.

Syllogism

A deductive scheme of formal argument, consisting of two premises from which a
conclusion may be drawn.

Tholos

A circular structure, generally in Classical Greek style and probably derived from early tombs.

Tragedy

Evolved from fertility rituals surrounding the death and decay of crops.