National Hellenic Civilization Exam

Study Guide (All Levels)

This guide was arranged by Connor Harrison using Justin Byrd’s Hellenic History & Greek
Literature Study Guides and Paul Chong’s Greek Life & Literature Notes.

Greek Alphabet

Capitals
Α Β Γ Δ Ζ Η Θ Ι Κ Λ Μ Ν Ξ Ο Π Ρ Σ Τ Υ Φ Χ Ψ Ω

Lower Case
α β γ δ ζ η θ ι κ λ μ ν ξ ο π ρ σ/ς τ υ φ χ ψ ω

Unusual letters:
Digamma: igamma or Wau (uppercase/lowercase Ϝ ϝ ς) was an old letter of the Greek alphabet.
It was used before the alphabet converted its classical standard form. It looked like a Latin "F",
but it was pronounced like "w". In the 5th century BC, people stopped using it because they
could no longer pronounce the sound "w" in Greek. However, they kept it as a sign for the
number "6" in the system of Greek numerals (Wikipedia).

Koppa: Koppa or Qoppa (uppercase/lowercase Ϙ ϙ) was a letter of the Greek alphabet that was
used in some Greek cities before the alphabet got its classic standard form. It is no longer used
in normal writing today. It was pronounced as "k", just like Kappa (Κ). In the 5th century BC,
people stopped using it and it fell out of use. Kappa then replaced it (Wikipedia).

History

Minoans & Mycenaeans (Pre-Hellenic)

Minoans
 ● Crete, double ax (labyrinth), paintings, bulls
● Main Cities: Knossos (main palace complex), Phaestos (Phaistos disk), Kata Zakro,
Mallia

Mycenae
● Cyclopean masonry, a relieving triangle, The Lion’s Gate

Political offices
● wanax: king
● lawagetas: general
● koreter: governor
● prokoreter: vice governor
● damokoros: record keeper

Circle A: Burial
Tholos tombs: "Beehive tombs", tomb of Agamemnon (there's a golden death mask,
Schliemann: "I have gazed upon the face of Agamemnon")

Phoenicians
● writing after Dark Age, became Greek alphabet in 8th century BC
● worked together with Greeks to colonize the Mediterranean

Colonies and Early History of City States

● Hellenic history officially begins in 776, with the first Olympics (Olympiad. In the
later 700s (eight century), the Greek city-states began to found colonies.

● When a colony was founded, the oecist, the leader of the colonists, usually an
outcast noble, took fire from the hearth of the mother-city (metropolis) and used it
to start a fire in the new city’s hearth. Mother-cities and their colonies usually
maintained close ties, but the colony was an independent city-state.

● The first colony was (originally Pithecusae, but that did not last) Cumae (Cyme), in
Italy. The most important colony on Sicily, later the largest city in the Greek
world, was Syracuse, founded by Corinth in 734 (traditionally).

● In 707, the Spartans (a Dorian group) founded their only colony at Taras (Tarentum).
Sparta
● According to legend, Lycurgus made the Spartan constitution in 885. Sparta
was a city with a relatively small population in the Peloponnesus. It was also
called Lacedaemon.

● Sometime during the late eighth century, the Spartans made war on the
neighboring city of Messenia.

● A legendary Messenian hero, Aristodemus, is said to have sacrificed his daughter to

save the city. Apparently his action failed as the Messenians, who outnumbered the
Spartans about 10 to 1, were subjugated. The Messenians were forced to become
helots, basically the same as medieval serfs. Fear of helot revolts led the Spartans to
devote their entire culture to war.

● Sparta never had a tyrant. Their government was organized like this: 2 kings, with
some power over each other, similar to Rome’s consuls. 5 ephors, who could
exercise some control over the king, were chosen out of Gerousia. 2 ephors had to
accompany kings on campaign. The Gerousia was a counsel of 30 noblemen
including the kings, all (except possibly the kings) over the age of sixty.
○ There was an assembly of all citizens called the Apella that had some power.
A Spartan was not able to vote in the Apella until he was thirty and out of
military service. A Spartan newborn was examined to see if it was fit. If not, it
was killed.
○ At the age of seven, Spartan boys were taken from their mothers and
put in a group camp with other boys up to the age of 18. Conditions were
harsh and many more died. The boys would organize into packs, ruled by
older boys.
○ Women were given more rights in Sparta than in other Greek city-states.
They participated in athletics. They could hold property and manage their
husbands’ lands and testify in court. They had all the rights of men except
the right to vote or hold office

● Sparta meanwhile conquered Tegea, after receiving advice from the oracle and
hearing about the bones of Orestes being in Tegea. Sparta then defeated Argos and
became the dominant city in the Peloponnesus. Sparta also formed the
Peloponnesian League, which it headed. Back in Athens,
Corinth
● Around Greece, the aristocratic governments oppressed the common people. This
led to discontent and in many Greek city-states, tyrants overthrew the governments.
Tyranny in the ancient Greek sense means rule without democratic
representation. Many times, tyrants were popular.

● Corinth, a Dorian city just outside the Peloponnesus, was ruled after the fall of its
monarchy by an aristocratic family, the Bacchiads.

● Around 650, Cypselus, whose name means “chest” (according to legend he was
hidden in a chest or a jar as a child to escape the Bacchiads who had heard a
prophecy that Cypselus would overthrow them), overthrew them and became
tyrant. Cypselus promoted colonization and trade in Corinth. He was succeeded as
Corinthian ruler by his son Periander circa 620.
○ During Periander’s rule, Corinth reached its greatest prosperity and
power. It was the dominant naval power in Greece and the dominant
commercial power as well.
Athens
● Athens, later the second largest-city in the Greek world, was in a region called
Attica. Early on, Synoecism, a process of combining political entities into one, gave
Athenian citizenship and rights to all the inhabitants of Attica.

● In 632, Cylon attempted to establish tyranny. He was besieged on the Acropolis, the
hill in the middle of Athens, and killed by Megacles. The Athenians felt that this was
unjust and Megacles’ family, the Alcmaeonids, was stigmatized by his action for
generations.

● In 621, Draco laid out Athens’ law code. It is from his name that we get the term
“Draconian” (harsh)

● Solon: Athenian statesman and poet. Archon from 594-593. After his archonship, he
went into voluntary exile.

○ Early reforms before Solon: Athens began to be turned from an aristocracy

into a timocracy, where classes are determined by wealth instead of birth.
Solon continued this process.
 ○ Solon’s Reforms: Solon’s first act, and perhaps his most important, was the
seisachtheia, which canceled enslavement for debt. Solon changed Athenian
currency. Solon changed the selection of public officers to lot and election,
instead of just election.
○ After Solon’s reforms, two political parties formed: the Plains, which opposed
the democratic institutions of Solon, and the Coast, which liked them.

● In 561, Athens finally got a tyrant, Pisistratus. He formed a new political party, the
Hill. He was thrown-out and restored several times. He paved the way for the end of
the Hektemoroi class, the laborers, by giving them land.

● Athens began to grow in power and expanded its territory during Pisistratus’ rule.
Athens added Salamis and fought a war with Megara. Pisistratus also purified
the sacred island of Delos and instituted the Panatheniac feast.

● Pisistratus died in 528 (maybe 527). His sons Hippias and Hipparchus succeeded
him.

● In 514, Harmodius and Aristogiton assassinated Hipparchus, because

Hipparchus had slighted Harmodius’ sister by not allowing her to carry a basket in
the Panatheniac procession.

● In 510, the Spartan king Cleomenes invaded Athens at the invitation of the exiled
Alcmaeonids, to whom Hippias and Pisistratus were only loosely connected. Hippias
was forced out of power and exiled to Persia.

● Cleomenes dominated Sparta and to a lesser extent, all of Greece from 510 to his
death in 490.

● In Athens, with Hippias gone, a man named Cleisthenes set down reforms that
made Athens a true democracy. He was an Alcmaeonid.
○ He re-organized the Athenian people into 3 regions, 30 trittyes, and 10 tribes.
He created a new council, the Boule, which contained 500 members, fifty
from each tribe. The members were determined by lot.
○ The powers of the Ecclesia were increased and the ten generals (one from
each tribe), called strategoi, elected by the assembly each year became more
important than the polemarch.
 ○ The archons and Areopagus became basically empty of power. Athens over
the 500s began to replace Corinth as the dominant commercial power in
Greece. Democracy in Athens = 508.

The Persian War & Athenian Empire

● The Persian Empire faced a crisis in the succession when the son of Cyrus,
Cambyses, died without an heir. Darius I (the Great), leader of the king’s
bodyguards, seized the throne.

● Many peoples subject to Persian rule used the confusion to revolt. Among the rebels
were the Greek Ionian cities. The Ionian Greeks were ethnically related to the
Athenians. A leader of Miletus, the most powerful Ionian city, Aristagoras, appealed
to Athens for aid in the revolt. The Athenians sent some money, troops and
supplies.

● In 497, Ionian Greek rebels sacked Sardis, the former Lydian capital and the Persian
provincial capital for the region. The Persians responded by defeating the Ionians at
the battle of Lade in 494, crushing the revolt. The Persians resolved to punish
Athens for aiding the rebels. The Persian general Mardonius conquered all of Thrace
and Macedonia in 492.

● In 490, Darius sent his general, Datis, with 30,000 men to punish Athens. They
intended to install Hippias as leader in Athens again. As the Persians bore down
on Athens, the Athenians sent the runner Philippides (or Phidippides) to ask
Sparta for help, but they were involved with a religious festival and could not
send assistance in time.

● The Athenians managed to put 9,000 men into battle. The battle was to occur on a
plain near Marathon.
○ The Athenians did receive some help from the small city of Plataea, which
sent 1,000 additional soldiers.
 ○ The Athenian strategos Miltiades was in command. The Athenians, like all
Greeks, organized their army into phalanxes, manned by hoplite soldiers,
armed with long spears and all equipped with good armor.
○ Miltiades, acting through or with the polemarch, Callimachus, made his
center weak and thin, and put his best soldiers on each wing. The Persians in
the center advanced forward, but the Athenians swept through the Persian
wings and caught the Persian center in a trap.
○ The Persians were not able to overcome the superior hoplites and 6,400
Persians perished. Only 192 Athenians (and Plataeans) were killed.
Philippides ran the 26 miles to Athens in full armor. He said one word to
the Athenians. “Nike!” Victory! And he died.

● The victory at Marathon showed Persia that it would require a massive commitment
to have a chance to conquer Greece. It showed the effectiveness of the phalanx. It
raised Athenian pride in themselves and their prestige among other Greeks. Finally,
it made the new Persian king Xerxes, who succeeded Darius (his father) after
Darius’ death in 485, determined to bring the necessary force to punish all of
Greece.

● In Athens, a new institution called ostracism, from the word ostrakon (meaning
vessel, as in a clay vessel) came into being. If a majority in the Ecclesia voted for a
person to be ostracized, they were forced into exile for ten years.
○ The first person to be so exiled was Hipparchus (the politician and rival of
Cleisthenes, who still had great power in Athens, not the dead tyrant son of
Pisistratus) in 487.

● Themistocles began to become the most-powerful Athenian statesman around this

time. He crafted the ostracisms of Megacles, Xanthippus, and Aristides, in 486, 484,
and 482, respectively.

● In 483, a rich vein of silver was discovered in Laurion, in Athenian territory.

Themistocles convinced the Athenian assembly to use the wealth from the silver
mine to increase the navy’s size. The result was an Athenian navy of 200 triremes, a
new type of warship that had recently replaced the old pentaconters. This made
the Athenians, who were already a great commercial power, also the greatest sea
power in Greece.
● Ever since the Persians had begun to threaten Greece, some individuals and even
some cities had sided with them. This was called “medizing”.

● In 481, Xerxes organized his campaign against all of Greece. He brought more than
200,000 soldiers supported by 800 ships. Faced with such odds, many northern
Greek cities, which would have to face the Persians first including Thebes, medized
on the hope of mercy. A naval delaying action was fought at Artemisium early in
480. Athens recalled all its ostracized citizens in the spring of that year.

● The Greeks who resolved to resist the Persians decided to fight a delaying action in
July of 480 at Thermopylae, a narrow mountain pass where the Persian numerical
superiority would mean nothing.
○ Some 7,000 Greeks soldiers, including 300 Spartans, all under the command
of the Spartan king Leonidas, were sent to defend the pass against 200,000
advancing Persians.
○ Ephialtes (the Greek equivalent of Benedict Arnold) told the Persians of a
narrow trail around the pass. Xerxes sent his 10,000 Immortals, his best
soldiers, along the trail. The Greeks saw that they would be surrounded.
Leonidas ordered all the Greek soldiers except the 300 Spartans and 1,100
allied Greek troops to retreat.
○ When a retreating Greek told a Spartan that Persian arrows would block out
the sun, the Spartan replied that he preferred to fight in the shade. Two of
the brothers of Xerxes himself were slain by the valiant Spartans, but in the
end, every single Spartan was killed, including Leonidas.

● The Persian army advanced towards Athens. The oracle told the Athenians to put
their trust in the wooden wall. Themistocles interpreted that as meaning that the
Athenians should put all their hopes on the navy.

● Themistocles is said to have tricked the Persians by pretending he was a traitor and
sending them false information, causing Xerxes to order battle in the straits of
Salamis (480). The Phoenician ships of the Persians were larger and therefore at a
disadvantage in the narrow straits.
○ Before the battle, a Carian queen, Artemisia, gave advice against giving battle
in the straits. The battle was hard-fought, but the Persian lines crumbled.
Greece was effectively saved by an Athenian-led naval victory at Salamis.
 ● In 479, the Persian army was defeated by a Spartan-led Greek army at Plataea. The
Spartan regent, Pausanias, commanded and the Persian commander Mardonius
was killed in the battle.

● Later in 479, the Greeks won a battle at Mycale where the retreating Persian army
was camped. Leotychidas commanded the Greeks. The Greeks won the Persian
wars.

The Delian League & Rise of Pericles

● The Athenians, on a new high after the Persian war, founded the Confederation of
Delos, also called the Delian League, in 477. The purpose of the League was to
protect against another invasion from Persia. Most of the Ionian islands joined.
Many of the islands were too small to furnish ships themselves, so instead they gave
money to the League treasury, kept on Delos, and the Athenians used this money to
build ships to protect all the League members.

● Aristides, an Athenian statesman known as “The Just”, was tasked with keeping up
with the League’s finances.

● Themistocles, the man largely responsible for the birth of Athenian naval power,
became less and less important. Xanthippus, an Alcmaeonid, and Aristides eclipsed
him. Themistocles was ostracized in 472. He went to Persia and died in the Persian
district of Magnesia.

● Cimon, commanding the Delian league forces, i.e., the Athenian navy, won many
victories over the Persians. In 458, Athens completed the Long Walls, which
connected Athens to its port, Piraeus. The Long Walls came to symbolize Athenian
power.

● In 454, the treasury of the Delian League was moved to Athens, making the League
effectively an Athenian empire. Cimon was ostracized in 461 after he ordered an
expedition to Messenia the previous year (462) to help the Spartans put down a
revolt there.

● Ephialtes, known for reducing the powers of the Areopagus, and Pericles, the son of
Xanthippus, led the opposition party that caused Cimon’s exile. Ephialtes was
 murdered in 461, leaving Pericles basically in control of Athens. Pericles issued pay
for jury service in 462. Athenian politics were conducted in general by amateurs.

● First Peloponnesian War: began in 459 when Athenian forces seized Naupactus
and Megara submitted as well. Athens won the minor battles of Halieis and
Cecryphalea early in 458. Athens then besieged Aegina, which fell in 457. In 457,
Athens and Sparta fought the battle of Tanagra.
○ Before the battle, Cimon begged to be reinstated. His request was refused.
Sparta won the battle. Cimon was then reinstated and negotiated a truce
with Sparta. Athens invaded Boeotia. Under the command of Myronides,
they defeated the Boeotians at Oenophyta in 457, giving Athens control of all
of Boeotia except the city of Thebes itself.
○ Athens lost control of Boeotia after losing the battle of Coronea in 447. The
Spartans took control of Phocis in 448 in another Sacred War.
○ The Peace of Callias was a treaty between Athens and Persia in 449 (yes,
there were two treaties named the Peace of Callias). Athens and Sparta
signed the Thirty Years’ Peace in 446 (or 445). Pericles was elected
strategos fifteen consecutive years (444-429).

The (Second) Peloponnesian War

● In 435, war broke out between Corinth and her colony, Corcyra. This conflict
eventually escalated into the (Second) Peloponnesian War.

● The Peloponnesian War, between Athens and Sparta and their respective allies
and dependents, occurred from 431-404.

● Thucydides, an Athenian statesman who opposed Pericles, wrote the History

of the Peloponnesian War, which covered the war until 411.

● In 431, the Spartans, led by their king, Archidamus, invaded Attica. In 430, a
devastating plague hit Athens and killed 1/4 of its population. Pericles died of
the plague in 429. The son of Pericles by Aspasia was legitimized by decree, because
she was not an Athenian citizen. The Spartans then laid siege to Plataea and took
that city in 427.
● In 428, Mytilene tried to revolt from the Athenian empire. The revolt was defeated
and the men of Mytilene were sentenced to death and the women and children to
slavery.

● In 425, the Athenian general Cleon captured 100 Spartans, who were thought
never to surrender, at Sphacteria. The Spartan general Brasidas forced Athens into
a one year truce in 423.

● In 422, Brasidas and Cleon were killed at the battle of Amphipolis, a Spartan victory.
In 421, Athens and Sparta agreed to the peace of Nicias (named after the Athenian
statesman), ending the first ten year period of the war, called the Archidamian
War.

● Alcibiades rose to prominence in Athens in 420. He convinced the Athenians to

undertake an expedition against Epidaurus in 419. The Spartans supported the
Epidaurians and the Athenians then declared that they had broken the peace.

● The Athenians sent an expedition to Sicily to try to force Syracuse, a powerful

Spartan ally, out of the war. The three generals originally in command were:
Alcibiades, Nicias, and Lamachus. As the expedition set out in 415, the hermae,
statues of Hermes in the harbor, were mutilated.

● Alcibiades was accused of doing this, but acquitted. Alcibiades was recalled and
after being condemned to death (for the hermae mutilation, a youth named
Andocides confessed to the crime and named Alcibiades as the main conspirator) he
fled to Sparta in 414.

● He informed the Spartans about Athenian strategy, and advised them to fortify the
city of Decelea. He also convinced the Spartans to aid Syracuse, and they sent
Gylippus to take command of Syracusan forces and mold them into an effective
army. The Spartans fortified Decelea in 413. That same year, the Sicilian Expedition
was defeated; an eclipse was partly to blame. Athens lost 45,000 men. Nicias was
the general who doomed the expedition and its defeat basically doomed Athens.
 ● In 411, the four hundred, led by Theramenes, came to power in Athens. This meant
a more oligarchic government. Later that year, Alcibiades was recalled. The four
hundred fell from power that same year, and were replaced by a government called
the Five Thousand. In 410, Alcibiades led the Athenians to victory over the Spartans
at the battle of Cyzicus. As a result of that victory, Athenian democracy was restored.

● In 407, Alcibiades lost the battle of Notion to the Spartan admiral Lysander.
Alcibiades was removed from command as a result. In 406, the Athenians won the
battle of Arginusae. In 405, Lysander defeated Athens at the battle of
Aegospotami. Athens was forced to surrender in 404. The Long Walls of Athens
were torn down.

● Sparta set up an oligarchy in Athens called the Thirty Tyrants. Draconides officially
proposed their institution. The most radical of the Thirty was Critias. Theramenes
was the other important Tyrant. Critias condemned Theramenes to death in 403.
Critias was killed in the ensuing civil war, and the Thirty fell from power. Thrasybulus
led the rebels.

Post-Peloponnesian War & Theban Hegemony

● In Persia there was a civil war for the throne between Artaxerxes and Cyrus the
younger.
○ Cyrus hired ten thousand Greek mercenaries. They marched to Persia
and joined Cyrus’ forces. In the battle of Cunaxa, in 401, the Greeks were
victorious (Clearchus commanded the mercenaries), but Cyrus was killed.
○ The mercenaries then had to escape from the middle of Persian territory.
Xenophon took command and led them on the March of the Ten
Thousand. Xenophon wrote the Anabasis, an account of the march.
When the Greeks reached the Black Sea, they famously cried “Thalassa,
Thalassa.” Thalassa is a Greek word for sea. They escaped to a Greek
colony there.

● Agesilaus came to the throne of Sparta in 398 and succeeded Lysander as the most
important Spartan.
● The Spartans, now masters of Greece, proved to be more unpopular than the
Athenians had been to former Athenian allies now controlled by Sparta. Harmosts
were Spartan governors.

● The Athenian admiral Conon was appointed commander of a large Persian fleet. He
defeated the Spartans at the battle of Cnidus in 394. This destroyed Spartan
maritime power. Lysander was killed at the siege of Haliartus in 395.

● In 392, the king of Persia, through Spartan diplomacy, tried to mediate a peace
between the warring Greeks. It was ineffective. Finally, Spartan maneuvering was
successful, and the King’s Peace was imposed by Persia in 386.

● The Second Athenian Confederacy was founded in 378. Callistratus organized the
finances and was called “the Aristides of the Second Athenian League.” Thebes and
Athens became allies against Sparta. The Athenians under Chabrias won the battle
of Naxos (a sea battle) over the Spartans in 376.

● Athens and Thebes fell out and Athens agreed to the Peace of Callias with Sparta in
371. The Thebans were excluded from the peace and continued fighting.

● The Thebans under Epaminondas defeated the Spartans under Cleombrotus at the
battle of Leuctra. This battle ended Spartan hegemony. Jason of Pherae laid down
designs for domination of eastern Greece, but was assassinated in 370.

● Thebes became the dominant power in Greece. Thebes founded Megalopolis

through synoikismos (same as synoecism) in 370-369. They also helped to found the
Arcadian League. Both Megalopolis and the Arcadian League were designed to keep
Sparta in check.

● In 362, Epaminondas ended Spartan prominence forever by defeating them at the

battle of Mantinea, but he was killed in the battle, supposedly in single combat with
Gryllus, the son of Xenophon.
Macedonia & Alexander the Great
● Macedonia came under the rule of Philip II in 364. He had been held hostage in
Thebes at the age of 15, and had learned Epaminondas’ infantry tactics. He united
Macedonia and began to take control of northern Greece.

● In 356, his son Alexander was born by his wife Olympias. In Athens, the orator
Demosthenes, who overcame a speech impediment, spoke out against the
increasing power of Macedonia. Isocrates spoke in favor of Philip and Macedonia.
● The rivalry between Thebes and Athens prevented them from uniting against the
Macedonian threat until it was too late. Eubulus was a financial officer in charge of
the Theoric Fund during this same period of Philip’s increasing power and influence.

○ Onomarchus, a Phocian king, was the only man to defeat Philip.

● Eventually, Philip defeated him. Demosthenes’ (born in 384) main speeches against
Philip were called Philippics. Athens and Macedonia went to war. They agreed to
the Peace of Philocrates in 346. The peace lasted from 346 to 341. Then war began
again. In 338, Philip, with Alexander commanding the cavalry, defeated the
combined forces of Thebes and Athens among others at the battle of Chaeronea.
This victory made Philip master of Greece. In 336, he was assassinated.

● In 335, Thebes revolted. In 334, Alexander defeated the Persians at the battle of
Granicus.

● In 333, he entered the town of Gordion and cut the famous Gordian knot with
his sword. Later that year (333), he defeated a Persian army 100,000 strong led
personally by the Persian king Darius III at the battle of Issus.

● In 332, Alexander took the island city of Tyre by building a giant causeway after a
seven-month siege. Alexander then conquered Egypt late in 332 and founded
Alexandria in early 331. Alexander defeated Darius and a 200,000 strong Persian
army at the battle of Gaugamela later in 331.

● The Greeks sacked the Persian capitals, Susa and Persepolis. Darius was murdered
by his general, Bessus. Alexander’s horse, Bucephalus, was killed in a battle in India
 and Alexander founded a city named after him. Alexander fell ill and died at
Babylon in 323 on June 13 at the age of 33.

Greek Literature

Early Authors & Pre-Socratic Philosophers

● Homer - author of the Iliad and the Odyssey said to have been blind.
○ The Iliad: epic poem, 24 books long, in dactylic hexameter, tells the story of
the wrath of Achilles during the Trojan War.
○ The Odyssey: epic poem, also in dactylic hexameter, and 24 books long, tells
the story of the return of the Greek hero Odysseus to his home in Ithaca, and
his revenge on the suitors.
○ There are also Homeric hymns to Demeter, Apollo, Hermes, Aphrodite,
Dionysius.
● Hesiod - the other master of early Greek epic poetry besides Homer, lived c 700
B.C., wrote the Theogony, Works and Days
○ Theogony: poem in dactylic hexameter, an account of the births of the gods,
talks about the early gods, the Titans, and the Olympians.
○ Works and Days: poem in dactylic hexameter, written to Hesiod’s brother,
Perses; talks about farming, mentions the five ages of man (Golden, Silver,
Bronze, Heroic, and Iron) and mentions Prometheus and Pandora.

● Aesop - author of well-known fables, enslaved person from Egypt or Thrace, lived
on Samos

● Alcaeus - poet born in the late-seventh century from Mytilene on the island of
Lesbos, conflicted with the tyrant Pittacus, went to Egypt, then reconciled with
Pittacus and returned home. His work survives only in fragments. He wrote lyrical
songs about a variety of topics, such as politics, love, and hymns to the gods. Like
Archilochus, threw down his shield and ran from a battle.

● Alcman - lyric poet who lived in Sparta in the late seventh century. He was mainly
known for partheneia, which are songs sung by a chorus of maidens at religious
 festivals.

● Anacreon - lyric poet of the early sixth century, born in Teos, an Ionian Greek city,
moved to the tyrant, Polycrates’ court on Samos. After Polycrates’ fall, he moved to
Athens. He wrote in Ionian Greek, in lyric, iambic, and elegiac poetry. These are
about love and the pleasures of life.

● Anaximander - Pre-socratic philosopher from Miletus, lived c 610-545, first Greek

known to have written a book in prose. This book, concerning nature, is lost. He is
said to have constructed the first map of the Earth.

● Anaximenes - Presocratic philosopher from Miletus, younger contemporary of

Anaximander (therefore he lived in the mid-sixth century). He believed that the
primary substance was air, but his writings are lost to us.

● Archilochus - poet from Paros lived in the mid-seventh century. He also wrote a
poem in which he leaves behind his shield in battle, a great dishonor, in order to
survive. He was the first to use the term iambic for the meter of some of his poems.

● Arion - largely legendary lyric poet of the seventh century, said to have been born on
Lesbos, and to have been a pupil of Alcman. He later lived at the court of Periander
in Corinth. According to legend, while on the way back from a visit to Italy, he was
thrown overboard by pirates, but a dolphin, charmed by Arion’s singing, carried him
to land. He is credited with inventing the dithyramb, a form of choral lyric poetry.

● Bacchylides - lyric poet from Ceos, lived in the late sixth and early to middle fifth
centuries; the nephew of the poet Simonides. He wrote odes for victors at games, in
a similar style to Pindar (sometimes the two wrote about the same games, such as
the Olympian games of 476 and Pythians of 470), and wrote hymns and other songs.
He was considered by Aristotle to be a forerunner to tragedy.

● Empedocles - Pre-Socratic philosopher of the fifth century, who believed that the
universe consists of four elements: air, fire, water, and earth. He is said to have
composed two poems, On Nature, and Purifications.

● Heracleitus - philosopher from Ephesus who wrote On Nature, and said that the
primary element is fire. He was later known as ‘the weeping philosopher’.
● Herodotus - author of the History of the Persian Wars, which is 9 books long; he
was born in Asia Minor. His history contains earlier events and a large amount of
cultural information.

● Ibycus - According to legend he was attacked by robbers while a flock of cranes was
passing overhead. Before the robbers killed him, he exclaimed, “Those cranes will
avenge me.” Afterwards, one of the robbers was in a crowded theater, and seeing a
flock of cranes overhead, said, “There go the avengers of Ibycus.” His comment was
overheard and the robbers were brought to justice.

● Parmenides - Pre-Socratic philosopher from Elea, founded the Eleatic school of

philosophy. He wrote the Way of Truth and the Way of Seeming, which are one
poem in two parts.

● Pindar - lyric poet from Thebes, in Boeotia, lived c 518-440, wrote odes to the victors
at the four great games. Therefore, he wrote Olympian, Pythian, Nemean, and
Isthmian odes. He is said to have been instructed by Corinna. His house was the
only one in Thebes spared by Alexander the Great when he leveled the city. He
wrote in Doric Greek and wrote an ode to Hieron I of Syracuse, as well as to other
Sicilian tyrants. He is considered by many to be the greatest Greek lyric poet.

● Pythagoras - Pre-Socratic philosopher of the sixth century, left no writings, believed

in an immortal soul, which is rational and reincarnated into different bodies based
on choices made in the past life (the transmigration of souls). He is credited with the
theorem that bears his name.

● Sappho - lyric poetess from Lesbos, lived in the late-seventh century; a

contemporary of Alcaeus, while young she went into exile in Sicily because of
political troubles on Lesbos. Her poems are about love. One of these poems was
translated by Catullus in his poem 51. It concerns her love of a girl at mere sight,
while a young man beside her is unmoved by the same thing. She was called the
‘tenth muse’.

● Semonides - iambic and elegiac poet from Samos, and later Amorgos; lived in the
mid-seventh century. He wrote in Ionic Greek and only a few fragments of his
poems survive.
 ● Simonides - lyric and elegiac poet from Ceos, lived from 556-468; the uncle of the
poet Bacchylides, he is most famous for epigrams. He wrote epitaphs (odes) for the
Athenian dead at Marathon and the Spartan dead at Thermopylae.

● Stesichorus - lyric poet said to have been born in Matauros in Italy, and to have lived
in Himera in Sicily; his real name was Teisias and he lived in the early sixth century.
He wrote many poems, of which only fragments survive. He is most famous for
supposedly being struck blind for slandering Helen in one of his poems.

● Seven Sages - name given by Greek tradition to a group of seven men: statesmen,
lawgivers, and philosophers.
○ 1) Bias
○ 2) Chilon
○ 3) Cleobulus of Rhodes
○ 4) Periander: tyrant of Corinth c 625-585, brought Corinth to its greatest
prosperity and promoted the arts
○ 5) Pittacus: a statesmen from Mytilene on Lesbos, feuded with Alcaeus, later
became dictator in Mytilene
○ 6) Solon: Athenian lawgiver, archon in 594-93; also a poet and known for his
wisdom. His most important law was the seisachtheia, which ended
enslavement for debt and all current debts. He is said to have visited
Croesus, and told him that no man may count himself lucky until he is dead.
He went into voluntary exile after enacting his laws.
○ 7) Thales: Pre-Socratic philosopher, lived in Miletus c 600; he was the earliest
Greek scientist. He is said to have predicted an eclipse of the sun in 585, and
he believed the primary substance was water.

Greek Tragedians & Comedians

● Thespis: an Attican credited with inventing the play in the 530s at the Dionysia
festival, adding an actor to the chorus. He is also said to have invented the mask.
The term Thespian, referring to actors in dramas, comes from his name.

Three Classic Tragedians

● Aeschylus - lived from 525-456, earliest tragedian whose work survives
○ According to a story, he was killed when an eagle dropped a tortoise on his
(bald) head, while he was visiting Hieron I of Syracuse.
○ Aeschylus wrote eighty to ninety plays, out of which seven survive:
■ the Persians: the only surviving Greek tragedy with a historical theme
2) the Seven Against Thebes
■ The Oresteia trilogy. It contains these plays:
● Agamemnon:
● Choephoroe (the Libation Bearers)
● Eumenides (‘kindly ones’, a euphemism for the Furies) : only
extant trilogy of Aeschylus
■ The Suppliants
■ Prometheus Bound:
○ Aeschylus added the second actor to the play. He used three in his later
plays. He won the dramatic competition at least 13 times; no doubt, many
other times as well.

● Sophocles - lived c 496-406/405, He wrote over one hundred plays, placing first
about 80% of the time, and second all the rest of the times.
○ Seven of his tragedies and most of one satyr play are extant. His extant plays
are:
■ Ajax
■ Trachinian Women
■ Oedipus Rex (Tyrannus)
■ Oedipus at Colonus
■ Antigone
■ Electra
■ Philoctetes
○ Sophocles added the third actor and scenery to plays, and increased the
chorus from 12 to 15 members.
○ He is said to have made his characters as they ought to be, in contrast to
Euripides, who made his characters as they are. In other words, his
characters were idealized.

● Euripides - lived c 485-406, died just before Sophocles, said to have written his plays
in a cave on Salamis.
 ○ He used the technique Deus ex machina, where a god solves the plot, the
most of the playwrights.
○ 19 of his plays survive, the most of any Greek dramatist. We know the titles
of eighty plays by him. Selections:
■ Alcestis--satyr play (?)
■ Bacchae
■ Electra
■ Hecuba
■ Hippolytus
■ Ion
■ Iphigenia at Aulis
■ Iphigenia in Tauris
■ Medea
■ Orestes
■ Rhesus
■ Suppliant Women
■ Trojan Women
○ He was supposedly torn to pieces by the dogs of Archelaus, the king of
Macedon, while visiting there.

Comedy

● All extant comedy is Athenian, the number of comedies performed at the Great
Dionysia was reduced to three during and after the Peloponnesian war for
economic reasons.

● Comedy is organized into three periods: Old, Middle, and New.

● Aristophanes - lived c 445 to 385, little is known of his life except that he was by far
the greatest writer of Old Comedy.
○ We have eleven of his plays completely and fragments from several others.
■ The Clouds: It ridiculed Socrates
■ The Wasps: It ridiculed the jury and court system
■ The Peace. The hero in the play rides to heaven on a dung-beetle.
■ The Birds: Two Athenians travel to Nephelokokkygia
(‘cloudcuckooland’) to escape the war.
 ■ Lysistrata, the most famous play of Aristophanes in modern times.
The women of Sparta and Athens get together and decide to reject
their husbands until they give up the war.
■ The Frogs: The Athenians need a tragic poet, and Aeschylus,
Sophocles, and Euripides are all dead. Dionysus decides to settle a
dispute between Aeschylus and Euripides as to who is the greatest
tragedian (Sophocles having given way for Aeschylus). Dionysus
chooses Aeschylus.
○ The last two surviving plays of Aristophanes belong to Middle Comedy
(400-323)
■ Ecclesiazusae: probably produced in 392. Women, under the
leadership of Praxagora, take over the government. They institute
communal property and equal sexual relations for everyone, young
and old. The chorus is less important in this play than in previous
Aristophanes works, and there is no parabasis.
■ The Plutus (The Wealth): produced after Ecclesiazusae; a previous play
of his, produced in 408, had the same title but is lost. The Plutus is the
last of Aristophanes’ extant plays.

● New Comedy - all comedy from 323 to 263 (from the death of Alexander to the
death of Philemon).

● Menander - the greatest writer of New Comedy, lived from 342-292, died by
drowning in the harbor of Piraeus. Only one of his some 100 plays is extant
completely. The Dyscolus (‘the bad tempered man’): is the complete play

Socratic Philosophers and Hellenistic Figures

● Thucydides - wrote the History of the Peloponnesian War, which is known for being
impartial, despite Thucydides being an Athenian general, until he was removed after
failing to take Amphipolis. His history ends in 411 with the recall of Alcibiades. He
mentions Pericles’ funeral oration, to the Athenians who died in the first year of the
war.

Socrates - son of a sculptor (Sophroniscus) and a midwife (Phaenarete); his wife was
Xanthippe, he wrote nothing. What we know about him comes from his students,
mainly Plato and Xenophon. He is famous for the socratic method, which involves
 questions and answers. He believed in pseudo-gods called Daimones (Daimon is
singular). He was tried for corrupting the youth of Athens and compelled to
commit suicide by drinking hemlock in 399.

● Plato - student of Socrates, lived from c 427-348; he founded the Academy, a

school in Athens that survived for centuries. Writings:
○ Apology: Socrates’ address at his trial
○ Crito: a dialogue with Socrates in prison, Crito is a friend who visits him
○ Gorgias: dialogue in which Socrates discusses rhetoric with the famous
sophist. Socrates states during the dialogue that it is better to suffer evil than
to do it, and to be punished than to go unpunished.
○ Meno: dialogue concerning whether virtue can be taught.
○ Phaedo: dialogue concerning the nature of death and the immortality of the
soul, a discussion between Socrates and his friends as Socrates is dying; it
also discusses the trip of the soul to the afterlife
○ Republic: Plato’s most famous work in modern times, it discusses the perfect
government, which to Plato is the rule of the greatest philosopher.
○ Symposium: discourse at a dinner party concerning the nature of love;
Aristophanes hiccups throughout it.
○ Timaeus: contains the beginning of the Atlantis story, discusses the origin of
the universe.
○ Laws: Plato’s last and longest work, a modification of Plato’s political ideas in
Republic

● Xenophon - an Athenian, a student of Socrates; he was a member of the Ten

Thousand in their expedition, took command after the officers were killed and led
the mercenaries out of Persia. Writings:
○ Anabasis: tells that story in seven books and contains the famous cry:
Thalatta, Thalatta (Thalassa, Thalassa).
○ Apology: like Plato’s work of the same name, it is Socrates’ address during
his trial
○ Memorabilia: recollections of Socrates, including his character and some of
his philosophical ideas.
○ Symposium: like Plato’s work of the same name, is set at a dinner party and
discusses love; Socrates is present in both Symposia.
● Aristotle - lived from 384-322, born in Stageira in Chalcidice. He became
Alexander’s tutor; Plato nicknamed him Reader.
○ The Lyceum was a school he founded.
○ He also founded the Peripatetic school and was its first head.
○ Writings:
■ A group of six treatises on logic.
■ A group of treatises on metaphysics.
■ Physica: discusses matter, forms, and the four causes (Material,
Formal, Moving, and Final)
■ De Caelo: concerning the movements of celestial bodies
■ Meteorologica: treatises about weather, and including the Historia
Animalium, which discusses animals and how they should be
classified.
■ Nicomachean Ethics: Aristotle’s views on personal morality and
happiness, edited by his son Nichomachus
○ Politics: eight books long, this work shows that Aristotle believed a limited
democracy is best, because the perfect ruler could not be found, and
speculates on the origin of government.
○ Constitution of Athens: written earlier than Politics, it traces the development
of the Athenian constitution and discusses the democracy of Aristotle’s time.
○ Rhetoric: a discussion of oratory in general, focusing on persuasion.
○ Poetics: Aristotle’s commentary on literature, particularly tragedy and
comedy. He says that Margites, a lost poem about a fool’s adventures, is a
proto-comedy.
■ He believes Oedipus Rex to be the supreme tragedy. He also
discusses epic poetry and finally deals with censury.

● Zeno - the founder of the Stoics, taught in the Eleatic school after Parmenides.
○ Stoicism took its name from stoa, a Greek word meaning porch, as Zeno
taught there.
○ The Stoics believed that man should pursue harmony and stay detached, and
believed in self-discipline. They believed the universe is periodically doused
in fire and in a divine law called logos.

● Antisthenes - the founder of the Cynics. The Cynics believed that virtue makes
happiness; Diogenes modified this philosophy into a general contempt for
 knowledge and morality

● Diogenes - the most famous Cynic, lived in a tub; Alexander said that if he could not
be Alexander, he would like to be Diogenes.

● Epicurus - founder of Epicureanism, born in Samos, he moved to Athens and

founded the school in the gardens in 306. Epicureanism believed that happiness
comes from pleasure (absence of pain). The Roman author Lucretius continued
Epicurean theory.
○ He wrote On Nature, expounding the beliefs of Epicureanism.

● Scepticism - philosophy founded by Pyrrhon of Elis; the Academy later adopted

sceptic beliefs. The Sceptics believed that true knowledge is unattainable and
therefore the proper attitude is one of indifference.

● Neo-Platonism - the school of philosophy centered in Alexandria in the early

centuries A.D. It developed the ideas of Plato, until basically eliminated by
Christianity. The most famous Neo-Platonist was Hypatia, murdered by a Christian
mob in A.D. 415.

● Leucippus - original developer of the atomic theory, later improved by Democritus

● Democritus - developer of the atomic theory, sometimes incorrectly stated to be its

originator; he was born c 460 in Abdera, lived a long life, and traveled widely.

● Euclid - wrote Elements, establishing plane geometry.

● Oratory/Rhetoric - may have come from Sicily, via the Sophists, travelling teachers
who gave lectures in various places on various topics. Corax may have been its
originator.

● Gorgias - the most famous Sophist, from Leontini in Sicily Protagoras: another
famous Sophist, he was from Abdera, and came to Athens in the mid 400s. He is
most famous for saying, “Man is the measure of all things.”

Attic Orators (there are traditionally ten, here are five)

● Andocides - convicted for the Mutilation of the Hermae and disgraced, he wrote On
his Return, asking for a return to Athens, and On the Mysteries, referring to the
Eleusinian Mysteries, which he once attended

● Lysias - originally from Syracuse, he settled in Athens; he fled from the Thirty
Tyrants, who killed his brother Polemarchus. His style was clear and resigned. Some
of his 34 extant speeches are: On the Murder of Eratosthenes

● Isocrates - lived from 436-338, influenced by the Sophists and Socrates (who in one
of Plato’s dialogues predicts Isocrates’ future greatness as either an orator or
philosopher), he stayed out of public life for a while, due to a weak voice and a lack
of nerve. He overcame this eventually, and
○ His most famous for his Panegyricus, which urged Greeks to unite. He was
pro-Macedonian, and wrote the Philippus to Philip II of Macedon, urging him
to unite Greece.
○ On the Peace: given in 355, it urged Athens to pursue a non-aggressive
foreign policy and to abandon the maritime empire Athens had built

● Demosthenes - the greatest Athenian(also the greatest Greek) orator, he studied

under Isaeus.
○ Demosthenes overcame a speech impediment (he practiced speaking with
stones in his mouth) to become a prominent politician. He was strongly
against Philip II of Macedon.
○ The Philippics were given against Philip II of Macedon.
○ On the Peace: given in 346 after the Peace of Philocrates with Macedonia.
○ On the Crown: this was Demosthenes’ greatest speech; given in 330, it was in
reply to Aeschines’ attack on a proposal by Ctesiphon to give Demosthenes a
crown for his services to Athens. The vote on the proposal was
overwhelmingly in Demosthenes’ favor.

● Aeschines - rival of Demosthenes, lived c 390-336; he was impeached in 343 by

Demosthenes, but successfully appealed. Three of his speeches survive.
○ Aeschines gave Against Timarchus (an ally of Demosthenes) and successfully
convicted him of immorality in 345.
○ He convinced Athens to start a war, a sacred war with Amphissa, which
culminated in war with Macedonia and defeat for Athens.
 ○ He gave Against Ctesiphon in 330, but was defeated by Demosthenes’ On the
Crown. Aeschines was decidedly inferior to Demosthenes in oratory.

Remaining Poets and Scientists

● Apollodorus: wrote On the Gods, and Chronicle; lived in Athens c 140

● Apollonius of Rhodes: said to have succeeded Eratosthenes as head of the

Alexandrian library, he wrote the Argonautica, an epic four books long describing
the story of Jason

● Archimedes: scientist who lived from 287-212 in Syracuse, was killed by the Romans
under Marcellus when they took Syracuse. He helped the defenders to hold out for
two years with his inventions such as huge mirrors which set Roman ships on fire.
He also invented a new type of pulley, and is famous for saying that if he had a place
to stand, he could move the earth. He also said ‘Eureka’, after discovering, by
observing the displacement of water in his tub by his body, a way to test the purity
of metals

● Aristides of Miletus - wrote Milesian Tales, a series of short stories, similar to the
Satyricon of the Latin author Petronius

● Callimachus - a head of the Alexandrian library in the early to middle 200s, he wrote
Lock of Berenice, a very famous poem translated by Catullus in his poem 66.
Callimachus feuded with Apollonius of Rhodes. He originated the famous saying,
“Big book, big evil. ”He also wrote Hecale and Aetia(the latter is about customs)

● Callisthenes - a nephew and pupil of Aristotle, he was the historian accompanying

Alexander, until he was executed in 327 for knowledge of an assassination plot
against Alexander

● Eratosthenes - succeeded Zenodotus as head of the Alexandrian library in the late

200s; he was proficient at many areas from mathematics to poetry to philosophy.
He is most famous for calculating the circumference of the earth. He also wrote
Chronographiae, which is the first scientific attempt to fix the dates of Greek history
 ● Hippocrates - the father of medicine, he was born on Cos c. 460 and lived to a very
old age; many treatises and books on medicine are attributed to him, but most were
probably by his disciples. The oath modern doctors take is named after him.

Greek Life
Misc. Geography
● The Sacred Way: path between Athens and Eleusis
● Long Walls: between Athens and Piraeus
● Epidauros: Sanctuary to Asclepius, thus a healing center (Best preserved Greek
theater)
● Ephesus: Artemisium, temple to Artemis (one of the 7 wonders of the ancient
world)

Archeologists
● Heinrich Schliemann: Troy, Mycenae, Tiryns
● Arthur Evans: Knossos (found Linear A)
● Carl Blegan: Pylos (found Linear B)
● Michael Ventris/John Chadwick: decoded Linear B, realizing it was Greek
● Giuseppe Fiorelli: Pompeii

Occupations
● hippiatrikoi: veterinarians
● kapeloi: retail traders
● palinkapeloi: entrepreneurs, middlemen
● emporoi: long distance traders

Art

Pottery types
● Terracotta: found at Tanagra (Hellenistic era)
● Orientalizing: first pottery style
● Geometric: second pottery style
● Black Figure: third pottery style
● Red Figure: fourth pottery style
● White Ground: fifth pottery style
Statue types:
 ● Kore: an archaic statue of a maiden
● Kouros: an archaic statue of a male figure
● Herms: Fertility statues with a head on a block of stone, often found at crossroads
Pillars/Columns:
● Caryatids/Karyatids: Pillars that were statues of women, famous ones on the
porch of the Erechtheum
● Doric: The earliest pillar, common west of Corinth, very simple
● Ionic: Followed the Doric, common east of Corinth, Doric Column + the scrolly
things at the base and top
● Corinthian: Followed the Ionic, found in Corinth, Doric Column + acanthus leaves
around the base and top
Composite: Corinthian + Ionic
Artists:
● Phidias: Parthenon's statue of Athena, statue of Zeus at Olympia, famous for
chryselephantine (gold and ivory) statues that were huge, workshop in Olympia
● Myron: Diskobolos (the discus thrower)
● Praxiteles: The Knidian Apollo (the first nude female life sized statue), Hermes and
and the Infant Dionysus, etc.

Buildings
● Odeon: Music Hall
● Hippodrome: Chariot Racing

Rooms of a House (oikos: your family and household)

● Megaron: large central room, contained central hearth

Religion

Greek Temples
● face East
● dipteral temple: Its peristyle is two rows deep
● propylon: the entrance
● naos: innermost room, the god resides here
● opisthodomos: back room of the temple, added to balance the pronaos

Mystery cults: Eleusis (Demeter and Dionysus)

Sacred Dances/Songs
 ● hyporchema: mimic dance that accompanied worship songs of Apollo
● geranos: "crane dance", honor of Theseus
● prosodic: processional dance to the altar of a deity (specifically Apollo or Artemis),
followed by the Paean hymn
● Paean hymn: Hymn to Apollo. Dances and stuff

Festivals
● Panathenaic Festival (ATHENIAN): the purpose was to present Athena Polias with
a new peplos
● Carnea (SPARTAN w/ OTHER DORIC STATES): end of the summer, honored Apollo

Military

Soldiers:
● Peltast: Lightly armed infantry
● Hoplite: Heavily armed infantry
● Military formation: Phalanx: wall of shields with spears coming out
Weapons:
● sarissa: a 16 foot spear (introduced by Philip II of Macedon)
● oxybeles: precursor to a ballista, cross bow-ish thing

Calendar
12 months

SUMMER
1. Hekatombalon: July/August
2. Metageitnion: August/September
3. Boedromion: September/October

FALL
4. Pyanepsion: October/November
5. Maimakterion: November/December
6. Poseideon: December/January

WINTER
7. Gamelion: January/February
8. Anthesterion: February/March
9. Elaphebolion: March/April

SPRING
10. Mounichion: April/May
11. Thargelion: May/June
 12. Skirophorion: June/July

Death
● 3 handfuls of dirt is a burial
● a coin (obol) is placed on the dead's mouth as passage into the underworld
● stelai: engraved stone slabs used to mark and identify graves of the dead (starting
in the Bronze Age)

Coinage
● Obol (six obols to a Drachma)-> Chalkos (silver, six Chalkos to a Drachma)->
● Drachma (a day's wages, 100 drachmas to a Mina) -> Mina (60 Minas to a Talent) ->
Talent

Clothing

Hats
● Kausia: sun hat (Macedonian)
● Petasos: traveler's hat
● Tholia: woman's straw hat

Chiton: the Greek tunic

Peplos: the Greek toga
Chlamys: large woolen cloak

Boats
● Levels of Rowers: Thalamitai, Zygitai, Thranitai
● Penteconter: fifty oared
● Bireme: boat with two rows of oars
● Trireme: boat with three rows of oars
● Quadrireme: boat with four rows of oars
● Quinquereme: boat with five rows of oars

Resources
● Silver: Laurium mines
● Eels: Lake Copais in Boeotia
● Pine Trees: Pontus
● Marble: Paros
● Purple Dye: Tyre (from sea snails), most valued of all dyes
Food
● Honey: used as sweetener
● Celery: popular offering to the dead, cure for hangovers

Meals
● Deipnon: Dinner, main meal
Drinking
● Symposium: men only drinking party
● kottabos: drinking game, throws wine lees at plastinx into disk called manes, both
lees and noise made is called latex
Dishes / Drinking Vessels:
● kylix: DRINKING cup with a wide, flat, shallow design with two horizontal handles
● krater: large, open MIXING bowl (variations: volute, calyx, bell)
● amphora: tall vessel with two handles used to STORE and TRANSPORT wine as well
as mark graves
● rhyton: a drinking horn used either for DRINKING or POURING LIBATIONS
● oinochoe: an S-shaped, often terracotta jar used for STORING wine
● lekythos: a jar with a narrow body and one handle attached to the neck that is used
to STORE oils
● olpe: a pitcher used for POURING oil/wine

Marriage

● epigamia: right to marry

Marriage songs
● hymenaios: wedding song (sung in the procession to the groom's house, dedicated
to Hymen)
● epithalamion: wedding song (sung by young boys and girls on wedding night at the
threshold)

Music

Instruments
● barbitos: lyre with long strings and a very low pitch (used by Sappho and Alcaeus)
● kithara: a professional lyre, higher pitch than a barbitos
● pandura: a long neck lute with a small resonating chamber
● trigonon: small, triangular harp
● duaulos: double flute

Theater
Parts of the Theater:
● Koilon: tiered seats
● Diazoma: divider between the lower and upper rows of seats
● Orchestra: half-circular area in front of the proskenion that the chorus (composed
of 24 men in Old Comedy) is in.
● Skene: background
● Proskenion: stage
● Didaskaliai: official records of dramatic performances
Thespis: the name of first actor, who flourished under the tyrant Peisistratus

Athletics

Panhellenic Games
● Pythian games: laurel wreath, Delphi, honor of Apollo
● Olympic games: olive wreath (kotinos), 776 bc, Olympia, honor of Zeus and
Pelops
● Isthmian games: celery -> pine leaves, Corinth, honor of Poseidon
● Nemean games: celery, Nemea, honor of Zeus
● Heraen Games?

Long Jumpers: swung weights called halteres

Misc. Terms
● synoecism: the amalgamation of several city states
● Seisachtheia: Solon instituted this "shaking off of debts"
● klepsydra: water clock
● trapetrum: mill used to crush olives
● stadion: 600 feet
● boustrophedon: a style of writing
● Koine Greek: Greek dialect spoken by the commoners
● hybris: brash pride in epics
● Hippocrates: premier physician during the time of Pericles (doctors today state the
Hippocratic oath)
● hetaera: foreign women, courtesans, enslaved women, and prostitutes
● metoikos/metic: a resident alien who does not have citizen rights