Greek Vocabulary (Part 3)
Terms
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- Plato
- one of Socrates' students; considered by many to be the GREATEST philosopher of western civilization; explained his ideas about government in a work entitled "The Republic"; in ideal state, people were divided into three different groups
- tragedies
- the first Greek dramas; presented in a trilogy, serious drama about common themes such as love, hate, war, or betrayal
- Sicily
- the Mediterranean's largest island, colonized from the 8th century BC by Greeks and Carthaginians who frequently warred with each other or the island's native people
- ostracism
- procedure used by the Athenian assembly in the 5th century BC to banish an unpopular or potentially dangerous citizen for 10 years
- philosophy
- an organised system of thought
- polis
- a self-governing city-state; the basic political unit of the Greek world; comprised a city, with its acropolis and agora and the surrounding territory
- ostrakon
- a broken piece of clay pottery used for writing; Athens: most found used as tablets for inscribing the name of candidates for ostracism
- Peloponnese
- the large land-mass which forms the southern part of mainland Greece
- oracle
- a sacred shrine where a god or goddess revealed the future through a priest or a priestess
- Olympian gods
- the most important gods of the Greek pantheon, who were believed by the Greeeks to inhabit Mount Olympus; Olympians: Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Aphrodite, Hermes, Demeter, Dionysos, and Ares
- Thessaly
- fertile region in northeastern Greece bounded by mountains, the most famous of which was Mount Olympus, the legendary home of the major gods of the Greek pantheon
- peplos
- the traditional garmet of Greek women; a sleeveless typically ankle-length tunic formed from a single squarish piece of wool/ generally worn pinned at the shoulders and belted
- symposium
- from the word "drinking together"; an after-dinner drinking party attended by elite males; sang poems, posed riddles, played drinking games, and delivered philosophical speeches; entertainment provided by musicians, jugglers, acrobats, and prostitutes
- rituals
- another name for ceremonies or rights
- Terra cotta
- baked clay; commonly used to fabricate such items as roof tiles, figurines, and household vessels
- Socrates
- started off as a sculptor, but his true love was philosophy; method used a question and answer format that led others to discover things for themselves by using their own reason
- oligarchy
- "leadership of the few"; a form of government in which the full exercise of political rights and power in a city-state was limited to the affluent (many were aristocrats; in 5th century BC, Sparta was leading proponent
- Plutarch
- Greek biographer of the first to early second century AD; auther of "Parallel Lives" which compared famous men of classical Greece and republican Rome
- phalanx
- term for the battle formation of Greek hoplites; consisted of tightly packed rows of hoplites, typically 8 ranks deep; suited for fighting on level ground but did not work well in difficult terrain
- tyrant
- term for a new type of monarch that first appeared in various Greek states in the seventh century BC; acquired negative connotations because of the dictatorial manner in which many tyrants rules, very few succedded in establishing dynasties