06 Greece's Golden and Hellenistic Ages Flashcards
Hellenistic culture
culture founded on Greek ideas and features from other cultures of the Mediterranean region
Myron
Greek sculptor of The Discus Thrower (c. 450 BC)
Phidias
Greek sculptor who created statues of Athena in the Parthenon and Zeus at the Temple of Olympia (c. 450 BC)
Praxiteles
Greek sculptor whose statues expressed Greek admiration for beauty of the human body (e.g. Hermes Carrying the Infant Dionysus; c. 350 BC)
Athens
capital and largest city in Greece; ancient polis
philosopher
literally “lover of wisdom”; one who studies philosophy
philosophy
study of the most fundamental questions of reality and human existence
dramas
plays containing action or dialogue and usually involving conflict and emotion
tragedies
form of Greek drama that shows the major character struggling against fate
hubris
excessive pride in oneself or one’s accomplishments, often seen in heroes in Greek drama
comedies
early Greek plays that mocked ideas and people
Socrates
Greek philosopher who wanted people to think for themselves; engaged in dialogue with others in an attempt to reach understanding and ethical concepts by exposing and dispelling error; charged with corrupting the youth and sentenced to suicide (c. 450 BC)
Plato
Greek philosopher who applied Socrates’ ideas to politics and society; founded the Academy in Athens; his theory of “ideas” or “forms” contrasts abstract entities or universals with their objects or particulars in the material world (c. 400 BC)
Aristotle
Greek philosopher and scientist; founded a school (the Lyceum) outside Athens; developed a process of organizing facts that is basic to modern scientific thinking (c. 350 BC)
Pythagoras
Greek philosopher and mathematician who sought to interpret the entire physical world in terms of numbers and founded their systematic and mystical study (c. 550 BC)
Democritus
Greek philosopher who developed atomic theory–the idea that the entire universe is made of tiny particles of matter, which he called atoms (c. 400 BC)
Hippocrates
Greek physician; traditionally regarded as the father of medicine (c. 400 BC)
Thucydides
Greek historian famous for his History of the Peloponnesian War; fought in the conflict on the Athenian side (c. 425 BC)
Aeschylus
Greek writer of tragedies about relationships between gods and people (e.g. Agamemnon, Choephoroe, and Eumenides; c. 500 BC)
Sophocles
Greek writer of tragedies that defended traditional values (e.g. Antigone and Oedipus Rex; c. 450 BC)
Euripides
Greek writer of tragedies questioning old beliefs and ideas (e.g. Medea, Hippolytus, Electra, Trojan Women, and Bacchae; c. 450 BC)
Aristophanes
Greek writer of comedies (e.g. Lysistrata, The Birds, and The Frogs; c. 400 BC)
infantry
group of soldiers trained and equipped to fight on foot
phalanx
military formation composed of rows of soldiers standing shoulder to shoulder and equipped with long spears
orators
public speakers
Philip II of Macedon
father of Alexander the Great; reigned 359–336; unified the Greek city-states and expanded ancient Macedonia
Demosthenes
Athenian orator and statesman; known for his political speeches on the need to resist the aggressive tendencies of Philip II of Macedon
Alexander the Great
king of Macedon 336–323 BC; conquered Persia, Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia, Bactria, and the Punjab; founded the city of Alexandria in Egypt
Syria
southwest Asian country between the Mediterranean Sea and Iraq
Indus River
major river in Pakistan; site of earliest civilizations
Diogenes
Greek philosopher (c. 350 BC); the most noted of the Cynics; he emphasized self-sufficiency and the need for natural, uninhibited behavior, regardless of social conventions
Pyrrho
Greek philosopher (c. 300 BC); regarded as the founder of skepticism; argued that happiness comes from suspending judgment because certainty of knowledge is impossible
Zeno
Greek philosopher (c. 300 BC); founder of Stoicism: virtue, the highest good, is based on knowledge, and that the wise live in harmony with the divine Reason (also identified with Fate and Providence) that governs nature, and are indifferent to fortune, pleasure, and pain
Epicurus
Greek philosopher (c. 300 BC); rejected determinism and advocated hedonism (pleasure as the highest good), but of a restrained kind: mental pleasure was regarded more highly than physical, and the ultimate pleasure was held to be freedom from anxiety and mental pain, especially that arising from needless fear of death and of the gods
Euclid
Greek mathematician (c. 300 BC); his Elements of Geometry, which covered plane geometry, the theory of numbers, irrationals, and solid geometry, was the standard work until other kinds of geometry were discovered in the 19th century
Archimedes
Greek mathematician and inventor (c. 250 BC); his discoveries include the ratio of the radius of a circle to its circumference and formulas for the surface area and volume of a sphere and of a cylinder
Aristarchus
Greek astronomer (c. 250 BC); aware of the rotation of the earth around the sun and so was able to account for the seasons
Hipparchus
Greek astronomer and geographer (c. 150 BC); calculated eclipses of the Sun and moon
Eratosthenes
Greek scholar, geographer, and astronomer (c. 250 BC); first systematic geographer of antiquity; accurately calculated the circumference of the earth
Herodotus
the “Father of History”; the first historian to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent, and arrange them in a well-constructed and vivid narrative (c. 500 BC)
