06 Greece's Golden and Hellenistic Ages

Question 1

Hellenistic culture

Answer 1

culture founded on Greek ideas and features from other cultures of the Mediterranean region

Question 2

Myron

Answer 2

Greek sculptor of The Discus Thrower (c. 450 BC)

Question 3

Phidias

Answer 3

Greek sculptor who created statues of Athena in the Parthenon and Zeus at the Temple of Olympia (c. 450 BC)

Question 4

Praxiteles

Answer 4

Greek sculptor whose statues expressed Greek admiration for beauty of the human body (e.g. Hermes Carrying the Infant Dionysus; c. 350 BC)

Question 5

Athens

Answer 5

capital and largest city in Greece; ancient polis

Question 6

philosopher

Answer 6

literally “lover of wisdom”; one who studies philosophy

Question 7

philosophy

Answer 7

study of the most fundamental questions of reality and human existence

Question 8

dramas

Answer 8

plays containing action or dialogue and usually involving conflict and emotion

Question 9

tragedies

Answer 9

form of Greek drama that shows the major character struggling against fate

Question 10

hubris

Answer 10

excessive pride in oneself or one’s accomplishments, often seen in heroes in Greek drama

Question 11

comedies

Answer 11

early Greek plays that mocked ideas and people

Question 12

Socrates

Answer 12

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)

Question 13

Plato

Answer 13

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)

Question 14

Aristotle

Answer 14

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)

Question 15

Pythagoras

Answer 15

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)

Question 16

Democritus

Answer 16

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)

Question 17

Hippocrates

Answer 17

Greek physician; traditionally regarded as the father of medicine (c. 400 BC)

Question 18

Thucydides

Answer 18

Greek historian famous for his History of the Peloponnesian War; fought in the conflict on the Athenian side (c. 425 BC)

Question 19

Aeschylus

Answer 19

Greek writer of tragedies about relationships between gods and people (e.g. Agamemnon, Choephoroe, and Eumenides; c. 500 BC)

Question 20

Sophocles

Answer 20

Greek writer of tragedies that defended traditional values (e.g. Antigone and Oedipus Rex; c. 450 BC)

Question 21

Euripides

Answer 21

Greek writer of tragedies questioning old beliefs and ideas (e.g. Medea, Hippolytus, Electra, Trojan Women, and Bacchae; c. 450 BC)

Question 22

Aristophanes

Answer 22

Greek writer of comedies (e.g. Lysistrata, The Birds, and The Frogs; c. 400 BC)

Question 23

infantry

Answer 23

group of soldiers trained and equipped to fight on foot

Question 24

phalanx

Answer 24

military formation composed of rows of soldiers standing shoulder to shoulder and equipped with long spears

Question 25

orators

Answer 25

public speakers

Question 26

Philip II of Macedon

Answer 26

father of Alexander the Great; reigned 359–336; unified the Greek city-states and expanded ancient Macedonia

Question 27

Demosthenes

Answer 27

Athenian orator and statesman; known for his political speeches on the need to resist the aggressive tendencies of Philip II of Macedon

Question 28

Alexander the Great

Answer 28

king of Macedon 336–323 BC; conquered Persia, Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia, Bactria, and the Punjab; founded the city of Alexandria in Egypt

Question 29

Syria

Answer 29

southwest Asian country between the Mediterranean Sea and Iraq

Question 30

Indus River

Answer 30

major river in Pakistan; site of earliest civilizations

Question 31

Diogenes

Answer 31

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

Question 32

Pyrrho

Answer 32

Greek philosopher (c. 300 BC); regarded as the founder of skepticism; argued that happiness comes from suspending judgment because certainty of knowledge is impossible

Question 33

Zeno

Answer 33

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

Question 34

Epicurus

Answer 34

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

Question 35

Euclid

Answer 35

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

Question 36

Archimedes

Answer 36

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

Question 37

Aristarchus

Answer 37

Greek astronomer (c. 250 BC); aware of the rotation of the earth around the sun and so was able to account for the seasons

Question 38

Hipparchus

Answer 38

Greek astronomer and geographer (c. 150 BC); calculated eclipses of the Sun and moon

Question 39

Eratosthenes

Answer 39

Greek scholar, geographer, and astronomer (c. 250 BC); first systematic geographer of antiquity; accurately calculated the circumference of the earth

Question 40

Herodotus

Answer 40

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)