Chapters 1-6 Flashcards
Divine Myth
Stories in which supernatural beings are the main actors.
Legend
Stories of the great deeds of human heroes or heroines.
Folktale
Stories whose actors are ordinary people or animals.
Etiological tale
A story that explains the causes tat brought the world into existence
Folktale types
Some are named after a famous example “Cinderella type.” They are made up a smaller elements called folktale motifs. a Constellation of motifs.
Folktale Motifs
The smaller parts of which folktale types are made out of. i.e. a “Cinderella type” motif would be “abused young sister.”
Boeotia
The plain in which the principle settlement in ancient times as the city of Thebes.
Attica
Southeast of Boeotia, with the capital of Athens
Peloponnesus
Peninsula south of Attica, connected to the mainland by a thread of land called Isthmus.
Laconia
Also called Lacedaemon, it is the territory around Sparta
Euboea
East of the mainland on several smaller islands, and in Thessaly. Under high pressure workable stone was used by the Greeks for sculpture.
Aegean Sea
Played a central role in the life of ancient Greeks since most of them lived near the sea and fished from there.
Cyclades
Placed in a rough circle around the tiny central island of Delos, which is sacred to Apollo and Artemis.
Indo-Europeans
Homeland was located in in central Asia. The people later called Greeks belonged to their cultural and linguistic group.
Late Bronze Age
The age that most spectacular ruins and written document survive
Mycenaean Age
Named for the enormous stone citadel of Mycenae in the Peloponneus. Time when powerful kings ruled Greeks.
Achaeans
A word Homer uses to describe the men who attacked Troy.
Linear B
The Greek non alphabetic script.
Dark Age
Attributed to the destruction of the Mycenaean world by the invasion of Greek-speaking peoples called the Dorians.
Ionia
Refugees from the Peloponnesus who took possession of the central islands of the Aegean and the central sector of the west coast of Asia Minor.
Archaic Period
The period of political and cultural revival that began with the invention of the alphabetic marks the beginning of this new era.
Polis
The politically independent city-state.
Classical Period
Also known as the Golden Age of Greece. Saw many of the most influential thinkers, artists , and politicians who ever lived.
Peloponnesian War
The war between the Spartans and the Persians
Hellenistic Period
From 323 BC, when Alexander the Great died, we date the Hellenistic Period of Greek History. After his death, the empire quickly split up into separate kingdoms, but Greek Culture became the world culture.
Pederasty
The practice of isolating the male sex from the female sex so men in their twenties gathered around the exercise ground to admire the prepubescent boys and to court them with gifts and poetry.
Hoplites
Heavily armed men who conducted warfare on open plains.
Parthenos
The period between first menstruation and marriage. During this time the girl was thought to be wild and dangerous, like the goddess Artemis.
Miasma
A time of enormous pollution after childbirth because of the blood and other fluids.
Narcissus
The youth who had tremendous good looks. Once he caught his reflection. His body was changed into a flower. Created the term narcissism.
Roman Period
Dated from 30 BC when Egypt fell into Roman hands.
Etruscans
Like the Greeks, they resided in independent city-states. They have an unknown origin and spoke a language different than both Latin and Greek.
Potnia Theron
Figure of Artemis, whose role in Greek religion was to promote the abundance of game.
Mesopotamia
The “land between the rivers” which occupies the region of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in what is today Iraq. The Greek myth of the origin o the present world order in a battler of the gods was Mesopotamian in nature.
Summerians
Unknown racial stock, spoke a language unrelated to any other known language.
An
“Sky” the god of infinite expanse of the dome above us.
