Classical Literacy Exam Flashcards

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1
Q

Aegean sea

A

Between Greece and Turkey

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2
Q

Gorgons

A

3 Monsters, including Medusa

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3
Q

Hector

A

Prince of Troy

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4
Q

Adriatic Sea

A

East of Italy

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5
Q

Danaids

A

Supposed to marry there cousins, all but one killed man

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6
Q

Horatius

A

Roman general, defended Pons Sublicius

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7
Q

Ichor

A

Gods’ blood

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8
Q

Niobe

A

Wept for loss of her children

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9
Q

Orion

A

Huntsman w/constellation

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10
Q

Ostia

A

Harbor city of ancient Rome

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11
Q

Palatine hill

A

Hill for palaces

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12
Q

Capitoline Hill

A

Hill for temples

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13
Q

Plebiscite

A

Law that applied to plebians

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14
Q

Rostrum/rostra

A

Oration platform

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15
Q

Tribune

A

Elected office, checked the power of the senate

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16
Q

Zephyr

A

Greek god of West Wind

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17
Q

Actaeon

A

Turned into deer for seeing Artemis naked

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18
Q

Adonis

A

Lover of Aphrodite and Persephone, killed by wild boar

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19
Q

Aeolus

A

Wind god

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20
Q

Amphitrite

A

Sea-goddess, wife of Poseidon

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21
Q

Andromache

A

Hector’s wife

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22
Q

Andromeda

A

Supposed to be sacrificed to sea monster, saved by Perseus

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23
Q

Attica

A

Part of Greece where Athens is

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24
Q

Chimerical

A

Product of unchecked imagination

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25
Q

Concatenation

A

Series of interconnected things or events

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26
Q

Corpus delicti

A

Evidence of a crime

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27
Q

Corrigenda

A

Thing to be corrected

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28
Q

Demosthenes

A

Greatest of Greek orators

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29
Q

Deucalion and Pyrrha

A

Survived the flood for being pious

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30
Q

Errata

A

An error in printing

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31
Q

Fiat

A

Let it be done

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32
Q

1st Triumvirate

A

Caesar, Pompey and Crassus

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33
Q

Gracchi brothers

A

Tribunes who tried to enact land reforms

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34
Q

Hecuba

A

Priam’s wife

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35
Q

Horatii

A

Roman male triplets who won war against 3 Alba Longan triplets

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36
Q

Iustitia omnibus

A

Justice for all

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37
Q

Janus

A

God w/ 2 faces

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38
Q

Leda

A

Swan girl

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39
Q

Lethe

A

River in underworld which causes people to forget everything

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40
Q

Maenad

A

Female followers of Dionysus

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41
Q

Marius

A

Reorganized army, consul 7 times

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42
Q

Mnemosyne

A

Personification of memory, mother of muses

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43
Q

Nolo contendere

A

Plea of no contest

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44
Q

Odium

A

Widespread hatred for a person

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45
Q

Onus probandi

A

Burden of proof

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46
Q

Otiose

A

Serving no practical purpose

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47
Q

Pan and Syrinx

A

Syrinx was a nymph chased by pan and changed herself into cattail reeds. Pan turned her into a panpipe

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48
Q

Phaethon

A

Rode in Helios’ chariot to prove he was his father, died.

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49
Q

Phidippides

A

Runner of 1st marathon

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50
Q

Baucis and Philemon

A

Rewarded for hospitality

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51
Q

Phrixus

A

Helle’s brother

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52
Q

Polyphemus

A

Cyclops

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53
Q

Pythia/Sybil

A

Oracle of Delphi

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54
Q

Saturnine

A

Slow and gloomy

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55
Q

Sine die

A

Without a date for resumption

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56
Q

Sinecure

A

Position offering status and money without work

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57
Q

Stentorian

A

Loud and powerful

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58
Q

Sulla

A

General in social war, dictator

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59
Q

Suum cuique

A

To each his own

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60
Q

Telemachus

A

Odysseus’ son

61
Q

Vademecum

A

Handbook or guide

62
Q

a priori

A

Theoretical, not yet proven by observation

63
Q

Achates

A

Friend of Aeneas

64
Q

ad valorem

A

Tax in proportion to value

65
Q

Aeschylus

A

Greek tragedian, wrote Agamemnon

66
Q

Ajax

A

Greek hero in Illiad

67
Q

Alcibades

A

Side-switching general in Peloponnesian war

68
Q

Annuit coeptis

A

Motto on money, “favor our undertakings”

69
Q

Arete

A

“excellence of any kind”

70
Q

Arma togae cedant

A

Let the arms yield to the toga/let the military yield to diplomacy

71
Q

Arma virumque cano

A

1st line of Aeneid

72
Q

Cato the Elder

A

Senator and historian

73
Q

Ceteris paribus

A

With other conditions remaining the same

74
Q

Cleobis and Biton

A

Life-size statues at Delphi

75
Q

Codex

A

Ancient manuscript in book form

76
Q

De gustibus non disputandum est

A

“In matters of taste their can be no disputes”

77
Q

De Rerum Natura

A

Book by Lucretius about Epicurian philosophy

78
Q

Delian league

A

Association of Greek city-states under leadership of Athens, fought in Persian wars

79
Q

Democritus

A

Formulated atomic theory of universe

80
Q

Dies irae

A

“Day of Wrath” hymn

81
Q

Encomium

A

Speech or writing that praises something

82
Q

Epicureanism

A

Philosophy based on atomic theory, attacked superstition and divine intervention

83
Q

Eris

A

Greek goddess of discord and strife

84
Q

Euripides

A

Wrote Medea

85
Q

Ex cathedra

A

With the full authority of the office (esp. the pope)

86
Q

Exordium

A

Beginning/introduction

87
Q

fl./floruit

A

Period when a historical figure lived or worked

88
Q

flagrante delicto

A

“in blazing offense” criminal was caught in the act

89
Q

Aristotle’s four causes

A

Material, formal, efficient, and final explanations of change/movement

90
Q

Gnothi seauton

A

“know thyself”

91
Q

Hapax legomenon

A

A term of which only one instance or use is recorded

92
Q

Heraclitus

A

Philosopher who believed change was central to the universe

93
Q

infra dignitatem

A

Not appropriate for a person’s social position

94
Q

Ipse dixit

A

Dogmatic or unproven statement

95
Q

Lacuna

A

Unfilled space or interval

96
Q

Litotes

A

Affirmative expressed by the negative of the contrary (eg “You won’t be sorry”)

97
Q

Logos

A

The word of god/appealing to audience w/ logic

98
Q

Lucretia

A

Raped by Tarquinius Superbus

99
Q

Lucretius

A

Author of De Rerum Natura

100
Q

Lyceum

A

Temple dedicated to Apollo, also Aristotle’s school of Philosophy

101
Q

Lycurgus

A

Reformed Spartan society to be more military

102
Q

Maecenas

A

Patron of Horace and Vergil

103
Q

Martial

A

Poet, wrote Epigrams

104
Q

Memento mori

A

Object serving as a reminder of death

105
Q

Messianic ecologue

A

Work by Vergil the freemasons think prophesied Jesus

106
Q

Mimesis

A

Imitation of real world in art and literature

107
Q

Multum in parvo

A

Great deal in a small space

108
Q

Nisus and Euryalus

A

Trojan lovers serving under Aeneas

109
Q

Novus ordo seclorum

A

“New order of the ages” (appears on US seal)

110
Q

Obiter dictum

A

Judge’s incidental expression of opinion, said in passing

111
Q

Palladium

A

Cult image on which the safety of Rome/Troy was supposed to depend

112
Q

Parmenides

A

Eleatic philosopher

113
Q

Pericles

A

Leader during Athenian golden age

114
Q

Peroration

A

Concluding part of oration

115
Q

Philippic

A

Bitter attack or denunciation

116
Q

Philomela and Procne

A

Sisters, Philomena had been raped and had her tongue cut out so she wove a tapestry to tell her story to Procne, who killed her son and served him to her husband, the sisters were turned into birds

117
Q

Pindar

A

Greek lyric poet

118
Q

Pliny the Younger

A

Witnessed the eruption of Vesuvius and survived

119
Q

Polemic

A

Strong attack

120
Q

Preterition

A

Disregarding a matter, omitting something

121
Q

Primus inter pares

A

“first among equals”

122
Q

quod vide

A

Abbreviation to direct a reader to another part of a book or article

123
Q

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes

A

“who will guard the guards themselves”–Juvenal

124
Q

Quintillian

A

Rhetoric teacher, wrote Institutio Oratoria

125
Q

Quo vadis?

A

“Where are you going?” Saint Peter asked Jesus

126
Q

Reductio ad absurdum

A

Proving something by making its denial appear absurd

127
Q

Res gestae

A

“Things done” legal use: start to end period of a felony

128
Q

Sallust

A

Roman historian

129
Q

sc. scilicet

A

“that is to say”

130
Q

Solon

A

One of the 7 wise men of Greece

131
Q

Sophist

A

Paid teacher of philosophy

132
Q

Stet

A

“let it stand” (an instruction telling typesetters to ignore a change)

133
Q

Suetonius

A

Roman historian, wrote “12 Caesars”

134
Q

Tacitus

A

Historian, wrote Annals and Histories

135
Q

Thales

A

1st Greek Philosopher, thought everything came from water

136
Q

The Academy

A

Aka Platonic Academy,, Plato’s school of philosophy in Athens

137
Q

The divided line

A

The line of the psyche is divided into conjecture, belief, thought, and understanding according to Plato

138
Q

The golden mean

A

Aristotle’s idea that there is always a desirable middle between two extremes. Also used as a math/art concept

139
Q

Themistocles

A

Non-aristocratic Athenian politician, part of early democracy

140
Q

Thetis and Peleus

A

Thetis was a nymph and Peleus was a mortal, their son was Achilles

141
Q

Tiresias

A

Blind Seer

142
Q

Ultima Thule

A

A distant place “beyond the borders of the known world”

143
Q

Vae victis

A

“Woe to the vanquished”

144
Q

Verbum sat.

A

A word is enough to a wise man, used to bring something to conclusion

145
Q

Vercingetorix

A

Gallic chieftan

146
Q

viz.

A

Namely

147
Q

Vulgate

A

16th century Catholic latin version of the bible

148
Q

Zeno’s paradoxes

A

Philosophical problems that contradict what we know from physical evidence