Classics Exam 2 Flashcards
Hesiod and the Muses
Invokes the muses, which is similar to the beginning of the Odyssey
Then settles into the subject matter
Perses
Hesiod’s brother
Hesiod and Perses are in a dispute
Perses might not have existed at all
Hesiod might have made him up for the sake of the story
Two kinds of strife
Considered goddesses
One is praise-worthy, the other is blame-worthy
One favors fighting (bad strife)
One favors hard work (good kind of strife)
The Human Condition
Zeus made life hard for humans
Kept means of livelihood concealed
Pandora
Means “all gift”; all gods give her as a gift to human men
Made out of earth and water, pretty on the outside, bad on the inside
Prototype for all women
Made as a punishment for humans for Prometheus stealing fire
Epimetheus
Pandora’s husband; name means “afterthought”
Didn’t listen to Prometheus’ warning of not accepting gifts from the gods
Deeply misogynistic myth
Caused grief and sickness and sorrow
Pandora’s Box/Jar
Box is mistranslation
Scattered misery and disease, left hope in the jar
Some see this as a good thing, some see this as a bad thing
Good example of Greek pessimism
Golden Age
Perfect; no men, only women; lived blessed lives, didn’t labor, didn’t grow old; lived in paradise
Silver Age
Made by gods of Olympus; notable worse
Women existed
People lived as babies for 100 years, matured, didn’t live as adults for very long
Still had minds of babies
Didn’t worship the gods, Zeus got mad and wiped them out
Bronze Age
Worse; violent and very strong; ate no grain, just meat
They killed each other off
Age of Heroes
A little better, but still violent; not identified with a metal
Generation of man that fought at Troy
Strong and noble; quality goes down, people get weaker; didn’t have a distinct end point
Iron Age
Even worse; quality has significantly decreased; full of toil and pain; the Age we are in now; Zeus will destroy us when turmoil reigns
The Fable of the Hawk and the Nightingale
Short story that conveys a moral
Moral (for the hawk): only a fool struggles against his superiors
Moral (for the nightingale): accept being in a position of weakness
The Importance of Justice
First great theme in Works and Days
Weak should behave well, but strong should too
Just community contrasted by unjust community
The Importance of Work
Second great theme
Need to be a hard worker in order to have wealth
Work hard to be successful
Summer (1)
Cut wood to make plows
Get 2 oxen and a man around 40 to tend the plow
Autumn
Plow farmland in earnest
If you wait too long, you get a meager harvest
Must pray in order to help grain grow thick and full
Winter
Shouldn’t get lazy
Dress warm
Do work around the house
Spring
Prune vines
Bring in crops
Summer (2)
Rest should be taken
Men are worn out, women are horny
Winnow grain
Story comes full circle (like in the Odyssey)
Marrying
Men: just about 30
Women: wed when they are 5 years a woman
Marry a virgin (the girl next door) to teach her prudence
Men see marriage as a necessary evil
Sappho as Historical Figure
Know next to nothing about her for certain
Maybe an expression of personal opinion, maybe a communal voice rather than an individual voice
Don’t know parents or husband, but she was married and had kids
From lesbos which is the root of the word lesbian
Longing for women in Sappho’s poem
Sappho’s Poetic Output
9 books of poetry; but we have less than 10% of her work; only 1 complete song; the rest are in fragments
Known as a musician and would have performed with a lyre
Emphasis on the lives of women; erotic desire for women
Likely taught young women’s’ choruses; likely developed bonds with her students
Interpreting Sappho’s Fragment 31
Speaking about a women; ‘you’
Words are gendered, so we can tell that the speaker and the ‘you’ are female
Feelings of jealousy as man and women are flirting; physical and emotional responses
Fire and cold imagery; ‘greener than grass’; emotionally worked up; poem is very personal, which elicits feelings of compassion for her suffering
Poem ends abruptly; fragment of the original
Polis
Pl. Poleis; independent community, more or less the size of a city; had autonomy of a state or nation
Translated as ‘city-state’
Totalitarian society, took pride in polis
Cruel political system; mass slavery of fellow Greeks
Dark Age/Iron Age (c. 1150 - c. 800 BCE)
1150 BCE - end of Mycenaean period
Dark Age - palaces fell, economy crashed, population rapidly declined
Archaic Age (c. 800 - c. 490 BCE)
Population increased again
Greek alphabet starts developing along with more trade
‘8th century Renaissance’; Archaic - beginning age (rebirth)
Struggled to provide resources for everyone
Colonialism - moving people out of Greece to the Mediterranean basin
Perioikoi
Translates to ‘dwellers around’; dwelled around Sparta in the surrounding villages
Not slaves, but subject to Sparta’s laws and had to pay tribute to the Spartans
Allowed to keep up normal economic relations
Helots
State-owned slaves, which was unusual
Mostly in Messenia (west of Laconia)
Worked land; each Spartan man allotted a part of land worked by helots
Helots outnumbered Spartans 5:1; repeatedly rebelled which led the Spartans to become more militaristic
Helots meant to free men of all obligations except military service
Lycurgus
Shadowy figure; may or may not have actually existed
Creation of Spartan system is attributed to him
Developed in late 7th and early 6th century BCE
Becoming a Spartan man
Agoge (upbringing) began at birth (govt determined a baby’s viability); infants killed if physically deformed or other things like that
Encouraged to be skilled and courageous in battle
Physically fit; served up to 60 years old
Normal Greek society - learn to read, write, speak, recite Homer
Spartan society - conform and be in the military
Marry at 20
Syssition
Dining group; usually had around 15 members
Foster solidarity among the group; each man required to provide food and drink from the land their helots worked
They came together and sang songs
Spartiates
Full grown male soldiers; elite warrior class
About 9,000
Steadily declined
Numerous wars led to large death tolls
Sparta didn’t allow outsiders, so they couldn’t replenish their numbers
Becoming a Spartan woman
Women married around 18 to a man of around 40
Brought up to become mothers of soldiers
Bear children for the state
Educated, some were literate
Had lots of leisure time bc the helots did all the house labor; so they did things like running, wrestling, throwing the discus and the javelin
They exercised and were well-fed; and were renowned for their beauty
Spartan government
Two kings - 2 family lines of equal standing; highest religious officers
Council of Elders - 30 people; kings + 28 other people; oligarchic
Assembly - all Spartiate men; democratic; voting; met at every full moon
Council of Overseers - men over 60; served for 1 year, couldn’t be reelected; watched over to make sure there was no abuse of power; would examine boys every 10 days in the nude
Who were the Persians?
North of modern-day Iran
Cyrus the Great vanquished the native peoples
Places under their command commonly revolted against Persian overlords; they had to pay tribute to the Persians
Ionian Greeks rebelled, Persians suppressed them
Demanded Athenians subordinate themselves
Athens and Eretria sent aid to Ionian Greeks
Persians took Eretria as payback
The Battle of Marathon (490 BCE)
NE of Athens in Athenian territory; sent 10,000 Hoplite soldiers
Sent a herald to Sparta to ask for help, Sparta declined due to a religious holiday
Persians had 35,000 lightly armed soldiers
Persians lost 6,500 men and Athenians lost 192 men
Persians fled; led to a more solid construction of Athenian identity
Messenger that ran the 26 miles from Marathon back to Athens inspired the modern marathon run (supposedly dropped dead after bringing news of Persian defeat)
Hoplite
Heavily armed foot soldier
Armor:
Shield made of bronze
Grieves for shin protection (basically just shin guards)
Bronze breastplate
Helmet, spear, and sword
Elite warriors; socio-economic elite (had to buy their own armor)
The Battle of Thermopylae (480 BCE)
‘Hot Gates’; pass to get in was very small
300 Spartiates and 7,000 Greek allies led by Leonidas
Persians found a mountain goat path and used that to surround the Greeks
300 Thespians stayed
Greeks were slaughtered; good example of warrior ethos
Went down as a great moment in Spartan history
The Battle of Salamis (480 BCE)
Island; west coast of Athens
Naval battle; Greeks won
Persian allies - Egyptians and Phoenicians
Huge Persian loss; Xerxes retreated to Asia
Athenians in charge of navy
They both took the winter ‘off’ (too cold)
The Battle of Plataea (479 BCE)
SW of Thebes, NW of Athens
Led by a Spartan; largest army the Greeks put together; 40,000 Hoplites and 70,000 light-armed troops
100,000 Persians and their allies
Fierce fighting
Last battle against Persians on Greek soil
Won by Greeks working together; common Greek identity being formed
Shared blood, language, and way of life
Eurymedon Vase
IMAGE ID
Battle of Eurymedon
Told the Persians to ‘get fucked’
Spartan holds his erect penis in his right hand, Persian is bent over and facing the viewer
Depicts humiliation of Persians; Spartans sodomizing Persians; Persians are ‘bottom’
Penetrator = power and dominance
Symbolism of Greek dominance over Persians; led to very discriminatory ideals that still continue today between ‘Western’ peoples and ‘Eastern’ peoples
