Lecture 2

Question 1

Achaeans

Answer 1

Virtually an equivalent term for the Mycenaean Greeks

Question 2

Alice Kober

Answer 2

American classicist known for her work on the decipherment of Linear B

Question 3

Aoidos

Answer 3

Greek word referring to a Classical Greek singer, also refers to a skilled oral epic poet

Question 4

Archaic Period

Answer 4

From 800 to 480 BCE, notable events are the invention of the Green alphabet, Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, Hesiod’s Theogeny

Question 5

Atlantis

Answer 5

Platonic legend of a great island culture that vanished into the sea

Question 6

Carl Blegen

Answer 6

Archaeologist who discovered the Mycenaean palace at Pylos, as well as hundreds of Linear B tablets

Question 7

Cnossus

Answer 7

The centre of Minoan civilization, located on the island of Crete

Question 8

Cyclades

Answer 8

The islands that encircle Delos

Question 9

Cyclopean

Answer 9

A primitive building style that uses immense, irregular, stone blocks held together by their sheer weight without mortar, often used to describe the walls surrounding Mycenaean palaces

Question 10

Hittite

Answer 10

Empire located in the central/eastern region of modern Turkey (Anatolia)

Question 11

Labyrinth

Answer 11

Originally meaning “home of the double ax”, also refers to the complex plan for the palace at Cnossus, basis for the legend of Theseus and the Minotaur

Question 12

Labrys

Answer 12

Double ax

Question 13

Linear B

Answer 13

Linear script found on clay tablets in Pylos and Thebes, deciphered in the 1950s

Question 14

Megaron

Answer 14

Central room with an open hearth, key feature of Mycenaean architecture (Pylos), not found in Minoan palaces

Question 15

Phoenician

Answer 15

Of the ancient thalassocratic civilization Phoenicia, located in modern Lebanon

Question 16

Pylos

Answer 16

Kingdom of Nestor and Neleus on the west coast of the Peloponnesus

Question 17

Thalassocracy

Answer 17

Sea-power

Question 18

Thera

Answer 18

Island modernly known as Santorini, 70 miles northwest of Crete, site of a large volcanic eruption