Midterm

Question 1

Book of the Dead

Answer 1

Egyptian book of spells for the funerary rites to allow the soul to pass on through the afterlife

Question 2

Code of Hammurabi

Answer 2

Babylonian list of laws in Mesopotamia

Question 3

Story of Gilgamesh

Answer 3

epic poem on king of Uruk from ancient Mesopotamia that is often regarded as the earliest surviving great work of literature

Question 4

Hymn of Enheduana

Answer 4

seven hymns are among the forty-two “Sumerian Temple Hymns” attributed to the high priestess Enheduanna

Question 5

Phoenicia

Answer 5

created first alphabetical writing

Question 6

Hebrews

Answer 6

language of Israelites

Question 7

Persia

Answer 7

first civilization empire

Question 8

Darius the Great of Persia

Answer 8

established the First Tax System, Customs Duties, Official Records and The Legal Code, in the world level.

Question 9

Mandate of Heaven

Answer 9

theory that heaven gives the king a mandate to rule as long as he rules in the interests of the people, center of Chinese political ideology from the early Zhou period on

Question 10

Taotie

Answer 10

a stylized animal face seen in Chinese bronzes, a monster

Question 11

Warring states

Answer 11

the period of Chinese history when states fought each other and one state after another was destroyed. States: Qin, Zhao, Yan, Wei, Qi, Han, Chu

Question 12

Zhou

Answer 12

dynasty that rose against the shang and defeated them in battle, period of transmitted texts

Question 13

Shang

Answer 13

king was the high priest, society was marked by sharp status distinctions, farmers were obligated to work for their lords and their lives were similar to their Neolithic period ancestors

Question 14

Neolithic

Answer 14

humans obtained food by raising crops and animals and continued to use tools of stone, bone, and wood.

Question 15

The book of documents

Answer 15

one of the earliest Chinese books containing documents, speeches, and historical accounts about early Zhou rule

Question 16

The songs of chu

Answer 16

a collection of fantastical poems from the Zhou Dynasty full of images of elusive deities and shamans who can fly through the spirit world;

Question 17

The art of war

Answer 17

book by Sun Wu in which he describes the ideal general as a master of maneuver, illusion, and deception.

Question 18

The analects

Answer 18

sayings by Confucius and his followers concerning the way to govern well

Question 19

Crossbow

Answer 19

a powerful mechanical bow developed during the warring states period

Question 20

Yin and Yang

Answer 20

a concept of complementary poles, one of which represents the feminine, dark, and receptive, and he other the masculine, bright, and assertive

Question 21

Legalism

Answer 21

political theorists emphasized the need for rigorous laws and laid the basis for China’s later bureaucratic government

Question 22

Dao

Answer 22

school of philosophy theorizing that regulations do more harm than good and that people are best left in a state of ignorance with minimal government; The Way, a term used by Daoists to refer to the natural order and by Confucians to refer to refer to the moral order

Question 23

Confucianism

Answer 23

focus on zen, the ultimate virtue of perfect goodness, benevolence, humanity, human heartedness, and nobility; school of philosophy focusing on interpersonal relationships and encourages people to properly honor their social superiors and support those dependent on them

Question 24

Zhuangzi

Answer 24

author of a book of the same name filled with parables, flights of fancy, and fictional encounters between historical figures, including Confucius and his disciples

Question 25

Writing

Answer 25

logographic system of writing in which each word is represented by a single symbol, such as the Chinese script

Question 26

Soil

Answer 26

drought resistant crops grown in the north and rice grown in the wet lands of the Yangzi River

Question 27

Loess

Answer 27

soil deposited by wind; it is fertile and easy to work

Question 28

Confucius

Answer 28

an earnest advocate of gentlemanly conduct, minimized importance of class distinctions and opened a way for intelligent and talented people to rise in the social scale

Question 29

Xunzi

Answer 29

follower of Confucius; argued that people are born selfish and that only through education and ritual do they learn to put moral principle above their own interest.

Question 30

Sun Wu

Answer 30

author of The Art of War. He argued that heroism is a useless virtue that leads to needless deaths. Discipline, however, is essential, and he insisted that the entire army had to be trained to follow the orders of its commanders without questioning them

Question 31

Laozi

Answer 31

the author of a book of the same name, with a recurrent theme of mystical superiority of yielding over assertion and silence over words ; the people would be better off if they knew less, gave up tools, renounced writing, stopped envying their neighbors, and lost their desire to travel or engage in war

Question 32

Mencius

Answer 32

successor of Confucius; proposed concrete political and financial measures to ease tax burdens and improve people’s lots; believed that human nature is fundamentally good, as everyone is born with the capacity to recognize what is right and act on it

Question 33

Aeschylus

Answer 33

first great tragic poet

Question 34

Agrippa

Answer 34

Roman general and close friend of Octavian (Augustus)

Question 35

Alexander the Great

Answer 35

King of Macedon ; greatest military leader the world has ever known. His empire spread from Gibraltar to the Punjab, and he made Greek the lingua franca of his world; promoted absolute monarchy to the persian world

Question 36

Aristophanes

Answer 36

only representative of Old Comedy whose work we have in complete form; wrote political satire and his humor is often coarse

Question 37

Ashoka

Answer 37

a Hindu convert to Buddhism, was king of the Mauryan Dynasty in India; Following bloody wars of conquest, when Ashoka was considered cruel, he changed: He eschewed violence, promoted tolerance, and the moral welfare of his people.

Question 38

Augustus (Octavian)

Answer 38

grand-nephew and primary heir of Julius Caesar; He dealt with the assassins of his father and the other Roman power contenders, and made himself the one-man head of Rome

Question 39

Ch’in - The First Emperor

Answer 39

King Ying Zheng unified the warring states of China and became the First Emperor or Emperor Ch’in (Qin)

Question 40

Cleopatra

Answer 40

last pharaoh of Egypt to rule during the Hellenistic era

Question 41

Constantine the Great

Answer 41

inning the battle at the Milvian Bridge, reuniting the Roman Empire under one emperor (Constantine himself), winning major battles in Europe, legalizing Christianity, and establishing a new eastern capital of Rome at the city, Nova Roma, formerly Byzantium, that was to be named Constantinople

Question 42

Cyrus the Great

Answer 42

is the first ruler of the Achaemenids; he conquered Babylonia, becoming ruler of Mesopotamia and the eastern Mediterranean to Palestine. He ended the period of exile for the Hebrews, allowing them back to Israel to rebuild the Temple, and was called the Messiah by Deutero-Isaiah

Question 43

Darius the Great

Answer 43

successor of the founder of the Achaemenid Dynasty; united and improved the new empire, by irrigating, building roads, including the Royal Road, a canal, and refining the governmental system known as satrapies

Question 44

Euripides

Answer 44

third of the three great Greek tragic poets

Question 45

Hammurabi

Answer 45

Babylonian king known for the Code of Hammurabi;

Question 46

Hannibal

Answer 46

He subdued the tribes of Spain and then set about to attack Rome in the Second Punic War

Question 47

Hatshepsut

Answer 47

a long-ruling regent and female pharaoh of Egypt during New Kingdom

Question 48

Homer

Answer 48

father of poets in the Greco-Roman tradition; wrote Odyssey and Illiad

Question 49

Imhotep

Answer 49

Egyptian architect and physician; step pyramid at Saqqara is thought to have been designed by Imhotep for 3rd Dynasty Pharaoh Djoser (Zoser)

Question 50

Jesus

Answer 50

central figure of Christianity; For believers, he is the Messiah; For many non-believers, Jesus is a source of wisdom

Question 51

Julius Caesar

Answer 51

He formed the Triumvirate, enjoyed military victories in Gaul, became dictator for life, and started a civil war. When Julius Caesar was assassinated, his death set the Roman world in turmoil; set in motion the creation of the Roman empire

Question 52

Moses

Answer 52

early leader of the Hebrews and probably the most important figure in Judaism

Question 53

Ovid

Answer 53

prolific Roman poet whose writing influenced Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dante, and Milton

Question 54

Sappho of Lesbos

Answer 54

Sappho wrote moving lyric poetry, odes to the goddesses, especially Aphrodite (the subject of Sappho’s complete surviving ode), and love poetry, including the wedding genre of epithalamia, using vernacular and epic vocabulary. There is a poetic meter named for her (Sapphic)

Question 55

Siddhartha Gautama

Answer 55

spiritual teacher of enlightenment who acquired hundreds of followers in India and founded Buddhism

Question 56

Solon

Answer 56

was elected eponymous archon ; He had to help the poor while not alienating the increasingly wealthy landowners and aristocracy. Because of his reform compromises and other legislation, posterity refers to him as Solon the lawgiver

Question 57

Sophocles

Answer 57

the second of the great tragic poets, wrote over 100 tragedies

Question 58

Virgil

Answer 58

wrote an epic masterpiece, the Aeneid, for the glory of Rome and especially Augustus

Question 59

Zoroaster

Answer 59

saw the world as a struggle between truth and lie, making the religion he founded, Zoroastrianism, a dualistic religion. Ahura Mazda, the uncreated creator God is truth. Zoroaster also taught that there is free will.