Midterm Review Historical Background/ Realia

Question 1

Troy

Answer 1

historical city at the Hellespont, also called Ilion (thus Iliad, the son of Ilion). In Hittite sources, the city appears as Wilusa and is ruled by a king Alexandros (which is an alternative name for the Trojan prince Paris).

Question 2

Heinrich Schliemann

Answer 2

German archaeologist (1822-1890) who excavated Troy between 1871-1890. Under the mound of Hisarlık (Turkish for “fortress”), Schliemann discovered nine ancient cities. In one of them, Troy 2, now dated to 2600-2300 BCE (Early Bronze Age), he discovered what he called “Priam’s Treasure,” a hoard of golden jewelry and table ware. The treasure was displayed in a Berlin museum but disappeared in 1945 at the end of WW2. In 1994, it reemerged at the Pushkin State Museum in Moscow. Schliemann also excavated Agamemnon’s capital, Mycene, where he found golden funeral masks, one of which he termed the Mask of Agamemnon. Because of his excavations, we call the Late Bronze Age civilization in Greece (1800-1100 BCE) the Mycenaean civilization.

Question 3

Lion Gate

Answer 3

the entrance gate of Mycene, decorated with a relief of two lions standing to the left and right of a central column, built around 1250 BCE as part of the so-called Cyclopean walls of the city.

Question 4

Linear B

Answer 4

Late Bronze Age Greek writing on clay tablets. Recording palace inventories and temple gifts, the Linear B tablets offer evidence for the historical Mycenaean civilization that is independent of Homer.

Question 5

Xenia (guest-friendship)

Answer 5

the ancient Greek custom of taking in and hosting strangers without asking for their names at first. At departure, the new, reciprocal relationship is sealed by a gift the host gives the stranger. The xenia relationship is handed down from father to son, e.g., Glaucus and Diomedes exchange their armor on the battlefield rather than fight because their fathers were guest friends.

Question 6

Kleos ( Glory )

Answer 6

the goal after which both Greeks and Trojans strive. Achilles decides he rather wants immortal kleos than spend a long life in comfort and anonymity.

Question 7

Human Sacrifice

Answer 7

normally outlawed in ancient Greek society, but Achilles captures 12 Trojans alive and sacrifices them on the funeral pyre of his friend Patroclus.

Question 8

Ransom

Answer 8

compensation offered by friends or family members for the life of a warrior, to buy a slave’s freedom, or even to have a corpse returned for proper burial.

Question 9

Funeral Games

athletic contests organized as part of the funeral of a major hero. funeral games for Patroclus in Iliad 23, Achilles reconciles with his fellow Greeks, including Agamemnon.

Answer 9

athletic contests organized as part of the funeral of a major hero. At the funeral games for Patroclus in Iliad 23, Achilles reconciles with his fellow Greeks, including Agamemnon.

Question 10

Portent or Sign

Answer 10

the gods often communicate their will to the humans in form of portents or signs such as the crack of thunder Zeus loosens when Nestor prays to him not to let the Trojans kills all the Greeks (book 15), the snake the Greek army at Aulis saw gliding out from under an altar and eating a sparrow and her nine young (Iliad 2), the eagle that has to let go of a struggling snake in its fangs just as the Trojans are trying to conquer the Greeks’ camp (Iliad 12), or the eagle swooping to the right that confirms Ajax’ prediction in Iliad 13 that Troy will fall to rubble before the Trojans will ever take the Greek camp.