Two small cities in One small land

Question 1

How was Ancient Greece described?

Answer 1

Greece was a country of barren mountain ranges and stony fields.

Question 2

Did Greece’s Cities have anything in common?

Answer 2

Greece had no one king or administration in common. Instead, each city was a kingdom in itself.

Question 3

Who was the Delphic Oracle?

Answer 3

They had a priestess—whom they called Pythia–sit over the fissure on a three-legged stool, while other priests interpreted her babble as predictions of the future.

Question 4

What role did the Delphic Oracle play in society.

Answer 4

The shrine was known as the Delphic Oracle and at difficult moments of their lives Greeks from everywhere made pilgrimages to Delphi to consult the god Apollo.

Question 5

Did they ever get a straightforward answer from the oracle?

Answer 5

The answer they received was often far from clear, and could be understood in a variety of ways. And in fact we still say that vague or enigmatic answer is ’oracular’

Question 6

Who were the Spartans?

Answer 6

The Spartans are from Sparta and are descendants from the Dorians.

Question 7

Who was the Lawgiver of the Spartans?

Answer 7

Lycurgus

Question 8

Who was Pericles?

Answer 8

Athenian statesman largely responsible for the full development, in the later 5th century BCE, of both the Athenian democracy and the Athenian empire.

Question 9

What did the nobles who ruled Athens do?

Answer 9

The nobles who once ruled Athens imposed harsh laws drawn up by an Athenian named Draco.

Question 10

What god were the Olympics held for?

Answer 10

Zeus

Question 11

When did Solon’s laws get introduced?

Answer 11

594 BC, at the time of Nebuchadnezzar

Question 12

What sports were people able to compete in the for the Olympics

Answer 12

People could run, throw the discus and the javelin, fight hand to hand, and race chariots.

Question 13

What was the prize for the winners of the Olympics.

Answer 13

The prize was no more than a simple garland made from sprigs of wild olive, but what fame for winners.

Question 14

What kind of fame did the victors have?

Answer 14

The greatest poets sang their praises, the greatest sculptors carved statues to stand forever in Olympia.

Question 15

What kind of statues were carved of the winners?

Answer 15

They were shown in their chariots, throwing discus, or rubbing oil onto their bodies before the fight. Victory statues like these can still be seen today—there may even be one in your local museum.

Question 16

What would happen if you inhaled the vapor from the fissure in the ground.

Answer 16

If anyone inhaled it, it literally clouded their mind. It was as if they were drunk or delirious, and nothing they said made any sense.

Question 17

What was the Sanctuary that belonged to the God Apollo?

Answer 17

As sometimes happens in volcanic regions, there was a fissure in the ground from which vapor was issued.

Question 17

What did people say about what was said when people inhaled the vapor?

Answer 17

The very meaninglessness of these utterances seemed deeply mysterious to the Greeks’ who said that ‘the god himself speaks through a mortal mouth.

Question 18

When did the Dorians arrive in Greece?

Answer 18

Around 1100 BC

Question 19

What was a tyrant?

Answer 19

individual noblemen curried favor with the people to win their votes and then seized power.

Question 20

Did the Athenians treat Miltiades and Themistocles with gratitude?

Answer 20

The same free people of Athens who defeated the Persians later treated Miltiades and Themistocles with just such ingratitude.

Question 21

Who was Pericles?

Answer 21

But there was one politician who avoided this fate. His name was Pericles.

Question 22

How did Pericles stay ruling?

Answer 22

When he spoke in the Assembly, the Athenians always believed that it was they who had made the decisions, whereas in fact it was Pericles, Who had made up his mind long before. This wasn’t because he held any special office or had any particular power–he was simply the wisest and the most intelligent.

Question 23

When was Pericles the sole ruler of Athens?

Answer 23

He gradually worked his way up until, by 444 BC–a number as beautiful as the time it represents–he was, in effect, the city’s sole ruler.

Question 24

What was Pericles’ main concern?

Answer 24

His chief concern was that Athens should maintain its power at sea, and this he achieved through alliances with other Ionian cities who paid Athens for its protection. In this way the Athenians grew rich and could at last afford to make use of their great gifts.