| Academy | Famous Athens
school founded by the famous philosophers Plato and
Aristotle. Students would come to the Academy to study with
the famous men. Other great thinkers would come there, too.
The Academy also included a gymnasium. |
| Acropolis | Highest hill
in any Greek city-state. Where many important buildings
were, including government buildings and temples. In Athens,
it was the home of the Parthenon. |
| Aegean Sea | Sea to the
east of Greece proper that separated most of the city-states
from the Asia Minor colonies. Site of many naval battles in
the Persian Wars and the Peloponnesian War. |
| Aeschylus | First great
Greek playwright, who introduced the Second Actor. Before
that, action onstage took place only between the one Actor
and the Chorus, a group of people who filled the audience in
on what was really going on. Aeschylus wrote about 80 plays,
but only seven survive. His most famous work is the
Oresteia, a trilogy that touches on many human
themes, including justice, revenge, duty, family ties.
Aeschylus won several First Prizes at the City Dionysia, the
annual drama Festival in Athens. |
| Alcibiades | He was saved
by and in return saved the life of Socrates. He was also a
Peloponnesian War hero who fought on both sides. He fought
first for Athens, then for Sparta, and finally for Athens
again. His naval skills were legendary. He was ostracized
from Athens for his failures and murdered while he was in
hiding near the end of the war. |
| Alexander the Great | Macedonian
general whose conquests equaled the majority of the known
world. He defeated the great Persian emperor Darius twice,
in humiliating fashion, then took over the Persian Empire.
He was welcomed as a conquering hero in Egypt, which he
ruled by acclimation from his new capital of Alexandria. He
led his troops thousands of miles from him, into the wilds
of India. In the process, he brought Greek culture to the
rest of the world. This was his lasting achievement. He
achieved all this in less than 20 years. In fact, he died at
age 33. |
| Alexandria | Egyptian city
planned, designed, and supervised by Alexander the Great. It
was for a long time the most majestic and famous city in the
ancient world. In its harbor was the Pharos, a lighthouse
that was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Also
in Alexandria was the Great Library, which had thousands of
scrolls' worth of information of all kinds on every
subject. |
| Alphabet | The Greeks
had their own letters for writing, from Alpha to Omega. Many
of these letters are still used today. |
| Aphrodite | Goddess of
love and beauty. Wife of Hephaestus. She is said to have
caused the Trojan War by promising Helen of Troy to Paris,
hero of the Achaeans, in exchange for a golden apple. Among
her children are said to have been Aeneas, a Trojan hero,
and Eros, who made quite a name for himself with his arrows
of love. |
| Apollo | God of the
sun. Patron of truth, archery, music, medicine, and
prophecy. Twin brother of Artemis. He is also known for
being the moving force behind the Oracle at Delphi. He is
the only god to be named the same in both Greek and Roman
mythology. |
| Archimedes | Greek
inventor from Syracuse who was famous for his invention of
the Lever and the Screw, a device that would raise water
from one level to another. He came up with the theory of
buoyancy, as in water. He was also a brilliant mathematician
who came up with many famous theorems. He also invented
weapons that repelled a Roman attack for a good long
time. |
| Architecture | Greek
architecture was noted for its orders: Doric, Ionic, and
Corinthian. Each style was different and served a slightly
different purpose. The purpose was originally to keep the
tall and ornate temples to the gods standing. The result was
a new way of construction. |
| Areopagus | Place on the
Acropolis in Athens where the god of war, Ares, was
acquitted of murder. Called Ares' Hill (Areopagus), it was
later the site of trials and other justice-related matters,
as well as a meeting place for government officials. This
council had the same name as the place. |
| Ares | God of war.
Athens had a temple to him. Surprisingly, it is not known
whether Sparta had a temple to him. He was acquitted of
murder, and the spot where the trial took place was then
called the Areopagus, which became a court and a gathering
place for government officials. |
| Aristarchus | Greek
scientist who calculated the distance from the Earth to the
Moon, using an eclipse as a measuring tool. |
| Aristides | Persian War
general who led the Athenians into battle at Marathon.
During the war, he criticized the naval strategy of
Themistocles, the great naval general, and was
ostracized for it. He returned, however, fought in
the naval battle of Salamis, and commanded the Athenians yet
again in their victory at the battle of Plataea. He was also
responsible for the organization of the Delian
League. |
| Aristophanes | Greek
playwright who wrote comedies. He wrote 40 plays, of which
11 survive. Among his famous plays are Clouds and
Frogs. His plays were satires, which poked fun at
government officials or other important people. His play
Clouds was such a satire on Socrates that people
actually believed that the things the Socrates said in the
play were true. Aristophanes won several First Prizes at the
City Dionysia, the annual drama Festival in Athens. |
| Aristotle | Greek
philosopher whose famous teacher was Plato. The two of them
founded the famous Academy in Athens. Aristotle wrote about
nearly every subject, not just philosophy. He wrote about
ethics, law, nature, astronomy, chemistry, physics,
mathematics, and many other subjects. He was the tutor of
Alexander the Great. |
| Artemis | Goddess of
the moon and the hunt. Guardian of cities, young animals,
and women. Twin sister of Apollo. Her temple at Ephesus was
one of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World. |
| Athena | Goddess of
wisdom. Daughter of Zeus. Patron of household crafts. City
god of Athens. Among her many gifts to her namesake
city-state was an olive tree. |
| Athens | Most famous
of all the city-states of ancient Greece. Birthplace of
democracy and, at the same time, home to several tyrants.
Home to great philosophers and the Academy. Home to the
Festival, an annual dramatic showcase. Home to giant fleet,
which helped defeat Persia. Rivalry with Sparta led to
Peloponnesian War, which ended in a Spartan victory. Athens
was home to the great philosopher Socrates. His pupil Plato
founded his Academy near Athens, and Plato's pupil Aristotle
founded his Lyceum nearby as well. Athens was also home to
historians, scientists, mathematicians, and other great
thinkers. |
| Cleisthenes | Famous archon
who instituted major reforms that led to Athenian Democracy.
One of his reforms was that any free man living in Athens or
the surrounding area was a citizen. Before that, in order to
be a citizen, a man had to be born in Athens to parents who
were born in Athens. Cleisthenes also instituted the Council
of Five Hundreds, a representative body charged with
evaluating government proposals. |
| Comedy | Greek form of
play that was basically either farce (physical humor like
people falling down) or satire (poking fun at important
people). The most famous early comedy writer was
Aristophanes. |
| Corinth | City-state
that saw its share of cultural achievements and wars. It was
situated between Athens and Sparta and so saw the brunt of
action between those two. Corinthian troops fought in both
the Persian Wars and the Peloponnesian Wars. In the latter,
they fought against Athens. Corinth also gave its name to
the third and most ornate style of column, the Corinthian
column. Colonists from Corinth also founded the city-state
of Syracuse, far to the west on the island of Sicily. |
| Crete | Island that
spawned the Minoan civilization, the first great
civilization in the Aegean world. One of the more famous
Minoan kings was Minos, whose palace at Knossos was a wonder
of architecture. As the ancient Greeks became more powerful,
they absorbed the Minoan civilization into their own. |
| Cyrus | Founder of
Persian Empire. He did this by conquering his neighbors,
including the Lydians, Parthians, and Medes. He solidified
his power by naming his rivals satraps, or sub-kings,
each of which ruled one province in Cyrus's name. He was
succeeded by emperors who wanted to conquer Greece, among
them Xerxes the Great and Darius the Great. |
| Darius | One of three
Persian emperors. The first was known as Darius the Great.
He it was who invaded Greece in the first Persian War. The
Greek victory at Marathon ended his hopes of a quick
victory. Darius II played a part in the defeat of Athens in
the Peloponnesian War by aiding Sparta both openly and
secretly. Darius III is the one who was defeated and
conquered by Alexander the Great. |
| Delian League | Organization
of island city-states and Asia Minor colonies formed after
the Persian Wars to protect against future Persian
invasions. Headquarters was in Delos, an island colony in
the Aegean Sea. Athens eventually took over the Delian
League and used it to further its ambitions for empire. The
result was unrest and, eventually war–the Peloponnesian
War. |
| Delphi | Famous Greek
city-state known for its Oracle and Temple of Apollo. The
head priestess was called Pythia, and the Pythian Games
(something like the Olympic Games) took place in Delphi
every four years. Delphi was a focal point in the Persian
Wars because of its location. |
| Demeter | Goddess of
crops. Giver of grain and fruit. As the provider of
agriculture, she was one of the Greeks' most important
goddesses. |
| Democracy | Government
that professed to be representative. Began in Athens.
Citizens of Athens could vote for their leaders and on other
government proposals. But not everyone was a citizen. Also
included principle of ostracism, which allowed
citizens to vote to expel a person from Athens. |
| Demosthenes | Great speaker
who made a name for himself by speaking out against things
and people, among them Philip and Alexander. As a youth, he
had a speech impediment. He practiced his orations by
speaking with pebbles in his mouth and by shouting to be
heard over the ocean waves. |
| Dionysus | God of
fertility, joyous life, and wild things. He is also said to
have given King Midas the "golden touch." |
| Draco | Famous archon
whose set of laws were harsh and unforgiving. The penalty
for many offenses was death. Such harsh laws were said to be
"draconian," a word that exists to this today. Still, his
achievement was putting all the laws in place and writing
them down, making them known to everyone. And some of those
harsh laws were aimed to curb the powers of tyrants. |
| Eratosthenes | Greek
mathematician and scientist who did many incredible things.
Among them was his calculation of the circumference of the
Earth. He also invented a helpful method of calculating
prime numbers. And he did all this without a calculator! It
was the second century B.C., after all. He was also a
geographer who drew a famous world map, and he was for a
time the librarian at the famous Library of
Alexandria. |
| Euclid | Greek
mathematician who is called the "father of geometry." His
famous book Elements lays out the foundation of much
of what we today call Euclidean geometry. He studied at
Plato's Academy in Athens and later taught at
Alexandria. |
| Euripides | Third great
Greek playwright. He wrote about 90 plays, of which 18
survive. He introduced more real-sounding characters,
complete with psychological and thoughtful reasons for their
actions. Among his famous plays are Medea,
Hippolytus, and The Trojan Women. Euripides won
several First Prizes at the City Dionysia, the annual drama
Festival in Athens. |
