| A | B |
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| Hellenistic Culture | rooted in rise to power of Macedon, a Greek community in the north of Greece.† Macedonian armies conquered Greece and the Persian Empire in the space of two generations. |
| Philosopher | meaning lover of wisdom? The first greek philosopher was thales of Miletus, a city in Ionia on the coast of western turkey in present day |
| Philosophy | the study of of the most fundemental wuestions of reality and human existance |
| Dramas | or plays contianing dialogue and usually involving conflict and emotion |
| Tragedies | the main caracter struggled against fate |
| Hubris | excessive pride in themselves or their accomplishments |
| Comedies | mocked ideas and people |
| Infantry | a group of soilders trained and equiooed to fight on foot |
| Phalanx | consisted of rows of soilders standing shoulder to shoulder and equipped with pikes as long as 21 feet |
| Orators | or public speakers |
| Plato | Greek philosopher. A follower of Socrates, he presented his ideas through dramatic dialogues, in the most celebrated of which (The Republic) the interlocutors advocate a utopian society ruled by philosophers trained in Platonic metaphysics. |
| Aristotle | Greek philosopher. A pupil of Plato, the tutor of Alexander the Great, and the author of works on logic, metaphysics, ethics, natural sciences, politics, and poetics, he profoundly influenced Western thought. |
| Pythagoras | Greek philosopher who founded a school in southern Italy that sought to discover the mathematical principles of reality through the study of musical harmony and geometry. The Pythagorean theorem is ascribed to him. |
| Socrates | Greek philosopher whose indefatigable search for ethical knowledge challenged conventional mores and led to his trial and execution on charges of impiety and corrupting the youth. Although Socrates wrote nothing, his method of question and answer is captured in the dialogues of Plato, his greatest pupil. |
| Democritus | Greek philosopher who developed one of the first atomist theories of the universe and espoused the doctrine that pleasure, along with self-control, is the goal of human life. |
| Hippocrates | Greek physician who laid the foundations of scientific medicine by freeing medical study from the constraints of philosophical speculation and superstition. |
| Herodotus | Greek historian whose writings, chiefly concerning the Persian Wars, are the earliest known examples of narrative history. |
| Sophocles | Greek dramatist. Together with Euripides and Aeschylus, he is considered one of the greatest dramatists of ancient Greece |
| Euripedes | Greek dramatist who ranks with Sophocles and Aeschylus as the greatest classical tragedians. He wrote more than 90 tragedies, although only 18, including Medea, Hippolytus, and The Trojan Women, survive in complete form. |
| Aristophanes | thenian playwright, considered one of the greatest writers of comedy in literary history. |
| Alexander the Great | king of Macedonia, conqueror of the Persian Empire, and one of the greatest military geniuses of all times. |
| Euclid | Greek mathematician |
| Archimedes | preeminent Greek mathematician and inventor, |
| Athens | †city in southeastern Greece, capital and largest city of the country |
| frescoes | paintings made on wet plaster walls |
| polis | the Greek word for City-State |
| acropolis | a hill or mountain, together with temples and other public buildings/public meeting place |
| agora | market place |
| epics | long poem describing heroes and great events |
| myths | traditional stories about the deeds and misdeeds of gods, goddesses and heroes |
| oracles | people who answer questions about the future |
| imports | good or service brought from another country or region |
| exports | good or service sold to another country or region |
| aristocracies | originally meant "ruled by the best" / a priviledged social class |
| hoplite | a soldier or heavy infantryman |
| tyrants | leaders who appeared with promises of a better life/ seized power in defiance of law but with the people's support |
| popular government | people ruling themselves rather than being ruled by others |
| democracy | a government in which all citizens take part |
| helots | conquered peoples forced into slavery/servitude |
| ephors | overseers elected by the assembly for a one year term to monitor kings and citizens, had unlimited power to act as guardians of the state and used it freely |
| metics | born outside athens, non-citizens, free but could not own land or take part in govt even though they paid the same taxes as citizens |
| archors | rulers who served a one year term of office |
| direct democracy | all citizens participated directly in making decisions |
| representative democracy | citizens elect representatives to run the govt for them |
| terracing | creating small flat plots of land by building low walls on the hill side and filling the space behind them with soil |
| pedagogue | a man slave for young boys who taught manners and went everywhere with the boy |
| rhetoric | was the study of oratory or public speaking and debating |
| Homer | blind poet and considered to be author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, |
| Zeus | in Greek mythology, the god of the sky and ruler of the Olympian gods |
| Athena | Goddess of wisdom, virtue and skill |
| Solon | Athenian statesman and legislator, considered the founder of Athenian democracy |
| Themistocles | Athenian general and statesman, who commanded the Athenian fleet at the Battle of SalamÌs. |
