| A | B |
|---|
| Shrine | areas dedicated to the honor of gods and goddesses |
| fresco | colorful water color paintings done on wet plaster |
| strait | narrow water passage |
| Minoans | an early civilization on the island of Crete that reached its height between 1750 and 1500 B.C. |
| Knossos | the location of a Minoan palace |
| Mycenaean | war like people who moved into the Greek mainland and overran Crete in 1400 B.C. |
| Iliad | an epic poem about the Trojan War |
| Trojan War | thought to be a legend but perhaps was a real trade war fought between Troy and the Mycenaeans |
| Homer | blind poet who is attributed with writing two great epic poems: Iliad and Odyssey |
| Odyssey | an epic poem that tells the story of Odysseus and his travels home after the Trojan War |
| Dorians | group of people who invaded and took over the Mycenaean civilization |
| Heinrich Schliemann | German business man/archaeologist who discovered what he thought were the remains of the ancient city of Troy |
| acropolis | the high part of a Greek city-state where temples were located |
| monarchy | rule by one person |
| aristocracy | rule by a landholding elite |
| oligarchy | rule by powerful elite from the business class |
| direct democracy | system of government in which citizens participate in the day to day affairs of the government rather than through elected officials |
| legislature | the law making body of a government |
| Peloponnesus | the peninsula that Sparta is located on |
| Attic | the peninsula that Athens is located on |
| Zeus | the chief god of the Greeks |
| Polis | this term means city-state |
| Phalanx | a massive formation of heavily armed Greek foot soldiers |
| Helot | Spartan slaves |
| Tyrant | a ruler who gained power by force with the support of the people in Ancient Greece |
| Solon | changed the harsh laws of Draco and freed debtor slaves who had been in prison |
| Cleisthenes | formed the Council of 500 where citizens chosen by lot |
| Psistratus | a tyrant who gave land to poor citizens and increased the voice of poor citizens in the government |
| Alliance | a formal agreement between two or more nations to cooperate and come to one another’s defense |
| Jury | a panel of citizens who have the authority to make the final judgment in a trial |
| Stipend | a fixed salary |
| Ostracism | the vote to banish a public figure whom Athenians saw as a threat to their democracy |
| Delian League | league formed by Athens and its allies after the Persian War |
| Peloponnesian League | league formed by Sparta and its allies after the Persian War |
| Pericles | Athenian leader who transformed Athens into a cultural center after the Persian War |
| Hoplite | a heavily armed Greek foot soldier |
| Battle of Marathon | “battle fought between mostly Athenians and the Persians led by Darius; it was a surprising Greek victory” |
| Battle of Thermopylae | a battle fought in the Persian War with Xerxes where 300 Spartans sacrificed themselves in a narrow passage for the good of other Greeks |
| Strait of Salamis | “naval battle fought here between Greeks and Persians; Greeks were victorious” |
| tragedy | plays that told stories of human suffering and usually ended in disaster |
| comedy | humorous plays that mocked people or customs |
| Plato | “a Greek philosopher; taught by Socrates,who opened a school called the Academy; he wrote a book called The Republic in which he rejected democracy in favor of a government led by philosopher leaders” |
| Aristotle | “he was the favored student of Plato’s;in government matters, he favored rule by a strong and virtuous leader; He promoted reason as the guiding force for learning. He set up a school, the Lyceum, and wrote on politics, ethics, logic biology, literature, and many other subjects” |
| Parthenon | temple in Athens dedicated to Athena |
| Thucydides | “a Greek historian who taught that historians should avoid bias in their writing; he wrote about the Peloponnesian War” |
| logic | rational thinking |
| rhetoric | the art of skillful speaking |
| Socrates | “he was an Athenian stonemason and philosopher. He wrote no books. It was his habit to lounge in the marketplace (Agora) |
| Herodotus | ”a Greek historian who taught that historians should do rigorous research; he wrote about the Persian War” |
| assassination | to murder by sudden or secret attack often for political reasons |
| heliocentric | the theory of a sun-centered solar system |
| Philip of Macedonia | ”the leader of Macedonia who conquered all of Greece, but was assassinated before he could attempt to take over Persia |
| Stoicism | “a philosophy introduced by Zeno that used the logic of Aristotle and taught self control;urged people to accept calmly whatever life brought |
| Pythagoras | a Greek mathematician who is credited with the Pythagorean Theorem describing the relationship of the sides of a triangle |
| Euclid | a Greek mathematician who wrote Elements; a geometry text |
| Archimedes | mathematician and physicist who made practical inventions such as a lever and pulley |
| Hippocrates | “studied illnesses and cures and set ethical standards for medical care; he is considered the founder of medical science; his oath is still used by physicians today” |
| assimilate | to absorb or take on the characteristics of |
| Alexander the Great | succeeded his father to the throne of Macedonia; he went on to conquer the entire Persian Empire |
| Eratosthenes | a Greek scientist and mathematician who estimated with accuracy the circumference of Earth |
| Aspasia | an educated, foreign-born woman who helped Pericles rebuild Athens after the Persian War |
