| A | B |
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| Achaeans: | Indo-European peoples who migrated to the Greek peninsula beginning about 2000 B.C. |
| acropolis: | a fortified hill within a city-state. The most famous acropolis was within Athens. |
| agora: | a marketplace in ancient Greece that also functioned as an economic and social center. |
| archon: | a high magistrate or judge in ancient Greece. |
| aristocracy: | the privileged class of nobles; also called the nobility; also applied to any privileged class; government by the nobility. |
| autocracy: | a government controlled by a single individual with absolute power. |
| barbarian: | the name originally applied by the ancient Greeks to denote any foreigner who did not speak Greek. Later the name was applied to semi-civilized people living on the frontiers of more civilized societies. |
| Bronze Age: | a period in the history of humankind during which tools and weapons were made of bronze, an alloy of tin and copper. In ancient Greece, the Bronze Age lasted from approximately 2000 to 1000 B.C. |
| chorus: | a group of actors in ancient Greek drama whose singing, dancing, and talking helped explain the main action. |
| citizen: | a person owing allegiance to a government and entitled to its protection. |
| city-state: | a state consisting of an independent city and the surrounding territory under that city's control. |
| comedy: | a form of play originating in ancient Greece containing satire and humor, often risque, and poking fun at important individuals as well as the gods. Aristophanes is the most famous writer of comedy in ancient Greece. |
| Companions: | the heavy cavalry composed of Macedonian nobles, used by Alexander the Great as his main striking force in the battles against the Persian Empire. |
| Corinthian order: | a style of ancient Greek architecture in which the capitals (upper part) of columns are decorated with sculptured leaves. |
| cosmopolitan: | belonging to all the world and free from local, provincial, or national customs and ideas. The conquests of Alexander the Great made the world of the eastern Mediterranean and Near East much more cosmopolitan. |
| cultural diffusion: | the spread of language, customs, ideas, technology, etc., from one society or group of people to another. |
| Cynic: | a person belonging to a group of philosophers during the Hellenistic Age who preached that material possessions, social position, fame and power were unimportant. The Cynics believed that virtue was the only good, and virtue was knowledge of one's self. |
| Delian League: | the alliance of Greek states created by Athens after the Persian War. Athens came to dominate the Delian League and used it to promote its own economic and political interests. |
| dialogue: | the exchange of ideas and opinions. A style of writing used by the Greek philosopher Plato in his writings to set forth his philosophical ideas. |
| direct democracy: | a form of government in which citizens discuss issues and then vote directly on political questions. Direct democracy developed in Athens during the 5th century B.C. |
| Dorians: | people speaking a dialect of Greek who entered Greece and the eastern Mediterranean during the 12th century B.C. The Dorians conquered and destroyed many of the centers of Mycenaean Greece. |
| Doric order: | the first and simplest of the three Greek architectural styles to be developed. It is characterized by fluted columns without bases. The other two styles are Corinthian and Ionian. |
| drama: | a type of play in prose or verse which presents a conflict between individuals. Greek drama developed out of religious ceremonies and was always in verse. The three greatest dramatists of ancient Greece are considered to be Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. |
| Ecclesia: | the popular assembly of ancient Athens that theoretically held ultimate power. Every male citizen of Athens could attend meetings of the Ecclesia and vote. |
| epic: | a poetic composition, usually dealing with a divine or human hero. The two great epics of ancient Greece are the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey" of Homer. |
| Epicureanism: | a philosophy founded by Epicurus of Athens during the 4th century B.C. Epicureans believed that happiness is the supreme good, and that the absence of pain is happiness. Epicurus taught that fear is the greatest enemy of the mind and he taught that religion was evil if it taught fear of death. |
| ethics: | a body of moral principles or group of values held by a group or society. Many of the philosophers of ancient Greece tried to create a body of ethics to guide human beings. |
| hegemony: | dominance exercised by one state over others. Athens and Sparta fought for hegemony in Greece. |
| Hellas: | the ancient Greek name for Greece. |
| Hellenes: | the ancient Greek name for themselves. The names "Greece" and "Greeks" comes from the Latin name for Hellas and the Hellenes. |
| helot: | A laborer in ancient Sparta who was not a citizen, and worked on state-owned land. Helots had no civil or political liberty, and could not bear arms. |
| Hippocratic Oath: | an oath taken by physicians outlining their duties and obligations. It is ascribed to Hippocrates, a famous physician of ancient Greece who lived in the 4th century B.C. |
| hoplites: | the heavily armed foot soldier of ancient Greece usually recruited from the body of male citizens. |
| Ionians: | a branch of the ancient Greek people who invaded the Greek mainland and then migrated to western Asia Minor after the Dorian invasion of Greece. |
| labyrinth: | the palace constructed at Knossos by the Minoans on Crete was known as the Labyrinth, after the "labrys" (double axe), which was one of the most sacred symbols of Minoan religion. In Greek mythology, the maze constructed under the palace of Minos at Knossos in which lived the fearsome Minotaur. |
| Linear A: | an undeciphered ancient language found on clay tablets, pottery, and other objects on Crete and other Greek islands. |
| Linear B: | an ancient system of writing found to be an early form of Greek. It was deciphered by Michael Ventris. |
| lyric poetry: | short poems designed to be sung, usually to an accompaniment by a stringed instrument called a lyre. Pindar was a famous writer of lyric poems in ancient Greece. |
| Magna Grecia: | the name given to the ancient colonial cities and settlements of Greece in southern Italy and Sicily. |
| mausoleum: | the tomb erected at Halicarnassus in Asia Minor by Mausolus, king of Caria. It is considered to be one of the Seven Wonders of the (Ancient) World. |
| metics: | an alien resident of an ancient Greek city. Metics usually had to pay a tax to remain, and were not granted all those rights extended to citizens. |
| Minoans: | the name given by the British archaeologist, Sir Arthur Evans, to the inhabitants of Crete who created a sophisticated civilization on that island during the 2nd millennium B.C. The name comes from Minos, a son of the god Zeus, and king of Crete. |
| mother-city: | the city sending colonists to settle and found colonies during the age of Greek colonization (8th and 7th centuries B.C.). |
| mother goddess: | the chief deity of ancient Greece and the eastern Mediterranean before the invasion of patriarchal peoples during the 2nd millennia B.C. The Great Mother represented the life cycle of birth-death-rebirth, and seems to have been the most important deity in ancient Crete. |
| Mycenaeans: | by the middle of the 2nd millennium B.C., the most important town on the Greek mainland was Mycenae. The name is applied to the people who inhabited the Greek mainland during this period. |
| "Odyssey": | one of the great epics of ancient Greece which deals with the voyage home from Troy of the Greek hero, Odysseus. It is attributed to Homer. |
| oligarchy: | a type of government in which a small number of persons hold political power. In ancient Greece, many city-states were governed by oligarchies whose wealth came either from land or commerce. |
| Olympiad: | the period of four years counted from the celebration of one Olympic Games to the next. The Olympic Games were the greatest of the games or festivals of ancient Greece. They were held every four years at Olympia, in honor the Zeus, king of the Greek gods. |
| oracle: | a priest or priestess who receives a divine revelation. In ancient Greek, the most important oracle was at Delphi, a site sacred to the god Apollo. |
| ostracism: | exclusion or banishment. In ancient Athens, a person could be exiled, or ostracized, from the city without any accusation or trial, but merely by a popular vote. |
| Parthenon: | the temple in Athens which was dedicated to the goddess Athena, the patron deity of ancient Athens. The Parthenon was erected on a hill called the Acropolis, and was completed about 438 B.C. |
| Peloponnesian Wars: | the wars between Athens and Sparta and their allies which lasted from 431 to 404 B.C., and ended with Spartan domination of Greece. |
| Persian Wars: | the wars between the Persian Empire and the Greek city-states that began with the revolt of the Ionian cities against Persian rule in 499 B.C. |
| phalanx: | a body of heavily-armed infantry formed into ranks and carrying shields and spears. The phalanx formed the core of the army of Philip II and Alexander the Great. |
| plutocracy: | a government controlled by a small group of wealthy people. |
| rhetoric: | the art of using words in speech or writing to influence the opinions and conduct of people. |
| Socratic Method: | the use of questions as used by Socrates to gain knowledge and to help students learn. |
| Sophists: | a group of philosophers in ancient Athens who gave instruction in various fields such as ethics, politics, education, and history. Plato claimed that for the Sophists, winning an argument was more important than facts or morality. |
| Sophists: | a group of philosophers in ancient Athens who gave instruction in various fields such as ethics, politics, education, and history. Plato claimed that for the Sophists, winning an argument was more important than facts or morality. |
| Stoicism: | a school of philosophy founded by Zeno, who taught in Athens towards the end of the 4th century B.C. The Stoics believed in one supreme power who ruled the universe. They believed that god was universal because all men were brothers. To the Stoics, the good life came from moral conduct, and material goods were mere incidental to living a moral life. |
| symposium: | in ancient Greece, a meeting of friends and acquaintances, usually following a dinner, for drinking and intellectual conversation. |
| thetes: | the class of ancient Athens who held little or no property and sold their labor for very little. Because they easily fell into debt, they often were forced into slavery. |
| Thirty Tyrants: | the group of Athenian autocrats who came to power as a result of Sparta's defeat of Athens during the Peloponnesian Wars. These Athenian oligarchies conducted a reign of terror against their opponents, with the support of the victorious Spartans. The Thirty Tyrants were eventually overthrown and executed. |
| tyranny: | in ancient Greece, the form of government headed by a tyrant; a person who seizes power, usually by force. |
