| Festival | Annual drama
event called the City Dionysia. Playwrights would submit
plays, competing against each other. Winners of this event
included Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and
Aristophanes. |
| Gaugamela | Famous battle
in which Alexander defeated Darius for a third time, even
though the Persian forces outnumbered the Macedonian forces
by almost 5 to 1. Alexander's brilliant planning again saved
the day. Among his winning strategies in this battle was to
widen his flanks and allow the Persian charge to outflank
his army, then charge hard toward the suddenly weak middle
of the Persian line. The dangerous Persian cavalry and war
chariots were no match for the sturdy Macedonian spearmen,
and Darius again just barely escaped alive. |
| Gordian Knot | An intricate
knot used by a man named Gordius to secure his oxcart. This
man was a peasant who came to Phrygia in an oxcart. An
oracle had told the Phrygians that their next king would
arrive in a wagon. The oxcart was good enough for them, and
they made Gordius king. He responded by offering his oxcart
to Zeus and tying the cart up with a difficult knot. Gordius
was succeeded by Midas, who didn't leave an heir. The same
oracle who had spoken before now told the people that
whoever cut the knot would have the rule of all Asia.
Alexander the Great arrived in Phrygia and cut the Gordian
Knot with his sword. Soon, he was pursuing "the rule of all
Asia." |
| Granicus | First great
battle between the Macedonians and the Persians. It was soon
after Alexander crossed the Hellespont into Persian
territory. The battle began with a river crossing.
Alexander's men crossed the Granicus River, taking only
light casualties, then routed the larger Persian army.
Alexander had more infantry but less cavalry. He managed to
even the odds with a quick cavalry strike and an infantry
mop-up operation. This is also the battle in which Alexander
is said to have taken a javelin thrust straight through his
breastplate, pulled out the spear, and rode on at the enemy.
Macedonian ferocity and discipline won out over greater
numbers, and Alexander could continue his march toward
destiny. |
| Hades | God of the
Underworld, which also bore his name. |
| Hellenism | Concept that
explained the carrying of Greek thought, ideals, and
practices to the Persian Empire and beyond by Alexander the
Great. Greece called itself "Hellas." Hellenism was the
spreading of "Hellas" to the rest of the world. The spread
of Hellenism embraced nearly all forms of life, including
politics, art, philosophy, religion, and science. |
| Helots | Originally
free people called the Laconians, they were conquered by
Sparta and forced to work for the Sparta state or to serve
in the army. The helots were neither slaves nor free,
existing somewhere in the middle. Even slaves had the right
to be fed by their masters; the helots did not. The main
city of Laconia was Helos, a possible source for the word
helot. |
| Hephaestus | God of fire
and workers. Husband of Aphrodite. He was ugly to look at
but good at his work. |
| Hera | Wife of Zeus.
Protector of marriage, children, and the home. |
| Hermes | God of
speakers and writers, business, and games. Protector of
mischief-makers. Messenger to mortals. Son of Zeus. |
| Herodotus | Historian who
wrote the first history of Greece. Traveled widely, writing
about other civilizations as well. He is called the "Father
of History" because he was the first to attempt to
categorize things into a historical setting. However, some
of what he wrote is now known to be false, so it is not
entirely clear if all of his writings are to be believed.
Nonetheless, he gives us a clear picture of life "way back
then," including a remarkable history of the Persian
Wars. |
| Hippocrates | Greek
scientists who became the "Father of Medicine" because of
his work in healing and medicine. He set up a school for
physicians on his home, the island of Cos. He was also one
of the first to believe that thoughts, ideas, and feelings
come from the brain, not from the heart. |
| Ionian Sea | Sea to the
west of Greece (and the east of Italy) that was the scene of
many battles between Greece and Rome. Colonists from Corinth
crossed the Ionian Sea on their way to the island Sicily,
where they founded the colony of Syracuse. |
| Lyceum | Academy begun
by Aristotle. It was separate from Plato's Academy. At the
Lyceum, students engaged in studies of a broader range than
at the Academy, such as nature and certain kinds of
science. |
| Lycurgus | Ancient and
possibly legendary law-giver of Sparta. Among his reforms
was the creation of a Senate, which would stabilize the
government, making it difficult for a tyrant to take over.
He also divided all the land in Sparta equally among the
landowners. This created quite a stir among the men who had
formerly owned a lot of land. Another law proclaimed that
all meals had to be eaten together at public mess-halls.
This meant that rich people couldn't eat rich food unless
they paid enough to feed everyone else. Lycurgus's laws went
a long way toward creating the kind of society that would be
receptive to a military way of life. |
| Macedon/Macedonia | Land to the
north of Greece that spawned two great conquerors, Philip
and Alexander the Great. Philip succeeded in conquering all
of Greece, and Alexander succeeded in conquering Persia,
Egypt, and much of Asia.. |
| Marathon | Land battle
that was a heroic stand by Athenians that fought off an
overwhelming Persian advance. On the plains of Marathon,
3,000 Greeks outfought 10,000 Persians, mainly because the
Greeks suddenly charged the Persian lines, scattering the
invaders and making them take flight. |
| Mediterranean Sea | Sea that
touched nearly all parts of the Greek world, stretching from
the Asia Minor colonies in the east to beyond Syracuse in
the west, from the Peloponnesus in the north to the shores
of Africa in the south. |
| Menander | Greek
playwright who wrote comedies. He wrote the so-called New
Comedy, which was not satirical, like Aristophanes. Rather,
New Comedy was gentle humor, largely having to do with love
plots. His characters are also highly developed, unlike
those in Aristophanes. Sadly, only one of Menander's plays,
The Curmudgeon, has survived in its entirety.
Fragments of other plays exist, and we know about Menander
largely through the works of Plautus and Terence, Romans who
based their plays on Menander's. |
| Midas | King of
Phrygia who was granted "the golden touch" by the Greek god
Dionysus. Everything Midas touched turned to gold. Then, he
got tired of the gold, especially since it no longer gave
him happiness. Dionysus removed "the touch." Midas is also
famous for receiving "donkey ears" from the Greek god Apollo
for saying that another flute player was better than
Apollo. |
| Miletus | Ionian colony
famous for its scientists and philosophers and for its wool
and furniture. Thales, the first great scientists, was from
Miletus. It was one of the Asia Minor that was captured by
Persia and then revolted, bringing about the Persian Wars.
After the Greek victories, Miletus was again captured by
Persia but was liberated by Alexander the Great. |
| Mount Olympus | Sacred
mountain that was the home of the gods. It was the highest
mountain in Greece, at more than 9,500 feet. |
| Olympia | City-state
that was home to the ancient Olympic Games and to the Statue
of Zeus, one of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the
World. |
| Olympics | Series of
games that took place every four years to honor Zeus, the
king of the gods. The Olympic Games also served to make a
natural break between wars. If you were an athlete
participating in the Games, you were allowed safe conduct to
Olympia for the games from wherever you were, even if you
were on the battlefield. No fighting was allowed during the
Games, and safe conduct was also granted to athletes
returning from the Games. |
| Oracle | Said to be
the voice of the god(s). Apollo later claimed it for his
own. The Oracle made predictions or pronouncements that were
indirect at best and needed priests or priestesses to
interpret. An example is that during the Persian Wars,
Athenians worried about their city-state's being overrun and
consulted the Oracle, which responded by saying that Athens
would be saved by "wooden walls." What really happened was
that the fleet of Athens, which was made of wood, played a
large part in turning back the Persian naval invasion. Also,
when Athens was in serious danger, the Athenians escaped in
the same ships. Thus, the "wooden walls" saved
Athens. |
| Ostracism | A democratic
practice invented to deal with tyrants. Every year, each
citizen could write on a stone or a piece of parchment the
name of a person who should be ostracized, or cast
out of the city. If enough votes were tallied for one
person, that person was ostracized. He couldn't
return for 10 years. His property and other assets remained
his, though. |
