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DISCO VERING ANCIENT GREECE
1500-100 B.C.
Viewing Time: 35 minutes
Program Sum mary
This two-part vid eo program p rovides 6-9th grade stud ents with
glimpses of both the cultur e and the history of Ancient Greece.
The program was filmed entirely on location in Greece and Italy and
employs ancient art, animations, and simple reenactments to bring this
very imp ortant p eriod of history to life.
In Part On e stud ents visit ancient Mycenae, the capital of one of the
oldest empires in Greece and th e source of mu ch of Greek culture. Next,
Greek colonial expansion is described, and we tour the ruins of Corinth
so that stud ents can und erstand h ow cities in ancient Greece were laid
out. In the final section of Part One w e visit Delph i and discover the
role of the Delph ic Oracle in the religion of an cient Greece.
In Part Two stud ents visit the ruins of the great sanctuary of Zeus at
Olympia and learn about the earliest Olympic games. Then w e travel
to the ancient center of healing at Epidau ros and discover not only
how the med ical treatments were carried ou t back then, but also how
the theater functioned as a temp le to the god Dionysus. In Athens w e
visit the Temp les of Athena, Hep haestus, and N eptu ne and discoverhow dem ocracy was born. Then the conqu ests of Alexander the Great
are explained; and finally, stud ents learn wh at hap pened to Greeces
culture after it was conquered by Rome.
Student Objectives
After viewing the vid eo and par ticipating in the lesson activities, stu-
den ts should be able to...
Contrast the religious p ractices of ancient Greece with those of today .
Name and tell about several principal gods and godd esses of ancient
Greece.
Describe some of the various w ays that p eople of today still emp loy
ideas and artistic forms that w ere born in ancient Greece.
Compare and contrast the ancient Olympic Games with the Olym pic
games of today.
Explain h ow Greek culture was spread by her Roman conquerors.
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Teacher Prep aration
Before presenting this program to your students, w e suggest that you
preview the vid eo and review th is guide and th e blackline masters
that accomp any it.
You m ay decide to du plicate and distribute some of the blackline mas-
ters you have chosen to u se so that students can reference them d uring
the v ideo p resentation. ( A d escriptive list of the blackline m asters can
be foun d on pag e 4 of this guide. The answer key for the blackline
masters can be found on p ages 4 and 5.)
As you review the instructional program ou tlined in this guide and
the blackline masters that accompany it, you may find it necessary tomak e certain changes to fit your specific need s. We encour age you t o
do so, for only by tailoring this progr am to fit the needs of your stu -
dents w ill they obtain the maximum benefits afforded by the m ateri-
als.
Introducing th e Video
Use maps to help introdu ce both parts of this program pointing out
important historical sites.
Part One:
Introdu ce this par t of the progr am by descr ibing the r ise of the
Mycenaean kingd oms and their conquest of the Minoan civilization ofCrete. Relate some of the tales from the Iliad p ertaining to the life and
times of King Agamemnon. Talk briefly about the collapse of the
Mycenae, the Greek "Dark Ages," Greek colonial expansion, and the
rise of the powerful city-states of ancient Greece. The role of the Or acle
of Delph i in the lives of the ancient Greeks should also be introdu ced.
(For example, the oracle was always consulted before the ancient Greeks
would attempt to establish a new colony.)
Part Two:
Introduce this part of the p rogram by talking abou t the role of public
festivals and competitions in the lives of the ancient Gr eeks. Examples
should include the Pythian Games at Delphi, the Olympian Games at
Olympia, and the Panathenaic Festival of Athens.
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Follow-Up Activities
Part On e: Discussion
A genera l discussion of the topics covered in th e first pa rt of the pro-
gram w ould be ap prop riate. In particular, a discussion of the Olym-
pian god s and godd esses and forms of ancient Greek religious practice
should be brought up h ere.
Part Two: D iscussion
A general discussion of topics covered in the entire progr am sh ould
take place now. Point out th at as a result of the Roman conqu est of
Greece, not only were Greek ideas spread throughout the Roman world,
Roman culture was also brought to Greece. The Greek city of Byzantium
became the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire...and because the Ro-man s had converted to Christianity, they eventu ally closed all the an-
cient shrines, stopp ed th e Olympic games, and destroyed or defaced
the fine sculptures and temples of ancient Greece as expressions of
new-found Christian piety. Discuss the ancient Greek polytheistic view
of the world an d compare it to contemporary religious views.
A d iscussion of the ancient Greek schools of philosophy w ould be very
useful. Talk about the Athenian d emocracy and how it was p racticed.
Discuss slavery in ancient times. Mention and discuss some of the
Greek contributions to science and m athem atics.
Museu m Visit:
A very helpful follow-up activity wou ld be to visit an art m useum thathouses collections of ancient Greek art. Not only were the Greeks great
sculptors, they w ere also very famous for their pottery, wh ich is w ell
worth seeing. Compare an cient Greek and Roman art.
Research Pap ers:
The following topics wou ld make good su bjects for research papers:
1. Religion in Ancient Greece
2. The Golden Age of Athens
3. Science and Mathem atics in Ancient Greece
4. Greek Myths, Legends and Heroes
5. The Conquests of Alexander the Great
6. The Olympic Games: Past and Present7. The Ancient Greek Philosophers
8. The Theater in Ancient Greece
9. Healing and Medicine in Ancient Greece
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10. The Oracle of Delph i
11. Warfare in Ancient Greece
12. The Greek City-States and Their Colonies13. Daily Life in Ancient Greece
14. Comm erce and Trad e in Ancient Greece
Extended Activity
Perform a G reek Play
A small group of students (or even the w hole class) might w ant to
perform a traditional Greek play...or at least one act from the play. Stu-
den ts could make the masks, the costum es, and the sets for the perfor-
mance. Every attempt should be mad e to keep all aspects of the perfor-
man ce historically accur ate.
Blacklin e M asters
The following Blackline Masters are includ ed w ith this guid e:
Blackline Master 1a and 1b: Timeline
Blackline Master 2a, 2b and 2c: Vocabulary List
Blackline Master 3: The Principal Gods an d G oddesses of Ancient
Greece
Blackline Mas ter 4: The Greek Alph abet and Writing in Greek
Blackline Mas ter 5: Crossword Puzzle
Blackline Mas ter 6: Quiz
Answer Key
The answ ers are pr ovided here for the Blackline Masters that require
answers.
Blackline M aster 4, The Greek Alphab et and Writing in Greek
ATHENE:DEMOS:
AREA:
STOA:
PARTHENON:
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Blacklin e Master 5, Crossword Puzzle
Across Down
1. ALEXANDER M EDICINE
2. CORINTH ORACLE
3. MYCENAE FIRE
4. GOLDEN DIONYSUS
5. SPARTA HERA
6. HERMES ATHENA
7. A CRO PO LIS O LIGA RCH Y
8. OLYMPIA POSEIDON
9. ZEUS
10. AGAMEMNON
Blacklin e Master 6, Quiz
1. G
2. F
3. D
4. J
5. I
6. H
7. B
8. A
9. C
10. E
11. F: King Agam emnon ru led Mycenae.
12. F: Pericles fostered the growth of democracy in Athens.13. T
14. F: The Roman s adm ired Greek culture and o ften tried to copy it.
15. F: Alexander th e Great died of malaria in Babylon.
16. T
17. F: The ancient Greeks were very good m athem aticians.
18. F: Spartans w ere very highly disciplined in the arts of war and
disliked the "softness" of a life of luxury.
19. T
20. F: Slavery w as common place in ancient Greece.
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DISCO VERING ANCIENT GREECE
Script of Recorded Narration
Over three thousand five hundred years ago, the Greek-speaking people
wh o lived h ere among the m ountains, bays, and island s of the north-
eastern Med iterranean began to shape a truly remarkable culture.
The new ideas that took root in this rugged land became so important
that a ncient Greece is said to be th e birthp lace of western civiliza-
tion," and the influence of that civilization can be foun d almost every-
wh ere we look in the world today.
Ancient Greece gave birth to the world 's first dem ocracy and the origi-
nal Olymp ic Games.
Ancient Greece also mad e long-lasting contributions to art, a rchitec-
ture, science, and mathematics, as well as to literature, drama, and even
to the stu dy of history itself.
And the religion of the ancient Greeks has provid ed u s with a rich
tradition of myth and legend .
In order to better und erstand this tremendou sly important p eriod of
history, let us now visit some of the fascinating places where this mar-
velous civilization d eveloped in the far distant past.
Mycenae
The origins of Greek civilization can be traced back to th e ru ins of this
hilltop city called Mycenae that was first settled abou t 4500 years ago,
and that w as once the center of a rich and pow erful emp ire.
Legend says that Mycenae was found ed by Perseus, who w as a son of
Zeus, the King of all the Greek gods, w hose magnificent statue is seen
here.
The Greek peop le of long ago believed that to bu ild th e walls of the
city, Perseus had ord ered one-eyed giants, whose job it was to m ake
weap ons for the gods, to carve these enormou s stones and then lift
them into place.
As early as thirteen centu ries before the birth of Chr ist, the kings of
Mycenae rod e out th rough this gate built from these hu ge stones to
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lead their troops into battle...and above the gate the figures of two li-
ons, carved in stone, still remind us of the great p ower th ese kings
once held.
The golden d eath masks of several different kings were discovered in
deep circular tombs, like this one, that were built next to the lion's gate.
Near the royal tombs and overlooking the fields w here the farmers of
Mycenae once grew crops to feed their citizens are th e remains of a
many-roomed house where the high p riest lived; and this painting of a
young Mycenaean woman once adorned a wall of a religious building
that stood nearby.
Up above the p riest's house, crowning th e hill, we can still see the ram-
part w alls that surrou nd ed the royal palace where long ago decisions
were mad e that shaped the course of Greek history.
It was probably in the throne room of this palace that the most famous
of all the kings of Mycenae, Agamem non, d ecided to sacrifice his daugh-
ter to the gods so that his ships might hav e good w eather as they set
off to attack the city of Troy.
The hatred and violence that beset the family of Agamemnon has be-
come legendar y, mostly because it is described in such detail in the
Iliad, the m ost famous of all the books w ritten in ancient Greece.
For countless centuries the people living in the village near the ruins of
Mycenae believed that Agamem non w as buried here in this massivetomb that lies outside the gates of the city. How ever, archeologists now
think that this tomb p robably belonged to som e other Mycenaean king.
The Collapse of Mycenae: Colonial Expan sion
By 1100 B.C. Mycenaes power had collapsed ; and, following years of
invasions from the north, other cities grew in strength .
Starting arou nd 800 B.C. some of these cities began to bring Gr eek cus-
toms and r eligion to far distant land s by establishing colonies.
Sparta, for example, found ed the colony of Taras in sou thern Italy;
Greeks from Rhod es in Asia Minor found ed Massilla in the south ofFrance where today's city of Marseilles stands; Corinth established colo-
nies in nor thern an d w estern Greece, but her biggest colony w as Syra-
cuse in Sicily.
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And by the year 600 B.C., the Greek city-states had founded over thirty
different colonies in d istant regions of both the Med iterranean and the
Black Seas.
Corinth
Corinth, whose ru ins are seen here, was not only a major Greek colo-
nizer of the Mediterranean, it was also one of the three most powerfu l
city-states in Greece for severa l centuries.
Corinth grew up not far from Mycenae on a narrow isthmus w here
important land an d sea routes came together....routes that could be
monitored by soldiers on du ty in Corinth's ancient acropolis that
loomed h igh above the city.
Today it is hard to imagine just from looking at these ruins wh at a rich
and pow erful place Corinth once was, but archeologists have carefully
stud ied these stones an d th ey are fairly certain the city once looked
someth ing like this.
At its center stood th e great temp le of Apollo, who w as the god of the
sun , music, healing and prop hecy. Here we can see all that rem ains of
that beau tiful bu ilding.
Ancient Greek temples, such as th is one in Athens, were n ever entered
for worship by ord inary peop le; instead, temples were considered to
be the hou ses of the god s, and sacrificial offerings were always mad e
on altars that stood ou tside.
Not far from the Temp le of Apollo was the center of all of Corinths
commercial and govern mental activities. This was a h uge op en mar-
ketplace or "agora" that was lined on two sides with shop s where such
items as wine, pottery, and olives could be pu rchased.
Opp osite the central shops on the far side of the market squ are was a
long covered area called a "stoa" which was attached to the main build-
ing of Corinthian government, the senate hou se.
By looking at this reconstructed stoa in Athens, we can get a good idea
of what th e stoa in the ma rket of Corinth once looked like. Under its
hu ge roof, citizens of the city-state could either sell things or simp lymeet and talk, shaded from the intense sunlight and protected from
stormy weather.
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Just below the m arketplace in Corinth w as the fountain that at on e
time supplied the city's water. By passing through stone archw ays,
slaves were able to fill jugs w ith cool, fresh w ater w hich they then car-ried back to their masters houses.
Just w ithin sight of the houses where the Corinth ians lived, there on ce
stood a large theater, whose ru ins are seen here, where citizens en-
joyed p erformances that w ere very often of a religious natu re.
The theater may have u sed p illars like these in its construction that are
decorated in the Corinth ian stylethat is, carved to look like the leaves
of the acanthus plants that grew w ild all around the city.
One final featur e of ancient Corinth w as a sacred spring that has long
since vanished but w as at one time reached by climbing dow n a stair-
way located near the gates of the marketp lace.
This spring was linked by a secret und erground passageway to the
special sanctuary of a w oman called an oracle, a p rophetess who was
the hu man voice of the god Apollo.
Delphi
To better understand the ancient Greek religion and the role that oracles
played in that religion, let us now travel to Delphi, located high in th e
mou ntains about 100 miles northw est of Corinth to the great san ctu-
ary of Apollo, where for over 1000 years, the m ost famous of the Greek
oracles performed her mystical duties.
Delphi, unlike Corinth, w as simply a religious center and never served
any comm ercial or military p urp ose.
The ancient Greeks believed that Delphi had been founded by Zeus.
The legend says that one day Zeus, who lived with the other imm ortal
gods on far d istant Mount Olymp us, decided to locate the center of the
un iverse. And so he sent out a pair of his sacred eagles to find it for
him.
Eventually the eagles met above the mountainous site of Delphi, thus
identifying it as the hub arou nd wh ich the entire universe rotated.
Beneath the sp ot wh ere the eagles met, an open crack in the ground
released mysterious vap ors that w ere said to have an odor like the
rarest and m ost beautiful perfume," and nearby pu re sweet water
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flowed from a sacred spring w here Zeuss son Ap ollo is said to have
killed a giant snake named Python th at guard ed the spring.
Because Apollo felt regret for killing Pyth on, the god pu nished him-
self; and for eight long years lived the life of a simple shepherd a way
of life that is still pursu ed arou nd Delphi today .
The myth of Apollo and Python formed the basis of many of the reli-
gious rites at Delph irites that invo lved acts of ritual pu rification, es-
pecially in cases where an u njust d eath had occurred .
The temp le to Apollo at Delph i, w hose ru ins we see here, once con-
tained inscriptions that read : "Nothing in excess" and "Know thyself."
The Temp le was built on a site marked by this strange sculpture that
stood at the exact center of the universe and th at was d ecorated w ith
patterns of crisscrossing thund erbolts wh ich w ere the w eapons favored
by Zeus.
Near the spot w here the thund erbolt sculpture stood, but hidd en deep
beneath the temple, was the sanctuary of the oracle, the woman cho-
sen to be the hum an voice of the god Ap ollo.
To prepare h erself for the qu estions that w ere pu t to her, the oracle
took her seat on a three-legged cauld ron, dran k water from the sacred
spring , breath ed sm oke from the leaves of Ap ollo's tree, the lau rel,
and then entered a trance.
The priests of the temp le interpr eted the sounds m ade by the oracle as
well as the movements of her body, and th eir interpr etations were
passed on to those who h ad come seeking her ad vice.
Only men were allowed to consult the oracle, and th ey usually had to
travel great distances, almost always by sea. And n ot only were they
required to sacrifice animals to the god, they also had to p ay a fee that
helped to m aintain the sanctuary.
During the w inter months, which could be qu ite snowy at Delphi, the
sanctuary rem ained open, bu t the oracle did not answ er questions be-
cause it was believed that Ap ollo, the sun god , was not present du ring
winter, the darkest season of the year.
Instead, another god , Dionysus, took his place. And being the god of
wine an d p leasure, wild festivals occurred wh ich stood in stark con-
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trast to the more subdu ed rites that were held du ring the warmer
months of the year.
All of the Greek city-states built treasuries within the temple enclosure
at Delphi...someth ing they d id at all of their great religious shrines.
These treasuries were used to store the sp ecial offerings their citizens
had m ade to the gods.
The building seen here is the treasury of the Athenians. It w as con-
structed betw een 490 and 480 B.C. Alongside th is treasury were once
displayed the shields, spears and other items captured w hen a h uge
force of Persian invad ers were d efeated by the Athenians follow ing
the famous battle of Marathon.
Every four years, a v ery sp ecial religious festival, called the Pyth ian
Games, was held a t Delphi. During this time a great procession passed
by the treasur ies on its way to the tem ple wh ere sacrifices wer e mad e
to Apollo on an altar that stood outside.
And in this huge theater next to the temp le, up to 5000 people w ould
listen to the p riests sing h ymns h onoring the god s or w atch mystery
plays which portrayed the struggle between Apollo and Python.
High u p the mou ntainside, above the theater, this stadium once ech-
oed to the sounds of the crowd s that watched the athletic competitions
that took p lace here, for in ancient Greece the cultivation of the body
went hand -in-hand with the cultivation of the soul.
But in ancient Greece, the largest athletic competitions were the Olym-
pic Games. In p art two of this program w e will visit the great sanctu-
ary of Zeus at Olympia wh ere these famou s games were first held over
2700 years ago.
End o f Part One : Tim e 14:30
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Part Two
Olympia
The first Olymp ic Games w ere held at the great religious sanctuary of
Olympia, wh ose ruins are seen here, in the year 776 B.C. And to this
day , the Olympic torch is still lit here and carried by hand to ignite the
Olympic flame wh erever the games are being held.
Olymp ia was bu ilt to honor Zeu s, the ruler of all the god s, and also to
hon or Zeuss wife Her a...sometim es called the "moth er of the god s."
To better un derstand how the Olymp ic Games first came to be, let us
have a look around ancient Olympia.
At the very center of Olymp ia, in a sacred gr ove of wild olive trees,once stood the m agnificent temple of Zeus, which contained one of the
seven won ders of the ancient wor ld, a gold and ivory statue of the
king of the gods that stood over 44 feet high and that always p rodu ced
a d eep sense of reverence among th ose who saw it.
Today no trace remains of Zeuss great statue. His temple lies in ru ins,
and the stone sections that formed its huge pillars lie where they crashed
to the earth over 1500 years ago following a pow erful earthqu ake.
But still standing, not far from the temple ru ins and up a short flight of
steps, we can see the workshop wh ere the famou s sculptor , Phidias,
labored for several years creating that enormou s work of art, and the
delicate marble carving seen here serves to remind us of the fantasticskill it took to carry ou t this remar kable task.
A long time ago, the temple of Zeus was ringed with altars, and on
some sacred sacrificial fires burned that w ere never allowed to be go
out. Sprink led among the altars were the statues of the victors of past
Olympic Games, and everywhere grew the wild olive trees that were
sacred to Zeus.
A few hu ndred yard s from Zeu ss temple stood the temp le of his wife,
Hera. Although it cant be seen here, inside her temp le there was a
statue of the godd ess seated on a throne w ith Zeus standing next to
her, and this statue of Hermes, the messenger of the gods wh o was
honor ed for his great speed and agility, stood nearby.
Outside the bound aries of the sacred grove, flowers now cover the floors
of the buildings w here the Olymp ic athletes once trained . These are
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the gymn asium and the "palestra," that w as a w restling and boxing
school. But even though their floors lie buried , many of the pillars that
once supp orted th e roofs of these fine buildings still stand today.
On the op posite side of the sacred grove from the gymnasium, the an-
cient Olympic stadium can be entered by p assing throu gh th is high
stone archway.
The Olymp ic Games were held here every four years at midsumm er,
and tens of thousand s of men came from all over Greece either to par-
ticipate in them or just to view them . Women, how ever, were not al-
lowed to attend.
Because the gam es were in honor of Zeus, a sacred tru ce was declared
out of respect for the god, and all wars between the city-states stopped
for an entire month .
The Olympic Games became so imp ortant in an cient Greece that, for
nearly all of the 1200 years they were held, even the p assing of time
came to be measured in four-year un its called O lympiads.
The Olympic Games always p ossessed a strong spiritual messagethat
men should aban don d estructive warfare and turn instead to healthy,
physical competitions, and that they should extend themselves to the
limits of their hum an abilities and , as a result, become m ore god like.
The first day of the Olymp ic games w as always d evoted to religious
ceremonies as a great p rocession of pr iests, officials, and p articipantsmad e its way into the sanctuary, stopping to m ake offerings at three
different altars outsid e the temples.
The next day, here in the stadium , the comp etitions began and these
consisted of a variety of events; among them were foot races, wrestling
contests, and b oxing m atches. Besides these events, horse races and
chariot races were h eld in the O lympic racecourse located just beyond
the stadium.
On the last day, the awards were given. First, branches were removed
from a wild olive tree that grew in Zeuss sacred grov e. Then these
branches were woven into simp le wreaths having no material value
but possessing immense spiritual value. And it was these wreaths thatwere u sed to crown the victors of the Olympic games.
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Epidauros
App roximately one hu nd red m iles east of Olymp ia, at Epidaur os, this
hu ge theater was constructed in about the 81st Olympiad. It was de-
signed to hold 14,000 spectators, and unlike the Olymp ic games, wom en
were allowed to attend the events held here.
The ancient Greeks thronged here to wa tch the all-day plays that w ere
performed in the circular area at th e foot of the grand stands, called the
orchestra, wh ere, at its exact center, an altar to the god Dionysu s was
placed...for theaters w ere, in fact, temp les to this god.
Perhaps because Dionysus was the god of pleasure, the events that
took place in the theaters were gr eatly enjoyed by the spectators, not
just for their religious merit, but for their entertainm ent value as well.
The Greeks were very famous for their plays, and all of them w ere
based on legend s and m yths. Many Greek plays are still performed to
this day; but w hether traged y or comedy , the actors in an cient times,
wh o were always men, w ore masks that had strange exaggerated ex-
pressions.
The row of seats nearest to the altar of Dionysu s was always reserved
for the priests and teachers from the sanctuary of the god of medicine
that stood among the trees and m eadows of a nearby valley. For, more
than anything else, Epidau ros w as the greatest center of healing in
ancient Greece, and peop le came here to be cured of their illnesses by
seeking the help of this god, who th ey called Asclepius.
Asclepius w as the son of Apollo, and legend said h e had learned the
healing arts from a very wise beinghalf man and h alf horsecalled a
centaur.
The temple of Asclepius, whose ru ins are seen here, was at one time
protected by thou sands of sacred snakes that were symbols both of the
god and of the healing profession. And it was outside this temple that
animals were sacrified and the offerings burned by those seeking to be
cured.
After making their offerings, sick people took a path through the woods
to a kind of hospital building where they wou ld spend the night sleep-ing on the skin of the anima l they had just sacrificed. And wh ile they
slept, Asclepius sometimes appeared to them in their dreams.
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In the morning the p atients wou ld tell the priests their dreams and ,
just like doctors today, the priests would prescribe various treatments
to cure their illnesses.
Treatments m ight involve ph ysical excercises or special baths that were
given in nearby buildings, and oftentimes treatments included mental
excercises as well, such as stu dy ing certain books or writing poetry.
Athens
Many of the people treated at the sanctuary of Asclepius travelled there
from the magnificent city-state of Athens, which lay about 150 miles to
the northeast of Epidauros.
Athens was nam ed for the godd ess of wisdom, Athena, and h er fan-tastic temp le, called the Parth enon, w hich is seen h ere, looms ab ove
the city from w here it stand s in the ancient acropolis.
Inside the Parthenon there once was an enormous gold and ivory statue
of Athena made by the same sculptor w ho fashioned the statue of Zeus
at Olympia, and du ring religious festivals this statue w as drap ed in a
special garment woven by the w omen of the city.
Next to the Parthen on, this temple called the Erechtheum with its fa-
mou s porch supp orted by statues of greek maidens, was built on the
spot w here the royal p alace of the kings of ancient Athens once stood.
The last king of Athens to live on this site was nam ed Cod rus. AfterCodru s died in 1066 B.C. fighting to save th e city from th e invad ing
Dorians, the Athenians d ecided that no one p erson could ever take the
place of such a great king, and so the monarchy w as replaced by an
oligarchyru le by a small group of men from noble families.
Then, in 594 B.C., a great statesm an n amed Solon foun d ed a p arlia-
men t, a peop les law court and a council of the people, chan ging the
way th e oligarchy governed Athens so that pow er was more equ ally
shared by all her citizens.
How ever, it was this man , Pericles, who was responsible for develop -
ing, for the first time in history, a government by the peop le starting
in the year 461 B.C. following Athens' great v ictory over the invad ingarm ies of Persia.
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Und er democracy and the gu idance of Pericles, Athens flourished; and
with th e help of some of the greatest artists and scholars in hum an
history, the city grew both in wealth and in beauty....and so Athen sentered her brief but m agnificent "Golden Age."
Most of the spiritua l life of Athens centered on th e temp les located
high abo ve the city in the Acrop olis. And the sight of these temp les
always served to rem ind the citizens of the great goodn ess and w is-
dom of Athena, their protector.
Located far below the Acropolis was the marketplace, wh ose ruins are
seen here, that was once ringed with governm ent buildings, a library,
and a gymnasium.
And on a low hill overlooking th e marketp lace, they built this fine
temple to the god of fire and m etalworking, Heph aestus; for very near
this temple there were, in ancient times, a large number of wor kshops
wh ere gifted craftsmen labored w ho sough t the guidan ce and p rotec-
tion of this god.
And looking across the marketplace from th e temple of the god of fire
is the Great Stoa of Attalos where citizens congregated to d iscuss such
things as p olitics, pr ices, their families, and the w eather.
As city-states went, Athens was qu ite large and it encompassed m uch
of the lower end of the Attica peninsu la. And here, at the extreme
southern end of the city-state and overlooking an importan t sea route,
this marvelous temp le was constructed at just abou t the same time theParthenon was being builtaround 444 B.C.
This temp le honored on e of the three greatest of the Olympian god s,
Poseidon, the God of the Seaand it is his statue we see here.
Sailors returning to Athens a fter a long voyage to th e East could see
this temple from far out on the w ater, and seeing it always m eant that
they wou ld be home soon, and for this they alwa ys gave thanks to
Poseidon.
As we h ave learned, Athens du ring its Golden Age w as quite a fantas-
tic place, and yet there w ere certain flaws in th e Athenian dem ocracy...
the same flaws that w ere to be foun d th e next time p eople tried toinstitute this form of government 2200 years later during the early years
of the United States. Na mely, only men w ere allowed to vote, and
women h ad n o legal voice in decision-mak ing at all.
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And the slaves, wh o were bought and sold like animals, had n o rights
whatsoever, even though they m ade u p a large part of the popu lation.
The Golden Age end ed m ostly because of an outbr eak of war in 431
B.C. between Athens an d her pow erful enemy, Spartaa highly milita-
ristic city-state a few hun dr ed m iles to the southa wa r that end ed 27
years later with the d efeat of Athens.
And although A thenian civilization w as not comp letely destroyed by
this war, it never fully regained the glory that it possessed d uring its
"Golden Age."
Alexand er the Great
Just forty-two years after Athens fell to Spar ta, it fell again to the forcesof Greek Macedon ia, wh ich lay to the north o f Athens.
The Macedonian king, nam ed Ph ilip, died just shortly after his great
victory over Athens; but the new king, Philips son Alexander, decided
to follow in his father's footsteps and set off to conquer th e lands that
had, a few centuries before, made u p the great Persian Emp ire.
In the year 334 B.C., when he was just 22, Alexander rode out from his
capital of Pella in Macedon ia with an arm y of 35,000 troop s. He won
battle after battle as he zig-zagged across the countryside, finally com-
pleting h is conqu ests nine years later wh en he reached th e western
borders of Ind iaand by now he was known as "Alexander the Great."
In western Ind ia, as well as everywhere else he conqu ered, Alexander
set up his own local governm ents that were requ ired to use Greek
money.
He prom oted Greek ideas and laws and even required that he be wor-
shipped as a god.
However, only three years after returning to his new capital of Babylon
in Persia, Alexander, the man wh o wan ted to be a god, d ied of malaria
at the age of 33 , and h is enormou s empire soon fell apart.
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The Roman Conq uest of Greece
About one-and-a-half centuries after Alexander's death, various parts
of Greece started to be attacked by forces from the great Italian city of
Rome.
In 146 B.C., ord ers were sen t out from the bu ildings that on ce stood
here in the Roman Forum to add Greek Macedon ia to a growing list of
provinces that made up the Roman Empire and to subdue, at any cost,
the wealthy city-state of Corinth . And after these d ifficult feats were
accomplished, it was not long un til all of Greece belonged to Rome.
The Romans sincerely adm ired all that the Greeks had achieved; so
instead of completely destroying her unique civilization, the Romans
simply absorbed most of it into their ow n culture.
They took over all of Greeces holy places. They tu rned the Olym pian
gods into Roman gods and gave them new Latin nam es. Athena, for
example, was n ow w orshipped as Minerva, wh ose image is seen here
adorning the w all of her temp le in Rome.
The Romans constructed bu ildings insp ired by Greek architecture all
across their expan ding em pire and d ecorated them with m arble stat-
ues carved in the Greek style.
And they tried har d to m atch the greatness of the Greek writers, scien-
tists and philosophers as well.
And so it was that the culture and ideas of ancient Greece were spread
by the Romans to even the remotest corners of their vast emp ire.
End of Part Tw o: Time 17:00
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Timeline
2600-2000 B.C. Growth of a pre-Greek civilization on the island of Crete.
2000-1700 B.C. Greek speaking tribes arrive in Greece. The first palaces are built on Crete.
1650-1450 B.C. Mycenaean Greeks grow in power and and construct fortified cities on mainland
Greece.
1450 B.C. Palaces on Crete are destroyed by an earthquake and the Mycenaean Greeks
capture Crete.
1189 B.C. Force of Mycenaean Greeks attack and destroy the city of Troy in Asia Minor.
1150-900 Warloving, Greek-speaking Dorians invade Greece. Mycenaean civilization col-
lapses. Refugees from the Dorians establish cities on the eastern Aegean island s
and on the coast of Asia Minor.
900-750 B.C. Greek cities develop. Massive growth of trade between the Asiatic Greeks and
mainland cities, especially Corinth . As the populations of the cities grow, new
Greek colonies are foun ded in Sicily, the Black Sea, Asia Minor, sou thern France,
Italy and Spain as well as North Africa.800 B.C. Hom er begin s to write the Iliadand the Odyssey .
800-700 B.C. Writing, introdu ced from the East, quickly spreads across Greece.
776 B.C. The fir st Olympic games are held .
720 B.C. Spartans expand into the southern peninsula of Greece called the Peloponnesus.
700-600 B.C. Tyrants rule the city-states of Megara, Corinth, and Sicyon. Sparta has two kings.
594 B.C. Solon improves the lives of the Athenians by devising better ways of sharing power
among the citizens, making it more dem ocratic.
585-571 B.C. Ancient Greek scientist Thales correctly pred icts a solar eclipse that occured on
May 28, 585 B.C. This is considered to be the first accurately know n d ate in hu man
history.
560-541 B.C. Greek playwrights Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides flourish.
546 B.C. The Persian empire conquers cit ies in eastern Greece.540-531 B.C. A group of mathematicians and philosophers led by Pythagoras develop arithmetic
and geometry.
510 B.C. With the aid of Sparta the tyrants are driven out of Athens.
507 B.C. The very earliest Athenian democracy is tried out.
490-479 B.C. The Athenians defeat the invading forces of Persia.
470 B.C. The philosopher Socrates teaches in Athens.
461-429 B.C. Age of Pericles and Athenian democracy; The Golden Age of Athens.
431 B.C. Start of the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta.
443 B.C. Herodotus begins to write the first book on history.
404 B.C Sparta defeats Athens and controls Greece.
390-381 B.C. Greek philosopher Plato found s a school in a grove on the outskirts of Athens hecalls The Academy."
380-371 B.C. Democritus recognizes that the Milky Way is mad e up of num erous stars, that the
moon is similar to the Earth, and that all matter is comp osed of atoms."
371 B.C. The city-state of Thebes defeats Sparta.
358-338 B.C. Philip, the king of Macedonia, rises up to become ruler of Greece.
350-340 B.C Aristotle develops a method of animal classification in which 500 known species
are d ivided into eight classes. He defines chemical elements an d teaches that space
is always filled with m atter.
(Continued on 1b)
1a
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DISCO VERING ANCIENT G REECE (1500-100 B.C.)
343 B.C Aristotle becomes the tutor of Alexander, the son of Philip of Macedonia who will
later be known as Alexand er the Great."
340 B.C Aristotle founds the Lyceum in Athens: a school of Philosophy where teaching was
given as the studen ts walked abou t in the neighborhood of the temp le of Apollo.
336 B.C. Philip of Macedonia is assassinated.
334-323 B.C. Alexander the Great establishes a vast empire extending from Greece to Egypt and
east all the way to India.
323 B.C. Alexander the Great dies at his capital of Babylon at the age of 33.
323-280 B.C. Struggles between Alexander's generals result in a breakup of his empire into three
parts: Macedonia, Asia Minor, and Egypt.
311 B.C. Zeno of Cyprus establishes his Philosophical School of Stoics teaching in the Stoa
Poecile in Athens.
306 B.C Ptolemy, one of Alexander's generals, begins his reign as ruler of Egypt.
300 B.C. A museum (a place where the minor goddesses called muses lived) was built inAlexand ria, Egypt. It was a home for scholars, artists, and mathematicians.
300-291 B.C. Euclids 13 books, called the Elements of Geometry, organize the mathem atical
knowledge developed in an cient Greece du ring the three preceding centuries. The
first six of these books provide th e subject m atter for most of the geometry taugh t in
schools today . Elemen ts of Geometry was the basic textbook of mathematics for
over 2000 years.
291 B.C. Greek physicians flourish at Alexandria, Egypt where they perform public dissec-
tions of the hu man body, describing the spleen, liver and retina.
280 B.C. Greek city-states try to throw off the control of Macedonia. The Romans back the
Greeks as a way of conquering Macedonia.
229-219 B.C. Romans penetrate into Illyria on the border of Macedonia.
220-211 B.C. The famous mathematician Archimedes dies at the Greek colony of Syracuse in
Sicily.
214 B.C Macedonian wars begin as Rome invades Macedonia.
197 B.C. Rom ans conquer Macedon ia.
146 B.C. Greeks rise up against Roman domination and are defeated at Corinth.
145 B.C. Rome combines the Greek city-states into their province of Macedonia; Greece is
firmly under Roman control.
33 A.D. Th e d eath of Ch rist.
50 A.D. Christ ian apost le Paul teaches in Greece.
325 A.D. The Emp eror Constantine declares that Christianity will be the official religion of
the Roman Empire.
330 A.D. Because of its vast, unmanageable size, the Roman empire is divided into twoparts. The cap ital of the Eastern Roman Empire is established at the Greek city of
Byzantium wh ich is renamed Constantinople in honor of Romes first Christian
emperor.
379-395 A.D. The Christian Roman Emperor Theodosius the First outlaws the religion of the
ancient Greeks and orders that all the shrines be closed and disman tled. The
Olympic games are ord ered stopped in 393 A.D. after having been h eld every four
years for 1169 years.
410 A.D. Barbarian Visigoths plunder Rome.
476 A.D. The collapse of the western Roman empire. Rome is occupied by Barbarian tribes.
Timeline (cont.)
1b
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2a
Vocabu lary ListACROPOLIS: A word that m eans acro h igh, polis city: high city.
ADYTON : The h oliest place inside a temp le
AGAMEMNON : Famou s King of ancient Mycenae w ho sacrificed h is daug hter Iphigenia to the god s to ensure a
safe journey to Troy.
AGORA: A large open m arketplace found in all ancient Greek cities.
AGORAPH OBIA: Fear of open spaces
ALEXAN DER THE GREAT (356- 323 B.C.) : Son of Philip II of Macedonia and a great conquer or.
ALTIS: In the ancient Greek religion, a sacred grove of trees
ATOM: A Greek wor d m eaning A," cannot tomos, be cut: cannot be cut, indivisible.
APOLLO: Greek god of the sun , healing, mu sic and prop hecy.
ARISTOTLE: 384-322 B.C Famou s Greek scientist and philosop her . Student of Plato.
ARCHIMEDES 287-212 B.C.: Famou s Greek mathematician and ph ysicist wh o d escribed th e concept of d ensity and
invented a device called th e Archimedean Screw for lifting w ater and other materials from a low er to a higher
level.
ASCLEPIUS: Ancient Greek god of med icine (Roman god Aesculapius): Son of Ap ollo.
ASCLEPION : A bu ilding for excercising, anoth er nam e for gymnasium.ATHENA: Greek goddesss of wisdom, skills and warfare. Roman godd ess Minerva.
BOULEUTERION : Ancient Greek Senate building.
CENTAUR: In Greek mythology a beast with the head and chest of a man an d th e body of a horse.
CHITON : A woolen shirt worn next to the body in an cient Greece.
CODRUS: Brave king of ancient Athens (died 1066 B.C.).
CORINTH: A rich and p owerfu l Greek city-state known for its extensive trading network .
CORINTHIAN CAPITAL: A design based on acanthus leaves found decorating certain ancient Greek pillars.
CYCLOPES: One-eyed g iants wh ose job it was to m ake weapon s for the gods. The Cyclopes w ere believed to h ave
bu ilt the wa lls of most of Greeces most ancient cities including Mycenae.
DELPHI: A mou ntainou s religious sanctuary d edicated to the god Ap ollo. Site of the famou s prop hetess known as
the Oracle of Delphi w ho acted as the hu man voice of Apollo.
DEMOS: Greek word for the peop le.
DEMOCRACY: Rule by the p eople.DEMOCRITUS 460-370 B.C.: Ancient Greek p hilosoph er who first suggested that a ll ma tter is com posed of small
ind ivisible par ticles called atom s.
DIONYSUS: Ancient Greek god of wine, vegetation, and pleasu re; in Rome he w as know n as Bacchus.
DORIAN: A native of Doris, one of the four main regions of ancient Greece.
DORIC ORDER: The oldest an d simplest of the three styles of classical Greek ar chitectur e.
ECCELISIA: An assembly of the p eople at w hich all free male citizens could vote.
EPIDAUROS: The gr eatest center of healing in ancient Greece. The location of the Temple of Asclepius, the god of
med icine and site of a 14,000 seat theater.
EUCLID (c.300 B.C.): Greek m athem atician w ho w rote the Elements of Geometr y tha t became the stan da rd text-
book on math ematics for the next 2000 years.
EPICUREANISM: A school of ancient Greek philosophy founded by Epicurus which believed that happiness through
pleasu re was the ultimate goal of life.
ERECHTH EUM: A temp le in th e Acropolis of Athen s built on the site wh ere the pa laces of the ancient kings ofAthens once stood.
GIANTS: A race of huge beings that waged war on the Olymp ian Gods.
GOLDEN AGE OF ATHENS: A p eriod of peace, prosperity and great achievements in art an d k now ledge that
occur ed in Ath ens from abou t 470-422 B.C
GOLDEN MEAN: A special mathematical ratio used in designing the perfectly proportioned temp les constructed in
ancient Greece.
HEPHAESTUS: The ancient Greek god of fire, metal, and metalw orking. Same as the Roman god Vulcan.
H ERMES: Messenger to all the god s from Zeus, the god of science, bou nd aries and comm erce and gu ide of the
dep arted souls in the u nd erworld. Same as the Roman god Mercury.
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2b
HADES: The god of the und erworld an d ru ler of the dead. Same as the Roman god Pluto. Also the home of the dead
itself.
HELLENISM: The character and thou ght of ancient Greece. The adop tion of the Greek culture by the Romans.
HERA: Wife of Zeus; greatest of all the Greek godd esses.
H ERAKLES(H ERCULES): A m ythical Hero of an cient Greece wh o carried ou t the 12 labors imp osed on him b y
Hera. He is known for his great strength and his name m eans Heras glory. He was said to be the child of Zeus and
Alcmene, the dau ghter of the Mycenaean king Electryon.
IONIA: A district of Asia Minor settled by th e ancient Greeks.
IONIC ORDER: One of the th ree styles of ancient Greek architectur e characterized by fluted tapered columns with
scrolled capitals.
ILLYRIA: Ancient land to the n orthw est of Macedon ia wh ere Albania is located tod ay.
IRENE: Daughter of Zeus and goddess of peace.
MACEDONIA: A kingdom lying to the n ortheast of Athens that grew to be a great pow er in the ancient w orld and
that w as strongly influen ced by Greece.
MINERVA: The Roman goddess of wisdom and war; same as Athena.
MOUN T OLYMPUS: The hom e of the Olympian gods.
MUSE: Any on e of the nine nymp hs or lesser divinities who presided over the fine arts and sciences. They w ere allthe d augh ters of Zeus and Mnemosyne. They were: 1. Clio, the mu se of history; 2. Euterpe, the mu se of lyric poetry;
3. Thalia, the mu se of comedy and idyllic poetry; 4. Melpomene, muse of tragedy; 5.Terpsichore, mu se of mu sic and
da ncing; 6. Erato, muse of rom antic poetry; 7. Calliope, m use of ep ic poetry and rhetoric; 8. Urania, mu se of as-
tronomy; and 9. Polyhymnia, muse of harmony and hymn s.
MUSEUM: A place for the m uses.
MYCENAE: The city that was the center of the the ancient Mycenaean Cu lture.
ODYSSEUS: Also called Ulysses: King of Ithaca w ho fought in the Trojan War an d whose ad ventu res are d escribed
in Hom er's ancient book the Odyssey.
OLIGARCHY: Rule by a sm all group of noblemen
OLYMPIA: Site of the great sanctuary of Zeus and location of the O lympic games.
OLYMPIAD: The passing of time was recorded in ancient Greece in these four year un its based on the num ber of the
pr evious Olym pic game. The first Olympiad began in 776 B.C., The second Olym piad began in 772 B.C. etc.
OLYMPIAN GO DS: The twelve major deities of the ancient Greek religion: these were Zeus, Hera, Ath ena, Ap ollo,Hermes Hephaestus, Hestia, Poseidon, Ares, Aphrodite, Artemis and Demeter.
OMPH ALOS: The nam e given to the sculp ture p laced at the center of the ancient universe at Delphi. The word
Omp halos means navel or bellybutton.
ORACLE OF DELPHI: A wom an of high m oral character over the age of 50 chosen to be th e human voice of the god
Apollo. Oracles were found at man y temp les of Apollo in ancient Greece.
ORGY: From the Greek w ord Orgia meaning secret ritesor secret worship wh ich usually includ ed feasting,
wine-drinking and wild celebration as a form of worship of certain god s; in p articular the god Dionysus.
PALESTRA: At Olympia th is was a school for wrestling and boxing; a type of gym nasium .
PAN: A rural demi-god, part man and p art goat, wh o played a seven-tubed mu sical instrum ent called the pan-pipes
and dw elt in caves and forests.
PAN CRATIUM: An athletic contest that combined w restling and boxing.
PARTHENON : Temple to Athena in the Acropolis of Athens. The word Parthen os means virgin in Greek and
refers to the godd ess Athena.PELOPON NESE: The southernmost p eninsula of the Greek mainland lying to the south of Athens.
PEPLOS: Outer garment worn by women in ancient Greece.
PERICLES (495-425B.C.): Leader of Ath ens d uring its Golden Age.
PERSEUS : Son of Zeus w ho is said to hav e found ed Mycenae. He behead ed th e snake-haired Medu sa, one of the
three Gorgons.
PHIDIAS: Great sculp tor who fashioned th e enormou s gold and ivory statues of Zeus at Olymp ia and of Athena at
the Parthenon in Athens.
PHILIP II OF MACEDONIA (382-336B.C.): The king of Macedonia and father of Alexander the Great.
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Vocabulary List (cont.)
PHILOSOPH Y: A wor d w hich means ph ilos loving soph os wisdom ; loving wisdom . Philosophers w ere people
wh o studied the processes that governed though t, perception, and m orality in an attemp t to understand the prin-
ciples and laws tha t regulate the universe and the un derlie reality. The earliest scientists were ph ilosoph ers.
PLATO (427-347 B.C.): A famou s Greek philosopher w ho w as a stu den t of Socrates and lived in Athens. He w rote abook called the Republic and founded a school called the Academ y that w as a center for advanced scientific stud y
in the ancient world up un til 529 A.D.
PLATON IC: Refers to following th e ideals of Plato and generally is taken to mean pu rely spiritual as opp osed to
sensual.
POSEIDON : The god of the sea in ancient Greece. In Rome he was w orshipp ed as Neptu ne.
PTOLEMY: The name of a dyn asty of fourteen Macedon ian kings wh o ruled Egyp t from the time of the death of
Alexander the Great in 323B.C. up u ntil 30 B.C. when the Roman s took control of Egypt.
PTOLEMY (100-170 A.D.): A Greek-Egyp tian astron omer who d eveloped an a stronom ical system called the Ptole-
maic System wh ich visualized the Earth as the center of the universe with the sun and planets revolving around it.
This system w as dispr oved by Cop ernicus and Galileo about 1400 years later.
PYTHON : A giant snake (or dragon) that had the job of guar ding the sacred sp ring at Delphi but that terrorized the
neighborhood. Apollo slew Python and to cleanse himself, took up the life of a shepherd for many years. The Pythian
gam es held at Delph i celebrated the pu rification of Apollo.PYTHAGORUS (580-500 B.C.): A well known Greek p hilosopher, mathemat ician and religious mystic. He re-discov-
ered the ancient Egyptian m athem atical theorem now called the Pythagorean th eorem. His followers called the
Pythagoreans helped to d evelop arithmetic and geometry.
POLIS: A Greek w ord w hich mean s city. The word Politikos," from w hence w e get the English word political,
mean s relating to the citizen.
SANCTUARY: A holy p lace
SOCRATES (469-399B.C.): A famous Greek philosopher who taught that it was more important to study the soul and
the mind than th e external wor ld. Socrates also taugh t that government should be entrusted to wise men who
know w hat good is.
SOLON (638-559 B.C.): Athenian p oet and statesm an w ho carried out im por tant economic, legal, and p olitical re-
forms in Athens w hen h e served as its Archon or m agistrate.
SOPHOCLES (495-406 B.C.) : Athen ian tragic poet an d d ram atist. His two m ost famou s plays are Antigone and
Oed ipus Rex. The plays of Soph ocles are still performed today .SPARTA: A highly militaristic Greek city-state and chief rival of Athens.
SPARTAN: Literally m eans a citizen of Sparta bu t in tod ay's English h as come to mean a p erson w ho is w arlike,
hard y, brave, severe, frugal and high ly disciplined.
STOA: A Greek word meaning p orch: a covered collonade having a wall or building on one side and pillars on the
the other sid e, usually qu ite large, and next to a pu blic place. Stoas wer e found in every city of ancient Greece.
STOIC: A follower of the ph ilosopher Zeno w ho tau ght u nd er the roof of the Stoa Poecile in Athens. He taught that
people should be free of passion, unmoved by grief or joy and always submit to the d ivine w ill.
STOICISM: A word that in English has come to mean bearing up to pain w ithout betraying feeling; a real or pre-
tended indifference to pleasure or pain.
SYMPOSIUM: In an cient Greece this was an en tertainmen t for men characterized by w ine-drinking, mu sic, and
intellectual d iscussion.
SYRACUSE: The large Sicilian colony of Corin th.
TEMENOS: The sacred enclosure of a temp le surr oun ded by a wall that was entered by passing throu gh a ceremo-
nial gateway called a p ropylaeum
THEODOSIUS I (ru led 379-395A.D.): The Ch ristian Roman Emper or w ho ord ered the closure or a ll the ancient
religious sh rines in Greece and halted th e Olymp ic gam es in 393 A.D.
TROY: Also called Illion; ancient trad ing city near the H ellespont in north west Tu rkey m ade famous in th e Iliad of
Homer.
TROJAN WAR: War between Troy and the Greek city-state of Achaea 1194-1184 B.C. The Greek forces were led by
the famous Mycenaean king named Agamemn on.
TYRANT: In Greek tyr annos wh ich m eans an absolute sovereign. Tyrants often ruled the Greek city-states.
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The Principal Gods and God desses of Ancient Greece
Names Identity Symbols
Z EUS (JUPITER) RULER O F TH E GOD SAND THE WORLD eagle, thunderbolt
H ERA (JUN O) ZEUS WIFE AN D GODDESS
OF MARRIAGE peacock, crown
APOLLO GOD OF THE SUN, MUSIC,
PROPH ECY AN D BEAUTY lyre, arrow s, lau rel tree
DIONYSUS (BACCHUS) GOD OF WINE, VEGETATION,
AND PLEASURE wine, grape vine, panther.
HERMES (MERCURY) MESSENGER TO THE GODS FROM
ZEUS, HERALD OF THE GODS, GOD OF winged sandals, winged cap,COMMERCE AND BOUNDARIES serpent rod(caduceus), the ram
HESTIA (VESTA) GODDESS OF THE FAMILY AND
HEARTH fire
DEMETER (CERES) GODDESS OF AGRICULTURE
AND MATERN AL LOVE scep ter, scythe, grain
APHRODITE (VENUS) GODDESS OF LOVE, Mother of Eros(Cupid) doves, seashell
ARES (MARS) GOD OF WAR, lover of Aphrod ite helm et, arm s, arm or
ATHENA (MINERVA) GODDESS OF WISDOM AND VICTORY
IN WAR shield , helmet, owl, olive branch
HEPHAESTUS (VULCAN) GOD OF FIRE, METAL, METALWORKING anvil, hamm er
POSEIDON (NEPTUNE) GOD OF THE SEA AND STORMS trident(a three-pronged pitchfork)
HADES (PLUTO) RULER OF THE KINGDOM OF THE DEAD: throne, beard
ARTEMIS (DIANA) TWIN SISTER OF APOLLO:
GODDESS OF THE MOON , WILDLIFE,
H UN TIN G, AN D CH ASTITY cresent m oon, bow , qu iver
ASCLEPIUS (AESCULAPIUS) GOD OF MEDICINE, SON OF APOLLO serpent, rod
PERSEPHONE(PROSERPINA) DAUGHTER OF DEMETER,
GODDESS OF DEATH AND RENEWAL plants, the rooster
(Names in parentheses are Roman)
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Name________________________________
DISCO VERING ANCIENT G REECE (1500-100 B.C.)
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1995 Chariot Productions Distributed by United Learning, Inc.
Name________________________________
DISCO VERING ANCIENT G REECE (1500-100 B.C.)
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Crossword Puzzle
ACROSS
1. Great conqueror from Macedonia, son of Philip II.
2. A pow erful city-state that found ed the colony of Syracuse in Sicily and tha t was located near impor tant
land and sea routes south of Athens.
3. This city, one of the oldest in Greece, was th e center of a pow erful culture in 1500 B.C.
4. Athens in 450 B.C. reached a high point in its culture called the__________ Age of Athens.
5. Athens main rival; a pow erful militaristic city-state.
6. Messenger to the gods from Zeus.
7. The greek word for high city; location of the Parthen on.
8. Location of the Olymp ian Games in ancient Greece.
9. Ruler of all gods and m en in ancient Greece.
10.The ancient king th at sacrificed h is daughter to th e gods so th at his fleet wou ld safely reach Troy.
DOWN
1. Asclepiu s was the ancient Greek god of______________.
2. A prophetess and h um an voice of Apollo was called an ___________.
3. Hep haestu s was the god of_________, metal and metalw orking.
4. God of wine and pleasure in ancient Greece.
5. The wife of Zeus and Godd ess of the family.
6. The Greek goddess of wisdom an d victory in war.
7. Rule by a small group of noble men.
8. Ancient Greek god of the sea and of storms.
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Name________________________________
DISCO VERING ANCIENT G REECE (1500-100 B.C.)
Quiz
MATCHING: Put the correct letter from the column on the right below to m atch 1 throu gh 10.
1. ____ Site of the most famous of the Greek O racles. A. Mount Olympus
2. ____ Main center of healing in ancient Greece. B. Troy
3. ____ Theaters in ancient Greece were temp les to this god . C. Olympia
4. ____ This god slew a snake tha t guard ed a sacred spring. D. Dionysus
5. ____ This man wr ote the Iliad an d the Odysessy. E. He ra
6. ____ Alexander the Great came from here. F. Epidau ros
7. ____ Agam emnon fought here. G. Delphi
8. ____ The most important god s in ancient Greece lived her e. H. Macedonia
9. ____ The most important sanctuary to Zeu s in ancient Greece. I. Homer
10. ____ Zeu s wife J. Apollo
TRUE OR FALSE: Put a T in front the following tru e statements an d an F in front of those which are false.
11. ____ King Agamemn on ru led Corinth.
12. ____ Pericles was a famou s tyrant of Athen s.
13. ____ Greek ph ilosoph ers sometimes taugh t in stoas.
14. ____ The Romans despised Greek cultur e.
15. ____ Alexander th e Great was finally defeated in Egypt.
16. ____ The ancient Greek city-states had colonies both in north Africa and in south ern France.
17. ____ The ancient Greeks contributed little to math ematics.
18. ____ Most Spartans feared war and loved luxury .
19. ____ Democracy was born in Greece.
20. ____ Slaver y was illegal in ancient Greece.
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