Literature: It's Greek to Me!
A serious play or story with an unhappy ending; many were written by Euripides, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and other people with hard to pronounce names!
What is a tragedy?
Located 26 miles from Athens, this field of battle gives its name to a grueling run which was undertaken by a messenger who dropped dead after telling the Athenians about the Greek victory.
What is Marathon?
Athens became the world's first democracy thanks to this early politician and constitutional author.
Who is Cleisthenes?
This "S" named philosopher, who was sentenced to death for corrupting the youth of Athens with dangerous ideas, invented the method of Socratic discourse we practice in our Thursday seminars.
Who is Socrates?
Greece lies at the southeastern corner of this continent.
What is Europe?
The blind poet who (probably) wrote the Iliad and Odyssey (We're not sure. It was a looooooooong time ago!)
Who is Homer?
A member of the Spartan slave class; they outnumbered the citizens 7 to 1 and were seen as a threat, so every year the Spartans waged war on them.
What is a helot?
A ruler who represents a noble or upper-class (it almost sounds like a classic Disney film about French kitties.)
What is an aristocrat?
Take the "A" train to Macedonia, where this philosopher tutored the young prince later known as Alexander the Great.
Hundreds of islands lie in this sea east of mainland Greece, including Crete, home to the oldest-known Greek civilization.
What is the Aegean Sea?
This hero of the Iliad was a great warrior whose body could not be hurt in battle--except for his heel.
Who is Achilles?
Don't call me phat! It's the name for the close formation of troops that made the Greeks so successful in battle.
What is a phalanx?
Of these magnificent structures, only the pyramids of Giza in Egypt still stand.
What are the Seven Wonders of the (Ancient) World?
"P" stands for this philosopher whose Republic mentions the fabled lost city of Atlantis.
Who is Plato?
The Ionian Sea separates Greece from this peninsular land, where the Roman Empire would later thrive and conquer Greece, incorporating much of its culture and religion.
What is Italy?
This four-letter term (later a nickname for William Shakespeare) refers to travelling poets and singers who could compose and memorize thousands of lines of poetry.
What is a bard?
For three days, King Leonidas and 300 Spartans (and a few friends) held off the massive forces of King Xerxes and this empire at Thermopylae in 480 B.C.
What is Persia?
This Greek word for city can be found in American place names like the capitals of Indiana and Maryland.
What is polis?
This "P" word for a worshipper of an untrue religion was applied to the Acnient Greek philosophers by the Catholic Church. Their works were discouraged and forgotten before being rediscovered during the Renaissance.
What is pagan?
The major gods of Greek mythology called this mountain home, and the land nearby gave its name to an athletic tournament held every four years (the last one was in Paris just a few months ago.)
What is Mount Olympus?
Aristophanes is credited as the inventor of this literary art, in which he lampooned (made fun of) popular figures and politics of his day.
What is comedy?
This war between Sparta and Athens for control of Greece was name for the large peninsula whwre Sparta is located
What is the Peloponnesian War?
Ancient Greece was not a "country" in the moderrn sense; instead, it was made up of these tiny self-ruling nations (such as Athens and Sparta.)
What is a city-state?
Themistocles and Xerxes clashed in a massive naval battle named for this "S"-word island near Athens, where the outnumbered Greeks beat back the Persian offensive.
What is Salamis?
This fabled city, famous for its mighty walls, was beseiged by the Greeks for ten years--until a huge wooden horse filled with invaders was left on its doorstep and the defenders foolishly brought it inside.
What is Troy?