The Iliad
This greatest Trojan warrior kills Patroclus, inciting the rage of Achilles.
Who is Hector?
Thucydides chronicles the long war between these two major Greek city-states.
What are Athens and Sparta (Lacedaemon)?
The primary speaker in The Republic who challenges others to define justice.
Who is Socrates?
1 Maccabees records the origin of this "Festival of Lights," established after the cleansing of the Temple.
What is Hanukkah?
This god of wine and theater returns to Thebes to clear his mother's name and punish the city for refusing to worship him.
Who is Dionysus?
The epic begins with a dispute between Achilles and Agamemnon over this war prize (a woman).
Who is Briseis?
In his famous Funeral Oration, this statesman praises Athens as the "school of Greece" and extols the virtues of democracy.
Who is Pericles?
In the "Allegory of the Cave," the prisoners mistake these for reality.
What are shadows?
In the prologue of Job, this figure challenges God, claiming Job is only faithful because of his wealth and protection.
Who is (the) Satan?
This young King of Thebes is torn apart by the Maenads because he stubbornly resists the new god.
Who is Pentheus?
In Book 6, Hector shares a tender moment with this wife and their infant son, Astyanax, before returning to battle. This is his wife's name.
Who is Andromache?
The "Epidamnus Affair" involved a colony asking for help from this mother city, whose subsequent alliance with Athens helped spark the war.
What is Corcyra?
Glaucon tells the story of the Ring of Gyges to argue that men only behave justly because they fear this.
What is punishment (or being caught/seen)?
He was the most famous son of Mattathias, nicknamed "The Hammer," who led the military campaigns against the Seleucids.
Who is Judas Maccabeus?
These two old men (one a blind seer, the other the former king) provide comic relief but also wisdom by dressing up to worship Dionysus.
Who are Cadmus and Tiresias?
This aged king of Troy bravely enters the Greek camp alone to beg Achilles for the return of his son's body.
Who is Priam?
Thucydides offers a different account of the ancient heroes from Homer's. For Thucydides, Agamemnon and Odysseus and the like were basically just practicing this type of maritime criminality.
What is piracy?
Socrates argues that in the ideal city, kings must become these (or vice versa) for the city to have rest from evils.
What are philosophers?
After his friends fail to explain his suffering, God finally answers Job out of this phenomenon.
What is a whirlwind (or storm)?
The play ends in horror when Agave realizes the "lion's head" she is carrying actually belongs to this person.
Who is her son (Pentheus)?
During the funeral games for Patroclus, this goddess intervenes in the chariot race to help Diomedes win and cause Eumelus to crash.
Who is Athena?
In the Melian Dialogue, the Athenians laugh off any noble interpretation of this virtue, suggesting that it is really only the advantage of the stronger.
What is Justice?
Glaucon suggests that a wholly righteous man will be accused of being unrighteous, and will be killed in this manner by the unrighteous for his righteousness.
What is crucifixion?
Martin Luther disliked Maccabees because they advocated what doctrinal error (in his eyes)?
What is "intercession of the saints" or "purgatory"?
The "sparagmos" (tearing apart of a victim) takes place on this mountain outside the city of Thebes.
What is Mount Cithaeron?