Term
Assignment 11 Oct08 Q-1
What were the three parts of primary school curriculum in Athens? Explain why these three were emphasized |
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Definition
Grammar or letters (Orally often informally or indirectly)
Music (mainly learning to sing poetry to the lyre)
Gymnastics or athletics (wrestling, running, and so on) |
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Assignment 11 Oct08 Q-2
What was the basis of the “new writing” of Greek developed in the 8th Century? |
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Definition
| North-West Semitic writing were adopted and adapted new alphabet called 'Phoenician' |
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Assignment 11 Oct08 Q-3
What is the evidence that many Athenians were able to read? |
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Definition
| The official documents published on stone came to include much more than the texts of decrees. Also inscribed were treaties, dedications, accounts and casualty-lists. These public inscriptions were often lengthy and, both for that reason and because of the care taken over the carving, must have been costly. It is hard to believe that such expenditure would have been incurred unless many of the citizens had been able to read the inscriptions, had they so desired. |
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Assignment 11 Oct08 Q-4
In what ways did social class affect the nature and amount of schooling in Athens? |
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Definition
We may take it that by the mid-fifth century at latest most Athenian boys of the upper and middle classes attended for a period a school run by a grammatistes, and that the grammatistes was steadily gaining in importance over the kitharistes and paidotribes.
Fathers wishing their sons to have a 'liberal' education—one fit for the son of a free man—sent them to private day-schools, if they could afford to. |
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Assignment 11 Oct08 Q-5
What evidence is there for the existence of “books” in 5th Century Athens? |
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Definition
| It is not easy to determine the importance of books (papyrus rolls, that is) in fifth-century Athens. There is no evidence of anything like a publishing house, but the comic poet Eupolis (fragment 304) mentions that a part of the Agora was reserved for the sale of books. |
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Assignment 11 Oct08 Q-6
In what way does ostracism imply literacy among many Athenians? |
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Definition
| Ostracism, probably introduced in 508, presupposed that most citizens could at least read names. If most, or even many, of the citizens had been unable either to write a name, on a potsherd (ostrakon) for themselves or even to read an inscribed ostrakon handed to them, the opportunities for deception would have been intolerably great. |
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Assignment 11 Oct08 Q-7
Who was Herodotos? |
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Definition
| Known as the Father of History. ?485-?425 bc, Greek historian, famous for his History dealing with the causes and events of the wars between the Greeks and the Persians (490-479) |
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Term
Assignment 11 Oct08 Q-7.1
Where was Herodotos from? |
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Definition
| A citizen of Halikarnassos, a city on the coast of Karia and probably an early member of the Athenian alliance. Banished from his native city, he is said to have joined in the foundation of the Athenian colony of Thourioi and to have died there. |
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Assignment 11 Oct08 Q-7.2
What did Herodotos write about? |
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Definition
| He had resolved to record in a coherent narrative as much of the truth as he could discover about the exploits of both sides in the Persian Wars. |
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Term
Assignment 11 Oct08 Q-8
In what significant ways to the works of Thucydides differ from those of Herodotus? |
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Definition
Thucydides offered his readers political analysis so subtle as to demand reflective reading rather than declamation. Thucydides legislated for his successors: serious history was contemporary political history, of people whose language one knew. The use of oral testimony was endorsed, but enquiry into the distant past was rejected as too hazardous.
Herodotos did manage to produce a coherent and, as we now know, remarkably accurate account of Graeco-Persian affairs from the fall of the Lydian capital, Sardis, to the Persians to the fall of Sestos in 478 to the Athenians, and at many points he pushed the frontiers of knowledge further back than that. |
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Assignment 11 Oct08 Q-9
In what ways was Homer’s work a kind of Encyclopaedia Graeca? |
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Definition
| The reason, says Sokrates (Republic 607e), for the Greek 'passion for such poetry' is 'the upbringing afforded by fine constitutions'. (Plato's use of 'fine' is ironic.) Even after the advent of widespread literacy, that upbringing remained primarily oral and emotional. From childhood onwards, Athenians were constantly assisting at, if not performing in, passionate re-enactments of the words and deeds of Agamemnon, Achilles and the others. |
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Term
Assignment 12 Oct10 Q-1
When was Athenian democracy put down for good? |
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Definition
| Athens became a democracy once more and remained so until 322 B.C. when the Macedonians again put democracy down, this time for good. |
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Term
Assignment 12 Oct10 Q-1.1
What was the cause of its final collapse of Athenian democracy? |
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Definition
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Assignment 12 Oct10 Q-2
When are the two sources that Cartledge cites as pointing to the importance of festivals for the Athenians? |
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Definition
1. Thucydides, the great historian of the Peloponnesian War
2. The Herald of those initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries in 403 B.C. |
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Assignment 12 Oct10 Q-3
Approximately when did the tyrant Pisistratus make drama a regular part of the City Dionysia? |
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Definition
| The floruit of Thespis was given in antiquity as 534, six years before Pisistratus' death. |
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Assignment 12 Oct10 Q-4
What happened at the Proagon which preceded the production of the plays? |
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Definition
| At the Proagon of 406 B.C., for example, just after the death of Euripides had been announced, Sophocles appeared in mourning, and introduced his actors and chorus without the customary garlands on their heads; the audience, we are told, dissolved into tears. |
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Assignment 12 Oct10 Q-5
Describe the great procession on the opening day of the festival. |
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Definition
| The festival proper began on Elaphebolion 10 with a great procession (pompe); this was distinct from the procession that brought back the statue. |
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Term
Assignment 12 Oct10 Q-5.1
Who participated in the great procession on the opening day of the festival. |
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Definition
| Participants in the grand opening procession included not only Athenian citizens, but resident aliens and, in the fifth century, Athenian colonists who had been settled elsewhere in the Aegean area for economic and strategic reasons. |
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Assignment 12 Oct10 Q-5.2
What did many carry that participated in the great procession on the opening day of the festival. |
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Definition
??? This answer need verified ???
Many carried a model of an erect phallus, the Dionysiac fertility symbol |
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Term
Assignment 12 Oct10 Q-6
Before the performance of the first three tragedies, what were the two parades that moved through the theater? |
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Definition
| Before the plays could commence there were more ceremonies, some religious, most wholly secular. The saying of prayers and the pouring of libations are to be expected. But in the fifth century, before defeat in the Peloponnesian War put paid to their vaulting ambitions, the Athenians also used this occasion as a grand demonstration of their imperial might. They had the year's tribute from their subject-allies, some of whom will have been in the audience, paraded by some 400 hired bearers who each carried a sack containing one talent's worth of silver.31 This parade, which served as a kind of collective receipt, formed a natural complement to the Parthenon and other splendid buildings on the Acropolis above the Theatre which had been financed from the imperial tribute. Then there was another, smaller parade, this time in full armour by newly-adult orphans whose fathers had been killed in war and who had therefore been raised at state expense. This was a neat way of celebrating both military patriotism and a kind of welfare-state democratic paternalism. |
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Assignment 12 Oct10 Q-7
How many days of plays were there at the theater of Dionysos during the festival |
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Definition
| There were four days of plays |
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Assignment 12 Oct10 Q-7.1
What was the total number of plays at the theater of Dionysos during the festival? |
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Definition
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Assignment 12 Oct10 Q-7.2
What was the breakdown of tragedies, comedies, satyr plays, at the theater of Dionysos during the festival? |
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Definition
| ?? This answer needs worded better ?? Three for tragedies and then accompanying satyr-plays, the fourth for the five comedies chosen. |
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Assignment 12 Oct10 Q-8
Where, specifically, was the theater of Dionysos? |
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Definition
| The Acropolis, The abrupt rock of the hill provided shelter from the north winds apt to blow in early spring when the Dionysia normally fell; while the hill's moderate south-east slope could be specially prepared to accommodate superimposed rows of seating [25] - beaten earth and wooden benches down to the later fourth century, when the stone seating visible today was constructed. |
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Assignment 12 Oct10 Q-8.1
Approximately how many people could the theater of Dionysos seat? |
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Definition
| It is estimated that the theatre could hold up to 17,000 |
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Term
Assignment 12 Oct10 Q-9
By mid 5th Century (Sophocles) how many actors participated in a tragedy? |
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Definition
| There had been, to begin with, just one actor in tragedy, the playwright himself, who enacted the drama in dialogue with the Chorus. Aeschylus added a second, Sophocles a third, and three remained the fixed number of speaking actors in tragedy, though some plays of Aristophanes demanded a minimum of five. |
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Assignment 12 Oct10 Q-10
Who was in overall charge of the important Athenians festivals? |
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Definition
| The civic official in overall charge of the festival was the eponymous chief Archon, who was appointed annually (after 487 B.C. by the democratic procedure of the lot) and was accountable to the Athenian people as a whole, again in accordance with a basic democratic principle. |
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Assignment 12 Oct10 Q-11
What specifically was the choregos responsible for doing and providing for the Athenian festival? |
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Definition
| Paid and kitted out the Chorus and, when required, provided for a retinue of mute characters or even occasionally a second Chorus. He also paid the aw/os-player and, from the late fifth century, a professional Chorus-trainer. Perhaps, too, he covered the cost of any special effects. When the performances were over, he was expected to provide a banquet for all concerned. |
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Assignment 12 Oct10 Q-11.1
Who selected the leading actor for each playwright during the Athenians festival? |
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Definition
| We do not know the criteria on which he made his selection, though he perhaps asked the prospective playwrights to recite passages to him. However the selection was made, we can only applaud those Archons who decided for Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes, and feel sorry for the one who preferred the unknown Gnesippos to Sophocles. The Archon's next task was to appoint choregoi, Chorus-masters or impresarios, one for each of the lucky playwrights. |
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