Chapter 4—The Civilization of the Greeks
ESSAY
1.
Assess the influence of geography on the development of early Greek civilization.
Was it the most important factor influencing this development?
2.
Who was Homer? Why has his historicity been questioned? To what degree did ideas
contained in Homer's writings influence later Greek civilization? Why do you think as you do?
3.
What were the chief features of the polis, or city-state? Compare and contrast the
values, institutions, and actions of the city-states of Sparta and Athens.
4.
What did the Greeks mean by democracy? In what ways was the Athenian political
system a democracy? How would Athenian democracy differ from modern democracies, such as that
found in the United States?
5.
"The Golden Age of Greece was a direct consequence of the results of the Persian
War." Discuss, pro and con.
6.
What are the relationships between the accomplishments of the Golden Age of Greece
in the fifth century B.C.E. and its subsequent decline? Was that decline inevitable? Why and/or why
not?
7.
Are the ideas and influences of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle still the ultimate basis of
Western society? Why or why not?
8.
What ideas and cultural norms were discussed and developed by Greek dramatists and
philosophers? How, and in what ways, did they constitute, or reflect, the major contributions of Greek
civilization to world history?
9.
Write an assessment of Alexander the Great. How "Great" was he, actually? Why?
10.
Were Epicureanism and Stoicism a continuation of "traditional" Greek thought
(Socrates, Plato, and others) or were they a "new," Hellenistic development? Or both?
11.
"The Greek contribution to Western Civilization was so great that everything since the
Greeks is merely a footnote to their accomplishments." Discuss, pro and con.
12.
"Hellenistic civilization had a greater ultimate impact on Western Civilization
than the Hellenic/polis world of Athens and Sparta." Discuss, pro and con.
IDENTIFICATIONS
Instructions: Identify the following terms.
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Knossus
Arthur Evens
Greek geography
Minoan
Thera
Peloponnesus
Mycenaeans
Heinrich Schliemann
the Greek Dark Ages
Ionians, Aeolians, and Dorians
Phoenician alphabet
Iliad and Odyssey
Homer
arete
polis
Athens
Sparta
hoplites
phalanx
Greek colonization
tyrants
oligarchy and democracy
helots
women in Sparta
Solon and Cleisthenes
Darius and Xerxes
battles of Thermopylae, Marathon, Salamis, and Plataea
Delian League
Pericles
Peloponnesian War
Herodotus
Thucydides
Aeschylus' Oresteia
Sophocles' Oedipus the King
Aristophanes
the Parthenon
Socrates and his "Socratic method"
Plato's ideal forms
Aristotle
oracle at Delphi
Olympic Games and Zeus
Macedonia and Philip II
battle of Chaeronea
Alexander the Great
Hellenistic
Antigonid, Seleucid, Attalid, and Ptolemaic dynasties
Alexandria
Archimedes
Epicurus
Zeno