Life and Politics in Ancient Greece
Section 2: Life in Ancient Greece
1. What is polytheism?
I.
II.
III.
Greek Gods and Myths:
a. These vivid tales portrayed gods who could be _____ or ______ but also
______ or _______.
b. They had a wide range of _________ emotions, including ______, _______ and
________.
c. Each city had a special _______ or _______ to _______ it.
i. Which goddess was the protector of Athens?
d. Myths often began as ______ stories.
e. Why did Greeks develop myths?
Honoring the Gods:
a. How did the Greeks honor the gods?
b. People celebrated holy days with ______ and public ceremonies.
i. What is sacrifice?
c. What god was honored through the Olympics?
d. Who could compete in the Olympics?
e. What sports were competed in during the Olympics?
f. Who participated in the foot races in honor of Hera?
Early Greek Literature:
a. What are epics?
b. Homer’s two great epic poems are the Iliad and the Odyssey. The backdrop of
both poems is the ______ War.
c. Why did the war start?
d. The Iliad is famous for its portrayal of heroes, especially the Greek warrior
_________.
e. What was Achilles’s weak spot?
f. Homer’s other major epic, the Odyssey, describes the adventures of the Greek
hero _______. On this trip home after the Trojan War, Odysseus offended
_______, the Greek god od the sea. In revenge, the god made Odysseus’s
journey take ____ years. During that time, Odysseus and his men traveled
through strange and mysterious _____ and encountered many _____. Odysseus
used his _____ and _____ to survive his long journey.
g. What is a fable?
h. Who was the author of many fables?
i. What is a famous fable by Aesop?
Section 3: The City-State and Democracy
1. Greece was a region of people who shared a common ______ and common _____. In
spite of that cultural ______, Greece was divided ________.
I.
The Rise of City-States:
a. Geography divided Greece into ________
b. Because of this, the basic from of government in Greece was the _______. A
city-state is a state formed by a city and its surrounding lands. It generally
included numerous villages.
c. The Greek word for city-state was _____.
II.
III.
d. Geographic features, such as _____, limited their _____.
e. The center of city life was the ______, an _____ space where people came for
_______ and _______. ______ citizens met there to discuss politics.
f. Many cities had a fortified _____ called an _______. The word means _______.
i. What did the Greeks use the acropolis for at first?
ii. What did the Greeks later use the acropolis for?
Forms of Government:
a. Each city-state of Greece was _______. The people of each one figured out
what kind of ______ worked best for them. As a result, different city-states used
different _______.
b. The earliest form of government in Greece was ______.
i. What is monarchy?
ii. Most Greek city-states started out as _______ but changed over time to
other forms of government.
c. What is aristocracy?
d. The Greek city-state of _______ began as a ______. Later, it was ruled by an
_______. Many other Greek city-states followed the same path.
e. What is oligarchy?
f. What is the main difference between aristocracy and oligarchy?
g. ______ people were not part of the government in monarchies, aristocracies or
oligarchies. Sometimes a wealth person who wanted to ______ power made use
of that _____. He would use poor people to support him in becoming a _____.
Such leaders were called _______.
h. How does the term tyrant today differ from how the Greeks used it?
i. What actions did some Greek tyrants take to help the poor?
j. Tyrants played an important role in the development of rule by the _______.
They helped to overthrow the _______. They also showed that if common
people united behind a ______, they could gain the power to _______.
Athens Builds a Limited Democracy:
a. One of the major legacies of ancient Greece is the idea of ______.
b. What is a citizen?
c. Who could be citizens in ancient Greece?
d. During the 500s BC, two leaders in Athens made gradual ____ that gave the
people more power. Those leaders were ______ and ______.
e. Read the History Makers section. What social class was Solon from? Whose
power did he reduce?
f. About 594 BC, made reforms that helped prevent a revolt by the _____. First he
freed people who had become _____ because of debts. He made a _____ that
no citizen could be _____.
g. When Solon organized citizens into classes, which class had the most power?
Why was this an improvement from earlier systems?
i. The changes made by Solon allowed _________ to serve in the _____,
the lawmaking body, and to help ________.
h. Around 500 BC, Cleisthenes increased the power of Athenian citizens _______.
He reorganized the assembly to take power away from the ______. He organized
citizens into ten groups, known as tribes. The tribes were based on place of
residence, instead of on ______ or family ties.
i. Cleisthenes set up a group of _____ commanders to lead the military.
Each ____ elected ____ of the commanders, who served for ____ year.
ii. The Council of Five Hundred was made up of 500 men, ___ men from
each of the ___ tribes. Any citizen over the age of __ was qualified to be
i.
j.
k.
l.
m.
n.
o.
p.
a member. Each tribe chose the men by lot, or ___, to serve for a term
of one year. Members could only be re-elected ___. The _____ turnover
allowed for a ________ number of Athenian citizens to ________ in
their government at a high level.
These changes moved Athens toward an early form of ______.
What is democracy?
The Athenian style of democracy is called a ______ democracy. In such a
system, _____ the citizens meet to _____ on the laws.
What is indirect democracy?
Is the US a direct or indirect democracy?
Who was not allowed to participate in Athenian democracy?
What is ostracism?
What were the responsibilities of Athenian citizens?