Midterm Review

Identifications:

You should be prepared to give a three to four sentence identification of any of the following. You should also be prepared to locate any of the following places on a map of the Mediterranean.

People	Things	Places
Agiads	Archon	Argos
Alcmaeonids	Areopagus	Athens
Alcman	aretÍ	Carthage
Archilochus	Battle of Hysiai	Corcyra
Aristagoras of Miletus	Battle of Marathon	Corinth
Aristides	Battle of Thermopylae	Crete
Bacchiads	Boule	Cyprus
Cleisthenes of Athens	deme	Cyrene
Cleisthenes of Sicyon	Ecclesia	Delphi
Cleomenes	Eleusinian Mysteries	Eleusis
Croesus	emporia	Euboea
Cylon	First Sacred War	Ionia
Cypselus	genos (clan)	Marathon
Cyrus	Gerousia	Megara
Demaratus	Great Rhetra	Messenia
Draco	hectemoroi	Miletus
Epimenides	helot	Mycenae
Eurypontids	Hippeis	Naukratis
Gyges	hoplite warfare	Pithecusa
Harmodius and Aristogeiton	oikos	Salamis
Heinrich Schliemann	Olympic games	Samos
Heraclids	Oracle of Delphi	Sicily
Hesiod	ostracism	Sicyon
Hippias and Hipparchus	Pentacosiomedimnoi	Sparta
Homer	phratry	Tarentum
Isagoras	phyle (tribe)
Leonidas	Thetes
Leotychides	timÍ
Lycurgus	trittyes
Pheidon	xenia
Pisistratus	Zeugitai
Polykrates
Solon
Themistokles
Theognis
Theseus
Tyrtaeus

Essay Questions:

1. What are the common elements of Greek narratives of colonization? Why do these elements appear in so many colonization stories? What is the significance and function of these elements? Use at least three stories of colonization as examples to make your points.

2. What can the tales of the birth of a leader tell the modern reader about how that leader was perceived by his contemporaries? What common elements in the stories provide clues? Explain with regard to at least two such stories found in Herodotus or other sources.

3. What roles did women play in Spartan society? What do the conflicting sources have to say about Spartan women?

4. Why did the Greeks colonize? What conditions, economic, social, and political, led to the process of colonization in the Archaic period?

5. How did the Spartans develop hoplite warfare to the peak that they did? How did the reforms of åLycurgusπ and the social customs of Sparta contribute to its military prowess?

6. For to the people I gave so much honor as is sufficient, neither diminishing their timÍ nor adding to it in profusion. As for those who held power and were admired for their wealth, I saw to it that they, also, had nothing shameful. I took my stand, covering both in the protection of my mighty shield, nor did I allow either side to win unjustly. (Solon, fr. 5)

Explain how Solonπs reforms provided a compromise between the factions in Athens. What advantage did each group obtain? What did each have to give up? In what ways did Solonπs reforms fail to resolve the problems of Athens?

7. Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of Herodotus or Thucydides or Plutarch or Xenophon or the Aristotelian Athenian Constitution as a source for historical information.

8. What impact did the expansion of trade with the Near East and the Italian peninsula have on the development of the Greek polis?

9. How does the difference between the poetry of Homer (or Hesiod) and the poetry of Theognis (or Tyrtaeus) reflect the changes in Greek society between the times of those poets? What social institutions do these poems reflect?

10. What does the appearance and positioning of monumental temples in the Archaic period reveal about the development of the Greek polis?

11. What narrative pattern do the tales of tyrants, in Herodotus and elsewhere, display? What does this pattern reveal about the way in which the Greeks regarded absolute rulers? Use examples from stories of at least two tyrants. How does Herodotusπ story of Deioces provide a contrast?

12.

So, after all, there was not one kind of Strife

alone, but all over the earth there are two. As for the one, a

man would praise her when he came to understand her; but the

other is blameworthy: and they are wholly different in nature.

For one fosters evil war and battle, being cruel: her no man

loves; but perforce, through the will of the deathless gods, men

pay harsh Strife her honour due. But the other is the elder

daughter of dark Night, and the son of Cronos who sits above and

dwells in the aether, set her in the roots of the earth: and she

is far kinder to men. She stirs up even the shiftless to toil;

for a man grows eager to work when he considers his neighbour, a

rich man who hastens to plough and plant and put his house in

good order; and neighbour vies with is neighbour as he hurries

after wealth. This Strife is wholesome for men. And potter is

angry with potter, and craftsman with craftsman, and beggar is

jealous of beggar, and minstrel of minstrel.

According to Hesiod (Works and Days, ll. 11-24), competition is a fundamental element of Greek culture. Discuss at least three examples in which competition shaped historical events that we have discussed in class.

13. But in Ionia and many other regions where they live under foreign sway, it [love of youths] is counted a disgrace. Foreigners hold this thing, and all training in philosophy and sports, to be disgraceful, because of their despotic government; since, I presume, it is not to the interest of their despots to have lofty notions engendered in their subjects, or any strong friendships and communions; all of which Love is pre-eminently apt to create. It is a lesson that our tyrants learnt by experience; for Aristogeiton's love and Harmodius's friendship grew to be so steadfast that it wrecked their power. Thus where it was held a disgrace to gratify one's lover, the tradition is due to the evil ways of those who made such a law-- that is, to the encroachments of the rulers and to the cowardice of the ruled.

In Plato's Symposium (182bd), one character uses the example of Harmodius and Aristogeiton to explain why the love of youths is discouraged in cities under tyrants' control. Why might this be an effective argument for his Athenian audience? How does this passage reflect the different versions of the story found in Thucydides, Herodotus, and the Harmodius skolion?

14. Although tales of the Dorian invasion or the Ionian migration are difficult to support archaeologically, they were nonetheless important to the ancient Greeks. Discuss at least three examples in which notions of ethnic identity shaped the events of history we have discussed in class.

15. How did the reforms of Cleisthenes the Athenian differ from the reforms of his grandfather from Sicyon? What effects did these reforms have within the society of the polis and in the polis' relations with other states?