Humanities Exam 2

Epicurus

leading philosopher for free will; atomist; thought nobody should fear death bc it was going to be nothing and the gods didnt reward or punish humans; - was an ancient Greek philosopher as well as the founder of the school of philosophy called Epicureanism. Only a few fragments and letters of his 300 written works remain. Much of what is known about his philosophy derives from later followers and commentators. His purpose of philosophy was to attain the happy, tranquil life, characterized by ataraxia—peace and freedom from fear—and aponia—the absence of pain—and by living a self-sufficient life surrounded by friends. He taught that pleasure and pain are measures of what is good and evil; death is the end of both body and soul and should therefore not be feared; the gods neither reward nor punish humans; the universe is infinite and eternal; and events in the world are ultimately based on the motions and interactions of atoms moving in empty space (atomist)

Odysseus

King of Ithica; here of the Odyssey; took 10 years to return home after decade long trojan war; - was a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's epic poem the Odyssey. He also plays a key role in Homer's Iliad and other works in that same epic cycle. Husband of Penelope, father of Telemachus, and son of Laërtes and Anticlea, he is renowned for his brilliance, guile, and versatility. He is most famous for the ten eventful years he took to return home after the decade-long Trojan War.

Pericles

Peak of classical culture; art/writing - was arguably the most prominent and influential Greek statesman, orator and general of Athens during the Golden Age— specifically the time between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars. He was descended, through his mother, from the powerful and historically influential Alcmaeonid family. He had such a profound influence on Athenian society that Thucydides, a contemporary historian, acclaimed him as "the first citizen of Athens" He promoted the arts and literature; it is principally through his efforts that Athens holds the reputation of being the educational and cultural center of the ancient Greek world.

Zeus

Roman name = Jupiter; belongs to 3rd generation of Gods; overthrew his father; associated w/ sky; signature is thunderbolt; depicted as an older man; built like a wrestler; very powerful; king of gods - was the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion, who ruled as king of the gods of Mount Olympus. His name is cognate with the first element of his Roman equivalent Jupiter. He is the child of Cronus and Rhea, the youngest of his siblings to be born, though sometimes reckoned the eldest as the others required disgorging from Cronos's stomach. In most traditions, he is married to Hera, by whom he is usually said to have fathered Ares, Hebe, and Hephaestus. At the oracle of Dodona, his consort was said to be Dione, by whom the Iliad states that he fathered Aphrodite. He was also infamous for his erotic escapades. These resulted in many godly and heroic offspring, including Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, Persephone, Dionysus, Perseus, Heracles, Helen of Troy, Minos, and the Muses.

Sophists

basically the wise guys; taught that correlation doesnt prove causation; taught rhetoric, speaking, persuading, and writing; taught for a price; laid basis for grammar - elements of logic like logical fallacies; ex: tu quoque (arguments) ; - were philosopher-teachers who traveled about in Greece teaching their students everything that was necessary to be successful in life including rhetoric and public speaking. These were useful skills, where being persuasive could lead to political power and economic wealth. Athens became the center of their activity, due to their tolerance of freedom of speech and the available wealth. There were numerous differences among their teachings, and they lectured on subjects that were as diverse as semantics and rhetoric, to ontology, epistemology. They taught their beliefs for a considerable price.

Stoicism

believed universe was sufficed with pneuma, in determinism, in astrology, universe was ran by natural laws; do your duty-apathy; is a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded in Athens by Zeno the Stoil in the early 3rd century BC. The Stoics taught that destructive emotions resulted from errors in judgment, and the active relationship between cosmic determinism and human freedom, and the belief that it is virtuous to maintain a will (called prohairesis) that is in accord with nature. Because of this, they presented their philosophy as a way of life, and they thought that the best indication of an individual's philosophy was not what a person said but how that person behaved. most famous stoic was marcus aurelius who wrote book called meditations

Sparta

blob like peninsula - was a prominent city-state in ancient Greece, situated on the banks of the Eurotas River in Laconia, in south-eastern Peloponnese. It emerged as a political entity around the 10th century BC, when the invading Dorians subjugated the local, non-Dorian population. Around 650 BC, it rose to become the dominant military land-power in ancient Greece.

Anaximander

boundless "UR" stuff; primal vortex; - was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher who lived in Miletus, a city of Ionia. He belonged to the Milesian school and learned the teachings of his master Thales. He succeeded Thales and became the second master of that school. Little of his life and work is known today. According to available historical documents, he is the first philosopher known to have written down his studies, although only one fragment of his work remains. He was an early proponent of science and tried to observe and explain different aspects of the universe, with a particular interest in its origins, claiming that nature is ruled by laws, and anything that disturbs the balance of nature does not last long. In astronomy, he tried to describe the mechanics of celestial bodies in relation to the Earth. In physics, his postulation that the indefinite was the source of all things led Greek philosophy to a new level of conceptual abstraction. His knowledge of geometry allowed him to introduce the gnomon in Greece. He created a map of the world that contributed greatly to the advancement of geography.

Socrates

credited as one of the founders of western philosophy; called himself philosophical gad fly; knew that he didnt know; was poisoned from hemlock; agnostic daimon; 2 changes..impiety, corrupting youth; no philosophies; trying to arrive at absolute values; highest value is wisdom; socratic method/dialectic going forward by asking question; - was a classical Greek (Athenian) philosopher credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy. He is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon and the plays of his contemporary Aristophanes. Plato's dialogues are among the most comprehensive accounts to survive from antiquity, though it is unclear the degree to which he is "hidden behind his 'best disciple', Plato.

Diogenes the Cynic

cynicism; school of skepticism; said reason is the servant of desire; publicly mocked alexander the great; - he was born in Sinope, in 412 or 404 BCE and died at Corinth in 323 BCE. His father minted coins for a living, and when he took to debasement of currency, he was banished from Sinope. After being exiled, he moved to Athens and criticized many cultural conventions of the city. He modelled himself on the example of Heracles. He used his simple lifestyle and behavior to criticize the social values and institutions of what he saw as a corrupt or at least confused society. In a highly non-traditional fashion, he had a reputation of sleeping and eating wherever he chose and took to toughening himself against nature. He declared himself a cosmopolitan and a citizen of the world rather than claiming allegiance to just one place. He criticized and embarrassed Plato, disputed his interpretation of Socrates and sabotaged his lectures, sometimes distracting attendees by bringing food and eating during the discussions. He was also responsible for publicly mocking Alexander the Great.

Helen

daughter of zeus; most beautiful woman in the world; wife of king menelaus of sparta; - was the daughter of Zeus and Leda, and was a sister of Castor, Pollux, and Clytemnestra. In Greek myths, she was considered the most beautiful woman in the world. By marriage she was Queen of Laconia, a province within Homeric Greece, the wife of King Menelaus. Her abduction by Paris, Prince of Troy, brought about the Trojan War. Elements of her putative biography come from classical authors such as Aristophanes, Cicero, Euripides and Homer. In her youth she was abducted by, or eloped with, Theseus, and in some accounts bore him a child. A competition between her suitors for her hand in marriage sees Menelaus emerge victorious. An oath sworn beforehand by all the suitors (known as the Oath of Tyndareus) requires them to provide military assistance in the case of her abduction; this oath culminates in the Trojan War. When she marries Menelaus she is still very young; whether her subsequent involvement with Paris is an abduction or a seduction is ambiguous.

Ptolemy I of Egypt

discovered Alexandria; cleopatra was his descendent; paid scholars to come & study at Museum, House of Arts.. (Muses); put together best library in the ancient world - c. 367 BC - c. 283 BC, was a Macedonian general under Alexander the Great, who became ruler of Egypt (323-283 BC) and founder of the Ptolemaic Kingdom and dynasty. In 305/4 BC he demanded the title of pharaoh. His mother was Arsinoe of Macedon, and, while his father is unknown, ancient sources variously describe him either as the son of Lagus, a Macedonian nobleman, or as an illegitimate son of Philip II of Macedon, but it is possible that this is a later myth fabricated to glorify the Ptolemaic dynasty. Ptolemy was one of Alexander's most trusted generals, and was among the seven somatophylakes (bodyguards) attached to his person. He was a few years older than Alexander, and had been his intimate friend since childhood.

Thucydides

famous for speeches (pericles was best one); primary subject was Peloponnesian war; - was an Athenian historian, political philosopher and general. His History of the Peloponnesian War recounts the 5th century BC war between Sparta and Athens to the year 411 BC. He has been dubbed the father of "scientific history" because of his strict standards of evidence-gathering and analysis of cause and effect without reference to intervention by the gods, as outlined in his introduction to his work. He has also been called the father of the school of political realism, which views the political behavior of individuals and the subsequent outcome of relations between states as ultimately mediated by and constructed upon the emotions of fear and self-interest. His text is still studied at both universities and advanced military colleges worldwide. The Melian dialogue remains a seminal work of international relations theory while Pericles' Funeral Oration is widely studied in political theory, history, and classical studies.

Hippocrates

father of medicine; lived on greek island of cos; hippocratic writings medical ethics, natural causes, humor theory, treatment, and diagnosis & prognosis; was a Greek physician of the Age of Pericles, and is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine. He is referred to as the "Father of Western Medicine" in recognition of his lasting contributions to the field as the founder of the Hippocratic School of Medicine. This intellectual school revolutionized medicine in ancient Greece, establishing it as a discipline distinct from other fields with which it had traditionally been associated (theurgy and philosophy), thus establishing medicine as a profession

Eratosthenes

first to create latitude/longitude; best known for geography; first to calculate circumference of the earth; - was a Greek mathematician, geographer, poet, astronomer, and music theorist. He was a man of learning, becoming the chief librarian at the Library of Alexandria. He invented the discipline of geography, including the terminology used today. He is best known for being the first person to calculate the circumference of the Earth, which he did by applying a measuring system using stadia, a standard unit of measure during that time period. His calculation was remarkably accurate. He was also the first to calculate the tilt of the Earth's axis. Additionally, he may have accurately calculated the distance from the Earth to the Sun and invented the leap day. He created the first map of the world incorporating parallels and meridians, based on the available geographical knowledge of the era.

Homer

from ionia; was blind; is best known as the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey. He was believed by the ancient Greeks to have been the first and greatest of the epic poets. Author of the first known literature of Europe, he is central to the Western canon. His importance to the ancient Greeks is described in Plato's Republic, which portrays him as the protos didaskalos, "first teacher", of the tragedians, the hegemon paideias, "leader of Greek culture", and the ten Hellada pepaideukon, "teacher of [all] Greece". His works, which are about fifty percent speeches, provided models in persuasive speaking and writing that were emulated throughout the ancient and medieval Greek worlds. Fragments of him account for nearly half of all identifiable Greek literary papyrus finds in Egypt. describes mycenians

Achilles

greatest greek warrior of the Iliad; father was the king of myrmidons; his best friend was patroclus who was killed by trojan hero hector; most notable victory was slaying trojan hero, Hector; killed by Paris who shot him in heel with arrow; - was a Greek hero of the Trojan War and the central character and greatest warrior of Homer's Iliad. His mother was the nymph Thetis, and his father, Peleus, was the king of the Myrmidons. His most notable feat during the Trojan War was the slaying of the Trojan hero Hector outside the gates of Troy. Although his death is not presented in the Iliad, other sources concur that he was killed near the end of the Trojan War by Paris, who shot him in the heel with an arrow. Later legends state that he was invulnerable in all of his body except for his heel.

Sappho

greek lyric poet; born on island of lesbos; greatest love poems to women, done in fragments; - was a Greek lyric poet, born on the island of Lesbos. The Alexandrians included her in the list of nine lyric poets. She was born sometime between 630 and 612 BCE, and it is said that she died around 570 BCE, but little is known for certain about her life. The bulk of her poetry, which was well-known and greatly admired through much of antiquity, has been lost; however, her immense reputation has endured through surviving fragments.

Aristotle

his writings were encyclopedic, covered many subjects: physics, biology, zoology, metaphysics, logic (6 books of organon is basically concentric spheres), ethics, aesthetics, poetry, rhetoric, politics, etc.; invented lyceum; guiding principle is entelechy; aristotelian(physical) /ptolemaic(mathmatical); geocentric universe; said prime mover unmoved (1st cause uncaused);tutored Alexander the Great per Philip of Macedon; - was a Greek philosopher and scientist born in the Macedonian city of Stagira, Chalkidice, on the northern periphery of Classical Greece. His father, Nicomachus, died when he was a child, whereafter Proxenus of Atarneus became his guardian. At eighteen, he joined Plato's Academy in Athens and remained there until the age of thirty-seven. His writings cover many subjects - including physics, biology, zoology, metaphysics, logic, ethics, aesthetics, poetry, theater, music, rhetoric, linguistics, politics and government - and constitute the first comprehensive system of Western philosophy. Shortly after Plato died, he left Athens and, at the request of Philip of Macedon, tutored Alexander the Great starting from 343 BC. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, "He was the first genuine scientist in history and every scientist is in his debt.

Pythagoras

in south italy; thought key to universe was number; vegetarians-no beans; harmony of the spheres; best known for pythagorean theorem; - was an Ionian Greek philosopher, mathematician. Most of the information about him was written down centuries after he lived, so very little reliable information is known about him. He was born on the island of Samos, and traveled, visiting Egypt and Greece, and maybe India, and in 520 BC returned to Samos. Around 530 BC, he moved to Croton, in Magna Graecia, and there established some kind of school or guild. He made influential contributions to philosophy and religion in the late 6th century BC. He is often revered as a great mathematician and scientist and is best known for the Pythagorean theorem. However, because legend and obfuscation cloud his work even more than that of the other pre-Socratic philosophers, one can give only a tentative account of his teachings, and some have questioned whether he contributed much to mathematics or natural philosophy. Many of the accomplishments credited to him may actually have been accomplishments of his colleagues and successors. Some accounts mention that the philosophy associated with him were related to mathematics and that numbers were important. It was said that he was the first man to call himself a philosopher, or lover of wisdom

Athenian Golden Age

is the Greek city-state of Athens in the time from 480 BC-404 BC. This was a period of Athenian political hegemony, economic growth and cultural flourishing. The period began in 478 BC after defeat of the Persian invasion, when an Athenian-led coalition of city-states, known as the Delian League, confronted the Persians to keep the liberated Asian Greek cities free. With the empire's funds, military dominance and its political fortunes guided by statesman and orator Pericles, Athens produced some of the most influential and enduring cultural artifacts of the Western tradition. The playwrights Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides all lived and worked in 5th century BCE Athens, as did the historians Herodotus and Thucydides, the physician Hippocrates, and the philosopher Socrates. Athens' patron goddess was Athena, from whom they derived the name.

Oedipus

killed his dad, married his mom; his wife-mother hanged herself; gouged out his own eyes; - was a mythical Greek king of Thebes, the son and killer of Laius, son and consort of Jocasta, and father and sibling of Polynices, Eteocles, Antigone, and Ismene. A tragic hero in Greek mythology, he accidentally fulfilled the prophecy, despite his efforts not to, that he would end up killing his father and marrying his mother, thereby bringing disaster to his city and family. When the truth was discovered, his wife-mother hanged herself, and he gouged out his own eyes. They had four children together. Together, these plays make up Sophocles's three Theban plays. He represents two enduring themes of Greek myth and drama: the flawed nature of humanity and an individual's role in the course of destiny in a harsh universe.

Parthenon

most perfect temple - is a former temple on the Athenian Acropolis, Greece, dedicated to the goddess Athena, whom the people of Athens considered their patron. Construction began in 447 BC when the Athenian Empire was at the height of its power. It was completed in 438 BC although decoration of the building continued until 432 BC. It is the most important surviving building of Classical Greece, generally considered the zenith of the Doric order. Its decorative sculptures are considered some of the high points of Greek art.

Apollo

most physically perfect of young men; started as god of sun; one of the most important; basically god of reason - is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in classical Greek and Roman religion and Greek and Roman mythology. The ideal of the kouros (a beardless, athletic youth),he has been variously recognized as a god of music, truth and prophecy, healing, the sun and light, plague, poetry, and more. He is the son of Zeus and Leto, and has a twin sister, the chaste huntress Artemis. Medicine and healing are associated with him, whether through the god himself or mediated through his son Asclepius, yet he was also seen as a god who could bring ill-health and deadly plague. Amongst the god's custodial charges.

Agamemnon

of Mycenae; brother of menelaus; commanded the united greek armed forces in the ensuing trojan war; - was the son of king Atreus and queen Aerope of Mycenae, the brother of Menelaus, the husband of Clytemnestra and the father of Iphigenia, Electra or Laodike, Orestes and Chrysothemis. Mythical legends make him the king of Mycenae or Argos, thought to be different names for the same area. When Helen, the wife of Menelaus, ran off with Paris of Troy, he commanded the united Greek armed forces in the ensuing Trojan War. Upon his return from Troy, he was murdered by Aegisthus, the lover of his wife, Clytemnestra. In old versions of the story, the scene of the murder, when it is specified, is usually the house of Aegisthus, who has not taken up residence in his palace, and it involves an ambush and the deaths of his followers too. In some later versions Clytemnestra herself does the killing, or they do it together, in his own home.

Aristarchus

of Samos; heliocentric, placed sun at the center of the known universe; - was an ancient Greek astronomer and mathematician who presented the first known model that placed the Sun at the center of the known universe with the Earth revolving around it. He was influenced by Philolaus of Croton, but he identified the "central fire" with the Sun, and put the other planets in their correct order of distance around the Sun. As Anaxagoras before him, he also suspected that the stars were just other bodies like the sun. His astronomical ideas were often rejected in favor of the geocentric theories of Aristotle and Ptolemy.

Aeschylus

only 7 of his 80 plays survived; battle of marathon; the orestian theory; agamemnon;

Thales

pre-scocratic aka ionian philosopher; proposed water / put together cosmotology; said sun & moon circle around flat disc of water; first known individual to use deductive reasoning; - was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher and mathematician from Miletus in Asia Minor and one of the Seven Sages of Greece. Many, most notably Aristotle, regard him as the first philosopher in the Greek tradition. Aristotle reported his hypothesis that the originating principle of nature and the nature of matter was a single material substance: water. He attempted to explain natural phenomena without reference to mythology. Almost all of the other Pre-Socratic philosophers follow him in attempting to provide an explanation of ultimate substance, change, and the existence of the world without reference to mythology. In mathematics, he used geometry to calculate the heights of pyramids and the distance of ships from the shore. He is the first known individual to use deductive reasoning applied to geometry. He is the first known individual to whom a mathematical discovery has been attributed.

Galen

put together medical encyclopedia (summed up hippocratical); started as gladiator doctor; - was a prominent Greek physician, surgeon and philosopher in the Roman empire. Arguably the most accomplished of all medical researchers of antiquity, He influenced the development of various scientific disciplines, including anatomy, physiology, pathology, pharmacology, and neurology, as well as philosophy and logic. The son of Aelius Nicon, a wealthy architect with scholarly interests, he received a comprehensive education that prepared him for a successful career as a physician and philosopher. He traveled extensively, exposing himself to a wide variety of medical theories and discoveries before settling in Rome, where he served prominent members of Roman society and eventually was given the position of personal physician to several emperors.

Herodotus

referred to as "the Father of History"; primary subject was the Persian Wars; known for his work "the histories" - was a Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria (modern-day Bodrum, Turkey) and lived in the fifth century BC (c. 484-425 BC). Widely referred to as "The Father of History" he was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically and critically, and then to arrange them into a historiographic narrative. The Histories—the only work he is known to have produced—is a record of his "inquiry", being an investigation of the origins of the Greco-Persian Wars and including a wealth of geographical and ethnographical information. Although some of his stories were fanciful and others inaccurate, he states he was reporting only what was told to him and was often correct in his information. Despite Herodotus' historical significance, little is known of his personal history.

Dionysus

roman name = bacchus; god of drunkenness and wine; had a human mother; opposite of apollo; represents irrational side; tragedy comes out of dionysus - is the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness, fertility, theatre and religious ecstasy in Greek mythology. Alcohol, especially wine, played an important role in Greek culture with him being an important reason for this life style. His origins are uncertain, and his cults took many forms; some are described by ancient sources as Thracian, others as Greek. In some cults, he arrives from the east, as an Asiatic foreigner; in others, from Ethiopia in the South. He is a god of epiphany, "the god that comes", and his "foreignness" as an arriving outsider-god may be inherent and essential to his cults. He is a major, popular figure of Greek mythology and religion, and is included in some lists of the twelve Olympians. He was the last god to be accepted into Mt. Olympus. He was the youngest and the only one to have a mortal mother. His festivals were the driving force behind the development of Greek theatre. He is an example of a dying god.

Artemis

roman name = diana; goddess of the hunt, wild animals; was one of the most widely venerated of the Ancient Greek deities. Her Roman equivalent is Diana. Some scholars believe that the name, and indeed the goddess herself, was originally pre-Greek. The Arcadians believed she was the daughter of Demeter. In the classical period of Greek mythology, she was often described as the daughter of Zeus and Leto, and the twin sister of Apollo. She was the Hellenic goddess of the hunt, wild animals, wilderness, childbirth, virginity and protector of young girls, bringing and relieving disease in women; she often was depicted as a huntress carrying a bow and arrows. The deer and the cypress were sacred to her. In later Hellenistic times, she even assumed the ancient role of Eileithyia in aiding childbirth.

Hera

roman name = juno; the wife and one of 3 sisters of zeus; goddess of women and marriage.. home, kids,; chastised and scolded zeus; is the wife and one of three sisters of Zeus in the Olympian pantheon of Greek mythology and religion. Her chief function was as the goddess of women and marriage. Her counterpart in the religion of ancient Rome was Juno.The cow, lion and the peacock were considered sacred to her. Her mother is Rhea and her father Cronus. Portrayed as majestic and solemn, often enthroned, and crowned with the polos, she may bear a pomegranate in her hand, emblem of fertile blood and death and a substitute for the narcotic capsule of the opium poppy.

Hermes

roman name = mercury; messenger of the gods; most often in mythology - is an Olympian god in Greek religion and mythology, the son of Zeus and the Pleiad Maia. He is the second youngest of the Olympian gods. He is a god of transitions and boundaries. He is quick and cunning, and moves freely between the worlds of the mortal and divine, as an emissary and messenger of the gods, intercessor between mortals and the divine, and conductor of souls into the afterlife. He is the protector and patron of herdsmen, thieves, oratory and wit, literature and poetry, athletics and sports, invention and trade, roads, boundaries and travellers.

Athena

roman name = minerua; most important of female goddesses; virgin born a virgin.. grew from zeus' head; principle goddess of athens; symbol was owl - is the goddess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, law and justice, mathematics, strength, war strategy, the practical arts, crafts, and skill in ancient Greek religion and mythology. She is portrayed as a shrewd companion of heroes and is the patron goddess of heroic endeavour.

Poseidon

roman name = neptune; symbol trident (3 pronged fishing spear) brother of zeus; - is one of the twelve Olympian deities of the pantheon in Greek mythology. His main domain is the ocean, and he is called the "God of the Sea". Additionally, he is referred to as "Earth-Shaker" due to his role in causing earthquakes, and has been called the "tamer of horses". He is usually depicted as an older male with curly hair and beard. Linear B tablets show that he was venerated at Pylos and Thebes in pre-Olympian Bronze Age Greece as a chief deity, but he was integrated into the Olympian gods as the brother of Zeus and Hades. According to some folklore, he was saved by his mother Rhea, who concealed him among a flock of lambs and pretended to have given birth to a colt, which was devoured by Cronos.

Aphrodite

roman name = venus; most sexually attractive of women; son named eros (cupid) love that kills - is the Greek goddess of love, beauty, pleasure, and procreation. Her Roman equivalent is the goddess Venus. She is identified with the planet Venus.

Paris

son of King Priam of Troy; kills Achilles by shooting him in the heel with an arrow - the son of Priam and Hecuba, the king and queen of Troy, appears in a number of Greek legends. Probably the best-known was his elopement with Helen, queen of Sparta, this being one of the immediate causes of the Trojan War. Later in the war, he fatally wounds Achilles in the heel with an arrow, as foretold by Achilles's mother, Thetis.

Orestes

son of clytemnestra and agamemnon; sacrificed to artemis; libation bearers; avenged by furies litarryl; goes to athens begs athena for mercy - eumenides; - was the son of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon. He is the subject of several Ancient Greek plays and of various myths connected with his madness and purification, which retain obscure threads of much older ones.

Troy

the most famous; judgement of paris; was a city situated in what is known from Classical sources as Asia Minor, now northwest Anatolia in modern Turkey, located south of the southwest end of the Dardanelles/Hellespont and northwest of Mount Ida at Hisarlık. It is the setting of the Trojan War described in the Greek Epic Cycle and especially in the Iliad, one of the two epic poems attributed to Homer.

Archimedes

universal genius; wrote book "on conic sections" and "on floating bodies" worked displacement; figured out crown was fake by floating real gold equal to crown in water and seeing how much water rises; killed by a soldier when working a problem in the sand; was an Ancient Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, inventor, and astronomer. Although few details of his life are known, he is regarded as one of the leading scientists in classical antiquity. Generally considered the greatest mathematician of antiquity and one of the greatest of all time, he anticipated modern calculus and analysis by applying concepts of infinitesimals and the method of exhaustion to derive and rigorously prove a range of geometrical theorems, including the area of a circle, the surface area and volume of a sphere, and the area under a parabola. Other mathematical achievements include deriving an accurate approximation of pi, defining and investigating the spiral bearing his name, and creating a system using exponentiation for expressing very large numbers. He was also one of the first to apply mathematics to physical phenomena, founding hydrostatics and statics, including an explanation of the principle of the lever. He is credited with designing innovative machines, such as his screw pump, compound pulleys, and defensive war machines to protect his native Syracuse from invasion.

Alexander the Great

was a King of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon and a member of the Argead dynasty, a famous ancient Greek royal house. Born in Pella in 356 BC, he succeeded his father, Philip II, to the throne at the age of twenty. He spent most of his ruling years on an unprecedented military campaign through Asia and northeast Africa, until by the age of thirty he had created one of the largest empires of the ancient world, stretching from Greece to Egypt and into northwest India. He was undefeated in battle and is considered one of history's most successful military commanders.

Peloponnesian War

was an ancient Greek war fought by Athens and its empire against the League led by Sparta. Historians have traditionally divided the war into three phases. In the first phase, the Archidamian War, Sparta launched repeated invasions of Attica, while Athens took advantage of its naval supremacy to raid the coast, attempting to suppress signs of unrest in its empire. This period of the war was concluded in 421 BC, with the signing of the Peace of Nicias. In 415 BC, Athens dispatched a massive expeditionary force to attack Syracuse in Sicily; the attack failed disastrously, with the destruction of the entire force, in 413 BC. This ushered in the final phase of the war, generally referred to either as the Decelean War, or the Ionian War. In this phase, Sparta, now receiving support from Persia, supported rebellions in Athens' subject states in the Aegean Sea and Ionia, undermining Athens' empire, and, eventually, depriving the city of naval supremacy.

Plato

wealthy young athenian; best source for socrates bc was there when he died;dialogs: apology, crito, phaedo (YHWH); invents metaphysics; platonic forms or ideas; bought intellectual academus (trees) same as founder of the academy in athens, the 1st institution of higher learning in the western world, lays foundation for epistemology; philosophical arguments; - was a philosopher and mathematician in Classical Greece, and the founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. He is widely considered the most pivotal figure in the development of philosophy, especially the Western tradition. Unlike nearly all of his philosophical contemporaries, his entire oeuvre is believed to have survived intact for over 2400 years, and he is arguably one of the greatest writers, if not the greatest writer, in the entire Western canon.

Persian Wars

were a series of conflicts between the Achaemenid Empire and Greek city-states that started in 499 BC and lasted until 449 BC. The collision between the fractious political world of the Greeks and the enormous empire of the Persians began when Cyrus the Great conquered the Greek-inhabited region of Ionia in 547 BC. Struggling to rule the independent-minded cities of Ionia, the Persians appointed tyrants to rule each of them. This would prove to be the source of much trouble for the Greeks and Persians alike.

Euclid

wrote "Elements" which serves as basic handbook for geometry today; was a Greek mathematician, often referred to as the "Father of Geometry". He was active in Alexandria during the reign of Ptolemy I (323-283 BC). His Elements is one of the most influential works in the history of mathematics, serving as the main textbook for teaching mathematics (especially geometry) from the time of its publication until the late 19th or early 20th century. In the Elements, he deduced the principles of what is now called Euclidean geometry from a small set of axioms. He also wrote works on perspective, conic sections, spherical geometry, number theory and rigor.

Sophocles

wrote 113 plays but only 7 have survived, one being Oedipus Rex (the king); play wrote; wrestled; played harp - is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. According to the Suda, a 10th-century encyclopedia, he wrote 113 plays during the course of his life, but only seven have survived in a complete form: Ajax, Antigone, The Women of Trachis, Oedipus the King, Electra, Philoctetes and Oedipus at Colonus. He competed in around 30 competitions, won perhaps 24, and was never judged lower than second place. The most famous tragedies of Sophocles feature Oedipus and also Antigone: they are generally known as the Theban plays, although each play was actually a part of a different tetralogy, the other members of which are now lost. He influenced the development of the drama, most importantly by adding a third actor, thereby reducing the importance of the chorus in the presentation of the plot. He also developed his characters to a greater extent than earlier playwrights such as Aeschylus

Claudius Ptolemy

wrote 2 books, syntaxis and tetrabiblids (greek for 4 books) sums up astronomy; epicycles; retrograde motion; eccentric centers; - was a Greco-Egyptian writer of Alexandria, known as a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He was the author of several scientific treatises, three of which were of continuing importance to later Islamic, Byzantine and European science. The first is the astronomical treatise now known as the Almagest, although it was originally entitled the "Mathematical Treatis." The second is the Geography, which is a thorough discussion of the geographic knowledge of the Greco-Roman world. This manuscript was used by Christopher Columbus as the map for his westward-bound path to Asia, in which he discovered the hitherto unknown Western Hemisphere. The third is the astrological treatise in which he attempted to adapt horoscopic astrology to the Aristotelian natural philosophy of his day. It is known as Tetrabiblos from the Greek word meaning "Four Books" or by the Latin Quadripartitum.