Who's Who in Ancient Greece

Herodotus

"Father of History"; visited many lands and collected information from people who remembered events; wrote about the Persian Wars;

Themistocles

Athenian leader at the battle of Marathon who urged Athenians to build a fleet of warships and prepare their other defenses; it was this navy that defeated the Persians at the Battle of Salamis

Socrates

Athenian philosopher; wrote no books; the Socratic method is based on his way of asking questions to his students and challenging them to think further about their answers; he was unpopular and was put on trial and sentenced to death by drinking hemlock

Xerxes

Darius I's son; defeated the Spartans in the battle of Thermopylae, then marched south and burned Athens; his navy was sunk by the Athenian navy

Athena

Goddess of Wisdom and Military Victory; patron goddess of Athens; daughter of Zeus

Philip

King of Macedonia who brought all of Greece under his control; assassinated at his daughter's wedding; father of Alexander the Great

Darius I

King of Persia during the beginning of the Persian Wars; angry that Athens had helped the Ionian Greeks during an uprising

Zeus

King of the Gods; Father of the Gods; God of the Sky and Thunder; married to Hera; had many children through his affairs with mortal women

Leonidas

Spartan warrior king who held out against the Persian force in Thermopylae with 300 soldiers; all of the Spartans died in the battle, but they held them off for a long time

Aristotle

a philosopher student of Plato; set up a school called "The Lyceum" where students studied all branches of knowledge

Plato

a philosopher student of Socrates who gave us all we know about him; distrusted democracy; set up a school called "The Academy" where people studied reason; wrote "The Republic"

Solon

archon (chief official) of Greece; made many reforms; outlawed debt slavery, put more citizens in government, and gave the assembly more say in important decisions; encouraged the export of wine and oil

Homer

author who wrote The Iliad and The Odyssey; stories which tell about the values of the ancient Greeks

Hippocrates

doctor who was known as the "Father of Medicine"; created the Hippocratic oath for physicians to use to swear to help the sick and never hurt; doctors still take the oath today

Achilles

hero in The Iliad; mightiest Greek warrior; dipped in the River Styx as a baby; unable to be killed except in the heel

Alexander

known as "Alexander the Great"; 20 years old when his father died; soldier; conquered most of the known world; undefeated in battle; named cities after himself; created the library in Alexandria; died of fever; created the Hellenistic culture

Pericles

leader that led Athens into the Golden Age; created a direct democracy; believed every citizen should be able to take part in the government; fully believed that citizenship was a right and a duty

Pythagoras

mathematician who created the Pythagorean theorem to calculated the relationship between the sides of a triangle

Euclid

mathematician who wrote "The Elements" which is the basis of modern geometry

Aristophanes

playwright who wrote the comedy "The Lysistrata" about the women of Athens banding together to force their husbands to end a war against Sparta

Sophocles

playwright who wrote the tragedy "Antigone" about what happens when a person's moral duty conflicts with the laws of the state

Aeschylus

playwright who wrote the tragedy "The Orestia" about a family torn apart by betrayal, murder, and revenge

Euripides

playwright who wrote the tragedy "The Trojan Women" about the suffering of women in war

Cleisthenes

reformer who set up the Council of 500, which was made up of ordinary citizens; the Council prepared laws and supervised the government; all male citizens over the age of 30 could be in the council

Archimedes

scientist who created the lever and the pulley; used physics to make practical inventions

Aristarchus

scientist who proposed the idea of a heliocentric (sun-centered) universe 2,000 years before it was accepted as truth