HY 101

Draco

(7th century bc ), Athenian legislator. His codification of Athenian law was notorious for its severity; for instance, the death penalty was imposed even for trivial crimes, which gave rise to the adjective draconian in English.

Homer

(8th century bc ), Greek epic poet. He is traditionally held to be the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, although modern scholarship has revealed the place of the Homeric poems in a preliterate oral tradition. In later antiquity, Homer was regarded as the greatest poet, and his poems were constantly used as a model and source by others.

Lycurgus

(9th century bc ), Spartan lawmaker. He is traditionally held to have been the founder of the constitution and military regime of ancient Sparta.

David

(died c.962 bc ), king of Judah and Israel c.1000- c.962 bc. In the biblical account, he killed the Philistine Goliath and, on Saul's death, became king, making Jerusalem his capital. He is traditionally regarded as the author of the Psalms, although this has been disputed.

Toral

(in Judaism) the law of God as revealed to Moses and recorded in the first five books of the Hebrew scriptures (the Pentateuch).

Agora

(in ancient Greece) a public open space used for assemblies and markets.

Gentiles

1 (Gentile)not Jewish: Christianity spread from Jewish into Gentile cultures. • (of a person) not belonging to one's own religious community. • (in the Mormon church) non-Mormon. 2 chiefly Anthropology of, relating to, or indicating a nation or clan, especially a gens.

Israel/Judah

1 (also children of Israel)the Hebrew nation or people. According to tradition, they are descended from the patriarch Jacob (also named Israel), whose twelve sons became founders of the twelve tribes of ancient Israel. See also Tribes of Israel.

Assembly

1 a group of people gathered together in one place for a common purpose: an assembly of scholars and poets.

Phoenicians

1 a member of a Semitic people inhabiting ancient Phoenicia and its colonies. The Phoenicians prospered from trade and manufacturing until the capital, Tyre, was sacked by Alexander the Great in 332 bc .

Phoenicians

1 a member of a Semitic people inhabiting ancient Phoenicia and its colonies. The Phoenicians prospered from trade and manufacturing until the capital, Tyre, was sacked by Alexander the Great in 332 bc . 2 the Semitic language of the Phoenicians, written in an alphabet that was the ancestor of the Greek and Roman alphabets.

Persians

1 a native or inhabitant of ancient or modern Persia (or Iran), or a person of Persian descent. • (also Persian cat)a long-haired domestic cat of a breed originating in Persia, having a broad round head, stocky body, and short thick legs.

Iron Age

1 a period that followed the Bronze Age, when weapons and tools came to be made of iron.

Abraham

Abram, is the first of the three biblical patriarchs. His story, told in chapters 11 through 25 of the Book of Genesis, plays a prominent role as an example of faith in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.[1][2][3]

Assyrians

Christians) are an Christian,[36] Semitic,[37] ethnoreligious group[37] indigenous to the Middle East.[38]

Darius

Darius I (Old Persian: Dārayava(h)uš, c. 550-486 BCE) was the third king of the Persian Achaemenid Empire. Also called Darius the Great, he ruled the empire at its peak, when it included much of West Asia, the Caucasus, parts of the Balkans (Thrace-Macedonia and Paeonia), most of the Black Sea coastal regions, parts of the North Caucasus, Central Asia, as far as the Indus Valley in the far east, and portions of north and northeast Africa including Egypt (Mudrâya),[1] eastern Libya and coastal Sudan.[2][3]

Ma'at

Egyptians believe that rulers were their best link to the divine and embodies Ma'at (justice, truth, wisdom, and harmony), principles that insured peace and prosperity for the land.

Arete

In ancient Greece, arete meant "goodness" or "excellence". It's related to "araomai", to pray, and to "aristos," meaning "the best", which is where "aristocracy" comes from: aristocracy is the rule of the best people.

Ziggurat

It was Ur-Nammu who presided over the building of the famous Ziggurat (or temple structure) of Ur and laid down history's first law code which survices in fragmentary form. Ur-Nammu's code specified payments rather than corporal punishments even for many serious crimes

Nomarch

Nomarchs (Ancient Egyptian: heri-tep a'a) were the semi-feudal rulers of Ancient Egyptian provinces. Serving as provincial governors, they each held authority over one of the 42 nomes (Egyptian: sepat) into which the country was divided.

Code of Hammurabi

Specific decisions reach under Hammurabi's royal authority and useful to judges considering the disputes placed before them.

Diaspora

The Assyrian and Babylonian attacks marked the beginning of the Diaspora or emigration of the Hebrews from Israel to other lands.

Epic of Gilgamesh

The Epic of Gilgamesh is an epic poem from ancient Mesopotamia. Dating from the Third Dynasty of Ur (circa 2100 BC), it is often regarded as the first great work of literature.

Hieroglyphics

The Greeks called the Egyptian inscriptions they saw on stone monuments "sacred carvings" or hieroglyphics, but the term does not do full justice to the character of Egyptian writing or to the variety of surfaces on which Egyptians wrote.

Covenant

The Hebrews abandoned the polytheism of their own early history and of all the other early civilizations of the Near East and Mediterranean world by making a pact or covenant with one God. That commitment prevented their complete absorption by any empire and the loss of their identity as a people.

Mycenaeans

The Mycenaeans controlled the Aegean after the fall of the Minoan civilization c.1400 bc, and built fortified citadels and impressive palaces. They spoke a form of Greek, written in a distinctive script (see Linear B), and their culture is identified with that portrayed in the Homeric poems. Their power declined during widespread upheavals at the end of the Mediterranean Bronze Age, around 1100 bc

Thermompylae

Thermopylae (/θərˈmɒpɨliː/; Ancient and Katharevousa Greek: Θερμοπύλαι [tʰermopýlai], Demotic: Θερμοπύλες [θermoˈpiles]: "hot gateways") is a location in Greece where a narrow coastal passage existed in antiquity. It derives its name from its hot sulphur springs.[1] "Hot gates" is also "the place of hot springs and cavernous entrances to Hades".[2]

Illiad

a Greek hexameter epic poem in twenty-four books, traditionally ascribed to Homer, telling how Achilles killed Hector at the climax of the Trojan War.

Acropolis

a citadel or fortified part of an ancient Greek city, typically built on a hill. • (the Acropolis)the ancient citadel at Athens, containing the Parthenon and other notable buildings, mostly dating from the 5th century bc .

Hoplite

a heavily armed foot soldier of ancient Greece.

Indo-Europeans

adjective of or relating to the family of languages spoken over the greater part of Europe and Asia as far as northern India.

Mycenae

an ancient city in Greece, situated near the coast in the northeastern Peloponnese, the center of the late Bronze Age Mycenaean civilization. The capital of King Agamemnon, it was at its most prosperous c.1400-1200 bc; systematic excavation of the site began in 1840.

Hubris

excessive pride or self-confidence. • (in Greek tragedy) excessive pride toward or defiance of the gods, leading to nemesis.

Polis

normally used to indicate the ancient Greek city-states, like Classical Athens and its contemporaries, and thus is often translated as "city-state".

Minoans

of, relating to, or denoting a Bronze Age civilization centered on Crete ( c.3000-1050 bc), its people, or its language The Minoan civilization had reached its zenith by the beginning of the late Bronze Age; impressive remains reveal the existence of large urban centers dominated by palaces. The civilization is also noted for its script (see Linear A) and distinctive art and architecture

Cuneiform

the Mesopotamian peoples possessed all of these civilzational pairs by the third millennium BCE: cities, a large population, a working agricultural system and active trade and then cuneiform (wedge-shaped) writing, written laws, religous texts, and the world's first literature.

Knossos (Minoans)

the principal city of Minoan Crete, the remains of which are situated on the northern coast of Crete. The city site was occupied from Neolithic times until c.1200 bc. Excavations by Sir Arthur Evans from 1899 revealed the remains of a luxurious palace, which he called the Palace of Minos.