Achilleus (also spelled "Akhilleus" and "Achilles") - Hero of the Iliad.
Actium - A promontory on the northwestern coast of Greece off which Octavian defeated Antony and Cleopatra in a naval battle (31 B.C.) (Aeneid).
Adeimantus - A brother of Plato and one of the interlocutors in the Republic.
Aeneas - Hero of the Aeneid.
Aeschylus - Earliest of the three great Athenian tragedians.
Agamemnon - Leader of Greek expedition against Troy (Iliad).
Agave - Mother of Pentheus (Bacchae).
Aias (son of Telamon) - Second greatest warrior of the Greeks at Troy and member of the embassy to Achilleus in book nine of the Iliad.
Alcibiades - A friend of Socrates and a general of Athenian expedition against Sicily who, when charged with impiety, went over to the Spartans (Thucydides).
Alexander the Great - Macedonian king who by conquest brought Greek civilization to the East as far as India.
Alexandros - See Paris.
Allegory - Literally, 'saying something else'. A story in which characters, objects, and actions have metaphorical meaning.
Amata - Latin queen who favored Turnus over Aeneas as her son-in-law (Aeneid).
Anagnorisis (variously translated as "discovery" or "recognition") - An important element of tragedy according to Aristotle's Poetics whereby a tragic protagonist gains information previously unknown leading to important insight.
Anaxagoras of Clazomenae - Presocratic philosopher and friend of Pericles indicted by the Athenians for impiety. Mentioned by Socrates in the Apology.
Anchises - Father of Aeneas (Aeneid).
Andromache - Wife of Hektor (Iliad).
Anna - Dido's sister (Aeneid).
Anthropomorphism - Attribution of human form and behavior to the gods.
Antigone - Heroine of the Antigone.
Antony - Roman general defeated by Octavian at the battle of Actium (Aeneid).
Anytus - Leader of democratic exiles against the Thirty and one of Socrates's accusers in the Apology.
Apatheia - `A lack of feeling'. The Stoic doctrine that man must learn to ignore passions (e.g., fear, greed, grief, joy), which disturb his peace of mind.
Aphrodite - Goddess of love who favored Paris (Iliad).
Apollo - God who comes to the defense of his priest Chryses; favors the Trojans (Iliad); also, the source of prophecy at Delphi (Oedipus the King and Apology).
Apology - In a literary sense a formal statement of justification or defense such as Plato's Apology.
Arete - 'Excellence''.
Argeiphontes - See Hermes.
Argives - See Achaians.
Aristophanes - Athenian comic playwright.
Aristotle - Athenian philosopher, student of Plato and tutor of Alexander the Great. Author of the Poetics.
Ascanius - Son of Aeneas, also known as Iulus, a name which designates him as an ancestor of the Julian family at Rome (Aeneid).
Ataraxia (anglicized as "ataraxy") - 'Imperturbability' (i.e., 'peace of mind'). Ideal state of mind sought by Hellenistic philosophies.
Athene - Goddess who favors Achilleus and the Achaians in the Trojan war (Iliad).
Atomism - Theory originated by Leucippus, developed by Democritus and adopted by Epicurus as a basis of his moral philosophy according to which the universe is made up of invisible and indestructible elements called atoms.
Attica (adj. 'Attic') - An area about 1000 square miles of which Athens is the capital.
Augustus - Honorific title given by the Roman senate to Octavian (Aeneid).
Bacchae - Female worshipers of Dionysus (Bacchus) and title of tragedy by Euripides. See also Maenads.
Bacchant[e] - Female follower of Dionysus (Bacchus). See also Bacchae and Maenads.
Barbarian - Word used by Greeks for non-Greeks.
Bellerophontes - Grandfather of Glaukos (Iliad).
Boule - Athenian Council.
Briseis - Concubine of Achilleus taken by Agamemnon (Iliad).
Cacus - Fire-breathing monster killed by Hercules (Aeneid).
Cadmus - Grandfather of Pentheus (Bacchae).
Caesar - Gaius Julius Caesar. Roman politician who was assassinated in 44 B.C. Also name taken by Octavian when he was adopted by Caesar according to the terms of the dictator's will (Aeneid).
Cephalus - Athenian at whose house the conversation in the Republic takes place.
Chaerephon - Associate of Socrates (Clouds and Apology).
Charon - Ferryman of the dead across the river Styx (Aeneid).
Character - A personage in a literary work or the personal traits which make such a personage a well defined individual.
Chorus - A group of singers and dancers in Greek drama.
Chryse - Priest who unsuccessfully tries to ransom his daughter back from Agamemnon (Iliad).
City Dionysia - Athenian festival in honor of Dionysus at which tragedies and comedies were performed.
Cleon - Athenian politician who opposed Diodotus in "The Mytilenian Debate" in Thucydides's History
Cleopatra - Greek queen of Egypt who along with Antony was defeated at the battle of Actium by Octavian (Aeneid).
Corcyra - Island off the western coast of Greece which was involved in the beginning of the Peloponnesian War and on which civil strife between democrats and oligarchs took place (Thucydides).
Coryphaeus (sometimes spelled "Koryphaeus") - Leader of the chorus.
Creon - Brother-in-law of Oedipus (Oedipus the King) and king of Thebes (Antigone). Also name of king of Corinth and prospective father-in-law of Jason (Medea).
Creusa - Wife of Aeneas who was killed during the destruction of Troy (Aeneid).
Cumae - Greek colony in southern Italy in which was located the temple of Apollo visited by Aeneas (Aeneid).
Dactylic Hexameter - The meter of epic poetry.
Danaans - See Achaians.
Deiphobus - Brother of Hektor who married Helen after Paris's death (Iliad and Aeneid).
Delian League - Greek confederacy led by Athens and formed as offensive and defensive pact against Persia (Thucydides).
Delphic Oracle - Shrine at Delphi where the Pythia (Apollo's priestess) gave advice and prophecies to visitors (Oedipus the King and Apology).
Demagogue - `A leader of the people', but more specifically, a politician who seeks power by appealing to the passions and prejudices of the people.
Democracy - `Rule of the people'.
Democritus of Abdera - Presocratic philosopher who along with his teacher Leucippus developed the atomic theory (atomism).
Deus ex machina - 'The god from the machine' used to refer to the appearance of gods by means of the mechane in tragedy. Also employed in a pejorative sense in modern literary criticism to refer to an improbable character or turn of events introduced by an author to resolve a difficult situation.
Dialectic - The process which begins with testing of hypotheses through question and answer (elenchus) and ends with an understanding of the true nature of a virtue like justice and ultimately of the non-hypothetical first principle, the Good (Republic.).
Didactic Poetry - Poetry which gives instruction on a given topic (e.g., On the Nature of the Universe.)
Dido - Queen of Carthage and tragic heroine of the Aeneid.
Diodotus - Athenian politician, opponent of Cleon in "the Mytilenian Debate" in Thucydides's History.
Diomedes - Greek warrior who meets, but does not fight Glaukos (Iliad).
Dionysus - God of nature and the theater. Also central character in Bacchae.
Discovery - See Anagnorisis.
Drama - A literary work which presents a story by means of dialogue and action.
Dramatic Date - The time when the action described in a literary work is supposed to have taken place as opposed to the actual date of composition.
Dramatic Irony - A form of irony according to which literary characters in word or deed make assumptions which the reader or audience know to be false or say things which the characters cannot know the significance of till later in the work.
Ekklesia - Athenian assembly.
Ekkyklema A platform rolled out on wheels through one of the doors of the skene on which a tableau was displayed representing the result of an action which had taken place indoors and therefore was unseen by the audience.
Elenchus - See Socratic Method.
Empiricism - The view that experience, particularly that of the senses, is our only source of knowledge.
Epic - A long poem which tells a story involving gods, heroes and heroic exploits.
Epicureanism - The philosophy of Epicurus which rejected the involvement of the gods in human life and urged the avoidance of pain.
Epicurus - Hellenistic Athenian philosopher and founder of Epicureanism (On the Nature of the Universe).
Episode - Scene of dialogue in tragedy (sometimes including solo and/or choral song).
Epithet - A descriptive word or phrase which is linked with the name of a person or thing (Iliad).
Error in judgment - See Hamartia.
Euripides - Athenian tragic playwright.
Evander - Greek king who came to Italy and settled on the Palatine Hill at the site of Rome. Ally of Aeneas (Aeneid).
Exodos - `Exit scene'. Final scene of a tragedy following the last choral song.
Exposition - An introduction to the main characters and explanation of the situation which forms the background of the story.
Foil - A person or thing that emphasizes the distinctive traits of another person or thing by contrast.
Foreshadowing - The literary device whereby the author gives hints about what is going to happen later in the story.
Formula - Stock phrase, line or passage characteristic of oral poetry (e.g. Iliad).
Furor - `Violent madness', `frenzy' etc., characteristic displayed by opponents of Aeneas such as Juno, Dido and Turnus and sometimes by Aeneas himself (Aeneid).
Genre - Category of literature in accordance with characteristic form and content.
Glaukon - Brother of Plato and one of the interlocutors of the Republic.
Glaukos - Trojan ally who meets, but does not fight Diomedes (Iliad).
Haimon (also spelled "Haemon")- Son of Creon and fiancé of Antigone (Antigone).
Hamartia - `Error in judgment'. According to Aristotle's Poetics, the cause of the tragic hero's misfortune.
Hector - see Hektor.
Hecuba - see Hekabe.
Hekabe (Hecuba) - Wife of Priam and mother of Hektor (Iliad).
Hektor (Hector) - Chief hero of the Trojans (Iliad).
Helen - Wife of Menelaos, whose abduction by Paris (Alexandros) caused the Trojan War (Iliad).
Helenos - Brother of Hektor with prophetic ability (Iliad).
Hellenes - Name which the Greeks used for themselves (Thucydides).
Hellenistic - Name which modern scholars have given to the period of Greek history and culture from the death of Alexander the Great (323 B.C.) to 146 B.C. (beginning of Roman domination).
Hephaistos - God who makes peace between Zeus and Hera and also makes armor forAchilleus (Iliad).
Hera - Sister and wife of Zeus who favored Achilleus and the Achaians, but hated the Trojans (Iliad).
Hercules (Latin spelling; in Greek, "Heracles") - Greek hero and god who kills the monster Cacus. Also a prototype of Aeneas and Augustus (Aeneid).
Hermes (also called "Argeiphontes") - God who escorts Priam to the hut of Achilleus (Iliad).
Herodotus - Historian of the Persian Wars.
Heroic Code - The unwritten rules which guide the conduct of the Homeric heroes.
Hesiod - Epic poet, contemporary with Homer. Composed Works and Days and Theogony.
Homer - Epic poet, reputed author of the Iliad and Odyssey.
Hubris (also spelled "hybris") - the self-indulgent use of energy in acts of dishonor, stealing, rape, disobeying both human and divine authority, etc.
Image - A verbal picture.
Imagery - The employment of images in a given passage of a literary work, a whole work or a group of works.
In medias res - `Into the middle of things'. A literary device, particularly characteristic of epic, whereby the author begins his narrative in the middle of an action without exposition.
Ionia - Central portion of the coast of Asia Minor along with the islands off the coast which were inhabited by Greeks.
Irony - See Dramatic Irony and Socratic Irony.
Iris - Messenger goddess in the Iliad.
Ismene - Sister of the heroine in the Antigone.
Iulus - See Ascanius.
Jason - Hero of the Golden Fleece adventure and husband of Medea (Medea).
Jocasta - Mother and wife of Oedipus (Oedipus the King).
Juno - Wife and sister of Jupiter (Aeneid); equated with Hera in Latin poetry.
Jupiter - King of the gods, husband and brother of Juno (Aeneid); equated with Zeus in Latin poetry.
Juturna - Sister of Turnus (Aeneid).
Kalchas - Greek prophet who explains the cause of the plague in the Achaian camp (Iliad).
Kommos - Song of lament in tragedy.
Koryphaeus - See Coryphaeus.
Latinus - King of Latins (Aeneid).
Lenaea - One of Athenian Dionysiac festivals at which comedy was performed.
Leucippus - Creator of Atomism.
Literary Epic - An epic composed with the aid of writing.
Logographers - Term used by Thucydides to refer to the prose writers who came before and were contemporary with his great predecessor Herodotus.
Lucretius - Roman poet and author of On the Nature of the Universe, a didactic epic expounding the philosophy of Epicureanism.
Lysistrata - Comic heroine of the Lysistrata.
Macedonians - A Greek people who inhabited the northernmost part of the Greek mainland and whose blood lines had been mixed with non-Greek peoples. They spoke a rather crude dialect of Greek.
Maenads - Female worshipers of Dionysus. See Bacchae.
Marathon - Plain in Attica where the Athenians defeated the Persians(490 B.C.).
Marcellus - Nephew and designated heir of Augustus who died young and appears in the underworld in the Aeneid.
Mechane - A crane used in the Greek theater to which a cable with a harness for an actor was attached and which was used whenever the plot required a character to fly (e.g., a divinity).
Medea - Sorceress heroine of the Medea.
Meleagros
- Greek hero who, when angered by his mother, withdrew from battle. Used
as an example in Phoinix'
speech to Apology.
Melians - People of the island of Melos who rejected Athens' invitation to join the Delian League and whose men were put to death and women and children enslaved by the Athenians (Thucydides).
Memmius - Patron of Lucretius to whom On the Nature of the Universe is dedicated.
Menelaos - Brother of Agamemnon and husband of Helen whom she deserts for Paris. He duels with Paris with Helen as the prize (Iliad).
Mercury - Messenger god in Aeneid; equated with Hermes in Latin poetry.
Metaphor - A comparison without the use of "as" or "like".
Meter - Rhythmical pattern of verse.
Mt. Olympos - Mountain in northern Greece, home of the gods (Iliad).
Muses - Goddesses of literature and the arts in general.
Myrmidons - The men of Achilleus (Iliad).
Narrative - A story which presents a series of related actions.
Nestor - Aged adviser in the Iliad.
New Comedy - A non-political, chorusless form of comedy popular at Athens in the Hellenistic era, characterized by interest in various character types and family relationships.
Niobe - Legendary tragic queen used by Achilleus as an example (Iliad) and also by Antigone (Antigone).
Nomos - Any custom or law created by man.
Octavian - Grandnephew and adopted son of Julius Caesar who became the first Roman emperor. Praised by Vergil as the savior of Rome (Aeneid). See Augustus.
Odysseus - Achaian hero, member of the embassy to Achilleus (Iliad) and hero of the Odyssey.
Oedipus - Theban king who unknowingly killed his father and married his mother (Oedipus the King).
Oikos - 'Household'.
Old Comedy - Form of comedy popular at Athens during the fifth century, characterized by the prominence of the chorus and political and social satire.
Oligarchy - `The rule of the few' (Thucydides).
Oral Poetry - Poetry composed by improvisational techniques involving stock phrases, lines and passages called formulas (e.g., Iliad and Odyssey).
Orchestra - Circular dancing area for the chorus in the Greek theater.
Oxymoron - Figure of speech which joins two contradictory terms for paradoxical effect as in "a wise fool". The word itself is a combination of two Greek words meaning `sharp-dull'.
Palatine Hill - One of the seven hills of Rome on which was found the earliest evidence of Roman civilization (eighth century B.C.). The home of Evander and Pallas in the Aeneid.
Pallas - Son of Evander, whose death is avenged by Aeneas (Aeneid).
Parabasis - Characterisic feature of Old Comedy. A long choral passage both recited and sung, directly addressed to the audience representing the views of the poet.
Paris - Hektor's brother who abducted Helen and thereby caused the Trojan war. Also called Alexandros (Iliad).
Parodos - Entrance song of the chorus in tragedy and comedy.
Parody - Mimicry of the style of an author or genre in a literary work for the purpose of ridicule.
Patriarchy - `Father rule'.
Patroklos - Hero whose death Achilleus avenges when he kills Hektor (Iliad).
Patronymic - `A name inherited from a paternal ancestor'.
Penthesilea - Amazon Queen killed by Achilleus at Troy (Aeneid).
Pentheus - Theban king, tragic hero of the Bacchae.
Peripety (also called "reversal of fortune") - The change from happiness to misery or vice-versa experienced by the tragic protagonist according to Aristotle'sPoetics.
Personification - Figure of speech whereby inanimate objects and abstract ideas are given human qualities and/or form.
Pheidippides - Son of Strepsiades in the Clouds.
Phenomenalism - The belief that we can only know ideas present in our mind, but not objects of perception outside our mind.
Philosophy - 'The love of wisdom'.
Philosophical Dialogue - See Socratic Dialogue.
Phoinix - Foster father of Achilleus (Iliad).
Physis - Nature'.
Plato - Athenian philosopher and author of the Apology and the Republic.
Poetics - Work written by Aristotle which examines, among other things, the nature of tragedy.
Polemarchus - One of the interlocutors of the Republic.
Polis - `City-state'.
Polytheism - `Belief in many gods'.
Pompey - Roman general and champion of the Senate who was defeated by Julius Caesar (Aeneid).
Presocratics - Greek philosophers of whom some preceded, and others were contemporary with Socrates.
Primitive Epic - Epic composed by means of oral techniques of composition.
Prologue - Opening scene of dialogue in tragedy and comedy.
Protagonist - The actor in tragedy who took the leading role. Also in modern literary criticism applied to the central character in a drama or another genre.
Protagoras - Leading Sophist who said: "Man is the measure of all things".
Priam - King of Troy and father of Hektor (Iliad and Aeneid).
Recognition - See Anagnorisis.
Primary Epic - Same as Primitive Epic.
Reductio ad absurdum - Technique of argument which disproves an hypothesis by pointing out the absurdity of its logical conclusion (Republic).
Relativism - The view that truth has no independent absolute existence, but is dependent upon the individual and the particular situation in which he finds himself.
Reversal of Fortune - See Peripety.
Rhetoric - The art of persuasion.
Romulus - Legendary founder of Rome.
Salamis - An island (southwest of Attica) off the coast of which the Greeks defeated the Persians (480 B.C.).
Sarpedon - Lykian hero and ally of the Trojans who was killed by Patroklos(Iliad).
Secondary Epic - Same as Literary Epic.
Sibyl - Apollo's priestess at Cumae who guided Aeneas through the underworld (Aeneid).
Simile - Comparison introduced by "as" or "like".
Sinon - Greek spy who tricks the Trojans into bringing the Trojan Horse within their city walls (Aeneid).
Skene - Stage-building in Greek theater which usually represents a palace, temple or house.
Skepticism - `A doubting state of mind' favored by the Sophists.
Social Contract - Agreement among members of society neither to do nor to suffer wrong (Republic and On the Nature of the Universe).
Socrates - Athenian philosopher and central figure of Plato'sApology and Dialogues.
Socratic Dialogue - Philosophic conversation involving Socrates as a central interlocutor, used by Plato for philosophical investigation.
Socratic Irony - The feigned ignorance of the philosopher.
Socratic Method - Technique used by Socrates for testing hypotheses by argument and questioning. Also called elenchus.
Sophists - Professional traveling teachers of rhetoric and other subjects.
Sophocles - Athenian tragedian.
Stasimon - Choral song in tragedy.
Stoicism - Hellenistic philosophy which advocated the complete control of one's passions and asserted that everything happens for the best.
Strepsiades - Comic hero of the Clouds.
Suppliancy - `The act of making a humble request'. A ritual act, in which the suppliant, while sitting or kneeling, grasps the knees of the person supplicated and touches his chin or kisses his hands. This act of self-humiliation was an attempt to forestall any unfavorable reaction on the part of the supplicated to a request.
Teiresias - Aged, blind Theban prophet (Antigone, Oedipus the King and Bacchae).
Theme - A central idea which gives a literary work unity.
Thermopylae - Mountain pass in northern Greece in defense of which 300 Spartans were killed by the Persians (480 B.C.).
Thetis - Divine mother of Achilleus (Iliad).
The Thirty - A committee of Athenian oligarchs who, when given control of Athens in order to revise the constitution, used their power to rid Athens of their democratic enemies (Apology).
Thrasymachus - Sophist, one of the interlocutors of the Republic.
Thucydides - Historian of the Peloponnesian War.
Tiber - River that runs through Rome. Also, god of same river (Aeneid).
Tragedy - The word "tragedy" is primarily used of a dramatic work, that is, a play in which a central character called a tragic protagonist or hero suffers some serious misfortune which is not accidental and therefore meaningless, but is significant in that the misfortune is logically connected with the hero's actions. Also any significant misfortune suffered by a character in a dramatic or non-dramatic work (e.g., epic).
Trojans - People led by Hektor against the Achaians in the Trojan War (Iliad and led by Aeneas in a war against the Italian allies (Aeneid).
Turnus - Rutulian prince, opponent of Aeneas (Aeneid).
Venus - Divine mother of Aeneas; equated with Aphrodite in Latin poetry (Aeneid).
Vergil - Roman poet, author of the Aeneid.
Vulcan - God who made armor for Aeneas (Aeneid); equated with Hephaistos in Latin poetry.