Deck 3: Classical Greece and the Hellenistic Period

Question 1

What events do Plato's works the Apology , the Crito , and Phaedo record?

A) Socrates' final days
B) the Peloponnesian War
C) the Alexandrian Wars
D) the teachings of Ptolemy

Answer 1

A

Question 2

What effect did the Peloponnesian War have on Euripides's drama?

A) He wrote comedies to lighten the post-war mood.
B) He wrote mythological plays that offered an escape from reality.
C) He wrote propagandistic plays that promoted Greek leaders.
D) He wrote realistic plays that dealt with the consequences of war.

Answer 2

D

Question 3

What was the subject of the Canon by Polyclitus?

A) a mathematical formula for human proportions in visual arts
B) a design for a previously unknown weapon
C) the proportions of celestial bodies
D) the makeup of the ideal state

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Which Greek dramatist showed the most sympathy for the problems of women?

A) Sophocles
B) Euripides
C) Socrates
D) Polynices

Question 5

Who introduced the idea of catharsis in his analysis of drama (specifically tragedy)?

A) Aristotle
B) Aeschylus
C) Socrates
D) Pythagoras

Question 6

What was the primary function of the chorus in Sophocles' plays?

A) to sing praise to the gods
B) to provide a commentary upon the events of the plot
C) to interject comic episodes into a tragic play
D) to help forward the action of the plot

Question 7

What name is given to the period of history following the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE (and until the rise of the Roman Empire)?

A) the Doric Period
B) the Delian Period
C) the Peloponnesian Period
D) the Hellenistic Period

Question 8

What descriptive name has been given to the Athenian civilization of the last half of the 5^th century BCE?

A) the Age of Philosophy
B) the Golden Age of Greece
C) the Age of Drama
D) the Mythological Period

Question 9

What name is given to the period of Greek history between the Persian Wars and the death of Alexander the Great?

A) the Hellenistic Period
B) the Alexandrian Period
C) the Classical Period
D) the Athenian Period

Question 10

Who was the author of Antigone and Oedipus the King ?

A) Scopas
B) Aeschylus
C) Sophocles
D) Thucydides

Question 11

What accounts for the powerful position of Athens during the first half of the Classical period?

A) Athenians' superior skill in craftsmanship
B) Athens' decisive role in the defeat of the Persians
C) Athens' highly developed system of trade routes
D) Athenians' rejections of religious worship in favor of more practical concerns

Question 12

Who was the first important Athenian tragic dramatist (author of the Oresteia trilogy)?

A) Sophocles
B) Euripides
C) Aeschylus
D) Sappho

Question 13

Late Classical sculpture was characterized by which of the following?

A) the use of wood as a medium
B) realistic depictions of the human body
C) an absence of sculptures of deities
D) a minimalist style with no textural detail

Question 14

What school did Aristotle found after breaking his ties with his mentor Plato?

A) the Parthenon
B) the Acropolis
C) the Lyceum
D) the Academy

Question 15

Which political leader is most associated with the achievements of the Athenian Golden Age?

A) Sophocles
B) Doryphoros
C) Pericles
D) Aeschylus

Question 16

What is the subject of the frieze on the Altar of Zeus at Pergamon?

A) the battle of the gods and giants
B) the creation of the world
C) the rise to power of Alexander the Great
D) the war between Athens and Sparta

Question 17

According to Aristotle, what caused the downfall of tragic heroes?

A) the petty bickering of the gods
B) a character flaw or miscalculation
C) the deceit of family members
D) ignorance or lack of information

Question 18

What does Plato illustrate in his Allegory of the Cave?

A) the destruction of the natural world
B) the limits of human sense perception
C) the importance of traditional religion
D) the value of supporting the visual arts

Question 19

What was the cause of the Peloponnesian War?

A) the abduction of Helen
B) the humiliation of Philip of Macedon
C) the murder of Clytemnestra
D) Athens's use of the Delian League's treasury

Question 20

Who was the greatest Greek author of comedic plays?

A) Sophocles
B) Phidias
C) Aristophanes
D) Xenophon

Question 21

What is the term for the philosopher-teachers who traveled around Greece, offering lessons in reasoning and rhetoric?

A) Materialists
B) Ecclesia
C) Sophists
D) Delian League

Question 22

What story was told by the Laocoön sculpture?

A) a boy steering a chariot into the sun
B) a nymph fleeing the god Apollo
C) a wicked god attempting to kill and eat his own children
D) a priest and his sons being strangled by sea serpents

Question 23

According to Aristotle, why did Oedipus deserve to suffer for his actions?

Question 24

The comedic dramatist Aristophanes wrote which of the following?

A) Antigone
B) The Suppliant Women
C) The Eumenides
D) The Birds

Question 25

What is the term for the lighthearted play that followed a trilogy of tragedies in the festival of Dionysus?

A) eclogue
B) satyr play
C) farce
D) elegy

Question 26

Which play by Sophocles portrays the traumas and anxiety soldiers experience during war?

A) Ajax
B) The Birds
C) Oedipus at Colonus
D) Oresteia

Question 27

Who is the main character in Euripides's tragedy The Suppliant Women ?

A) Agamemnon
B) Kleonike
C) Antigone
D) Theseus

Question 28

What was the ruling council of the Athenian democracy?

A) chryselephantine
B) lekythos
C) boule
D) entablature

Question 29

Why are Greek tragedies still read and performed?

Question 30

A tetrachord is:

A) a four-stringed musical instrument
B) a cycle of tragic plays
C) a feature of Greek architecture
D) a grouping of four pitches

Question 31

Which of the following was an outcome of the Peloponnesian War?

A) Greece was taken over by the Roman Empire.
B) Alexander the Great became leader of the Greek army.
C) Athens was no longer the most powerful city-state.
D) Aristotle was assassinated.

Question 32

Where were the centers of Greek art and learning in the Hellenistic Period?

A) Corinth and Sparta
B) Alexandria, Pergamum, and Antioch
C) Troy and Attica
D) Miletus and Delos

Question 33

What is the term for a "blood for blood" method of justice, as seen in Aeschylus's Oresteia ?

A) vendetta
B) hamartia
C) irony
D) hubris

Question 34

The military leader who conquered Persia and Egypt during the Late Classical period was named ________.

A) Pericles
B) Philip
C) Alexander
D) Julius

Question 35

Which of the following is NOT true of Greek music theory?

A) Music was thought to influence one's moral character.
B) Socrates believed music was a mistake of human evolution.
C) Plato and Aristotle wrote about the nature of music and its role in society.
D) Each mode (or scale) was associated with an emotion.

Question 36

Into which empire were the Hellenistic cities absorbed?

A) the Byzantine Empire
B) the Roman Empire
C) the Persian Empire
D) the Adriatic Empire

Question 37

What were the similarities between Plato's and Aristotle's views about music?

Question 38

How did the actions of Athens create strife within the Delian League?

Question 39

What is the term for a female statue used as a column to support a roof?

A) caryatid
B) entasis
C) cella
D) stylobate

Question 40

What are the major ways in which Hellenistic art differs from Classical art?