Deck 3: Classical and Hellenistic Greece

Question 1

The Stoics

A)argued that one should withdraw from the world to avoid pain and anxiety.
B)believed that slavery was wrong because it corrupted the soul of the slave.
C)believed that what constitutes justice depends on the society.
D)claimed that the world was governed by a single divine plan.
E)advocated the pursuit of pleasure.

Answer 1

claimed that the world was governed by a single divine plan.

Question 2

Socrates was concerned that the young men of Athens examine their lives in pursuit of

A)answers to questions concerning the nature of life and death.
B)factual information concerning the material universe.
C)morality and ethical behavior.
D)successful political careers.
E)personal advantage.

Answer 2

morality and ethical behavior.

Question 3

Greek tragedies of the fifth century

A)questioned the relationship between humans and gods.
B)were concerned with showing the meaning in the common activities of daily life.
C)made the actions of women distinctly subordinate to those of men.
D)rejected previous concerns with the gods.
E)All these answers are correct.

Answer 3

questioned the relationship between humans and gods.

Question 4

Our best historical sources for the Persian and Peloponnesian Wars are

A)Sophocles and Euripides.
B)Herodotus and Thucydides.
C)Aeschylus and Aristophanes.
D)Hesiod and Sappho.
E)Medea and Lysistrata.

Question 5

In the large kingdoms that followed the break-up of Alexander's empire,

A)cities were given some autonomy in local affairs.
B)semi-divine monarchs ruled with the aid of large bureaucracies.
C)Greeks served as officials and military leaders.
D)both semi-divine monarchs ruled with the aid of large bureaucracies and Greeks served as officials and military leaders.
E)All these answers are correct.

Question 6

In comparison with Socrates, Plato was

A)a greater believer in democracy.
B)less concerned with questions of moral conduct.
C)more interested in theories of matter.
D)less willing to believe that people could consult their consciences to discover what is right.
E)a great believer in the individual conscience.

Question 7

The Sophists

A)preached adherence to social norms.
B)believed in knowledge for knowledge's sake.
C)believed human laws were superior to natural ones.
D)challenged most accepted rules and morals.
E)believed in strict moral constraints.

Question 8

Greek women were

A)allowed to participate in the intellectual life of the polis.
B)subject to the same sexual norms as men.
C)restricted both sexually and socially in comparison to men.
D)not considered citizens.
E)considered mere breeding machines.

Question 9

In comparison with the world of the polis, Hellenistic civilization was

A)less wealthy.
B)marked by a more equitable distribution of wealth.
C)characterized by economic activity on a larger scale.
D)hampered in trade relations by lack of a common language.
E)characterized by a return to small-scale economic activities.

Question 10

The Epicureans advocated

A)withdrawal from the pain and disappointment of the world.
B)the acceptance of anxiety and suffering.
C)virtuous living.
D)the cultivation of self-discipline.
E)the acceptance of one's fate.

Question 11

Aristarchus

A)advanced a heliocentric theory of planetary motion.
B)calculated the value of pi.
C)calculated the length of the average lunar month.
D)invented various proofs for geometric theorems.
E)computed the circumference of the earth.

Question 12

The work of Aristotle

A)involved fields of knowledge from physics, astronomy, and biology to politics and ethics.
B)shared the assumption of Plato that order exists in the universe.
C)stressed moderation in human behavior and in politics.
D)both stressed moderation in human behavior and in politics and involved fields of knowledge from physics, astronomy, and biology to politics and ethics.
E)All these answers are correct.

Question 13

Following the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C., the Near East was influenced by Greek culture in a process we call

A)Sophism.
B)Platonism.
C)Athenianization.
D)Hellenization.
E)dissolution.

Question 14

In the fifth century, the Greeks invented a way of writing history that

A)presented human events as part of a great drama enacted by the gods.
B)required the careful use of sources.
C)considered human motivations.
D)required the careful use of sources and considered human motivations.
E)All these answers are correct.

Question 15

The Athenians' defeat by Sparta in 404 B.C.was followed by

A)their permanent eclipse as a powerful city-state.
B)a period in which Sparta assumed the supremacy of the Greek world for fifty years.
C)the immediate destruction of all the city-states by Philip of Macedon.
D)decades of war between shifting alliances of city-states.
E)the decline of Thebes.

Question 16

Alexander's imperial ambitions were

A)the product of his courage, leadership, and strategy.
B)fueled by his vision of the brotherhood of different peoples.
C)devoid of any scientific or scholarly curiosity.
D)subordinated to his concern for ruling his subjects.
E)undermined by his poor grasp of military strategy.

Question 17

Alexander's empire collapsed after his death because

A)he was murdered.
B)he had been an ineffective administrator.
C)he had murdered his closest allies.
D)his generals seized parts of his empire for themselves.
E)the upper classes of the empire challenged its unity.

Question 18

Classical Greek tragedians derived most of their plots from

A)Greek history.
B)Greek politics.
C)Athenian hegemony.
D)Egypt and the Near East.
E)Greek mythology.

Question 19

The comedies of Aristophanes

A)avoided criticizing major political figures in Athens.
B)involved fantasy and escapism from contemporary problems.
C)often revealed his antiwar sentiments.
D)offer little insight to contemporary Athenian life.
E)depicted influential Athenian citizens in a flattering light.

Question 20

Philosophy as a new way of thinking

A)relied on the use of reason to answer profound questions of human existence.
B)welcomed argument and debate.
C)provided ways of understanding change.
D)argued that only the gods can alter the universe.
E)rejected religious explanations of the world.

Question 21

Review the feature entitled "Socrates is Sentenced to Death" in this chapter.What is the proper function of the individual in this life according to Socrates?

Question 22

What kinds of assumptions about humanity and its relationship to the universe were shared by Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics?

Question 23

How can Alexander the Great be considered the perfect example of Hellenism?

Question 24

Review the feature entitled "Socrates is Sentenced to Death" in this chapter.Plato was one of Socrates' students and believed that a philosopher-king could provide the best form of government, not democracy.Do you think, therefore, that this account is biased?

Question 25

Review the feature entitled "Socrates is Sentenced to Death" in this chapter.How do you think Socrates defines "the important things"?

Question 26

Place the growing popularity of mystery cults in the Hellenistic kingdoms into the historical context of that era.What political, economic, social, or intellectual developments might account for this development?

Question 27

Contrast life in a polis to life in a major Hellenistic city in terms of economic activity, political structure, social relations, and daily life of the citizens.

Question 28

Review the feature entitled "Oedipus' Self-Mutilation" in this chapter.How are the transgressions of Oedipus punished? Are the punishments just?

Question 29

Describe the transformations in Greek ideals of the human body seen in the depictions of the human form in this chapter.Why might those transformations have occurred?

Question 30

How does the Temple of Concord, as shown in this chapter, reflect the Greek ideal of harmony and balance?

Question 31

Review the feature entitled "Thucydides: The Melian Dialogue" in this chapter.Explain how this passage could also be entitled "The Melian Tragedy."

Question 32

Review the feature entitled "Thucydides: The Melian Dialogue" in this chapter.How does the Melian Dialogue represent a version of the idea that "might makes right"? Why does Western civilization glorify Athens as the birthplace of democracy yet ignore episodes such as the one portrayed here?

Question 33

Consider the parameters of Alexander's empire as outlined in map 3.3.How did he attain such a large empire in such a short period of time?

Question 34

What comprises "Hellenistic" culture? How does it differ from "Greek" culture?

Question 35

Why is Alexander III often referred to as Alexander the Great? Does he deserve the title?

Question 36

What common themes and approaches did the giants of classical Greek literature and philosophy address? Make specific use of the writers discussed in your text.

Question 37

Compare and contrast the norms regulating the lives of men and women in Greek society.How widely do these norms differ from our own?

Question 38

Review the feature entitled "Oedipus' Self-Mutilation" in this chapter.Why does Sophocles write, at the end of this passage, that "all ills that there are name for-all are here"? How do the events described in this passage conform to the ideals of Greek tragedy?

Question 39

Review the feature entitled "Thucydides: The Melian Dialogue" in this chapter.Thucydides was more pro-Pericles than pro-democracy.Given his biases, can the reader trust the accuracy of the Melian Dialogue? On the other hand, what themes are present that support the reliability of the passage?

Question 40

How does the scene portrayed, in this chapter, of Medea's murder of her children reflect a theme at once typical of Greek tragedy and antithetical to Greek culture?

Question 41

Identify/define and explain the significance of the following: Democritus.

Question 42

Identify/define and explain the significance of the following: Milesians.

Question 43

Identify/define and explain the significance of the following: kyrios.

Question 44

Identify/define and explain the significance of the following: Aeschylus.

Question 45

Identify/define and explain the significance of the following: Sophocles.

Question 46

Identify/define and explain the significance of the following: Socrates.

Question 47

Identify/define and explain the significance of the following: Thucydides.

Question 48

Identify/define and explain the significance of the following: Plato.

Question 49

Identify/define and explain the significance of the following: Sophists.

Question 50

Identify/define and explain the significance of the following: Oedipus the King.

Question 51

Identify/define and explain the significance of the following: ideal forms.

Question 52

Identify/define and explain the significance of the following: Aristophanes.

Question 53

Identify/define and explain the significance of the following: Herodotus.

Question 54

Identify/define and explain the significance of the following: Oresteia.

Question 55

Identify/define and explain the significance of the following: Socratic method.

Question 56

Identify/define and explain the significance of the following: Pythagoras of Samos.

Question 57

Review the feature entitled "The Training of a Wife" in this chapter.What, judging from this passage, is the status of a wife in Athenian society? What roles and responsibilities must the wife assume in a marriage?

Question 58

Identify/define and explain the significance of the following: Dionysus.

Question 59

Identify/define and explain the significance of the following: Euripides.

Question 60

Review the feature entitled "The Training of a Wife" in this chapter.Xenophon was a soldier himself.How might his profession influence his ideals of marriage and the duties of wives?

Question 61

Identify/define and explain the significance of the following: Epicurus.

Question 62

Identify/define and explain the significance of the following: Macedonia.

Question 63

Identify/define and explain the significance of the following: the Almagest.

Question 64

Identify/define and explain the significance of the following: The Republic.

Question 65

Identify/define and explain the significance of the following: Hellenization.

Question 66

Identify/define and explain the significance of the following: League of Corinth.

Question 67

Identify/define and explain the significance of the following: mystery cults.

Question 68

Identify/define and explain the significance of the following: Pergamum.

Question 69

Identify/define and explain the significance of the following: Alexander the Great.

Question 70

Identify/define and explain the significance of the following: Alexandria.

Question 71

Identify/define and explain the significance of the following: Furies.

Question 72

Identify/define and explain the significance of the following: koiné.

Question 73

Identify/define and explain the significance of the following: Philip II.

Question 74

Identify/define and explain the significance of the following: Euclid.

Question 75

Identify/define and explain the significance of the following: the Lyceum.

Question 76

Identify/define and explain the significance of the following: Stoicism.

Question 77

Identify/define and explain the significance of the following: Zeno of Cyprus.

Question 78

Identify/define and explain the significance of the following: Archimedes.

Question 79

Identify/define and explain the significance of the following: Aristotle.