Some Fun Class Activities:
CLST 1003 University of Arkansas
Professor D. B. Levine
True or False?
1. The United States is an older nation than Greece.
2. Most Greek city states were democracies during the classical period.
3. Greek Archaeologists do not rely on written documents from times later than the date of the actual physical finds.
4. The word ILIAD is spelled with two L’s.
5. The ILIAD tells the story of the Trojan Horse.
6. Homer lived in Classical Athens.
7. A trireme is a warship.
8. Achilles’ horses actually speak to him in the Iliad.
9. Zeus and Hera have a continuing loving and trusting relationship in Greek mythology.
10. Greeks wore togas.
11. Sappho was a Lesbian.
12. The movie “Troy” is a meticulously researched piece of cinematic art which faithfully represents the Iliad.
13. The Bronze Age came before the Iron Age.
14. The Greek alphabet is derived from a Semitic script used by ancient Hebrews and Phoenicians on the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea.
15. Greek Orthodoxy is a worldwide Christian religion whose international headquarters are in Istanbul, Turkey.
16. Ancient Greek men competed nude in athletic contests.
17. Greeks have lived in Greece since the Palaeolithic period.
18. The Greeks call Greece Hellas, and they call Greeks Hellenes.
19. Greek athletic contests were held at religious festivals in honor of one or more of their gods or heroes.
20. Aristophanes was a Greek tragic poet.
21. Aeschylus was a Greek tragic poet.
22. Homer was a blind poet.
23. Ancient Greeks invented wine before any other people.
24. The Greek god of wine was Dionysius of Halicarnassus.
25. Zeus gave birth to Athena from his head.
26. Zeus gave birth to Dionysos from his thigh.
27. Heracles, the greatest Greek hero, dressed up like a woman to serve queen Omphale.
28. The Greeks referred to Apollo’s oracular center at Delphi as the Belly Button of the World.
29. Plato said “The unexamined life is not worth living.”
30. Istanbul was Constantinople; now it’s Istambul, not Constantinople.
31. Leonidas said, “Spartans, tonight we dine in hell,” according to Herodotus’ History of the Persian Wars. [The original quote is from Plutarch and there Leonidas refers to Hades (Apophthegmata Laconica 225d.13): τοῖς δὲ στρατιώταις παρήγγειλεν ἀριστοποιεῖσθαι ὡς ἐν Ἅιδου δειπνοποιησομένους.
32. At Thermopylae, when a Persian said that their arrows would blot out the sun, a Spartan said, “Then we will fight in the shade,” according to Herodotus’ History of the Persian Wars.
33. The ephors at Sparta were known to be misshapen, corrupt, sexually deviant tools of the Persians, and met at the top of an inaccessible cliff.
34. Ephialtes was a misshapen Spartan who betrayed the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae, according to Herodotus’ History of the Persian Wars.
35. The Greeks had three orders of columns: Doric, Ironic, and Corinthian.
36. The Athenians beat the Spartans in the Peloponnesian War, and destroyed Sparta.
37. Some Spartans surrendered to the Athenians on the island of Sphacteria, during the Peloponnesian War, and were held prisoner in Athens for several years.
38. Athens is located at the base of Mt. Olympus.
39. Mt. Olympus is where the Olympic Games were held.
40. The Marathon Race was the centerpiece of the ancient Olympics.
41. The Greek language is based on Latin.
42. The Latin language is based on Greek.
43. Greek and Latin are cognate languages that both derive from a putative “Indo-European” tongue.
More fun questions……
1. Which is the way we would expect Pericles’ name to be spelled in an
inscription made during his lifetime?
α. ΠΕΡΙΚΛΗΣ
β. περικλης
γ. ΠΕΡΙΚΛΕΣ
2. Which is earlier… the 4th Olympiad or the 14th Olympiad?
3. Who lived earlier… Jesus or Alexander the Great?
4. Which is earlier…. 650 BC or 65 BC?
5. Why was the New Testament written in Greek?
6. Which comes first in the Greek alphabet… the letter xi (right after
nu), or the letter phi (right after upsilon)?
7. What did Socrates write?
8. What is wrong with the following sentence: “Herodotus put on
his toga before he went to a party with Alexander the Great.”
9. What is wrong with the following sentence: “The statue of Athena
Parthenos is in the Pantheon.”
10. Who never said, “Madness? This is Sparta!!”
Rank in order from earliest in time to latest (note: some mythological
and legendary characters are here, so put them in where you think the ancient Greeks would have ranked them)
1. Athena ______________________
2. Pericles ______________________
3. Socrates ______________________
4. Solon ______________________
5. Hesiod ______________________
6. Achilles ______________________
7. King Minos ______________________
8. Herodotus ______________________
9. Aristophanes ______________________
10. Sappho ______________________
11. Heracles ______________________
I. Define the following in three words or less (from Biers, Archaeology
of Greece).
1. PITHOS
2. LARNAX (PLURAL = LARNAKES)
3. THALASSOCRACY
4. LINEAR A SCRIPT
5. LINEAR B SCRIPT
6. ORTHOSTATE
7. FRESCO
8. MINOAN
II. WHAT ANIMAL APPEARS OFTEN IN MINOAN ART? WHAT SIGNIFICANCE DOES IT HAVE TO THEIR CULTURE? TO GREEK MYTHOLOGY?
III. DRAW A CARICATURE OF A MINOAN MAN OR WOMAN.
CLST1003. Professor D. B. Levine. Fun with Thucydides
True or False? [Alethes e Pseudos;]
1. _______ Thucydides wrote his History basing his time descriptions on winters and summers of each year of the war.
2. _______ The first word in Greek of Book 2 is “ΑΡΧΕΤΑΙ”, which means ‘begins’.
3. _______ Thucydides died of the Plague in Athens, which explains how he was able to describe it so accurately in his History of the Peloponnesuan War.
4. _______ Pericles died of the Plague, which partly explains why Athens came to be governed poorly after 429 BCE.
5. _______ Theseus created the Athenian state with the ‘synoikia’, which means unification.
6. _______ Archidamos the Spartan King was a bitter foe of Athens.
7. _______ During the Peloponnesian war, there was a lot of available space inside the walls of Athens because so many men were away at war.
8. _______ Pericles in the Funeral Oration says that Athens
is “a medication for Hellas” because it has such a healthy political
outlook.
9. _______ Pericles encourages Athenian women to speak
out for democracy and to support the troops by being active in public affairs.
10. _______ Pericles says that the Athenians whose families
have lost fathers must now work harder to pay for their children’s upbringing.
11. _______ Athenians became more religious while experiencing
the plague.
12. _______ Athenians became more careful about their burial
practices during the plague.
13. _______ “Stasis” in Thucydides means civil strife, among other things.
Find the following places and label them on the blank map of the Aegean
area. Be ready to say one true, valuable, and interesting thing about each
place. What characters or actions are associated with each place?
1. Lydia 2. Crete 3. Knossos 4. Delphi 5. Sparta 6. Pylos (Sphacteria) 7. Mycenae 8. Athens 9. Plataia 10. Thermopylae 11. Salamis 12. Corinth 13. Delos 14. Mt. Olympus 15. Olympia 16. Lesbos (and Mytilene) 17. Troy 18. Ascra 19. Peloponnesus 20. Hellespont 21. Halicarnassus