Sparta (Eunomia)
What is eunomia?
What
did the Spartan government look like before the First Messenian War
(kingship,
gerousia, apella, ephors)? When/why did Sparta conquer Messenia? What
effect
did the conquest have on Sparta? How did the defeat at Hysiai in 669 BC
affect the Spartan military; their view of themselves and of the Heroic
Code? Their politeia? What does a Greek politeia refer to? What is the
key underlying fact of the Spartan politeia? What are the Agoge and the
Syssitia? Stages involved in the Agoge? Their training? Relations
between
individuals? What was the position of women? Their training? Marriage?
Athens (Isonomia)
- Prior to Solon: What
was
the Athenian state like before Solon? Colonization? Key terms: Archons,
Council of Areopagus, Assembly, Tribes, Phratries. What was the
significance
of Cylon's attempt at tyranny? What was lawgiver Draco known for?
- Solon: What
was
the aim
of Solons reforms? How different from that of Sparta's? What were his
reforms?
Especially in regard to: the abolition of debt; the four property
classes;
the change in the offices; the council of 400; judicial & economic
reform, 3 key reforms leading to democracy according to Aristotle
- The Pisistratids:
Why did
the tyranny arise? How did Pisistratus seize power? What were the
important
changes Pisistratus made in the Political arena? The religious sphere?
The artistic sphere?
- Kleisthenes: What
is isonomia?
The tribes: How did he reform the tribes? Why was the change
important?
The demes: What was the key power of the demes? What did they replace
and
why was this important? The Boule: What was it? Who was in it?
How
did citizens become part of the Boule? What was its function? The
Assembly: What function did it serve?
- After Kleisthenes:
Generals:
What was the new system like? Ostracism: what is it? how was it used
between
490 and 480? Silver mines: what is the importance of the find of new
silver
at the mines? how was the silver used? who persuaded the Athenians?
The Persian Wars
- Marathon:
What happened
at Marathon? Why Marathon? Why was this battle important for the
Athenians?
- The Campaign of
Xerxes:
What preparations did Xerxes make for his invasion? What was the
position of Delphi on the war?
What happened at Thermopylae and at Artemisium? What happened at
Salamis?
What part did Themistocles play in all this? What happened at Plataea?
After Plataea?
The Fifth Century: Overview
- The Delian
League: Why
was the league formed? Why called Delian? Who was in it? How was it
organized?
What was its aim? What did it do?
- Athens and the
Delian
League:
Ways the League changed into an empire? When was the treasury moved to
Athens and why? What effect did the Peace in 449 with Persia have? What
did Pericles propose after the Peace? Sparta's repsonse and Pericles'
reaction?
- Athens and Sparta:
What
happened in 462 to strain the relations between Athens and Sparta?
Effects
of the "first" Peloponnesian War and the 30 years peace?
- Athenian
Democracy:
What
were the key changes made by Pericles? What is a liturgy and why is it
important at Athens at this time?
- Oikos and Polis:
What are
the characteristics of the Athenian economy? How did naming of children
work at Athens? Marriage: Who decided? Typical age at first marriage?
Aim
of marriage? Fidelity? What was the dowry? Epikleros &
Anchisteus:
what do they refer to & how does the system work? Women in Athens:
What did Athenian women do? Where did they stay? When did they go out?
- The Peloponessian
War: What
started the war? What are sone of the
effects
of the war--in general and at Athens?
- Fifth Century
Architecture: What
are some of the key features of the Parthenon, the Erechtheion, and the
Propylaia?
- Fifth Century
Art:
What are the key themes portrayed on Greek pottery? On Greek temple
sculptures?
Fifth Century Literature
- History:
- Herodotus: What
are the
main points of the stories we have studied?Where do the gods fit in
these stories? How is
Herodotus
the 'father of history'? What focus does his intro to his history
reveal?
- Thucydides (c.460-400
B.C.)
- Funeral
Oration (2.34-46).
What are the values of Athens as Thucydides describes them in the
funeral
oration supposedly delivered in 431/30 B.C.? Why was Athens the "School
of Hellas" (2.38-41)? Contrast with Sparta? Position of women?
- Melian
Dialogue (p.217-23).
What are the arguments that both the Athenians and Melians use? What
importance
do the Athenians place on expediency and what importance do they place
justice? Where do the gods fit in all of this? How do the values the
Athenians
espouse in their interaction with the Melians in 416 compare to those
Pericles
articulates in his funeral oration? How and why has Athens changed so
dramatically
since 431 B.C.?
- Tragedy: What
are
the origins
of tragedy? How is tragedy religious? Mythical? "Form"-al? What are the
production circumstances? Details about the festival? Significance of
prizes?
What is the purpose of the masks? Who and how many acted in the plays?
- Sophocles' Antigone:What
is the role of the chorus in Sophocles plays? What are the key images
and
themes in Antigone? For other questions concerning the play, see class
discussion.
- Comedy: What
are
the origins
of Greek comedy? What are the typical features of a Greek Old Comedy?
- Aristophanes Lysistrata:What
is the fantastic idea of the play? What view of women and men does the
play present? What kind of person is Lysistrata? How is she like a
Sophoclean
hero (main character) or an Homeric hero? What is her motivation?
Examples of how the
play
is an inversion of the norms?
Possible Essay Questions
1. Drama (etc)
a. Historians
are interested in the ways that literature reflects the social norms of
the times. Keeping this in mind, examine male/female relationships in
the Antigone and the Lysistrata and discuss what
they may reveal
about Athenian society of the times, using class notes and Pomeroy
157-161 (4th
edit) as the benchmark for Athenian society.
b. Greek drama is composed of
both tragedy and comedy. Compare and
contrast the two using specific examples from the Antigone and the Lysistrata. Also discuss how Greek
and modern drama are both different and similar.
2. Athens & Sparta:
a. George F. Will recently noted
that an underlying assumption within
the US is a belief that "a particular kind of civic order -- democracy,
representation, the rule of law, a large sphere of privacy and
individual autonomy -- is right for the fulfillment of human nature" ("Grand
Delusions," Washington Post, Sept 30, 2004: registration required). Compare and contrast the
Spartan and Athenian systems (as they existed in the fifth century)
based on his four points and determine which is most like the US based
on those four.
b. If President Bush (George
W.) were alive in ancient Greece (as an
Athenian or as a Spartan), would he more likely be successful as an
Athenian or a Spartan? Make sure you answer why and why not.