The Persian Wars
  • Ionian Revolt: 
  • What was the Ionian revolt? 
  • What Greek mainland states helped the Ionians? 
  • Why was the revolt important for the Greek mainland?
  • 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 was the Greek strategy? 
  • 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?
  • 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 445 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 Ephialtes, 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: what does the term mean? 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 was Perikles policy in regard to the war?
  • Key problem with his policy?
  • Why were both sides ready for peace in 421?
  • Why did the Athenians send a force to Sicily? The result?
  • What did Sparta do differently in the second phase of the war that eventually spelled success for Sparta?
  • What role did Alcibiades play in all of this?
  • 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
  • Fifth Century Art:
  • key themes for free standing sculpture?
  • What are the key two themes portrayed on Greek pottery?
  • Themes/content of the art on 
  • temple to Hephaestus (at Athens)
  • the Parthenon (at Athens)
  • the Temple of Zeus (at Olympia)

    • Fifth Century Literature
  • Herodotus: 
  • What are the main points of the stories we have studied?
  • Where do the gods fit in these stories?
  • Role of human decisions?
  • How is Herodotus the 'father of history'?
  • What focus does his intro to his history reveal?
  • 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?
  • Who is the hero? Why? Characteristics of the hero?
  • 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? An Homeric hero?
  • What is her motivation?
  • Examples of how the play is an inversion of the norms?
  • Thucydides (c.460-400 B.C.)
  • Introduction:
  • Why does he consider this war to be the greatest ever?
  • View on previous wars?
  • On Agamemnon?
  • Role of gods?
  • Role of human nature?
  • Interest in facts and motives?
  • Rationale for speeches?
  • Funeral Oration.
  • 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?
  • Plague:
  • Where started?
  • Approach to description?
  • Effects on human nature?
  • Role of gods?
  • Interpretation of the oracle?
  • Melian Dialogue.
  • 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.?

    • Possible Essay Questions
    1. Religion: We have seen that Herodotus prescribed to the system of koros-hubris-ate. Examine two of the following with this in mind:
  • Creon in the Antigone
  • one or more of the male characters in the Lysistrata (i.e. the magistrate, the male chorus, or Cinesias)
  • the Athenians in Thucydides' Melian Dialogue coupled with the outcome of the war.
    • 2. Women: Pericles, in his funeral oration, states:  "if I am to speak of womanly virtues to those of you who will henceforth be widows, let me sum them up in one short admonition: To a woman not to show more weakness than is natural to her sex is a great glory, and not to be talked about for good or for evil among men." (Thuc. 2.45).  Discuss whether Antigone and Lysistrata live within the boundaries set by Pericles. In your conclusion, speculate on what implications, if any, one can derive from these two about Athenian women in general.