Introduction to Greek

Literature
1. Quite literally, the term "philosophy" means, "love of wisdom." In
a broad sense, philosophy is an activity people undertake when they
seek to understand fundamental truths about themselves, the world
in which they live, and their relationships to the world and to each
other.
2. Politics: the activities and affairs involved in managing a state or a
government
3. Civilization, the process by which a society or place reaches an
advanced stage of social and cultural development and organization.
4. A cradle of civilization is a location and a culture where civilization
was created by mankind independent of other civilizations in other
locations.
The Archaic Age, or old period of ancient Greece was, until the discovery of the Mycenaean
Civilization, thought to have been the beginning of Greek history. (800-500 BC)
The Classical Age (500-323 BC) The Classical Period of ancient Greece was a time when the
Greeks achieved new heights in art, architecture, theater, and philosophy. Democracy in
Athens was refined under the leadership of Pericles.
The Hellenistic Age was characterized by a new wave of Greek colonization which
established Greek cities and kingdoms in Asia and Africa. This resulted in the export of
Greek culture and language to these new realms, spanning as far as modern-day India. (323-
31 BC)
Greece under the Roman Empire, Roman Greece from (31 BC to 180 AD) is described as the
era of the Pax Romana, a Roman Peace between Rome and the central areas of the Empire,
like Greece and the Greek East. This period is described as a period of peace and security
which permitted economical and cultural progress, especially in the cities such as Athens,
Corinth, Alexandria, Miletus, Thessaloniki, and Smyrna. Due to a decentralized Roman
provincial administration, the urban Greek elite re-appeared, which also had the right to
participate in the Roman Senate. The Romans welcomed the Greek culture and Latin and
Greek became the official languages of the Empire. A Greco-Roman Empire was created.
Democracy
What is Democracy? "Of the people, by the people, for the people" Abraham Lincoln. The word
democracy comes from the Greek words "demos", meaning people, and "kratos" meaning power; so
democracy can be thought of as "power of the people": a way of governing which depends on the will
of the people.
Architecture the art or practice of designing and building structures and especially habitable ones
Literature
Prose and Poetry
Fiction – Non-fiction Narrative, Dramatic, and Lyrical
 
Oedipus, in Greek mythology, the king of Thebes who unwittingly killed his father and married his mother. 
Homer related that Oedipus’s wife and mother hanged herself when the truth of their relationship became
known, though Oedipus apparently continued to rule at Thebes until his death. In the post-Homeric tradition,
most familiar from Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex (or Oedipus the King) and Oedipus at Colonus, there are notable
differences in emphasis and detail.
Electra, (Greek: “Bright One”) in Greek legend, the daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, who saved
the life of her young brother Orestes by sending him away when their father was murdered. When he later
returned, she helped him to slay their mother and their mother's lover, Aegisthus. (Sophocles)
Hercules is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the
mortal Alcmene. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his
numerous far-ranging adventures.
Euripides' play, The Trojan Women, is not so much a tragic story as a portrayal of a tragic
situation whereby Euripides dramatizes the postwar conditions of these women of Troy, the
spoils of war.
The Socratic method (also known as method of Elenchus, elenctic method, or Socratic debate)
is a form of cooperative argumentative dialogue between individuals, based on asking and
answering questions to stimulate critical thinking and to draw out ideas and underlying 
presuppositions.
To get the basics of Aristotelian ethics, you have to understand three basic things: what
Eudaimonia is, what Virtue is, and That We Become Better Persons Through Practice. The
moral theory of Aristotle, like that of Plato, focuses on virtue, recommending the virtuous way
of life by its relation to happiness.
Plato. He was the student of Socrates and the teacher of Aristotle. "Platonism" and its theory
of Forms (or theory of Ideas) denies the reality of the material world, considering it only an
image or copy of the real world.
According to this theory of Forms, there are at least two worlds: the apparent world of
concrete objects, grasped by the senses, which constantly changes, and an unchanging and
unseen world of Forms or abstract objects, grasped by pure reason which ground what is
apparent.
Olympics. The ancient Greeks loved competition of all sorts. Each year, the various city-states
of Greece sent athletes to festivals of games, which were held to honor the gods. The most
important and prestigious were the games held at Olympia to honor Zeus, the king of the gods.
The history of the Games goes back around 3,000 years, to the Peloponnese in Ancient Greece.
Sports contests organized at Olympia took place every four years and acquired the name
Olympic Games.
Baron Pierre de Coubertin was the founder of the modern Olympic Games. Inspired by the
ancient Olympic Games held in Olympia, Greece, which ended in 393 AD, Frenchman Pierre de
Coubertin decided to pursue his project to revive the Olympic Games.