- Describe the character of government in Greece during the "Dark Ages."
- What was the Greek conception of religious piety? How did this relate to the Greek view of
the gods, their powers, and their expectations of humans?
- Discuss how the Greek view of Hades and of the fate of humans after death compares with
the idea of the transmigration of souls found in ancient India. How would these two views affect
ideas about the purpose of life?
- What supplied the foundations of Greek ethics and morality?
- Discuss the consequences of relatively widespread literacy in Greece.
- Evaluate the effects of intense militarism on the political and social life of Sparta.
- How did the origins of Sparta differ from those of Athens? How did those differences affect
their respective destinies?
- Trace the evolution of Athenian democracy from Solon to Pericles. At the peak of its
development what were the limitations of that democracy?
- Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the Athenian system of "direct" democracy.
- Describe the similarities and differences between Athenian democracy and twentieth-century
American democracy.
- What were the consequences for Greece (both positive and negative) of the Persian War?
- What were the causes of the Peloponnesian War? What were its results?
- Describe the roles of women in ancient Greece, and the reasons for their subordination.
- Identify the most important social changes in Greek society in the fifth to fourth centuries
B.C.E.
- "Although the various conclusions of the Pre-Socratics would not stand up to later
questioning and testing, their insistence on looking for natural laws and rational explanations was
pathfinding." Explain the meaning of this statement.
- Cicero said of the Sophists that they "brought philosophy down from heaven to the dwellings
of men." What did he mean?
- What did Plato mean when he referred to an "Idea"?
- Aristotle's philosophy "was a compromise between Platonism, which tended to ignore
matter, and the purest materialism, which saw no patterns in the universe other than the accidents
of matter impinging on matter." Show how this statement is justified by Aristotle's philosophy.
- Explain the differences between epic poetry and lyric poetry. Keep in mind themes as well as
performance styles.
- What was the Greek conception of tragedy?
- How did the art of the Greeks illustrate their social, political, and aesthetic ideals?
- In what ways did Athenian social life differ from that of other peoples of the ancient world,
including other Greeks?
- The Hellenic Greeks are often described as humanists. What is meant by this description?
To what extent is this description appropriate, and what were the limitations of Greek humanism?
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