Download HUM 2210 Instructor: Paloma Rodriguez http://hum2210.wordpress

HUM 2210
Instructor: Paloma Rodriguez
http://hum2210.wordpress.com/
Chapter 5: The Golden Age of Athens (OE Chapter 7)
Homework worksheet. Read the first part of the chapter (pp. 135-156) (pp.188-210 OE) in your textbook and
then complete this worksheet. (Use your own paper to write answers for the open ended questions)
1. What did Aristotle meant by “man is a political animal”? What does “politics” mean for the Greeks?
2. Why are women according to Medea’s words “the most unfortunate creatures”? (brown box, p. 137) (blue
box, p. OE)
3. Write in this a pyramid representing the population of Athens the following classes: metics + women, citizens
and slaves.
4. True or False
-
a. ______ The Athenians of the time of Pericles had to rebuild the Acropolis after a powerful earthquake
destroyed it.
b. ______ Pericles was a famous king of Athens.
c. ______ Athenian women received an education only if they were citizens.
d. ______ The display of one’s wealth was an appropriate way to prove one’s worth in Classical Athens.
e. ______ Hetairai were educated women and they enjoyed a high social status in Athens.
f. _____ The Delian League was a federation of cities united against the Persian threat.
g. _____ Phidias was the architect leading the reconstruction of the Acropolis.
h. _____ Greek classical sculpture reflects the artists’ concern with perfect proportions.
i. _____ The statues in the Acropolis were painted with vibrant colors.
j. _____ The iconography of the metopes in the Parthenon represent peaceful scenes to honor Athena.
k. _____ Athenians could watch up to four plays in one day during the Dionysia.
l. _____ The kithara, the lyre, and the aulos are string instruments
5. Label the picture below with the following:
Name of this complex: ___________________________________
Location of the
Parthenon
Erechtheion
Temple of Athena Nike
Propylaea
Statue of Athena Promachos
6. 7. Indicate if the following features describe life in Sparta or in Athens.
Athens
Sparta
A strict oligarchy
A restricted democracy
There was an outstanding development of the arts
A militaristic society
Women shared political power as equals or near equals
There were very stringent immigration laws
7. Read the brown pages (blue pages) at the end of the chapter and then answer to the following questions in
your own paper
Reading 5.5 (7.6): Plato, The Allegory of the Cave
(Read the “Philosophy and the Polis” passage in the chapter first (pp. 148-151)
Make a drawing of Plato’s cave as he
describes it in The Republic (reading 7.6,
pp. 221-223). Include the chained
prisoners, the wall, the fire, the elevated
passage and the way out of the cave.
1. Describe why the prisoners’ perceptions of the real world are very limited? What are their perceptions
made of?
2. What is the prisoners’ first reaction when confronted with the vision of truth/ light?
3. How do they react once they are out of the cave and have become accustomed to the light/ the
contemplation of truth?
4. What is the responsibility of those who have come out of the cave? What are they supposed to do with
their knowledge? Why do they have this responsibility?
5. An allegory is an indirect way of explaining an idea through a narrative charged with symbolism. Can
you match the elements in this allegory with what they symbolize in the system of Platonic thought?
a. Prisoners
b. Shadows, echoes
c. Passage upwards towards light
d. Light, sun
e. Those with knowledge who return to the cave
Reading 5.6 (7.7): Plato, The Symposium
1. How can someone get to the ideal of beauty? What “objects” will lead him/her there? What force will
make him want to reach the ideal of beauty?
2. Is “Beauty” just a physical attribute according to Plato? What kinds of ideal beauty can you find in the
text?