HSC Classical Greek Extension key terms

Wrath or lasting anger, especially of a god; in epic it names the destructive resentment that drives a hero to withdraw from battle and to seek recompense.

Honour or the material share of respect a person receives from others; in heroic society it is publicly conferred and can be taken away, so its loss provokes conflict.

Excellence or virtue, above all the martial prowess and competitive standing valued by a warrior aristocracy; the term can also cover moral goodness in philosophical prose.

Fame or renown, the report of great deeds that survives the death of the doer; epic heroes weigh lasting glory against a long and obscure life.

Outrageous arrogance or wanton violence, the overstepping of limits that mortals and gods alike punish; in Athenian law it could denote a prosecutable act of deliberate humiliation.

Righteous indignation or the retribution that follows transgression; the word names both the feeling aroused by arrogance and the punishment that restores due measure.

The settled order of what is right, and the lawsuit or penalty that enforces it; in Athenian courts the word covers both the case brought and the justice sought.

A contest, whether athletic, dramatic or legal; the word also denotes the formal debate or set speech in which rivals compete before an audience, as in tragedy and history.

The art of persuasive public speech, taught by sophists and central to Athenian political and legal life; its techniques of argument and emotional appeal shape much surviving prose.

A paid teacher of wisdom, argument and rhetoric who travelled between Greek cities; the term could be neutral or hostile, and Plato treats the sophistic movement as a rival to philosophy.

Cross-examination or refutation, especially the question-and-answer method by which Socrates exposes inconsistency in an opponent's position; also the testing of a claim.

A state of being at a loss, the perplexity reached when inquiry undermines confident answers; in Socratic dialogue it marks a turning point rather than a final failure.

Character or habitual disposition, and in rhetoric the speaker's projected persona; Aristotle treats the impression of good character as one of the three means of persuasion.

Emotion or suffering; in rhetorical theory it is the appeal to an audience's feelings, while in narrative it can mean the calamity a character endures.

Word, account, argument or reasoned explanation; the range of meanings lets Greek authors contrast persuasive speech with action or reasoned principle with mere assertion.

The dramatic genre performed at Athenian festivals of Dionysus, staging the downfall of legendary figures; Aristotle's analysis of its plot, character and emotional effect remains fundamental.

Purgation or cleansing; Aristotle uses it for the relief of pity and fear produced by tragedy, though the precise medical or ritual sense is disputed.

An error or mistake, in Aristotle's theory the flaw or misjudgement that brings a basically good tragic protagonist to disaster rather than sheer wickedness.

A sudden reversal of fortune or of the direction of action, a plot device Aristotle ranks among the strongest sources of tragic effect.

Recognition, the moment when a character or chorus comes to know a crucial fact, often a hidden identity; combined with reversal it produces the most powerful tragic plots.

The singing and dancing group in Greek drama whose odes comment on the action, voice communal norms and divide episodes; its role and integration vary between playwrights.

The iambic metre of spoken dramatic dialogue, closest to ordinary speech rhythm; the trimeter is its standard tragic form and its resolution patterns signal tone.

The dactylic hexameter, the metre of epic and didactic poetry; six feet of dactyls or spondees, with a fixed cadence and caesura patterns that shape narrative pace.

Epic, the hexameter narrative genre of Homer and his successors; its conventions include invocation, extended simile, formulaic epithet and speeches in direct address.

Juxtaposition, the placing of two words, clauses or scenes side by side without an explicit connective so that the reader draws the comparison or contrast.

Hyperbaton, the deliberate separation of words that belong together, such as an adjective from its noun, producing emphasis or a suspenseful delay in the line.

Figure or shape, used for a recognised pattern of word arrangement or syntax that deviates from plain expression for rhetorical or stylistic effect.

Metaphor, the transfer of a word from its usual sphere to another on the basis of resemblance; Greek prose and verse use it both ornamentally and as a tool of argument.

Irony or dissimulation, saying less than one means or pretending ignorance; in Socratic dialogue it names the feigned modesty with which questioning begins.

Allegory, sustained narration in which persons and events stand for something else; ancient critics applied the idea to Homer and later authors exploited it deliberately.

Inquiry or investigation, the word Herodotus uses for his research; it later narrows to written history and carries the expectation of verified testimony and explanation.

Cause or responsible factor; Greek historians and philosophers ask what produced an event and who bears responsibility, distinguishing pretext from deeper explanation.

Chance, fortune or what happens without design; historians and dramatists debate how far human affairs are governed by luck rather than character or planning.

Necessity, constraint or inevitability, whether physical, logical or divine; tragedy often sets it against human choice, and philosophy uses it for what cannot be otherwise.

A portion or allotted share, hence a person's fate; the word can denote a divine power apportioning destiny or simply the lot that falls to someone.

The city-state, a self-governing community of citizens with its territory, cults and institutions; the term also means the citizen body and frames debates about obligation.

Rule by the people, the Athenian system in which eligible male citizens voted in assembly and served on juries and councils; its practices shape forensic and political oratory.

A stranger, guest or foreigner; the word carries the institution of guest-friendship, a hereditary bond of hospitality that creates obligations across communities.

A settlement founded abroad by a Greek city, which retained religious and sometimes political ties with its mother city; colonisation shapes much of the historical narrative.