NZ Scholarship Classical Studies key terms

The Greek ideal of excellence or virtue, especially the full realisation of a person's capacities in action. In Homer it often means martial prowess; in later ethical writing it becomes a broader moral and civic standard.

The imperishable fame a hero wins through great deeds and is remembered by afterwards, above all through epic song. It is the central motivation of Homeric heroes facing death.

The honour, respect and material share a person is owed by others. In Homeric society, a slight to timē provokes conflict, as in the quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon.

Overweening pride or arrogant transgression of limits, often provoking divine punishment. In Athenian law and tragedy it denotes outrageous violence driven by self-assertion against gods or community norms.

A state of ruinous blindness or delusion, sometimes personified as a goddess, that leads a person to disastrous action. In tragedy it often marks the moment a character misjudges their situation.

A person's allotted portion or fate, conceived as a limit no mortal can overstep. It can mean a share of honour, a portion of land, or the appointed span of life.

An error or misjudgement that precipitates a tragic downfall. Aristotle uses the word in the Poetics for a mistake by a basically good protagonist, not necessarily a moral flaw.

A reversal of fortune or of the direction of action in a drama. Aristotle treats it, with recognition, as one of the strongest sources of tragic effect.

A moment of recognition in which a character moves from ignorance to knowledge, often about identity or kinship. It is especially powerful when it coincides with a reversal of fortune.

The purging or clarification of emotion, especially pity and fear, that Aristotle associates with the effect of tragedy on its audience. Its precise meaning is much debated by scholars.

Representation or imitation of life in art, which Aristotle regards as the basic mode of poetry and drama. It is not mere copying but a structured, selective making of a plausible world.

In Aristotle's Poetics, the plot or arrangement of incidents, which he ranks as the most important element of tragedy. More broadly it means a traditional story or narrative pattern.

The Greek city-state, understood as a community of citizens rather than merely a place. Citizenship, law, cult and military service were organised around it, especially in classical Athens.

The household, including family members, slaves, property and its economic and religious functions. It was the basic unit of Greek social life, distinct from and often in tension with the public world of the polis.

The people or citizen body, especially the common citizens as a political force. In Athens it names both the assembled citizenry and the democratic constituency that held sovereign power.

Rule by the people, the Athenian system in which eligible male citizens held power through assembly, council and courts. It was direct rather than representative, and excluded women, slaves and metics.

The Athenian assembly of citizens, which met on the Pnyx and voted on laws, war, treaties and public officials. It was the sovereign body of the democracy in the classical period.

A council that prepared business for an assembly. In Athens the Council of Five Hundred was chosen by lot from the citizen body and set the assembly's agenda.

An Athenian procedure in which citizens voted to exile a prominent man for ten years without loss of property or citizenship. It was designed to defuse dangerous political rivalry.

A resident foreigner in Athens who lived legally in the city, paid a special tax and served in the military, but lacked citizen political rights. Metics were economically important and socially liminal.

A heavily armed Greek infantryman fighting in the close-packed phalanx with spear and shield. Hoplite service was tied to property and helped define the citizen's role in the polis.

A fast Greek warship rowed by three banks of oarsmen, central to Athenian naval power and to the empire's revenue. Its crew included poor citizens, strengthening their claim to political standing.

The extension and maintenance of power over other states, as in Athens' control of the Delian League. Tribute, garrisons and courts turned alliance into empire, a theme central to Thucydides and to Athenian self-justification.

Tribute paid by allied states to Athens, originally for defence against Persia but increasingly a mark of subjection. Its collection funded the navy and the building programme on the Acropolis.

The Roman male head of household holding legal power over its members and property. His authority, though formally broad, was in practice constrained by custom and social expectation.

A reciprocal relationship in which a powerful patron gives protection or benefits to a client in return for loyalty and services. It structured Roman politics, literature and social life.

The body of clients attached to a Roman patron, owing him deference, votes and daily attendance. The morning salutatio displayed a patron's status through the size of his clientela.

The Roman commonwealth or public affairs, the state understood as the shared concern of its citizens. The term underpins Roman ideas of legitimate government and civic duty.

The sequence of public offices a Roman aristocrat normally held in order, from quaestor through praetor to consul. It regulated competition for power and prestige within the Republic.

Roman manly excellence, courage and moral worth, originally associated with martial valour. In the late Republic and Empire it also denotes the qualities expected of a good ruler or citizen.

Roman dutifulness towards gods, family and state, the faithful performance of obligations. Aeneas is its model, subordinating personal desire to his destined task.

The spoken word of fate, the divinely ordained order of events that even gods cannot overturn. In Roman epic it drives history towards a destined end, such as the founding of Rome.

Elevation to divine status, applied to heroes and later to Roman emperors after death. It links political power with religious cult and appears in literature as a symbol of earned immortality.

The divine power or will of a deity, conceived less as a personified figure than as an effective force. The term is characteristic of Roman religious language and of the imperial cult.

The organised worship of the emperor and of Rome, especially in the provinces, expressing loyalty and integrating local elites. It was a political as much as a religious institution.

The way a text echoes, alludes to or transforms earlier texts, so that meaning arises from the relationship between them. It is a standard tool for analysing allusion in classical and later literature.

The study of how later cultures read, adapt and use classical texts, images and ideas. It treats meaning as produced in each historical moment of reception rather than fixed once for all.