Name: _____________________

Ancient Greece Worksheet
chapter seven, pp. 124-135

Fill in the blank

1. The basic tenet of Greek religion was that humans, both as _________ and as ___________ paid honors to the ______ to thank them for __________ received and to receive ____________ in the future.
2. In Greek thinking, gods did not ________ human beings. Rather, they _______ humans who paid them _________ and avoided ________ them. The greatest difficulty for human beings lay in anticipating what might ______ a god. Some of these were codified in a ______ order with rules of behavior.
3. The gods punished the crime of homicide by casting a state of _______ upon murderers and all those ______ them as well.
4. The Greeks believed their gods lived _______ lives. The ____ most important gods, headed by ________, lived atop Mount ______________. According to Solon, “the gods are envious of human __________ and prone to _______ our affairs.”
5. To interact with a god, worshipped _________, sang ______ of praise, offered ___________, and presenting ________ at the god’s sanctuary. The sacrifices of public cults were conducted by __________ and _____________.
6. Greek religion had no _________ theology.
7. The ____ day of each month was celebrated as Athena’s _________. The sixth day of the month was the birthday celebration for ______. The god _______ was celebrated on the seventh day of every month.
8. Sacrifices ranged from the bloodless offering of ________, __________, and small ________ to the slaughter of large animals such as _______ .
9. Nearly everyone consulted seers about the meaning of _______ and ________ and sought out magicians for ________ to improve their love lives or _______ to harm their enemies.
10. The remains of _____ were thought to retain special power. The strongman _________ had cults established all over the Greek world.
11. The cult of ___________ and her daughter __________ was headquartered at __________. The central rite of this cult was called the _____________, a series of ceremonies of initiation into the _____ knowledge of the cult. In one thousand years, no one revealed the _____. Those involved in the cult hoped to do better in this ______ and in the ______ to come.
12. The Greek gods mirrored human frailty in that each could be both ______ and _____.
13. The Greeks had no expectation that they would achieve _________ after death.
14. The relationship between humans and the gods formed the basis of _______ drama. These were performed at an annual festival in honor of the god _____________ and took place during the ________ in an outdoor __________ on the slope next to Athens’ ______________. The theater held about _____ spectators. The plays involved three _____ and fifteen ______ members. Actors wore _____. Dialogue was far more common than ________ action. Actors flew by use of a _________. The actor playing the lead role was known as the ____________.
15. The best known Athenian tragedians were ___________, _____________, and ______________.
16. Tragedy was at its base a _______ art form, a means by which _______ quandaries and ________ issues could be explored.
17. Tragedies often portray ___________ as central, active figures. This allowed tragedians to explore the tensions inherent in the ______ code of the contemporary society by strongly reacting to _____ violations of that code.
18. Sophocles competed in the dramatic contest about ____ times, winning at least ___ times and never finishing lower than _________.
19. The Greek tragedians of Classical Athens warned that reversals of fortune come about because human beings are susceptible to a mixture of ________, _________, and hubris.


Short Answer

1. How did the Ancient Greeks seek to honor their gods? How could they dishonor the gods?









2. Discuss the ritual of animal sacrifice in Greek religion.









3. Summarize the plot of Sophocles’ play Ajax.









4. Summarize the plot of Sophocles’ play Antigone.










5. Summarize the plot of Aeschylus’ Agamemnon.







6. Summarize the plot of Euripides’ Medea.