Glossary

Glossary

Abacus:

A flat, square-shaped slab forming the top of a column capital.

Academy:

The school established by the philosopher Plato about 385 B.C.E. in the park and gymnasium on the outskirts of Athens sacred to the hero Academus, from whom the Academy took its name.

Acanthus:

A plant known in English as brank-ursine, the leaves of which are used as a decorative motif on Corinthian capitals.

Acheron:

A river in southern Epirus in north-west Greece which disappears underground at several points. It was therefore thought to flow into the Underworld and hence an Oracle of the Dead was situated on it.

Acropolis:

The "high place" or citadel of a Greek city—an easily-defensible, fortified hill within the city walls. It was usually the oldest part of the city.

Adyton:

An inner chamber at the rear of a temple.

Aegis:

The shield of Zeus which flashes forth amazement and terror. The goddess Athena also has an aegis, which is shown in works of art not as a shield, but as a short cloak covered with scales, fringed at the bottom and with a Gorgoneion set in the center of it.

Aeolian:

The dialect of Greek spoken by the Greeks of Aeolis. The dialect of Sappho and Alcaeus.

Aeolis:

The territory of the northernmost group of Greek immigrants who migrated to the west coast of Asia Minor after the fall of the Mycenaean civilization. They mobbed from Thessaly and Boeotia to settle the region stretching southward from the entrance to the Hellespont, including the island of Lesbos.

Aer:

Air. The Presocratic philosopher Anaximenes believed that the basic matter of the world was aer, a substance more like mist than pure air, that was transformed by expansion or contraction into water, earth and all other natural things.

Aetiological Myths:

From the Greek word aitia meaning "the reason why." An aetiological myth tells why familiar objects or practices originated.

Agathos Daimon:

The "Good Spirit" or the "Good Luck" of a household.

Agoge:

The term used for the strict, militaristic education of Spartiate youths.

Agora:

The marketplace of a city: both its commercial and administrative center.

Akroterion:

(plural: akroteria) An ornament placed on the peak of the gable of a temple roof, or on the corners of the roof.

Alexandria:

A port city of Egypt slightly to the west of the Canopic mouth of the Nile River. Here, where there was already an Egyptian village named Rhacotis, Alexander the Great founded a city named after himself on 7 April 331 B.C.E., which would become the capital of the Ptolemaic dynasty that ruled Egypt after Alexander's death, and one of the great cultural centers of the Hellenistic world.

Alexandrian Library:

A great library in Alexandria probably founded by King Ptolemy I but greatly extended by Ptolemy II (308–246 B.C.E.). Estimates of the number of scrolls which it held range from 100,000 to 700,000.

Altar:

A platform where sacrifices were made. If connected with a temple, it was outside the entrance, usually on the east side. In Christian churches, the altar was inside, generally at the east end of the church, and was where the bread and wine were offered and blessed as Jesus' body and blood during the sacrament of the Eucharist.

Ambo:

The pulpit in a Christian basilica. A basilica would have two of them on either side of the church, one for reading the epistle and the other for reading the Gospel.

Ambulatio:

A terrace where one might walk for exercise.

Amnisos:

A Minoan harbour town on the northern shore of Crete, where a Minoan villa known as the "House of the Lilies" has been excavated. The Homeric hero Idomeneus is supposed to have set sail from Amnisos to fight in the Trojan War.

Amphictyony:

A league of devotees of a religious sanctuary whose duty it was to protect and maintain the cult. The word derives from the Greek amphiktiones meaning "those who live in the vicinity." Important amphictyonies, however, like the Delphi amphictyony, had representatives from many parts of Greece.

Amphidromia:

Literally "a running around." A religious ceremony marking the birth of a child where the father of the house carried the five-day-old infant around the ancestral hearth.

Amphiprostyle:

With columns at the front and rear of the building, but not along the sides.

Amphora:

A crockery container, normally two-handled, which was the standard storage pot of the ancient Mediterranean world. A type of amphora with a pointed end was used instead of barrels to transport olive oil, wine and other products. Another type, decorated and with a base, was used to keep wine and olive oil for domestic use, and sometimes an amphora filled with wine or olive oil served as a prize in athletic games—for instance, in the Panathenaic Games in Athens, the prize for the victors was an amphora of olive oil, always decorated in black-figure technique.

Anax:

See Wanax.

Andron:

A principal room in a Greek house, used as the dining room. It was part of the men's quarters in the house—the literal meaning is "belonging to men."

Aniconic:

Without human features.

Anta:

(plural: antae) The end of a wall, thickened often to form a pilaster. Columns in antis are columns at the end of a building between two antae.

Anthesteria:

A flower festival (the Greek anthos means "flower") held in Athens on the 12th of the month Anthesterion in the Athenian calendar, roughly equivalent to the end of February and the beginning of March. The day before, on the 11th, the wine jars with the new wine were opened, and on the 12th, the wine was ceremonially blessed by the god of wine, Dionysus.

Antioch-on-the-Orontes:

A city founded by Seleucus I in 300 B.C.E. on the Orontes River in Syria some fifteen miles from the sea. It became one of the capitals of the Seleucid Empire—the other was Seleucia-on-the-Tigris, founded in 312 B.C.E., which displaced Babylon as the major center for trade between east and west.

Antonine Age:

Strictly speaking, the reigns of the Roman emperors Antoninus Pius (138–161 C.E.), Lucius Verus (161–169 C.E.), and Marcus Aurelius (161–180 C.E.). However the term is sometimes used to embrace the period from 96 to 180 C.E., when reigning emperors adopted their successors, thereby avoiding wars over the succession.

Aoidos:

Singer, or bard, who performed, accompanied by the lyre, at festivals or private banquets.

Apeiron:

Matter without any limit. According to the Presocratic philosopher Anaximander, the basic matter of the universe was vast, boundless substance where everything was mixed together, out of which the world as we know it emerged.

Apotheosis:

The act of making a person into a god; deification.

Apotropaic:

Designed to frighten away malignant spirits or ward off the evil eye.

Apse:

The half-vaulted, semi-circular end of a building. A building with an apse at one end is called "apsidal."

Archaic:

The term applied to the period of Greek culture from about 600 to 480 B.C.E.

Architrave:

The course of masonry immediately above the column capitals, which supports the superstructure.

Archon:

The highest public office in archaic Athens to which nine citizens were originally appointed and later chosen by lot from forty elected candidates, and after 487 B.C.E., from five hundred elected candidates.

Areopagus:

The "Hill of Ares" (or Mars' Hill), a rocky out-cropping which is directly opposite the entrance to the Athenian acropolis. The ancient Council of the Areopagus, composed of ex-archons, met there.

Aristocracy:

Rule by the aristoi—the "best people." The class of "best people" was usually defined by birth.

Arris:

In the Doric order, the sharp ridge where the flutes of the column join.

Ashlar:

A masonry style where the stones are cut and dressed into rectangular blocks and are laid in regular courses.

Atrium:

The main room of a Roman house, with an aperture in the center of the roof for light, air and rain called the compluvium which had a catch basin directly under it called an impluvium. In Late Antiquity, the courtyard in front of a Christian basilica, with a fountain in the center where worshippers could wash, was called an atrium.

Attic:

(1) The upper story of a Roman building. (2) On a Roman triumphal arch, a slab directly above the archway where an honorific inscription was carved.

Augur:

In Rome, a member of a "college" or body of priests who predicted the future by observing and interpreting the path of lightning, the flight of birds, the feeding of sacred fowls and any unusual occurrences.

Augustan Age:

The period when Rome was ruled by the emperor Augustus (27 B.C.E.–14 C.E.).

Augustus:

A Latin adjective meaning "worthy of esteem and reverence." In 27 B.C.E., the Roman senate conferred the title "Augustus" on Octavian, the heir of Julius Caesar who had made himself master of the Roman Empire by defeating Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium (31 B.C.E.), and henceforth the title was born by all emperors.

Aulos:

Often mistranslated as "flute," the aulos was a reed-instrument which was an early ancestor of the modern oboe which was developed in the seventeenth century C.E. The double aulos had two pipes, and to assist the piper's breath control, he wore a leather band called a phorbeia like a halter around his head and over his mouth, with holes just large enough for the pipes to poke through.

Aurelian Wall of Rome:

The Roman wall, most of which survives to this day, built by the emperors Aurelian (270–275 C.E.) and Probus (276–282 C.E.).

Auxilia:

Units of the Roman army made up of non-Roman citizens recruited in the provinces of the Roman Empire. On Roman monuments they are shown wearing chain mail or scale armor rather than lorica segmentata which seems to have been reserved for the Roman legions made up of Roman citizens. When the auxiliary trooper retired after twenty-five years of service, he would receive Roman citizenship—until 212 C.E. when the emperor Caracalla extended citizenship to almost of the inhabitants of the Roman Empire.

Balneum:

A private bathroom in a Roman house, or a modest public bath, as distinct from the thermae, which were the great public baths, such as the Baths of Caracalla in Rome.

Barbitos:

A type of lyre with long curved arms, favored by Greek courtesans. Also known as barbiton.

Bard:

A poet, often illiterate, who improvised and recited narrative poetry of his own composition, usually with musical accompaniment.

Baroque:

Characterized by curved, dynamic, elaborately-carved forms.

Basileus:

In Homeric times, a local ruler like Odysseus or Menelaus, as distinct from the wanax or "high king" who seems to have been divine. In the city-states of Classical Greece, a magistrate with priestly functions was often called a basileus—one of the archons of Athens was called the "archon basileus."

Basilica:

A type of Roman hall built to house law-courts. The building type was adapted first by the Jews for synagogues, and after the conversion of Constantine I to Christianity, the type was used for the earliest Christian churches. A typical early basilical church faces west, with a narthex or oblong vestibule across the front end, and in the interior, a central hall (nave) with aisles on either side and an apse at the end wall.

Beehive tomb:

A Mycenaean tomb with a false or corbelled vault, resembling an old-style beehive.

Bema:

A rostrum or platform used by a speaker to address a crowd or preside over a meeting.

Black-figure Technique:

A technique of decorating pottery whereby the figures were shown in black silhouette with incised detail, and the background was the natural reddish color of the clay.

Boeotia:

The region in Greece northwest of Attica, where the chief city-state was Thebes.

Breastplate:

Metal armor worn to protect the chest and midriff of a soldier.

Breccia:

A composite rock made up of fragments of stone that have been compressed together. Also called "conglomerate" or "pudding stone."

Byzantium:

A colony founded at the entrance to the Black Sea by the Greek city-state of Megara in 667 B.C.E. The city was refounded as Constantinople (dedicated in 330 C.E.) but the old name survived and hence the eastern Roman Empire which lasted until 1453 C.E. is known as the "Byzantine Empire."

Caldarium:

The "hot room" of a Roman bath-house where hot water was available for bathing.

Caliga:

A leather shoe, especially the leather boot worn by Roman soldiers.

Cantica:

A passage in a Roman comedy which the actor sang, accompanied by a piper (tibicen).

Capital:

The spreading element that caps a column, forming a transition between the vertical shaft of the column and the horizontal elements of the architrave.

Capitolium:

The steep hill and the west side of the Roman Forum where the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus was built.

Cardinal virtues:

The four cardinal virtues as listed in Plato's Republic are Justice, Wisdom or Prudence, Courage, and Self-Control.

Cardo:

In a Roman town plan, the main north-south road which is bisected by the decumanus.

Caryatid:

A figure of a woman used in architecture to support the entablature of a building in place of a column.

Catacombs:

Underground graveyards excavated by Christians and Jews, found particularly at Rome but also in places like Naples and Syracuse where the geology was suitable for tunneling. They consisted of a network of tunnels lined with brackets for depositing the bodies of the dead.

Cavea:

The seating area of a Greek or Roman theater.

Causia:

Light-colored, broad-brimmed, felt hat of Macedonian origin worn to shield the wearer from the sun and the rain. In Rome, it was worn by poorer people as protection against the sun.

Cecrops:

The mythical first king of Athens, often represented with a snake's tail.

Cella:

The main room of a Greek temple where the cult statue was housed.

Centauromachy:

Battle between the heroes known as the Lapiths and the centaurs, who gate-crashed the wedding of the king of the Lapiths, and tried to rape the women, but were driven out. The west pediment of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia shows a centauromachy.

Chamber Tomb:

An irregularly shaped underground room used for burial, frequently approached by a corridor or dromos.

Charon:

In Greek mythology, the old ferryman who conveyed the ghosts of the dead across the rivers of the Underworld. Greeks would put a coin in the mouth of a corpse as a fee for Charon.

Charun:

An Etruscan demon with a fiendish face who carried a long-handled hammer and conducted the souls of the dead to the Underworld.

Chiaroscuro:

The use of light and shade to give the effects of shape and mass in painting.

Chimaera:

A mythical monster slain by the hero Bellerophon. It had the head and body of a lion, a snake for a tail, and a goat's head emerging from its back.

Chiton:

A lightweight Greek garment made from a single piece of cloth, belted and with a buttoned sleeve. The Doric chiton was thigh or knee-length; the Ionic chiton was more elaborate and reached the ankles.

Chlamys:

A short cloak fastened at the shoulder.

Chryselephantine:

A statue constructed of gold and ivory; such statues usually had a wooden core.

Chthonic:

Meaning "belonging to the earth," this adjective is applied to the gods of the Underworld.

Cipollino:

A greyish marble with streaks of white or green favored by Roman builders.

Cithara:

A large stringed instrument used in concerts, festivals and theaters. It was the ancestor of the guitar.

City Dionysia:

A festival held each spring in Athens in honor of the god Dionysus, where tragedies and comedies as well as dithyrambs were presented.

Classical Period:

The period of Greek cultural history from 479 B.C.E. when the Persian Empire's invasion of Greece was repulsed, to the death of Alexander the Great (323 B.C.E.).

Cnossos:

The site of the Labyrinth of King Minos of Crete where he kept the legendary Minotaur. In 1900 C.E. Sir Arthur Evans discovered the remains of a great sprawling palace there and revealed the Minoan civilization of Bronze Age Crete.

Colonnade:

A row of columns supporting an entablature.

Columbarium:

A dovecote. The word was also used for a structure with little compartments built into the wall to receive the ashes of the dead after cremation.

Concrete:

Roman concrete was made from lime mortar, volcanic sand, water and small stones. It was placed in wooden frames and left to dry with a facing of brick or stone or a marble revetment.

Conglomerate:

See Breccia.

Contrapposto:

A stance in which the body's weight is supported on one leg, so that a contrast is formed between the tension of one side and the relaxation of the other.

Corbeling:

A system of supporting courses of masonry or wood by extending successive courses beyond the face of the wall. Thus a "corbeled" or false vault can be constructed by thrusting each course of a circular wall slightly closer to the center until it comes together at the peak.

Corinthian Order:

A development of the Ionic order of architecture, but with a capital of stylized acanthus leaves.

Cornice:

Horizontal molded projection above the frieze of a temple. Also called a "geison."

Cornu:

A Roman bugle, or curved horn.

Cosmogony:

A myth that accounts for the origin and nature of the world.

Crepidoma:

The platform on which a Greek temple was built, consisting of the stereobate and the stylobate.

Crotalum:

A castanet used to accompany dances, to accentuate the rhythm.

Cubiculum:

A bedroom in a Roman house.

Cuirass:

Metal armor worn to protect the chest and the back.

Cyclades:

The southern islands of the Aegean Sea, especially Delos, Paros, Naxos, Siphnos, Melos and Thira, which is the southernmost.

Cycladic:

The term applied to the prehistoric culture found on the Cyclades Islands, 3000–1550 B.C.E.

Cyclopean:

Belonging to the mythical primitive giants called Cyclopes. The term is applied to the Bronze Age masonry fortifications made of huge, irregular blocks.

Dactyl:

A "foot" (a group of syllables forming a metric unit in verse), consisting of one long syllable and two short syllables—the long syllable would be held twice as long as the short syllable, and hence when the verse was sung, the dactyl was the equivalent of a half note followed by two short notes.

Dactylic Hexameter:

A line of poetry consisting of six dactyls or their equivalent. This was the meter used for epic poetry, such as the epics of Homer in Greek or Vergil's Aeneid in Latin.

Dado:

The lower part of the wall of a room decorated differently from the upper part, often with colored marble or stucco.

Daedalic:

From the legendary Minoan craftsman, Daedalus. The term is applied to a type of human figurine appearing about the end of the eighth century B.C.E., and belonging to the Orientalizing Period of Greek art, with the following traits: frontality (they face forward), rigidity, flatness, low brows, triangular faces, big noses and eyes and flat skulls.

Daimon:

A spirit, or a manifestation of supernatural power. A man might have a good or an evil daimon which followed him through his life. Christianity impressed upon the word the meaning of "demon" which is now its common significance.

Dark Ages:

A term applied nowadays to the period of Greek history (1100–900 B.C.E.) when Greece was illiterate.

Decumanus:

In a Roman town plan, the main east-west road. The main street was called the "decumanus maximus."

Delphi:

A small sacred city-state in central Greece north of the Corinthian Gulf, where the oracular shrine of Apollo was located on the slopes of Mt. Parnassus.

Delphic oracle:

The oracle of Apollo at Delphi, where non-Greeks as well as Greeks could seek advice about the future. See Oracle.

Deme:

A district or township. "Demes" were ancient townships of Attica which were distributed by Cleisthenes, the founder of the Athenian democratic constitution, into ten phylai or "tribes" that became the basic political units of Athenian government.

Demigod:

A hero: a semi-divine person who still possessed some supernatural powers even though his soul (or "shade") was in the Underworld.

Demiourgos:

The divine being in Plato's dialogue, the Timaeus, who creates the world out of pre-existing matter.

Dentil:

Toothlike projection on an Ionic epistyle.

Deus ex machina:

A "god (descending) by stage machinery" The term is used for a conclusion of a tangled plot of a tragedy which is resolved by the intervention of a god.

Diadem:

A headband tied at the back of the head. Constantine I, the first Christian emperor, made a diadem encrusted with pearls the normal imperial head-dress.

Dialogue:

A discourse consisting of question and answer on a political or philosophical subject. The most important source of the dialogue form was the conversations of Socrates, and the dialogue became the favorite medium of Plato for publishing his philosophic ideas.

Diazoma:

A walkway dividing the upper tiers of seats from the lower in a Greek theater.

Didactic literature:

Literature intended to teach or to inform the reader.

Didascalia:

In Greece: the "teaching" of a play or dithyramb to the chorus that was to perform it by the poet or professional trainer who was employed for the task. The term is also used to refer to all aspects of the production of a play or a dithyramb.

Didascaliae:

The plural form of "didascalia." In Greece it was used to refer to the records of performances, including the names of victorious tribes, poets, choregi, actors and auletes for each year and of the plays that were staged at the festivals in honor of Dionysus. In Rome, the term is used for the brief remarks that preface the plays of Terence, describing the first performances of the plays, mentioning the composer and the type of music, the Greek originals from which the plays were adapted, the date of the play and so on.

Dione:

The word means "goddess" and it is the feminine form of "Zeus." At the oracular site of Dodona, Dione was worshipped as the consort of Zeus, and one version of the myth of Aphrodite's birth makes her the daughter of Dione. In the canon of the Olympian gods, however, it was Hera rather than Dione who was the wife of Zeus.

Dionysus:

God of wine and of emotional religion. Greek myth made him the son of Zeus and the mortal Semele, a princess of Thebes.

Dithyramb:

A type of narrative choral song accompanied by dance, originally associated with Dionysus. Aristotle claimed that tragedy originated with the dithyramb.

Dodona:

The seat of an ancient oracle of Zeus in the mountains of Epirus in north-west Greece. The center of Zeus' cult at Dodona was a sacred oak tree and from the rustling of its leaves the will of Zeus was ascertained.

Dorian:

(1) A dialect of Greek. (2) Greeks who spoke the Dorian dialect, who entered Greece in the so-called Dorian invasion which took place after the collapse of the Mycenaean civilization.

Doric:

A type of architecture, characterized by fluted columns without bases, and triglyph and metope friezes.

Dromos:

A passageway leading into a chamber tomb or a tholos.

Echinus:

The lower member of a column capital.

Eileithyia:

The Greek goddess of childbirth.

Ekkylema:

In the Greek theater, a low trolley used to bring someone on stage such as a dying man or a corpse of a character who has been slain offstage.

Ekphrasis:

A literary description of a work of visual art.

Eleatic School:

The philosophy of the Eleatic School takes its name from Elea, modern Velia in southern Italy. The founder of the school was Parmenides of Elea.

Elegiac couplet:

A verse in dactylic hexameter followed by a pentameter line (a line of five feet) with a caesura or pause in the middle. Roman poets of the Augustan Age associated elegiac poetry with sorrow, but probably early elegiac in Greece was simply poetry sung to the accompaniment of the aulos.

Eleusinian Limestone:

A black limestone quarried at Eleusis west of Athens, which was used for decorative effect in marble buildings.

Elis:

The state in the northwest Peloponnesus where Olympia, the site of the Olympic Games, was located.

Elysium:

Elysium, or the Isles of the Blest, appears in the works of Homer and Hesiod as a place where certain favored heroes who were exempted from death were taken by the gods. It came to be regarded as a region of the Underworld reserved for persons who were righteous in their lifetimes.

Emmeleia:

The dance associated with Greek tragedy.

Encaustic:

A technique of painting using hot wax colored with various pigments.

Entablature:

All parts of a building such as a temple above the columns.

Entasis:

A cigar-like swelling of columns which is particularly pronounced in buildings of the archaic period, but is no longer found by the Hellenistic period.

Ephebe:

A boy who has reached puberty, about eighteen to twenty years old.

Epic:

A long, narrative poem written in dactylic hexameter meter.

Epigram:

Originally a short verse inscription which the Greeks engraved on tombstones or votive offerings or even signposts. In the Hellenistic period, poets wrote artificial epigrams: short poems on persons long dead, or on famous works of art or on pet animals. The epigram could also be used as a vehicle for invective. Latin epigrams were occasional poetry that could sometimes be humorous, and sometimes spiteful.

Epigraphy:

The study of inscriptions.

Epiphany:

The appearance of a god.

Epistle:

A letter addressed to someone. As a literary form, the epistle could be used to expound philosophy or theology. The epistle was also used as a form of poetry: for instance, Ovid's Heroides is a collection of fictitious love letters written by famous heroines to their absent husbands or lovers.

Epistyle:

Another term for "architrave."

Epitaphios:

A funeral eulogy given, according to Athenian custom, at the memorial service held each year for the men who had fallen in battle.

Epithet:

In epic poetry, an adjective applied to a hero, such as "Achilles, swift of foot." Divine epithets were surnames given to the gods, sometimes indicating some aspect of a god's activity, such as "Zeus, the cloud-gatherer," or in Rome, "Mars Ultor," that is, "Mars the Avenger." Sometimes the divine epithets are puzzling, such as "Owl-eyed Athena," or "Apollo Lykeios" which might mean "Apollo the Wolf-God" or "Apollo of Lycia" (Lycia was in south-west Asia Minor).

Epyllion:

A type of narrative poem, popular in the Hellenistic period, where certain episodes, usually not the central ones, are taken from the context of old legends and carefully reshaped, while the remaining themes of the legend are left on the fringes of the narrative.

Erinyes:

The "Furies." Snaky, winged creatures born of the earth who pursue mortals guilty of matricide and fratricide and drive them mad.

Eros:

Sexual love or attraction. "Eros" (Latin: "Cupid") was the name of the child-god, son of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, who was depicted as a winged boy with a bow and poisoned arrows, with which he wounded men and women and infected them with sexual passion.

Etruria:

The western part of central Italy, somewhat larger than modern Tuscany, inhabited by the Etruscans.

Etruscans:

A people whose language has not yet been deciphered who emigrated from Asia Minor to Italy in the early Iron Age, established a number of cities in Etruria, and for a brief period, dominated early Rome.

Euripus:

A long narrow fishpond placed in the center of a formal garden surrounded by a colonnade in a Roman villa.

Exodos:

The "exit." In a Greek tragedy, it is the final section, after the last ode sung by the chorus.

Fabula palliata:

A dramatic presentation on the Roman stage where the actors portrayed Greeks and wore Greek costumes, for example the plays of Plautus and Terence.

Fabula togata:

A Roman drama, usually a comedy but sometimes historical, where the actors portrayed Roman citizens and wore togas on stage.

Familia:

A Roman household, including father, wife, sons and daughters, domestics, slaves and freedmen.

Fauces:

The entrance hallway into a Roman house.

Fayyum:

The modern name for a province of Egypt in a depression in the desert west of the Nile which receives water from the Nile through a natural channel called the Bahr Yousef ("Canal of Joseph"). In the early Ptolemaic period, the agricultural area was extended and many settlers from the Greek world came there.

Fayyum portraits:

Portraits from Egypt, painted on wood using the encaustic technique, which were placed over the face of a mummy in the Roman imperial period. They are realistic frontal portraits of the dead person who was mummified, and they are considered the artistic forerunners of later Byzantine icons.

Fibula:

A brooch, or safety-pin.

Final Cause:

In the philosophy of Aristotle, the purpose or end by which an event, a thing or a process can be explained.

Flavian Period:

The period of Roman history when the Flavian dynasty ruled, the emperors Vespasian (69–79 C.E.), Titus (79–81 C.E.), and Domitian (81–96 C.E.).

Flora:

The Roman goddess of flowers.

Floralia:

The festival of Flora, held on 28 April. The festival had a reputation for licentiousness where mime actresses might appear in the nude.

Flutes:

Shallow grooves that run vertically along the shaft of a column.

Foreshortening:

An illusionistic trick that painters use to suggest depth on a flat surface by representing forms as shorter in length than they actually are.

Forum:

Like the Greek agora, the commercial and administrative center of a Roman city.

Fresco:

A type of wall painting where the paint is applied while the plaster is not yet dry.

Frieze:

In architecture, a horizontal band with sculptural decoration.

Frigidarium:

The cold room in a Roman bath where unheated water was available for bathing.

Fuller:

A tradesman who "fulled" woolen cloth, cleaning it, thickening it and shrinking it with moisture, heat and pressure.

Gauls:

Celts who migrated across central Europe into France and the British Isles in the sixth century B.C.E.; in Italy, they settled in the Po River valley which became known as Cisalpine Gaul. In 387 B.C.E. they sacked Rome and in 279 B.C.E. they invaded Greece, and from Greece moved to Asia Minor where they eventually settled in Galatia.

Geison:

A cornice.

Geometric Style:

A type of pottery decoration that develops from Protogeometric shortly after 900 B.C.E. with various designs such as cross-hatched and wavy-lined lozenges, squares, triangles, the meander motif arranged in concentric bands around the pot. In the eighth century B.C.E. stylized human and animal forms are introduced.

Geranos:

The so-called "crane dance"—geranos is the Greek word for the bird called a "crane" in English—which was danced in chorus lines of young men and women in festivals on the island of Delos.

Glaze:

Hard, glossy surface finish for pottery.

Gorgon:

One of three hideous female monsters in mythology, with wings, large fangs and snakes for hair. The most famous of the three was Medusa whose face turned men who looked on it into stone.

Gorgoneion:

The head of a Gorgon, shown full-face, with protruding tongue, serving as an apotropaic device.

Greaves:

Armor worn by an infantryman to protect his lower legs.

Griffin:

A legendary animal with the body of a lion and the wings and head of an eagle.

Gymnasium:

A place for exercising. The gymnasium might also be a social center and a place for learning and listening to lectures on philosophy.

Gynaikeion:

The portion of a Greek house which was reserved for women, either at the back of the house or on the second story. Men from outside the family would not normally enter the gynaikeion.

Gypsum:

An easily-worked white or pinkish-buff limestone.

Hades:

Lord of the Underworld, which was known as the "House of Hades." He presided over the souls of the Dead and was not counted among the Twelve Olympian Gods.

Hagia Triada:

Site of a royal villa on Crete dating to the Late Minoan period where a cache of Linear A clay tablets was discovered.

Haruspices:

Diviners of Etruscan origin who divined the future from portents such as the entrails of sacrificial animals or prodigies or meteorological phenomena such as lightning.

"Harvester Vase":

A Minoan vase of black steatite, dating to about 1500 B.C.E., found at the site of Hagia Triada on Crete, about five inches high, showing in relief sculpture a group of harvesters or sowers, singing as they go to work, or as they return from the fields.

Helladic:

The term used by archaeologists for the civilization of prehistoric Greece, 3000–1100 B.C.E. The Helladic period is divided into "Early Helladic" (3000–2000 B.C.E.), "Middle Helladic" (2000–1550 B.C.E.) and "Late Helladic" (1550–1100 B.C.E.). "Late Helladic" is otherwise known as the "Mycenaean Age."

Hellenistic:

The term applied to the period between the death of Alexander the Great and the completion of Rome's conquest of the eastern Mediterranean with the annexation of Egypt (323–30 B.C.E.), when the Greek language and culture spread across the Near East.

Helots:

The serfs in Sparta who farmed the estates of their Spartiate overlords and gave them half the produce.

Herculaneum:

A town with a population of about 2,000 on the Gulf of Naples, which was buried by lava and mud from the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 C.E.

Heroon:

The shrine of a hero, a dead man who was considered semi-divine and whose soul in the Underworld received offerings.

Hexastyle:

A building with six columns along the front, or along the front and the back.

Himation:

A garment consisting of a large rectangular piece of cloth that was draped over the body. The standard outer garment for Greek men by the sixth century B.C.E. and for women by the fourth century B.C.E.

Hippodamian:

Belonging to Hippodamus, an architect and town-planner of the fifth century B.C.E.

Holocaust:

A sacrifice where the victim was completely consumed by fire, as distinguished from the usual sacrifices where only the inedible parts of the sacrificial animal were burnt.

Hoplite:

A heavily-armed footsoldier wearing helmet, cuirass, and greaves, and equipped with a round shield and spear for thrusting, who fought in a battle-line eight ranks deep. The hoplite was the standard heavy infantryman in Greece from the eighth century to the fourth century B.C.E.

Horns of Consecration:

Stylized bull's horns, associated with Minoan shrines.

"House of the Faun":

The largest house found in Pompeii, taking up a full city block, and dating from the second century B.C.E.

Hydraulis:

The water-organ, invented by Ctesibius, an engineer in Alexandria in the third century B.C.E., which became popular in Rome as a domestic instrument and in amphitheaters as well because of its loud volume. By the fourth century C.E., organs worked with bellows had also been developed.

Hydria:

A three-handled jar for holding water.

Hymettian Marble:

A dark marble quarried at Mt. Hymettus outside Athens.

Hymn:

Originally a song addressed to a god. However, hymns such as the Homeric Hymns were more literary than devotional and related a myth.

Hypocaust:

Furnace in a Roman bath which not only heated the bath water but also the "caldarium" which had flues under the floor and sometimes in the walls where hot air and smoke from the furnace would be circulated.

Hypothesis:

A conjecture or a supposition.

Iconography:

The art of pictorial representation and illustration.

Inductive Logic:

Inference from a finite number of particular cases to a further case or to a general conclusion. Thus if we know that twelve ducks reproduce by hatching eggs, we may conclude that a thirteenth duck will reproduce in the same way, or even reach the general conclusion that all ducks reproduce by hatching eggs.

Insula:

Roman tenement house.

Ionia:

The central part of the western coastline of Asia Minor and the offshore islands, settled by refugees from the Greek mainland displaced by the Dorians after the fall of the Mycenaean civilization.

Ionic Dialect:

The dialect of Greek spoken in Ionia.

Ionic Order:

An order of architecture, characterized by columns with bases, flutes on the columns but not with the sharp arrises we find on Doric columns, capitals with spiral volutes and lacking a triglyph and metope frieze.

Isthmian Games:

A Greek athletic contest held every two years in honor of Poseidon at his sanctuary at the isthmus of Corinth. The prize was a crown of wild celery.

Judgement of Paris:

The title given to the event which caused the Trojan War. The goddesses Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite appeared before the young Trojan prince Paris who had been banished from Troy to serve as a shepherd on the hillsides because of a prophecy that he would bring disaster on Troy. Paris was asked to judge which of the three goddess should get the golden apple offered by the old hag "Discord" to the most beautiful. Paris gave the apple to Aphrodite who had promised him the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen, wife of King Menelaus of Sparta, thus earning the hatred of Athena and Hera for Troy.

Jupiter Optimus Maximus:

Jupiter, the Best and the Greatest. The chief god of Rome whose temple was built in the Capitolium, the steep hill on the west side of the Roman Forum. It was a tripartite temple, that is, with three cellas, with Jupiter occupying the central sanctuary, and on either side, sanctuaries for Minerva and for Juno.

Kantharos:

A deep drinking-cup with high, vertical handles.

Keystone:

The voussoir or wedge-shaped stone at the center of an arch at the top, which locks the arch together.

Kordax:

The dance associated with Greek comedy.

Kore:

A maiden. The term is applied to the archaic, fully-clothed statues of young women belonging to the archaic period.

Kotyle:

A deep drinking-cup with small, horizontal handles.

Kouros:

A youth. The term is applied to the archaic naked male figures found from about 650 B.C.E. to the time of the Persian War (480–479 B.C.E.) which marked graves, or served as dedications to a god.

Krater:

A large mixing-bowl used to mix wine with water before drinking it.

Kylix:

A shallow two-handled drinking-cup.

Lacedaemon:

The southeastern region of the Peloponnesos which belonged to Sparta.

Laconia:

Another term for "Lacedaemon."

Lares:

Roman gods who gave protection against supernatural forces. The Lar familiaris (or in the plural, Lares familiares) protected the family. There were also Lares that protected crossroads (Lares compitales).

Larnax:

A casket or ossuary to hold the bones and other remains of a corpse after it was burned on the funeral pyre.

Late Antiquity:

The period of the fourth and fifth centuries C.E.

Latona:

The Roman name for Leto, the mother of Apollo and Diana.

Legion:

The standard unit of the Roman army. It numbered five thousand foot-soldiers and a mounted bodyguard of one hundred and twenty men, if at full strength.

Lekythos:

(plural: lekythoi) A tall flask with a single handle and a narrow neck for holding oil and unguents.

Lenaea:

A festival in honor of Dionysus celebrated in January where dramatic performances were produced. Originally it seems that comedy was preferred to tragedy. The name comes from lene, meaning "maenad."

Libation:

An offering to a god before eating or drinking. Before drinking wine, which was a part of a meal, a little of it was poured on the floor as an offering to the Agathos Daimon (Good Luck) to establish communion with him.

Light-Well:

A small courtyard or an open shaft inside a building to let in light and air.

Linear A:

A form of writing using a syllabic alphabet used in Minoan Crete. The language has not yet been deciphered.

Linear B:

A form of writing using a syllabic alphabet used in the Mycenaean period for writing Greek.

Lintel:

A horizontal beam bridging the top of a doorway or window in a wall.

Lions' Gate:

The main gateway through the thirteenth century B.C.E. fortification wall at Mycenae, which has a relieving triangle above the massive lintel block and in the triangle, a relief sculpture, two lions with their heads missing, standing on an altar with a pillar between them which probably had some religious significance.

Lituus:

A long-stemmed horn with a hook-shaped bell that was bent backwards. Used for military music in Rome.

Logographos:

A writer of prose. In the fourth century B.C.E. the word designated a ghostwriter for speeches delivered by someone else.

Logos:

A rational, logical account or explanation. For Heraclitus, the logos had the broader sense of a rational, ordering principle that remains constant in spite of all the apparent changes in the world.

Lorica segmentata:

Articulated armor made of iron plates developed in the reign of the emperor Augustus (27 B.C.E.–14 C.E.). It was the body armor of Roman legionary soldiers—auxiliary troops are generally shown wearing chain mail or scale armor.

Loutrophoros:

A tall vase for holding water.

Ludi Scaenici:

Theatrical shows in Rome.

Lupercal:

A grotto on the Palatine Hill in Rome sacred to Lupercus, identified with Pan.

Lupercalia:

A festival held every February in Rome when Luperci, wearing only a girdle around their loins, ran around the city boundaries striking women whom they met in a ceremony supposed to make them fertile.

Luperci:

Priests of Lupercus, identified with Lycean Pan (Pan the wolf-god) who was thought to keep the flocks and herds safe from wolves. At first these priests were chosen from young herdsmen but later young Romans of high rank might serve as Luperci.

Lustral Basin:

A small, rectangular space generally thought to have a religious purpose, that is accessible from above by a short stairway.

Lyceum:

The grove just outside Athens, sacred to Apollo Lyceius and the Muses, where Aristotle leased some buildings and founded a school in 335 B.C.E.

Lyre:

Stringed instrument with a tortoise shell for a sound-box, or with a wooden sound-box shaped like a tortoise shell.

Lyric poetry:

A term coined by critics in the Hellenistic period for early poetry intended to be sung accompanied by a stringed instrument or by the aulos, either separately or in combination. There were two types: choral lyric sung by a choir or solo lyric sung by an individual performer.

Macellum:

A Roman market building for selling meat.

Maeander:

A rectilinear, decorative motif that continuously winds backwards and forwards.

Maecenas:

The wealthy unofficial "Minister of Public Relations and Propaganda" of the emperor Augustus who was the patron of the poets Vergil, Horace and Propertius as well as the pantomime, Bathyllus of Alexandria.

Maenads:

Female followers of the god Dionysus. In art they are often depicted dancing ecstatically.

Magna Graecia:

The term (Latin) means "Great Greece," and it is applied to the Greek settlements in southern Italy, and sometimes it includes Italy as well.

Mallia:

Site of a Minoan palace on the north coast road of Crete, some twenty-five miles east of Herakleion. The ancient name is unknown.

Mausoleum of Galla Placidia:

An oratory or place of prayer in Ravenna which, according to tradition which may be wrong, is the mausoleum of Galla Placidia, half-sister of the emperor Honorius and after Honorius' death, regent on behalf of her son. The interior has some splendid examples of mosaics of the fifth century C.E., including one showing Christ as the Good Shepherd, and another showing the martyrdom of St. Lawrence.

Megalensia:

A procession and festival held in republican Rome in honor of Cybele the Magna Mater (Great Mother), where dramatic presentations were staged.

Megaron:

The great hall of a Mycenaean palace with a hearth in the center, a vestibule and a porch with columns over the front entrance.

Mêkhanê:

(in Latin machina) Part of the stage machinery of the Greek and Roman stage. The "machine" was a crane used for the entrances of actors playing gods who were lowered from Heaven, or for actors making exits to Heaven.

Metempsychosis:

The rebirth of the soul in other bodies, a doctrine of the Pythagorean philosophers. Also called "Transmigration of Souls."

Metope:

A slab, often blank but sometimes decorated with relief sculptures, between two triglyphs of a Doric frieze.

Mime:

An imitative performance. Skits in archaic and classical Greece acted out with dialogue and sometimes song and dance presenting short scenes from daily life. In the Hellenistic period, authors such as Theocritus and Herondas wrote literary mimes, intended to be read or for semi-dramatic recitation. In Rome mime troupes produced extempore performances of improbable themes. Actors, who were both men and women, wore no masks. The mimes continued to be popular even after Bathyllus and Pylades introduced the much more elaborate pantomime in the Augustan Age.

Mimus:

A mime actor. A mime actress was a "mima."

Minoan:

The label applied to the culture of prehistoric Crete (3000–1100 B.C.E.), taken from the name of the legendary king Minos of Crete. The Minoan period is subdivided into "Early Minoan" (3000–2000 B.C.E.), "Middle Minoan" (2000–1550 B.C.E.), and "Late Minoan" (1550–1100 B.C.E.).

Molding:

In architecture, a continuous decorative motif.

Monoidia:

A song sung as a solo.

Mousike:

"Arts belonging to the Muses," which include not only music in the modern sense of the word but dancing, poetry and literature in general.

Muses:

Greek deities of cultural and intellectual pursuits.

Museum:

A place connected with the arts of the Muses. The most famous Museum in the ancient world was a think-tank in Alexandria founded by Ptolemy, the first king of Egypt, which in its heyday housed about one hundred research scholars, supported by the Ptolemaic kings and later by Roman emperors. It should not be confused with the Alexandrian Library.

Mycenae:

A Bronze Age citadel dominating the Argive plain in the Peloponnesus. Legend makes it the capital city of King Agamemnon, the commander of the Greek forces who fought in the Trojan War. Heinrich Schliemann's excavations at Mycenae in the 1870s first revealed the Bronze Age culture of Greece, and the term "Mycenaean" is often used for the civilization of the Late Helladic Period.

Naos:

The main room of a Greek temple; the cella.

Naxian marble:

A white marble quarried on the island of Naxos in the Aegean Sea.

Nemean Games:

A Panhellenic athletic contest held at the sanctuary of Zeus of Nemea every two years. The prize was a crown of wild celery.

Neolithic Age:

The "New Stone Age." Polished stone and flint are used for tools and weapons.

Nous:

The divine mind that controls all events and processes in the universe according to the theory of Anaxagoras.

Numismatics:

The study of coins.

Obelisk:

A four-sided shaft, tapering towards the top, ending in a pyramidal point, which appeared in Egypt during the period of the Old Kingdom as a symbol of the sungod Re. A number of Egyptian obelisks were brought to Rome by various emperors and erected there.

Obol:

An iron spit used for toasting meat over a fire. The obol was also the smallest Greek unit of currency. Six obols equalled a "drachma" (meaning literally a "handful").

Obsidian:

Black volcanic glass used in the Neolithic Period to make sharp blades.

Ode:

A song, often choral. The term was used by the Latin poet Horace for his lyric poems written in meters borrowed from Sappho and Alcaeus.

Odeum:

From the Greek, Oideion. A small theater or roofed hall for musical performances and competitions.

Oenochoe:

Vase used for pouring liquids, usually wine.

Oikos:

The household, a concept that included all family members, the husband, wife, and children, as well as slaves, animals and property.

Oligarchy:

Rule by a select group.

Olympian Gods:

The original list of the twelve Olympian gods consisted of Zeus, his wife Hera, Athena, Artemis, Apollo, Ares, Aphrodite, Hestia, Hephaestus, Poseidon, Demeter, Hermes and Hestia. Hestia, the goddess of the hearth, was soon displaced by Dionysus. In Latin literature, these gods were given Roman names: Zeus =Jupiter, Hera =Juno, Athena =Minerva, Artemis =Diana, Apollo remained Apollo, Hestia =Vesta, Hephaestus =Vulcan, Poseidon =Neptune, Demeter =Ceres, Hermes =Mercury and Dionysus =Bacchus.

Olympic Games:

Panhellenic games held every four years, beginning in 776 B.C.E., in honor of Olympian Zeus, at his sanctuary between the rivers Alpheus and Cladeus in the territory of the city-state of Elis in the northwest Peloponnesus. The prizes were crowns of wild olive.

Omphalos:

A sacred stone at Delphi marking the navel of the earth. Zeus was supposed to have sent two eagles to fly from the two ends of the earth and they met in the middle at Delphi.

Opisthodomus:

The back porch of a Greek temple.

Opus caementicium:

Roman masonry of undressed stone laid in concrete.

Opus incertum:

A concrete wall faced with irregularly-shaped undressed blocks of small stones.

Opus reticulatum:

A facing of a Roman concrete wall using diamond-shaped stones.

Opus sectile:

Irregular slabs of colored marble embedded in concrete, used mainly for floors.

Opus signinum:

Concrete floor with fragments of terracotta, stone or marble pounded into it before the concrete had set.

Opus spicatum:

Roman brick flooring laid out in a herring-bone pattern.

Oracle:

The response of a god to a question put to him by a worshiper. Depending upon the context, the term might also mean an oracular shrine, or the body of priests that administered the shrine.

Orchestra:

The level horseshoe-shaped area of the Greek theater between the seats of the auditorium and the stage building.

Orientalizing Period:

In Greek cultural history, the seventh century B.C.E. when the influence of Asian artistic traditions was particularly strong.

Orthostate:

An upright slab, higher than the other blocks of masonry, usually placed at the foot of a wall, or a course of masonry of such blocks.

Oscan:

The Italic dialect spoken by the Sabellian peoples who lived in central and southern Italy.

Ossuary:

A receptacle for the bones or ashes of the dead.

Paean:

A hymn sung particularly to Apollo, but also to Zeus and Poseidon. It might be a hymn of thanksgiving, or it might have a military purpose—the Spartans and other Dorian Greeks sang paeans. Paeans might also be sung at banquets, after the libations were poured and before the feast began.

Palaeolithic Period:

The "Old Stone Age," when roughly-shaped, unpolished stone and flint tools and weapons were used.

Palaestra:

An exercise ground used for wrestling, boxing, ball-games and similar sports.

Palatine Hill:

A flat-topped hill on the south side of the Roman Forum where the legendary founder of Rome founded his settlement in 753 B.C.E. Later the Roman emperors built their palaces there, with the result that the word palatium came to mean "palace."

Pallium:

The Latin word for the Greek cloak known as the himation.

Palmette:

A design consisting of leaves arranged like a palm shoot.

Pan:

A woodland god native to Arcadia in the central Peloponnesus. Pan had a human body as far as the loins and goat's legs, horns and ears. In Athens he had a cave-shrine under the Acropolis and yearly sacrifices and a torch-race were held in his honor.

Panathenaea:

An annual festival in Athens honoring Athena. Every four years the Panathenaea was opened to non-Athenians who were allowed to compete in the events—this festival was known as the "Greater Panathenaea." The prize for victors was always a black-figure amphora filled with olive oil.

Panhellenic:

Encompassing all of Greece.

Panta rhei:

A saying attributed to the philsopher Heraclitus, meaning "all things are in flux" or "everything flows." It means that the world is in a constant state of change, like the water in a stream driven by the current.

Parabasis:

The section of an Old Comedy where the chorus comes forward towards the audience and addresses it directly, speaking on behalf of the author.

Paradox:

An apparently sound argument that leads to an unacceptable conclusion.

Parian marble:

A pure white marble with flecks of mica quarried on the island of Paros in the Aegean Sea.

Parodos:

The song which the chorus in a Greek classical drama sang as it made its entry into the orchestra of the theater.

Parthenia:

Songs sung and danced by young, unmarried girls to the accompaniment of the aulos.

Parthians:

An Iranian people who expanded their power over Mesopotamia and the Near East in the second century B.C.E. at the expense of the Seleucid Empire. The last Parthian king was overthrown in 227 C.E. by the Persians led by the Sassanid family from Persepolis.

Pediment:

The triangular space formed by the gable at each end of a temple.

Pedimental Sculptures:

Sculpted figures, carved either free-standing or in relief, which fill the tympanum, that is, the space of the pediment.

Peloponnesus:

The region of the Greek mainland south of the Isthmus of Corinth.

Penates:

Roman gods who guarded the family larder or food storehouse.

Pentelic marble:

White marble from Mt. Pentelikon near Athens. It contains iron oxide and turns the color of honey over time when it is exposed to the air.

Peplophoros:

(plural: peplophoroi) A woman who wore a peplos.

Peplos:

A woman's garment consisting of a rectangular piece of cloth draped around the body and fastened with brooches at the shoulders.

Periblema:

Greek clothing, such as the himation, designed to be wrapped around the body.

Perioikoi:

"Those dwelling round about"; people ethically akin to the Spartiates but not full citizens who lived in separate communities in Laconia with a degree of self-government.

Peripatetic School:

The Aristotelian school of philosophy. It took its name from the "Peripatos," the covered walking-place or courtyard which was one of the buildings which Aristotle leased at the Lyceum to found his school.

Peripteral:

Surrounded by a row of columns.

Peristyle:

A row of columns surrounding a building such as a temple.

Petasos:

A man's hat made of felt, with a crown and a broad brim, giving protection from the sun.

Phaistos:

Site of a Minoan palace in south-central Crete, destroyed about 1500 B.C.E.

Phlyax:

(1) A type of comic drama with much buffoonery that was popular in south Italy, or (2) an actor who played in a phlyax drama.

Phorminx:

An ancient stringed instrument strummed with a plectrum, which is mentioned in the poems of Homer.

Pilos:

A felt cap.

Piscina:

Fish-pool. The term was used for pools in Roman baths or swimming pools in palaestras, or of fish-tanks in private gardens.

Pithos:

A massive, earthenware jar for storage.

Plataea:

The little city-state on the southern fringe of Boeotia, on the north edge of Mt. Cithaeron, which maintained its independence from Thebes by becoming an ally of Athens, probably in 519 B.C.E.

Pnyx:

The place in Athens where the assembly (ekklesia) met.

Polis:

A "city-state," including the chief urban center which was the seat of government, and the agricultural region round about it which the polis ruled.

Politeia:

The constitution of a polis.

Pompeii:

A city with a population of about 20,000, near the Gulf of Naples on the river Sarno, which was buried by ash and debris from the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 C.E.

Poros:

Term used in Greek archaeology for "tufa."

Porphyry:

A hard, fine-grained dark-red or purplish rock quarried in Egypt, favored for portraits of Roman emperors.

Porticus:

A colonnade; the Latin translation of the Greek "stoa."

Postern Gate:

A small gate or door at the back of a building or a building complex.

Pozzolana:

A fine volcanic sand that was used for quick-drying cement. Pozzolana cement will set under water and hence is suitable for constructing piers and moles.

Presocratic:

A label given to the Greek philosophers who generally predated Socrates, who interested themselves in natural philosophy, that is, early science.

Prime Mover:

God, in the philosophy of Aristotle, seen as the efficient and the final cause of the universe.

Principate:

The term given to the government instituted by the emperor Augustus who entered into a agreement with the Roman senate in 27 B.C.E. whereby the senate would be responsible for governing those provinces of the empire which were peaceful, while those provinces where significant numbers of troops has to be posted would be ruled by Augustus himself who would appoint legates to govern them.

Proconnesian Marble:

Marble from Proconnesus in northern Greece, much favored for marble sarcophagi in the later Roman Empire.

Pronaos:

The front porch of a Greek temple.

Propylon:

(plural: Propylaea) A monumental entrance to a temenos. The plural form is used if there is more than one door.

Prostas:

A south-facing room off the courtyard of a Greek house that allowed for maximum exposure to the winter sun.

Prothesis:

Lying in state and ritual mourning of a dead person, commonly depicted on Late Geometric pottery.

Protogeometric:

A type of pottery dating to c. 1050–900 B.C.E. marked by simple decorations of bands and circles. The shapes of the pots mostly derive from the Mycenaean age.

Protome:

Three-dimensional representation of the head and forepart of an animal, or head and upper part of a human body, usually as a decoration applied to a wall or other flat surface.

Province:

The sphere of action of any Roman magistrate possessing imperium (the right to command an army) who exercised authority as a representative of Rome. The word came to be associated with Roman overseas possessions whose inhabitants paid tribute to Rome.

Prytaneion:

The assembly hall of the ruling council of a Greek city-state.

Pseudo-Dipteral:

In architecture, a building plan with a row of columns on all sides, but with unused space between the colonnade and the wall for a second row of columns.

Ptolemaic Dynasty:

The royal family, descended from Ptolemy, son of Lagus, one of Alexander the Great's generals, who ruled Egypt until its last representative, Cleopatra VII, was dethroned in 30 B.C.E. and Egypt was annexed by Rome.

Pylos:

According to Homer, the seat of the Homeric hero Nestor in the north-west Peloponnesus. In 1939, excavators at Ano Englianos above the Bay of Navarino revealed a Mycenaean palace, destroyed suddenly by fire about 1200 B.C.E., which has been called "Nestor's Palace."

Pyrrhic Dance.

A war dance; the national dance of Sparta. In the Roman period, Pyrrhic dances were sometimes staged as spectacles in theaters and amphitheaters.

Pyxis:

A cosmetic or jewelry box with a lid.

Quadriga:

A sculpture of a chariot with two wheels drawn by four horses.

Quirites:

Originally the citizens of the Sabine town of Cures, but once the Sabines and Romans united into one community the Romans began to call themselves "Romans and Quirites." Eventually the two terms became virtual synonyms.

Raking cornice:

The slanting cornice at the top of the pediment of a temple, which forms the upper part of the gable. Also called a "raking geison."

Ravenna:

The court of the western Roman emperors moved from Milan to Ravenna on the north-east coast of Italy at the beginning of the fifth century C.E., in the reign of Honorius (393–423 C.E.). The early Christian churches of the city provide us with our best examples of mosaic art in Late Antiquity.

Red-Figure Technique:

A method of painting pottery which was the opposite of black-figure technique: the background was black with figures left the color of the clay. Contours and interior details were added with relief lines or dilute slip.

Register:

In painting, a horizontal band or frieze decorated with ornament or figures.

Relieving Triangle:

A triangular space left in the masonry above the lintel of a door to take some of the weight off the lintel block.

Repoussé:

Metalwork decoration in relief, made by beating the metal from behind.

Revetment:

A wall built to hold back earth. When the term is used in architecture, it means a facing of stone, brick or wood.

Rhyton:

A drinking-horn, or a ritual pouring vessel sometimes in the shape of an animal head.

Ridge pole:

The roof beam; the beam across the top of a ridge roof.

Roman Republican Period:

The term given to the period of Roman history from the expulsion of the Etruscan kings in 510 B.C.E. to the civil war between Julius Caesar and the so-called "republicans" led by Pompey, which ended in 45 B.C.E. with Caesar's last victory at Munda in Spain.

Rostra:

The speaker's platform in the Roman Forum, so called because it was decorated by the rams (rostra) of enemy warships captured by the Romans in an early naval battle. In English, the singular form "rostrum" is used to mean a speaker's platform.

Rubble:

Rough stone-work.

Rural Dionysia:

Festivals in honor of Dionysus held in many villages in Attica, where dramatic performances were staged, borrowed, in the classical period, from the City Dionysia or the Lenaea festivals.

Sabines:

An Italic people who probably spoke Oscan who lived in villages north-east of Rome. Rome derived some of her religious rites from the Sabines.

Sacred Way:

A processional road leading to a sanctuary. The most famous Sacred Way was the road leading through the Roman Forum to the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on the hill known as the Capitolium.

Salpinx:

A trumpet used in battle. A salpinx might also be used in some religious ceremonies.

Sanctuary:

A sacred space defined by a boundary wall, with temple(s), altar(s), stoa(s), treasuries to store sacred objects, and other dependent buildings, where cult activities took place.

Sarcophagus:

(plural: sarcophagi) A coffin made of stone, terracotta or wood.

Satura:

Satura is translated from the Latin as "satire," but it is not satire in the English sense of the word. Rather it is a medley, that is, a poem of medium length that deals with a number of subjects often taken from everyday life. The Latin poet Horace claimed the satura as the one literary genre that was invented by the Romans.

Saturnine meter:

The earliest meter used for Latin verse, which may have had an accentual rhythm. It was used by the early Latin poets Livius Andronicus and Naevius.

Satyrs:

Spirits of wild life from the forests and hills, often shown as attendants of the god Dionysus. At least from the fourth century B.C.E. onwards, satyrs are usually shown as youthful, half-man, half-goat creatures.

Satyr play:

A play with a chorus of satyrs which a tragic poet staged after the presentation of his tragic trilogy, parodying a tale from Greek mythology.

Scabellum:

A foot-clapper which pipers used to mark the beat of the dance music that they were playing.

Seleucid Empire:

The empire founded by one of Alexander the Great's generals, Seleucus I Nicator, which at his death in 280 B.C.E. stretched from Macedon to Iran. By the peace of Apamea in 188 B.C.E. Rome forced the Seleucid Empire to give up Asia Minor and thereafter the empire went into slow decline.

Shaft Grave:

A grave for multiple burial, cut as a rectangular shaft in the rock. Two shaft-grave circles have been discovered at Mycenae.

Sikinnis:

The dance associated with the satyr play.

Silenus:

(plural: Sileni) Often confused with satyrs. However from the sixth century B.C.E. on, sileni are shown as shaggy, bearded men with horses' ears and sometimes horses' tails. Sileni were companions of Dionysus. In satyr plays sileni were treated as drunkards and cowards.

Sistrum:

A musical instrument used in the cult of the Egyptian goddess Isis. It was a kind of rattle with a metallic sound like castanets.

Skene:

The literal meaning is a tent, for in the earliest dramatic productions, a tent must have served as the dressing-room. In the developed Greek theater, the skene was the "scene-building" where there were dressing-rooms for the actors and storage space for props.

Skolion:

A drinking-song.

Skyphos:

A two-handled drinking cup, not as deep as the kantharos or kotyle but deeper than a kylix.

Slip:

A coat of clay, of a different constitution from the clay of the pot itself, which is applied to cover the surface of the pot before firing. Also used to join together parts of a pot that are fired separately.

Soffit:

The underside of a lintel, cornice or arch.

Sophist:

A teacher of rhetoric and philosophy in classical Greece who gave instruction to pupils and charged tuition fees.

Spartiates:

The warrior class that governed Sparta, educated from youth to be soldiers and supported by helots or serfs who worked their farms and gave them half the produce.

Spina:

A low wall dividing a circus or hippodrome lengthwise, so that the chariots could race down one side of the racecourse, turn and then race up the other side.

Stadium:

The Greek stadion was 600 Greek feet (184.9 meters or 606.7 feet). This was exactly the length of the single-course foot race in the Olympic Games and thus this was the length of the Olympic stadium or race course. In the Roman period, stadiums acquired stone seats for spectators, though never at Olympia.

Stasimon:

A "standing song." Any ode sung by the chorus of a Greek drama after the parodos.

Steatite:

A soft stone made of compacted talc (magnesium silicate), sometimes called soapstone. In Minoan Crete it was used for carving vessels, such as the "Harvester Vase."

Stele:

(plural: stelai) A vertical slab of stone with an inscription and often decorated, the normal use of which was as a grave marker.

Stereobate:

The lower two steps of the three-stepped foundation of a stone temple.

Stirrup Jar:

A vessel, normally globular in shape, with a small double handle like a stirrup and a thin spout, common in the Late Bronze Age.

Stoa:

A long, rectangular colonnaded building of one or two stories found in marketplaces or sanctuaries. In Late Antiquity, the term may designate any building with a colonnade. The term, "The Stoa" was sometimes used to designate the Stoic School of Philosophy because the founder of the Stoic School, Zeno of Citium, lacking the wherewithal to lease a hall for his lectures, gave them in the Stoa Poikilé (Painted Stoa) in the Athenian agora (marketplace).

Stoa of Attalus:

A stoa erected on the edge of the Athenian agora (marketplace) by King Attalus II of Pergamum (159–138 B.C.E.). It was reconstructed in 1953–1956 on its original foundations by the American School of Classical Studies in Athens and is now used as a museum.

Stoa Poikilé:

The "Painted Stoa." A stoa on the north side of the Athenian agora erected about 460 B.C.E., which housed paintings by leading artists of the fifth century B.C.E., including Polygnotus and Micon.

Stola:

Long, female garment worn by Roman married women, reaching from the neck to the ankles.

Stucco:

Plaster used for coating walls.

Stylobate:

The uppermost step of the three-stepped platform that formed the foundation of a temple. The columns stood on the stylobate.

Styx:

One of nine rivers in the Underworld. If the gods took an oath by the River Styx, they feared to break it, for the punishment was terrible.

Symposium:

An all-male drinking party in Greece where participants sang songs, recited poems and were entertained by musicians and dancers.

Syncretism:

Identification of one god with another, as of Apollo and the Sun-god, Helios.

Syracuse:

A Greek colony founded by Corinth on the east coast of Sicily in 734 B.C.E. With its magnificent harbor, Syracuse became the strongest and most prosperous Greek city in Sicily and a center of Greek culture.

Syrinx:

Panpipes. A group of hollow reeds or pipes bound together and tuned by cutting the pipes to the proper length to produce a fully graduated musical scale. The syrinx was a favorite instrument of shepherds.

Syssitia:

The dining clubs in Sparta where Spartiates who were club members ate their meals together.

Tablinum:

A room in a Roman house opening on to the rear of the atrium.

Tanagra:

The chief town of eastern Boeotia with a territory extending to the sea. It is best known for the so-called "Tanagra figurines," lively little Hellenistic terracotta figures of women and groups from daily life that are found in the graves at Tanagra.

Tartarus:

The region of the Underworld where the souls of evil persons were subjected to terrible punishment.

Telamon:

A male figure, used in place of a column, like a caryatid.

Temenos:

A hallowed segment of land with defined boundaries which was consecrated to a god, where a temple and a altar for sacrifice might be built, though a temenos could exist with no structure on it.

Tepidarium:

The warm room of a Roman bath-house where warm water was available for bathing.

Terpsichore:

The Muse who presides over dancing.

Terracotta:

Hard, brown-red earthenware, usually without a glaze, used for pots, statuettes, and ornamental facings on buildings.

Terra sigillata:

Red-glazed table ware made in molds which imitates metal-ware with embossed decoration. It was the common table ware of the Roman Empire. Also known as "Samian Ware" and "Arretine Ware."

Tesserae:

Small pieces of colored marble or glass used for making mosaics.

Tetrarchy:

The type of imperial government introduced by the emperor Diocletian (284–305 C.E.) where he took a junior emperor, also called an Augustus, and in addition, each Augustus took a junior colleague called a Caesar.

Tetrastyle:

With four columns at the front, or at the front and back.

Thalamos:

Women's quarters of a Greek house.

Theogony:

The origin of the gods, or the genealogy of the gods, that is, an account of their ancestry.

Theophany:

A manifestation of a god to man by actually appearing on earth.

Thermae:

Warm springs or warm baths. In Rome and other cities of the empire, great public buildings known as "Thermae" were constructed which not only served as public baths but also were cultural centers.

Thesmophoria:

A women's festival celebrated everywhere in Greece in the autumn, intended to promote the fertility of the grain which had just been sown.

Tholos:

A circular building, or a Mycenaean "beehive" tomb, circular in plan, roofed with a false vault.

Thymele:

A place for sacrifice. In the Athenian theater, it was an altar-shaped platform in the middle of the orchestra where the leader of the chorus stood.

Tibia:

In Rome, originally a pipe made of bone with three or four finger-holes; later a double-pipe reed instrument like the Greek aulos with two pipes made of silver, boxwood or ivory. It was a national ritual instrument of the Romans and its playing was intended to drown out any malevolent noises during the Roman sacrificial rites which were rigidly prescribed.

Tibiae pares:

The Latin name for a double aulos with pipes of equal length that were evidently played in unison. Pipes of unequal length were evidently tuned to play in harmony. This was the instrument that provided the music for the plays of Plautus and Terence.

Tibicines:

Tibia players, whose professional organization was one of the oldest in Rome.

Tiebeam:

A piece of timber tying together rafters in a roof, or securing masonry in a wall.

Tiryns:

Site of a Mycenaean citadel close by modern Navplion in Greece, dating to 1400–1200 B.C.E. Legend makes Heracles ruler of Tiryns.

Toga:

The Roman national dress: an outer garment consisting of a single piece of cloth with one rounded edge which was wrapped around the body.

Toga candida:

A white toga, made whiter by being rubbed with chalk, which was worn by a candidate for office.

Toga praetexta:

A toga ornamented with a purple stripe, worn by free-born children, and by Roman magistrates.

Toga pulla:

A dark-grey toga worn by mourners.

Toga pura:

An unornamented toga worn by a youth who had laid aside his "toga praetexta" at a coming-of-age ceremony.

Torsion:

In figural art, the turning or twisting of the human body.

Trabeated:

A term in architecture for a post-and-beam building—one that depends on horizontal beams and vertical posts.

Tragedy:

A poetic drama about the vicissitudes of a mythical hero, with an unhappy ending.

Tragic Trilogy:

A set of three tragedies by a tragic poet that was presented on a single day of a dramatic festival such as the City Dionysia in Athens. The plots of the tragedies need not deal with the same theme.

Triclinium:

The dining room in a Roman house. In later Roman houses, it becomes the chief reception room.

Triglyph:

A slab with three grooves carved in it. In the frieze of a Doric temple, a triglyph was placed over each column and another between the columns. The slab between the triglyphs was called a "metope."

Trireme:

The standard warship of the late Archaic and Classical periods of Greece. It was a galley with a ram at the bow, which was rowed by about 170 rowers arrayed in three banks of oars on each side.

Triumphal Arch:

A monumental archway built usually to commemorate a victory.

Trompe-l'oeil:

A French term for painting so true to life that it seems to be real. Examples of trompe-l'oeil painting have been found in Second Style wall painting from Pompeii, where the landscape painting gives the impression that the room opens on to a garden.

Tuba:

A Roman straight war-trumpet, as distinguished from the cornu which was curved. Besides its military use, it was also used in religious festivals, public games, and funerals.

Tufa:

A porous limestone. It underlies Rome and was ideal for tunneling catacombs.

Tunica:

A tunic worn by the Romans as an undergarment.

Tyche:

Chance, or luck. Sometimes "Tyche" is used almost with the meaning of "Providence."

Tympanum:

The triangular space formed by the gable at each end of the temple. Also called a "pediment."

Verde antico:

A green marble.

Vergina:

Ancient Aegae, the capital of Macedon before it was moved to Pella in 399 B.C.E. Aegae remained the place where the kings of Macedon were buried, and in 1977 a Greek archeologist discovered there a tomb which he identified as that of Philip II, the father of Alexander the Great.

Villa:

A country-house, or a farm in the Roman Empire.

Villa maritima:

A seaside villa.

Villa of the Papyri:

A suburban villa outside Herculaneum which was overwhelmed by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 C.E. It took its name from a cache of carbonized papyri discovered there when it was excavated in 1752. It is the model for the Getty Museum in San Francisco.

Volute:

A spiral carving on the face and back of an Ionic capital.

Voussoir:

A wedge-shaped stone which forms part of an arch. The voussoir at the top of the arch is the keystone.

Wanax:

A title meaning "lord," held by the dynasts who ruled from the palaces of the Mycenaean period. The first letter of the name, a digamma with the sound "w" became obsolete in classical Greek where the word was spelled anax, and the term was applied only to gods, or, in Homer's Iliad, to Agamemnon, high king of Mycenae.

Xoanon:

Primitive, aniconic statue made of wood, usually an ancient cult statue in a temple.

Zakros:

Site of a Minoan palace on the eastern shore of Crete, destroyed violently about 1500 B.C.E.

Read the rest of this Article with our Glossary Access Pass.