Ancient GreeceVocabularySection 1

Crete• Island off the South East coast of Greece

Mycenae

• Ancient city on the peninsula of mainland Greece

Peloponnesus

• Peninsula in the southern part of mainland Greece

Agamemnon

• Mycenaean king in Greek mythology who used trickery to win the Trojan War

Story of Agamemnon• According to Greek mythology, Agamemnon was the king of Mycenae, a

kingdom of legendary Greece. The leader of the Greeks in the Trojan War*, he is one of the central figures in the Iliad, Homer's epic poem about the war. Greek

writers generally portray Agamemnon as

courageous but also as arrogant and overly

proud, flaws that sometimes cause

him misfortune and eventually lead to his death. The story of Agamemnon is often seen as a warning

about the dangers of hubris (pride)

Peninsula

• Body of land with water on three sides

Colony• Settlement in a new territory that keeps close

ties with its homeland

Polis• Early Greek city-state made up of a city and the

surrounding countryside – run like an independent country

Agora

• In early Greek city-states, an open area that served as both a market and meeting place