The Goddess of Buttercups and Daisies

Glossary

Acropolis

An ancient citadel located on a high rocky outcrop above the city of Athens. Site of the Parthenon, the Temple of Athena Nike, and other public buildings. The temples of the Acropolis were destroyed by the Persians in 480 BC, and rebuilt under the leadership of the Athenian statesman Pericles.

Agora

Open space in Greek city, used for both commerce and public meetings. In Athens the agora was surrounded by important buildings, including temples and the law courts.

Amazon

Mythical race of female warriors.

Amphora

Large ceramic jar, commonly used for storing wine.

Athmonon

Attica, the region of Greece ruled by Athens, was divided into administrative units called Demes. Athmonon, a rural area, was one of those demes.

Chiton

Athenian garment. A rectangular piece of linen or wool draped over the wearer, held in place at the shoulders by brooches and at the waist by a belt. Worn knee length by Athenian men, and ankle length by women.

Choregos

A wealthy Athenian citizen who was assigned the task of financing a play at the festival. This was regarded as an honour, though it could be a serious drain on the citizen’s resources.

Cottabus

A game played at dinner parties. The objective was to throw the dregs of wine from your drinking cup towards a small statue on top of a bronze stand. To win, you had to knock the statue off its plinth, making it fall into a container below. Participants reclined on their couches while playing.

Delium

City, north of Athens. Site of the Battle of Delium between the Athenians and the Boeotians, in which Athens was defeated. In Plato’s Symposium, Alcibiades talks to Aristophanes about Socrates’ bravery in the aftermath of this battle.

Delphi

Location of the Delphic Oracle, best-known and most authoritative of the ancient oracles.

Deme

Administrative sub-division of Athens and the surrounding region.

Dionysia

An Important Athenian festival. The book is set in the City Dionysia. (There was also a Rural Dionysia.) It took place in the month of Elaphebolion which today would be March or April.

Drachma

Athenian coin, equal to six obols.

Ephor

Important officials in Sparta, sharing power with the Spartan joint Kings.

Gymnastae

One of the various classes of officials responsible for both the physical and moral training of youths at the gymnasium.

Hesiod

Poet, from Boeotia in central Greece, active round 700 BC and roughly contemporary with Homer. He was highly regarded by the ancient Greeks. Some of his work was mythological in nature but some of it dealt with the harsh realities of life as a farmer.

Hetairai

The highest class of courtesans in Athens. As well their beauty, hetairai were valued as good companions because of their education and intelligence. They could also be skilled musicians and singers. They were not native Athenian citizens, usually coming from other Greek cities. Unlike most women in Athens at the time, hetairai could legally control their own financial affairs.

Hoplite

Athenian foot soldier. Well-equipped, with bronze armour and bronze-covered shield. They carried a long spear and a sword. Trained to fight in formation, in the phalanx.Luxos would have been too poor to afford his own armour, and probably would have served in the light troops who supported the hoplites.

Krater

Large vessel used for diluting wine with water. Usually ceramic, occasionally made of metal.

Laurium

The silver mines at Laurium, south-east of Athens, were an important source of income for the city-state. The Athenians used the wealth to build up their navy, a major part of their military power. The silver was also used for Athenian coinage, which was valued all over the ancient Greek world.

Lyceum

Named for its Patron Apollo Lyceus (Apollo in the form of a wolf) the Lyceum was originally an open-air meeting place. By the time of Aristophanes there was a gymnasium for wrestling and athletics. The grounds were also used for military training. Later the Lyceum became associated with Aristotle, who founded his school there.

Lysistrata

Comedy, performed in Athens in 411 BC.

Medea

Play by Euripides, produced in Athens in 431 BC. At the end of the play, Medea travels to ‘the land of Erechtheus,’ meaning Athens.

Melos

The inhabitants of the Island of Melos were virtually wiped out in 415 BC by an Athenian military expedition.

Muse

The Muses were goddesses who provided the inspiration for literature, science and the arts. According to Hesiod’s Theogony, (7th century BC) there were nine muses, daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne.

Olympus, Mount

The highest mountain in Greece. In Greek mythology, Mount Olympus was the home of the Gods.

Pandionis

In the 5th century BC, Athenian citizens were organised into ten tribes, of which Pandionis was one. Each tribe contained members from the city itself, and from the surrounding region of Attica. The Pandionis tribe was named after Pandion, a legendary king of Athens.

Parthenon

A temple on the Acropolis, famed in ancient and modern times. The Parthenon was dedicated to the Goddess Athena. It was part of the rebuilding project carried out by Pericles after the destruction caused by the Persian invasion in 480 BC. The Parthenon housed a huge ivory and gold statue of Athena, regarded as one of the wonders of the ancient world, sculpted by Phidias. The Parthenon also served as a treasury.

Piraeus

Port, harbour and shipyard, south-west of Athens, and the base of its powerful fleet. The corridor of land between Athens and Piraeus was enclosed and protected by the Long Walls, constructed by order of Pericles in the mid 5th century BC.

Pnyx

A hill in Athens. Citizens gathered on the Pnyx to hold their democratic assemblies.

Salamis

An island about a mile from the coast at Piraeus. In 480 BC, around 60 years before events in this book, the combined navy of the Greek city-states, led by Athens, destroyed the Persian fleet in the narrow strait between Salamis and the mainland. The Persian King, Xerxes, immediately fled. His invading army, which had occupied Athens, was soon annihilated.

Scythian Archers

The Scythian Archers were slaves, owned by the state, who acted as guards or watchmen in Athens, making up some sort of police force. Historians today know very little about them.

Sparta

Greek city-state, Athens’ main rival for supremacy in Greece during the 5th century BC. Famed for their military training, the Spartan army was regarded as unbeatable at this time. Athens was the dominant naval force, but they were unable to match Sparta on land, and were forced to withdraw behind their walls when the Spartans ventured into Attica. Shortly before the time of this book, Athens had scored an unexpected victory over a Spartan force at Pylos, and taken Spartan prisoners. These prisoners gave Athens a powerful bargaining chip in negotiations.

Symposiarch

The Symposiarch acted as master of ceremonies at the symposium. His main duty was to regulate drinking. Athenians always diluted their wine with water. (Wine in ancient Greece may have been stronger than it is today.) The symposiarch was responsible for deciding by how much the wine should be diluted, and how often drinks were passed round. It was bad form for a symposium to descend into a drunken rabble, and the symposiarch was supposed to prevent this from happening. Despite this, it was known to occur.

Symposium

A drinking party. Usually associated with the educated gentlemen of Athens. Activities could vary, from serious philosophical and political discussions, to heavy drinking and carousing with flute-girls.

Tetradrachm

Athenian silver coin, equal to four drachma. Widely used in the ancient Greek world.

Troy

City in Anatolia, now part of modern Turkey. Site of the famous Trojan war, as recounted by Homer. While Homer’s epic contains many mythical elements, many modern scholars believe that there was a war between Greeks and Trojans, probably around 1200 BC.