Quiz Notes

Quiz #1

1. The Nile River impacted the Egyptians by

a. never flooding, aiding trade and irrigation

b. rarely flooding, but always destructively, forcing Egypt to rebuild

c. flooding unpredictably, leaving Egyptians fearful and uncertain

d. flooding every year, leaving fertile soil and suggesting a world of cycles and benevolent gods(true)

The annual flooding of the Nile provided permanent, reliable agricultural fertility to the Egyptians. Unlike the Sumerians, they did not have to struggle against nature simply to achieve sustenance from the land. As such they saw nature, and the gods, as benevolent and nurturing.

2. All of the following were true of the pharaohs… EXCEPT:

a. The government revolved around the pharaoh, who owned the land and everything it produced

b. The pharaohs were considered full-fledged gods, identified with Ra, Horus, and Ptah

c. The pharaoh’s wife was usually an unrelated noble from a nonroyal clan(not true)

d. Even the pharaoh was bound by ma’at, the system of order, justice, and harmony mandated for all by the gods

The pharaoh held all power and controlled the government and the land. That said, in an orderly world of cyclical permanence, a worldview that resulted from and was constantly symbolized by the annual flood of the Nile, the Egyptians saw everything as working unchangingly and forever, according to harmony and balance (ma’at). The god with the responsibility to guarantee this balance was Horus, whose agent and manifestation in the human world is the pharaoh. Therefore, the pharaoh had to uphold harmony and benevolence as a manifestation of the gods. As a god, and to preserve the divine bloodline, pharaohs normally married the closest possible relatives, their siblings.

3. Egypt was unified as a single kingdom

a. from the beginning

b. when the king of Upper Egypt conquered the rest(true)

c. only metaphorically, in myth and literature

d. by outsiders from Kush, to the far south of Egypt

Lower and Upper Egypt were separate kingdoms for some centuries before the king of Upper Egypt at Abydos, known variously as Menes or Narmer, conquered Lower Egypt and founded what is known as the First Dynasty of the unified kingdom of Egypt.

4. All of the following are true of the Egyptian system of hieroglyphs… EXCEPT:

a. It was an ancient writing system of ideograms with over 7,000 symbols

b. The Egyptians developed no way to show proper names and foreign words (not true)

c. A cursive form was used on papyrus, a kind of paper made using the hollow stem of a particular plant

d. Its origins lay in the little-known early centuries of Egyptian civilization

Names and foreign words were spelled out using a cartouche, inside which hieroglyphs could be read as sounds, not words.

5. In Tablet 6 of The Epic of Gilgamesh, the goddess Ishtar proposes to Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh

a. accepts, succumbing to her beauty

b. accepts, but on behalf of Enkidu, not himself

c. refuses, citing her mistreatment of past lovers(true)

d. refuses, saying he must first love himself

Ishtar is entranced by Gilgamesh’s beauty and wants to mate with him, but Gilgamesh spurns her advances. He lists the terrible fates of her previous lovers, criticizing her for her capriciousness and vindictive cruelty.

Ultimately he fears the loss of what he has achieved as a man—his identity. Even if Ishtar does not cast him aside, by becoming the consort of a goddess Gilgamesh will leave the society of mortals and so lose his mortal identity.

Optional Extra Credit

EC. Why do you think Egypt was able to unify, but not Sumer?

The main point here is that the city-states of Sumer were in competition for limited resources, and so remained in rivalry with each other and were often hostile. In Egypt, however, the environment provided plenty for all, so there was no need to compete for resources, and everyone had in common the protection and nurturing of the gods—eventually manifested as a single god-king.

Quiz #2

1. The Nile delta is found in

a. Nubia

b. Kush

c. Lower Egypt(true)

d. Upper Egypt

The delta is where the Nile empties into the Mediterranean. This is downstream (Lower Egypt).

2. All of the following are true of the pyramids EXCEPT:

a. They are associated with the earliest period of united Egypt, the Old Kingdom

b. They were intended to protect the mortal remains of the pharaoh buried within

c. They could only have been constructed by alien gods from outer space(not true)

d. The largest and most famous, the Great Pyramid of Khufu (Cheops), took 23 years to build

The pyramids were visible symbols of the pharaoh’s divine rule, unifying the people’s shared identity and religion. They represented power unlike any human’s and so reinforced the pharaoh’s divinity. Pyramids were also the ultimate in prestige and luxury, which was controlled by the pharaohs, and so showed precedence over all classes and over past kings as well. They employed huge numbers of people, impressing the people directly with his power and keeping them busy between harvests. They served as temples for the worship of pharaohs after death.

Like all monumental building (e.g., the ziggurats) they displayed Egypt’s (and so the pharaoh’s) immense economic power—to its own people and to outsiders as well, as well as serving as a visual focal point for a strong central identity as Egyptians and a home to a protective patron deity, in this case the pharaoh as a manifestation of Horus.

3. Akhenaten was famous for

a. religious reforms focusing on the supremacy of one god, Aten(true)

b. having no wife

c. being born in Arizona before moving to Babylonia

d. sharing the throne with his cousin Amenhotep

Akhenaten was an Egyptian pharaoh of the New Kingdom (during the 18th Dynasty). He and his queen, Nefertiti, sought to bring about religious reform in Egypt by shifting the focus of worship to Aten, calling him more important than the other gods. This brought about a form of polytheism in which one god is greatly predominant called henotheism. Akhenaten pushed the exclusive worship of Aten by changing his regnal name from Amunhotep IV to Akhenaten, building a new royal city sacred to Aten, and instituting new rituals and priesthoods.

In so doing, Akhenaten sought to undo the shift in religious power from the pharaohs, who had held unquestionable religious authority in the Old Kingdom, to the priests, who now held much greater power in the New Kingdom. The priests emphasized the significance of Amun-Ra, the sun god, in the pharaoh’s rule, so by associating the kingship with Aten he sought to wrest power from the priests. It was too late for that, however: the authority of the priests was now too well established, and the pharaoh’s power too diminished from the absolute in the New Kingdom. Egyptian religion reverted the control of the priests after the deaths of Akhenaten and Nefertiti, as signified by the regnal name of his son and eventual successor, Tutankhamun.

4. The collection of spells that was wrapped around a mummy is known as

a. “The Spells of Ra”

b. “The Tale of Sinuhe”

c. “Book of the Dead” (true)

d. “Osiris Among the Shades”

The Book of the Dead was what was used to ensure the passage of the spirit to the lands of the dead.

5. All of the following are true of the Semitic invaders who dominated Egypt between the Middle and New Kingdoms EXCEPT:

a. The Egyptians called them the Hyksos, meaning “foreign rulers”

b. They embraced and preserved Egyptian culture

c. They ruled peacefully over Egypt for many thousands of years(not true)

d. They fought using horses and chariots, bronze weapons, and complex bows

The Hyksos only ruled for about a hundred years. Despite being foreigners from the Semitic east, they embraced and promoted Egyptian culture and religion enthusiastically.

Optional Extra Credit

EC. The death of Enkidu involves a series of events and visions. What moment stands out to you? What does it suggest to you about Sumer?

Enkidu is distraught at first that his death will not be meaningful—that he will waste away rather than while achieving something great for Uruk and leaving a legacy by which he overcomes death. In his grief he blames Shamhat for civilizing him, but later repents and praises her for the gift she gave him.

The House of Dust is the term used to refer to the Sumerian afterlife; the name underlines that it is what is left after the ending of life, and not a place where life continues. In his dream, Enkidu sees (among other things) past kings who were powerful and constructive during their lives, but impotent and pathetic, bemoaning the loss of their ability to achieve.

Quiz #3

1. The use of iron was revolutionary as a basis for metalworking (tools and weapons) because

a. iron was easy to smelt and fashion

b. iron goods were prestigious thanks to their association with the Underworld

c. iron ore is very common and easy to procure and control in large quantities(true)

d. when combined with clay, iron could be produced in different color tones

Iron weapons are not significantly harder or stronger than bronze. Iron ore is very common and easy to procure and control in large quantities. This meant that iron-holding societies were stronger militarily and had a higher standard of living, because they could make many more weapons and many more tools.

This contrasts with bronze because bronze required two components, copper and tin, and controlling sources of both was difficult; bronze was also difficult to produce. As a result, bronze was a luxury good, reserved for the elite, and bronze agricultural tools and weapons were produced only for the wealthy few.

The mass production of iron tools and weapons helps shift the center of gravity from the few to the many, as well as bringing about improved health (increased birth rate, reduced death rate), greater distribution of resources, and mass armies capable of more ambitious conquest and occupation of conquered territories.

2. The Phoenicians were known for all of the following EXCEPT:

a. having no cities(not true)

b. successful, wide-ranging sea trade

c. Tyrian purple

d. the alphabet

The Phoenicians were the Semitic inhabitants of several cities in the coastal north of Canaan (modern-day Lebanon). They were ideally located to import raw materials from inland and then engage in trade around the Mediterranean coast in both directions. They developed a lucrative extensive Mediterranean trade route based on luxury goods that they manufactured from imported materials like raw textiles and marble and from their two most important local commodities—cedar wood and murex, the purple dye they converted into a coveted status symbol throughout the Mediterranean world.

Also their invention of the phonetic alphabet was spread throughout their trading network, introducing literacy to the Dark Age Greeks, the Etruscans, and the Latins.

3. According to the text, a language that became commonly used in many lands because of how widespread its speakers were, becoming a kind of lingua franca or common tongue, was

a. Dothraki

b. Aramaean(true)

c. Parseltongue

d. Sindarin

The Aramaean language was widely used as a lingua franca throughout the Fertile Crescent, because it was possible to find Aramaeans in many different cities in Assyria, Canaan, and beyond.

4. All of the following are true of the Philistines EXCEPT:

a. They were an Indo-European culture, surrounded by Semitic peoples

b. They possessed iron-working technology and used iron swords

c. They left behind lots of records and literature to richly inform us of their culture and history(not true)

d. They were likely descended from the Sea Peoples, whose migrations helped end the Bronze Age

The Philistines were a powerful people, likely descended from Indo-European refugees of the Bronze Age Aegean (the Sea Peoples), who were masters of iron and culturally very different from the surrounding Semites. However, we know little about them because they left almost no records or literature.

5. According to tradition, the Hebrew tribes were divided and in conflict with each other until they begged for “a king to judge us like all the nations” after

a. the Exodus from Egypt

b. the arrival in the Promised Land

c. the Battle of Jericho

d. the Philistines’ theft of the Ark of the Covenant(true)

The need to recover the Ark, which housed the original Torah, from the hostile Philistines (who had also forbidden the use of iron to the Hebrews) drove the tribes to set aside their hostility and ask the high priest Samuel to name a single king over all the Israelites, Saul.

Optional Extra Credit

EC. Now that you’ve finished reading The Epic of Gilgamesh, what do you think the story is truly about? What moments from the story most exemplify this?

This question is subjective; possible answers include the Sumerian awareness of universality of death and the consequent need to achieve lasting contributions that surpass it; the untrustworthiness of the gods requiring mortals to ensure their own fate; the importance of the bonds with others over the self; the nature of men as beasts and the role of women to convert them to citizens as mothers/wives; etc.

Quiz #4

1. The Scythians were

a. a class of beer-loving harvesters of grain

b. a nation of horse-loving nomadic Indo-Europeans of the steppes (true)

c. a profession of silence-loving librarians of the great temple at Babylon

d. a troupe of sailor-loving sailors from beyond the Indian Sea

“Scythians” is a general term used by the Greeks to describe the Indo-European peoples inhabiting the areas around the Black Sea and Caspian Sea. These peoples were various nations descended from the original Indo-European inhabitants of the area, and retained a lifestyle that was decentralized and nonurban, with a largely pastoral economy making use of horses, oxen, and wagons and a loose clan-based social structure spread out over a broad territory. Because of the wide lands they inhabited they were an early link between Europe and Asia.

Because they were in some ways the antithesis of urban civilization, to the Greeks they represented barbarians in general: strong but uneducated, good with animals, and in possession of great natural abundance.

2. The ancient Greeks’ knowledge of India was limited before

a. the conquests of Alexander the Great(true)

b. the fall of Rome

c. the voyages of Columbus

d. the Industrial Revolution

Early on, those in the west (like Herodotus) had only hearsay traders’ reports, and India being on the edge of the world most of what was known was nonsensical legend.

Alexander’s conquests in the east in the fourth century BCE launched a period of intensive study of the Indian peoples by the Macedonians and Greeks, starting with Alexander’s admiral Nearchus, who traveled across India and wrote of its animals and peoples. Another Greek ambassador, Megasthenes, wrote a similar account in the third century.

The other main source of information about early India is Hindu religious literature, including poems and hymns called the Vedas that date back to roughly 3000 BCE. Also important are the discourses known as the Upanishads, which discuss important theo-philosophical ideas like karma; and the Puranas, or epic tales. Though they don’t provide a historical narrative, they contain a great deal of cultural and social information.

3. Asoka, king of the Mauryan empire in northern India, was known for all of the following EXCEPT:

a. waging a bloody war that claimed 200,000 dead

b. converting from traditional Hinduism to Buddhism

c. helping Buddhism become a world religion

d. shunning any and all contact with the Hellenistic peoples of the west(not true)

Aśoka, one of the most successful emperors of southern Asia, ruled over most of India in the mid-third century. After engaging in a huge war resulting in 100,000 deaths, Aśoka converted to Buddhism. From that point on, his governance and Edicts reflected Buddhist principles. Subsequently, he worked to spread Buddhism throughout Asia, hoping it would be a better unifier of peoples than imperial conquest.

4. The kingdom of Bactria, where Alexander founded many colonies that became outposts of Greek culture, was located in what is now

a. Afghanistan(true)

b. Ethiopia

c. Florida

d. Ultima Thule

Bactria was located in what is now Afghanistan, between Iran and India. It was the furthest Alexander the Great reached in his conquests and he founded several major colonies there; these Greek-Asian cities became an important extension of Greek culture in Asia.

5. All of the following are true of the Parthians EXCEPT:

a. Like the Persians they had no standing army, only a small bodyguard for the king

b. They helped establish the “Silk Road,” creating a trade link between China and the Mediterranean

c. Their society was entirely classless, with no nobility and no kings(not true)

d. They embraced both Greek culture and their own language and traditions

The Parthians were an Indo-European people, related to the Scythians, who migrated from the steppes north of the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea in the mid-Iron Age and established a powerful kingdom between Iran and India. Though the royal succession was frequently disputed, they nonetheless grew in power and influence at the expense of the Seleucid Empire ruling over the former Persian lands.

Their economy was agricultural, but they benefitted from growing trade between east and west Asia and encouraged the passage of caravans bringing expensive goods from China to Parthia and on to Syria. An embassy sent to the Han Emperor in the 2nd century BCE led to the establishment of what’s now called the Silk Road, a 4,000-mile trade route linking China with the Mediterranean world.

Optional Extra Credit

EC. What key ideas would you say are most associated with Buddhism as it arose in ancient India?

Siddhartha Gautama was a prince in the 6th century BCE who abandoned his privileged life after discovering the suffering of the masses. He advocated mental training as a means of achieving nirvana (the enlightenment that allows release from endless reincarnation). On attaining enlightenment, he became the Buddha (“the awakened one”).

Quiz #5

1. In Clouds, the character “Socrates” enters for the first time

a. through a golden door

b. lowered in a gondola or basket(true)

c. covered in tomato sauce

d. as a ghost, because he’s already dead

“Socrates” appears descending from above in a basket, much like gods at the end of a tragedy descending to dispense wisdom and justice (“deus ex machina”), only “Socrates” talks not about the wisdom of the gods but the “natural functions” and physical processes of the temporal heavens. His scruffy appearance presents him as a false god. He also starts out with his head literally in the clouds.

2. At the start of the Archaic period, population growth and limited resources meant “extra mouths to feed.” The Greeks addressed this problem in all of the following ways EXCEPT:

a. Creating colonies that expanded their population and economy to new locations

b. Expanding their territory through the use of their military

c. Periodic massacres of the population(not true)

d. Growing their trading economy, both imports (to feed the growing population) and exports (to strengthen their trading power)

At the start of the Archaic period, population growth and limited resources meant “extra mouths to feed.” The Greeks addressed this problem in several ways. They expanded their territory through the use of their military. They created colonies that expanded their population and economy to new locations. Their trading economy increased, increasing both imports (to feed the growing population) and exports (to strengthen their trading power).

3. A hoplite army consisted of

a. A mass of citizens fighting as equals, arrayed in ranks with their shields overlapping(true)

b. Important heroes fighting in single combat

c. Hired mercenaries from barbarian lands

d. Demons lured from across the River Styx

The hoplite army was a city’s citizen body—everyone who could afford the round shield, spear, and basic armor—defending the city’s property and people by creating a phalanx, or long unified row of soldiers with overlapping shields, several men deep. The hoplite army was extremely effective, uniting the power and force of the entire army by striking the enemy with one massive blow.

It’s a change because past military tactics had emphasized the role of the aristocracy, dwelling on single combat by hero types and so empowering the few over the many. The hoplite army is unified and anonymous; everyone acts together and as one, and any individual heroism actually destroys its effectiveness. It represents a social shift in power from the few to the many.

4. Among the Greeks, a tyrant was

a. a rich man who was stingy with his money

b. the commander of a Greek naval vessel

c. a governing body made up of the rich families

d. an illegal ruler sponsored by groups disadvantaged by the aristocrats(true)

Among the Greeks, a tyrant was someone who usurped power on behalf of the people during times when they are being repressed by the nobles. Tyrants often enact populist reforms, but the nature of their rule—on behalf of the people, but hostile to the nobles—is inherently divisive and naturally leads to new turmoil between the classes.

5. Homer’s works were important to the Greeks because they

a. were the basis for the Greeks’ understanding of the gods and their relationship with mortals

b. served as the basis for Greek education

c. taught morality by contrasting the greedy and prideful Bronze Age Greeks with the honorable example of the Trojans

d. all of the above(true)

Homer’s works told the story of the Bronze Age past and the failure of the Mycenaean civilization. It contrasted the venal, prideful, and selfish Mycenaean Greeks (like Agamemnon and Achilles) with the noble, honorable, and civic-minded Trojans (like Hector and Priam). In the Archaic period and forever afterward, Homer’s works served as the basis for Greek education. The Greeks (and those seeking to learn their tongue) learned their language and cultural values from the Iliad and the Odyssey.

Most of all, Homer’s works were the basis for the Greeks’ understanding of the gods and their relationship with mortals. From Homer the Greeks learned that the gods’ primary role was to respond to the destructive selfishness of mortals—ambition, greed, hubris, and arrogance—with punishment and destruction, not only for the offenders but for their families and even whole communities.

Optional Extra Credit

EC. In Clouds, why does the main character, Strepsiades, go to the Thinkery? What’s his end goal?

Strepsiades is upset because of the horse-racing debt accumulated by his playboy son, Pheidippides. He decides to send him to the Thinkery, so he can learn how to argue away his debts.

Quiz #6

1. In Sparta, the helots were

a. protective armor worn over the shin

b. hereditary slaves of the Spartan state(true)

c. elected officials in charge of the blacksmiths

d. a form of gastrointestinal disruption

The helots were state-owned serfs. In origin they were the conquered peoples of Laconia and neighboring Messenia, subdued early in Sparta’s history and permanent “prisoners of war.” Each helot family farm provided a fixed amount of food year-round for a Spartan warrior, freeing the Spartans from the distractions of managing land, laborers, and produce. The helot families retained for their own use anything beyond what was levied, which is why they are at least nominally considered serfs and not slaves.

The Spartan system was heavily dependent on the helots. Because they greatly outnumbered the Spartan citizenry, which was restricted to the warrior elite (the homoioi), the Spartans were constantly alert to the dangers of uprising among the helots and feared marching their armies too far from home. To reinforce their status as prisoners of war, young Spartans were required to literally hunt helots as part of their training. Helots were also paraded before the young warriors drunk and humiliated to train them to think of helots as an inferior class.

2. The Athenian lawgiver Solon was able to take power and enact sweeping reforms because he was trusted by “both sides.” Which sides was he talking about?

a. Sparta and Athens

b. rich and poor(true)

c. Greece and Persia

d. mortal and divine

Solon had the trust of both aristocrats and the commoners and so was able to enact reforms that benefitted Athens as a whole. He weakened the power of local and family influence by making participation in Athenian politics dependent on wealth, not blood, creating new classes that cut across local and family loyalties in order to strengthen Athenian unity and the prosperity that would come from a stronger and more vibrant unified economy. He strengthened Athenian agricultural production and relieved the debt slavery crisis that was crippling the poor peasantry. He fought not for the poor against the rich (as with the tyrants), or vice versa, but for a stronger Athens.

3. Sparta was known for all of the following EXCEPT:

a. Military training of all boys from age 7 onward

b. Fearless women who were trained as athletes

c. An expectation that men remain fit and ready to fight through age 60

d. Accumulation of great wealth through trade (not true)

Sparta was a poor city that focused all its efforts on war, not trade. All boys who survived the weeding out of the unfit as infants were removed to the barracks at age 7 to undergo a collective education by the state designed to train each succeeding generation in the all-importance of training to become invincible warriors. The education was built entirely around building the endurance and training necessary to live and fight as idealized hoplite warriors in harsh and unforgiving conditions. The shared experience, in small bands and larger groups that shared a mess and quarters, fostered loyalty, solidarity, and cooperativeness, but did not educate boys in arts, science, or anything else besides the skills necessary to become a Spartan warrior.

4. Powerful groups in democratic Athens included all of the following EXCEPT:

a. The well-born aristocrats on the fertile plain (eupatridai)

b. The artisans and merchants on the coast (demiourgoi)

c. The two kings and their royal families (basilei)(not true)

d. The minor landholding farmers on the hillsides (agroikoi)

Athens had no kings. Its social structure was made up of many groups with competing interests.

5. In Clouds, the character “Socrates” argues that the god Zeus is

a. a nice guy really

b. not real(true)

c. the only god

d. his brother

“Socrates” venerates natural phenomena and human cleverness; as such he denigrates the gods. He says there’s no such being as Zeus, since the things he’s given credit for, such as rain and thunder, are the work of the Clouds.

Optional Extra Credit

EC. What do you think might be some potential disadvantages of radical democracy, as practiced in Athens?

One problem noted by those who favored the aristocracy is that the poorer classes were not educated (education was only available to the wealthy in the ancient world).

More generally, dangers faced by pure democracy include demagoguery (unscrupulous people gaining votes by telling people what they want to hear); division into faction, making consensus difficult to achieve; and tyranny of the majority, where interests of smaller groups of voters are locked out by the needs and wants of the majority.