Ancient Literature Reference Sheet

The wrath of Achilles during the final year of the Trojan War and its devastating consequences

Achilles (the greatest warrior) and Hector (the Trojan champion)

One Greek, one Trojan

Agamemnon takes Achilles' war prize, Briseis, dishonoring him before the army

The death of his beloved companion Patroclus at the hands of Hector

Odysseus's ten-year journey home to Ithaca after the Trojan War, facing monsters, temptations, and divine obstacles

Odysseus's faithful wife who resists the suitors for twenty years by weaving and unweaving a shroud

Odysseus outwits Polyphemus but foolishly reveals his name, earning Poseidon's wrath for the rest of his journey

The poet's opening appeal to the Muse for inspiration, a convention of epic poetry

The Iliad begins 'Sing, O Muse...'

Recurring descriptive phrases attached to characters or things (e.g., 'swift-footed Achilles,' 'wine-dark sea')

The Trojan hero Aeneas's journey from Troy to Italy, where he founds the civilization that becomes Rome

The first half mirrors the Odyssey (journey), the second half mirrors the Iliad (war); Virgil consciously imitates and transforms Homer

Queen of Carthage who falls in love with Aeneas; when he leaves to fulfill his destiny, she takes her own life

Pietas — duty to the gods, family, and country, even at personal cost

His father Anchises shows him the future souls of great Romans, revealing Rome's destiny

To glorify Rome and Augustus by tracing Rome's founding to divine destiny and Trojan nobility

The Rutulian prince who opposes Aeneas in Italy; he is Aeneas's chief rival, similar to Hector in the Iliad

Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides

King Oedipus discovers he has unknowingly fulfilled the prophecy of killing his father and marrying his mother

Antigone defies King Creon's edict to bury her brother Polynices, choosing divine law over human law

A group that comments on the action, provides background, represents the community, and offers moral reflection

A trilogy tracing the cycle of vengeance from Agamemnon's murder to Orestes' trial, ending in the establishment of justice

He portrays characters more realistically, questions traditional values, and gives prominent roles to women and the marginalized

Medea takes terrible vengeance on her husband Jason after he abandons her for a princess

The purging of emotions (pity and fear) that the audience experiences through witnessing the drama

Dialogues — philosophical conversations, usually featuring Socrates as the main speaker

Justice in the individual mirrors justice in the state; the just soul has reason ruling spirit and appetite

The journey from ignorance (shadows) to knowledge (the sun/Form of the Good) through philosophical education

Plato's model of four levels of knowledge: imaging, belief, reasoning, and understanding (intellect)

The unexamined life is not worth living — self-knowledge and questioning are essential to a good life

A series of speeches on the nature of love (Eros), culminating in Socrates' account of love as desire for the Good and Beautiful

A treatise on the theory of dramatic poetry, especially tragedy — defining plot, character, and catharsis

Plot (mythos) — the arrangement of incidents, not character, is the soul of tragedy

Plot, character, thought, diction, song, and spectacle

The moment when a character moves from ignorance to knowledge, often producing a reversal of fortune

A sudden change of fortune, usually from good to bad in tragedy

An epic poem retelling Greek and Roman myths united by the theme of transformation

His orations (speeches), philosophical works, and letters — he is considered the master of Latin prose

A balanced, periodic style combining clarity, rhythm, and emotional persuasion

Pygmalion — he carves an ivory woman so beautiful that Venus brings her to life

Daedalus builds wings of wax and feathers; Icarus flies too close to the sun, the wax melts, and he falls

A treatise on moral obligation and virtue that deeply influenced Western ethical thought and the Church Fathers

An autobiographical work recounting his sinful youth, intellectual journey, and conversion to Christianity

In a garden, he hears a child's voice saying 'Take up and read,' opens Scripture to Romans 13, and is transformed

Time is a mystery — the past exists only in memory, the future in expectation, and only the present truly exists

Augustine steals pears not from need but for the thrill of wrongdoing, illustrating sin as disordered desire

Our hearts are restless until they rest in God — all earthly desires point to the ultimate desire for God

It is the first great work of introspective autobiography, examining the inner life with psychological depth

His devout Christian mother whose prayers and tears were instrumental in his conversion