Ancient Greece Vocabulary Section 1 Crete Island off

Ancient Greece Vocabulary Section 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