Spain 2º Bachillerato Ancient Greek II
Chapters: 5
1. The text: comprehension and translation
Inflection: declensions and conjugations · Sentence syntax and cases · Sentence structures and agreement · Non-finite verb forms · Morphosyntactic analysis for translation · Translation strategies · Translation tools · Comparing translations and bilingual texts · Common stylistic devices · Back-translation of short texts · Translation as a thinking skill · Accepting errors in learning · Self and peer assessment tools
- Growth Mindset: Mistakes Are Part of Learning – A growth mindset is the belief that skills can grow with effort, good strategies and help. A fixed mindset says "I am just not good at this". Mistakes are useful clues that show what to fix. Learning works best when you try, find the mistake, change your method and try again, and add the word YET to "I can't".
- Self-Assessment: Getting to Know Your Own Resources – Self-assessment means looking at yourself honestly to know your interests, abilities, values, health and habits. You rate each area, spot strengths and growth areas, compare your view with feedback from others, and keep proof in a portfolio. It helps you choose subjects and careers, and plan how to improve.
2. Plurilingualism
Influence of Greek on other languages · Greek word formation and vocabulary · Interest in word origins · Respect for all languages · Tools for international Greek projects · Language for reflecting on learning
- Digital Collaboration: Working Together Online – Digital collaboration means working with other people through the internet on one shared piece of work. Typical tools are shared documents, chat and video calls, shared folders and project boards. Good teams agree on roles, time zones and file names, use version history to undo mistakes, and share with invited people only to stay safe.
3. Literary education
Transmission of Greek literature · Main Greek literary genres and authors · Commenting Greek literary texts · Reception of Greek literature · Greek versus modern literary genres · Introduction to literary criticism · Literature as pleasure and knowledge · Intellectual property and references
- Data Protection and Intellectual Property Rights – Intellectual property (IP) is a creation of the mind, such as a story, song, program, invention or logo. Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) give the creator control over its use. Copyright protects creative works (text, music, art, software code) automatically once created; a patent protects a new, useful invention for about 20 years and must be applied for; a trademark protects brand names, logos and slogans. Plagiarism is presenting someone else's work as your own without credit. Infringement is using protected IP without permission (copyright, patent or trademark infringement). Public licences let creators share on their own terms: Creative Commons (BY, SA, NC, ND) for creative works, and software licences such as GPL (copyleft: modified versions must stay open) and Apache (permissive: can be used in closed products with notices).
4. Ancient Greece
Geography of ancient Greece and travellers · History of the Greek world · Greek political and social organisation · Greek institutions, beliefs and daily life · Greek influence on Roman civilisation · Greece's contribution to Western culture · Greece and foreign cultures · The Mediterranean as crossroads of cultures · Public speaking in Greek life
- Ancient Greece: City-States, Democracy and a Lasting Legacy – Ancient Greece grew up around the Aegean Sea, in a land of mountains, small valleys and many islands. Mountains kept communities apart, so Greeks lived in hundreds of independent city-states (poleis), each with its own laws, army and gods, while the sea linked them through trade. The two best known were Athens, a trading city that developed the first democracy around 508 BCE, and Sparta, a military state. The Greeks united to defeat Persian invasions in 490 and 480 BCE, then fought one another in the Peloponnesian War. Alexander of Macedon later led an army from Greece to Egypt and as far as the Indus, spreading Greek culture in the Hellenistic age. Greek ideas in politics, philosophy, history writing, science, mathematics, theatre, sport and architecture still shape the world.
- The Mediterranean as a Crossroads of Cultures – The Mediterranean Sea sits between Europe, Africa and Asia. In ancient times it was an easy road: sailing was quicker and cheaper than carrying goods over mountains and deserts. Egypt sent grain and papyrus, the Phoenician coast sent purple dye and glass, Greece sent olive oil and wine, and Carthage sent silver. Along with goods came ideas. The Phoenician alphabet was borrowed by the Greeks, who added vowels, and then by the Romans, giving us the letters we use today. Greeks and Phoenicians also founded colonies on far coasts, where newcomers and local people traded and shared customs. After Alexander the Great and under Rome, cultures blended strongly in cities like Alexandria. Today ferries, ports, tourists, migrants, and shared foods still make the Mediterranean a meeting place, though people also meet tension there.
- Rhetoric: The Art of Persuasive Speech – Rhetoric is the art of using words to persuade an audience. Every speech has a speaker, an audience, a message and an occasion. Speakers persuade through three appeals: ethos (trust in the speaker), logos (reasons and evidence) and pathos (feelings). A speech is built in five steps — invention, arrangement, style, memory and delivery — and figures of speech make it memorable. Rhetoric has power: it can teach and unite, but it can also seduce and manipulate, so a good listener checks the evidence.
5. Legacy and heritage
Legacy, inheritance and heritage · Greek textual transmission as heritage · Classical mythology and its survival · Public works and urban planning · Theatre festivals and their legacy · Athletic competitions and their legacy · Greek political institutions today · Debate and oral presentation · Education in ancient Greece · Major works of Greek art · Ancient sites, museums and festivals
- Cultural Heritage – Cultural heritage is everything a community receives from the past, values today and wants to pass on: buildings and monuments, objects in museums, languages, music, dance, festivals, crafts, food and knowledge. Tangible heritage can be touched (immovable like temples and bridges, movable like coins and manuscripts); intangible heritage is lived and practised; natural heritage covers special landscapes and wildlife. Heritage gives identity, teaches history, brings income through tourism and links people across cultures. It is threatened by weathering, pollution, crowds, careless development, neglect and conflict, and is protected by conservation, laws, museums, heritage lists, education and local communities.
- Mythology: Gods, Heroes and Stories That Still Shape Us – Myths are very old traditional stories about gods, heroes and how the world began. Greek and Roman myths show powerful but flawed gods, heroes tested on long journeys, hard questions about justice, and magical changes of shape. Similar story patterns appear in cultures across the world, and classical myths still live on in our words, art, science names and films.
- Ancient Greece: City-States, Democracy and a Lasting Legacy – Ancient Greece grew up around the Aegean Sea, in a land of mountains, small valleys and many islands. Mountains kept communities apart, so Greeks lived in hundreds of independent city-states (poleis), each with its own laws, army and gods, while the sea linked them through trade. The two best known were Athens, a trading city that developed the first democracy around 508 BCE, and Sparta, a military state. The Greeks united to defeat Persian invasions in 490 and 480 BCE, then fought one another in the Peloponnesian War. Alexander of Macedon later led an army from Greece to Egypt and as far as the Indus, spreading Greek culture in the Hellenistic age. Greek ideas in politics, philosophy, history writing, science, mathematics, theatre, sport and architecture still shape the world.
- Greek Theatre: How the Ancient Greeks Made Drama – Theatre as we know it grew in Athens in the 5th century BCE at festivals for the god Dionysus. Plays were performed in open-air theatres with a hillside of seats (theatron), a round dancing floor (orchestra) and a stage building (skene). Up to three masked male actors and a chorus told the story. Tragedy showed great people falling through their own choices; comedy mocked real people and politics. Its words, shapes and ideas still shape theatre today.
- The Olympic Movement – The ancient Olympic Games began at Olympia in Greece, traditionally in 776 BCE, as a religious festival for Zeus held every four years. Free Greek men competed in running, wrestling, boxing, chariot racing and the pentathlon; winners received an olive wreath, and a truce let athletes travel safely. The games ended around 393 CE. Pierre de Coubertin founded the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1894 and the first modern Games took place in Athens in 1896. Today the Olympic Movement includes the IOC, international sports federations and National Olympic Committees. Its symbols are the five rings, the flame and the motto "Faster, Higher, Stronger – Together"; its values are excellence, friendship and respect. The Paralympic Games follow in the same host city.
- Athenian Democracy: Rule by the Citizens of Athens – Athens in the 5th and 4th centuries BCE was a direct democracy: adult male citizens met in the Assembly (ekklesia) and voted on laws, war and peace themselves. A Council of 500, chosen by lot, 50 from each of ten tribes, prepared the agenda. Large juries chosen by lot judged cases. Most officials were picked by lot for one year; only generals and a few experts were elected. Ostracism could send a too-powerful man away for ten years. Women, enslaved people and foreign residents had no vote. Thinkers such as Plato criticised it, yet its ideas (citizen vote, juries, accountability) shape democracy today.
- Debate Skills: How to Argue Clearly, Fairly and Well – A debate is a timed, rule-based contest of ideas on a motion. One side argues for it, the other against it, and a chair keeps order. A good argument has a claim, a reason, evidence and a link to the motion. Research makes evidence strong: reliable, recent and relevant. Rebuttal answers the other side's weakest points; cross-examination uses short questions to expose them. Good debaters attack arguments, not people, and listen as carefully as they speak.
- Ancient Greek Art – Ancient Greek art grew over about 900 years in four periods: Geometric, Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic. Painted pottery moved from black-figure to red-figure. Sculpture moved from stiff kouros statues to the relaxed contrapposto of the Classical age and the drama of the Hellenistic age. Temples used three column orders (Doric, Ionic, Corinthian) and careful proportion. These ideals of balance and beauty shaped Roman, Renaissance and even Gandhara art.