Download Greek Poetry and Fables

World History
Mrs. Thompson
Chapter 5 Section 1
The Greeks believed that gods and goddesses
controlled nature and shaped their lives.
Myths are
traditional
stories about
gods and heroes.
The Greeks built
buildings as temples
in cities to honor
their gods.
According to Greek mythology:
Greek Gods
and
Goddesses
Zeus ruled the sky and
threw lightning bolts.
Demeter made crops grow.
Poseidon caused
earthquakes.
The 12 most important gods and
goddesses lived on Mt. Olympus.
gods had special powers, but looked like humans.
They married, played tricks, and had children.
• Stories about powerful gods,
goddesses, and ancient
heroes and heroines
• Created and spread with an
oral poetic tradition
• Patron goddess of
Greece
• Goddess of Wisdom,
War, the Arts,
Industry, Justice, and
Skill
• Her symbols were the
owl, olive tree, and
spear
• Greek god of the
Sun
• Creative
• Handsome
• Supportive of all
the arts of
civilization
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Greek God of War
Decisive
Determined
Fearless
Brutal
Uncivilized
Symbols-spear,
vultures, and dogs
• Greek Goddess of
Love and Beauty
• Gorgeous
• Perfect
• Eternally young
• Beautiful body
• Symbol -Girdle that
has magical powers to
compel love
• Greek Goddess of Wild
Things
• Freedom loving young
woman who roams the
forest with female
companions
• Dislikes men
• Opposes Marriage and the
loss of freedom it entails
for women
• Keeps to the natural wild
environment rather than
city life
• Symbol-bow, lunar
crescent
• Greek Goddess of
Agriculture
• Controls fertility of the
earth
• Gives life after death
to those who learn her
mysteries
• Symbol-wheat,
cornucopia
• King of the Dead
• Lord of the
Underworld
• Rich with the wealth
of the earth
• Persistent
• Determined
• Called “Zeus of the
Departed
• Symbol-scepter with
horns
• Greek Goddess of
Marriage
• Most beautiful of all
goddesses even
Aphrodite
• Defender of the
sanctity of marriage
and monogamy
• Symbol-the peacock
• Perhaps the most
famous hero of
Greek Mythology
• Brave
• Strong
• Determined
• Symbol-wooden
club
• Daughter of Demeter
• Loving and lovely
• Hades planted a
pomegranate in a
meadow to entice her
to pluck it, pulling on
the flower opened up
the Underworld and
Hades sprang out,
carrying her off.
• Symbol-pomegranate,
flower
• Greek God of the Sea
• Creative
• Designed all the
creatures of the sea
• Believed to be seen in
the crashing of waves
on the shore
• Believed to be the
force behind
earthquakes
• Symbol-three-horned
trident
A ritual is a set of
actions carried
out in a fixed way.
Festivals honored
the gods.
As part of
Greek ritual,
the Greeks prayed
and gave gifts
to their gods.
They believed in
the afterlife.
They believed that
their spirits went to a
gloomy world beneath
the earth ruled by
the god Hades.
What was a Greek Oracle?
The Greeks believed that every person had a fate
or destiny.
They also believed
in prophecy, a
prediction about
the future.
The most
famous was the
oracle at the
Temple of Apollo
at Delphi.
To find out the future, the Greeks visited an oracle,
a sacred shrine where a priest or priestess spoke
for a god or goddess.
At Delphi:
The chamber was
deep in the temple and had
an opening in the floor
where volcanic smoke
hissed from a crack
in the earth.
A priestess sat
on a tripod, a 3-legged
chamber, and listened
to the questions.
State leaders and
messengers traveled
here to hear from Apollo.
The priestess in the
oracle gave
answers in riddles.
Example:
A king Croseus asked oracle at Delphi if he should
go to war against the Persians. She replied that he
would destroy a “mighty empire”, but the Persians
ended up being the ones that crushed Croseus.
He actually destroyed his own empire!
Greek
Poetry and
Fables
Greek poetry and fables
taught Greek values.
The earliest Greek stories were epics, which
were long poems that told about heroic deeds.
The first great epics in early Greece were the Iliad and the
Odyssey, which were written by Homer in the 700s B.C.
In the Iliad: Prince of Troy kidnaps the wife of the king of
Sparta.
Name
The king of Mycenae, Agamemnon, and his
brother, the Spartan king, attacked Troy.
The battle for Troy lasts 10 years, and then the
Greeks came up with a new idea.
They built a large, wooden horse and hid
Mycenaean warriors inside.
The Trojans thought the horse was a gift from
the Greeks.
At night the Greeks broke out of the horse and
captured the city.
The story describes the
journey of Odysseus home
from the Trojan War.
It took him
10 years to
reach home.
Homer’s
Odyssey
We use the word “odyssey”
today to describe a long
journey.
Name
He faces
storms,
witches, and
giants before
returning
home.
Courage
and
honor
the value of the
relationship of
husband
and wife
Homer’s
stories
taught:
to be the
best you
can be
Name
loyalty
to
friends
Name
Who
was
Aesop
?
These often
Aesop was funny stories
a Greek
point out
slave that
human
made up a
flaws as
collection
well as
of fables in
strengths.
around 550
B.C.
A fable is a
short tale
that teaches a
lesson
One of the
best known
is “The
Tortoise and
the Hare.”
“slow and
steady wins
the race”
For Name
about
200 years,
Aesop’s
fables
were a
part of
Greece’s
oral
tradition
before
written
down. .
Greek Drama
Name
Greek drama
still shapes
entertainment
today.
Drama is a story told by actors who pretend to be characters
in a story. (movies, plays, TV shows, are examples)
Tragedies
Comedies
The Greeks performed plays in outdoor theaters as
part of their religious festivals.
A person struggles to overcome difficulties
but fails, so the story has a unhappy ending.
Name
In a tragedy:
In early tragedies, people
struggled against their fate,
and in later ones, the person’s character
flaws caused him or her to fail.
In a Comedy:
The story
ends happily.
The word
comedy
refers to any
drama with a
happy ending.
Greek
stories
dealt with big
questions
such as :
The three best-known
writers of Greek tragedies
were Aeschylus,
Sophocles,
and Euripedes.
What is the nature
of good and evil?
Name
What rights should
people have?
What role do gods
play in our lives?
The best known
writer of Greek
comedies
was Aristophanes.
Aeschylus wrote the group of 3-plays called the Oresteia in 458 B.C.
Details
They describe
what happened
to the king of
Mycenae when
returning home
from Trojan
War.
Details
They teach that
evil acts cause
more evil acts
and suffering,
but reason
triumphs over
evil.
Details
The moral of
the story is
that people
should not
seek revenge.
Sophocles
He
developed
drama
even
further
and used
3 actors in
his
stories.
He
placed
painted
scenes
behind
the stage
as a
backdrop
.
Two of
the most
famous
were
Oedipus
Rex and
Antigon
e
In
Antigone
, he asks
“Is it
better to
follow
orders or
to do
what is
right?”
He tried to take
drama beyond
heroes and
gods.
His plots show
a great interest
in real-life
situations.
He questioned
traditional thinking,
especially about
war.
Aristophanes
His comedies make fun of
leading politicians and scholars.
He encourages the audience to
think and laugh, and he regularly
included jokes.
Greek Art
and
Architecture
Greek art and architecture expressed
Greek ideas of beauty and harmony.
Greek Art
We know that
Greeks
painted murals,
but none of them
have survived.
Greek artists wanted
people to see reason,
moderation, balance, and
harmony in their work.
Painting on
pottery
provides example
of Greek
painting.
In Greek pottery,
pictures are either
red on a black
background or black
on a red background,
and they show scenes
from myths
and daily life.
The Parthenon
Architecture is the
art of designing
and building
structures.
In Greece, the most important architecture was the
temple dedicated to a god or goddess.
Temples like the Parthenon, had a walled room in
their centers.
Statues of gods and goddesses and the gifts offered
were kept in this room.
Large columns supported buildings.
The first Greek columns were carved
from wood.
In 500 B.C., the Greeks began to use marble,
and marble columns were built in sections.
Large blocks of marble were chiseled and
brought by oxen-driven wagon.
Sections were tacked on top of one another and
joined by wooden pegs.
Famous buildings today have columns like the Greeks, like the
White House and the Capitol.
• Doric columns
were sturdy with a
plain capital.
• They were used in
mainland Greece.
Ionic Columns
• They were thinner
and more elegant.
• The capital is
decorated with a
scroll-like design.
• They were found in
eastern Greece.
Corinthian Columns
• They were seldom
used in the Greek
world.
• They were often
used in Roman
temples.
• The capital is very
elaborate, decorated
with acanthus
leaves.
Greek Sculpture
The Greeks tried
to show their ideal
version of
protection and beauty.
It was used to
express Greek ideas,
and the favorite
subject of
Greek artists was
the human body.