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Your first entry in your interactive notebook! Be sure to add it to the table of
contents with today’s date and the page number.
TOPIC: Brainstorm some ideas to create your own modern god or goddess to
add to the Greek pantheon. The new god or goddess should fall into the
hierarchy of the Greek pantheon but rule an aspect of modern life (think about
things that didn’t exist in ancient Greece, such as cars and electronic devices).
Might the modern world need a new god or goddess to control highway traffic,
prevent cyber-bullying, influence fashion trends, promote human rights, or
promote healthy eating?
Jot down ideas about the following: name; what s/he rules; what her/his primary
symbol might be; what special abilities s/he might have; how/why s/he came
into being, and how does s/he help in the modern world
Mythology
Introduction and Recap
What are myths?
Stories that use fantasy to express ideas about life
that cannot easily be expressed in realistic terms
At the heart, they are religious stories that deal
with and explore the relationship between human
beings and the unknown/spiritual world
Once believed to be true (no matter how wild or
strange they seem to be)
Purposes of myths
Scientific: explanation of things in nature
Literary: entertaining; good storytelling
Religious: give meaning to things in life; explain role of the
gods in everyday life
Myths seek to explain all those unexplainable or unknowable aspects of life…
Where do we go after we die?
How was the world created?
water?
Why can we see our reflection in
Why are there four
separate seasons?
Why do we fall in love?
How is
lightning created?
Greek Mythology
Earliest people to give their
gods human forms (fully
developed by about 700 B.C.)
Gave gods human qualities and
emotions
Man was not created in the image
of the gods; rather, the gods
were in the image of man
Were able to determine proper
behavior based on what would
“anger the gods” or “please
How did we learn these stories?
First passed down through
storytelling, songs, and poetry
We learned the stories from
written versions, mainly
Homer’s epic poems The Iliad
and The Odyssey, which tell of
the great deeds of heroes
(stories of Achilles and
Odysseus)
Also, the Roman poet Virgil and
his epic poem The Aeneid (story
of Aeneas)
The Greeks were polytheists
Today, many people believe in one god (monotheism)
Many centuries ago, when the stories of mythology began,
people believed in many gods (polytheism) and each god had
authorities over certain powers
Origin of the Gods
From Chaos emerged…
Gaea (mother earth) and Ouranos (father
heaven)
Had children: monsters with 50 heads and
100 arms
The monsters were so ugly that Ouranos
threw the monsters into Tartarus, the
pit at the bottom of Hades
Then, Ouranos and Gaea had a new group
of children called Titans
One Titan, Cronus, rebelled against
Ouranos and chopped his father into
Clash of the Titans vs. the Olympians
Cronus was now ruler of the Universe
He feared that his children would one day kill him, so as
they were born, he swallowed them whole
His wife, Rhea grew tired of her husband eating her
children, so when the youngest son Zeus was born, she fed
her husband a rock and hid Zeus on an island
When Zeus was grown, Rhea poisoned her husband Cronus who
vomited up Zeus’s brothers and sisters
Zeus led his brothers and sisters in a war against the
The Olympians
A group of 12 gods who ruled after
the overthrow of the Titans
All related in some way
Named after their dwelling place,
Mount Olympus, which could have
either been: the physical mountain
in Thessaly OR a mountain in a
mysterious region above the Earth.
(Olympus was NOT HEAVEN)
Led by Zeus, the god of the other
gods
Zeus and his brothers split territory
(Zeus: earth/sky; Poseidon: the
seas; Hades: the underworld)
The Twelve Olympians
Aphrodite: goddess of love and
beauty
Hades: god of underworld
Apollo: god of the sun and of music
Hephaestus: god of fire and of the
forge
Ares: god of war
Hera: queen of the gods
Artemis: goddess of the hunt and of
the moon
Hermes: messenger of the gods
Athena: goddess of wisdom and war
Dionysus: god of wine and revelry
Poseidon: god of the sea
Zeus: king of the gods
Ancient Greek Beliefs and Characteristics
Death is inevitable and final, so the goal was to become a
legend through great deeds
Greeks were tough, relentless, ambitious, hard-living, and
imaginative
Honor was extremely important, and the Greeks were very
vengeful if wronged
Gods mirrored human feelings and physical form
Flaws were pride, cruelty, stubbornness, impulsiveness,
lust for power, and desire to be like the gods