Much of what we know about ancient Greece comes from epic poems, myths, and stories from Homer, who wrote the Odyssey and the Iliad. These are two classic stories that some of you have read. Many of you have also seen movies like Clash of the Titans, Troy, Harry Potter, and Percy Jackson. Hollywood continues to make movies or use elements of Greek literature in their stories or characters. Check out the links on fables and myths on the right side of the blog under ‘Ancient Greece.’ These are great links: heroes andgods and goddesses in ancient Greece.
Odyssey Online – See link for Gods, Goddesses, and Heroes (and Harry Potter!)
British Museum – see the explore, story, and challenge links
Please write acomment about any of the movies or books I mentioned, or the links. Do you know any other books, series, or movies influenced by Greece?
My favorite Greek goddess is Artemis, the daughter of Leto and Zeus, the sister of Apollo. She is a goddess of hunting and helped women during child birth. Her arrows killed the person as soon as they got shot. Artemis is usually shown as young woman carrying bows and arrows and is accompanied by wild animals. I like her because in one of the books I read, Artemis is the patron saint of the people that were born between June 22 to July 22. So, since I read the book, I started to like Artemis the most.
I read a story about the Greek hero, Hercules. He had to succeed in 12 challenges that Eurystheus had given him. One of the famous challenges that Hercules achieved was killing the Hydra. It was second challenge that Eurystheus had told him to do. Hydra was a mythical creature which had many heads with one body. When one had was cut out, two heads grew back in its place. When Hercules was fighting with the Hydra, Iolaus appeared and helped Hercules kill the Hydra. When Hercules cut the head off of Hydra, Iolaus seared the woundeded neck with the flame, so the heads didn’t grow back.
I read the fable The Old Woman and the Wine Bottle.It’s a story about an old woman who finds a wine bottle outside her house and goes to get it, but finds it is empty. She smells the bottle and says, “ahhhhh, good memories.” I think Prahalad should read The Old Woman and the Wine Bottle because he likes things like this.
I read the fable called The Lion in Love this story is about one lion which fall in love with one women. And her parents said that if the lion took out his claws and teeth, they will think about his propose. So lion did it but they didn’t do anything for the Lion. The fable teache us how important the love is. (Love can tame the wildest)
When I was visiting the Aesop’s Fable’s Site, I scrolled down and clicked on ” The Woodman and the Serpent.” It was a pretty cool story with the lesson of: Injuries can be forgiven, but not forgotten.” The Woodman’s son steps on the serpent, and the serpent kills him. The Woodman and the Serpent continue in a cycle of revenge. Then, the Woodman comes to apologize, but the Serpent says ” No.”
In the Odyssey site, I learned about Cassandra, a Trojan prophetess. She was cursed by Apollo so that nobody would ever believe her. She warned the people of Troy to not let the famous wooden horse into the city of Troy, but of course, they didn’t believe her and let them in, allowing the Greeks to destroy Troy. J.K. Rowling used her in her books (Cassandra Trelawney was the famous seer who also was the great-great-grandmother of Sybil Trelawney, Harry;s divination teacher. In Greece, a sybil was a prophetess who told the future).
I read the fable ,the dog and the wolf.
It’s a story about the hungry wolf. one day he saw house dog.
House dog say to hungry wolf “Let’s go with me, there are very safe, there are delicious food” than hungry wolf is go with house dog
They keep going , hungry wolf saw some skretch in house dog’s neck than he ask what it is.
House dog said ” that is only place where the collar is put on at night to keep me chained up. It chafes a bit,but one soon gets used to it” than hungry wolf said ” then, good bye to you, master dog.” This story’s percept is better starve free than be a fat slaves
You should read this fables because It’s easy to understand for people and also It’s very good fables.
My favorite god is Athenes, who borned inside of Zeus’s head. She is a goddess of war and wisdom. Her bird is owll, which repersent the wisdom of Athenes. In the Greek Myth it says the olive tree is the giftof Athenes. If I can, I would like to read more about Athenes.
My favorite Greek goddess is Echo who loved her own voice. Zeus loved consorting with beautiful nymphs and visited them on Earth often. Eventually, Zeus’s wife, Hera, became suspicious, and came from Mt. Olympus in an attempt to catch Zeus with the nymphs.
My favourite god is Poseidon because he is one of the gods with lots of power. He is the god of water, horses, earthquakes and water and we have loads of that around the world. He is brother to Zeus and Hades. I really like him but mythical creatures are my favourites!
I read the Myth Hercules. It’s a story about Hercules who was droven mad by Hera, so he killed his childs. For this crime, his cousine, Eurystheus sentenced him perform a series of tasks, or Labors. He succeded all 12 of them. Labor 1 was the “Nemean Lion”, Labor 2 was the “Hydra”, Labor 3 was the “Cerynitian Hind”, Labor 4 was the “Erymanthian Boar”, Labor 5 was the “Augean Stables”, Labor 6 was the “Stymphalian Birds”, Labor 7 was the “Cretan Bull”, Labor 8 was the “Mares of Diomedes”, Labor 9 was the “Hippolyte’s Belt”, Labor 10 was the “Cattle of Geryon”, Labor 11 was the “Apples of the Hesperides”, and Labor 12 was the “Capture of Cerberus”. But after all of the Labors, he finally died by the poison of the Hydras.
I read the fable The lion and the mouse. It’s a story about mouse is help to lion .
You should read The lion and the mouse . Because I think it is show ‘all time small animal is weaker than big animals
I read about the Trojan War and title is the Odysssey. It was really interesting. It all started when the Prince of Troy kidnapped the wife of the Greek king. Her name is Helen but he’s known as “Helen of Troy”.So they started the war basically because they wanted her back. Then the Troy wanted to stop the war so they make a giant horse but like a so giant one and they give it to them. It was a present to stop the war. They fight for many years. For about nine years while during thoses years, many dead.
I think you should read that short story because personally, I think that story is interesting and I like it. This website is most about gods and it tell a lot about so that’s why I like it.
I read The Milkmaid And Her Pail, the moral of the story is: Do not count your chickens before they are hatched. It is about a young girl who wants to sell milk and is very excited when she comes across a problem. I like the fable because it teaches what can happen if you get too excited for something that you don’t even have yet.
I read the fable The Hart and the Hunter and it was really weird because of the modern version but the moral was that we often despise what is most useful to us.
One of the most surprising thing about Olympic to me was that the winner of the Olympic gets to have so many things. He gets wife, fame, meal for his entire life etc. From that, I can see how hard was it to be the winner of the Olympic and get through the challenges that the player faces.
I read The Milkmaid and her Pail. It is a good, short fable with a good moral also. This story is about a milkmaid that is carrying a pail with milk in it to the market. She is going to sell it there. She was busy deciding what to do with the money she earns that she is not paying attention to what she is doing. Suddenly, she comes across a problem.
The moral of this story is: Do not count your chickens before they are hatched. I think that this means that you should not consider doing someting until you have it. I think it means don’t be over-confident, or too sure about something beforehand.
I watched the video of the Olympics and I learned a lot about the creation. I not only learned about the creation but I learned about the what they earned from it. When a competitor wins the Olympics that person gets a ribbon around his head, an olive reath. He also got to choose who he wants his wife to be. He got a free meal for his whole life and got the pleasure of fame. The winners name also got put on the Greek calendar the name of the year was the Olympic winners name
I read some of the Aesop’s fables and my favorite one was the woodman and the serpent . I liked this fable because it can relate to modern circumstances I also think it had a good moral to it.It is about a a snake that kills a woodman’s son because he accidentally steps on it so the woodman gets revenge by chopping its tail off. Soon the woodman feels bad about his actions and brings gifts to the snake but he rejects them and says
“Take away your gifts !! you will never forget the death of your son as I will never forget the loss of my tail
The moral is :
injuries may be forgiven but not forgotten
This is a fable about a small mouse who is very hungry. He suddenly finds a cherry tree, and decides to take one or eat them all. But there is one problem: he can’t reach. He suddenly finds what he thinks is a rock. After he stands on it, it turns out to be…a lion. He doesn’t eat him, he helps him. Afterwards the mouse says that he will repay the lion. The lion tells him he doesn’t have to. A few days later, the lion is stuck in the vines and roars. The mouse hears him and uses his teeth to nibble through the vines, and free the lion.
I think the fable is that you should help someone no matter what. I really liked the silhouette animation but I thought the script was cheesy. Overall, it was really good.
I read ‘Sick Lion’ in the fable. This story is when the lion come to end of his life. Another animals kicked him. I think they kicked him because before end of his life, he did bad action. I think someone is doing bad action or doing badly, he/she should read this story because lion was doing badly, so last time he got KECK. I learned humen should be kind and nice action.
I read a book called ” Belling the cat”. One day the mouses met in council, to discuss how to secure themselves against the attacks of the cat. Several suggestion came but it was hard, but then a mouse that some standing and experience got up and said, “I think I have hit upon a plan which will ensure our safety in the future, provided you approve and carry it out. It is that we should fasten a bell around the neck of our enemy the cat, which will, by its tinkling, warn us of her approach.” The other mouses started to agree and gave a applause, then an old mouse came up and said that “The suggestion was good but who is going to put the bell on the cat?” After he said the mouses were uiet and didn’t say a word.
The teaching of this fable is ‘It is easy to propose, but impossible remedies.’ This means, it possible to tell but it is impossibe to do it. I liked many fables that I saw, but I liked this fable the most.
I have seen all the movies above, but none of them really appeal to me. The only Greek inspired movie that does is 300! THIS IS SPARTA! (That is way over used) 🙂
"My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style."
- Maya Angelou
Linking to Thinking 
My favorite Greek goddess is Artemis, the daughter of Leto and Zeus, the sister of Apollo. She is a goddess of hunting and helped women during child birth. Her arrows killed the person as soon as they got shot. Artemis is usually shown as young woman carrying bows and arrows and is accompanied by wild animals. I like her because in one of the books I read, Artemis is the patron saint of the people that were born between June 22 to July 22. So, since I read the book, I started to like Artemis the most.
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Hmmm, let me guess, your birthday is between June 22 and July 22. Right?
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I read a story about the Greek hero, Hercules. He had to succeed in 12 challenges that Eurystheus had given him. One of the famous challenges that Hercules achieved was killing the Hydra. It was second challenge that Eurystheus had told him to do. Hydra was a mythical creature which had many heads with one body. When one had was cut out, two heads grew back in its place. When Hercules was fighting with the Hydra, Iolaus appeared and helped Hercules kill the Hydra. When Hercules cut the head off of Hydra, Iolaus seared the woundeded neck with the flame, so the heads didn’t grow back.
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I read the fable The Old Woman and the Wine Bottle.It’s a story about an old woman who finds a wine bottle outside her house and goes to get it, but finds it is empty. She smells the bottle and says, “ahhhhh, good memories.” I think Prahalad should read The Old Woman and the Wine Bottle because he likes things like this.
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Is there a lesson or moral?
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I read the fable called The Lion in Love this story is about one lion which fall in love with one women. And her parents said that if the lion took out his claws and teeth, they will think about his propose. So lion did it but they didn’t do anything for the Lion. The fable teache us how important the love is. (Love can tame the wildest)
LikeLike
When I was visiting the Aesop’s Fable’s Site, I scrolled down and clicked on ” The Woodman and the Serpent.” It was a pretty cool story with the lesson of: Injuries can be forgiven, but not forgotten.” The Woodman’s son steps on the serpent, and the serpent kills him. The Woodman and the Serpent continue in a cycle of revenge. Then, the Woodman comes to apologize, but the Serpent says ” No.”
LikeLike
In the Odyssey site, I learned about Cassandra, a Trojan prophetess. She was cursed by Apollo so that nobody would ever believe her. She warned the people of Troy to not let the famous wooden horse into the city of Troy, but of course, they didn’t believe her and let them in, allowing the Greeks to destroy Troy. J.K. Rowling used her in her books (Cassandra Trelawney was the famous seer who also was the great-great-grandmother of Sybil Trelawney, Harry;s divination teacher. In Greece, a sybil was a prophetess who told the future).
LikeLike
I read the fable ,the dog and the wolf.
It’s a story about the hungry wolf. one day he saw house dog.
House dog say to hungry wolf “Let’s go with me, there are very safe, there are delicious food” than hungry wolf is go with house dog
They keep going , hungry wolf saw some skretch in house dog’s neck than he ask what it is.
House dog said ” that is only place where the collar is put on at night to keep me chained up. It chafes a bit,but one soon gets used to it” than hungry wolf said ” then, good bye to you, master dog.” This story’s percept is better starve free than be a fat slaves
You should read this fables because It’s easy to understand for people and also It’s very good fables.
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There is a video game call God of War and its story is influenced by the war between Titans and Olimpians.
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My favorite god is Athenes, who borned inside of Zeus’s head. She is a goddess of war and wisdom. Her bird is owll, which repersent the wisdom of Athenes. In the Greek Myth it says the olive tree is the giftof Athenes. If I can, I would like to read more about Athenes.
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My favorite Greek goddess is Echo who loved her own voice. Zeus loved consorting with beautiful nymphs and visited them on Earth often. Eventually, Zeus’s wife, Hera, became suspicious, and came from Mt. Olympus in an attempt to catch Zeus with the nymphs.
LikeLike
My favourite god is Poseidon because he is one of the gods with lots of power. He is the god of water, horses, earthquakes and water and we have loads of that around the world. He is brother to Zeus and Hades. I really like him but mythical creatures are my favourites!
LikeLike
I read the Myth Hercules. It’s a story about Hercules who was droven mad by Hera, so he killed his childs. For this crime, his cousine, Eurystheus sentenced him perform a series of tasks, or Labors. He succeded all 12 of them. Labor 1 was the “Nemean Lion”, Labor 2 was the “Hydra”, Labor 3 was the “Cerynitian Hind”, Labor 4 was the “Erymanthian Boar”, Labor 5 was the “Augean Stables”, Labor 6 was the “Stymphalian Birds”, Labor 7 was the “Cretan Bull”, Labor 8 was the “Mares of Diomedes”, Labor 9 was the “Hippolyte’s Belt”, Labor 10 was the “Cattle of Geryon”, Labor 11 was the “Apples of the Hesperides”, and Labor 12 was the “Capture of Cerberus”. But after all of the Labors, he finally died by the poison of the Hydras.
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I read the fable The lion and the mouse. It’s a story about mouse is help to lion .
You should read The lion and the mouse . Because I think it is show ‘all time small animal is weaker than big animals
LikeLike
I read about the Trojan War and title is the Odysssey. It was really interesting. It all started when the Prince of Troy kidnapped the wife of the Greek king. Her name is Helen but he’s known as “Helen of Troy”.So they started the war basically because they wanted her back. Then the Troy wanted to stop the war so they make a giant horse but like a so giant one and they give it to them. It was a present to stop the war. They fight for many years. For about nine years while during thoses years, many dead.
I think you should read that short story because personally, I think that story is interesting and I like it. This website is most about gods and it tell a lot about so that’s why I like it.
LikeLike
I read The Milkmaid And Her Pail, the moral of the story is: Do not count your chickens before they are hatched. It is about a young girl who wants to sell milk and is very excited when she comes across a problem. I like the fable because it teaches what can happen if you get too excited for something that you don’t even have yet.
LikeLike
I read the fable The Hart and the Hunter and it was really weird because of the modern version but the moral was that we often despise what is most useful to us.
LikeLike
One of the most surprising thing about Olympic to me was that the winner of the Olympic gets to have so many things. He gets wife, fame, meal for his entire life etc. From that, I can see how hard was it to be the winner of the Olympic and get through the challenges that the player faces.
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What else did you learn, Daewon?
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I read The Milkmaid and her Pail. It is a good, short fable with a good moral also. This story is about a milkmaid that is carrying a pail with milk in it to the market. She is going to sell it there. She was busy deciding what to do with the money she earns that she is not paying attention to what she is doing. Suddenly, she comes across a problem.
The moral of this story is: Do not count your chickens before they are hatched. I think that this means that you should not consider doing someting until you have it. I think it means don’t be over-confident, or too sure about something beforehand.
LikeLike
I watched the video of the Olympics and I learned a lot about the creation. I not only learned about the creation but I learned about the what they earned from it. When a competitor wins the Olympics that person gets a ribbon around his head, an olive reath. He also got to choose who he wants his wife to be. He got a free meal for his whole life and got the pleasure of fame. The winners name also got put on the Greek calendar the name of the year was the Olympic winners name
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Tarun,
This is good information, but we also watched the video and talked about the exact same things. Did you find any NEW information?
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I read some of the Aesop’s fables and my favorite one was the woodman and the serpent . I liked this fable because it can relate to modern circumstances I also think it had a good moral to it.It is about a a snake that kills a woodman’s son because he accidentally steps on it so the woodman gets revenge by chopping its tail off. Soon the woodman feels bad about his actions and brings gifts to the snake but he rejects them and says
“Take away your gifts !! you will never forget the death of your son as I will never forget the loss of my tail
The moral is :
injuries may be forgiven but not forgotten
LikeLike
“The Lion and the Mouse”
This is a fable about a small mouse who is very hungry. He suddenly finds a cherry tree, and decides to take one or eat them all. But there is one problem: he can’t reach. He suddenly finds what he thinks is a rock. After he stands on it, it turns out to be…a lion. He doesn’t eat him, he helps him. Afterwards the mouse says that he will repay the lion. The lion tells him he doesn’t have to. A few days later, the lion is stuck in the vines and roars. The mouse hears him and uses his teeth to nibble through the vines, and free the lion.
I think the fable is that you should help someone no matter what. I really liked the silhouette animation but I thought the script was cheesy. Overall, it was really good.
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I like this story. Was there a modern version to this story?
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I found an interesting link: http://www.starfall.com/n/level-c/greek-myths/load.htm?f
It is simplified so it is easy for EAL students to read.
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I read ‘Sick Lion’ in the fable. This story is when the lion come to end of his life. Another animals kicked him. I think they kicked him because before end of his life, he did bad action. I think someone is doing bad action or doing badly, he/she should read this story because lion was doing badly, so last time he got KECK. I learned humen should be kind and nice action.
LikeLike
I read a book called ” Belling the cat”. One day the mouses met in council, to discuss how to secure themselves against the attacks of the cat. Several suggestion came but it was hard, but then a mouse that some standing and experience got up and said, “I think I have hit upon a plan which will ensure our safety in the future, provided you approve and carry it out. It is that we should fasten a bell around the neck of our enemy the cat, which will, by its tinkling, warn us of her approach.” The other mouses started to agree and gave a applause, then an old mouse came up and said that “The suggestion was good but who is going to put the bell on the cat?” After he said the mouses were uiet and didn’t say a word.
The teaching of this fable is ‘It is easy to propose, but impossible remedies.’ This means, it possible to tell but it is impossibe to do it. I liked many fables that I saw, but I liked this fable the most.
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I have seen all the movies above, but none of them really appeal to me. The only Greek inspired movie that does is 300! THIS IS SPARTA! (That is way over used) 🙂
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I am really excited about learning about Greece. I really like Greek Gods and Mythology and I think this unit will be interesting! 😀
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Great, Samara. I am glad you are interested in this topic. Have you ever visited Greece?
Mr. Martin
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No, I have never visited Greece but I would like to. 🙂
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