Greek and Roman Mythology

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Greek and Roman Mythology

• English I
• Class notes

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What is a myth?

• The word myth comes from the Greek word mythos
  meaning story or legend.

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Definition of myth

• A myth is a sacred story that typically revolves
  around the activities of a supernatural being,
  such as a god, demigod, goddess, or such entity.

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Purpose of a myth

• It will seek to explain at least some aspect of
  the origin of things.

• Example The Greek myth of Prometheus, a human
  being who stole the secret of fire from the gods
  and was punished with everlasting torment,
  purported to explain the origin of mankind's use
  of fire.

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Who wrote them?

• A myth has no attributable author and would
  typically have come into existence through oral
  tradition.

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What is Greek Mythology?

• Greek Mythology is a collection of myths that
  Greeks used to explain their world.
• Although we now view these stories as fiction,
  the Greeks believed them to be true.

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The Greeks Their Beliefs

• The Greeks had many gods.
• The Olympian gods resembled the Greeks need to
  be grandiose.
• Because the Olympian gods mirrored the Greeks,
  they were heavily flawed.
• Because the Greeks focused on being grandiose,
  the Olympian gods were mostly portrayed as
  physically strong, beautiful and intelligent.

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The World according to the Greeks

• Both good and evil comes from the gods.
• Heroes and monsters came from the gods.
• This idea has influenced all religions that came
  after.
• Many of the conflicts that are portrayed in the
  myths are between family members.

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In the beginning...

• Chaos
• In the beginning there was no earth, sky or sea.
  There was only confusion and darkness, called
  Chaos.
• Chaos had two children
• Night (darkness)
• Erebus (death)

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And then...

• Mysteriously, Love was born of darkness and
  death.
• Love created Light and Day.
• Earth was created
• Chaos gave birth to Mother Earth. She eventually
  gave birth to a son, Uranus, also known as Father
  Heaven. Mother Earth and Father Heaven had many
  children.

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The First Parents

• Gaea (Mother Earth)
• Uranus (Father Heaven)
• They had three kinds of children
• The monsters
• The Cyclopes
• The Titans

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The Monsters

• First, they had three monstrous sons.
• Each had fifty heads and one hundred hands.

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The Cyclops

• They had three more sons - the Cyclops.
• They were just as big and just as ugly.
• They had one eye in the middle of their
  foreheads.
• They were as strong as Earthquakes and Tornadoes
  combined.

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The Titans

• The first gods
• Enormous size, incredible strength
• Six sons and six daughters
• Brothers Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion,
  Iapetus, and Cronus
• Sisters Thea, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe,
  and Tethys.

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Birth of the Olympians

• Among their children was the greatest Titan,
  Cronus.
• Cronus gained power from his father, Uranus, by
  castrating him.
• Then, Cronus became ruler over heaven and Earth
  and married his sister, Rhea.
• From their union came the Olympian gods.

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Zeus is born

• Power changed Cronus and made him evil. He was
  so afraid that one of his sons was going to do to
  him what he did to his father that he swallowed
  all of his children immediately after their
  birth. Rhea secretly gave birth to her sixth
  child, Zeus, and gave him to Mother Earth.

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Rheas Plan

• When Cronus asked to see the sixth child, Rhea
  handed him a rock wrapped in a blanket. Just
  like her previous children, Cronus swallowed the
  rock without hesitation, just as she had planned.
  

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Zeus Promise

• Zeus was safely being raised by Nymphs and
  shepherds. Eventually Zeus grew up and Rhea, his
  mother, told him about what Cronus did to his
  siblings. Zeus made a promise to his mother that
  he would make Cronus pay for what he did

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Zeus Revenge

• When Zeus returned to his mother, she disguised
  him as a servant and concocted a poisonous potion
  for him to put into Cronus drink. The
  concoction caused Cronus to vomit up each of his
  five children, one by one. Once everyone was
  freed, the six children decided to battle against
  Cronus.

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After the battle was over

• The war lasted ten years. Finally, when it ended,
  Zeus and his siblings were victorious.
• Now that the battle was over, the three brothers
  had to decide who was going to rule the universe.
  It was decided that Hades would rule the
  underworld, Poseidon would rule the sea and Zeus
  would rule the heaven and become ruler of all the
  gods of Mt. Olympus.

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The Principal Gods

• Cronos and Rhea were parents of
• Zeus
• Poseidon
• Hades
• Hera
• Hestia
• Demeter

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Zeus
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Poseidon
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Hades
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Hera
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Hestia
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Demeter
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Your Research Project

• You will research one of the Greek gods or
  goddesses and create a PowerPoint presentation to
  present orally to the class.

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Research and Outline

• You will choose or be assigned a god or goddess
  from mythology to research
• You will have two days to gather information and
  create your outline

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Create a PowerPoint Presentation

• You will have two days to create your PowerPoint
  presentation
• Begin by typing your information into the
  PowerPoint document.
• Once you have your information in, you may add
  pictures, animation, etc.

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Presentation Requirements

• Your Power Point Presentation should include at
  least five (5) slides with the following
  information
• Your Name
• Name of god/goddess
• A picture of god/goddess
• Roman Name
• Nickname
• Job of the god/goddess
• Symbol or emblem of god/goddess
• Weapon of the god/goddess
• Family Genealogy (parents, wife/husband, lovers,
  children, etc.)
• Other interesting facts

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Evaluation

• The teacher will use a rubric to critique each
  presentation.
• Students will use the information from all
  reports to successfully pass a test on Mythology.

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Storing Your Information

• Each student should have a personal flash drive
  on which to save his/her document.
• If you do not have a flash drive, you will need
  to save your presentation to google docs.
• It is your responsibility to have your
  presentation saved and ready to present on the
  day it is due!!!

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Final word

• If you have a computer, PowerPoint and Internet
  at home, you may work on this project at home
  however, for those students who don't have these
  advantages, we will spend adequate time in class
  to complete the project if you work diligently.
• If you would like to work on it outside of the
  classroom or find you need more time to complete
  any section that involves a computer, you can use
  the computers in the library before school, after
  school, or during lunch I will be happy to write
  you a pass.

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Gods/Goddesses

• Zeus
• Hera
• Poseidon
• Hades
• Hestia
• Demeter
• Athena
• Apollo

• Artemis
• Aphrodite
• Hermes
• Ares
• Hephaestus
• Dionysus
• The Erinyes
• The Gorgons

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Athena
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Apollo
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Artemis
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Aphrodite
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Hermes
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Ares
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Hephaestus
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Dionysus
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The Erinnyes (The Furies)
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The Gorgons