Image is Domenico Guidi: Andromeda, Metropolitan Museum of Art 

 

 

 

Focus Question: What was the nature of Greek Mythology and what do Greek myths tell us about ancient Greek society?

 

 

Topics on this page

 

Gods and Goddesses

 

• How New Moons and Asteroids Get Their Names 

 

• Overview of Gods and Goddesses
• Hercules and Athena
• Kronos and the Birth of the Gods 
• Descriptions of 12 Olympian Gods and Goddesses

 

• Visit  Greek Gods and Goddesses for more about these figures

 

Teaching the Myths

 

• Theseus and the Minotaur
• Daedalus and Icarus
• Jason and the Golden Fleece
• Pegasus and Bellerephon
• Perseus and Medusa 

 

Image by Paulina Dubb (April 2022) 

The Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Greece  Interactive Website for Kids 

 

Ovid's Metamorphoses 

 

Modern Day Influences

 

• Influential Literature page on The Iliad and The Odyssey

 

Women's History Resources

 

 

 Multimedia Resources

 

“HERO ELEMENTARY,” a new PBS show produced under a Department Office of Elementary and Secondary EducationReady-to-Learn Television grant, premiered June 1 on PBS and PBS Kids. 

 

• “HERO ELEMENTARY” is about a school for up-and-coming superheroes, where kids learn to master powers like flying and teleportation while exploring science along the way. 

 

• A diverse group of super students works together to make the world a better place. The series will give children ages 4 to 7 important tools to help them solve problems by encouraging them to think and act like scientists.

 

• A preview episode is available now on YouTube.

 

 

Gods and Goddesses in Ancient Greece

Click here for Meet the Greek Gods & Goddesses from young adult author Rick Riordan(includes figures from Zeus and Hera to Hecate and Tyche.

 

British Museum's page on Greek gods and goddesses

 

Click here for a quick video on the Greek Gods & Goddesses as well as a history article about Greek Mythology in general.


For an interactive and extensive family tree of the gods (starting with Chaos), click here


How New Moons and Asteroids Get Their Names

 
 Astronomers have formal rules for naming new moons and asteroids naming involving figures from ancient mythology.

 

 

The Bizarre and Brilliant Rules for Naming New Stuff in Space

 

• Planet and Satellite Names and Discoverers from the International Astronomical Union.
• Mars is named for the Roman god of war

Overview of Greek Gods and Goddesses

The ancient Greeks had a very large, well-developed pantheon of gods and goddesses as well as a myriad of stories about the activities of these gods and goddesses.

• They also had many stories about heroic mortals who performed nearly impossible feats of strength, intellect, and cunning, usually thanks to their descent from or favor with particular gods. Taken together, these stories of gods and heroes comprised the entirety of what we call Greek Mythology.

 

• This mythology provides a useful insight into the nature of Greek society and how they thought about the world around them.

 

• Greek mythology shows how playful that the Gods could be, e.g. when Eros sent an arrow of love into the heart of Helen of Sparta. She would never have gone with Paris, as she was married to Menelaus, king of Sparta. Eros, in his playful way, caused the Trojan War.

 

• One of the most striking features of these mythic stories is how the gods are portrayed as very similar to the mortals who worship them. 
• The gods bicker and quarrel among themselves, they fall in love and have affairs, they fall out of love and become moody and unpredictable, they become jealous of each other and try to one-up their rivals, and they use lesser creatures (i.e. mortals) as pawns in their games among themselves.

 

• It is as if the gods are merely enlarged, very powerful humans who live forever.

The ancient Greeks viewed the world's events as being controlled by creatures very similar to themselves, and though deserving of worship and dangerous to anger, the separation between gods and humans was not an unbridgeable gulf by any means.

Hercules and Athena

 

Hercules: Greece's Greatest Hero

 

 

Athena, Goddess of Wisdom

 

 

Kronos and The Birth of the Gods

 

The Greek Gods and Goddesses were born of the Titan Kronos, who was ultimately defeated by Zeus, leading to the ascension of the Greek Gods and Goddesses

 

Click here for a brief overview of Kronos: https://www.theoi.com/Titan/TitanKronos.html 

• A more in depth look at representations and Origins of the Titan: https://greekgodsandgoddesses.net/gods/cronus/   

 

Animated video on the Greek Mythology Creation Story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilZ99sGM-kA  

 

Descriptions of the 12 Olympian gods and goddesses:

 

• Click here for a video from YouTube specially about the Greek gods.

Click here for a video from YouTube specially about the Greek goddesses.

This is a fun animated video about the Greek gods.

Teaching and Learning Resources:

 

• Click here for the myths of Greek heroes told through cartoon images.

 

Click here for explanations about the gods and goddesses and how they influenced ancient Greek daily life.

Click here for interactive games about ancient Greece and Greek gods and goddesses.

• Can you identify each Olympian based off of their symbolism? 
• Test your knowledge here

 

This interactive timeline details the events of the Trojan War with pictures and descriptions of each event.

 

This website is filled with different lesson plans on how to teach different subsets of the Greek mythology unit.

 

 

Which Famous Superhero Are You? HowStuffWorks

 

 

 

Teaching the Myths

 

Theseus and the Minotaur

 

 Click here for an online video of the Greek Myth, Theseus and the Minotaur.

 

 

Theseus and the Minotaur Lego Animation

 

 

The Minotaur in Lego

 

 

  Click here for audio versions of the Greek Myths, Bag of Winds, Narcissus, and Pandora.

 

Daedalus and Icarus

 

The Fall of Icarus, Pieter Bruegel, 1590

Daedalus and Icarus

The Myth of Icarus and Daedalus. Amy Adkins, TEDEd

Jason with the Golden Fleece, about 1540

 

Jason and the Golden Fleece

The Golden Fleece and the Heroes Who Lived Before Archilles

Evidence Suggests Jason and the Golden Fleece was Based on True Events

Jason and the Argonauts from PBS Myths & Heroes

Searching for the Golden Fleece with Jason and the Argonauts. Great Voyages Lecture, Penn Museum

 

 

Pegasus and Bellerephon

Link to images for Bellerephon and Pegasus from Smithsonian American Art Museum

 

Perseus and Medusa

Link to an overview on Perseus and Medusa:                 

https://www.greekmyths-greekmythology.com/myth-perseus-and-medusa/     

 

The story of Medusa and Athena. Two very famous figures in Greek mythology and their history.                                                                                 

 

 Perseus holding the head of Medusa

 

Ovid's Metamorphoses (8 CE)

 

Ovid's Collection of legends and Myths is a poem made of 15 books, all set in chronological order. 

Overview of Metamorphoses: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Metamorphoses-poem-by-Ovid 

 

 

 

               Mary Zimmerman transformed the poem into an acclaimed play 

Trailer for Production of Metamorphoses: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Y4-e9yTVvc 

Lesson plan/project ideas:

• Have students make "baseball cards" about the Greek Gods and Goddesses with background about each, strengths, weaknesses, relationship to other Gods or Goddesses, etc.

 

• Ask the students to collaboratively create a "school yearbook" of the Olympians and the minor gods. Sections would include hand drawn illustrations of the gods with their symbols in school pictures, what clubs and activities they participated in (Archery Club for Artemis and Eros, Chorus for Apollo, etc.), and a list of superlatives (Best Hair for Medusa, Best Gift Giver for Athena, etc.). 
• This site gives teaching resources with ideas for lesson plans, projects, and games.

 

• Here is a series of 6 great lessons plan for 7th Graders called, It’s Greek to me: Greek Mythology as a way to introduce them to the topic of Greek Mythology.
• This series of lessons was designed to meet the needs of gifted children for extension beyond the standard curriculum with the greatest ease of use for the educator. The lessons may be given to the students for individual self-guided work, or they may be taught in a classroom or a home-school setting. This particular lesson plan is primarily effective in a classroom setting. Assessment strategies and rubrics are included. The lessons were developed by Lisa Van Gemert, M.Ed.T., the Mensa Foundation’s Gifted Children Specialist.

 

Focus Question: How has ancient Greek mythology influenced the modern world, and what uses are they put to today?

The gods and heroes of the ancient Greeks have an impact that continues to be felt today in many different ways. Materially, the ruins of Greek temples to their gods, such as the Parthenon at Athens, are scattered all around the Mediterranean today, and statues of Greek gods and heroes are in museums around the world.

 
Click here for a link to the Parthenon replica in Nashville, Tennessee.

18th-century engraving of Odysseus on the island of the lotus-eaters

In addition, the same stories the Greeks were telling thousands of years ago have survived to the present day, and continue to be retold and impact those exposed to them.

This Prezi has information how Greek mythology has influenced modern day language and media/movies.

This Weebly post explains subtle mythology references in popular movies like The Lion King and Inception, as well as modern language.
 

 

  Women's History Teaching Resources

Helen of Troy by Evelyn de Morgan, 1898

Mortal Women of the Trojan Warbased on an article from Stanford University; includes a section on Helen of Troy.

Myth Set In Stone explores how Greek women like Persephone, Alcestis, and Eurydice who entered the Underworld were represented in art. 

Women in Greek Myths is a website that compiles a "big list with lots of images...start to learn about all those women in Greek myths that you know you should know about, but just don't!"

Click here for the Mythology of the Seven Sisters, companions of Artemis until they were placed in the stars by Zeus.

Click here for a video about how women were treated in Ancient Greece by author, Doris Orgel

 

Complete List of Gods and Goddesses  

The daughter of Hades

Book Recommendations:
Resource book: Reproducible activities and projects that integrate mythology, geography, creative writing, and storytelling:

Greek and Roman Mythology by Frank Edgar, Ph.D. Mark Twain Media, Inc. 1994. ISBN-13: 978-1580370202

We Goddesses: Athena, Aphrodite, Hera by Doris Orgel. DK Publishing; 1st edition (September 15, 1999). ISBN-13: 978-0789425867





More material on the role of gods and goddesses in Greek society

A Good example of how the gulf between the world of the gods and the world of humans could be bridged is found in the stories of the heroes, the mortals who did great deeds and won eternal fame.

 

• These figures in many ways acted as a direct connection between the gods, who had typically either fathered the hero during a relationship with a mortal or favored them, especially for some other reason. These mortals had the favor of the gods, and as a result were able to perform tasks beyond the abilities of most mortals, such as Herakles (Hercules) completing the Twelve Labors or Perseus' defeat of Medusa.

 

• These heroes were role models to Greek society of the time, and they set the standards for what an ideal Greek could achieve. Heroes can have a very vulnerable side to them.

 

• Ulysses made the egregious error to blind the favorite son of Poseidon, which caused him to not see Ithaca for 10 years. One of his vulnerabilities was to wonder if his wife Penelope had been faithful. She indeed had been faithful for those 10 long years. That is why in literature, we refer to a faithful woman as a Penelope.

 

Documents and Sources

 

http://www.timelessmyths.com/classical/

http://www.theoi.com/

http://www.occultopedia.com/z/zeus.htm

http://www.pantheon.org/areas/mythology/europe/greek/articles.html