Teaching Ancient Greek Mythology

Description

This fourth great cultural period in the evolution of humanity is introduced through its primary myths that includes stories of the Olympian gods and goddesses, heroes such as Hercules and Prometheus, as well as the great world epic Homer’s Odyssey. This study will be followed in the sixth grade with Greek history proper and the civilization that developed in Athens and Sparta.

Sample Content

Lesson 8: Know Thyself

The following phrase is found on the temple at Dephi. The student can write this Greek phrase into his lesson book. The full phrase says, “O Man (anthropos) know thyself and thou shalt know the world; O Man know the world and thou shalt know thyself.” One can see in this phrase the sense that the human being is the world writ small and that the world is the human being writ large. It is the mirroring of microcosmos and macrocosmos and lends a deeper layer of meaning to the words of Genesis that describes the human being as made in the image of God. The form drawing is a typical motif found on Greek pottery and can be added as a border around the inscription.

Table of Contents

  • Teaching Ancient Greek Mythology
  • Why Teach Mythology?
  • The Romans and the Greek World View
  • The Ten to Twelve-Year-Old
  • Structuring the Lessons
  • The Literature of the Myths
  • Lesson 1: Gaia, the Titans, the Olympians
  • Lesson 2 to 6: the Twelve Olympians
  • Hermes and the Cattle of Apollo
  • The Birth of Artemis and Apollo
  • The Story of Athena and Arachne
  • Lessons 5 and 6 The Greek Alphabet
  • Lesson 7 Greek Roots to English Words
  • Lesson 8 Know Thyself
  • Lesson 9 Dionysus
  • Lesson 10 Hades and Ares
  • Lesson 11 Prometheus
  • The Story of Pandora
  • Lesson 12 Demeter and Persephone
  • Lesson 13 Ariadne’s Golden Thread
  • Lesson 14 Daedalus and Icarus
  • Lesson 15 to 18 Hercules and his Twelve Labors
  • The Transition to History—the Epics of Homer
  • Lesson19 to 23 the Illiad
  • Lesson 24 to 30 The Odyssey

Description

This fourth great cultural period in the evolution of humanity is introduced through its primary myths that includes stories of the Olympian gods and goddesses, heroes such as Hercules and Prometheus, as well as the great world epic Homer’s Odyssey. This study will be followed in the sixth grade with Greek history proper and the civilization that developed in Athens and Sparta.