ANCIENT GREEK CULTURE

ANCIENT GREEK RELIGION

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• Ancient Greek religion wasn’t based on a sacred book of teachings.
• Greek myths talked about the magical powers and adventures of the Gods.
• The Ancient Greeks worshipped the nature spirits of rivers, trees, springs and caves.
• To the Greeks the most important Gods and Goddesses came from Mount Olympus.
• They thought the Gods were a family of huge all-powerful beings that could live forever.

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• It was very important to the Greeks to keep the Gods and Goddesses happy so they wouldn’t cause trouble in the world •The way the ancient Greeks could get a God's advice was by asking a question to a woman called an Oracle.
• Oracles used a special room hidden underneath temples and by performing special ceremonies oracles spoke in the God's voice and could see into the future.
• The temples were always the finest buildings in any Greek town.
• A temple was built to be a home for a God's spirit.

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• The Ancient Greeks thought that their Gods and Goddesses could change their shapes by magic.
• Some Greek gods governed various regions of the world while others controlled the different things that affected human life.
• Greek gods were thought to be a lot like humans because myths told about how they got angry and jealous and even fought one another.

ANCIENT GREEK HOUSEHOLDS

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• The husband headed the household and was responsible for its members.
• The wife ran the household and raised the children and if it was a wealthy family supervised the slaves.
• The wife would also spin thread and weave cloth.
• Only children of citizens received education.
• Very few girls went to school.

ANCIENT GREEK EDUCATION

ATHENS

• In Athens teachers are in different schools for general studies, music and PE.
• General school taught reading, writing and arithmetic.Students learn to sing and play flutelike aulos or the small harplike lyres in music.
• PE they did running, jumping, and wrestling.
• Older boys learned to use weapons like the sword and spear.
• Students learn to sing and play flutelike aulos or the small harplike lyres in music.

SPARTA

• The people in Sparta wanted to build a tough war like population and considered reading and writing to be much less important than military training.
• At seven boys were sent to military camps where they learned to except severe discipline and endure harsh conditions.
• Even girls engaged in physical competition which shocked most Greeks outside Sparta.

ANCIENT GREEK FOOD

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• The Greeks diet was based on grain such as wheat and barley.
• They made bread, cakes and porridge.
• The ancient Greeks ate a variety of fruits and vegetables.
• For protein they ate eggs, poultry, fish, roasted pork, beef, lamb and goat.

ANCIENT GREEK RECREATION

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• Greek men talked with friends in the agora (a public open space used for assemblies and markets) or at drinking parties called symposiums in their homes. Greek men also like sports and exercise and swim at public sports facilities.
• Greek women were permitted to little entertainment outside the home except for religious festivals.
• Children had dolls, balls, tops and other toys. They also played board games and dice games

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• At religious festivals large crowd gathered to watch athletes compete in events such as wrestling, boxing, foot and chariot races, jumping and javelin throwing.
• The festivals also included feasts, colorful parades and performances of plays.

ANCIENT GREEK PHILOSOPHY

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• Philosophy originated in Greece during the 500's BCE
• The earliest philosophers theorized about the underlying substance of the universe and how the universe worked.
• Later philosophers inquired the nature of knowledge and reality and sought to define notions such as good and evil.

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• Socrates, Plato and Aristotle are considered to be the most important Greek philosophers.
• Socrates~taught by carefully questioning his listeners to bring out the weaknesses of their ideas and arguments.
• Plato~explored subjects such as beauty, justice and good government.
• Aristotle~summed up the achievements of Greek philosophy and science.
• Aristotle's authority on many topics remained unquestioned for more than 1000 years.

ANCIENT GREEK SCIENCE

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• Greek scientists, like Greek philosophers, believed in an orderly universe which worked according to laws that people could discover.
• Greek scientists based their theories on logic and math.
• They also made careful observation of nature and sometimes conducted experiments.
• Greek scientists rarely tried to solve practical problems so their discoveries had a little influence on technology and every day life.
• The Ancient Greeks were experts in medicine, physics, biology and math.

ANCIENT GREEK ART

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• Greek architects, sculptors and painters made important contributions to the arts.
• They strove to achieve an ideal of beauty based on harmonious proportions.
• The most influential architectural works were temples.
• A Greek temple was made up of and arrangement of columns around a long inner chamber.
• The best known temples were built in Acropolis Athens during the 400 BCE.

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• Greek sculptors portrayed figures of gods, goddesses and humans.
• Over the centuries their works became more lifelike and showed figures in more active poses.
• The most famous Greek sculptors were Phidias, Praxiteles, Lysippus and Myron.
• Few Greek paintings have survived.

ANCIENT GREEK MUSIC

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• Music was often put with plays and poetry recitals.
• Musicians performed at festivals and private parties.
• •The music of the Greeks relied mostly on melody and rhythm.
• Harmony was unknown to the Ancient Greeks.

ANCIENT GREEK LITERATURE

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• Ancient Greek writers introduced many important literary forms such as lyric and epic poetry, tragic and comic drama and history.

MY SOURCES

• Ancient Lights, 2000. Religion in Ancient Greece. [Video Segment]. Available from http://www.discoveryeducation.com
• Krentz, P. (2019). Greece, Ancient. In World Book Student. Retrievedfromhttps://www.worldbookonline.com/student-new/#/article/home/234900
• Shelmerdine, C.W. (2019). Trojan War. In World Book Student. Retrieved from https://www.worldbookonline.com/student-new/#/article/home/ar567720
• Soll, I. (2019). Plato. In World Book Student. Retrieved from https://www.worldbookonline.com/student-new/#/article/home/ar434320