Ancient Greece

The Minotaur was a creature who had the body of a man and the head of a bull. Minos had the inventor Daedalus create the Labyrinth on Crete to hold the Minotaur. The Labyrinth was a maze from which the Minotaur could not escape.

Although Zeus was often wise, he could also be foolish. He could be selfish and even cruel. He was not a good husband to Hera, the queen of the gods. And he was not a good father to many of his children. Not surprisingly, the other gods sometimes rebelled against his rule.

Still, most gods and mortals respected Zeus. He gave laws and justice to mortals. He taught them kindness and good manners. Zeus liked to travel amongst mortals, sometimes in disguise.

Weather seemed even more mysterious in ancient times than it does today. It’s no surprise that the god who controlled the weather was the most powerful god of all. Lightning and thunder were especially puzzling to ancient people. Many cultures have gods of thunder and lightning. In Norse mythology, it was Thor.

Daedalus fastened the wings to their arms. They flapped their wings and took to the sky. They left the island of Crete far behind them. Water sparkled beneath them as far as they could see. The sky was blue. The breeze was brisk, more than enough to keep them in the air. It was glorious!

Icarus flew higher and higher. He flew so high that before he knew what was happening, the sun had begun to melt the wax on his wings. Icarus felt himself falling.

But gradually, his eyes adjust until he can look at reflections in the water, at objects directly, and finally at the Sun, whose light is the ultimate source of everything he has seen. The prisoner returns to the cave to share his discovery, but he is no longer used to the darkness, and has a hard time seeing the shadows on the wall. The other prisoners think the journey has made him foolish and blind, and resist any attempts to free them or to listen to what he has to say.

Hephaestus was the god of fire. He was a blacksmith whose forge was in a volcano. His helpers were one-eyed giants called Cyclops. He worked in bronze, iron, silver, and gold. He also made things out of clay, including living creatures. From clay he made Pandora, the first mortal woman in the world.

Hephaestus made many useful things for the gods. For the messenger god Hermes, he made a winged hat and winged sandals. For the sun god Helios, he made a golden chariot to ride across the sky. For the Eros, the god of love, he made a silver bow with silver arrows.

Alexander spread Greek culture throughout the Persian Empire, including parts of Asia and Africa. Alexander respected the local cultures he conquered, and allowed their customs to continue. Alexander himself embraced local customs, wearing Persian clothes and marrying Persian women. Alexander encouraged his soldiers to marry Persian women, in this way, the children of these marriages would share both Persian and Greek cultures.

Alexander created what is called the Hellenistic Age, a time when Greek culture mixed with the various cultures of Alexander&apos;s Empire. This was a time of advances in learning, math, art, and architecture. Some of the great names of learning in this Age include Archimedes, Hero, and Euclid. It was a time of relative peace. (The Hellenistic Age began with Alexander&apos;s death and ended about 200 years later when the Romans conquered the entire Mediterranean region.)

The ancient Greeks told lots of stories about their gods. These stories are called myths. Stories about the ancient Greek gods are still told today. Each storyteller told the stories in their own way, but whatever power and personality a god had was consistent from story to story. For example, Zeus was the king of all the gods, and only Zeus could throw lightning bolts. The magical world of the ancient Greek gods was a world full of bickering and fights and wars and compromise and fear and fun and punishment and love. Many myths were based on the fact that gods, like mortal men, could be punished or rewarded for their actions.

Plato introduces this passage as an analogy of what it’s like to be a philosopher trying to educate the public. Most people are not just comfortable in their ignorance but hostile to anyone who points it out. The allegory has captured imaginations for 2,400 years because it can be read in far more ways.

In this way, the allegory of the cave leads to many more questions, including the origin of knowledge, the problem of representation, and the nature of reality itself.

But at long last, the people of Atlantis chose Poseidon. Atlantis was a huge island, and its people loved and honoured him. There he fell in love with a mortal princess named Clito. He built a palace for her, and they had ten sons. The sons grew up to be kings who ruled different parts of Atlantis. Those kings ruled wisely, and Atlantis became the greatest civilisation in the world. Poseidon was proud and happy.

But bad times came. The first kings of Atlantis died, and their sons were bad rulers. And the sons who came after them were worse yet. Years passed, and Atlantis was no longer the world’s greatest civilisation. It was actually the worst. It had become both wicked and foolish. Finally, the people of Atlantis forgot to worship Poseidon. The sea god became angry and used his trident to start a terrible earthquake. Atlantis sank beneath the waves, never to be seen again.

When Helen and Paris ran away to Troy together, Menelaus was furious. He called all the great warriors of Greece together, and they declared war on Troy. Many thousands of warriors died in the Trojan War, which lasted ten years. It ended with the destruction of Troy.

Ancient Greece never really declined. But it did fall.

The time period called Ancient Greece is usually considered to begin with the Greek Dark Ages around 1100 BC (the Dorians) and end when Rome conquered Greece in 146 BC. Ancient Greece was at its pinnacle from 776 BC to 146 BC. For a very short period of time, within that pinnacle, the ancient Greek city-states were pulled together under one rule - not their own rule, but the rule of Alexander the Great.

About two hundred years later, in 146 BC, the ancient Romans attacked the ancient Greeks at the Battle of Corinth. The Romans won but they maintained a lot of the Greek culture. The Romans adopted all the gods and all the myths, changing them a bit to reflect the Roman way of life. As long as the ancient Greeks agreed to consider Rome in charge, the Greeks were free to mostly manage themselves. Even their language remained the same.

Hera was the queen of the gods and the protector of women. Her husband Zeus ruled the earth and sky. She was the mother of the war god Ares and the forge god Hephaestus. Her daughter, Ilithyia, was the goddess of childbirth.

Hera was beautiful and graceful. But she was also stern and bossy. And she could be very vain about her good looks. Hera was furious when she lost a beauty contest with Athena and Aphrodite. Another time, a mortal queen claimed to be more beautiful than Hera. The goddess turned that queen into a crane.

Although Hera was the goddess of marriage, her own marriage wasn’t happy.

Medusa was once a beautiful human woman, but she angered the goddess Athena. Athena punished her by turning Medusa&apos;s long gorgeous hair into squirming and wiggling poisonous snakes. The snakes did not bite Medusa, but they bit and killed anyone else who got too close. Plus, if you even looked at Medusa you would be turned to stone. It was never wise to anger the Greek gods, but this was an especially terrible punishment. It did not take long before Medusa turned into a terrible person, which is pretty understandable.

Athenians thought of themselves as the best city-state in all of ancient Greece. They believed they produced the best literature, the best poetry, the best drama, the best schools - many other Greek city-states agreed with them.

The ancient Greeks believed that each city-state had one or two gods keeping a special eye on that city-state. The god in charge of Athens was Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom. The city of Athens was named after their special goddess.

The people of Troy once asked Poseidon to help build a wall around their city. He helped, but then he got angry when he didn’t get paid for his work. He was Troy’s enemy ever after that. When Troy fought a terrible war against Greece, Poseidon supported the Greeks.

Each god had a city to protect and watch over. The city showed its thanks by honouring that god especially. Maybe because he was ill-tempered, Poseidon had trouble finding a city to honour him. The people of Athens chose Athena instead of Poseidon as its protector. The people of Naxos chose Dionysus. The people of Aegina chose Zeus. Finally, all the gods had special cities except Poseidon. He was very unhappy and disappointed.

Ancient Greece was not a country. It was not an empire. It was a collection of over 1500 independent city-states, each with its own government and its own way of doing things. Some city-states, like ancient Corinth, were ruled by kings. Some, like the warrior city-state of Sparta, were ruled by council. Ancient Athens, the jewel of the ancient Greek city-states, experimented with an early form of democracy. The ancient Greeks were very loyal to their city-state.

The Greek city-states did, on occasion, team up against a common foe. They also went to war with each other (quite often), unless the Olympic Games were in progress. The Greeks invented the Olympics, and took the event very seriously. Nearly all the ancient Greek city-states sent teams to participate. If two or more Greek city-states happened to be at war with each other when the games were on, the war was halted for the duration of the games. The Greek Olympics were not the only games in ancient Greece - the Greeks loved competition of all sorts - but the Olympics were the most important.

Typhon was an especially scary monster. He had one hundred snake heads. The Typhon scared everybody, gods and mortals. Zeus finally killed this horrible monster using his lightening bolts. Thank goodness for Zeus!

The Greeks told wonderful myths about their gods. Poseidon, lord of the sea, could raise his hand and a new island would appear! Apollo brought up the sun every day, and his twin sister Artemis brought up the moon. Most of the gods avoided Ares. Nobody liked him much, but he was the god of war, so you had to keep him on your side if you could.

The mighty Zeus, king of all the gods, probably caused more trouble than any of them, even more than Aphrodite, the goddess of love. The Greeks did not limit their myths to stories about the 12 Olympians. They told stories about nearly all the magical, mythical creatures in which they believed.

Many of their mythical beings looked like people, but some looked like monsters, because, well .. they were monsters! Fortunately, the ancient Greeks found a way to beat monsters, nearly always with trickery and cleverness, two skills that were greatly admired by the ancient Greeks.

When we refer to &quot;the Greeks&quot;, we are being very general. To be more accurate, we would have to say Athens did this, and Sparta did that, or Athens and Sparta did this or that, or all the Greek city-states got together and did this or that. It&apos;s just too hard to remember so we often simply say &quot;The Greeks&quot;.

If you were to ask an ancient Greek person where they were from, they would not say I&apos;m from Greece. They would say: &quot;I am of Sparta.&quot; Or: &quot;I am of Athens.&quot; They would name his home city-state. The ancient Greeks were very loyal to their city-state (a bit like people from Cork really!!).

The largest and most important of the City States were Athens Sparta Corinth Megara Argos

While growing up, Alexander had many teachers, one of whom was the famous philosopher Aristotle. Aristotle spoke of his admiration for the Greeks many times to his student, the young prince, Alexander.

The great teacher Aristotle only taught the young prince for 3 years, but he was an outstanding and persuasive teacher, probably because Aristotle&apos;s own training was exceptional. Socrates taught Plato who taught Aristotle who taught Alexander. And you’re stuck with just Cormac. Alexander grew up dreaming of the day he would be king. When he was king, he too would teach everyone about the Greek culture he had come to know and love so well. Aristotle had a great affect on Alexander and what he believed, but Alexander had other teachers as well, teachers who taught him how to wage war, how to conquer other people, and how to be a Macedonian king.

Grief stricken over losing his friend, Achilles vows to avenge his death. He has the Greek god Hephaestus forge him new armour and rejoins the battle. Soon the Greeks push the Trojans back to the city of Troy. Achilles and Hector finally face off in battle. After a long fight, Achilles kills Hector.

Achilles had just one weakness, his heel. When he was a baby his mother dipped him into the River Styx to make him invincible but she held him by the heel when she did so. It was the only place he was vulnerable. The god Apollo knew about his weakness. The Trojan Prince, Paris fires an arrow at Achilles and Apollo guided the arrow to strike Achilles on the heel. Achilles quickly dies from the wound.

A city-state is an independent city with its own government and own way of doing things. Examples in Ancient Greece were Athens and Sparta. A city-state is NOT a small country with only one city in it. It is an independent city.

After the Greek Dark Ages, villages started to band together to create city-states, in part for protection and in part for more organised trade. The Greek Dark Ages was a time period when a tribe of people called the Dorians ruled the people who lived scattered across the Greek peninsula. One reason we know so little about this period in history is that the Dorians did not have a written language. The Dorians were not into art or music or literature. The Dorians were into war. Their life was spent fighting. The Dorians did not build cities. They destroyed them.

When Alexander was 19 years old, his father died. After his father&apos;s death, Alexander took over as king of Macedonia from 336 BC until his death in 323 BC. He quickly dealt with his enemies at home, and increased Macedonian power within Greece. He then set out to conquer the massive Persian Empire and other civilisations.

But here the thing - Alexander did not believe his father, the prior king of Macedonia, was in fact his father. He believed his father was the mighty Zeus, the king of all the Greek gods. How he got that idea nobody knows. But that belief affected his entire life.

All citizens in ancient Greece were warriors. But the Spartans were the best warriors in all of Greece. There was no argument about that. The city-state of Sparta was basically a well-trained army. In other city-states, children entered military school at age 18. In Sparta, they entered at age 6. The girls were taught how to fight as well. Their school was separate from the boys&apos; school. It was not as brutal, perhaps. But still, the girls learned how to fight and steal and lie and kill - skills that could save their lives in times of war.

Apollo was the twin brother of Artemis, the goddess of the hunt and the Moon. Like his sister, Apollo loved hunting with a bow and arrow. He was the god of wisdom, poetry, and music. Apollo was a handsome god and drove a golden chariot drawn by swans. He was the leader of the Muses, the nine goddesses of the arts.

This god liked lions, wolves, stags, crows, and dolphins. He also liked cattle, and once had a herd of his own. The baby Hermes stole that herd from him. But Apollo let Hermes keep the cattle in return for his lyre. The lyre was a kind of harp that Hermes had made out of a tortoise shell.

Sparta was a powerful city state in Ancient Greece.

Sparta was ruled by a small group of retired warriors. This type of government is called an Oligarchy. The Spartans spoke Greek and they thought of themselves as Greeks, but Sparta was very different from the other Greek city-states. The other Greek city-states had no desire to be Spartans. Many thought they were military fanatics, but they admired their strength. Most wanted Sparta on their side. No incredible works of art were created in Sparta as they were in other Greek city-states. But Spartans were good friends to have in times of war.

Over 2,300 years ago, in ancient times, a young prince was born in Macedonia. His name was Alexander.  Macedonia (Macedon) was a kingdom located to the north of the Greek city-states. 

The Ancient Olympic games are believed to have begun in the year 776 BCE, but they probably began even sooner. The ancient Greeks loved competitions of all sorts, especially sporting competitions. The Olympics were not the only competition games held in ancient Greece, but they were by far the most popular. Once the Olympics began, the Olympic competition was held once every four years for the next 1000 years! The games were held in honour of the mighty god, Zeus, king of all the gods. The games were held in the city-state of Olympia. The Statue of Zeus at Olympia was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

Once upon a time, a long time ago in ancient Greece, there lived a king named Midas. King Midas loved three things more than anything else in the world - his little daughter, his rose garden, and gold. Nothing gave him more pleasure than seeing his little daughter picking roses in the garden, roses she placed in a golden vase to decorate the castle.

King Midas wandered sadly out to his rose garden. His little daughter was in the garden, picking roses. When she saw her father, she ran into his arms for a hug and turned to gold. King Midas hung his head and cried. As his tears fell on his precious roses they turned to gold, but the king did not care. He did not care about his roses or his gold or himself. Dionysus, hear my prayer, the king begged. Take my wish back! Please, take my wish back and save my daughter!

The citizens were indeed impressed. But then Athena told them to taste the water. It tasted awful. It was saltwater, which is impossible to drink.

Then Athena gave the citizens her gift. When she hit the ground with her spear, a tree magically grew up within seconds. She explained that it was a special tree—an olive tree. Its wood was good both for building houses and for heating those houses in winter. Better still, the tree’s little green fruits, called “olives,” were delicious. And oil made out of the olives was useful for cooking.

The citizens liked Athena’s gift better than Poseidon’s. Not only did they choose Athena to watch over them, they named the city after her. They called it Athens. Poseidon left in a huff, causing a serious flood on his way. But the Athenians weren’t bothered very much. With Athena’s help, their city grew to be strong and wealthy. Athens became one of the greatest cities of all time. Today it’s the capital and the largest city of Greece.

Poseidon was the brother of Zeus. Poseidon ruled the seas. He was also the god of earthquakes and horses.

Poseidon had a beard and long blue hair. He drove a golden chariot. It was pulled by strange beasts that were half-horse and half-snake. Fish and dolphins always swam along beside the sea god’s chariot.

Poseidon carried a three-pointed spear called a trident. He used this to start earthquakes or bring water out of the ground. Like the sea he ruled, Poseidon could be either calm or stormy. As you might guess, the god of earthquakes had a short temper. He didn’t get along with other gods. He didn’t always get along with mortals, either.

The ancient Greeks loved heroes, especially military heroes. They loved hear stories about these heroes, the more mythical and magical the better.

The Odyssey is the story (a collection of short stories, really) about how King Odysseus and his men returned home after the Trojan War. It should have taken about a month for the king and his men to sail back to the kingdom of Ithaca, which was on the far side of Greece from the town of Troy. But it took Odysseus ten years to make the trip! That&apos;s how much trouble he ran into on the way.

Homer&apos;s Odyssey is full of trickery and magic and monsters and gods and goddesses and heroic actions. The Greeks loved to hear the adventures of King Odysseus and his men, and all that happened to them on their way home. Here are just two stories from the Odyssey.

Part human female and part bird, the three Harpies were winged monsters who snatched up evil doers in their sharp claws, and tortured them all the way to the Underworld, where they dropped them off from great heights. (If the evil doers were not dead already, the fall would certainly kill them.)

Not everyone who lived in Sparta was a citizen of Sparta. To be a citizen with full rights of fair trial, the men had to pay to prove they were the ancestors of the original people who lived in Sparta. If they couldn&apos;t prove it, or couldn&apos;t afford to pay for the search, they were not citizens. Citizens had many rights like the right to a fair trial and the right to be educated to be a good warrior and to live in the barracks. Non-citizens could be killed for no reason at all. Non-citizens in Sparta were called Perioikoi. It was not uncommon for Spartans to kill a Perioikoi and receive no punishment.

The lowest social class of peoples in Sparta were slaves. These people were called Helots and generally farmed their own lands. When harvest time came around they were required to hand-over half of their crops to Spartan citizens. Helots were routinely beaten once a year by Spartan citizens. They were required to wear clothing made of animal skin and if a Helot was caught while escaping they were killed.

The Hydra was a terrible, mean, rotten swamp monster with nine heads. There was nothing nice about the Hydra. Hercules fought this monster and finally won, but he had a tough time. Each time Hercules cut off one of the Hydra&apos;s head, two heads grew back in its place!

Daedalus was a bit amazed at the king&apos;s choice of pet, but a job was a job. Daedalus planned to make the maze a challenge, so complicated that anyone who entered it would be lost until rescued. That way, the king would be happy, the monster would be contained, and the people would be safe. Daedalus had no doubt he could design such a maze. He really was a fine architect.

Zeus was the king of the gods. He and his brothers Hades and Poseidon were in charge of the whole universe. Hades ruled the Underworld, the world of the dead. Poseidon ruled the seas. Zeus, the greatest of the three, ruled the earth and the sky. He controlled the weather, causing wind and rain. He also caused thunder and lightning. He threw his thunderbolt like a spear.

Zeus was a good reminder that the gods were not perfect. For one thing, he was not all-powerful. His daughters, the three Fates, decided the futures of both gods and mortals. Zeus couldn’t overrule their decisions.

Pay attention-This could get complicated!

When the story opens, the Trojan War has been raging for nearly 10 years. The Greek army is camped outside the walls of Troy.

Agamemnon, the Greek leader is holding captive a woman named Chryseis. Her father offers to pay Agamemnon to release her, but he refuses. Then her father prays to Apollo to help him. Soon Apollo is attacking the Greeks. Eventually, the Greek leaders, led by Achilles, force Agamemnon to release Chryseis to stop Apollo’s attacks. However, in order to get back at Achilles, Agamemnon seizes a woman named Briseis from Achilles.

Philosophy is the study of knowledge, reality, and existence. That sounds very nice but what does that mean? That&apos;s just it - there is no exact in philosophy. Philosophy is the practice of asking really big questions that have no clear answer or that have more than one answer. The word philosophy comes from the Greek words for love and wisdom. Simply, philosophy is the love of wisdom. Philosophers ask questions to open topics of discussion and to get people thinking. The ancient Greeks thought of philosophy as an art, and philosophers as teachers of the art of asking questions. But some things in ancient Greece could not be questioned. It was against the law to do so. But that did not stop one famous philosopher from asking these questions anyway. He found himself in a lot of trouble because he ignored the law. His name was Socrates. Two other famous Greek philosophers were Plato and Aristotle, both of whom were students of Socrates, and both of whom went on to greatness.

One of their most clever solutions was to create their own coins. Argos did that as well. But Corinth took it one step further. They opened places where people could trade their money for Corinthian money so people could pay for goods. This was not a free service. There was a charge for this. Corinth was one of the largest centres of trade in ancient Greece. So the city made a great deal of money from their money exchange program. Corinth felt their schools were as good as those in Athens. They were not as fancy perhaps, but the level of education in Corinth was outstanding. All boys went to military school for at least two years after high school. Corinth worked at being a leader in the ancient Greek world, and they were highly respected by other Greek city-states. The people of Corinth were very proud of their city-state.

So, Alexander spread the Greek culture around the Mediterranean, and the Romans spread the Greek culture into Europe. Greek culture is still influential today. That&apos;s why historians say Ancient Greece never really declined. But it did fall.

While Plato was traveling around the Mediterranean, he began to write. He wrote in an interesting style called a &quot;dialogue&quot;. In the dialogue, Plato would introduce several characters who would discuss a topic by asking questions of each other. This form allowed Plato to explore several sides of an argument and to introduce new ideas. 

Many of Plato&apos;s dialogues feature his former teacher Socrates as the main character. Most of what is known about Socrates&apos; philosophies comes from Plato&apos;s dialogues. He wrote four dialogues about Socrates&apos; final days including The Apology in which Socrates&apos; defends himself before being sentenced to death (something which Socrates had actually refused to do). 

He flapped his arms faster and faster. But it was no use. Poor Icarus plunged into the water and drowned.

Sadly, Daedalus had to continue on alone.

<a href="bookcreator://page/dWRBGNdqQtKNUQpUj7hKXw">Mythical Monsters</a>

<a href="bookcreator://page/2tAgFLGBSom6mu0I9ar7RA">Greek Myths</a>

<a href="bookcreator://page/LvlgwX-3TcSm_VJ5PFRdcA">Hydra</a>

<a href="bookcreator://page/0zThUsgIQcOz79NcBUMNmw">Theseus and the Minotaur</a>

<a href="bookcreator://page/5-LiCgL3SG60pialKTa6kA">Medusa</a>

<a href="bookcreator://page/-Gl5C-jmRMaOHONnbheuGw">Perseus and Medusa</a>

<a href="bookcreator://page/74Gj-UO4Q_WLcDhE1SAtDg">Typhon</a>

<a href="bookcreator://page/pQO8bS2-Rt-Tv1-EwZ1fVA">Daedalus and Icarus</a>

<a href="bookcreator://page/Joz0whCeRJOHA6UmRAGQnw">Harpies</a>

<a href="bookcreator://page/Fa0mCB9eTEO-bdYUrfiS8Q">King Midas</a>

<a href="bookcreator://page/-2WDWYnGROaaoYI1fJ8gBA">Minotaur</a>

<a href="bookcreator://page/U8BuZDvVTMOuWxkRNHFjow">Chimera</a>

<a href="bookcreator://page/EXu3UD7aSBGUqK0nfhZDmw">Alexander the Great</a>

<a href="bookcreator://page/SILmjgKySOyGC03zTTxPcQ">Cerberus</a>

<a href="bookcreator://page/3vLaD496S0O9zbkS4eNUHg">Decline of the Greeks</a>

Sisyphus himself finally died and went to the Underworld. The gods knew that he might still be up to mischief even there. So they sentenced him to an impossible task. Sisyphus had to roll a huge boulder up a hill, only to have it roll back down again. Then he had to roll it back up the hill, only to have it roll down yet again. Poor Sisyphus had to do this again and again forever. 

Eventually, the world of the dead itself came to be called Hades, after its king. A fierce three-headed dog named Cerberus guarded Hades. The river Styx flowed between Hades and the world of the living. A ferryman named Charon rowed dead souls across the Styx.

Athletes came to compete in the Olympics from all over the Mediterranean. The only requirements were that the athlete was Greek, male, and naked! (yes you read that right!!) At first, the games were made up of foot races but other sports were gradually added. Besides the foot races, there were boxing and wrestling matches, discus and javelin throwing, and chariot races. Other sports were added as well.

The Greeks took the Olympic games quite seriously. Nearly all the ancient Greek cities sent teams to participate in the ancient Greek Olympics. If two or more Greek city-states happened to be at war with each other when the games started, war was halted for the duration of the games. Women were not allowed to attend the games because men did not wear clothes when they competed in the events. At the entrance to the stadium statues were erected to athletes who had cheated and not the winners. As athletes entered the stadium they were reminded by the statues that those who cheated would be remembered and never left compete again.

Cerberus was a dog with three heads. It belonged to Hades and guarded the gates ton the Underworld. Cerberus made sure the dead stayed within the gates and the living stayed away from them. It was said that Cerberus was a fan of sweet things like honey cakes and music. Another way to become friends with the animal was to talk to his owner, Hades, the Lord of the Underworld.

Daedalus tried to think of ways to escape. One day, Daedalus noticed birds flying overhead. It gave him an idea. Wings. He needed wings. Daedalus began to gather all the bird feathers he could find. He glued them together with wax. When two pairs of wings were ready, he warned his young son not to fly too close to the sun or the wax would melt.

First, she asked Zeus for three different names. These would fit her moods, which could be seen in the changing Moon. When she was cheerful and the moon was bright, she was called Selene. When she was in a bad mood and the moon was dark, she was called Hecate. The rest of the time she was called Artemis.

She also asked Zeus for loyal goddesses to hunt with. Zeus gave her lots of female followers called nymphs. Finally, she told Zeus that she never wanted to have much to do with men. So Zeus made sure that Artemis never fell in love with a man and never had a husband.

Although she wasn’t interested in much except hunting, Artemis could also be a good warrior. In fact, she was a much better fighter than Ares, the god of war. She was also more clever. One time some giants declared war on the gods. The giants trapped Ares in a jar, so he couldn’t do any fighting at all. Artemis tricked two of the giants by taking the shape of a deer and running between them. The giants both shot arrows at the deer, but killed each other instead.

After that, Apollo became known as the god of prophecy—which means the ability to foretell the future. He was believed to always tell the truth.

Apollo was also known as great healer. However, he sometimes caused disease as well. His son, Asclepius, was the god of medicine for a while. But Asclepius grew so powerful that he could raise the dead. The gods couldn’t allow that, so Zeus killed Asclepius with his thunderbolt.

Because Apollo was called the god of light, he was sometimes mistaken for the sun god. The real god of the sun was Helios, who drove a flaming chariot across the sky.

Helios once made a terrible mistake. He allowed his half-mortal son Phaeton to drive his chariot. But Phaeton couldn’t control Helios’s horses. He almost destroyed the world with that flaming chariot. Like Asclepius, Phaeton was killed by Zeus’s thunderbolt.

Over the next eight years, in his capacity as king, commander, politician, scholar and explorer, Alexander led his army a further 11,000 miles, founding over 70 cities and creating an empire that stretched across three continents, and covered around two million square miles. The entire area from Greece in the west, north to the Danube, and south into Egypt, and as far to the east as the Indian Punjab, was linked together in a vast international network of trade and commerce. This was united by a common Greek language and culture. He did all this in just 13 years!


The Chimera was a monstrous creature that was composed of several different animals. The most common description of the chimera comes from Homer&apos;s Illiad, in which the creature is said to have the head of a lion, the body of a goat, and tail of a snake. It is also believed to breath fire and be female. The chimera was incredibly vicious and powerful, especially since as one single creature, it possessed the abilities of three separate animals.

Ares was the god of war. He wore armour and a helmet, and he carried a shield, sword, and spear. He was big and strong and had a fierce war cry, but his war cry was mostly just a lot of noise. Ares didn’t fight at all well. The armoured goddess Athena was a much better warrior.

The Ancient Greeks didn’t like war, and they didn’t like Ares, either. They considered him a troublemaker. And like many troublemakers, Ares was a coward and a bully. In fact, Ares was never really of use to anybody in a war. One time a group of giants declared war on the gods. The giants wanted to rule the entire universe. To keep Ares out of the fighting, they sneaked up on him and knocked him out cold, then they stuffed him into a jar.

The other gods heard Ares screaming for somebody to let him out. They just ignored him because they figured they could fight better without him. They went on to defeat the giants, and then they let Ares out of the jar after the battle was over. Ares bragged about how he could have beaten the giants if he’d been free. The other gods only laughed.

Ares never stayed loyal to one side or the other in a war. He just enjoyed watching people fighting and dying. The war between Greece and Troy was one of the worst ever fought, and even the gods joined in the battle. When the war started, Ares promised his mother, Hera, to help the Greeks. But he was in love with the goddess Aphrodite, so she easily talked him into helping the Trojans.

Aphrodite had an unusual birth. She rose up out of sea foam, beautiful and fully grown-up. She was the goddess of love, and she liked doves, sparrows, and swans. She was married to Hephaestus, the god of the forge, but not at all happily. She was really in love with Ares, the god of war.

Aphrodite and her son Eros were in charge of making people and gods fall in love. Eros used his magic bow and arrow to make that happen. Oddly, this goddess of love helped start a terrible war. But she didn’t really mean to. Eris, the goddess of discord, liked to stir up trouble. So one day Eris made a golden apple. She wrote the words “For the Fairest” on it. Then she threw this apple where the goddesses Athena, Hera, and Aphrodite would find it.

As a person, Alexander had a dark side. When he did not get his way, he would stomp around or disappear into his tent and pout or sulk for days. Sometimes, his behaviour was much worse. He had a terrible temper, a dangerous one. From time to time, Alexander would arbitrarily murder close advisors and even friends. Towards the end of his 13 years of power, he slaughtered thousands of people whose only crime was being in his way. 

However, there is no denying that Alexander changed the world.
By the time he was 25 years old, against incredible odds, Alexander had become not only the king of Macedonia, but also the leader of the Greeks, overlord of Asia Minor, pharaoh of Egypt, and the great king of Persia.

The men of Sparta were often off fighting or living in soldiers’ barracks. As a result the women were left behind to guard their homes. Because of this, women in ancient Sparta had a great deal of freedom. They ran businesses and they were free to move around and visit neighbours without asking their husbands permission. They were however married off by 18 years of age.

Girls entered school at the age of six. They were taught how to be strong with exercise and athletic sports. But their school was not a training ground for soldiers like the boys. During times of war, Spartan women were expected to take care of everything at home including defending their lands against enemies when needed.

There were several gods who played a role in the story including many of the Olympians such as Zeus, Hera, Athena, Poseidon, Apollo, and Ares. On the side of the Trojans are Apollo, Aphrodite, and Ares. On the side of the Greeks are Poseidon, Hera, and Athena. Zeus tries to remain neutral.

Hades was the brother of Zeus. Hades ruled the Underworld, the world of the dead. Hades had dark hair and a dark beard, and he drove a chariot drawn by four dark horses. He was married to Persephone, the queen of the dead. Neither gods nor mortals liked Hades very much. This wasn’t really fair. Hades wasn’t mean or cruel. It just wasn’t his job to be kind or merciful. His duty was to make sure the dead stayed in the Underworld forever.

Few mortals ever went to the Underworld and made it back alive. One of these was the great singer Orpheus. When his wife, Eurydice, died, Orpheus went to the Underworld to bring her back.

Orpheus’s singing delighted Hades, so he agreed to let him take Eurydice back home. Hades made one rule, though. Orpheus wasn’t allowed to look at Eurydice as they fled the Underworld. But along the way, Orpheus turned to see if Eurydice was still following him. So she had to stay in the world of the dead forever.

The beautiful Hestia was the oldest of the gods of Olympus. She disliked gossip, so hardly any stories were told about her. But it would be a mistake to think she wasn’t important. In some ways, she was the most important of all the gods. From the earliest times, the other gods of Olympus all had duties. Hermes carried messages, Ares was in charge of war, Artemis watched over all hunters, and Zeus ruled over everybody. Other gods had other jobs. But for a time, no one seemed to know what Hestia was supposed to do.

One day the gods Poseidon and Apollo told Zeus that they both loved Hestia. Both of them wanted to marry her. They demanded that Zeus choose between them. Otherwise, war would break out among the gods. And such a war would have been terrible indeed.

The goddess Thetis had a half-mortal son named Achilles. When Achilles was a baby, she bathed him in the river Styx. This was supposed to make him invulnerable, meaning impossible to hurt or kill. Even so, Thetis worried when Achilles got ready to go fight in the Trojan War.

Hephaestus made the best weapons and armour in the world. So Thetis asked Hephaestus to make a shield and armour for Achilles.

Hephaestus was still grateful to Thetis for helping him after his fall from Olympus. So he was happy to do as she asked. Hephaestus’s armour didn’t let Achilles down during the war. But Thetis had made one mistake. When she had dipped Achilles in the river Styx, she had held him by the heel. So his heel was not invulnerable. Achilles was killed by an arrow in his heel.

To understand a city-state, think of Ireland if there was no President or Taoiseach, no Dáil, no laws that applied to all the people, only individual counties. But even a county is too big. Think of Cork City. Cork City would be an individual city-state with maybe towns like Carrigaline included. But Cork would not rule the other big towns in the county. Each town, or a group of towns that banded together under one name, would be independent. Each would rule itself in its own way. My village would probably be a little too far away to be part of the Cork City State and would instead be ruled by somewhere like Mallow.

The Greek city-states still had many things in common. The people in all the ancient Greek city-states believed in the same gods and worshiped in the same way. They spoke the same language and had a common culture.

The ancient Greeks believed in a great many gods and goddesses and other magical creatures. Here are some of the major ones.

Because of the geography of the area, there was no central government in ancient Greece. There were no formal roads connecting the many city-states. The mountains and the winding coastlines made travel by land quite difficult. Travel was mostly by sea. The Greek city-states did know each other. They fought with each other though, and teamed up against a common enemy with each other when they needed to.

They challenged each other to competitions. People were free to visit or even move to a different city-state if they wished. But each city-state was independent. Each developed its own government. Some were ruled by kings. Others were ruled by councils. Ancient Athens, a very large and important city-state, even experimented with an early form of democracy. At one time in ancient Greek history, there were nearly 1,000 city-states on the Greek peninsula!

As it turned out, the satyr was more than a servant. To Dionysus, the satyr was his teacher and good friend. Dionysus told the king he would grant any one wish the king made to thank him for taking such good care of his friend. The king did not wish anything for his daughter because he had given her everything she wanted and a whole bunch more besides. He did not wish anything for his rose garden because everyone knew he grew the finest roses in all the world. That left gold. King Midas wished that everything he touched would turn to gold.

The king did not have much hope that his wish had been be granted, because if it had been granted, his chariot would have turned to gold when he climbed aboard to go home, and it had not.

At the age of 20 years old the boys entered into the Spartan army and live in a barracks. Here they would live until they retired from military service at the age of 60 (if they were still alive). 

When the Spartan army entered battle they formed a Phalanx formation. Soldiers stood next to each other in several rows of men. They moved forward as one group with their shields, known as an Aspis, locked together while stabbing their enemies with a spear called a Dory.

Spartan soldiers also carried a small sword named a Xiphos. Their clothing was a crimson coloured tunic which did not allow their enemy to see any type of bleeding from a wound. A Spartan soldier worshipped their shield and it was seen as a disgrace if a Spartan soldier lost his shield during battle.

Each Spartan believed they were a descendent of Hercules, the Greek hero.

There were many teachers in ancient Athens. Socrates was one of the most famous. His method was to question. He questioned everything. He wanted his students to question everything. He asked questions like: &quot;Are the stories about the gods real? How can we improve our government?&quot;

A handful of wealthy nobles found his teaching methods unacceptable. They accused him of mocking the gods and challenging the Greek way of life in the city-state of Athens. They wanted him punished. Socrates was about seventy years old at the time. He had been teaching for a long time. He thought the whole thing was ridiculous. In ancient Athens, anyone could demand a trial. There were rules, but if you followed the rules, sooner or later, you would end up in court. There, the accused would have a chance to defend themselves. This handful of wealthy nobles filed charges against Socrates. At the trial, Socrates refused to defend himself - defend himself from what? Since he did not defend himself in any way, the jury felt they had no choice but to find him guilty. The punishment for mocking the gods was death. Socrates drank poison and killed himself. It was a sad day for educators and for free thinking people in ancient Athens.

Education was very important in Athens. From their mothers, girls learned how to cook and sew and run a home, and how to be a good wife and mother. Boys went to school. They memorised poetry and learned to play a musical instrument, usually the lyre (a type of harp). They studied public speaking, drama, reading and writing. Sons of nobles went to high school - four more years of learning about the sciences and the arts and politics and government.

Each city-state in ancient Greece had their own form of government. Most city-states, like Corinth, were ruled by kings. Some, like Sparta, were ruled by councils, a small group of people. But for about 100 years, ancient Athens was ruled by direct democracy. It was an experiment. It didn&apos;t last long, but the invention of democracy is one of the most important gifts we received from the ancient Greeks. Citizens of Athens had many rights, including the right to stand trial and the right (when Athens was a direct democracy) to vote.

But not all people in ancient Athens were citizens. Originally, a free male would be a citizen if his father was a citizen. But Pericles changed that rule in 450 BCE. The new law stated that both father and mother be Athenians for a child to be an Athenian. Out of the Athenians, only men had full citizenship. Women had partial citizenship, which basically meant they had few if any rights. Pericles changed this rule to give Athenian women more status. It worked. Even though Athenian women had no power of their own, their status as an Athenian made them more likely to contract a good marriage.

Plato&apos;s most famous writing is The Republic. In The Republic, several characters discuss the meaning of justice and how it relates to happiness. Socrates is once again the main character in the dialogues and he discusses how being just or unjust can affect someone&apos;s life. They discuss various aspects of government and finally present the &quot;philosopher-king&quot; as the ideal ruler. Plato comes to the conclusion that philosophers must become kings, or kings must become philosophers.

When Plato was around 40 years old, he returned to Athens and founded a school called the Academy. Plato and other scholars taught subjects such as mathematics, philosophy, biology, and astronomy at the Academy. One of Plato&apos;s students was the famous scientist and philosopher Aristotle who studied at the Academy for nearly 20 years. 

Plato died around the year 347 BC in Athens. Not much is known about this death, but he was 80 years old and likely died in his sleep. Plato&apos;s legacy lives on in modern Western philosophy. His writings have been studied for the last 2000 years and are still studied in universities today.

Odysseus and his men were sailing along when they heard the most beautiful sound. It sounded like singing. It was hypnotic. All the men stopped what they were doing, and listened. No one steered the ship. No one moved. They just listened. Odysseus and his men had run into the Sirens. The Sirens were magical creatures. They looked like mermaids, but they were evil. They loved to lure sailors to their death. With no one at the wheel, ships crashed into the rocks. And everyone was killed. This was great fun to the Sirens. Odysseus was lucky. He had heard of the Sirens. He knew they were dangerous. He stuffed his ears so he could not hear their beautiful singing. He stuffed all his men&apos;s ears and they sailed safely away.

Athena was also a goddess of wisdom. She taught people about arts and crafts. She also taught them how to think clearly and live well. She was often seen with an owl, so owls became a symbol of wisdom.

Athena didn’t get along with the sea god Poseidon. For one thing, they were often rivals over one thing or another. Once the people of a new city were looking for a god to watch over and protect them. Athena and Poseidon both wanted the job.

To impress the city’s citizens, the two gods gave them gifts. Poseidon struck the ground with his three-pointed spear, and water poured out. The water turned into a river that flowed into the sea. Poseidon told the people to build ships to sail to the sea. He said that they could travel everywhere. They could become the most powerful people on earth.

One night, while strolling through his rose garden, the king stumbled over a satyr. A satyr was half man, half goat. This satyr looked half starved and very ill. King Midas brought the satyr into his castle. He made sure the satyr was washed and fed and tucked into bed for a good night&apos;s sleep. When the satyr woke up the next morning, his fever was gone. The king and the satyr had quite a nice chat over breakfast.

King Midas was surprised to hear that the satyr belonged to the powerful god Dionysus, the god of wine and truth. That very day, the king personally took the satyr home in his very best chariot. The satyr might only be a servant, but he was the servant of a god, and deserved the very best treatment, which is something the king would have done anyway, because the king had a very kind heart.

But Hestia solved the whole problem very simply. She refused ever to have a husband. Zeus was relieved and grateful to avoid a war. As a reward, he gave Hestia the keys to Olympus. He put her in charge of the gods’ everyday business. Hestia made sure that the gods always had plenty of food, clothing, and money. After all, even gods have to worry about such things!

Zeus also made Hestia the goddess of homes everywhere. It was she who taught mortals how to build houses. And every house had a sacred spot for her. That was the hearth, the centre of family life.

Mortals prayed to Hestia more than to any of the other gods. Every family meal began and ended with a prayer to Hestia. Whenever a baby was born, the parents carried it around the hearth and prayed to Hestia. Mortals had a saying: “Begin with Hestia.” In other words, when doing anything, always start out in the right way.

Daedalus brought his young son Icarus with him. He was sure the child would enjoy swimming and playing with the other children on the island. Both Daedalus and Icarus were happy they had come. King Minos was happy with his maze. It was peaceful and pleasant on the island. Daedalus was in no hurry to leave.

One day, a group of Greek children sailed to the island. The next day, they sailed safely away, taking with them the king&apos;s lovely daughter, and leaving behind them one dead Minotaur.

King Minos was beside himself with grief. He did not believe anyone could have entered the maze and escape alive without help from someone, most probably help from the man who had designed the maze in the first place. (Actually, the children did have help, but not from Daedalus). King Minos punished the innocent Daedalus by keeping Daedalus and his young son Icarus prisoners on the island of Crete.

A form of direct democracy in ancient Greece was practiced in ancient city-state of Athens for about 100 years. It was an experiment. The people really liked it. How it worked is that all adult citizens had to take an active part in government (rule by many) if called on to do so. At this time, citizens were free men. Women, children, and slaves were not citizens, and thus could not participate or vote.

Each year, there was a drawing. 500 names were drawn from a pool of all the citizens of ancient Athens. Those 500 citizens had to serve for one year. During that year, they were responsible for making new laws and for changing old laws as they saw fit. But, nothing they did became law until all the citizens of Athens had a chance to vote yes or no. To vote, citizens had to attend the assembly on the day the vote was taken. The date was posted. It was not a secret, but you had to be present to vote. The Majority ruled.

In ancient times, the Greek people believed their mythical world was real. Greek storytellers would travel from village to village, telling tales of gods and goddesses. Sometimes, they told tales of monsters. The children listening to these stories would listen, but they weren&apos;t really scared. Everybody knew that brave Greek heroes had killed the monsters, at least most of them, using courage, intelligence, and strength. If there were any monsters still hanging about, trying to hurt good people, brave Greek heroes would kill them, too!

Athena was tall, strong, graceful, grey-eyed, and she liked owls. From the beginning, she was a pretty amazing goddess. In fact, even her birth was most unusual.

Zeus, the father of gods and goddesses, was also Athena’s father. Her mother was a mortal woman named Metis. Older gods had warned Zeus that he would be in trouble if Metis gave birth to a daughter. So he swallowed Metis whole.

When it came time for Athena to be born, she sprang full grown out of Zeus’s head. She was completely dressed in armour, as she always would be. She also carried a shield and a spear. As you might guess about a woman in armour, she was a great warrior.

Plato grew up in the Greek city-state of Athens during the Classical Period of Ancient Greece. Although historians don&apos;t know a lot about Plato&apos;s early life they know he came from a wealthy family and likely had two brothers and a sister. He would have been taught by the best Greek teachers about various subjects including music, gymnastics, math, grammar, and philosophy. 

Much of Plato&apos;s youth would have been influenced by the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta. It is likely that Plato served in the Athenian army during his early life. 

When Alexander reached the coast at Pattala, he used ships to bring many of the original soldiers of his army back to Greece and Macedonia but the others he made march back through a desert. There was little water, and many of his soldiers died during this desert crossing. Alexander survived the crossing, making it back to Babylon, the capital of his empire. In 323 BC. While in Babylon, Alexander got very sick with a fever and died.

Alexander had made no plans on what to do with his vast empire after his death. It did not seem to occur to him that he could actually die. On his death bed, his generals asked who should take over. Alexander said the strongest. And died.

After his death his vast empire quickly disintegrated, and the Middle East, Egypt, and Greece were soon again independent. Alexander&apos;s conquests had however spread Greek knowledge and ideas throughout the region.

The Trojans would have been just as happy without Ares’s help. Always the bully, he didn’t pick fights with other gods. Instead, he challenged a mortal Greek warrior named Diomedes, but Diomedes wounded Ares.

Ares liked to cause pain for others, but he whined and complained whenever he got hurt. This time was no different. The wound he got from Diomedes wasn’t very serious, but even so, Ares didn’t keep fighting. He went running back to Olympus, the home of the gods, and wept and wailed to his father Zeus. Even though Zeus bandaged up Ares’s wound, he was not at all proud of his warrior son.

That wasn’t the only time Ares was wounded. The great hero Heracles wounded him twice, and one of those times he took away Ares’s armour and weapons. Both times Ares ran away crying to Olympus.

Artemis was the god Apollo’s twin sister. She was goddess of the moon and of the hunt. She didn’t like cities very much, preferring to roam forests and mountainsides.

She hunted with a silver bow and silver arrows. Like all good hunters, Artemis liked to protect wildlife. She took special care to watch over small animals.

Artemis was a strong-willed goddess. She knew what she wanted from an early age. Once when she was three years old, she was sitting on her father Zeus’s knee. Zeus asked the little goddess what she most wanted in life.

Everyone wanted their city-state to win! There was a winner of each competition at the games. All the winners won at the games was a crown made of leaves to wear on their head.  When the winning athletes returned home to their city-state, they were treated like superstars!

<a href="bookcreator://page/w4ZRGmKEQOKMZw4H5j7YPQ">Overview</a>

<a href="bookcreator://page/BoyAOzWeSZaTNO8L8WHp1A">City States</a>

<a href="bookcreator://page/5CCILXBfTlWNFktCnPTZDA">Athens</a>

<a href="bookcreator://page/DwsWqvj3TDiYqlwhtBnxrg">Sparta</a>

<a href="bookcreator://page/YrNB7VNsRe-T2Nw_H5Mdjg">Greek Gods and Goddesses</a>

<a href="bookcreator://page/lUMldTGFSzO2ZEjvVLVpTA">Corinth</a>

<a href="bookcreator://page/jzqLjh-xSmGJWAEeNRbl2g">Megara</a>

<a href="bookcreator://page/H-Dcg3yCTwiNt_Wc-a6eGw">Poseidon</a>

<a href="bookcreator://page/qJcvY-9uQGWvGagI82-k2g">Argos</a>

<a href="bookcreator://page/XdD1xlvrQ8Om83QCZgU4mw">Hades</a>

<a href="bookcreator://page/NqXDPSTNQTexg5GcqSuqfA">Philosophy</a>

<a href="bookcreator://page/aXewHt7lTcmtwUQe6adRTw">Socrates</a>

<a href="bookcreator://page/VdSC7Qp7Q0i2La9snmWDXA">Aphrodite</a>

<a href="bookcreator://page/eHCMkWfVRPG9HMQKwyAivA">Plato</a>

<a href="bookcreator://page/5A-RQHvXS7CnMeqLz2wHjA">Allegory of the Cave</a>

<a href="bookcreator://page/ybDydncxQlmr0-bPpGKumw">Aristotle</a>

<a href="bookcreator://page/Esu53ZalSTe2U6LUpOPVzQ">Ancient Olympics</a>

<a href="bookcreator://page/s2PfITGVSMWlkiqsiHDAZw">Hermes</a>

<a href="bookcreator://page/e45vUGfURzKxXRUaNIVhaw">Athena</a>