Greek Mythology for Kids – A Lesson and a Story

A few weeks ago, I was asked by a Greek school teacher at the Toronto District School Board to come to her Saturday morning Greek language class to teach her kindergarten and grade one students about Greek Mythology.

At first I thought “Wow! Sure! That’ll be great.”

Then I started thinking about it. “Uh oh!”

I had no idea what I was going to talk about. The teacher knew I was an author and said she wanted me to tell a story.

Ok. But which story? Most of the stories in Greek Mythology, let’s face it, involve brutal killing, rapine, incest, and revenge.

Not really tales for the kiddies!

Oh dear…

I began flipping through some kids’ books from the public library and my own collection, serching for something that would work.

I knew I wanted to incorporate a little history lesson first. I mean, hey, I always try and get in the history! So, for that I thought I would try and get them to name the 12 Olympian Gods of ancient Greece. That would be fun.

When it came to the story, I decided on one that was clean, fun, and short. I also wanted one that involved names they might know.

I decided on the story of Athena and Poseidon’s contest for patronage of the city of Athens.

Phew. What a relief!

Now, I won’t lie. I was nervous. Yes, yes, I know. But their just kids!

True. But I’ve taught history to kids at museums and other places in previous jobs, and let me tell you, kids do not mince their words.

“This is BORING!” or “When’s snack time?” are common phrases that some kid in any given group will inevitably call out, no matter how exciting the subject.

Whether I still wanted to do it or not, Saturday arrived and I set off for the school. I had shaved, so as not to look scary, and I wore blue because it is soothing and chills people out. One hopes.

This was my strategy:

·      Do a small intro

·      Ask them to name ancient Greek gods they know until we hit all twelve

·      Tell them the story in animated fashion, using the chalk board to draw pictures

·      Have them work on the fantastic colouring sheets I had found of Athena and Poseidon

I’m happy to say, it all went well. At first the kids were like “Who is this stranger person standing at the back of the room?” But once I started talking about the gods and goddesses whose names were familiar, they began to warm to me. Referring to Disney’s Hercules certainly jogged their memories!

I was going to find my way! I was going to go the distance! Erm, sorry…

Anyway, if they didn’t know the names of a particular god, they certainly related to the trait of that god. Hestia may have been strange to them, but they could certainly understand her as Goddess of the Family (hearth).

So, we got through that, and because there were a couple kids in the audience who were named after Greek gods, they were quite chuffed.

Then I got a “When’s it snack time?” question which the teacher quickly stomped out.

When I told them it was time for a story, they hushed up and bent forward.

Ah, the power of storytelling!

I had written a retelling of the story of the contest for Athens beforehand, but reading from the paper would not have done it. I had memorized it, and told it loud and clear, with sound effects (if you grew up playing with Star Wars toys (as I did), there are always sound effects!).

Their little faces beamed with wonder and I knew I was doing all right. Thank you, Muses!

They even loved my rubbish drawings of the Acropolis, Poseidon’s trident, and Athena’s olive tree as I told the story.

Afterward, I passed around a book from the library on the Parthenon so that they could see the temple that was built on the Acropolis so very long after the events of that story, in honour of the winner of the contest, Athena Parthenos. They loved the visual!

When I mentioned colouring sheets, they all cheered, each wanting to colour both of the gods who were in the story.

I had to run down the hall to make more photocopies!

When the class was finished all the children smiled and thanked me, ‘Kyrios Adam Alexandros’, for coming and talking to them about Greek mythology. A few of the kids were indeed going to Greece this summer and said that they were going to tell their parents the story at dinner that day.

In my few experiences teaching children about history, whatever the period, it has always been a joy to have even a couple children leave the lesson happy, intrigued, and wanting more information. They’re small, but they’re like sponges, and if you teach it in an exciting way, you will reach them.

On this occasion, almost all the children, even the very quiet ones, left happy and excited, eager to show their parents their colouring sheets of Athena and Poseidon.

I needn’t have worried.

The tales of Greek mythology are indeed bloody and explicit, but there are some that can be related safely to a younger audience. There are also many kids’ books that contain tamed-down versions of the stories. One of my favourites is Atticus the Storyteller’s 100 Greek Myths by Lucy Coats and Anthony Lewis.

So, this summer, if you’re looking to entertain your children, grandchildren, nieces or nephews, with some stories from ancient Greece, don’t be afraid. Give it a go!

If you like, you can use my full retelling of the Contest for Athens story which I’ve put at the bottom of this post.

You’ll be amazed at how much these tales grab children’s attention. After all, they’ve done so for thousands of years!

Thank you for reading!

If you are interested in the ancient Greece colouring sheets, the best ones I found are at http://www.hellokids.com/r_1032/coloring-pages/countries-coloring-pages/greece-coloring-pages/greek-mythology-coloring-pages  They’re free!

Here are a few of the students' colouring pages that went up on the classroom wall:

Here is my retelling of The Contest for Athens:

The Contest for Athens (a story of Athena and Poseidon)

Once, a long, long time ago first king of Athens, King Cecrops (who was part man and part snake!) wanted to find a god who would be the protector of his beautiful city.

Two gods came forward to be the city’s protector: Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom, and Poseidon, the God of the Sea.

They almost fought over it, and just as they were about to attack each other, Athena, being the Goddess of Wisdom, suggested that they should hold a contest for the city. With King Cecrops as the judge, they set up the contest and decided that whoever gave the best gift to the city would win.

A huge crowd of people gathered with King Cecrops as the judge, and they went up to the Acropolis to present their gifts to the city.

Poseidon went first. He lifted his massive trident (three pointed spear) and struck the earth with it. Where the spear struck the ground, a spring of water gushed out of the rock. The people loved it, but as they went closer to taste the water, they discovered that it was salty. Don’t forget that Poseidon was ruler of the sea and the water he controlled was salty, just like the seas he ruled.

Then it was Athena’s turn. She quietly knelt on the rocky ground and buried something. Everyone watched. Everyone was silent. Then, a brilliant green shoot began to grow out of the rock. It grew, and grew, and branches and leaves appeared. It was an olive tree, full of beautiful silver-green leaves, and plump purple olives. The crowd gasped.

This turned out to be a much more useful gift. It gave the people of the city, not only the olives themselves as food, but also the olive oil for their lamps and for cooking their food, as well as the wood from the olive tree to build their boats and houses.

King Cecrops declared Athena the winner of the contest, and the protector of the city which became known as Athens, or in Greek, Athina.

Many, many years later, a Temple of Athena was built on the Acropolis. It is called the Parthenon. This temple had statues of the contest as decoration, and showed Poseidon with his trident, and Athena with her olive tree.

IMPORTANT NOTICE

A few weeks ago, Eagles and Dragons offered free review copies of Children of Apollo, Killing the Hydra, and Immortui. 

I'm glad so many of you decided to take advantage of this Summer offer!

If you are a Kobo customer, you will have noticed that they do not yet provide the ability to leave reviews. This is changing however.

Kobo has allowed its authors to use a special link which we can provide to our readers where they can leave reviews that will be gathered and posted when the changes are made to the on-line store.

If you are Kobo reader and enjoyed my books, please consider going to the following link to leave a rating and review: http://evocalize.com/consumer/business/520e6ea22f18b/search?term=A+A+Haviaras

Thanks very much for your support and all the kind messages.

Cheers and see you next week!

Brauron – The Sanctuary of Artemis, Defender of Children

“Muse, sing of Artemis, sister of the Far-Shooter, the virgin who delights in arrows…” 

(Homeric Hymn IX)

It was early January in Attica, Greece, a few years ago, and I remember it clearly. I drove out of Athens on a grey day that could dampen anyone’s post-holiday spirits.

The New Year had come and gone, copious amounts of food and wine having been consumed. A new adventure was needed.

My destination on that rainy day? - The Sanctuary of Artemis at Brauron.

I drove the forty two kilometres from Athens to Brauron, passing dark, rocky mountains and hills covered in deep green foliage. Greece is a very different place in the winter. This was another one of those journeys in which I didn’t know what to expect.

I had never heard of Brauron or of an Attic sanctuary of Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt, protector of young girls and women in childbirth.

The car splashed its way over tiny roads and through villages lost to the outside world. As I drove past, the few heads that poked out of windows followed my progress like in some eerie back-woods movie setting.

Finally, I came to my destination. I parked the car on the side of the road and stopped for a moment to listen to the pattering of the rain on the roof. I wiped my foggy window and could just make out a set of grey columns standing sentry in the rain. I put on my rain gear and jumped out.  

The gate to the site was open and no one was at the booth. So I walked into the sanctuary.

My initial reaction was one of sadness. I don’t know why, but the rain seemed fitting then, as though the gods wept for something.

This is a place of great antiquity.

Supposedly, Brauron has been inhabited since the early Mycenaean age. Legend has it that the sanctuary of Artemis was established by none other than Iphegeneia, the daughter of Agamemnon, King of Mycenae.

Iphegeneia is brought to Aulis in this painting:
'The Anger of Achilles' by Jacques-Louis David (1819)

Here is a brief summary for those of you who do not know her story. The Greek army, led by Agamemnon, was stuck at Aulis because of bad weather which prevented them from setting out for Troy.

This was said to be due to an offense done to Artemis. Calchas, the high king’s seer, told Agamemnon that the only way for the goddess to be appeased and for the winds to abate was for him to sacrifice his own daughter, Iphigeneia, to the goddess.

The young girl was brought to Aulis under the pretence that she was to marry the hero Achilles, and when she arrived, Agamemnon did the unthinkable.

Euripides opens his play Ipheigeneia in Tauris. Iphegeneia speaks:

“Child of the man of torment and of pride

Tantalid Pelops bore a royal bride

On flying steeds from Pisa. Thence did spring

Atreus: from Atreus, linked king with king,

Menelaus, Agamemnon. His am I

And Clytemnestra’s child: whom cruelly

At Aulis, where the strait of the shifting blue

Frets with quick winds, for Helen’s sake he slew,

Or thinks to have slain; such sacrifice he swore

To Artemis on that deep-bosomed shore.

For there Lord Agamemnon, hot with joy

To win for Greece the crown of conquered Troy,

For Menelaus’ sake through all distress

Pursuing Helen’s vanished loveliness,

Gathered his thousand ships from every coast

Of Hellas: when there fell on that great host

Storms and despair of sailing. Then the King

Sought signs of fire, and Calchas answering

Spake thus: “O Lord of Hellas, from this shore

No ship of thine may move for evermore,

Till Artemis receive in gift of blood

Thy child, Iphegeneia. Long hath stood

Thy vow, to pay to Her that bringeth light

Whatever birth most fair by day or night

The year should bring. That year thy queen did

Bear

A child – whom here I name of all most fair.

See that she die.”

So from my mother’s side

By lies Odysseus won me, to be bride

In Aulis to Achilles. When I came,

They took me and above the altar flame

Held, and the sword was swinging to the gash,

When, lo, out of their vision in a flash

Artemis rapt me, leaving in my place

A deer to bleed; and on through a great space

Of shining sky upbore and in this town

Of Tauris the Unfriended set me down;

Where o’er a savage people savagely

King Thoas rules. This is her sanctuary

And I her priestess. Therefore, by the rite

Of worship here, wherein she hath delight –

Though fair in naught but name. …But Artemis

Is near; I speak no further…”

(Iphegeneia in Tauris; Euripides; c.413 B.C)

Even in translation, the words Euripides gives to this tragic girl are powerful, moving.

Thankfully, the goddess Artemis is said to have substituted another sacrifice for the girl Iphegeneia and taken her far away to be a priestess in her temple at Tauris, in the Crimea. She spent years there away from her mother, Clytemnestra, and her brother, Orestes. She also lived knowing her own father had been ready to end her life.

Orestes meets Electra at the tomb of their father

The Trojan War played itself out and Agamemnon made his way home to be murdered by Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus. About seven years later, Orestes, the son of Agamemnon, returns from Athens and with encouragement from his sister, Electra, kills his mother and her lover.

Orestes is pursued by the Furies for his deeds but then Apollo orders him to go to Tauris in order to take the wooden cult statue of Artemis and bring it back to Athens. Euripides tells how Orestes goes to Tauris and eventually sees his sister Iphegeneia there. They are reunited and she helps him to take the statue and together they return to Attica where she establishes the Sanctuary of Artemis.

Here, the Goddess Athena speaks to Iphegeneia before she leaves Tauris:

“…Iphegeneia, by the stair

Of Brauron in the rocks, the Key shalt bear

Of Artemis. There shalt thou live and die,

And there have burial. And a gift shall lie

Above thy shrine, fair raiment undefiled

Left upon earth by mothers dead with child.”

(Iphegeneia in Tauris; Euripides)

Iphegeheia is said to have spent the remainder of her days at Brauron.

Apollo blesses Orestes and tells him to go to Tauris
Clytemnestra's shade and a Fury look on

The cult of Artemis at Brauron died out after the Mycenaean age but was re-established from the 9^th century B.C. on. Eventually, the cult of Artemis was brought to Athens. After that, there was a procession every four years from the Temple of Artemis Brauronia on the Athenian Acropolis to Brauron, in honour of the goddess and her priestess, Iphegeneia.

But what was the purpose of the sanctuary besides the honour of the goddess?

It seems that the sanctuary also functioned as a sort of orphanage or fostering place for young girls who served the goddess from about five to ten years of age. They performed rituals which included sacred dances in which they acted like bears. In fact, the girls were called ‘arktoi’, or ‘the bears’. This odd tradition of the bears is said to commemorate the slaying of one of Artemis’ sacred bears by one of the girls’ brothers. The ‘Arkteia’ was a service to the goddess in which young girls would transition from childhood to puberty and marriageable age.

Votive statues of children from the site at Brauron museum

At Brauron, Artemis was worshipped as a protector of girls and women in childbirth. Women who survived childbirth dedicated a set of clothes to the goddess. The clothes of women who died in childbirth were, in turn, dedicated to Iphegeneia.

I imagine a lot of hope springing up in this place, but also much sadness.

Once you cross the 5^th century bridge into the sanctuary you come to the unusual p-shaped stoa which has what are thought to be dining rooms or, more likely, rooms for the girls living within the sanctuary. Inside, you can still see places where their sleeping pallets might have been and the doors posts carved into the marble.

The stoa is known as the ‘Stoa of Bears’.

View of the remains of Artemis' temple

I walked along the paving slabs on that rainy day, peeking into the small rooms and wondering at the children who would have been there. Were they peasants or nobility? Were their parents killed by war or plague? Were they sent there in fulfillment of a vow? Who did they have left in the world?

It must have been a frightening prospect to leave the safety of the sanctuary as well. What must a young girl have thought when she turned ten and knew that her time had come to perform the sacred dance one last time before going out into the world. Ancient Greece was not so kind a place for women. They were seen as vessels to be kept indoors.

A good thing they had Artemis to look over them, and to see them through childbirth.

The stoa courtyard was overgrown with sodden grass when I was there, and the ruins of the small Temple of Artemis were minimal.

View of the 'Stoa of Bears'

As I made my way through the site, I eventually came to a small cave-like recess that was supposed to be a shrine to Iphegeneia, that sad daughter of Agamemnon.

The rain stopped here, and the skin prickled on the back of my neck.

For how long had this first priestess of Brauron been honoured here? Ages, it seemed.

I let my imagination go in the sanctuary and could hear the laughter of little girls playing, or their lonely cries upon their straw pallets. I could see them mimicking the bears for which they were named and hear the sound of their voices raised in song to Artemis, their protectress.

From Brauron’s beginnings as a sacred site, each of those little girls likely stood where I was standing and remembered Iphegeneia and her plight. I thought of how they must have wept at her sad story and perhaps felt better about their own lives that led them to that place in the green hills of Attica.

The Sanctuary of Artemis at Brauron is a very special place.

Votive statue of a young girl

When I crossed back over that classical bridge and made out way back to the car, I turned at the gate and looked back through the driving rain one last time.

Usually, when I leave an ancient site or sanctuary, I feel uplifted and at peace. Not so with Brauron.

Upon leaving Brauron, my heart was in a bit of turmoil, and still is when I think back on it.

It is place of conflicting emotions wrapped in myth and legend.

It is a great comfort in some ways to know that this was a place where young girls were protected, watched over by their patron goddess who saved the first priestess; this, in an ancient, male-dominated world of war and superstition.

On the other hand, as I turned my back on the dark columns and sodden earth of the sanctuary, my sole, sad thought was for Iphegeneia whose father was so determined to sail for Troy that he was willing to perform such a heinous and tragic act.

Thus do myth, legend and history combine to shape our view of the places of the past.

Thank you for reading. 

This is a nicely done site map of the Brauron sanctuary
 by J.M. Harrington (map source: Wikipedia)