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!

And History for All

“To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child. For what is the worth of human life, unless it is woven into the life of our ancestors by the records of history?” (Cicero)

I’ve run into a few history haters of late. Yes, they DO exist!

Someone recently said to me that ‘history is just boring. What’s the use? I live in the present, not the past.’

After a few deep breaths, I got control of my outrage. How could someone say such a thing? To me it’s such an obviously ignorant statement.

But then I asked myself ‘What turned that person (like so many others) so completely off of history in the first place?’ I’ll bet that anyone who hates history loves a good story, loves to watch movies set in the past, likes to hear about people’s victories, defeats, great love affairs, suffering, loss, adventures, beliefs etc. etc.  What’s not to like?

“History isn't about dates and places and wars. It's about the people who fill the spaces between them.” (Jodi Picoult, The Storyteller)

History IS about people. It’s about the reasons and motivations behind all those dates, and wars, and places. And because it’s about people, there is always something that other people, in any age, can relate to and learn from.

I think the root of the problem for all those folks who despise history is that it was badly taught or presented. When you think about it, we’ve all had a bad teacher in one subject or another, history being no exception.

In high school, I had one good history teacher. The others, I don’t even remember. That history teacher told us those personal anecdotes of people during the periods we were studying. He brought history to life using not only stories, but also props, movies, and artifacts.

Isn’t history a record of human life as it has been played out?

“If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.” (Rudyard Kipling, The Collected Works)

Mr. Kipling hit the nail on the head there. If history were taught in an interesting way, the number of naysayers would be far less. I’ve always believed that good historical fiction should be a part of every history curriculum.

Sadly, not one of my elementary, high school, or university history courses ever included historical fiction on the reading list. On the contrary, the teachers often slammed historical fiction, especially at the university level.

Big mistake! Imagine the possible classroom conversations about an historical person or topic that the students might have read about in a fascinating or gut-wrenching novel!

That would have been much better than “This general marched with his army in such and such a date to such and such a place,” or “On such and such a date, such and such a tyrant was defeated in this battle.”

Honestly, that sounds like the history of nowhere to me. Every era taught the in the same boring way, oftentimes without any passion for the subject. How are you supposed to hook your audience?

“The past is a source of knowledge, and the future is a source of hope. Love of the past implies faith in the future.”  (Stephen E. Ambrose)

I think it’s also important to encourage diversity of interest in various periods of history, and what better way to do that than through fiction.

Among history lovers’ circles, I’ve also run into what can only be called ‘period snobbery’.

If history is really about people, and people of the past are how we can most easily relate to history, then there is something to be learned or gained from every period of history, in every place.

“That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach.” (Aldous Huxley)

In my studies, I found something interesting in every period of history to clamp onto. Again, the common denominator of the ages is people - flawed, impassioned, messy people.

The Gods must truly be having a laugh, or a good cry, when they watch us mortals. History is an eternity of entertainment.

It’s not to say that history lovers don’t have their favourite periods to which they gravitate. I love the ancient and medieval worlds; these span thousands of years, so I suppose that my tastes are pretty varied.

However, I can still remember being rapt by my American history course when it came to the Civil War, or the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s. I never thought industrialization could be interesting, or Regency England for that matter, until I studied them a little.

Medieval Japan? Very cool. Learning about cuneiform in Mesopotamia? Brilliant!

Another good example is movies or Television shows. Of course, I loved Gladiator, The Fall of The Roman Empire and other ancient-themed movies. I also enjoy watching The Tudors, and the BBC’s Pride and Prejudice alongside I Claudius.

“If you don't know history, then you don't know anything. You are a leaf that doesn't know it is part of a tree.” (Michael Crichton)

Myth and Legend are also a part of history, a deep-rooted part of human existence.

What I find amazing and unfortunate is that there are some people who make a career for themselves out of trying to disprove what is history and culture to others.

Often I’ll read a quote from one of these folks that belittles even the greatest beliefs or achievements of the ancients, be it about their gods, their rituals, their cures, and their stories.

I think history and the people of the past require and deserve a bit more respect and attention than that.

 “Fiction is written with reality and reality is written with fiction. We can write fiction because there is reality and we can write reality because there is fiction; everything we consider today to be myth and legend, our ancestors believed to be history and everything in our history includes myths and legends. Before the splendid modern-day mind was formed our cultures and civilizations were conceived in the wombs of, and born of, what we identify today as "fiction, unreality, myth, legend, fantasy, folklore, imaginations, fabrications and tall tales." And in our suddenly realized glory of all our modern-day "advancements" we somehow fail to ask ourselves the question "Who designated myths and legends as unreality? " But I ask myself this question because who decided that he was spectacular enough to stand up and say to our ancestors "You were all stupid and disillusioned and imagining things" and then why did we all decide to believe this person?” ( C. JoyBell C.)

I love this quote, and it's so true. In man's search for scientific reasoning and advancement, he has, at the same time sought to explain away so many rich aspects of our actual history.

Myths and legends ARE history. They were not mere fireside tales intended to entertain the drunken masses, or stories whose sole purpose was to lull children to sleep after suckling at their mothers' breasts.

Perhaps this is one reason that history classes today tend to be so boring for many students? If myths and legends were taught as history and not as pure fabrication that is so easily explained away, those classes would be riveting. We would be inspired by the past, and not bored by it.

If history is about people, then we would do well to try and look at things as those people did if we really want to understand them.

Hindsight can be useful when studying the past, but it can also be a poison that leads our modern minds to think we are superior to all that has gone before.

History is for all - every person, every period, every aspect has value.

“Everyone who wants to know what will happen ought to examine what has happened: everything in this world in any epoch has their replicas in antiquity.” (Niccolò Machiavelli)

Thank you for reading.