The Greeks believed that gods and goddesses controlled nature and shaped their lives. Greek Mythology Greek Gods and Goddesses What was a Greek Oracle? The Greeks believed in many gods and goddesses. They believed gods and goddesses affected people’s lives and shaped events. According to Greek Myth, the god Zeus ruled the sky and threw lightning bolts, the goddess Demeter made the crops grow, and the god Poseidon caused earthquakes. According to Greek myths, even though gods had special powers, they looked like human beings and acted like them. They married, had children, quarreled, played tricks on each other, and fought wars. Because Greeks sought their gods’ favor, they followed many rituals. A ritual is a set of actions carried out in a fixed way. As part of their rituals, the Greeks prayed to their gods and also gave them gifts. In return, they hoped that the gods would grant good fortune to them. They also believed in prophecy. A prophecy is a prediction about the future. The Greeks believed the gods gave prophecies to people to warn them about the future in time to change it. The most famous was the oracle at the temple of Apollo at Delphi. The oracle chamber was deep inside the temple. The room had an opening in the floor where volcanic smoke hissed from a crack in the earth. Greek Poetry and Fables taught Greek Values. Who was Aesop? Greek Poetry and Fables Greek poem and stories are the oldest in the Western world. For hundreds of years, Europeans and Americans have used these early works as models for their own poems and stories. The first great epics of early Greece were the Iliad and the Odyssey. The poet Homer wrote these epics during the 700s BC. He based them on stories of a war between Greece and the city of Troy. Greeks believed the Iliad and the Odyssey were more than stories. They looked on the epics as real history. These poems gave the Greeks an ideal past with a cast of heroes. Generations of Greeks read Homers works. About 550 B.C., a Greek slave named Aesop made up his now famous fables. A fable is a short tale that teaches a lesson…Each fable ends with a message or moral. The moral of the story is “slow and steady wins the race. “ Some of the phrases we hear today came from Aesop’s fables. “Sour Grapes,” “a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” and “appearances often are deceiving” are examples. For about 200 years, Aesop’s fables were a part of Greece’s oral tradition. This means they were passed by word of mouth long before they were ever written down. Since then countless writers have retold the stories in many different languages. Greek Drama still shapes entertainment today. Greek Drama Tragedies and Comedies Drama is a story told by actors who pretend to be characters in the story. In a tragedy a person struggles to overcome difficulties but fails. As a result the story has an unhappy ending…Later Greek tragedies showed how a person’s character flaws caused him or her to fail. In a comedy, the story ends happily… The word actually means any drama that has a happy ending. Greek stories dealt with big questions: What is the nature of good and evil? What rights should people have? What role do the goods play in our lives? The works of Aristophanes are good examples of comedies. They make fun of leading politicians and scholars. They encourage the audiences to think as well as laugh. Many of Aristophanes’ plays included jokes, just like popular television comedies do today. Greek art and architecture expressed Greek ideas of beauty and harmony. Greek Art and Architecture Artists in ancient Greece believed in certain ideas and tried to show those ideas in their work. These ideas have never gone out of style. In addition to making pottery, the Greeks were skilled architects. Architecture is the art of designing and building structures. In Greece, the most important architecture was buildings dedicated to gods and goddesses. Many Greek temples were decorated with sculpture. Greek sculpture, like Greek architecture, was used to express Greek ideas. The favorite subject of Greek artists was the human body. Greek Philosophers developed ideas that are still used today. Greek Philosophers Who were the Sophists? The Ideas of Socrates The Ideas of Plato Who was Aristotle? The word philosophy comes from the Greek for love of wisdom. Greek philosophy led to the study of history, political science, science, and mathematics. Greek thinkers believed the mind could understand anything. The Sophists were professional teachers in ancient Greece. They traveled from city to city and made their living by teaching others. They believed students should use their time to improve themselves. One critic of the Sophists was Socrates. Socrates was an Athenian Sculptor whose true love was philosophy. Socrates left no writings behind. What we know about him we have learned from the writings of his students. Socrates believed in absolute truth and that all real knowledge was within each person. He invented the Socratic method of teaching still in use today. He asked pointed questions to force his pupils to use their reason and to see things for themselves. One of Socrates student's was Plato. Unlike Socrates, we are able to learn a lot about Plato from his writings. One work of Plato is called the Republic. It explains how his ideals about government. In the Republic he divided people into three basic groups. Plato established a school in Athens known as the Academy. His best student was Aristotle. Aristotle wrote more than 200 books on topics ranging from government to the planets and stars. Aristotle also helped to advance the sciences. He urged people to use their senses to make observations. Aristotle was the first person to group observations according tot heir similarities and differences. Then he made generalizations based on the groups of facts. Aristotle noticed that governments run by a few people were usually run by the rich. He noticed that most democracies were run by the poor. He thought the best government was a mix of the two. Greeks wrote the first real histories in Western Civilization. Greek Historians In most places in the ancient world people did not write history. Legends and myths explained their past. Some civilizations kept long lists of rulers and the dates they were in power, but no one tried to explain the past by studying the events. Herodotus tried to separate fact from legend. He asked questions, recorded answers, and checked the truthfulness of his sources. Western historians consider him the "Father of History" Many Historians consider Thucydides the greatest historian of the ancient world. Thucydides fought in the Peloponnesian war. After he lost a battle he was sent into exile where he wrote his book The Peloponnesian War.