THE GREEKS

 THE GREEKS
By Ngaio

SPORT

The greeks invented the Olympics
Olympia (the city of Greece)was the city of sport, culture, politics and religion.
Women were forbidden to go to the Olympic games on pain of death.

Athletes would stand naked before all of Greece and the gods.Here they competed not for money, but to honour the god Zeus, the strongest god of all.For over thousands of years, tens of thousands of greeks would travel across the Mediterranean to get to the games.

THE STORY OF PERSEUS

As an infant Perseus (the son of Zeus and Danaë) was cast away into the sea in a chest with his mother by Acrisius, to whom it had been prophesied that he would be killed by his own grandson. After Perseus had grown up on the island of Seriphus ,where the chest had grounded, king Polydectes of Serphius, who desired Danaë, asked her for her hand in marriage. When she said no, King Polydectes was furious. In a fit of rage and hurt the king punished Danaë by sending Perseus away to retrieve the head of Medusa, the only mortal among the Gorgans.

Helped by Hermes and Athena, Perseus pressed the Grey sisters into helping him by snatching their tooth and eye that they all shared and not returning them until they provided him with the things that he would need on his journey
1) The cap of hades (which turned him invisible)
2) And the winged sandals (which enabled him to fly and travel quickly and easily)
3) A curved sword or, sickle to decapitate Medusa
Because all that looked at her turned into stone Perseus guided himself using the shield given to him by Athena as a mirror and decapitated Medusa with one swipe of his sickle. He then returned to Suriphus to free his mother by turning the king and all his supporters into stone and then throwing them into a lake.

Go to the next page to see more of my report on the greeks

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 THE GREEKS
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ALL ABOUT ATHENA

Athena, also spelled Athene, in greek religion, was the city protectress, goddess of war, handicraft and wisdom. She was also identified by the romans as Minerva. She was essentially urban and civilised, the antithesis in many respects of Artemis, goddess of the outdoors. Athena was probably a pre-Hellenic goddess and was later taken over by the Greeks. Yet the Greek economy, unlike that of the Minoans, was largely military, so that Athena, while retaining her earlier domestic functions, became a goddess of war.

Athena was the daughter of Zeus, born without a mother, so when she was born, she was fully
grown and carried a spear in one hand and a shield in the other. There was an alternative story that Zeus swallowed Metis (the goddess of counsel) while she was pregnant with Athena, so that she finally emerged from Zeus's forehead. Being the favourite child of Zeus, she had great power.

ATHENA

THE HOUSE OF HADES

After Cronus was overthrown by his sons, (Zeus, Poseidon and Hades) his kingdom was divided among them. The underworld fell to Hades, there he ruled with his queen, Persephone, over the infernal powers and over the dead in what was often called "the house of Hades"or simply "Hades". He was aided by Cerberus, the hound with three heads, and though Hades supervised the trial and punishment of the wicked after death, he was not normally one of the judges in the underworld, (AKA greek hell) nor did he personally torture the guilty, as the task was assigned to the Furies (Erinyes). Hades was depicted as stern and pitiless, unmoved by prayer or sacrifice (honestly, he was a bit like death its self...you could almost say they were twins) XD) .

HADES

 THE GREEKS
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ZIPPY ZEUS

According to a Cretan myth that was later adopted by the geeks, Cronus, the king of the titans, upon learning that one of his sons was fated to defeat him and become king, swallowed his sons as soon as they were born, but his wife, Rhea, saved Zeus by swapping him for a stone wrapped up in swaddling clothes for Cronus to swallow instead, then she hid Zeus in the cave Crete.

Zeus was nursed by the nymph (or female goat) Amalthea and guarded by the Curetes (young warriors), who clashed their weapons to disguise the baby's cries. After Zeus grew to manhood he led a revolt against the titans and succeeded on dethroning Cronus, perhaps with the help of his brothers, Hades and Poseidon, then he divided dominion over the world.

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POWERFUL POSEIDON

Poseidon, in greek religion, was the god of the sea, the earth and horses. He is distinguished from Pontus, the personification of the sea and the oldest Greek divinity of the waters. The name Poseidon either means "husband of the earth" or "lord of the earth". Traditionally, he was son of Cronus (the youngest of the 12 titans) and of Cronus's sister and consort Rhea, a fertility goddess. Poseidon was a brother of Zeus (the sky god and chief deity of ancient Greece) and Hades (God of the underworld).

POSEIDON

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