This morning I started reading about Greek mythology. Today I learned about the Golden Age and was introduced to Zeus.
People in Greece believed that gods and goddesses ruled nature. They believed in many gods instead of one god. The gods and goddesses lived in palaces on Mount Olympus. Cronus was the king of the Titans. His son Zeus became king of the gods after throwing Cronus in prison. His brother Poseidon was in charge of the sea and Hades rule the underworld. I think they called it the Golden Age because people were fighting for gold and there was lots of war and killing.
6 comments:
If you want to read stories about the gods and goddesses you can read: "Bullfinch's Mythology" OR you could read "Percy Jones and the Lightening Thief." Understanding about Greek mythology is important because it shows up a lot in all sort of places. Can you think of one place where you see the Greek gods referred to?
Precy Jackson is great, although it never tells the whole story, just gets you interested in it so you can read it yourself. Rick Riordan is the author and he's got another series, The Cane Chronicles, that are based on Egyptian mythology. Fun stuff.
Grandma- I'm not interested in mythology yet, Mom says I need to give it a try...but I think it's like the Hawaiian legends we learned about last year in school. This is all part of a book I have to read for "reading enrichment". Oh and the only place I can think about is the Planets...Dad told me the Romans stole the Greek Gods and gave them new names. They all sounded like the names of the planets.
Uncle Dave- I don't have the extra time in my "BUSY" play schedule to read ;) I liked the retelling of the Egyptian myths in the movie "Cats and Dogs" called History 101, where they explain that people didn't worship cats, they were ruled by them. I was thinking that Myles could become a "follower" of Big-Kitty.
Some elements are also named after the Roman gods. Like "uranium" or "plutonium." There is also music by a guy named Holst, where he wrote music that he thought sounded like the gods the planets are named after. Like, "Mars, the bringer of war." You might be able to listen to that online. It's called "The Planets."
Some of the myths are interesting to read. There is a story about a guy named Icarus who wanted to fly so he made wings, but flew too close to the sun and the wax holding the wings together melted and he fell.
Jon, you mention that "Golden Age" meant they were looking for gold. That is a good guess. I have a different guess. People will call something the "golden age" or "golden years" or "golden days" to mean a time when everything was going right. So, my guess is that the golden age of Greece was when they ruled the Mediteranean. Or perhaps they Greek golden age was when they had a lot of well-known thinkers and poets. Either way, they were in charge, so it was golden. Of course during their golden age they treated many people--even many of their own--very poorly. I bet a lot of other people at the time were glad to see the Greek golden age to end.
Hey Old Guy Daddy thinks you're right, but my book says that "...people seemed more interested in wealth and gold than anything else".
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