LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. To know who the Olympian Gods were and understand what the Greeks believed about them.

2. To know how the Ancient Greeks worshipped their Gods.

What did the Greeks believe about their Gods?

The Greeks believed in more than one  God and Goddess and they worshipped and prayed to many throughout their life.

   The Greeks prayed to a family of Gods called the Olympian Gods.

So, What did the Ancient Greeks believe them to be like?

• The Greeks believed that gods and goddesses watched over them. They believed the gods were like humans, but immortal and had powers.
• The family of gods and goddesses were believed to have lived in a palace above Mount Olympus, the highest mountain in Greece.
• The Gods watched what the Greeks on Earth were doing and sometimes they interfered or changed what went on in Greece.  

                    Mount Olympus

   

3D Mount Olympus

http://www.olympusfd.gr/us/Photos.asp?ShowSub=031%20Plants

Questions 

What can you see? Is there any wildlife?

Is there more than one mountain peak?

Where is Mount Olympus located in Greece?
  



Map of Greece

Factfile

1. Mount Olympus is Greece's highest mountain.
2. The mountain has lots of plant and tree life, some very rare.
3. First person to climb Mount Olympus was Chridtos Kakalos in 1913 who reached the highest peak.
4. Today people from all over the world come to climb it.

Introduction to the Olympian Gods

Can you name all 12 after this?

If the Gods had a facebook profile

What would they say.....









word doc

Guess the God

To represent the Gods and Goddesses the Greeks did not just use statues and pictures but they also had symbols that were related to each God and they used these symbols as a sign to remember them by. They were recognisable to each Greek and they knew what God was being worshipped or thought about when they saw the symbol.
Is there anything similiar today that we use?


Activity 1 .


Work in groups on your table.
Look at your profiles of the six Gods, and using the cards on your tables match the God to the symbol the Greeks used to represent them with.

    

                                                                             

                                                                                            



 

Why did the Greeks worship?

http://espresso.ed.uce.ac.uk/~espresso/modules/t2_greeks/life/video_worship.html

artefacts

zeus statue

 

Temples
The Greeks built many temples all across the country in honour of their Gods. it was a place they went to worship them and give offerings of food, clothes and objects to praise them and pray to them with.

The Parthenon is a temple built by the ancient Athenians to honour the goddess Athena. It was built on an area of raised land called the Acropolis. The temple was erected 2 500 years ago under the instruction of the great leader, Pericles of Athens. It took 12 years to build, between the years 447-432 BC.

How did they worship their Gods?

                                           Temples     

The Greeks worshipped the Gods in many different ways but one of the main ones is the temples they built in honour of a specific a God.
They went their to worship them and to think of them when they were there. Inside there were pictures, statues and other artefacts about the God the temple was dedicated to.


The Parthenon (one of the temples built in that time) still stands today and it is still visited by people from all over the world.


The Parthenon is a temple built by the ancient Athenians to honour the goddess Athena. The temple was built 2 500 years ago.

The temple tells us that religious life and worship was a very important part of life in ancient Greece.

                                       

weblinks

http://www.ancientsculpturegallery.com/198.html

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&gbv=2&q=olympian+Gods+statues

http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/Europe/Italy/Campania/Salerno/Paestum/photo391816.htm



Festivals

information
http://www.ancientgreece.co.uk/festivals/home_set.html
looking at the Ancient Greece theatre
http://www.ancientgreece.co.uk/festivals/explore/exp_set.html
follow the story of the Olympic Games
http://www.ancientgreece.co.uk/festivals/story/sto_set.html

 

Greek stories

Look at the story about Athena and how the Greeks worshipped her.
http://www.ancientgreece.co.uk/gods/story/sto_set.html

Interactive Learning- come and explore!
http://www.ancientgreece.co.uk/gods/explore/exp_set.html



http://greece.mrdonn.org/zeus.html