1. Introduction to Greek Mythology

2. Greek Myths Pg. 1

3. Mythology Mythology is the study of Myths
Myths are ancient stories created in order to explain natural or historical events
Myths , especially in ancient Greece were passed down orally from generation to generation

4. Myths Every Culture has their own myths
Some combine fact and fiction and others are complete fantasy
Myths of many different cultures share common themes:
Creation of the world
Creation of humans
The origin of Evil
Creation of something used like a tool or food
Teaching Values
Seasons & Weather
Journeys of Heroes

5. More about Greek Myths
People of Greece were polytheistic (believed in many gods) and they believed these gods watched over them and in order to be blessed they had to honor the gods
Myths were created to make the gods seem more human and to teach lessons
The people of ancient Greece shared stories called myths about the gods, goddesses, and heroes in which they believed.
Each god or goddess was worshipped as a deity and ruled over certain areas of the Greeks’ lives.
People created temples in Greece to honor and worship gods and goddesses

6. The Beginning of the world according to Ancient Greeks
Before there was anything there was Chaos, which contained everything (the earth, the seas etc)
Out of Chaos came the first gods: Gaia (jee-uh) (earth) and Uranus (the sky)
The first children they had were called Titans

7. 12 Titans- The Mighty Giants
The males were Oceanus, Hyperion, Coeus, Cronus, Crius and Iapetus
The females were Mnemosyne, Tethys, Theia, Phoebe, Rhea and Themis.

8. The Next Children Were Monsters
First came 3 Cyclops's
Next came 3 monsters with 50 heads and 100 arms

9. Cronus & Rhea
Cronus helped to defeat his father, Uranus using a sickle given to him by his mother, Gaia
Cronus then became ruler of the world and married Rhea.
They had six children who were gods.

10. Olympian gods
Zeus & his siblings became the Olympian gods because they lived on Mount Olympus, in northern Greece.

18. Zeus has 8 immortal children
He also has many children that he had with mortals on earth, so those children are half god, half human such as Hercules

28. Greek Monsters & Creatures
Pegasus
Cerberus
Chimera
Medusa/Gorgons
Centaurs
Minotaur

29. Scylla
Cyclops
Charybdis
Siren
Griffins

30. Mythology that influences pop culture & our world
Songs: Katy Perry- Dark Horse: “Make me your Aphrodite..” Movies: Hercules, Clash of the Titans, Percy Jackson, Apollo 13 (cause of the name) Words: Ceres (goddess of agriculture) > cereal (food made from grains) Narcissus (a vain god who fell in love with his own reflection) > narcissism (extreme love of self) Vulcan (god of the forge and fire) > volcano (opening in the earth through which lava erupts) Places: Athens, the capital city of Greece, is named after the goddess Athena Athens, Georgia Zodiac signs & horoscopes

31. The Trojan War
The story of the Trojan War— conflict between the kingdoms of Troy and Mycenaean Greece–straddles the history and mythology of ancient Greece and inspired the greatest writers , from Homer, Herodotus and Sophocles to Virgil. Since the 19th-century rediscovery of the site of Troy in what is now western Turkey, archaeologists have uncovered increasing evidence of a kingdom that peaked and may have been destroyed around 1,180 B.C.—perhaps forming the basis for the tales recounted by Homer some 400 years later in the “Iliad” and the “Odyssey.”

32. According to classical sources, the war began after Queen Helen of Sparta ran away with the Trojan prince Paris. Helen’s jilted husband Menelaus convinced his brother Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, to lead an expedition to retrieve her. Agamemnon was joined by the Greek heroes Achilles and Odysseus and accompanied by a fleet of more than a thousand ships from throughout the world. They crossed the Aegean Sea to Asia Minor to lay siege to Troy and demand Helen’s return by Priam, the Trojan king.

33. The siege included battles and included the storied deaths of the Trojan prince Hector and the nearly-invincible Achilles, lasted more than 10 years until the morning the Greek armies retreated from their camp, leaving a large wooden horse outside the gates of Troy. After much debate (and unheeded warnings by Priam’s daughter Cassandra), the Trojans pulled the mysterious gift into the city. When night fell, the horse opened up and a group of Greek warriors, led by Odysseus, climbed out and sacked the Troy from within.
After the Trojan defeat, the Greeks heroes slowly made their way home. Odysseus took 10 years to make the arduous and often-interrupted journey home to Ithaca told in the story the “Odyssey.” Helen, whose two successive Trojan husbands were killed during the war, returned to Sparta to reign with Menelaus.