The Adventures of Odysseus

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The Adventures of Odysseus
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Odysseus A Greek Myth

• In their effort to understand their environment
  and the forces of nature, the Ancient Greeks
  invented stories to account for the things that
  went on in their lives. These tales, known as
  myths, were spread around by travellers.
  Mythology was a form of early science to Greeks
  because it helped to explain the unexplainable.

The Greeks associated objects in the sky, Earth,
and aspects of their physical world with the gods
and goddesses of their culture. Greek gods were
divided into three categories Heaven, Earth, and
Sea.
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An Odyssey

• In Homers poem, The Iliad, the hero Odysseus
  has a long journey and this is where the term
  odyssey is derived from.
• The voyage described in the Odyssey features many
  fantastic places, with strange and magical
  creatures, monsters, witches and more.

• Look at the map to see the journey that Odysseus
  and his crew took.
• Troy
• Cyclops Island
• Isle of Aeolus
• Circes Island
• Hades, The Land of the Dead
• The Sirens
• Scylla and Charybdis
• Helios/Charybdis/Calypso
• The Phaeacians
• Ithaca

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Odysseus King of Ithaca

• Ithaca is famous for being the homeland of
  Odysseus, the land where his wife, the faithful
  Penelope, waited twenty years for her husband to
  return from the Trojan War.
• Ithacas Terrain
• East coast harsh and precipitous
• West coast verdant and soft, gently sloping down
  to the Ionian Sea.
• Mainland Mountainous, covered with pine forests,
  cypresses, olive trees and vineyards. 

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The Olympian Greek Gods Family Tree
Key Male Female
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Zeus King of the Gods

• Position King of the Gods, God of the Sky and
  Thunderstorms.
• Abode Mount Olympus (the dwelling place of the
  Olympian Gods)
• Symbols Thunderbolt, eagle, bull and oak.
• Parents Cronus and Rhea
• Children Father of many Greek heroes including,
  Perseus and Heracles.

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Activity
The gods and goddesses appear in many of the
Greek myths. Can you research one of the gods and
write a fact file on him/her?
Please look at the next slide for some useful web
links for your research.
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Useful website links
www.greekmythology.com www.mythweb.com www.pantheo
n.org www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/ancient
_greeks/gods_and_heroes www.woodlands-junior.kent.
sch.uk/Homework/greece/gods.htm www.channel4learni
ng.com/sites/essentials/history/units/greeks_bi.sh
tml www.ancientgreece.co.uk/gods/home_set.html
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Definitions

• Myth A traditional or legendary story usually
  concerning some being, hero or event with or
  without basis in fact or natural explanation,
  especially one concerning gods, often explaining
  practices, rites or natural phenomena.
• Legend A non-historical or unverifiable story
  handed down by tradition from earlier times and
  popularly accepted as historical.