TALES FROM GREEK MYTHOLOGY

Welcome back to school! I hope you have had a good holiday! Your teacher, Carmen, asked you to do
some work during the summer. You have read (I hope!) Tales from Greek Mythology (Burlington Activity
Reader). Now answer these questions about Greek myths:

1. What is a myth? Put this definition in the correct order:

a) about/Myths/adventures/the/of/are/gods and heroes/

b) natural/They/stories/traditional/which/are/phenomena/explain/try to/

a)

b)

2. Which natural phenomenon does the story about Persephone explain?

3. Many of the Greek gods and heroes appear in the stories you have read. Can you identify them?

Story 1: Demeter/Zeus/Persephone/Hades/Hermes

1 2 3 4 5

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 Story 2: Orpheus/Eurydice/Cerebus/Kayron/

1 2 3 4

Story 3: Narcissus/Hera/Echo/Aphrodite/

1 2 3 4

4. Look at the FAMILY TREE of the Greek gods and goddesses (it is a simplified version) and answer these
questions:

1. Who were the parents of Zeus?

2. Who was the wife of Zeus?

3. Name the brothers and sisters of Zeus.

4. Who was the son of Zeus and Leto? And what was the name of his twin sister?

..

5. Who was the daughter of Zeus and Dione? ..

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 The Greek Gods A Brief Genealogy:

(Heaven) Uranus = Gaea (Earth)

|
---------------------------------------
| | | | |
Cronus = Rhea Coeus = Phoebe Oceanus = Tethys
| | |
---------------------- Leto = Zeus Iapetus
| | | | | | |
Hestia | Poseidon | Demeter=Zeus | ----------------
Hades Zeus = Hera | | | | |
| | Persephone | | Prometheus |
Athena | --------- | |
| | | Atlas Epimetheus
--------------- Apollo Artemis | |
| | | | |
Ares Hebe Hephaestus Zeus=Maia Zeus=Dione
| |
Hermes Aphrodite

For more information about the Greek gods and heroes, look at a web page called Mythweb:

http://www.mythweb.com/index.html

5. Now read the story of THE JUDGEMENT OF PARIS:

When Peleus and Thetis got married, Zeus invited every god and goddess to a banquet on Mount
Olympus. Everybody was invited, except Eris, the goddess of discord. Eris, who was angry, threw the
golden Apple of Discord into the party. On this apple she wrote the word "Kallisti" - "For the most
beautiful one". The goddesses were jealous and immediately began to argue because they all thought
they were the most beautiful.

Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite all wanted the apple and so they asked Zeus to choose one of them.
Knowing that if he chose one goddess, the other two would hate him, Zeus did not want to take part in
the decision, and so he told the handsome Trojan Paris to select the most beautiful of the three. Escorted
by Hermes, the three goddesses went down to Earth and asked Paris to choose the most beautiful
goddess. They tried to bribe him: Hera offered him all Europe and Asia; Athena offered skill in battle; and
Aphrodite offered the love of the most beautiful woman on Earth, Helen of Sparta. Paris chose
Aphroditeand Helen.

1. This incident started a very famous war which war?

2. Who was Helens husband?

3. Who was the leader of the Greek armies?

4. Who were Pariss father and his brother?

5. How did Achilles die? Which part of his body was his weak point?

6. How did the Greeks finally conquer Troy?

7. Who wrote the famous narrative about the conquest of Troy?

8. What is the name of this narrative and also its sequel?

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6. THE RIDDLE OF THE SPHINX

In Greek mythology, the Sphinx, a monster, sat outside the

city of Thebes and asked a riddle of all travellers who
passed by. If the traveller couldnt solve the riddle, then the
Sphinx killed him or her. If the traveller answered the riddle
correctly, then the Sphinx had to kill herself. This was the
riddle:

What goes on four legs in the morning, on two legs at

noon, and on three legs in the evening?

Oedipus solved the riddle, and the Sphinx threw herself off
the mountain.

Oedipus and the Sphinx, by Ingres.

Can you answer the riddle? And can you explain it?

Can you briefly tell the story of Oedipus?

7. And finally.

If you could be a Greek god or goddess, who would you be? Why?