Ancient Greece

After this, Athena was mad. She was mad because she chose a disrespectful choice of subjects. When she lost her temper, Athena destroyed and hurt Arachne. She destroyed her tapestry and loom, and hit her on the head. (Ouch!) She was ashamed of herself. She then hung herself. After this, Athena took pity. She sprinkled her with juices of aconite, which loosened the rope, and became a cobweb. This changed Arachne to a spider. The lesson of the story is not to brag about yourself.

Literature: Homer?s Epics

Homer was a famous epic writer. He wrote many epic poems. He had two major epic poems. One of them was the Iliad, which was about the Trojan War. The Iliad is famous for depictions of famous characters. One of the characters was Achilles. When he was born, his mom dipped him in a river that would allow him to live forever, but he had one weak spot, the heel that his mother held as she dipped him. He later died. An interesting fact, is that they actually used these books to find the ruins of Troy. They confirmed a real war happened, but it didn?t happen exactly of what the Iliad told us.

Another one of Homer?s epics was the Odyssey. The Odyssey describes the adventures of Odysseus, after the Trojan War. The gods determined the trip home should take about 10 years. They helped him, and worked against him during that time. These epic poems still influence us today! ?Achilles heel? means the persons weakest area. Even today we still use ideas from the ancient literature.

Literature: Aesop?s Fables

Aesop has many famous fables. A fable is a short story, involving animals, that tells a moral lesson. Have you ever heard of ?The Hare and the Tortoise?? Well, you probably didn?t know that Aesop wrote this! The hare and tortoise was about a race. The hare took a nap, because he thought the tortoise was too slow. The tortoise kept going and going, at a slow, but steady pace. By the time the hare woke up, the tortoise was already at the finish line. The fables taught many lessons, and the lesson of this fable was to have patience.

Literature: History

The Greeks were the first to write down their history. Herodotus and Thucydides were the most famous ancient Greek history writers. Herodotus was called the ?Father of History?. He was interested in recording events. He was born in 484 B.C. and died in 425 B.C. One of his most famous accounts was his book called History, which was about the Persian Wars. Thucydides wrote the history of the Peloponnesian War. He used numerous ways to make sure his accounts were accurate, by using eyewitness and first hand accounts. This set a standard for writing history.