The origin of the Olympics
As you may know already, Greeks invented the Olympics we celebrate every four years. This video explains how they celebrated them according to their four year calendar!
What else have you learned? Leave a comment!
Greek Literature
Our play is based on The Iliad. The Iliad is an epic poem written by the Greek poet Homer. It tells the story of the last year of the Trojan War between Troy and the Greeks.
- It is estimated that the Iliad was written around the 8th century BC. So it was written about 2,700 years ago, although the story is much older.
- It was first told and sung orally during the Greek Dark Age by traveling storytellers.
- The Iliad has 15,693 lines.
- Listen to the story of Helen of Troy.
- Listen to the story of Troy.
- Listen to the story of The Wooden Horse.
Homer also wrote The Odyssey. The Odyssey tells the story of Odysseus, who tries to return home after winning the Trojan War.
History
Ancient Greece is part of the Ancient History. This period comes after Prehistory (Prehistoric cave paintings, do you remember?) and goes from the first human history recordings (first writing!!) to the Early Middle Ages.
It includes different civilizations such as Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, but also Mesopotamia, Phoenicians and so on.
Read more about Ancient Greece,
The Olympian Gods
Greek mythology is very rich and dense. There are twelve main gods and goddesses that live in the Mount Olympus, so they are called the Olympian Gods.
Roman and Greek gods and goddesses were similar and their names are often mixed and exchanged. Here is a chart so you can know both names:
Click here to get more information about Greek gods and goddesses.
"Grecas" or borders
Greeks used borders in addition to figures to decorate their amphoras. In Spanish, we call the "grecas", which comes from Latin "graecas". These borders are made of a simple design or designs that are repeated over and over. Look for the borders in the following examples:
Here you have some simplified examples for your amphoras:
Design your own amphora
As we talked about in class, Ancient Greeks used amphoras to store water, olive oil, wine and many other things. Amphoras were usually decorated with lots of designs depicting sports, wars or stories... You can read more about amphoras clicking here or watching these videos:
Greeks made different types of recipients, you can see their names in the following image:
In class, we have designed our own amphora (with handles!). But, some of you have designed a Pelike and Oskar might have designed a Loutrophorus, what do you think?
We painted the amphoras with wax crayons and finally covered it with a mixture of black tempera and a tiny bit of dishwashing soap. Now, we have to add the decoration with a toothpick but... how about trying some different decorations online first?
Then, you will be ready to decorate your own amphora! Remember that they will be a piece of decoration for the play, so do your best!
For additional information: Wikipedia, La Cerámica Griega (in Spanish) and Theoi Project (thousands of pictures for amphora inspiration!)
Welcome
Hello! I thought it would be a good idea to design a blog only for our Theatre Play project. As you may know already, our play is a comedy about the Trojan War. This will help us learn about lots of things, as the Ancient Greece, Ancient History, Greek mythology...
We are knees deep invested in the play, so I figured you would like some additional information for you to research and read at home.
In the blog, we can also gather the different ideas we have got for the play costumes, decoration and props. Everything is possible!
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