[Music] greek mythology have you ever heard of zeus how about aphrodite or helios these characters and many others are all a part of something called greek mythology what is mythology in ancient times people often created fictional stories about gods and other characters to help explain things that they didn't understand like weather or fire these imaginary stories are called myths or mythology peoples like the native americans egyptians romans and other cultures and religions have all developed myths however ancient greek mythology is probably one of the best known in our modern world and its stories still exist
today ancient greece ancient greece is the foundation for most western culture today which is why you have probably heard at least a little bit about some of its most famous stories and characters the period of ancient greece lasted between 800 bc and 146 bc which was when greece was conquered by the romans like all peoples who have created mythology the ancient greeks formed make-believe stories to explain the world around them take a thunderstorm for example because the people didn't have access to the same types of science and technology that we do today they created a
story to explain the cause of thunder and lightning according to the ancient greeks they both came from a god called zeus who could throw bolts of lightning with his bare hands the sun was controlled by the god helios who drove a chariot carrying the sun across the sky each day which is how the ancient greeks explained the changing positions of the sun in the sky and why it rose and set every day next let's talk about greek gods and goddesses for the most part greek mythology was formed around gods and goddesses that related to their
religious beliefs these gods and goddesses would appear in different stories but their personalities and powers wouldn't change each of these characters had wildly exaggerated personalities combined with one or more magical powers greek gods were neither good nor bad they could use these powers for good trickery or adventure greek gods were either titans who had ruled the world or olympians who later defeated the titans and some gods were relatives of both despite being immortal and having superpowers the gods often fought with each other or made life miserable for humans on earth we've already talked a little
bit about zeus and helios but let's talk about a few more mythological creatures like hades for example hades was the god of the underworld and actually zeus's brother it's no secret that he and his brother didn't get along and many stories portray zeus as a hero and hades as a villain hades couldn't throw lightning bolts but he did have the power of invisibility if he wore a special helmet pretty cool huh poseidon was another greek god and a brother to zeus and hades poseidon ruled and controlled the ocean the ancient greeks believed he could cause
earthquakes too athena was the goddess of wisdom and courage she was so well loved that she became the patron goddess of athens which is still a city in greece today love and beauty are what aphrodite was the goddess of she could make others fall in love with the help of a magical belt besides the gods and goddesses there were many other creatures and monsters that were important characters in greek mythology some included centaurs who were half man and half horse cerebus a three-headed dog and haiti's favorite pet cyclops which were one-eyed giants griffins a combination
of a lion and an eagle hydra a giant snake with nine heads and seders which were half goat half man oh and let's not forget one of the most famous monsters of all ever heard of a creature called medusa she was a monster called a gorgon medusa had a woman's face with snakes instead of hair can you imagine what that would look like in real life and guess what the myth was that anyone who looked into medusa's eyes would instantly be turned to stone pretty wild don't you think now that we've learned some interesting facts
about greek mythology let's review name two of zeus's brothers did you remember hades and poseidon awesome job true or false a griffin is part eagle and part lion that is true fill in the blank if you looked into medusa's eyes you turned into stone true or false aphrodite was the goddess of hate false aphrodite is the goddess of love and beauty fill in the blank blank was the goddess of wisdom and courage did you remember athena great job everyone you are well on your way to becoming greek mythology experts while some of the greek myths
may seem a little strange in our modern world they're still a very important part of history and can be fun to learn about the next time you see a flash of lightning in the sky you can blame it on zeus hope you had fun learning with us visit us at learnbright.org for thousands of free resources and turnkey solutions for teachers and homeschoolers
