Blame the Gods!How does Greek mythology explain natural events?By: Sophie Steppe

Project Goals Learning target- I can explain how culture

defines ancient Greeks and how they show a unique perspective.

The Greeks created stories to explain natural events. For example, they created the Gaia story to explain how the Earth got here and how the gods were created. They created Poseidon to explain how the sea does things and how mountains were created. They did this because they didn’t have scientific explanations.

Gods That Create Natural Events

Demeter- The god of the harvest and the mother of Persephone.

Poseidon- the god of the sea. Gaia- mother earth. Zeus- the king of all Gods.

Other Gods

You need to know about these gods to understand the stories.

Hades- the God of the underworld. Hermes- messenger of the Gods. Persephone- Demeter's only child.

Demeter (part one)

Hades captured Persephone for a whole year, so Demeter was really depressed and she made the Earth suffer with her.

Nobody could grow any crops the whole time Persephone was gone.

Zeus made a compromise with Demeter. It stated that Persephone could come home if she hadn't eaten any of the food of the dead.

Demeter (part two)

Zeus sent Hermes to get Persephone Hades tricked Persephone into eating

four seeds. Zeus made a compromise with Hades. It

said that she would have to return to the underworld for four months each year.

While Persephone was in the under world Demeter made the Earth suffer.

The time Persephone is in the underworld came to be known as winter.

Poseidon

When Poseidon gets angry he shakes his trident or slams it on the ground. When he does this, mountains are created, and floods and earth quakes occur.

When he wasn’t angry, rivers dried and islands formed.

Gaia

First all there was, was chaos and out of chaos came Gaia.

She created almost everything, including the Earth itself.

Her children were the old gods, the Titans and the new Gods, the Gods we know today.

Eventually the new gods created everything that Gaia hadn’t.

Zeus

He moves around the sun. He created the consolations. When he gets mad at someone he

strikes them with his lightning bolt. He also controls the weather.

Zeus

He made a flood to get rid of the men in the Bronze Age.

Some lucky people survived. Zeus did this because he thought they

were all very bad people. Deucalion and Pyrrha survived and

made a sacrifice to Zeus. They threw stones on their heads and

every time a stone hit their heads they created another person of their gender.

Citation

Isaak, Mark. Flood Stories from Around the World. http://www.talkorigins.org. The Talk Orgins Archive, September 2, 2002. 2- 28-12.