Daily Life in Ancient GreekBy JeongMin

The Parthenon

Map

The Ancient Greek started in 400 B.C. Then it ended in 146 B.C. for they have been conquered by the Romans

Background

There is a lot of things interesting about Ancient Greece. First thing is that Ancient Greece was the beginning of the Olympics (slide festival). Secondly, Ancient Greece has very good myth (slide gods). Thirdly, one of the famous temples is in Athens, the Parthenon. The Parthenon is one of those temples used to worship a god, or in this case, goddess. This temple was made for Athena, goddess of wisdom and war.

Social StructureThe social structures was

divided into 4 sections in

Ancient Athens. These

sections were only for men

who are not a slave, native,

and owns land can be on the

social structure. This social

structure depended on how

much money they had.

Highest

Lowest

Housing

Farmer’s house structure will have walls made of thick rocks and the ceiling is covered with clay tiles. There are only three rooms, bedroom, living room, and a storage filled with farming tools and food.

In, town, your house will hold about 9 other families than you. There will be varieties of rooms including family bedrooms, family living rooms, women’s room, kitchen, storage, and a workshop. For protection, there would be high walls and strong gates. These houses had different purposes and they are: cooking, entertainment, storage, and working on the job that you do.

Food

Ancient Greek ate things that are very simple to make or get. For example, you might live on a farm and get some grapes and olives. You might be raising a goat and soon turn it into milk or cheese. You might live near the sea and get fish or shellfish. You might even make bread out of grains.

Family Life

The male adult is in charge of the family. They had a lot of power such as sending their children away to be adopted by another people or divorce their wife for new ones. Some people like the women were not even allowed to own properties, but they had a lot of responsibilities. For example, they were the key to give birth to children so their family can continue. They had other responsibilities such as running the house and, if poor, do the housework.

Marriage

Marriage happened differently for people who are poor or rich. If you are poor, you would fall in love as you are working together. If you are rich and a girl, your marriage will be arranged for you. In the actual marriage, the bride offers something the Artemis, the goddess of women. Then the groom and bride will go to groom’s house. The bride’s house will send a portion of their fortune so the bride will live happily. After their married, they might divorce. Thebride doesn’t have any rights on a divorce but groom can choose whatever the bride says.

Childhood

Some of the young babies die in a young age and some are abandoned in places such as the mountains. Those abandoned babies can be raised as a slave. In other case, they grow up and the girls learn from their mother how to do all the house work. The boys follow their father around to learn what to do or they are brought to school in age 7. The girls gets married in age 12 or 13. When this time comes, girls put their toys in the temple of Artemis while boys go to train for war in age 18.

Education

Athens education were private but Sparta had public schools. Boys learned how to read, write, play an instrument, sing, and work in the military. Education were only for boys only which means that girls had no access to education.

Religion

They believed in 12 gods

and goddess of Olympus

because they believed that

those 12 gods and goddess

will make their life better

later on in their lives. There

were temples that Greek

can pray in for good luck, a

wish that they wanted the

gods to grant, or to leave a

present to please the gods.

God

There were 12 different gods and goddesses in total. There was Zeus, Hera, Apollo, Arthemis, Athena, Hades, Poseidon, Dameter, Ares, Aphrodites, Hephastus, and Hermes. They were described to have the personality of normal people and symbolizes something. Apollo, for example, symbolizes the sun, music, poetry, and so on. Greek people worshipped these gods and they made up myths to described why the thunder strikedand where the dead people went, and so on.

Clothing

Clothing of Ancient Greek is very interesting. First of all, Greek men wore only few clothing or none at all. Few of the times that Greek men wore clothing were when there were women around. In the other hand, Greek women were always covered with clothing.

Greek clothing were very simple and used a little bit of sewing. These clothing were called tunics. Greek usually walked around bare-foot, but there were some cases where they wore shoes, when the ground was rough. These shoes were simple just like their other clothing. If you were rich, you would be wearing gold jewelleries.

Art and Music

In Ancient Greek, people had entertainment such as music, dancing, and theatre. First of all, in theatre, there were only male actors. So if there was a woman’s part, a man will act it out. In music, they had lots of musical instruments such as the lyre, tambourine, double flute, panpipes, and kithara. Dancing was the most important art and both men and women did this part of art.

Festivals

One of the popular festivals that they had was the Olympics. We still have it today. It is simply: athletes train on sports such as long jump, javelin, discus, wrestling, and boxing. The Olympics were only celebrated by native-men. If they broke a rule once, they were also kicked out of the game. Some of the rules that they had were no weapons , no fighting, accidental or on purpose, ect …

Conclusion

All in all, I think Ancient Greek’s life was very exciting with all that

festivals and entertainment. I also think all the other things that

they do in life is interesting. Ancient Greek is fascinating with all

the details such as women didn’t have the same rights as the men

to they squashed the grapes with their feet to make wine.

Information Bibliography

Fiona Macdonald, How Would You Survive As an Ancient Greece? New York, Franklin Watts Production, 1995

Ancient Greece -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Greece#Education

Ancient Greek Gods - http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/Homework/greece/greekgods.htm

Children of Ancient Greece -http://historylink102.com/greece3/children.htm

Picture Bibliography

The Parthenon - http://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/135115501/

The Map of Ancient Greece- http://www.davidrumsey.com/maps1120428-28535.html

Bread- http://www.ultimate-guide-to-greek-food.com/greek-bread.html

Grapes- http://old.ort.org.il/year/eshavuot/shav4.htm

Togas - http://visual.merriam-webster.com/clothing-articles/clothing/elements-ancient-costume_1.php

Housing – http://havoc20.wordpress.com/2011/02/27/stone-textures/

Family - http://keep3.sjfc.edu/students/bef03424/e-port/virtual%20learning%20environment.html

Childhood - http://create2xs.com/?p=429

Marriage - http://greek-myth.com/demeter_persephone.htm

Zeus - http://www.noholidaynolife.com/2010/08/15/the-story-of-the-minotaur-knossos-crete/

Lyre - http://www.clker.com/clipart-26260.html