Category: | Our Mythical Childhood Survey

Martin Brown , William Terence Deary

Horrible Histories (Series): The Groovy Greeks

A humorous overview of the mythology and history of Ancient Greece. After an introduction to Greek ‘gruesome gods’ and ‘petrifying plays and electrifying epics’, Deary zooms in on the ‘savage Spartans’ and the ‘odd Athenians’. He then summarises the Persian and Peloponnesian Wars, before giving an entertaining account of the life and deeds of ‘Alexander the Great-er’. The following chapters describe how Ancient Greeks thought, lived, an(...)

literary

COUNTRY: United Kingdom

TAGS: Alexander the Great Archimedes Charidemus Clytemnestra Greek history Greek medicine Greek mythology Pericles Themistocles Xerxes

Marisa De Castro, Mark Weinstein

Let’s go to Nafplio! Short City Guides [Πάμε στο Ναύπλιο]

The book starts with an illustration of a typical nuclear family in a car, mother and father at the front (with dad behind the wheel), and daughter and son at the back. The red-blond hair for mother and son could imply that this is a family of foreign visitors to Greece, who drive to Nafplio from other Greek cities. Subsequently, we see a simplified map of the Peloponnese and southern central Greece, dotted with places of interest, such as the Corinth Canal. Nemea is marked with a drawing of a m(...)

literary

YEAR: 2009

COUNTRY: Greece

TAGS: Achilles Acrocorinth Alexander Anymone Argolid Argos Athena/ Athene Athens Epaminondas Isthmus of Corinth Leonidas Miltiades Mycenae Mycenean tomb Nauplius Nemea Palamedes Persians Phocion Poseidon Themistocles Thermopylae Tiryns

Jan Parandowski

Olympic Discus [Dysk olimpijski]

Based on: Katarzyna Marciniak, Elżbieta Olechowska, Joanna Kłos, Michał Kucharski (eds.), Polish Literature for Children & Young Adults Inspired by Classical Antiquity: A Catalogue, Faculty of “Artes Liberales”, Warsaw: University of Warsaw, 2013, 444 pp., online: http://omc.obta.al.uw.edu.pl/omc_catalogue.First Olympic Games after the wars with Persia, the 76th Olympiad (476 B.C.). Contestants come to Elis at least one month before the games to train at the local gymnasium and b(...)

literary

YEAR: 1933

COUNTRY: Poland

TAGS: Elis Helios Heracles / Herakles Hercules Hestia Kronos / Cronus / Cronos Olympia Olympic Games Pindar Selene Themistocles Zeus

Thetis Authentics Ltd.

Ostrakon [όστρακον]

The Thetis Authentics Ostrakon game challenges people to "excavate" a slab of plaster to discover reproductions of pottery fragments (ostracons or "ostraca"). One of the fragments will be an imitation of an ostracon used in a political ostracism – an occasion when adult male Athenians of the classical period would scratch (or get someone else to scratch) onto a sherd of pottery the name of an individual whom they wished to see exiled from the city for a certain limited (...)

electronic

YEAR: 2010

COUNTRY: Greece

TAGS: Aristides Athens Graeco-Persian wars Greek art Greek history Greek language Kimon Miltiades Ostraca / ostracon Ostracism Pericles Themistocles

Marisa De Castro, Mark Weinstein

Shall we go to Delphi? [Πάμε στους Δελφούς;]

Here we have a guide to Delphi in central Greece, one of the most sacred locations for the ancient Greeks (my translation), as we read in the opening page. Mythology, archaeology and art history feature prominently in this booklet, accounting for the site’s significance. (...)

literary

YEAR: 2009

COUNTRY: Greece

TAGS: Antinoos Apollo Artemis Asclepius / Asklepios Biton Charioteer Daphne Hadrian Kastallia Spring Kleobis Korai Kouroi Leto Oedipus Omphalos Orpheas Pan Phaethon Polyzalos Pythia Sphinx Stadion Temple of Athena Polias Theatre Themistocles Tholos Zeus