1、Olympic Games,The Greeks loved sports. Once every four years, men from all over Greece came to compete in a great athletic festival in Elis, in western Greece (Women were not allowed to compete). This was called the Olympic games because the place was called Olympia. Said to have begun in 776 BC, it
2、 was a religious festival to honor the Greek gods Zeus and Hera. And they were celebrated from then on, every four years without fail, until people converted to Christianity and the Roman Emperor Theodosius banned the games in 393 AD.,The early Olympic games were held in the wooded valley of Olympia
3、 in Elis, where the Greeks had erected a temple to Zeus.,The temple of Hera in Olympia, Elis,2. Greek Literature,2.1 Greek mythology2.2 Homer2.3 Dramatists2.4 Lyricists,Greek Mythology,extensive influence on the arts and literature of Western civilization. Poets and artists from ancient times to the
4、 present have derived inspiration from Greek mythology and have discovered contemporary significance and relevance in classical mythological themes.The fullest and most important source of myths about the origin of the gods is the Theogony神谱 of Hesiod.,Greek gods and goddesses were pictured as being
5、 much like men and women. The term for this is anthropomorphism, meaning “in the form of a human.” 神人同形同性,The gods were conceived as more heroic in stature, more outstanding in beauty and proportion, and more powerful and enduring than humans.,12 Major Gods and Goddesses,Zeus, chief godPoseidon gove
6、rned the waters. Hades ruled the underworld and the dead.Hestia, goddess of the householdHera, the wife of ZeusAres, the god of warAthena, the goddess of wisdomApollo, the god of light and song,Aphrodite, the goddess of loveHermes, the messenger of the godsHephaestus was the god of fireArtemis, the
7、moon goddess.,Other lesser gods and goddesses,Demeter, the goddess of grains, fruits and flowersDionysus, the god of wineThe Muses: Clio, history; Calliope, epic poetry; Erato, love poetry; Euterpe, lyric poetry; Melpomene, tragedy; Polyhymnia, song, rhetoric, and geometry; Thalia, comedy; Terpsichore, dancing; and Urania, astronomy and astrology.,The end,中赫时尚,
