Day 1: Bridge from Greek to Roman/Why we should care
Objective: Students will be able to demonstrate their understanding of how prevalent Greek/Roman culture is in our current day by finding as many mythological allusions in today’s society as possible.
Materials Needed: White board and markers, videos (search on Youtube): Harry Potter with Fluffy, Star Wars set to “I need a Hero,” Hercules Zero to Hero, Ben and Jerry’s Greek frozen yogurt ad from their website, Venus commercial from the 90s, Greek god rap, Monty Python “What have the Romans ever given us?” Fruitsnacks for the winners
Hook: Have the words written up on the board
There are a lot of words in our everyday lives that are from Greek/Roman origins:
Words: Titanic – titans, aphrodisiac – Aphrodite, Atlas – held up the earth, nowadays a map, Narcissus – Narcissism
There are also tons of mythological allusions (do you guys know what an allusion is? It’s a reference) in the movies: Show Harry Potter fluffy clip – Cerberus, Star Wars – the mythic hero, Hercules – Hercules…
In advertising: Greek ice cream commercial from Ben and Jerry’s website – Zeus, the Venus commercial (the razors) – Venus/Aphrodite
In music: Venus by Bananorama
Making Connections: list as many other mythological references you can think of
After 20 minutes, ask how many they found. Read over their lists to make sure they are correct, then declare a winner by the group with the most correct connections and give them fruitsnacks
Discussion: Why do you think we have so many allusions to Greek and Roman mythology in our current culture? Why should we care?
Lecture: Rome
Start with video of Rome from Monty Python (what have the Romans ever given us?)
What have the Romans given us? Besides our culture, like we just talked about.
Possible answers: The aquaduct, sanitation, order.
Greek god rap – they stole everything from the Greeks, including their gods. This video will show you the gods again in the silliest way possible…
Zeus = Jupiter
Hera = Juno
Aphrodite = Venus
Dionysus = Bacchus
Poseidon = Neptune
Cronos = Saturn
Hades = Pluto
Hephaestus = Vulcan
Demeter = Ceres
Apollo = Apollo
Athena = Minerva
Artemis = Diana
Ares = Mars
Hermes = Mercury
Eros = Cupid
Although ancient Greece and ancient Rome were incredibly similar, Roman theatre was notably different than Greek. We’ll dig into that next time.
Wrap-up: Pay attention for the next few days to any Greek or Roman mythology allusions you can find – bring them next time!
