This special 30-minute myths and legends show explores in more detail the tangled lives of Greek gods and goddesses and students can take part in a gladiatorial draw-along.
Ask Chat GPT to write a text about the words that are used to describe ancient Greek culture. Make sure the thext is no longer than 500 words. If you don't understand what is meant in the text, ask Chat GPT to make it easier.
Compare your text with that of your classmates by reading it to each other. Note down what differences you spot.
Discuss what you already knew about ancient Greece from you history class and which information is new to you. One person in your group will report back to your teacher.
ABOUT PERCY...
1. Who asked Percy to write this book?
2. Who is Percy’s godly parent?
3. Where did Percy get the stories from?
In 2010 the book Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief was turned into a motion picture. The sequal Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters was released in 2013. Both movies received bad reviews. That's why there was never a third movie even though the book series consists of 5 books.
13 years later, Percy Jackson and his friends returned to the screen, however, not the big white screen, but on TV. Percy Jackson and the Olympians premiered on December 19, 2023, on Disney+, with the first season consisting of eight episodes. The series has received positive reviews from critics, who largely praised its faithfulness to the source material, world-building, and cast performances. Watch the trailer. Would you like to watch the first episode? Why (not)?
Welcome to the Greek team! In the first series of books by Rick Riordan, Percy Jackson finds himself at Camp Half-Blood, a place for the children of the Greek gods. As the child of the sea god, Poseidon, Percy has great power at his disposal, but is also the target for a series of terrifying monsters. He sets out on a series of quests, together with his friends, to battle a rising force of evil and restore order amongst the arguing gods.
DISCUSSION
In the novels, Percy Jackson discovers he is the son of Poseidon, and that his fellow Camp Half-Blood friends are also the children of one of the gods and a mortal. Look again at the table on the page. If you could be the child of one of the gods, which would you pick? Who would be your family? Any famous half-brothers or half-sisters? Present yourself in class an the son of daughter of... Remember to listen to the opinions of others and to give your own.
Percy Jackson is named after another famous Ancient Greek hero, Perseus. A child of Zeus, Perseus was sent on what was considered an impossible quest: to return with the head of Medusa. Just like Percy, Perseus was able to overcome the monster by only looking at her in the reflection of his shield, and succeeded in his quest. There are a number of other important heroes in Greek mythology – some of the most important are listed below. Choose one of them and research their life and legends. Then create a social media profile for your chosen hero – remember to include a picture, as well as a list of interests. You could even create a friends list for your hero, based on what you have learned.
• Hercules • Jason
• Achilles • Theseus
• Odysseus • Orpheus
• Bellerophon
Open the social media profile in Edge to edit. Finished? Post it in the correct upload zone on Smartschool.
TIME FOR SOME POETRY
The word ‘hero’ as we use it today was not the same in Ancient Greece. A hero today might be someone who is admired for the brave things that they do or for their good qualities of character, or someone who has done something heroic like putting themselves in danger to save someone else. Heroes in Greek times were a little different, and often performed their quests to help nobody except themselves, although they always showed strength, courage and quickwittedness. What do you think it means to be a hero? Discuss this as a group. Then think about who your hero or heroine is, and write a poem about them. These are the rules for the poem:
3 stanzas
12 verselines
rhyme scheme: abab cdcd efef
Identify and discuss the four steps that Rick Riordan speaks about.
Come up with a character that is half animal / half human. Using Rick’s tips and examples make your character unique by creating some small details about him/her. For example, is he or she a vegetarian? Why?
Try taking inspiration from another culture. It doesn’t have to be Ancient Greek! Why not try Hindu, Chinese, or Norse Mythology? Or even Fairytales or Shakespeare!
Use DALL-E 3 to create an image of your character that is half animal / half human. Introduce your character to class.
Read the chapter in Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The lightening thief in which Percy and his friends visit the garden of gnome emporium and meet auty Em.
Click on the image to open the book. Read from page 161 'till page 178.
In this extract, Percy meets Medusa, an ugly monster with hair made of hissing serpents. In classical mythology, Medusa was the most famous of sisters called the Gorgons – one look at a Gorgon would turn you to stone. How has the character been adapted to a modern context?
Below are some more famous monsters from Greek mythology:
ARGUS: Hera’s guard, who had eyes all over his body. When Hermes killed him, Hera placed his eyes in the tail of the peacock.
CERBERUS: A powerful three-headed dog, which guarded the entrance to the Underworld.
CYCLOPES: A Cyclopes was a giant with a single eye in the middle of his forehead. They made lightning and thunderbolts for Zeus.
HYDRA: A gigantic serpent with many heads. If one was cut off, another two would grow in its place.
SIRENS: Huge, winged creatures with the heads of women, who lived on rocks by the sea and lured sailors to their death with their beautiful singing.
If you were to interview one of these creatures, what would you ask them? Team up with one of your classmates and do some research. Come up with 5 questions to ask this creature. Provide an answer for each question. Practice each role. Perform the interview in class or make a catchy video in which you dress up to play your part.
The ancient Greeks aren't the only ones who have tales about mythtical creatures. In Britain you can find legends and myths all over the country. Read the information below and discover which 10 mythical beasts live in Britain and where you can find them.
Open the map of the UK in Microsoft Edge. Look on Google Maps where they are located in the UK. Mark where you can find these 10 creatures on the map. Post the map in the correct upload zone on Smartschool. TIP: You can copy the images of the creatures of this website and paste them onto the blind map.
Small, helpful, wrinkled creatures that must be appeased or else they quickly become malevolent. They are proud nudists, who will make your life miserable if you dare offer them some clothes.
Find them: in Yorkshire, Lancashire and across the northern counties. At Barcroft Hall in Burnley, a hob-turned-boggart (see below) gave the resident farmer a shoeing after he thoughtfully presented it with a pair of clogs.
A slighted hob becomes a boggart, an agent of chaos with a penchant for making belongings disappear. They’re known to crawl into your bed at night and put their clammy little hands on your face - the epitome of cruelty.
Find them: See above. There’s a bevvy of boggart-inspired place names sprinkled around Lancashire and Yorkshire, including Boggard Wood in Dodsworth, Boggard Lane in Penistone and Boggard Stones in Saddleworth.
They might look like magnificent horses, but don’t be fooled. Kelpies have an appetite for human flesh that simply can't be reined in - what a mare.
Find them: in lochs all over Scotland. One of the most famous kelpie stories hails from Loch Sunart, where the tail goes that nine children stumbled on a horse grazing near the loch and decided to ride it. Its back grew longer until eight of them were mounted on it. The ninth boy cautiously touched the horse and found his finger stuck to its back. He cut off his finger as the horse rushed into the loch, drowning the eight other children.
Shapeshifters who can move between seal and human form by shedding their seal skin. They often have a rather choppy relationship with hu-manatee.
Find them: around the northern islands of Scotland. Try Orkney, where legend has it that a young woman had a baby boy by a selkie who lived on the island of Sule Skerry. The father arrived at the birth, placed a gold chain around the boy’s neck and took his son to live with him in the waters. However, before he left he predicted that the woman would marry a whaler who would one day kill both him and his son. The woman did indeed go on to marry a gunner, who one day returned from a hunting trip with a gold chain found around a seal’s neck, much to his wife’s devastation.
Looks that can kill, literally. Those who have the misfortune of seeing the yellow eyes, teeth and hair of the Welsh Fad Felen ('Yellow Plague') will soon encounter death.
Find it: The most famous tale hails from Llanrhos church, where Maelgwn Gwynedd, King of North Wales, died after reportedly seeing the Fad Felen through a keyhole. Spookier still, Maelgwn Gwynedd’s death was prophesied by Taliesin the poet. “A strange creature will come from the marsh of Rhianedd,” he said, “to punish the crimes of Maelgwn Gwynedd; its hair, its teeth, and its eyes are yellow, and this will destroy Maelgwn Gwynedd”.
The Scottish-English bluecaps and the Cornish-Welsh knockers are mining spirits that make knocking sounds to warn miners of impending collapse. What a rocking coal-ition.
Find them: Pretty much any mining landscape across England and Wales - although Cornwall has some of the most impressive knockers in the country (okay, we’re done with the knock-knock jokes now). Take a stroll around the region of Ransom mine, where a father and son duo reputedly met a sticky end after trying to cheat the magical mini-miners.
Devours anyone who enters its waters. This demonic lake monster has been described as a crocodile, a beaver and a dwarf-like creature - whichever floats your boat.
Find it: Where better to track down the Afanc than at the lake that bears its name? Llyn yr Afanc in the River Conwy is the original home of this many-toothed mythical beastie. Legend has it that the Afanc’s demonic thrashings once drowned all but two people in Britain… so clearly Brits hail from a rather narrow gene pool.
A lone wolf who leaves fish on the windowsills of the poor and old of Shetland. A sort of canine Robin Hood minus his merry mutts...
Find it: on the Isle of Unst, where the Wulver lives alone in a secluded cave - although the exact location of his underground home is shrouded in mystery. Maybe that’s why they call him a where wolf.
These murderous creatures have blood on their heads as well as their hands - they dye their caps with human blood! But if you brandish a cross, they go up in flames, leaving only an old tooth behind. To be displayed as a victory plaque perhaps?
Find them: all around the Scottish-English border. Perhaps the most atmospheric spot with redcap associations is Hermitage Castle in Roxburghshire, where evil 14th-century familiar Robin Redcap wreaked havoc under the aegis of his master William de Soulis. Some legends say that he remains at the castle guarding a horde of underground treasure…
These flaming fish demons have eyes all over their head - no chance they won’t sea you. When storms rage, they can be heard ferociously singing for joy as they lurk under the swirling waters. If a ship capsizes, you can be sure they’ll gobble up the hull thing.
Find it: off the shores of Shetland, which seems to have more than its fair share of supernatural sea monsters. Shetland’s sailors also have the boat-munching Bregdi to contend with - a tentacled terror, which can only be deterred by cold steel… or a strategically-thrown amber bead.
Read the entire novel Percy Jackson and the lightening thief. You will need all the information from the book to participate in the big battle, capture of the flag.
GAME SETUP
1. Divide the class into 2 teams: team Olympus and team Titans.
2. Every team member is assigned a character from the book.
3. Teams start from opposite corners of the room. In the middle of the room, there's the flag on Mount Olympus.
4. Students take turns in asking each other yes/no questions. The goal is to discover the identity of the opponent. Once you are discovered, you are out of the game. Whenever it's your turn to ask a question, you can move one step in any direction you choose.
5. When you are close to the flag, you need to answer 3 questions about the book Percy Jackson and the lightening thief. If your answers are correct, you capture the flag and your team wins the game.
6. WATCH OUT! Team Olympus has Medusa who can turn the opponent into stone when she touches you. Team Titans has the Minotaur who can throw the opponent back to the starting point.
Maps, M. (2021, June 16). Britain’s mythical beasts and where to find them — marvellous maps. Marvellous Maps. https://marvellousmaps.com/marvellousmusings/2021/6/1/mythical-beasts
Nwc. (n.d.). Blank map of United Kingdom (UK): outline map and vector map of United Kingdom (UK). https://ukmap360.com/united-kingdom-(uk)-blank-map
Wikipedia contributors. (2024, February 1). Percy Jackson and the Olympians (TV series). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_Jackson_and_the_Olympians_(TV_series)
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The lightening thief. (2005). Hyperion books. https://www.sausd.us/cms/lib/CA01000471/Centricity/Domain/241/lightning_thief_the__percy_jac_-_rick_riordan.pdf
Screen Culture. (2023, October 10). Percy Jackson and the Olympians – full trailer (2023) Disney+ [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA8RMj1l0yg