Religion Was Important to the Ancient Greeks

Religion

Religion was important to the Ancient Greeks because they believed that it would make their lives better while they were living. They also believed the gods would take care of them when they died. The Greeks, to show the gods how important they were, built temples in every town for one god or goddess.

Ancient Greek Gods.

The Ancient Greeks believed in many different gods. They had a god for every aspect of their life. Making Gods happy was important because happy gods helped you, but unhappy gods punished you.

The Ancient Greeks believed that twelve of the most important Gods lived on top of Mount Olympus. Mount Olympus is the highest mountain in Greece reaching 9750 feet tall approx.

The Gods said to live on mount Olympus were Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Ares, Hermes, Hephaestus, Aphrodite, Athena, Apollo, Artemis and Hestia.

The Ruler of the Gods was Zeus is symbol was the thunder bolt.

Food in Ancient Greece.

The Greek diet was very healthy. Food in Ancient Greece consisted of grains, wheat, barley, fruit, vegetables, breads, and cake.

The Ancient Greeks grew olives, grapes, figs and wheat and kept goats, for milk and cheese. They ate lots of bread, beans and olives.

In the Summer months there were plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables to eat and in the winter they ate dried fruit and food they had stored like apples and lentils. As most of the Greeks lived very near the sea, they also ate a lot of fish, squid and shellfish.

In some of the larger Greek city-states, meat could be purchased in cook shops. Meat was rarely eaten as the Greeks felt that just killing and eating a domesticated animal (like goats) was wrong. The Greeks would often sacrifice the meat to the gods first and then might eat some of the meat.

Greeks really loved wine and grew a lot of grapes.

Education

The way children were educated was different in each city state.

In Sparta, reading and writing was unimportant. Boys learned to be good fighters.

In Athens citizens had to be educated to take part in voting in the Assembly.

Greek schools were small. They had only one teacher and about ten or twenty boys. The schools were not free and so only the rich could really afford to send their children to school.

Boys and Girls education was different. Boys learned to become good citizens and to take part in public life. Meanwhile the girls never went to school they stayed at home and