Ben .T
02-08-2002
Language Arts
A DAILY LIFE IN GREECE
Did you know how many gods there were in Greece? Would you like to find out? Do you even know where democracy came from? It starts with Greek gods.
The Greeks believed there were many gods. They had a god for everything. They had one for every house, every village, every ocean, every state, and even every bathroom. If anything went wrong the people thought the gods where angry and they would pray to them and offer sacrifices to calm them dawn. They would also give things to the gods when they were going on a big voyage, like going to war. The Greek also thought all gods should have a temple and they would do drama and the Olympics for them. The god they did the Olympics for was Zeus. Zeus was the king of the gods and all gods were his brothers and sisters. Hades was even one of his brothers and he was king of the underworld.
Democratic government started in Greece at about the 5th and 4th centuries B.C. The Greeks were the first to use a democratic government. The citizens thought government was one of the most important things in their lives. All citizens of the city could take place in the assembly because they had smaller states. Anyone could stand and speak, but others would not always listen to him. The city also had a council. The council's job was to help the assembly make decisions. They also had a smaller group in the council called the prytany. The prytanys job was to see that the things that were decided by the assembly were carried out.
Some of the main jobs in Greece are arts and crafts, construction, agriculture, and pottery. Agriculture was one of the most common male activities. The Greeks also loved theater and dance. They believed that dance could improve their skills. The men and the women vary rarely would dance together. Men would dance one dance and women would have to dance other dances. There where over 200 ancient Greek dances.
Most of the Greeks lived in the city. The Greek homes were made out of sun-dried brick. There were about 2 or 3 rooms in a normal sized house. The larger sized homes might have a kitchen, and a bathing room. The women would have slaves to help them around the house. The women and the slaves both spent a lot of their time in the house because the women were only allowed to leave their house for a short time. Lots of the family life was centered around the courtyard. The way the Greeks would get their water is they would have a tank to collect the rain water.
There is a lot of interesting facts about the Greeks, and now you know some of them.