As I progressed from The Iliad, to the Odyssey, to the Oedipus Trilogy and then any other Greek play or writing I could get my hands on I started realizing how much I love them. I came to feel a great need to share them with our children. The more I read, the more I knew they were important.
But why? When they first started becoming important to me I didn't know why they were and I certainly couldn't articulate the reasons. Over time though I am starting to be able to give voice to those feelings. Here are some thoughts taken from Oliver DeMille in A Thomas Jefferson Education.
1. The Classics Teach us Human Nature. Just as we read Shakespeare to see human nature, the Greek classics play out human nature in all its glory. In the Iliad we can see how Achilles' pride was hurt and how that affected the Trojan War. In the Odyssey we see the power of mind numbing activities can have over our life with The Lotus Eaters. In the Oedipus Trilogy we see an example of parents trying to run from a prophecy about their son only to have it fulfilled despite their desperate attempts to prevent it. The prophet is always right! In the Odyssey we see cleverness can win the day in several examples including Odysseus' escape from the Cyclops. Jason learns in Medea that ending a marriage can lead to an end of everything else in life. Agamemnon teaches us what happens when we stop valuing our children. There are countless stories of greed, revenge, pride, cruelty, and many more played out for us to learn from.
2. The Classics Bring us Face-to-Face with Greatness. We can stand in their shoes at a great moment and we can see what they did with it. You'd be hard pressed to find a greater example of absolute courage than Hecktor in The Iliad. That guy rocks! You weep with Priam's wife as she sees her daughters carried off as war booty in the Trojan Women. You stand at the docks with Cassandra as she faces her doom with her chin held high in Agamemnon. You see the hope and the courage in Penelope as she outwits the suitors in The Odyssey. You feel sick with Oedipus as he learns who he really is and how he deals with an utterly horrible situation in the Oedipus Trilogy. So while you can most certainly learn these examples from so many reads through out history, you can also devour these examples of pure greatness within the pages of the Ancient Greek texts. As we do we can ask our selves, "What will I do when I stand before Greatness?"
3. The Classics Force Us to Think. The Greek Classics force us to look at ourselves and realize what it means to be great. It forces you to think wild dreams and awaken "all that is finest" with in you. To face your mission head on and THINK now what am I going to do? Am I going to hide behind everyone while they fight your war like Paris (The Iliad)? Are you going to stay with Circe or are you going home to your wife (The Odyssey)? Are you going to mock the Gods or worship them? (figuratively of course) This was Hippolytus' problem and Aphrodite sure didn't like that!
4. The Classics Connect Us to Those who Share Our Stories. Our Western Civilization is based on the ideas of the Greek Culture. Through their literature we can learn from them why we do the things we do. The Greek religion was also a corrupt form of the gospel. They learned their worship of the Gods from the Egyptians. And the Egyptians learned their worship of the one true God, the Sun God, Aten, from Abraham. Through time all of these teachings were corrupted. You can see in so many of the writings about their religion where the basic ideas came from. How have we corrupted our teachings? Are we trying to live in this world/Babylon expecting our worship to stay pure? It didn't work for the Egyptians and the Greeks! Who could Persephone represent? Who might Prometheus stand for? Also because Greek literature comes first you can see all the ways they have influenced our culture and all the Western writing after them. References to Greek classics are scattered through out all great literature. Greek ideas are scattered throughout our culture today as well. For example, The Little Mermaid contains multiple references to Poseiden and those things associated with him. (Tridents, sea horses, etc). Jared figured that one out all by himself.
These are just some ideas for now. Greek literature contains powerful examples of our own human nature. It causes us to ask our self what we would do in that situation. I believe that Greek literature should be a core study in families.
Here are some children's books that have taught about the Greeks and their literature that our family as enjoyed:
The Odyssey by Geraldine McCaughrean
The Gods and Goddess of Olympus by Alki
Usborne's Greek Myths
King Midas and The Golden Touch by Demi
Greek Myths: Ulysses and the Trojan War by Anna Claybourne
The Percy Jackson Series by Rick Riordan
Book of Greek Myths by D'Aulaire
3 comments:
Great post! Have you read The Black Ships Before Troy by Rosemary Sutcliff? She has a couple other ancient Greek retellings. I really liked them for older kids (like 10ish or so). I'm looking forward to doing the myths again now that they're older.
I just started reading the Illiad and was excited to read this post. Thanks for the suggested reads, I'll definately look them up!
I can't wait to read them! I have them on my list. I also liked "The Black Ships Before Troy" and the "book of Greek Myths".
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