Theater and Music

Music was very important to the Greeks they enjoyed it very much. Theater was often included at an after dinner. The most popular instruments were the lyre (hand held harp) and the double flute (pan pipes). The flute was considered the poor mans instrument but the lyre was considered the rich mans instrument. The ancient Greeks also used horns and drums. Drums were used on ritual occasions and were exotic to the ancient Greece. Horns were used for military purpose, not entertainment. Greeks invented the instruments we use today in our music. They also invented the octave (eight notes on the scale).

The theatre began as a way to honour the gods and goddesses. When you went to the theatre it was an important part of religious life of Ancient Greek. People enjoyed their theatre as much as we do. People called the theatre the famous theatre and Epidurals theatre had more than 14000 seats. This theatre was built so well that it had perfect acoustic. If a person was to sit in a seat farthest from the stage they could hear the actors as they whispered. The theatres were outside in the open air. Tires of seats were built around an open circular space called the orchestra.

Family Roles

Not all Greek city states were the same the children in Athens were raised at home, the women kept the house and the men lived with their families. In Sparta children were brought up outside of their homes. Spartan woman also did the housekeeping and chores but the spartan people had lots slaves and servants so the women had more time to be free. Young men lived in army barracks until they got married and some even after.



Was the city fair?
Men did have a greater status than women but to think of it women had very different roles in society. The women were actually kind-a lucky they were way more important than the slaves but most rulers, rich people and maybe even some poor people depended on them for many different things too.

Government

The government of ancient Greece developed slowly. Many city states of Greece were democracies. Greece was a land of mountains and valleys until 800BC when it was divided. Before kings ruled the land but there was an old saying ''power corrupts''.

We have rules and they did too, one of their rules were that the boys of ancient Greece had to listen to poetry and stories of ancient Greece heroes, sort-of like their curriculum, like when we have ta fallow ours. And Greek rulers married for political reasons, but the most important rule was that one leading power was passed to another!

Important city states of ancient Greece were ruled by Tyrants. Tyrants had soldiers called Hittites. A tyrant is way more powerful than a king. But some city states were ruled by rich and powerful landowners supported by armies.

Education

Don't we all just hate school well lucky for the girls they didn't have go to school ,oh wait they got taught how to be maids from their mothers and the slaves, but the boys had to go to school and learn about poems, how boring. They had to go to school at age 6. Boys had to go to military school or Private school. The schools focused on literature, public speaking and philosophy. Many people became very famous for their great education, like Homer the great poet. As for the girls they learned household skills such as cleaning, cooking, sewing and serving. The fathers of the boys who went to school had to pay lots of fees to get the boys into school. Boys had to learn basic studies, too, they learned things such as how to read, write, count, dance, sing, recite poetry, and play the lyre.

We are used to reading from books and writing on normal paper, am i right? Well they had no books and they wrote on scrolls. And the students had to memorize poems as their teacher read them out loud, sounds pretty hard right, but they had to do that since they were just starting.

Here are some questions that i have been wondering maybe you can answer them as a comment. OK here they are...
#1 What subject is the most important subject for the boys?
#2 What did the children use to write with?
#3 Did they have recces and lunch like we have today?
#4 How long was school?

clothing

Okay girls ya know how we just love our hair? Well the ladies in ancient Greece loved to put their hair in long braids or arranged at the top of their head.Head bands were very popular back then. So girls how do ya like that?!?!


The clothing was just long pieces of fabric. In the winter the fabric is made of wool, in the summer the fabric is made of linen.The women's dresses went down to their ankles well the men's went down to their knees!

The shoes back then were sandals made out of leather, but only the rich people could afford that, the poor people didn't wear shoes.

More Food

Don't you just love to drink hot chocolate and eat gingerbread men on a cold winter day? But for the citizens of Ancient Greece it's a whole different story they like to snack on dry food and lots of wine, bread and onions.Another favorite is is mushrooms and artichoke, hearts, apples and lentils.





Now for Summer foods the Greece people loved their fresh fruit and vegetables.There was tons of fresh fish, squid and shellfish.The wine of ancient Greece was made from grapes which were picked in mid September.

Food

The Greeks eat vegetables and fruit such as cabbage, lettuce, spinach and dandelion leaves. They also picked root vegetables from the ground such as radishes, carrots and onions. The Greeks used to pick ripe grapes from tree in mid September for wine.


Like us we have parties and at these parties we usually have chips and pop but the ancient Greeks have way different party food this is it... believe it or not but they eat roasted song birds and artichoke hearts. They also eat mushrooms, grasshoppers, snails, fish roe and other snacks.And a favorite was tuna fish stuffed with herbs. Well ya know how we use butter well they used olive oil, cool eh!


p.s: The next party I'm having well lets just say hope ya like song birds:)