It's all Greek to me

Hera and Zeus, the life of the party

Ares, god of war
Athena
A nymph
A Ruben's-version of Aphrodite posed with Posiedon, or is it Dionysos?
Echo, a nymph (her maid stitched up those awesome wings)

Oceanus (those are lobster claws on his head; ingenious)
Eros, a.k.a. Cupid
Hermes, the messenger god
Apollo, god of the sun, standing with a Greek citizen

Thanotos, god of death, making the peace sign; ironic?

Ahtena (check out her cool arrow-carrying case)
Goddessess of Ancient Greece
Hercules--check out his six pack
Hades, god of the underworld, looking more like the grim reaper

For the first time in my teaching career, I had the opportunity to teach Greek mythology. Boy, did I learn a lot. I didn’t know that Aphrodite was born of sea foam and the cut up body parts of some man thrown in the ocean. Or that Athena was born from the cracked open head of Zeus. Such violence and chaos; maybe that’s why my seventh graders loved it so much.

In order to impress upon them the legacy of the Greeks, we had a Greek Festival complete with the gods, goddesses, Olympic games, and Greek food (well, kind of). The students brought the food which means we had Kraft-like singles for cheese; apparently this is the only cheese my students are familiar with. While shopping, they had looked at the cheese I suggested (cheddar namely) and they all said the same thing—cheese is expensive! I ended up bringing some cheddar and brie (I couldn’t spring feta on them at such a tender age) and by day’s end, it was all gone. As I was slicing it up, they asked me what it was. I do love educating children about CHEESE! I imagine the rest of their lives they will have to think of their lives in two parts—before cheese and after cheese.

PS-I must thank Mr. Massey and Ms. Robinson for having a medieval banquet when I was in the 6th grade. Without that, I don’t know if I would have thought of doing something like this.