Phoenician Lesson: 3 class periods, four class periods if both activities are used. Greek Lesson: 4 class periods; 5 or more periods if the extension activity is used. Roman lesson: 3 class periods Capstone Lesson: 2 class periods, three or more class periods if both activities are used.
And the Greeks took up the letters from the Phoenicians, and once
they had changed their shape somewhat, they used them. And when they used them,
they called them “Phoenicians”, as was just, since the Phoenicians
brought the letters to Greece.
—(Herodotus, History of the Persian Wars, 5.58.2)
Introduction
Our second lesson is about the Greeks, who inherited the alphabet invented by
the Phoenicians, and used it to write their great literature.
Guiding Questions
Who were the Greeks and where did they live?
How did they come to inherit the Phoenician alphabet?
Can we see that the Greek alphabet is starting to look more like our alphabet?
What are some other things, besides the alphabet, that we inherited from the ancient
Greeks?
Learning Objectives
After completing this lesson, students will be able to
Show that the Greeks and Phoenicians both lived on the shores of the Mediterranean.
Tell that the Greeks learned the alphabet from Phoenician traders.
Say why the alphabet was important for the Greeks.
Tell one or two other things, besides the alphabet, that we inherited from
the ancient Greeks.
Compare some Greek letters to our own letters.
Do an art activity or write a short paragraph related to the Greek alphabet.
Like the Phoenicians, the ancient Greeks lived in cities all over their rocky
peninsula, and they also engaged in a lot of trade. But they were also unlike
the Phoenicians in some ways, and in particular they had different forms of government.
The Phoenicians had kings. But the Greeks passed through many different forms
of government in their cities, and eventually the people at Athens invented democracy,
which is rule by the people instead of by kings or nobles. The ancient Greeks
also had a lot of other ideas and customs that are important for us: the Olympic
games, for instance, began in ancient Greece.
The reason we know about democracy in ancient Greece, or about the Olympic
games, is that the ancient Greeks wrote all about them. Once the Greeks had an
alphabet, it seems they could not stop writing. They pioneered many of the kinds
of writing we consider standard today. They wrote speeches, books about science
and learning, plays, poems, and long histories of the things that happened to
them. The alphabet was a very important part of Greek culture!
Three Activities based on the Greek Alphabet:
Greek Alphabet Activity: Begin the lesson on the Greek Alphabet by asking
the students if they still remember the Phoenician traders who were trading
purple cloth for olive oil at Athens. Ask the children: What would the Greeks
think when they saw the Phoenician ship returning to Athens, a few weeks later,
all loaded up with the stuff the Phoenicians had asked for in their letter?
Do you think they would want to learn to write? You could tell them that the
Greeks borrowed the Phoenician alphabet so that they could start writing down
all the things that were important to them.
At this point you could show the students the Greek
alphabet. The Greek alphabet is about 2,700 years old. Nevertheless, there
are many letters in the ancient Greek alphabet that you and your students
will immediately recognize.
Show the children the letters A, B, E, I, K, M, N, O, S, and T.
These Greek letters are essentially identical to the letters we use today.
If your students are very young, or if time is lacking, it will be sufficient
for this lesson to have shown the students that the alphabet was developing into
the alphabet they know. But many students will also be interested in knowing about
some of the letters they do not recognize. Included is a short explanation of
a few of the differences between our alphabet and the ancient Greek alphabet:
you might choose to use none of this, just a few points, or all of it, depending
on your class and students.
The following are some examples of how the Greek alphabet differs from the
Roman alphabet we use:
The
third letter, for instance, which looks like an upside-down L, is Gamma,
our G. The Greek G does not look anything like our G, and we say "ABC",
not "ABG". Over time G got bumped from the third to the seventh place in the
alphabet and also changed his shape to the round shape he wears today.
The
fourth letter (the one that looks like a triangle) is Delta.
This letter is our D. Over the years, D changed shape somewhat, but D
got to keep his place as the fourth letter of the alphabet.
Again,
look at the sixth letter of the Greek alphabet. That's Z! In the Greek
alphabet Z was in the middle of the alphabet instead of at the end. But over
time, the letter Z got bumped clear to the back.
Two
letters down from Z, after the "H", there is a letter that looks like a circle
with a line inside of it. That is a Theta. That letter sounds
a "th", and we don't have that letter at all anymore. We use two letters, T
and H, to show that sound. In other words, letters don't only change, they also sometimes appear and disappear.
These are a few examples of the many changes the alphabet underwent on its way
from the Greeks to us. As with the Phoenician alphabet, the students might enjoy
copying down some of the strange looking Greek letters, just to try them out.
You might also point out that people living in Greece still use this alphabet
for everything they write, just the way we use our alphabet. The fact that the
Greeks changed the Phoenician alphabet, or that the Romans changed the Greek
alphabet, does not mean that either one was deficient, but only that each subsequent
group needed to change the letters to accommodate their language and culture.
Greek Vase Activity:
Show Greek
vase Berlin F2285. On this "image browser" page there are 19 thumbnail images
of a Greek vase shaped like a large shallow bowl. The vase depicts a school and
ancient Greek children learning in school. Click first on the thumbnail image
called Side
A: School. A large image will appear. As your students look at the image, point
out that on this side of the vase a child is learning to read a poem, and another
child is learning to play a Greek instrument called a lyre.
Return to the image browser page.
Now select the image called Side
A: Teacher and Student with Writing Tablet. This is a close-up of the
image you just looked at. Point out the paper in the teacher's hand: the letters
are clearly visible. The teacher is showing the student a poem. The first
word is spelled M-O-I-S-A. It means “muse.” The poem is
addressed to one of the muses, the goddesses of art and music. Point out to
your students that they can recognize the Greek letters and learn to read
a word. They can do this because our alphabet comes from the Greek alphabet,
and so we still know some of the Greek letters. Congratulate the children
on learning to read a Greek word!
Return to the image browser page.
Now select the image called Side
B: Teacher and Student with Stylus. Here a teacher is showing a student
how to write on a tablet. Or perhaps he is correcting the student's letters!
Return again to the image browser page.
Now select the image called Side
A: Teacher and Student Practicing Lyre. Here a teacher and a student are
practicing music together. Point out the prominent place of music in this
depiction of school life. Music was a very important part of ancient Greek
elementary education.
Then select the image called Side
B: School. On this image you an see the "Teacher and Student with the
Stylus" together with the "Teacher and Student Practicing Flute". Like Side
A, Side B shows a pair of people learning literary skills and a pair of people
practicing music.
(The third major activity of ancient Greek elementary education was sports. Because
Greek athletes exercised naked, no scenes of sporting activity have been included
here. Many scenes of exercising
athletes can easily be found if the teacher would like to show some.)
Art Activity: A Teacher and Student Vase
Show the students two or three of the school scenes again, asking a few questions
as you go along. In these pictures, how can you tell who is the teacher and who
is the student? (Teachers are larger, seated and often bearded. Students, on the
other hand, are smaller and usually standing.) What are the students doing? (Watching
and listening or practicing their instruments.) What are the people wearing and
holding? (Notice their long robes. The students are usually all wrapped up!) What
kind of stuff is hung on the walls behind them? (Boxes, baskets, cords, extra
instruments and extra drinking bowls.) Finally what color is the vase? Look at
the vase and it's figures and decorations. Even though the vase is black, it does
not seem dark.
Perhaps the students would like to make their own pictures of a Greek teacher
and themselves! Can they imagine themselves as a Greek student? Can they imagine
you as a Greek teacher? Download and print out the Greek
Alphabet PDF file. Print enough copies for all the students. Let each
student cut out a tiny alphabet for his or her picture. Then have them use black
pencils or crayons to draw you and him or herself, dressed up as a Greek teacher
and student studying the alphabet, on tan or crème colored paper. They can also
draw special chairs, or musical instruments, or things to hang on the walls
if they like. Have the students cut out their figures and paste them on black
paper. It might be best to give them somewhat smaller sheets of the light colored
paper so that the pictures don't get too large.
Writing Assignment:
Ask the children to write a short description of what it would be like to go to
school in ancient Greece. They could tell how it feels to wear long cloaks to
school and to learn poems from the teacher. If they could choose an instrument,
would they learn to play the flute or the lyre?
Assessment
Conclude the lesson by asking the children to identify Greece and Athens on the
map. Ask them to explain how the Greeks first learned the alphabet. Why was
the alphabet important for the Greeks? What sort of books did they like to write?
What kinds of things did ancient Greek children study in school?
Ask them to describe
one or two contributions of the Greeks to history. Remind the students that they
were able to recognize many of the Greek letters, and ask them to point out some
of the ones they know.
Useful Link
The Edsitement lesson plan Live
from Ancient Olympia is for older students, but contains material that might be
a useful extension of your studies of ancient Greece.
EDSITEment
contains a variety of links to other websites and references to resources available
through government, nonprofit, and commercial entities. These links and references
are provided solely for informational purposes and the convenience of the user.
Their inclusion does not constitute an endorsement. For more information, please
click the Disclaimer icon.
The
third letter, for instance, which looks like an upside-down L, is Gamma,
our G. The Greek G does not look anything like our G, and we say "ABC",
not "ABG". Over time G got bumped from the third to the seventh place in the
alphabet and also changed his shape to the round shape he wears today.
The
fourth letter (the one that looks like a triangle) is Delta.
This letter is our D. Over the years, D changed shape somewhat, but D
got to keep his place as the fourth letter of the alphabet. 
Again,
look at the sixth letter of the Greek alphabet. That's Z! In the Greek
alphabet Z was in the middle of the alphabet instead of at the end. But over
time, the letter Z got bumped clear to the back. 
Two
letters down from Z, after the "H", there is a letter that looks like a circle
with a line inside of it. That is a Theta. That letter sounds
a "th", and we don't have that letter at all anymore. We use two letters, T
and H, to show that sound. In other words, letters don't only change, they also sometimes appear and disappear.
