Mythology For Children

Myths tell of gods, heroes, and events that a group believes, or at one time believed, to be real. Thousands of years ago people did not have the sciences to help them understand life. For instance, they did not know why the Sun rises each morning or why the seasons change.

Greek Mythology for Kids

Ancient people saw sickness, death , and natural disasters, but they did not understand what caused them. Groups of people developed their own stories and beliefs to explain the world around them. These stories were usually not written down. Instead they were part of an oral tradition, meaning they were passed from one generation to another by telling them out loud as stories. Upon hearing the stories, people accepted them as the truth. In this way, myths became beliefs.

It is for this reason that mythology is closely associated with religion. Since each group of people developed their own explanations, mythology differs from culture to culture. But all myths try to answer basic questions such as: How was the world created?

How did life on Earth begin? Why is there evil in the world?

Myths explain the origins of Earth in many different ways. Many cultures believe that an all-powerful god created the world. For example, a myth of the Polynesian people tells that the god Io formed the world out of water and darkness. People living in the cold lands of what is now northern Europe believed that the mist was created first. According to the ancient Scandinavian tradition, the mist flowed through 12 rivers and froze, filling the emptiness of the world with many layers of ice, which was later melted by a warm wind.

Lesson 1: Greek creation mythology

Other cultures, including the Arapaho of North America as well as civilizations in Egypt and Japan , thought of humans as descendants of a sun god. To explain the origin of human beings, an ancient story from India described a being called the Self. When the Self became lonely, it divided into two parts, creating man and woman.

Their children became the human race. Many myths from western Africa tell that the first beings were a pair of twins. The Sumerians, an ancient Middle Eastern people, believed that the first people came from clay. According to their myths, the water god told his mother to mold bits of clay into the shapes of people.

Many cultures also have myths explaining why there is evil in the world. For example, an ancient Greek myth tells the story of Pandora , the first woman on Earth. She opened a jar and released all kinds of evil on the world. A great variety of other myths explain the origins of animals, plants, and events in nature. Many other myths tell of the gods.

Stories discuss their births, special powers, and victories over monsters or enemies. Many cultures also have myths about heroes with amazing strength or cleverness. For instance, ancient Greek myths tell that the brave warrior Heracles completed 12 nearly impossible tasks.

Greek Mythology for Kids

Many groups of people developed complex collections of myths, especially in ancient times. Their stories describe a group of gods and the world that the gods live in. Some figures of Egyptian mythology. The ancient Egyptians had many gods. Some looked like people and some looked like animals. The doglike god Anubis was the god of the dead. Re was the sun god. For a time a ruler named Amenhotep made the Sun the only god. He called the god Aton, and he changed his own name to Akhenaton, or Ikhnaton. But after he died the other gods were worshipped again.

Some figures in ancient Greek and Roman mythology. The ancient Greeks also worshipped many gods.

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In the beginning, the universe was without form. It was not nothing; there was matter, but it was unorganized, shapeless, mixed up and dark. This was called Chaos. Gaia, the Earth, held up Uranus, the sky. Gaia and Uranus had a bunch of kids. First they had a bunch of monsters including the Cyclops, and then they created the Titans as the second generation.

Uranus hated all the Titans and was actually quite ugly about it — but there are only a couple of Titans that you need to remember: Gaia was pretty ticked at Uranus for being a jerk, so she helped Cronus overthrow him. So, let's keep this straight. Cronus is Uranus's son. Cronus became the king bye-bye Uranus , and married his sister, Rhea — another Titan.

It's like a soap opera. This was called the Golden Age because men, who had been made by a Titan named Prometheus, were living in harmony. Everything was hunky dory. It didn't last, though, because Cronus heard a prophecy that one of his sons would dethrone him, so every time his wife, Rhea, had a baby, he swallowed it. Rhea got a little sick of seeing all of her children swallowed alive, so she tricked Cronus when her sixth child, Zeus, was born; she wrapped up a rock to look like a baby and had Cronus swallow that instead.

Zeus rescued his previously swallowed siblings, and all was right with the world. The Greek view of the world was a little different than ours. The Greeks believed that the world was flat, but circular, like a paper plate. At the center of the Universe was Greece. Their world was divided by the Mediterranean, which means "Middle of the Lands" in Latin.

The river Ocean flowed around the world in a clockwise motion. In the north lived the Hyperboreans — an extremely happy people for whom life was sweet. When the old people became tired of living, they threw themselves into the sea. This was a land of constant vacation where people were said to live for 1, years.

In the south lived the Ethiopians. In Greek drama, mention is often made of various gods being in Ethiopia, meaning really far away. So, if I say I parked in Ethiopia this morning, would that mean I'm close to my office or far away? The Ethiopians were said to be on good terms with the gods and liked to entertain them. To the west were the Elysian Fields. This was the closest the Greeks got to the idea of heaven; only the best and brightest of the dead people got to go there.

Use the information in this lesson to begin to fill in the gods and goddesses chart at the end of this lesson; you will also need to do your own research to complete it. Now that you understand the way that the Greeks viewed the beginning of the world, you are ready to learn about the Olympian gods. First, we have to explore exactly what we mean by "Olympian gods. Gradually, it became associated less and less with an actual mountain and more with an imaginary place high above the earth.

According to the ancient Greeks, the gate to Olympus was made of clouds and it was guarded by four goddesses, the Seasons. Each god had his or her own dwelling place, but Olympus was home base. There were up to 14 gods considered Olympian gods. Seven of them were Zeus and his siblings, and seven others were children of Zeus.

Sometimes only 12 will be listed. The Greeks and Romans shared mythology, so you will find two names for most gods. Zeus was the king of the hill. He was dominating, powerful and had a soft spot for pretty women. He could be terrifying when angry.

What are the best books on Greek myths for young children?

His symbols were the thunderbolts, or lightning bolts made for him by the Cyclopes his uncles ; the eagle; and the scepter, or rod. Please copy this information onto your chart. Hades, or Pluto, was the god of the underworld and of the dead. He was called the same names by the Romans, but they also sometimes called him Dis or Dis Pater. He was Zeus's brother and married Persephone after kidnapping her against her will. He was gloomy and frightening. Next, we have Poseidon, or Neptune, as the Romans called him. He was Zeus's brother, and he was the god of the sea and also earthquakes.

Our first goddess is Hera. She sits on the right side of Zeus and is his wife. Of course, she's his sister, too, but that's the way it was on Olympus. Hera's Roman name is Juno, and she is the queen of the gods. She is the guardian of marriage and was well-loved by the Greeks; it's kind of sad that she's the goddess of marriage but her own marriage was so bad.

She was often jealous of her husband's girlfriends and did mean things to them, even the ones who didn't want anything to do with him, but she could be tender and loving as well. The peacock was her symbol. In fact, the circles in a peacock's tail are said to be the eyes of her eyed servant, Argus. Next is Athena, or Minerva, the daughter who sprang fully formed from the head of Zeus after a major headache.

She is the goddess of wisdom and war and also the protector and namesake of the city of Athens. She preferred reason to violence unless she was pushed. She turned Arachne into a spider for bragging that she could spin better than Athena.

She was very competitive and is often pictured with her helmet and a spear. She carried Zeus's shield, called the aegis. The owl was her bird. Can you see it in her hand? Apollo was a twin. His Roman name was the same as his Greek name. He was the god of the sun or light, poetry, music and medicine and was famous for his oracles wise women to whom he gave his power to predict and interpret the future.

He was very proud and also protective of his mother and sister. His symbols were the gold bow and arrows, and he often appears golden and shining. He wears a laurel wreath in memory of Daphne, who didn't want to be his lover and prayed to Mother Earth for help escaping him; she was turned into a laurel tree. Artemis was Apollo's twin. Her Roman name was Diana, and she was the goddess of hunting, chastity and the moon. She protects women and small children, is fiercely independent and particularly dislikes men.

In pictures, she is seen accompanied by three hunting hounds, a bow and a fawn. Ares or, as he is known by his Roman name, Mars, was the god of war. He would fight on both sides, if possible. He was young, strong and handsome, and liked to dress in battle clothes even when he wasn't fighting. Hephaestus, or Vulcan, was born lame and was further crippled when he was thrown from Olympus by his mother, Hera, in a rage.

He was the only Olympian with a disability. He was unhappily married to Aphrodite and worked as a blacksmith in the gods' forge. Hephaestus's wife, Aphrodite, whose Roman name was Venus, was the goddess of love and beauty. She was born out of sea foam when the blood of Uranus dropped into the ocean. She was the mother of Eros and was irresistibly charming, fickle, vain and competitive.

Her symbol was a cestus, or magic belt, that made everyone fall in love with the wearer; sometimes she would lend it to humans. This is a famous painting of the birth of Venus, or Aphrodite, by Botticelli. Dionysus was the partier of the mountain retreat. He was Zeus's son by another woman, who was driven crazy by Hera and her jealousy.

Dionysus went all around teaching people how to make wine and having a good time. Eventually, Hestia gave up her throne for him, and he lived on Olympus. He was the god of wine, of course, and also vegetation. Hermes, or Mercury, was the god of science and invention, but he is best known as the messenger of the gods. He is often pictured with a winged helmet and sandals.