Hi there.

Welcome to this history lesson with me, Ms. Roberts.

Today I am going to be taking you through a lesson, about a certain aspect of the ancient Greek civilization.

This unit is investigating what is the most significant legacy of ancient Greece.

In this lesson, we are looking at the legacy of Greek mythology, and together we will be exploring one of the most well known of the Greek myths and that's the Greek myth of the Trojan War.

Okay, then let's get started.

By the end of the lesson today, you will be able to describe some of the key events that happen in the Trojan War myth, and you will also be able to describe the influence of something called "The Iliad." "The Iliad" is a version of the Trojan War myth and you'll be hearing more about that later in the lesson.

Let's begin today with our key words.

These are words that are going to be used a lot in the lesson, so it's important for you to know what they are and it would be great for you to use these words yourself when you are talking about Greek mythology.

So, our first word is Troy.

Can you say Troy? Well done.

Our second word is Trojan.

Can you say Trojan? That's right.

Our next word is Achilles.

Can you say Achilles? Good, well done.

Remember, it's a K sound, not a chi sound in the middle of that one.

Our next key word is Homer.

Can you say Homer? Very good.

And our last keyword.

You heard me say this just before.

It's "The Iliad." Can you say "The Iliad?" Nice, well done.

Many of those keywords are actually names that have come from Greek mythology.

So, now I'm going to explain to you what they all mean.

Our first key word was Troy.

Troy is the name of a mythical city from Greek mythology.

We believe that the city of Troy was most likely thought to be located somewhere in the city of modern day Turkey.

Our second key word was Trojans.

And Trojans are the people from the mythical city of Troy.

The next key word was Achilles.

Now Achilles is the name.

It's the name of one of the ancient Greek heroes and he was one of the key people that fought in the Trojan War.

He was celebrated by the ancient Greeks as a great warrior that no one could defeat.

The next name is Homer.

Homer is not a character.

Homer is a historical figure from ancient Greece.

He was actually a poet and we think that he lived in around the seven hundreds BCE.

The last word, "The Iliad" is one of Homer's poems. It's an ancient Greek poem that he wrote, which tells the story of the Trojan War myth.

So, let's make a start on today's lesson and find out exactly what happens in this mythical Greek story.

The first part of our lesson today is going to look at the Trojan War myth and find out what happened.

And the second half of our lesson is going to look more closely at home as work "The Iliad." So, let's begin by looking in some more detail at the Trojan War myth, starting by looking at a map.

Can you see the city of Troy has been circled on this map.

It is thought that the location of Troy was in the west of the modern day country of Turkey.

The country of Turkey is in a part of Asia called Asia Minor.

You can see that Asia Minor is labelled on the map.

Turkey sits on the border between Europe, where Greece is and Asia Minor.

A body of water called the Aegean Sea, sits between Greece and Turkey.

So, for the ancient Greeks to get from the Greek mainland or from any of the islands to the city of Troy, they would've had to cross the waters of the Aegean Sea.

The Trojan War myth is about a conflict.

A conflict is another word for a war.

The conflict was happening between the ancient Greek people and the people who lived in Troy, the Trojans.

According to the myth, this story starts as a result of something that Paris, who was the prince of Troy, does to make Menelaus the king of Sparta very angry.

This is a marble bust.

A bust is the head of a statue.

This marble bust shows what we believe Menelaus may have looked like.

So, what did Paris do to make Menelaus so angry? Paris kidnapped Helen, the queen of Sparta, who was married to Menelaus.

He kidnapped Helen and took her back to Troy with him.

This provoked Menelaus and made him angry, and that is what started the Trojan War, which is said to have lasted for 10 years.

During the Trojan War, there are many great battles that are recorded as part of the story.

Eventually, after 10 long years, the Greeks do defeat the Trojans and they win the war.

Helen is then able to return to Sparta and live with Menelaus again.

So, you've heard a lot already, about the key events of the Trojan War myth.

Let's have a quick stop to check on our learning so far.

This is a multiple choice question and I want you to identify the statement that you believe is true.

A, the Trojans won the Trojan War.

B, a Trojan king kidnapped the Greek queen named Helen.

C, Paris was the king of Sparta or D, the Trojans were from the mythical city of Troy.

Which one of those sentences is correct? Have you decided? Great, did you choose option D? Great.

The Trojans were from the mythical city of Troy.

Of course, that's the correct answer.

Option A is incorrect because the Greeks won the Trojan War.

Option B is incorrect, because it wasn't a Trojan king that kidnapped Helen, it was a Trojan prince.

And option C, that is also incorrect, because Paris was not the king of Sparta.

Paris was the prince of Troy.

Let's continue now and find out some more about the Trojan War myth.

During the conflict, some of the most important figures or characters from ancient Greek mythology took part in the fighting.

One of the most important figures in the myth is called Achilles.

Achilles was believed to be the son of another Greek king and a water goddess.

He's known as a great soldier and a very strong warrior.

This painting is from some ancient Greek pottery and the character here is Achilles.

You can see him with his long javelin and his shield ready for battle.

Achilles sadly loses his life during the Trojan War conflict according to the myth.

When this happens in the myth, the ancient Greeks saw this as the loss of their greatest hero.

Achilles death happens towards the end of the war, after he had already led the Greeks to Troy and the Greeks have very nearly won the conflict.

A well-known part of the myth, describes how some Greek soldiers later managed to sneak through the city gates of Troy.

And how did they do this? They did it by hiding inside a giant wooden horse that they were pretending was a gift for the Trojans.

In reality, the Trojans had no idea what was waiting for them inside.

This is known as the Trojan horse and it's an important reason for the Greek's victory in the myth.

Let's have another quick check on what we know so far.

This time I'm giving you a 32nd word challenge.

I want you to think of as many words as you can in 30 seconds to describe the character of Achilles.

Pause the video now while you complete your 32nd challenge.

All done, good job.

You've got some excellent words.

Here are some that I thought of.

You might have included words like these on your list.

Achilles was a soldier.

Achilles was a warrior.

He was strong and he was brave.

He was Greek.

He was mythical.

He was famous and celebrated in ancient Greece, and he was definitely, as far as the ancient Greeks were concerned, their hero.

Well done.

Let's use your new learning about the Trojan War myth to complete another activity.

What I want you to do is use this chart to help you to write a short summary of the plot of the Trojan War myth.

The plot is what happens, the beginning, the middle, and the end.

So, I am not asking you to retell the story, just to note down the key events in the plot.

You can think about the characters, their actions and reactions to help you work your way through the story.

The middle section has already been done for you.

In the middle of the story, the conflict starts and lasts for 10 whole years, the great Greek warrior Achilles takes part in the fighting, but he is killed in battle.

Pause the video now and complete what you think belongs in the beginning and the end of this plot summary.

Finished? Good job.

I'm going to share my example with you now, starting with what I wrote for the beginning of the myth.

In the beginning, Paris, the prince of Troy, kidnaps Helen.

She is the wife of the king of Sparta, whose name is Menelaus and Paris takes Helen back to Greece.

The middle of the story was provided for you and then at the end I have written that the Greeks sneak into the city of Troy by hiding inside a giant horse.

The Greeks win the Trojan War and Helen goes back to Greece.

You may have included similar events in your plot summary.

Well done.

Let's move on to the second part of our lesson now.

We're going to look at one specific version of the Trojan War myth called "The Iliad." If you remember "The Iliad" from our keywords earlier, this is a type of poem.

Let's find out more about "The Iliad" now.

In ancient Greece, storytelling was a very important part of culture.

Greek myths told the stories of their gods and goddesses and how what happened to them or because of them could explain natural events, like the weather or earthquakes or volcanic eruptions.

For example, the Greeks believed that their king of the Gods, Zeus was responsible for controlling the sky, and that meant that when there was thunder and lightning, it was Zeus that was causing it.

Some Greek myths were written down in the form of epic poems. An epic poem is a special type of poem that tells a story.

Epic poems are very long.

They can be as long as several books in fact.

Epic poems describe fast-paced adventures, great battles or incredible mythical events.

Jacobs made a great observation here.

He says that today, we use the word epic to describe something that is fantastic or a great achievement after a long and hard journey or process to get there.

That's very true, Jacob, and that's where the word epic comes from Greek mythology where epic poetry are great stories of adventures and battles.

So, "The Iliad" was one of these epic poems. It was written as an epic poem by the Greek poet called Homer.

Homer was a celebrity in ancient Greece.

He was celebrated, because he was such an amazing storyteller.

In fact, people admired him to such a degree that they wondered if he might not have been a God himself.

Many sources tell us that Homer was actually visually impaired, but historians don't know for certain if that was true.

This marble bust shows what we believe Homer probably looked like.

"The Iliad" wasn't Homer's only poem.

He also wrote another epic poem that was called, "The Odyssey." "The Odyssey" tells the story of what happened to one of the ancient Greek heroes, called Odysseus on his journey home after the Trojan War.

His journey home lasted for another 10 years.

Let's have a stop for another 32nd word challenge.

This time, I want you to think of words to describe Homer.

Pause the activity now and complete your word challenge.

Excellent.

Did you think of lots of words? I'm going to share my examples with you now.

You might have said some of these yourself.

I said that Homer was a poet, that he was intelligent and that he was famous.

He was also inspirational and imaginative.

He was definitely celebrated in ancient Greece.

He was Greek and he was definitely a storyteller and he was absolutely, definitely very creative.

Let's move on now and think about the influence that "The Iliad" has had throughout history.

"The Iliad" as an epic poem is very long, to give you an idea of exactly how long that is, "The Iliad" has more than 15,000 lines in it and when it is separated into individual books, it takes 24 books to cover the entire work.

"The Iliad" tells the epic incredible story of what happened to the Greek hero Achilles during the Trojan War.

Other characters also appear in "The Iliad," and they are called the Olympian gods.

They are all also taking part in the fighting for Greece.

You may already know that the Olympian gods were the 12 most important gods in Greek mythology.

They were believed to live at the top of the tallest mountain in Greece, which was called Mount Olympus.

"The Iliad" is believed to be one of the oldest known written texts in the entire world.

Homer wrote "The Iliad," more than two and a half thousand years ago.

It was first translated and published in the English language about 400 years ago and ever since the first time it was printed, it has been in print ever since.

It has also been translated into many other languages and it has been read by people all over the world.

The photograph shows an example of the front page of a printed version of "The Iliad" in English.

The legacy or influence of Homer and his epic poetry is seen in the great influence it has had on both art and literature throughout history.

All around the world, there are museums and art galleries that feature paintings, sculptures, poetry, all sorts of things that have been inspired by Homer and by his epic poetry that tells the tale of these amazing ancient Greek figures.

The photo here shows part of a painting by a very famous artist called Raphael.

The character in the centre of this picture is Homer.

Isn't it amazing to think that something someone wrote down, over two and a half thousand years ago is still having such a great impact on the world today? Thinking about "The Iliad," let's try a true or false activity.

Listen to this statement and decide if you think it is true or if it is false.

Homer helped to spread Greek mythology around the world.

Is that true or is that false? Have you decided? Did you choose true? Good job.

I believe it's definitely true to say that Homer helped to spread Greek mythology, all around the world.

However, as a historian, whenever we make statements about people or places or events from the past, it is important that we can provide some evidence or some extra information to prove how we know that what we are saying is true.

So, I'm going to read two sentences to you now and I want you to choose which of these sentences is the most helpful to explain this situation.

Sentence A says that "The Iliad" was written more than 2,500 years ago and people still read it today.

Sentence B says that "The Iliad" has been translated into many different languages worldwide.

Which of those is the most helpful to explain this statement? Have you picked? Lovely.

I think the best statement here is B.

"The Iliad" has been translated into many different languages worldwide.

The fact that it has been translated into different languages explains that it has gone around the world.

Good job.

Time for one more activity I think.

What I would like you to do is make notes.

This is a note making activity.

You're going to make notes about two different people.

The first is Achilles and the second is Homer.

You are going to write about who they were and what they did, as well as why they should be remembered.

As important Greek figures, you can work with a partner for extra support if you wish to.

Pause the video now while you complete the activity.

Finished? Great job.

Now, let's take a look at my example together.

Let's look at what I wrote about Achilles first.

Achilles was a mythical figure.

He was the son of a king and a goddess.

He fought in the Trojan War and he helped the Greeks win.

He should be remembered, because he was an ancient Greek hero and a warrior, and we should remember and celebrate his bravery for his help in the defeat of the Trojans.

Now, let's see what I wrote about Homer.

Homer was an ancient Greek poet.

He wrote Greek myths in the form of epic poems. He wrote "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey." He should be remembered, because he was an incredible storyteller.

His work has been translated into many languages and read all over the world.

He has inspired literature and art throughout the ages.

So, two very different people there that both have had a lasting influence throughout time.

This is the end of our lesson for today and we've covered a lot, so let's have a review on what we now know.

The Trojan War was a mythical conflict, between the ancient Greeks and the city of Troy.

Most likely, Troy was located in modern day Turkey.

The Trojan War began when a Trojan called Paris kidnapped Helen.

She was the wife of Menelaus, the king of Sparta, and the Trojan War then lasted for 10 years.

The Greeks eventually defeated the Trojans in the Trojan War, but their greatest warrior Achilles was killed in battle.

The myth of the Trojan War was first written as an epic poem called "The Iliad" by the Greek poet Homer.

"The Iliad" has become a major part of ancient Greek identity and it has influenced literature and art through the ages.

I thought it was so interesting, learning about the Trojan War myth.

I hope you found it interesting too and I'll see you again for another history lesson about the legacies of the ancient Greek civilization.

Bye for now.