Ancient Greek Literature and Music by Debussy

 Today we discussed ancient Greek literature, including:

• Myths
• Epic poems
• Lyric poems
• Fables

We decided that the ancient Greeks were some of the greatest storytellers in all of human history.  

Their stories and poems covered many of the most important topics and themes in our lives:

• Conflict and war (for example, Homer's epics)
• Adventures (Homer's epics, again)
• Nature, and why events happen (for example, myths like the story of Demeter and Persephone)
• Relationships and love (for example, Sappho's lyric poems)
• Lessons about how we should behave (for example, Aesop's fables)

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We also discussed the myth of the centaurs.  Julia provided the impressive insight that the mythical centaurs represented the real-life Persians. The ancient Greeks viewed the Persians as overly violent and not entirely civilized -- just like the centaurs.

Maeve then asked this super question: Why did the ancient Greeks choose a horse as the half-animal portion of the centaur?  Aren't there plenty of other animals that are more aggressive and more violent than horses?

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Musical Mondays: We listened to Claude Debussy's Clair de Lune.

Another of Debussy's famous piano compositions is Golliwog's Cakewalk, shown here: