BOOK TO BEGIN ON
by S OPHTA
HARVATI FENTON
illustrated bY I
SEPH LOW
LOS
inston
BW YORK CHICAGO
SAN F RAN CIS CO
F'i'rl
fiilL-[S CITY
SCI{COL LIBRARY
FOR MY HUSBAND
Text Copyright
First Edition
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MEDITERRANEAN
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a sea
people' Theywere
nowfarmers.TheirontoolsthattheDoriansbrought
were Greeks.
So, when a Greek traveled through the different citystates, he felt at home. He could speak his own language
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The storytellers recited their poems to the accompaniment of a lyre. The poems the Greeks loved most were
the lliad and the Odyssey (Od-i-see). They believed that
the blind poet Homer had made them up.
The lliad was the tale of the war fought by the Greeks
under the leadership of Agamemnon, King of Mycenae,
against the rich city of Troy in Asia Minor.
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At Olympia, in the Peloponnesus, stood a great temple to Zeus. There, every four years, the Greeks celebrated the Olympic Games, honoring the Father of Gods
and Men.
By 800 n.c. Greeks were trading all over the Mediterranean Sea. At that time Greeks began to leave their
cities. Some went away because the cities were overcrowded and life was not easy for them. some left because they did not like their government'
These Greeks settled in colonies around the Black sea
and on the coasts of Africa, Spain, France, and Italy'
so many Greek cities were built in Southern Italy and in
Sicily that this region was called Magna Grecia-Great
Greece.
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I
It
to the world.
was a mili
Sparta, in the center of the Peloponnesus'
tary state. Its kings were also its generals'
Athens,intheplainofAttica,wasbuiltaroundahill'
of the godthe famous Acropolis. It was the beloved city
dess Athena'
At first, Athens
ilies. Many
wisest man
594 s.c. the Athenians asked Solon, the
among them, to write laws'
In
Solondeclaredthateverycitizenhadtherighttoelect
therulersofhiscity,andtobeelectedhimselfinhisturn.
Andsodemocracy,whichmeansthatthecitizensrule
through elected leaders, was born'
Itwasthefirsttimeinthehistoryoftheworldthat
thecitizenshadthepowerovertheircity'insteadofbeining governed by a tyrant-dictator or a few powerful
dividuals.
Athenian education'
the Athenians were not
As a result of their training,
great thinkers and artists'
only excellent soldiers' but
be beautiful' They
The Athenians wanted their city to
to the goddess Athena'
built the Parthenon , a greattemple
famous sculptor' decorated
on the Acropolis. Phidias, the
temple to Victory' Covit. They also put up a lovely small
and statues' the Acropolis
ered with magnificent temples
Attica'
gleamed under the clear sky of
long walls' enclosThey also fortified their city with
(Pre-ree-us) ' Their maging Athens and its port, Piraeus
( fry-reems ) manned with
'
nificent warships, the triremes
an attack
from
city
the
three banks of oars, defended
by
sea.
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In146s.c.theRomans,fromthewest,tookoverallof
Greece.
of the
Byzantium, a Greek colony, became the capital
later
eastern half of the Roman Empire' Byzantium
adoptedandhelpedspreadthenewreligion,Christianity.
Thecolony'snamewaschangedtoConstantinople'and
center'
for centuries itwas a brilliant Greek and Christian
Ina.p.l453theTurks,whowerenotChristians'came
from Asia and conquered Constantinople and all of
Greece.
For 400 years the Greek people lived under the Turks'
Theyhadlosttheirfreedom,butnottheirprideandtheir
hope. Their songs tell how they fought against despair'
"Mother," says a young boy in one of them' "I can no
go up to the
longer bear to be a slave, without pride' I will
mountains and be a fighter for freedom!"
Inspiteoftheirslavery,theGreeksdidnotforgettheir
languageandtheirreligion'Atnight,thechildrenwent
This
to secret places to learn the Bible and Greek history.
was the "secret School."
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of Europe.
Nauplia (No-plee-a), not far from Agamemnon's Mycenae, was the first capital. In 1833 Athens was also freed
from the Turks. It had become a poor village. But for the
Greeks it still remained a symbol of their past glory. And
so, in 1834, Athens was made the capital of Greece' It
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still is.
And the Greeks celebrate the 25th of March as their
Independence DaY.
Greeks enjoyed their freedom
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First the Italians sent a note ordering Greece to surrender. "No!" said the Greeks. They went up to the north,
to Mount Pindus, to fight for freedom once again. They
were a small army, with few weapons. Even so, they won
the first victory of World War II for the Allies.
But the Germans attacked with their great war machine, and Greece once more experienced bitter slavery.
or by
Nowadays, when you go to Athens by boat
the rooftops
plane, the first thing you see emerging above
Parthenon'
ot ,t r city is the Acropolis, crowned with the
the
The Greeks always loved their Acropolis' During
had been
War of Independence' in 1821, the Acropolis
pleasant'
ing, because the weather is usually very
love
Athenians, like all Greeks' are full of life' They
caf6s' talking
sitting with their friends at the sidewalk
abouteverythingunderthesun.Liketheirancestors,they
is going on all over
are eagerto learn, and to know what
the world.
ot
to
are times when it is easy
there
Athens
modern
In
to have lived in the time of
imagine what it was like
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In all these places the Greeks live and work. They welcome visitors. Hospitality is a sacred thing to them. They
have not lost the tradition of their ancestors, who believed
that a guest was an honor to their house sent by Zeus.
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Christmas.
No one misses the Resurrection Mass on Saturday. At
midnight the priest comes out of the church, calling out
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