After many weeks of reading, thinking and writing, we finally had our history presentation on Greece, the Cradle of Democracy.
We began with a feast! Greek salads, stuffed grape leaves (hand made by me and the kids), pita chips with red pepper humuus, shrimp cocktail and mussels with garlic and wine, spinach/feta pastries, red pepper cheese pastries, and baklava.
Then we performed Euripedes' play,
Trojan Women (over 50 pages so not all of our lines were memorized). My kids made the masks. Yes, we had all those parts! Nine of them! Performed by three of us! Crazy? Perhaps, but it's historically accurate! The Greek thespians did this...why not us? Hecuba is the main character and remains on stage for the entire play. My daughter decided she'd rather do the other 4 female parts, which come on stage at separate times and have me do Hecuba. My son played the 3 male parts. My husband isn't into acting, but we told him he had to be the chorus. This is a democracy after all! (Despite our fears that he'd rebel, he willingly took on the part while taking pictures.)
Remember the
Iliad? Our story picks up after the city of Troy has fallen. The women are taken captive. What is their fate? The queen of Troy, Hecuba, lies on the ground...
as Poseiden speaks.
Athene enters...
Hecuba laments the loss of Troy, the loss of her husband and children. Her hair has been shorn due to mourning. (Hence my shorter hair was in keeping with period accuracy, down to all the curls!)
Talthibius, one of the Greek soldiers, enters. He tells Hecuba of the fate of the women. For an enemy, he is rather compassionate.
Hecuba discovers she'll be given over to that vile, slippery Odysseus.
Her daughter, Cassandra enters, rejoicing that she will be the wife of the Greek king, Agamemnon. Hecuba despairs over her daughter's unfortunate marriage.
Hecuba collapses, after Cassandra is taken away by the soldiers. She knows she'll never see her daughter again.
Then Andromache enters with her son, Astyanax. Her husband, Hector, son of Hecuba, had been killed in battle. Andromache tells her she watched Hecuba's other daughter, Polyxena, be sacrificed the dead Greek, Achilles. Andromache gave her burial rights and together she and Hecuba mourn the death of Polyxena. Andromache will go to the son of Achilles.
Hecuba shares hopes that Astyanax will grow strong with her in the home of Achilles' son, and when full grown, will return to rebuild Troy.
Talythibius breaks the news that the baby is to be killed, dropped from the walls of Troy onto the rocks below. (Did I tell you this is a tragedy?)
Andromache kisses her son goodbye...
Talthybias takes the child. However he cannot do the dastardly deed himself, so he hands the baby over to his men.
Enter Menelaus. Outraged. He has come for his wife, Helen, that harlot who started the war.
Enter Helen...who acts perfectly innocent.
Irate Hecuba argues that Menelaus should kill Helen, telling how Helen ignored Hecuba's previous attempts to help her return to her husband. Meanwhile Helen embraces the knees, an ancient Greek custom to beg for mercy.
A soldier (portrayed by my daughter) brings in the dead Astyanax on Hector's shield. (I told you this is Greek Tragedy, right? Where's the kleenex?)
After the play, my husband asked a million questions, all of which we answered! Then we took him to Athens, for a tour of Greek democracy. This is Athens and the Agora, which is the open air, stucco roof covered marketplace supported by pillars. Can't you just imagine it?
Imagine the food that is available for purchase (pantry). Imagine the fountain where women collect water (kitchen sink). We could definitely here the water from the fountain (the furies outside was unleashing a storm that caused a tornado to the west of us.) Here is yarn...(thanks to the Colonial Williamsburg sheep and weaver, except for the purple).
My kids really got into the act with me, as we acted like Ancient Greeks with these props.
I had made up cards telling the story of Greek democracy on these blue strips. On the front I labeled them in ABC order, according to the Greek alphabet.
They were placed around the house, each with a broken piece of pottery.
Here is my cheat sheet!
Alpha-We asked my husband if he thought democracy was a good thing. Oh dear, he was worried. He remembered this conversation somewhere not having a positive spin. We assured him (because we were in character) with gleeful grins, that we liked democracy! Didn't he? Then he lit up, because he thought so too! The card told him to define democracy in his own words. He said, "rule of the people." We could work with that. Why did he think it was good? (He doesn't like all of my Socratic questioning. In fact, I drive most people nuts with all of my questions, so I usually hold back. But for this, he needed to answer!) After we pumped everything we could about democracy from him, we allowed him to follow the final directive on the card, to collect an ostrakon (pottery shard). He picked up the broken pottery and noticed a word on it. He tried to decipher the word but I told him that wasn't important and moved him on. Uh oh, he had an idea it was important.
Beta-This card explained the setting of the Agora and told him to collect an ostrakon because he *had* arrived!
Gamma-This card talked about the history of kings in Greece. Then it said that he grew up with his mother telling him he was descended from one of these kings. Because he was so important, he could have another ostrakon. My husband cheerfully said that it is true, he is descended from a king. I told the kids, "I told you he'd say that." My husband always reminds me to treat him like royalty, so I knew this part would be a thrill for him.
Delta-This card talked about the history of the government moving from kingship to an oligarchy, led by the aristoracy. Since he was one of the aristocracy, he could collect another ostrakon. My husband was feeling really good about being aristocracy, which I knew he would. The plot was unfolding well. ;)
Epsilon-This card talked about Solon's reforms. The card said he was descended from Solon, so he could have another ostrakon. By the way, all these ostrakons have the same name scribbled on them. ;)
Zeta-This card talked about the first tyranos, which was a good thing. Now my husband was really puzzled. We stood there explaining how wonderful the tyrannos was, at least the original one. We told him our ancestors needed this wonderful individual leadership to save Greece. He was highly supported, even though he made all of the decisions. When he died, his two sons assumed leadership one after the other, only for one to be murdered and the other ousted. (Over time, because of the way democracy ended up, the meaning of tyrranos took on a negative connotation and denotation.) Because my husband's family obviously survived these turbulent times, he could have another ostrakon. He was sort of scratching his head at this point. ;)
Eta-Then my husband got this card:
By 487BC, a law was passed specifying that archons were to be selected by lot, rather than election. Eventually selection by lot became the way of filling the other offices. This opened the door for the poor to become part of the democracy, reducing the power of the aristocracy. Eventually the Council of the Areopagus becomes a law court for murder trials. You are one of the aristocracy. Collect an ostrakon.
Wait a minute, he questioned. No more elections? He looked concerned. "Oh", we assured him, "elections were a bad thing. The people did not have a say, because only the aristocracy was voted in to any of the offices. Now anyone can be in office. Well, not us women," I lamented, as I looked at my daughter. She agreed, we had no part in government. Nor did slaves or people who lived outside of Athens. But my husband was in government with the poor people! They were in government together! Something led my husband to ask how much education the poor people had. "None," I cheerfully replied. "What do they need education for? They have opinions and that is what matters. Their opinion should count. This is a democracy, rule of the people, despite amount of money, despite level of education, despite social position. To be part of the democracy they have to be a male citizen of Athens and not a slave. That is all that matters. Isn't that good? You said democracy was a good thing and that it is simply defined as "rule of the people." Um, at this point he was guessing it was a good thing. He was glad to collect another ostrakon, though.
Theta-This card explained that tax money now pays the officeholders, so that the poor have no closed doors to their being a part of the democracy. Of course my husband was the aristocracy, so he could have an ostrakon. My husband wasn't so sure.
Iota-This card said:
Because it’s too difficult to prove before a court that a particular individual posed a threat to democracy, ostracism is instituted. Once a year a person who appears to be a threat can be banished from Athens for 10 years. Collect an ostrakon.
Now we explained ostracism to my husband. He understood what it meant but didn't realize this was common in Greek government. We assured him it was a good thing. "Isn't it a good thing to get rid of trouble makers?" He couldn't argue with that. Well, he went looking for his ostrakon, but couldn't find any. I exclaimed, "What? What do you need with more? Look, he's hoarding all of these!"
My kids jumped into the foray and we gathered really close around my husband. We started picking up the ostrakons from his hand and I cried, "Look! They have writing on them! What do they say?" My son declared, "They all have Kallixenos' name written on them!" I cried out, "He's trying to ostracize one of our good friends! He's going to make people use these when they vote for the ostracism! I think you should all ostracize him!" My kids were all talking about the same thing at the same time and my husband said, "Why don't I know what is going on?"
I told my husband he was set up, just like he could have been in Greek democracy, if they were trying to get rid of him. "Ohhhh, I guess democracy isn't a good thing after all." This is when we stepped out of character to explain it to him. That is why the Colonial Williamsburg Patrick Henry got all fired up when someone suggested that he was helping to form a democracy. In a nutshell, Patrick Henry angrily told us that democracy led to dictatorship. Now things are clicking that we have a republic which is different from a democracy, but that's our next unit.
Then my son started his Alexander the Great presentation,
but he was stumbling over information (it was late) and my husband was literally cracking up (it was late). My son gave up, so we decided to go up for baklava. My husband made a pot of coffee, so that gave time for everyone to settle down. I encouraged my son by saying that he could do an informal conversation with us, just like the interpreters do at the Colonial Williamsburg Tucker House. When we finally sat down to dessert, my son was having a hard time starting things up, so I asked, "So Al, what's up? Where are you at these days?" My son laughed and eased into a presentation that amazed me. His believable audacity shocked his father. Alexander the Great had been told by his mother that he had descended from a god. He was self-assured and invincible. My son was highly believable. Both of my kids shared their informal presentations at the table and did a great job.