Classical Kids: An Activity Guide to Life in Ancient Greece and Rome
in the military they received a cloak but no pay For tunately they didn't have to pay taxes during the two years Citizens of Athens were elected to many jobs There was a treasurer of military funds treasurers of the theater fund all poor citizens could apply to the fund to receive money to pay for theater perfor mances and a superintendent of the water supply They were elected to their positions for a term that lasted from one Panathenaea Festival to the next The elections were held in July of each year In Athens there was a law that citizens who owned little property and who were physically disabled and couldn't work would receive money for their support from the public funds Of course there were other important city states besides Sparta and Athens Each was a bit different from the others People in Sybaris in southern Italy put a lot of emphasis on city planning and the citi zens tried to create a pleasant place to live Noisy businesses were prohibited inside the city and city planning created a serene comfortable town It was the only city state where men ate dinner with their wives and good cooks were highly paid People in Crotone another city state valued intelligence too so they built a major medical
oD o ST Greek colonies around Boo soore O EPIC POETRY Not much is known about Greece before the seventh century B C Only legends survive from that time One was a long poem called an epic titled The Iliad written by a poet named Homer He designed it to be recited in public Its about the hero Achilles who fights bravely on the side of the Greeks in the Trojan War When his friend Patroelus is killed by the enemy Prince Hector of Troy Achilles gets revenge by killing Prince Hector The poem was about the loy alty of friends to each other Another famous epic was The Odyssey It was a story about the hero Odysseus who was returning from war bed been gone twenty years but had to overcome witches and giants before he made it back to the island of Ithaca Odysseus used his clever skills to finally get home to the island of Ithaca where his wife Penelope was waiting for him While he was away suitors had come to Ithaca pestering Penelope to marry one of
them Odysseus returned in a disguise murdered the suitors and greeted his son Telemachus who had grown up while he was away Professional reciters would tell the stories by memory to audiences who always enjoyed it when the hero was successful Hesiod was who became a Creek sheepherder a professional reciter of epics He made up some of his own epics and also wrote an almanac called Works and Days which was sort of a calendar It was full of magic and advice about saving money and working hard Centuries later Benjamin Franklin did the same with Poor Richard's
F OP DRESS UP GREEK The Greeks wore simple loose fitting clothing They didn't want to restrict the body with tight garments and they wanted to show off the grace and beauty of their physically fit bodies It was a very warm cli mate and keeping cool was more important than staying warm Women wove the cloth in their homes The type of yarns used in the weaving depended on the family's wealth and status The rich wore linen the poor and those living in the colder regions of the north wore wool No one threw out a garment until it wore out The Greek styles were popular for more than four hundred years and then were copied by the Romans so there were no fashion trends to keep up with CHITON Men wore a chiton an oblong piece of cloth mostly worn draped around the body with a hole in one side to put one's arm through The two ends of the open side were fastened over the other shoulder with a button or clasp A free citizen only boys whose par ents were both citizens could become citizens wore a chiton that fastened at both
