Nabis: The Tyrant

Nabis was a man who really really wanted gold, so, he invented a few disgustorous ways to get peoples money. One of the most clever(but disgusterous) ways to, was to first be very very over-polite and then ask them nicely if they would give Nabis all his money. And then if they said no, take them to see a statue which had springs in it, then when the unfortunate man was close enough, the statue would move and put its arms around him, very tightly. On the other side of the statues arms, there were sharp knifish things that cut into the man, and then, if the man still refused then he would slowly bleed to death.

The Sphinx’s Riddle

There was once a man called Œdipus who was doomed to kill his father, marry his mother and bring destruction on his family. When he heard this he was so upset that he decided to leave home and never come back, so, on foot, he set out to find his fortune. He walked a while, and then he came to a city, the city was in a panic, he asked someone what the matter was and he replied that the reason was that there was a Sphinx a little bit outside the city, and whenever anyone tried to get out of the city, he would ask them a riddle and if they got it wrong he would kill them. Œdipus thought he could guess the riddle and set off to try his luck, when he got there he was asked the riddle “What Creature walks first on 4 legs, the two and then finally 3.” Œdipus thought awhile and then said that it was man! Because man walks first on four legs(when its a baby) then on two legs(when its grown-up) and finally on three legs, when its and old man and needs a staff to hobble on. When the Sphinx heard that he guessed right he started to try and get away but Œdipus drew his sword and the sphinx backed away and fell of a cliff, land on sharp rocks and was cut to bits.

Theseus Visits the Labyrinth

Minos, a king, forced the Athenians to send a shipload of children to his island to feed his minotaur. The minotaur  was trapped at the end of a labyrinth. Many brave men had tried to kill the minotaur, but they either found the minotaur and got killed or didn’t find it and got lost in the labyrinth and starved. But, one time a warrior called Theseus went to the island and killed the minotaur and got out of the labyrinth by means of a long thread.

Milo of Croton

Milo of Croton was a very very strong man who, obviously, lived in Croton. When he was little, he wanted to be strong so he practiced lifting big weights everyday. When he was a teenager he kept a pet calf, and every day he would carry it a few miles and by the time it had grown into an ox, Milo could carry it easily. Once, to please his friends, he carried a large ox 5 miles, and then, felling hungry, killed it with one blow of his fist, cooked it and ate it!!

The Man called Chilo

Once there was a man called Chilo who had a very athletic son who was very good at sport and the Olympics and stuff. So one day he had won lots of prizes, and when he showed them to his dad his dad was so overjoyed he died.(!!!!!!!!!)

Socrates’ Favourite Student

When Socrates wasn’t working, he usually taught his students, he had few favorite sjoodints but his main favorite was a strong, handsome young man called Alcidades. Alcidades was a rich young orphan who had many “friends” who flattered him all the time. But Alcidades never acted posh and boastful around Socrates though, he always wanted to learn more stuff so he wanted to please his teacher.

Socrates

There was one a man named Socrates who was a simple man who worked in the fields all day to came home to a simple meal in his simple house, then he would go to bed in his simp…. yeah alright thats overdoing it a bit. He was a simple man with a simple household, in his spare time he would always study and read books and stuff. He always thought that you should always be gentle and kind to every one, even if they’re mean to you. He got a chance to practice this every day because his wife was a cross, grumpy woman, and his being meek and patient made her even more grumpy. In fact one day she was so cross with him, that she grabbed a jug of water and tipped it on him!! But then he just brushed the water off and said “After thunder comes the rain.”

The Sword of Damocles

There was once a king named Dionysius who had everything he wanted and he was really rich and all that, but, he was always in constant fear that someone would murder him because he was very mean and had made many enemies. Another man, Damocles, visited him every day to flatter him and stuff, was very poor and didn’t have much to brag about so he basically wanted to be the kings friend. Anyway, one day Damocles visited the king and said “Oh if only I could be a king for just one day(hint hint.)” Then Dionysius said that he could swap places if he wanted, so Damocles got to eat the finest food and get the best entertainment for the day, but in the middle of the day, in the middle of a laugh he suddenly looked up and saw that an unsheathed sword was dangling above him by a single horse-hair. Then he jumped off the couch and refused to get back on even while Dionysius urged him, then the tyrant told him that a person always in fear can never be happy-an explanation which Damocles immediately understood.

The First Plays

In the early days of Sodon, men used to dress up and dance and sing in the street. So many people liked to watch them dance and sing, that often, there would be a small crowd of people watching. So, the king of Sodon built a huge amphitheater for them to perform in. The theater was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo big, that 30′000 people could fit in it.(Is that bigger than the Suncorp® stadium Dad?) Sometimes the play was so funny or sad that the people would LAUGH! or cry.

The Girls Games

In Greece, women didn’t usually appear in public, but when they did they did sport and stuff. Men did sport too, they had a race called the torch race, what you did was, you all got a lighted torch, and you ran around the track and tried to get to the end without having it go out. Once there was this guy who won lots of prizes and showed them to his dad and his dad was so happy he died!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Messenian War

The Spartans had a close neighbor called Messenia, Messenia had way more fertile soil than Sparta so the Spartans got jealous. They waited for some excuse to make war on them because they didn’t want to make war on them for nothing! So soon they had an excuse, the Messenians had stolen some of their beautiful women to get married to. So then the Spartans got their soldiers and raided Messenia and took over it. (tst tst!)

The Adventures of Jason

Once there was a country that had peaceful people living in it UNTIL…… A mean guy came and drove all the people out because he wanted the gold and precious stuff that there was lots of, for himself. The people all got in their boats and sailed away to some nearby islands where they built a city and gathered an army, the leader of the army was called Jason. Then they all got into warships and sailed back to there home country and wiped all the baddies out and settled back in.

The Brave Spartan Boy

When the Spartan boys were trained, they were taught to steal, and were praised when they stole something and got away with it(Huh!?!) Yeah anyway, so one time this kid stole a live fox and hid it in his cloak and brought it to school. So when he was at school it couldn’t get away so it started scratching the boys chest, the boy was very brave and while the fox was scratching the life out of him he just sat there casually until he died. Yipee!

The Founding Of Athens

Long after the Deluge of Ogyges, another Egyptian prince came to Greece and taught the natives there to plant wheat and corn and harvest it. He also taught them to grow vineyards and olives and crush the juice and oil out of the grapes and olives. The women started to make wool clothes out of spun wool instead of rough clothes made of animal skins. The prince built some small cities of his own and then built a large city, first he called it Cecropia in honor of himself (his name was Cecrops) but then he called it Athens.

The Deluge of Ogyges

When an Egyptian first settled in Greece, it was a prince. He found a lovely place where the climate was very nice and there were some people living there already. He taught them how to cook their meat and make houses out of stone. They made great big stone walls, they like the prince so they let him stay with them. They lived happily for years until one day there was an earthquake, the town started to flood, so the people and the prince started to run to the mountains. Lots of people died because they didn’t get up soon enough. In a couple of months the water had sunk into the ground so the people could go back to their homes. They never forgot the horrible thing that had happened so they told it to their children and their childrens children and they called the story the deluge(or flood) of Ogyges (Og-ee-jees(i think)) because Ogyges was the king at the time when the earthquake was.

Early Inhabitants of Greece

The beginning of Greek history is much like a fairytale because the people in Greece didn’t know how to write, so the stuff that happened didn’t get recorded. For a long while they just told the history to their children and their children passed it on to their children and so on and each time it was told, the story changed a bit and it got wilder and wilder and soon people didn’t know when truth stopped and fairytale began.