Jackson's Blog

Today in Western Civilization class I witnessed other groups present their Greek Civilization projects, the first group talked about the different governments that were created, they did this by becoming the leaders that created the different governments and discussed it as if it were a meeting and there were sides; I thought that it was a fun and playful twist to the project.  The next project was performed by Ben and Will and they did the Olympics, they discussed how they started, the traditions, the events, and even reenacted some of them (they were poorly done), but they were able to get the events for the most part correct and they were also fun to watch how they were performed.

Today in my Western Civ class I took a test on the ancient Greeks, the test had questions such as where the Nile was located, what Draconian means, and what aristocrats means.   I took my test in the testing center, and then took it back down to Mr. Schick’s class and then listen to the Beatles the rest of the time.

Today in my Western Civ class my class and I learned about the controversial question if the Odyssey author Homer actually existed once, the debate has been going on for a very, very long time and has yet to reach a conclusion from what I hear about the subject.   We also learned about Greeks democracy and about how the Polis were a fundamental unit, made up of a city state. We also learned that a monarchy is ruled by a single person, Aristocrats are the rich and wealthy people, an oligarchy is a gathering of wealthy groups, and symposiums is when a group of powerful men get together and party/debate politics and discuss thing about the government.

Today in Western Civ my class and I worked on our Ancient Greek Civilization projects.   Our projects include Greek Food, Greek Olympics, Greek Government, Greek Pottery, and Greek Gods and Goddesses.   The projects are due on March 27 th for my class, I’m not sure when the other classes projects are due though.   The project that I am doing is the Greek Olympics with Quinn, we talk about how the Olympics started, why they started, how long they lasted, who was allowed to compete and watch the games, and we talk about the games that were held during the Olympics.   I plan on recreating some of the games later in the week and hope that it turns out well.

1. About ten years 2. 2 weeks 3. 1,200 BCE 4. Around 650 BCE 5. A long narrative poem; on a serious subject; written in a grand or elevated style; centered on a larger-then-life-hero 6. Penelope 7. Telemachus 8. The Cyclops eats most of Odysseus’s men and curses the rest of his men 9. I don’t think that Odysseus is a hero because he was so selfish in killing the Cyclops that he told the Cyclops his name and ended up getting cursed and got all of his men killed in that single act; he has also slept with several woman that are not his wife and cheated on her several times. 10. And so she too rejoiced, her gaze upon her husband, her white arms round him pressed as though forever