Greecian Heroes!!

All the cultures around the world have its own heroes, and also Greece have its own heroes too.
These heroes where very special because each one had his own specific quality, let's check some examples and famous cases:

Achiles: Was a great warrior, an incredible strategist who won millions of battles and was known as "light feet" because he was really fast.
He was one of the principal warriors on Troya's battle and was the principal character of Homer's Iliad, described as a strong man who can't be defeated by anyone, but, ironically he was killed by an arrow in his ankle (maybe his only weakness), and that's what we say "Achiles' ankle" as a reference of weakness.

Odysseus: Was probably the smartest hero in all greek history, he invented the "troyan horse", the strategy that gave victory to greecians over troyans. He was king of Itaca and a great oceans traveler. He's the principal character of Homer's Odyssey.

Jason: He was a mitologic greek hero known because he was the capitan of The Argo, an amazing ship, full of warriors called The Argonauts, brave men who fought a lot of battles and they always came back victorious.

There's another awasme heroes as Theseus, Paris and Perseus; the matter with this storys is that we don't know if they were truth, all of they are explained in books, but are preserved in greecian's oral tradition.

One of the most famous greek hero was Hercules, he was the son of Zeus and Era that was kidnapped by Hades and converted into a mortal. He lived on earth and tried to being a good person, using his divine strength as a superpower.

Here's a video of Hercules' movie by Disney that gives us a little explanation about the past of Hercules and the true definition of "hero".




This is another video of Disney's Hercules that talks about Hercules/Zeus principal enemy: Hades, the god of the death.




As a conclusion, we can say that greek heroes were just "simple humans" that defended the society values and tried to save the world from evil: they were the first heroes of all history!!

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By: Eliana Moreno

TOURISM IN GREECE

In this article I am going to talk about any tips before you travel to Greece.




The first tip is about transport, Olympic Airways has flights between several cities and islands. On public transport the busses and taxis are the most popular way. If you want to travel on train, this is cheap but is very slow. One important network of ferries connects to Greece with any islands. You can rent a car but it is very expensive.




The second tip is that the best seasons for visit Greece are spring and autumnare because in this time you can find fewer tourists and the climate is not very hot. This season is presented from April to June and from August to October, how this time is without tourist, all thigs are cheaper and is most easy to find a hotel.



The third tip is that the only document that you need is the national identity card or passport force. If you are a citizen of European Union, you can remain without visa.




The penultimate tip is that you can to use a credit card in big islands but if the island is little you should to pay all things with cash.




And the final tip is that you can arrive to Greece by air, by land or by sea.
By air: Greece has 16 airports and has links with all big cities of Europe.
By land: In car you can go inside to Greece.
By sea: If you want to go to Greece by sea you should to catch the ferries from several Italian cities.

BY: NATALY PRADA ACOSTA

ANCIENT GREECE: ENTERTAINMENT

ANCIENT GREECE: ENTERTAINMENT

The Greek entertainment was represented by the culture and sports, you know, Greece it’s the Olympic Games cradle and the place of one of the most representative Athenian productions: the Theatre.

What did Athenians look for in the theatre? They loved theatre and they was involved in this through some festivals and representative stores for both earn money and make happy the audience, they inherit from classical Greece including Tragedy and Comedy.

The wardrobe for the presentations was really elaborated, why? The actors had to dress special masks for trying to look like the mythology’s gods; they added painted backdrops and elaborate costumes. But that’s not all, they had to practice a lot for the presentation, they studied the character, moves and facial expressions, they developed plotting and characterization.

About the topic of performance, it generally was the comedy based on politics figures and important people.

What can we say about sports? They see the Olympic Games like a religious festival in honor to Zeus, so seriously and with a little bit of events, selected sports and selected players. The games were held every fur years like now, with different intentions; today we see the Olympic Games just for enjoying and somebody used it to earn money and forget the real sense of the games: unite everybody and remember their god.

The music it’s really fun, I attached a little piece of Greek music; you can listen instrumental music, they are so good for acoustic performance and skillful with the guitar; I related that with Andean music in Colombia. Also, you can listen a little performance abut mythology and ancient Greek gods, enjoy it!!!

Source: http://www.discoverychannel.co.uk/

By FELIPE DOBLADO M.

Art related to work

At first, we must know that ancient grecians worked in order to keep two things right: first one, their relationship with gods; second one, themselves (about science, philosophy and arts).

"Greecian Zeus&Jupiter cartoon"

Okay, now that we know the reason, let's check the way.

One of the most important grecian works are their buildings. These huge estructures were built to keep the gods and goddesses close to humans, and greecians named them "themples". But built a big themple wasn't enough, this structure must be beautiful because gods will live there; so ancient greecians weren't just an excelents builters, they were an incredible architects

Here is an example, this is the Temple of Hephaistos, located on Athens.

Takenf from: http://www.crystalinks.com/greeksacredsites.html

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Being a writter or a philosopher was one of the most respected jobs on Greece, and they used written forms different from "narrative" ones to publish they investigations/creations: poetry and play (and here we can find jobs like "actor").

Some famous philosophers like Socrates, Aristotle or Plato just wrotte things for they students, but another persons like Homer, Euripides and Sophocles wrote stories about their culture, and made it interesting by plays in honor to the god of wine: Dionysus.

*Important data: Women did not make part of grecian philosophy or plays, important women were princesses or mythical (like Goddesses or Nymphs). Normal women worked like midwifes or farmers, or were at home.

Here are "The muses", grecian say that they are the inspiration of artist and scientist

"Disney's muses version (c) Hercules 1997"

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Work for art, art for work, grecians understood that art isn't just a way to "dream" and being expressive, it can be a form to live, and live happy -with money-.

*By: Eliana Moreno*

About Familiar Traditions

Nowadays, grecians don't look diferent from other cultures of the world, I mean, everyone uses jeans, tennis or shirts; we choose our names by famous events/persons and forget the importance of a gift's sense...but let's check out why grecians still being unique about their traditions.

There are 4 topics about grecian traditions:

1. Antique customs: 21th century they look like everyone else but in the past, they used clothes composed by some kind of sheet rounding all their bodies...that is a past thing but grecians still thinking that their culture must be respected, so in grecian plays the actors must use that antique style. Is a tradition go with the family to see this kind of show.

2. Clindren names: Parents honor earlier generations choosing the names of the grandparents for their kids. Is a tradition that the first name have been taken from his or her grandparents, and the middle name could be taken from child's parents.

3. Newbornings: When a baby is born, the family must give him or her some gifts, because this is a moment of incredible happiness and joy. Most common gifts are some gold or silver coins. The goal is to wishing luck for the new baby, they expect that he/she will be succesfull for the rest of her/him life.

4. Religious celebrations: Marriage, baptims and death ceremonies are really important into grecian traditions. Allways the grandfather (or father when grampa is dead) must give a speech before the ceremony; all family must be present and there are similar rituals to Ortodoxian Curch ones.

By: Eliana Moreno

Customs and tips

In this article I’m going to talk about customs of Greece and tips for tourists in this country, so I hope the next information enriches your general culture.

The first topic is about strange things that happen in Greece, for example in this country is very unlikely that anybody eats alone in a restaurant or in a pub, he needs to be with someone and the waiter mustn’t to ask you for the order before all your guests have arrived, even though fortunately! in tourist places this has changed.

The second topic is about paying cash, if the Greeks go to any restaurant, they should to pay with cash, not with cheques and credit cards, as a matter of fact they always have money enough.

The third is that any tradition of Greece is that most Greek parents build a house for each daughter and not for their sons due to they suppose get married with a girl who will get a house form her parents.

The final topic is about the tips for tourist in Greece, if you want to enjoy having a marvelous holidays, you should have a piece of a beach paying a sum of money, this sum depends on where the beach is situated and what kind of resources have this place, like a pubs, toilets, showers and more there are. The rent of beaches pieces is considered a good job in Greece. Other tips is that if you want to see a church or a monastery of Greek, you must be with appropiate clothes, you must cover your shoulder and knees.

By Nataly Prada Acosta

About Ancient Greek Families!!!

ANCIENT GREEKS: FAMILY STRUCTURE AND ROLES

The structure of ancient Greeks families was so important for them culture, why? Because social life, include politic and economic, turned around family. Everyone person in the family played an important roll that I am going to describe next:

FATHER

He was the worker; he spent time at landscapes with animals and other economic activities. The work includes a lot of things, such as crops, sailing, hunting and manufacturing. Greece culture was so macho in everything, at parties the man was the person who drinks all that he wanted; men could chose the wear (women could not) and one of the most important: the player and the famous participant in Olympic Games. When a man had a son, he had to be naked and carried his child, in a ritual dance, around the household.

MOTHER

They had very limited freedom outside the home. They could not assistant to parties, just funerals or something related with religious festivals. What was the role? She was the responsible of the house, she had to run the house and bring up children, but they did not do like a wife house, ancient Greek women had slaves. In Olympic Games, they only could play chariot racing but only if they owned the horse.

CHILDREN

Children were youth under the age of 30. Their role did not have importance, they had to help their mother, and help in the fields, if necessary. What did they love to do? Played with many toys, clay animals and stick horses on 4 wheels, with yo-yo’s and girls preferred to play with dolls.


In brief

Greek families were so religious; they believed in a lot of “gods”, they were polytheist. Zeus was one of the most important gods at Olimpia with Demeter and her daughter Persephone. They had some ritual routines based on mythological situations, they believed in deities and legendary characters.

They were so different like us, cultures change and people change. Traditions at eastern are really different with western traditions, it depends at the history and maybe legends.


By Felipe Doblado

Our profiles!!!!

Bout Felipe...

My name is Felipe Doblado, I'm 18 years old and I'm studying Agroindustrial Production Engineering at "Universidad de La Sabana"

I love to play volleyball with my friends and go to the cinema, it's my passion...Sometimes, I like to dance with my college friends but the prefer to go to the bowlarama, it's funny but I love music, dance and sing (at the shower)...

About english culture, I love it, because you can increase your mind and I think that it's important to know about everything and english would let you to meet a lot of things around you including culture and countries...

I want to be the best engineer and if I can, help a lot of people with job or something like this because we are here, at the earth, for helping everybody...everybody needs a "friendly hand"...

Finally remember that: "too much never is too much, we have to do more, more and more!!!"

See you!!!

Bout Elyana...

My name is Eliana Moreno, I’m 17 years old and I’m studying Audiovisual and Multimedia Communication at "Universidad de la Sabana"

I’m a totally crazy girl who loves sing, read and write –fairy stories and stuff like that-. I hope to become into a famous rock singer that can direct her own music videos.
I love speak and sing in English, I think that do it is easier that speak and sing in Spanish (don’t ask why because I don’t know it), so I’m always interested about learn more and to be better every day.

I’ve said I love write, sing and read but more than that, I love to make AMV’s about cartoon shows which likes me the most. I love post on on-line forums and create web pages, I love the anime too and visit web sites with fan arts and things like that.
If you want to find me, you can do it in front of a TV, I always spend my time watching it because I love discover uncovered things and find out the real message of the shows I’m seeing.

The thing is that I love cartoons! Yeah, I do it and I don’t care if the people say that cartoons are only for kids, because that is not true. My favorite shows are ones created by Mr. Butch Hartman like Fairly odd parents and Danny Phantom…you can say that I know all about that TV programs…and some things of Mr. Hartman.

Finally, here is my homepage: http://groups.msn.com/APOCOdeButchHartman it is on Spanish but there you can see me working on layouts, graphics and narrative information on-line.

I hope you like our blog…and before say goodbye, I want share with you the words of Mr. Warburton (creator of KND Kids Next Door) have given to the world: "Stay young!"
See you!

Bout Nataly...

I am studying Industrial Engineering at the University of the Sabana, I am in 5th semester and I study this career because I would be able to work in big industries and companies. I live in Chía with my mother, my father, my brother and my dog. My brother is studying sociology, my mother works in an office, and my father works here, in the University. We are living in a house of 3 floors very big.

I love listen to music and read comics, my favorite food is pizza and in my free time I play with my dog. In the future, I would like to work in big industries or teaching.

Also, I would like to travel for different places of the world, I absolutely love travel on bus because I can know different places and find new cultures, when I travel I prefer that my destination is in warm weather and go to places where I can have direct contact with nature.

I like to be with people that I can trust and I love going to parties with my friends. I hate people who say lies and are not faithful.