Brooke's+Reports+and+Essay

Essay

The name Athens came from the Greek goddess Athena. Athena means wisdom and power. Athena and all the other gods and goddess got to choose their own city in Greece and Athena and Poseidon both wanted Athens. So Zeus asked them what they would do for the city-state and Poseidon said I will give them all the items for war. Athena said war is not the answer but peace so I will give them an Olive tree and so the Athenians accepted the tree and named the city after her. Athena and the owl were both symbols of Athens. Just like Athena, the owl means wisdom and power. On the Athenian coins they either had an owl or Athena on them. In some pictures of Athena you can see her holding an owl or an owl in the back ground. In Greece another name of an owl is “Athena of the Night."

Athens had beautiful art work. One of the most well known is the Parthenon. The Parthenon was a temple to Athena. Inside was a statue of Athena made out of pure gold. The Parthenon sat on the highest point of Athens, The Acropolis. In the Parthenon there is a forty foot high statue of Athena. Athena is holding a mini figure of Nike, one of her good companions. The statue also is gold. Athens was part of a war against the Persians. The Persians had torn Athens apart so they decided to leave to a nearby island. Cleisthenes was the Greek leader of the war. His idea was to have the battle at sea. Where they were at was very narrow so they only made about 200 boats. The Persians made 1000 boats! The battle was a very difficult battle. The rowers would row 6-12 hours and got sea sick too. Boats crashed into other boats and hit islands. In the end Greece won!! It was an amazing battle. When they got back the city of Athens was ruined. One of the most prized possessions Athens was ruined, the Parthenon, a temple to Athena. It took 15 years for it to be built and they didn't have the tools we have today. How they got the marble up? It's a mystery. But amazingly they did it. Today we are trying to fix it so it doesn't collapse in the future. We still don't know how they did it. By Brooke 404 words