Greek Folklore

BY: JOSELIN VAZQUEZ & SHEILA NARANJO

What is a folklore?

Folklore: the traditional beliefs, customs, and stories of a community,

passed through the generations by word of mouth.
Folklore is a collection of fictional stories about animals and people, of
cultural myths, jokes, songs, tales and even quotes. It is a description of
culture, which has passed down verbally from generation to generation
in any written or oral form. It is also known as folk literature or oral
traditions.
Types of folklore

Following are the major forms of folklore:

Folk song
Folk tales
Fairy tales
Tall tales
Ballads
Folk dramas
Proverbs, charms and riddles
Use of Folklore by Children
What is oral tradition?

Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human

communication wherein knowledge, art, ideas and
cultural material is received, preserved and transmitted
orally from one generation to another. The transmission
is through speech or song and may include folktales,
ballads, chants, prose or verses
Oral tradition is information, memories and knowledge
held in common by a group of people, over many
generations.
"oral tradition" refers to the recall and transmission of a
specific, preserved textual and cultural knowledge
through vocal utterance.
 oral tradition in ancient greece

In Ancient Greece, the oral tradition was a dominant tradition.

The lack of surviving texts about the Greek and Roman religious traditions
have led scholars to presume that these were ritualistic and transmitted as
oral traditions. Fables, myths, and legends were told orally by the traveling
Greek storytellers during the Greek Dark Age.
What is a myth?

Myth: a traditional story, especially one concerning

the early history of a people or explaining some
natural or social phenomenon, and typically involving
supernatural beings or events.
Greek mythology is the body of myths and teachings
that belong to the ancient Greeks, concerning their
gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the
origins and significance of their own cult and ritual
practices. It was a part of the religion in ancient
Greece
Example:
Hermes and Apollo
The Myth of Hermes and Apollo

A myth in Greece was Hermes and Apollo back in the

days when Hermes was still an infant, he once went
out his cradle and started an adventure to Pieria, in
Northern Greece. His aim was to steal the cattle from
his half-brother Apollo.Hermes discovered the herd
very soon. One by one, he started pulling the hoofs
out of the cows feet and re-attaching them in the
reverse order. The same he did to his own sandals.
Then he took the herd, which now seemed to be
walking backwards and hid the herd inside a
cave.Apollo soon found out that his herd was missing
and started searching all around. The traces he saw
on his way were nothing but confusing and led the
god to despair.Apollo returned the gesture by giving
Hermes a golden rod to guide the herds. From that
What is a legend?

Legend: a traditional story

sometimes popularly regarded as
historical but unauthenticated
Legends gave the early Greeks a
common history and common
heroes.
One example is The legend of the
trojan horse
The legend of the Trojan horse

The Trojan Horse is a legend from the Trojan War about the subterfuge
that the Greeks used to enter the city of Troy and won the war. In the
canonical version, after a fruitless 10-year siege, the Greeks constructed
a huge wooden horse, and hid a select force of men inside.Metaphorically
a "Trojan Horse" has come to mean any trick or stratagem that causes a
target to invite a foe into a securely protected bastion or place.
What is a fairy tale?

Fairy tale: a children's story about

magical and imaginary beings and
lands.
Example:
The boy who cried wolf
 The fairytale of the boy who cried
wolf

A boy called Peter lived with his parents in a village on the

hillside. His parents, like most of the other people in the
village, were sheep farmers. Peter was 10 years old, he was
considered old enough to take his turn at shepherding.He
found it very tiresome being on the hillside with only sheep for
company. So hed find ways to amuse himself, running up
rocks, climbing trees, and chasing sheep. Then he hit upon a
brilliant idea. He climbed to the top of the tallest tree, and
started shouting towards the village: Wolf! Wolf! Wooolf!
Woohoolf!.One of the villagers heard him, and got all the
other men together, and armed with axes, hoes and forks,
they ran out of the village to chase away the wolf and save
their herd. Of course when they got there, they merely found
Peter perched high up in his tree, laughing, and the sheep
grazing peacefully. They were very annoyed with him. One
afternoon when Peter was in the fields with the sheep all had
weird behaviors. He got worried and decided to climb a tree
What is a fable?

Fable: a short story, typically with animals as characters,

conveying a moral
Fables gave the early Greeks a common culture, a way of
behaving.
A slave named Aesop supposedly collected about 600 of
these old stories and wrote them down.
Examples:
Androcles and the Lion: (Moral: Gratitude is the sign of noble
souls)
The Ant and the Grasshopper (Moral: It is best to prepare for the
days of necessity)
The Bear and the Two Travellers (Moral: Misfortune tests the
sincerity of friends)
Map of Greece
Paragraph about proverb

proverb: The young wish to be old, and the old

wish to be young again
Age is seen as a label. Seniors have more time to try new things as they get older
because they have more time to do so. They are able to stay young at heart by
developing new interests and passions and keeping busy after retirement. Others see
older people as old, but they see themselves as young. Many people now who are
young wish they can be an older age to do certain things, and people who are old
wish they can be young again to go through their childhood and do all the fun things
they were able to do when they were young. In fact, all of us now wish we were an
older age. If we all ask our parents they would probably say they want to be young
again.
Conclusion

In conclusion, a folklore are traditional beliefs, some different

types of a folklore are fairy tales or folktales. An oral tradition is
a form of human communication knowledge of art or ideas. An
example of an oral tradition is in Greece. A myth is a traditional
story , a legend a traditional historical story, fairytale which is a
kid story about magic or imagination , and a fable which are
short stories with animals as characters. Overall oral traditions
are used for historical and cultural traditions.