PROCESS

WRITERS

You are going to explore how legends and myths are born and prepare a game to illustrate this cultural mechanism.

To do so, 3-4 children who are good at storytelling leave the room (so as not to hear what is happening in the classroom). While they are out, one person tells the rest of the class the myth of Zeus and Europa. The task of the students is to listen carefully and remember as much as possible.

When the story has been told, one of the storytellers comes back to the classroom and a volunteer from among other students tells the legend. When he / she has finished, another student is asked to come back to the classroom and the one who was listening now tells him/her the legend, paying attention to all the details.  The situation is repeated until all the students waiting in the corridor are back in the classroom. The last person tells the legend back to the whole class. Each time students must be warned that they need to pay attention so as to remember as many details as possible.
 

Accoring to the legend, somewhere on the Asian shore of the Mediterranean, around where Lebanon is now situated, there lived a princess called Europa. Her father was king Agenor.

One night, Europa had a dream. She dreamt that two women argued about her. One, called Asia, wanted her to stay where she was. The other one got an order from god Zeus to bring her close to the sea.

Next morning, Europa was on the shore, picking flowers. Suddenly she saw a huge, gentle, white bull. It behaved so well that Europa thought he was completely tame and eventually sat on his back. As soon as she did so, the bull jumped into the sea and started swimming very fast. She was too scared to jump off and so she let the bull carry her away. On the way, the bull explained that he was in fact Zeus, a got, and that he only took on a form of an animal.

Having abducted Europa, Zeus took her to the island of Crete and married her there.

ACTORS

You are going to prepare a stage adaptation of the Zeus and Europa myth. To do so, you are going to work on a script, distribute the roles, gather all the props and elements of costumes and prepare elements of the setting.

You are going to make necessary rehearsals and finally present the show to the rest of the class.

ICT EXPERTS

You are going to work on a multimedia presentation dealing with the facts on Europe’s origins and its name. To do so, you are going to refer to the encyclopaedias to learn about how Europe came to be, to the atlases to find outline maps of Europe and Asia and mark places such as Lebanon, the Mediterranean and Crete. You are going to use all this information in your presentation, which is then going to be shown to the rest of the class.

ARTISTS

You are going to explore visual materials on the Europa myth. The name of the continent comes from the name of a princess who married the king of the gods – Zeus. This myth provided inspiration to a variety of artists from different countries. Find some works of art that were inspired by this myth. These could include for example: paintings, drawings, sculptures, theatre plays, operas, pieces of music. Try to present the myth using a form of comic and then try to present artistic inspirations of the myth using a form of a poster (choose a technique that best suits your needs).