Title
Ancient Greece – The Iliad
Author
Kate Millins, Buckinghamshire
Background

The children attend a rural school with a mixed catchment area - children come
from both the surrounding villages and a local small town.

Most of the previous history teaching had been undertaken using information
books as secondary sources of information and I was keen to use challenging
text material both as a primary source of historical investigation and as a stimulus
for poetry writing. I chose the Iliad rather than the Odyssey as a large proportion
of the class were already familiar with the Odyssey and the Iliad seemed to be a
good source of information about Greek warfare.

The topic of the Ancient Greeks had been started a few weeks previously through
work on time-lines, location and geography of Ancient Greece, city-states and
democracy. The children had also investigated the Greek gods and their
importance in the lives of the ancient Greeks.
Year group - class

The composition of the class changes during each day – in the mornings
(including literacy hour) it is composed of 21 Year 4 children, whilst in the
afternoon 10 Year 5 children join the class to make a class of 31 mixed gender
and mixed ability children.

I chose to do some of the background historical work with the mixed Year groups
in the history lesson followed by literacy work with just the Year 4 group.
Teaching time

Approximately three sessions of about 1 hour (these sessions can be split if
wished)
Learning Objectives (intended learning outcomes)
History


to develop an understanding of the weapons and tactics used in Greek warfare
to be able to read and understand a challenging text and to be able to extract
information from it.
Literacy

to develop the skills of
-
extracting information from a narrative poem
re-structuring the poem
writing poems in different forms,
Key Questions
1
History
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How can we use The Iliad as source material to find out about Greek battles?
What equipment did the Greeks use?
Can we find any information on their armour?
Did they use horses?
Literacy

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What are the features of a narrative poem?
Can you use the same vocabulary as Homer to write a descriptive poem or a
Haiku?
Assessment

the children’s knowledge and understanding was assessed from their oral
responses in class and the drawings and poetry produced.

The poems show the use of new vocabulary, used appropriately.
Resources
1. Extracts from the Iliad, chosen mainly for the descriptions of battle scenes that
included the types of weaponry used and clothing worn.
Six different passages were used so that each group had a different extract.
2. Text 1, which is a description of the confrontation between Menelaus and Paris.
Previous Teaching
Familiarisation with the story of the Trojan War: I read parts of the book Black Ships
Before Troy by Rosemary Sutcliffe to give the children an overview of the main
events and characters in the Trojan War.
The role of the gods became apparent and this led to lively discussion about how
much of this could be true.
The children initially found it hard to remember who the different characters were –
whether they were Trojans, Greeks or gods.
I spent several short sessions using the ‘hot-seat technique’: I wrote the names of
gods, Trojans and Greeks on different coloured card and the children picked a card
to take on the role of that character whilst the rest of the class questioned them.
Teaching activities
Reading - developing an understanding of difficult and challenging texts through
breaking into the text at a word and phrase level, transforming the texts into a visual
form and discussion of interpretations
Writing - using the knowledge gained to create own poems that drew upon existing
understanding of poetic genres.
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LESSON 1: Greek Warfare. History Lesson, Year 4 and 5
Episode 1 Discussion of Trojan War leading to introduction of the extracts from the
Iliad
Focus Scanning poetic texts for words or phrases relating to warfare, vocabulary
bank
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First of all we had a general discussion about the Trojan War and how historians
found the information to put into textbooks. The children made suggestions, e.g.
digging up remains, and I then introduced the idea of looking at literature from the
time.
I split the children into groups of 6 with each group having copies of the same
extract from the Iliad.
Working in mixed ability pairs they then highlighted any words or phrases that
they thought referred to equipment or methods of fighting.
We then collected all the words and phrases as a vocabulary bank on the board.
Episode 2 Visualing the text through transforming it into pictures
Focus Representing the information in pictorial form


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I then asked the children to draw a scene to show what they had found out.
I provided the children with dictionaries to help them with defining some of the
objects referred to. (We found we had to resort to a very large, adult dictionary for
some of the vocabulary.)
The children then visualised the scenes and drew labelled pictures to represent
the information.
Episode 3 Discussion and comparison of interpretations
Focus Plenary – pooling of ideas


The children shared the finished sketches and we discussed them. They realised
that some pairs had more information on their pictures than others and that this
related directly to the text they had been given initially.
We then referred back to the original problem and the children realised that the
materials available to work with limit the accuracy of historical evidence
LESSON 2: Writing descriptive poetry based on the Iliad. (Literacy Hour, Year
4)
Episode 1 Reading a passage describing the fight between Menelaus and Paris
Focus: Building up a vocabulary bank (20 mins)
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I gave the children a copy of the passage from the Iliad describing the fight
between Menelaus and Paris. (See Text Extract).
I read it aloud and we discussed the setting, remembering the story of the Trojan
War. I explained that this time we were focussing on descriptive words used by
Homer.
We thought about types of words in sentences and I put up four headings:
Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives and Adverbs.
Working in pairs the children highlighted nouns in one colour and verbs in
another colour.
These were added to the lists.
Lists were discussed and definitions written by the children at the side.
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(I gave each pair just one word to define and then we pooled our knowledge in
the plenary)
Episode 2 Continuation of episode 1 with focus on adverbs and adjectives
Focus Vocabulary bank (continued in next Literacy hour)

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identification of adverbs and adjectives
completion of lists
addition of a further heading asked for by children of phrases, metaphors and
similes
definitions found and added.
Episode 3 Writing – Using previously assimilated poetic ‘genres’
Focus Individual writing task.(20-30 mins)


Using the vocabulary collected, children were asked to write their own descriptive
poem on the battle of Troy.
Some children wanted to try it as a Haiku straight away (they had been writing
haikus the previous week).
Learning Outcomes


The information found from the texts was successfully displayed as labelled
pictures and this was shared amongst the class.
The children used a wide variety of unfamiliar vocabulary in their poetry writing
and recreated the atmosphere of the battle scene.
Reflection / Evaluation
This series of lessons were very successful – the children were engaged and
involved in all stages. They liked the idea of being detectives and this theme ran
through all the stages; investigating historical evidence and also investigating the
meanings of unfamiliar vocabulary. They could see the purpose of the tasks.
I was pleased with their ability to use the vocabulary to create new poems in the
literacy work – their work showed that they could manipulate the language,
demonstrating a good understanding of the vocabulary they had acquired.
The children were very interested and involved in this work - it could be extended
further by:
1. Asking the children to write a description of the battle as told by a Trojan or Greek
soldiers.
2. Writing different narrative poems in the style of Homer.
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TEXT 1 from
THE ILIAD
Book 3
The Trojan squadrons flanked by officers
drew up and sortied, in a din of arms
and shouting voices – wave on wave, like cranes
in clamorous lines before the face of heaven,
beating away from winters gloom and storms,
over the streams of Ocean, hoarsely calling,
to bring a slaughter on the Pygmy warriors –
cranes at dawn descending, beaked in cruel attack.
The Achaeans for their part came on in silence,
raging under their breath, shoulder to shoulder sworn. (a)
Imagine mist the south wind rolls on hills,
a blowing bane for shepherds, but for thieves
better than nightfall – mist where a man can see
a stone’s throw and no more: so dense the dust
that clouded up from these advancing hosts
as they devoured the plain. (b)
And nearer and nearer
the front ranks came, till one from the Trojan front
detached himself to be the first in battle –
Alexandrus, vivid and beautiful,
wearing a cowl of leopard skin, a bow
hung on his back, a longsword at his hip,
with two spears capped in pointed bronze. He shook them
and called out to the best men of the Argives
to meet him in the melee face to face.
Menelaus, watching that figure come
with long strides in the clear before the others,
Knew him and thrilled with joy. A hungry lion
that falls on heavy game – an altered deer
or a wild goat – will rend and feed upon it
even though hunters and their hounds assail him. (c)
So Menelaus thrilled when he beheld
Alexandrus before his eyes; he thought
I’ll cut him to bits, adulterous dog! – and vaulted
down from his car at once with all his gear. (d)
But when Alexandrus caught sight of him
emerging from the ranks, his heart misgave,
and he recoiled on his companions, not
to incur the deadly clash. (e)
A man who stumbles
upon a viper in a mountain glen
will jump aside: a trembling takes his knees,
pallor his cheeks; he backs and backs away.
In the same way Alexandrus paced backward
into the Trojan lines and edged among them,
dreading the son of Atreus. (f)
HOMER
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EXAMPLES OF PUPILS’ WORK
An example of a descriptive poem
A TROJAN WAR
Spears capped in poisonous bronze
A din of arms
Deadly shouting
Devoured the plains
Cruel attack in the night
Mist rolling on the hills
Advancing warriors
Raging under their breath
Like a hungry lion that falls on heavy game
ALL FALLS
SILENCE
An example of a Haiku
A CHARIOT
Golden chariots
Moving through the misty ground
Pulled by black horses
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