Where does your power live?
- Read the three lots in Iliad 15.187–193. Why might a poet divide the world between sky, sea and the dark below?
- Hephaestus forges in secret for nine years (Iliad 18.395–405). Is hidden work less powerful than public work?
FOR TEACHERS · AGES 12 AND UP
Run the 16 Divine Types in class.
Twelve choices, each anchored to a scene from 7 ancient works. Students get a card, the class gets a pantheon, and the discussion goes back to the texts. No accounts, no email addresses and nothing that identifies a student.
- 01
5 minutes: the test
Students open the class link on a phone or laptop and answer the twelve choices. Each choice shows the original scene and its line numbers.
- 02
5 minutes: the pantheon
Each finished card joins the class pantheon through the link. Project it: which god is the class as a whole, and which pole is missing?
- 03
10 minutes: the texts
Pick one axis and read its passage together. The questions below work for pairs or the whole room.
- 04
Extension: argue the placement
Every card page explains why a god sits on each pole. Ask students to argue against one marked as contested.
Each student opens the link, takes the test and is seated in the class pantheon. The pantheon lives in the link, not on a server.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Two questions for each letter.
Each question points to a passage students can open in the Perseus Digital Library from the test itself.
How do you win?
- Nestor says the woodcutter wins by mētis, not biē (Iliad 23.313–318). Find a modern example of each.
- Odysseus tells the Cyclops his name is Nobody (Odyssey 9.364–367). When is a trick fair?
Where do you stand?
- Homeric Hymn 29 calls on Hestia and Hermes together. Why pair the hearth with the road?
- Demeter searches for nine days with torches (Hymn to Demeter 47–50). Is searching a kind of care?
Who is it for?
- Achilles chooses between kleos and a long life (Iliad 9.410–416). Which would most people in the class choose?
- Odysseus shouts his real name and brings a curse on his crew (Odyssey 9.502–505). Was the glory worth it?