Activity

1. Begin by asking if anyone in the class is familiar with the creation story of the ancient Greeks. Allow students to share what they know.
2. Distribute Creation in Greek Mythology. Give students time to review the summary of the creation story at the top and skim over the questions individually.
3. Have students do a think, pair, share with questions 1-3. Give them time to finish their drawings, and then to respond to the reflection question.
4. Help students understand that the Greek myth is based on the idea that humans were cursed with the need to wander the earth searching for their lost half.
5. Then ask students to follow along in their Bibles as you read aloud Genesis 2:18-25. Then have them complete Genesis 2 Reading Guide with a partner.
6. Go over the responses as a large group, helping students recognize the truth that the love between man and woman is not a curse, as the ancient Greeks thought, but rather a gift from God. God created us in His image, with intellect, free will. Free will gives us the capacity to love, that is, to give of ourselves for the good of another.
7. Have a student stand and read aloud verse 24: “That is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one body.”
8. Explain that here the sacred author teaches about marriage, which Jesus elevated to a Sacrament during His ministry. Man and woman were created for each other, to love each other. Marriage is an icon of the Trinity’s self-giving love: the husband gives himself fully to his wife; the wife gives herself fully to her husband; the communion between them creates life. Love is a blessing and a share in the Lord’s divine life, and not a curse.
9. Finally, ask students to compare and contrast the Greek myth of half-humans searching for their “other half” with the reuniting of man and woman into one body in marriage as revealed in Genesis, and analyze the differences on Greek Myth and Catholic Teaching T-Chart.

Answer Key

Creation in Greek Mythology

1. Two persons in one body.
2. Zeus split them in two.
3. Accept reasoned answers.

Reflection Question: It was a curse. The separation of men and women was punishment for rebellion.

Genesis 2 Reading Guide

1. That man was alone.
2. They were not like Adam. Adam, created in the image and likeness of God, was fundamentally different from the animals.
3. He put Adam into a deep sleep and took a rib from Adam to form Eve: “the LORD God cast a deep sleep on the man, and while he was asleep, he took out one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. The LORD God then built the rib that he had taken from the man into a woman” (Genesis 2:21-22).
4. Students may say Adam feels happy, relieved, satisfied, and so forth. His words “This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” show us how he feels.
5. A blessing of creation.
6. God is love. He created man and woman for each other, to love each other.

Greek Myth and Catholic Teaching T-Chart