Alberta

- Alberta is one of the Prairie Provinces.
- It is the fourth largest province.
- Saskatchewan is east of Alberta: British Columbia is west.
- The Northwest Territories are north of Alberta.
- The State of Montana is south.
- Alberta was named after Princess Louise Caroline Alberta, fourth daughter of Queen Victoria.
- Edmonton (capital city) and Calgary are the largest cities.
- Alberta's flower- Wild Rose ,tree- Lodge pole Pine , bird - Great Horned Owl, mammal- Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep
- Alberta's motto- "Strong and free".
- It is known as Canada's “energy province".
The PEOPLE
- Alberta is home to over 3.5 million people. (April 2007)
- The largest cities are Edmonton (capital) and Calgary.
- More than half of the people live in these two cities
- Immigrants came from Britain, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, the East and Southeast Asia.
- Ethnic backgrounds- British (44 percent), German, Ukrainian, French, Scandinavian, Dutch, and many other countries
HISTORY
- The first people settled in the area about 8000 years ago.
- In the woodland areas the woodland Cree and Chipewyan tribes hunted moose, caribou and deer, fished and gathered plants and berries.
- They used bark canoes to travel up and down the streams.
- On the plains the Blackfoot, Blood, and Peigan hunted the bison and lived in tipis.
- Anthony Henday (European explorer and fur trader) came to Alberta in 1754.
- Fur traders built trading posts on the Athabasca River and North Saskatchewan River.
- Forts were built to keep law and order.
- The First Nations traded furs and received guns, blanket and metal goods.
- In 1874 The North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) established their first post in Alberta at Fort Macleod.
- Early settler were ranchers from England and the United States.

Canadian Geography

LOCATION

- Canada is on the continent of North America.
- The country stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean.
- The Arctic Ocean is north and the United States is south.
- Canada is north of the 49th parallel of latitude.
- The 49th parallel was chosen as a border from the Great Lakes to the west coast.

Facts

- Second largest country in the world (Russian) Federation is the largest
- Population 33, 212,696 (July 2008 est).
- Capital city of Canada - Ottawa (Ontario)
- Leader of Canada -Prime Minister Stephan Harper
- Emblem- maple leaf
- Flag - red and white with a red maple leaf
- Canada's birthday is on the first of July.
- Animal-the beaver
- Motto-from sea to sea
- National anthem- "O Canada"
- RCMP (ROYAL CANADIAN MOUNTED POLICE) the national police force
- There are six time zones

THE PEOPLE

- Most of the people live in the southern part of Canada.

- About 77 percent of Canadians live in cities and towns.

- The largest cities are Toronto, Montreal, AND VANCOUVER. (2006) Toronto- 5.5 million: MONTREAL- 3.6 million: VANCOUVER

- Saskatchewan is the fastest growing province.

- Canada’s two official languages are English and French.

-More than 9 million Canadians speak French.

- Ethnic groups include British Isles origin28%, French origin23%,other European 15%, North American Indian 2%, other mostly Asian, African, Arab6% mixed background26%
- Canada is the home of a million Aboriginal people.


- Three Aboriginal groups: First Nations, Métis and Inuit


- Eastern Canada: the Maliseet. Algonquin, Iroquois, Micmac, Huron and Ojibwa

-The Plains: Blackfoot, Cree and Assiniboine

- Pacific Coast: Kwakiutl, Bella Coola, and Haida
- Northern regions: Dene, Tsimshian and Slavey peoples
- Arctic region: the Inuit

Land and water

- Canada has the world's longest coastline.

- There are Oceans on three sides- Pacific (west), Atlantic (east), Arctic (North).

- Nearly one-forth of all the fresh water in the world is in Canada.

- Glaciers shaped the land and created many lakes (about 2 million lakes).

- The Mackenzie River (in the N.W.T.) is the longest river in Canada.

- Ships sail inland on the St.Lawrence River (from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes).

- Forests cover almost half of Canada.

- Canada has one-tenth of the world’s forests.

- Mount Logan in the Yukon Territory is Canada’s tallest peak at 5,959 metres.

GEOGRAPHY

- Canada has six main geographical regions: AppalachianHighland, CanadianShield, Arctic, lowlands, Interior Plains, Cordillera


TO BE CONTINUED...

Perseus the legendary founder of Mycenae and of the Perseid dynasty there, was the first of the mythic heroes of Greek mythology whose exploits in defeating various archaic monsters provided the founding myths of the twelve Olympians. Perseus was the Greek hero who killed Medusa and claimed Andromeda, having rescued her from a sea monster.

Perseus was the son of Zeus and Danae. Danae's father, King Acrisius, set Danae and her son adrift on the sea because of prophecy that Perseus would him. The two were taken in by Polydectes, the king of Seriphus. Polydectes later conceived a passion for Danae, but was unable to force his attentions on her because Perseus had grown into a redoubtable protector. To get rid of Perseus, Polydectes sent him on a quest to bring back the head of the Gorgon Medusa, a snake haired maiden who turned all who saw her into stone.

Perseus accomplished his quest with the help of Hermes &Athena. He went first to the Gorgons' sisters, the Graeae, who had only one eye and one tooth which they shared among themselves. Perseus took the eye and the tooth and agreed to give them back only if the Graeae helped him in his quest. They helped him acquire a pair of winged sandals, a wallet or satchel and the cap of Hades; the sandals enabled him to fly, the satchel was to carry the Gorgon’s head, and the cap conferred invisibility on its wearer. Wearing the cap, he approached Medusa, looking only at her reflection in his shield, and cut off her head.

As he flew back over Africa on his way home, he en counted Atlas; in the course of a struggle, he used the Gorgon's head to turn Atlas to stone (thereby) forming the Atlas Mountains. He also dripped blood from the head onto the sands of African desert, giving birth to the deadly vipers of that region. Later in the journey he saw the maiden Andromeda chained naked to a rock by the sea as a sacrifice to a sea monster. He fell in love with her and bargained with her father, Cepheus, for her hand in marriage if he killed the monster. He succeed in slaying the beast, but at the wedding feast Phineus, a jilted suitor of Andromeda, angrily demanded the bride. In the battle which followed, Perseus used Medusa's head to turn Phineus and followers into stone.

Medusa

Medusa was once a lovely young girl who had a boyfriend she loved very much. One afternoon she and her boyfriend were looking for a place where they could be alone, and they went into a temple of the goddess Athena. Seeing that nobody else was there, they sat down to talk, and soon they started to kiss.

Athena, looking down from the sky, saw them, and she was very angry that they would use her temple this way. She made Medusa grow very ugly, and have snakes instead of hair. Medusa's boyfriend ran away, frightened.

After that Medusa went away from other people and hid herself, and she lived with her sisters (who had also gotten ugly) for many years. They were so ugly that if you looked at them you would turn into a stone statue!

In Greek mythology, the Gorgon was a terrifying female creature. It derives from the Greek word gorgos which means “dreadful" while descriptions of Gorgons vary across Greek literature, the term commonly refers to any of three sisters who had hair of living, venomous snakes and a horrifying gaze that turned those
who beheld it to stone. Traditionally, while two of the Gorgons were immortal, Sthheno and Euryale, their sister Medusa was not, and was slain by the mythical hero Perseus.

In late myths, Medusa was the only one of the Three Gorgons who was not immortal; hence Perseus was able to kill her by cutting off her head while looking at her in the reflection of a mirrored shield he supposedly got from Athena.

Some authors say that Perseus was armed with a scythe by Hermes (Mercury) and a mirror (or a shield) by Athena (Minerva) whether the mirrored shield or the scythe, these weapons allowed him to defeat Medusa easily. From the blood that spurted from her neck sprang Pegasus, her son by Poseidon. Other sources say that each drop of blood became a snake. He gave the head which had the power of turning into stone all who looked upon it, to Athena, who placed it on her shield. According to another account, Perseus buried it in the Marketplace of Argos.


According to other accounts, either he or Athena used the head of Medusa to freeze Atlas into stone, transforming him into the Atlas Mountains that held up both heaven and earth. He also used it against a competing suitor. Ultimately, he used it against King Polydectes, who originally had sent him to kill Medusa in hopes of getting him out of the way, while he pursued Perseus's mother Danae.

So the story goes. Perseus returned to the court of King Polydectes, who sat at his throne with Danae. The King asked if Perseus has the head of Medusa, and he replied "here it is" and held it a loft turning the whole court to stone.

The Olympians

The Olympians are a group of 12 gods who ruled after the overthrow of the Titans. All the Olympians are related in some way they are named after their dwelling place Mount Olympus.
Zeus
Poseidon
Hades
Hestia
Hera
Ares
Athena
Apollo
Aphrodite
Hermes
Artemis
Hephaestus


Poseidon is the brother of Zeus. After the overthrow of their Father Cronus he drew lots with Zeus and Hades, another brother, for shares of the world. His prize was to become lord of the sea. He was widely worshiped by seamen. He married Amphitrite, a granddaughter of the Titon Oceanus.


At one point he desired Demeter. To put him off Demeter asked him to make the most beautiful animal
that the world had ever seen. So to impress her Poseidon created the first horse. In some accounts his first attempts were unsuccessful and created a variety of other animals in his quest. By the time horse was created his passion for Demeter had cooled.

His weapon is a trident, which can shake the earth, and shatter any object. He’s second only to Zeus in power amongst the gods. He has a difficult quarrelsome personality. He was greedy. He had a series of disputes with other gods when he tried to take over their cities.


Hades is the brother of Zeus. After the overthrow of their Father Cronus he drew lots with Zeus and Poseidon, another brother, for shares of the world. He had the worst draw and was made lord of the underworld, ruling over the dead. He is a greedy god who is greatly concerned with increasing his subjects. Those whose calling increase the number of dead are seen favourably. The Erinnyes are welcomed gusts. He is exceedingly disinclined to allow any of his subjects to leave.

He is also the god of wealth, due to the precious metals mined from the earth. He has a helmet that makes him invisible. He rarely leaves the underworld. He is unpitying and terrible, but not unpredictable. His wife is Persephone Whom Hades abducted. He is the King of the dead but, death itself is another god, Thanatos.

Prometheus

Prometheus was the son of lappets who was one of the Titans. He tricked the gods into eating bare bones instead of good meat. He stole the sacred fire from Zeus and the gods. Prometheus did not tell Zeus the prophecy that one of Zeus's sons will overthrow him in punishment, Zeus commanded that Prometheus be chained for eternity in the Caucasus. There, an eagle (or, according to other sources, a vulture) would eat his liver, and each day the liver would be renewed so the punishment was endless, until Hercules finally killed the bird. Prometheus is known to be one of the most interesting characters in Greek Mythology.

The two most prominent aspects of the Prometheus myth- the creation of man from clay and the theft of fire- have parallels within the mythologies of many cultures throughout the world.

In Greek mythology, the Titans were a race of 12 powerful deities, sons and Daughters of Gaia (mythology) and Uranus, that ruled during the legendary Golden Age. The males were Atlas, Oceanus, Hyperion,Coeus, Cronus,Crius and lapetus and the females were Mnemosyne, Tethys, Theia, Phoebe, Rhea, and Themis. Their role as Elder Gods was overthrown by a race of younger gods, the Olympians, in the Titanomachy ("Battle with the Titans") which affected a mythological paradigm shift that the Greeks may have borrowed from the Ancient Near East.


Among the Titans were the brothers Prometheus and Epimetheus. To them fell the office of populating the world, and providing their creations with natural gifts. Prometheus, whose name means "forsight"took some Earth and shaped it in the god's image. He named his creation Man.

Epimetheus, whose name means "hindsight" gave little thought to his work. He squandered the physical gifts on the lower animals. He gave wings to birds, powerful teeth and claws to lions and bears, and swift legs to horses and deer. When Man's turn came, nothing remained.

Prometheus invented a new gift, and he gave it to the human race. It was Intelligence, and it was better than all the others. It set our race above all the other animals, and gave us dominion over the land. That's the entire story of creation, as other Greeks tell it.

We, however, know the truth. Prometheus created at least one other race, and we believe there are more. We will look for them and, if they exist, we will find them. We will greet them as brothers and sisters, and welcome them into our nation.

Hercules

Hercules was half man and half god. His father was Zeus, the king of all the gods. But His mother was a mortal. But he did not know he was part god for quite while

Hera, Zeus' wife ,was very jealous of Hercules. She tried all kinds of ways to kill, including sending a couple of really big snakes into his crib He was just a baby, but Hercules crushed those snakes and barely noticed.

Zeus admired strength . He loved his little son. But he figured that sooner or later, Hera might actually kill little Hercules. To keep Hercules safe from attack, Zeus sent him to live with a mortal family on Earth.

Hercules grew up loved and noble. But he didn't fit in on earth. He was too big and too strong One day, his earth father told him he was a god, well part god anyway.

The rest of the story of Hercules is a series of stories, tasks and adventures, as Hercules earned his way into the heavens, to take his place with the gods.
According to Legend Eurystheus was the mortal cousin of Hercules. When Eurystheus was crowned king of Tiryns ( a little village in the city-state of Argos,Hera helped Eurystheus design 12 Labors(missions or tasks) that Hercules had to complete.


Supposedly, when Hercules had completed the 12 missions, he would earn his immortality. That's what the Oracle at Delphi had said. Actually, the oracle had said, If you complete 12 labors, immorality will be yours. Of course, being an oracle, she never explained what she meant by" immortality" - would he live forever in legend or for real? Hercules never asked.(She would not have told him anyway.)

The truth was that Eurystheus was afraid of Hercules. He did not want Hercules coming after his crown. It would never have occurred to Hercules to do so. But an evil little man like Eurystheus would never have believed that Each time Eurystheus and Hera gave Hercules a task to accomplish, they were sure that Hercules would never live through it.

But Hercules surprised them. He not only lived, he had great adventures, discovered true friends, and rid the world of some really nasty critters.