Top Costumes For Halloween 2011 – Get Inspired By Ancient Greece

Still stumped on the best gear to get this Halloween ? Join the club. A lot of people fret about getting a good outfit for the party or trick or treating. You want to get something that creates an impact and isn’t being worn by everyone else. With this at heart, how about a costume which is inspired by the civilization of Ancient Greece ?

The society that we now call ancient Greece reached it’s heights around the 5th and fourth centuries BC. Athens was at the heart of the civilization, despite the fact that it was the capital of just one of the numerous nation states that made up Ancient Greece. There was also the Spartan nation that grew to be infamous for it’s harsh warrior like philosophy.

These nation states regularly fought against one another nevertheless, strangely enough, rallied round whenever Foreign invaders tried to captor the lands. This was illustrated when the nation states assisted one another defeat the Persian empire but within 50 years of this collaboration, Sparta forces sacked Athens. It was a little like sibling rivalry gone mad.

Notwithstanding the relatively violent times, this period is also remembered for the great developments in society, literature, philosophy and science (even though it wasn’t known as science in those days). Many of these advances remain with us at present or were the building blocks for further advances in a wide range of human activities.

One aspect of the Ancient Greek civilization that continues to intrigue us is their gods and goddesses. The key religions that typically dominate our societies nowadays are monotheistic whereas the Ancient Greek civilization had many gods and goddesses.

The Greek gods were often personified and fitted into oral stories that explained some natural phenomena or facet of human life. The people who lived in ancient Greece no doubt derived meaning from these oral stories and it gave them a core regarding how to live their lives.

And given that the gods where personified or given human proportions, they make for excellent costume ideas. They’re sure to give you an inspired look for the Halloween get-together or any fancy dress up event for that matter.

A few of the gods and goddesses that you want to think about dressing up as are those that lived on Mount Olympus. To start with there is Zeus, the king of the Gods. He’s the mightiest of all and commands the climate and lightning.

Zeus has 2 brothers, Poseidon and Hades. Zeus appears to have scammed his brothers as they do not have as much clout as him. Poseidon is king of the seas and all of the critters that live in the oceans. Hades is king or ruler of the underworld – where people go when they’re dead.

There were also a good amount of female gods. In all probability the most renowned one is Aphrodite or the deity of Love. You can even read about Athena. She appeared to be a goddess of many things including war and farming strangely enough.

 

All these gods have a costume committed to them although the basic look is a tunic or toga with diverse adornments and accessories that identify them as the particular god. As an example, Zeus might be dressed in an armor plated chest plate with engraved embellishments of lightning to imply that he’s the god of lightening and thunder. He may also wear a crown to indicate that he is sovereign of the gods.