Staff of the Gods
Staff of the Gods
With the Staff of the Gods, you can have the lightening bolt of Zeus, the horn like bi-dent of Hades or Poseidon’s classic trident all in one scepter. First, let’s learn about these gods!
Zeus (Jupiter to the Romans), Hades (Pluto) and Poseidon (Neptune) are the top three male gods of the ancient Greco-Roman pantheon. They are all the children of the ancient titans Chronos (Saturn as the Romans called him) and Rhea (the Mother-Goddess).
As the myth goes, Chronos heard a prophecy that he would be overthrown by one of his children. To solve this problem, he decided it was a great idea to eat all his all children. After all, who can lead a rebellion from inside his stomach, right?
After eating five of the kids, their was only one left, Zeus. His mother simply could not allow Chronos to eat every last child. So, Rhea feed Chronos a rock wrapped up in blankets to look like a baby. He must have had some really strong teeth!
Then, baby Zeus was hidden away from Chronos.
When he grew up, he came back to confront Chronos. He feed him a nasty drink that caused Chronos to vomit up Zeus’ godly brothers and sisters. Together, they battled the titans and took command of the world.
Now that the gods controlled things, they decided to divide up the spoils.
Zeus became the top god and ruled over Mount Olympus, the home of the gods, as well as the sky. He is sometimes shown holding a scepter, as in this statue above, because he is “king” of the gods. You may also notice the eagle in the statue, that is one of his symbols as well. Additionally, he is associated with bulls and controls lightening bolts, like the Norse god Thor. (Check out our Norse crafts, like Thor’s Hammer, to learn more about him.) For the Staff of the Gods, we are combining his powers over lightening and his scepter to make one really cool staff.
Hades became ruler of the underworld and the spirits of those who had passed beyond the mortal world. He carries a horn like bi-dent, but unlike Zeus’ lightening bolt and Poseidon’s trident, it has no magical powers. On the other hand, he does have a magical helmet, which makes the god or person wearing it invisible. Hades is also associated with the three-headed dog Cerberus. You can see both his staff and the dog in this picture. Print out the drawing of him and color it in as bonus!
We can not forget Poseidon, god of the oceans and the seas. As you can see in this mosaic, he is often depicted in a chariot drawn by horses. That’s because Poseidon is also the god of earthquakes and horses. Some of his other symbols are dolphins and fish and he is famous for his trident (which we will be making).
So, let’s get to the crafting.
Staff of the Gods
Check out the Video or follow the directions:
Supplies:
- Templates (Lightening Bolt, Bi-Dent, Trident)
- Wooden Dowel
- Rope, String, Ribbons (you can vary these based on what you like, we used nautical rope, gold string and faux leather)
- Paint (Colors may vary based on what you like, we used black, gold, metallic blue and metallic red)
- Cardboard tubes (3 toilet paper or 1 paper towel tubes)
- 3 Large pieces of cardboard
- Tape
- Glue gun and glue sticks
- Scissors
Directions:
Step 1: Gather the supplies and print out the templates.
Step 2: Paint the dowel and set it aside to dry.
Step 3: While the dowel is drying, cut out the templates. Tape them on the cardboard and trace the shapes onto the cardboard. When you finish lift the templates off the cardboard. You may see gaps in your tracing, go ahead and fill-in in those spots freehand.
Step 4: Cut out the staff heads.
Step 5: Paint the staff heads in your chosen colors. Set them aside to dry.
Step 6: While they are drying, size the cardboard tube on the end of the dowel. If you are using a longer paper towel tube, cut it so you have three equal sections. If you are using a toilet paper roll tube, you can skip that.
- Slice open the cardboard roll. Wrap it snuggly around the dowel.
- Make a mark where the two sides of the roll meet.
- Cut off the excess cardboard.
- Place the tube back onto the dowel and tape it together so it fits snuggly on the head of the dowel.
- Next, make a small cut in the re-sized cardboard tube. This will allow it to have a little wiggle room to come on and off the dowel as you switch staff heads.
Repeat this process two more times so you have a mount for each of the staff heads.
Step 7: Paint the cardboard tubes to match the templates
Step 8: When the cardboard tubes are dry, under adult supervision, glue your chosen rope, string or ribbon to the cardboard tubes. Do not glue the string on so tightly that it makes the cardboard tube smaller, or it will not fit on you dowel.
Step 9: Attach the staff head to its matching cardboard tube by bending the flaps on each staff head and placing them into the tube. Then apply glue to the inside of the tube to hold the staff head in place. Do this for each of the three staff heads.
Step 10: Attach your staff heads to the top of the dowel, you can change them out as you like.