Wednesday, April 18, 2018
Greek Heroes?
Based upon our hybrid Socratic discussion regarding several Greek Heroes
(Jason/Perseus/Theseus/Hercules), what patterns are you noticing? Do
you now think differently about the labeling of a hero or heroine?
Argue, explain, and defend. Please complete this blog response after our
class discussion.
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I notice how many of the myths follow a similar story structure/pattern of the initial call to action, trials or labors along the journey, outside help, completion of the quest, and sometimes betrayal at the end. I think differently about the labeling of a hero now because not every "hero" qualifies as a true hero by the heroic code, as they often betray who helps them on their quest. Also, the hero's call to action must not be selfish, and has to be for the benefit of others.
I noticed that in the original greek text it is a lot less censored then how other stories play out these heroes. the text shows the hero struggles which is normally a large struggle. In the Disney Hercules, Hercules character is viewed as flawless but in reality he struggles like normal humans. After Hercules kills his family, he is asked to redeem himself by overcoming 12 different challenges. The relation to real life is that in real life after you do a wrong doing, there are many different obstacles you have to overcome to make it right again.
There is usually a tragedy, followed by a realization then the impossible tasks they are assigned to make up what happened. The heroes usually are within the realm of immortality, getting helps from gods as they go along doing the impossible tasks
I noticed that the stories are very repetitive such as how Jason has 7 things he has to do and Hercules has the 12 labors he has to complete. I still think the same about heroes and how they must go through the journey or have a major act to define them as a hero. Everyone paints these heroes out to be great people but they still make mistakes and have bad qualities. Such as when Hercules was getting his feet washed by a King's son and somehow Hercules accidentally killed the son. The king immediately forgave him for some reason, perhaps he was scared for his own life as well.
Reading all of these myths and comparing them made me realize that they are all very similar to one another. It seems like there is repetition with the heroes having to complete these tasks in order to succeed with their quest/ daily life experiences. I think that some of these myths are sad in a way because it seems that each hero loses something or someone they love, and sometimes this is why they go off and complete these tasks and labors, as Hercules did. Between the four myths, I think that Hercules and Theseus are the two that I would personally accept as heroes. Hercules was passionate and pure in the heart, he carried out his labors, and dealt with his responsibilities. Theseus was a heroic myth, along with providing insight into complex and changeable political solutions of his time. Both Jason and Perseus kind of depended on divine magical aid to have success in their conquest(s), and I don't think that Jason really followed the Heroic Code. Overall, I think that it was really interesting to learn more about Hercules because it changed my mindset about him when I read the myth.
A pattern that is shown could be that all the myths are very similar in how the character develops and/ or how they react to certain situations. They all are given non-realistic traits that make them seem more then the average man (which they are) but then they have basic human problems. This shows that they are true demigods, and both the human and god side come into play.
I noticed that when it comes to all of these Heroes stories, they all have some repeating characteristics. They all are raised, go on some journey to achieve a goal, and have to deal with a main antagonist in order to achieve that goal. They all use these figures probably because they are a successful way to tell the story of a hero and to make people understand what makes them so great. The heroes definitely get more phrase than heroines because they are the main characters and they are the ones people focus on, not the heroines.
Both Jason and Hercules had to complete a list of tasks in order to reach their end goal, and all of the heroes work hard and risk their life in the stories. I feel like Hercules' story is the most interesting because it shows the most suffering. He is completing the labors to make up for his mistakes in the past, and in the end he is tortured and decides to die.
After listening to our hybrid socratic discussion regarding a few Greek heroes, one of the main patterns that I found is that all of the heroes have to go through some sort of journey or complete some tasks to achieve what they want. For example, Hercules must go through the 12 labors which proves that he is also a god. These are many different tests of strength that display what traits of a hero are present in Hercules and how he is able to apply them to certain situations. By doing this, the gods are able to see that he deserves to be immortalized and is just like the rest of them, but at the same time he is different from all of them because his traits are so unique. I still believe the thing that makes someone a hero is overcoming one or many great obstacles and the story of Hercules does a very good job of highlighting that.
All of the heros have an element of divine birth which allows them to do great things except for Theseus. All of the heros must complete tasks to earn their glory and are assisted by great friends except for Hercules. Perseus and Jason perform their tasks for their mother and Theseus to reclaim his throne. Hercules does not, he must do his tasks as a punishment for tragedy and he does it without much devine help. I think Hercules is by far the most capable hero. He had the most challenging tasks and did it without much assistance. Theseus is my favorite, though, because not only is he courageous, but intelligence is an aspect of his character as well.
Almost all of Greek mythology shares motifs and aspects of themselves with each other. Many of these stories seem to follow the same script, or follow a basic story with slight changes to each hero. Usually, the hero must complete a set of tasks to achieve what they are wishing for, be it to make up for a mistake in the past or to win back something that has been lost. Another aspect of Greek mythology that is common to see is that the heroes in these stories are greatly romanticized. Heroes rarely have much struggle with the problems that they have to face, and they are completely free of making any mistakes along the way. On top of this, they also tend to be extremely likable by everyone that meets them and they have very few character flaws. This is what makes the more in depth stories like Hercules stand out from the bunch with its in depth exploration of the negative side of his personality and illustrating all that he has done wrong in his life.
I am noticing that although all the heroes in these mythological stories have god like power and strength, they go through very human pain and suffering. Hercules mourns the loss of his family, Jason the loss of his children, Perseus has his mother taken away from him, Theseus has parental issues. They all have very mortal problems or mortal loss and suffering although each of them are heroic or extraordinary in some way. I now see that all though pop culture can portray some heroes as perfect, there is usually more than meets the eye and there is some kind of loss or pain associated with each story and heroine.
Patterns I notice is they don't always get what they want but they don't always have the chance to improve their lives either. Yes i think differently now about the labeling of hero and heroine because they both have very many different qualities but they both include courage. Having courage is huge for a hero.
I noticed that all the myths seem pretty cookie-cutter in terms of plot structure, heroes journey, trials or labors, even how most of them all got outside help to try to get their tasks done. There are a lot of similarities between the four main characters of the myths; they also overall just weren't how great they're perceived through the means of pop culture consumption in the modern era. With Hercules, the Disney movie shows him in a very positive light, not exposing many of his character flaws. There are good qualities of each but it did make me rethink a little bit about how much of hero they all are.
I’ve noticed that they are all very similar with going through very closely thought out tasks. I’ve also noticed they get a lot of outside help that they mostly take advantage of. Another similarity is not everything is always good for them. They tend to do bad things and have sad stories as the majority of there “hero’s journey”. we always think of hero’s as these big string people to look up to who are in for the greater good but we never think about there weaknesses or there selfishness
The stories all consist of heroic journeys that are helped out by the gods. The stories all have this element of trials and completing each one to finish the journey, like hercules and the 12 labors, Perseus and the journey to find medusa, jason with the trials leading up to finding the golden fleece, and theseus' challenges to defeat the minotaur. I think these stories all have romanticized views of the heroes/heroines, so it makes them look like they are gods.
The patterns that I have noticed that connect all four of these heroic myths are how all of these heroes must persevere through countless obstacles to get to where they were. In these myths, the audience gets to see the darker side of the hero. It can make the myth more relatable to the audience than if the hero just has a perfect life with no struggles. If these texts were written today, the language would be much different and the plots could be completely different. These myths do a great job portraying the tasks that all of these heroes have to complete.
There are a few patterns that I am noticing. For example, the fact that Hercules and Jason both have to overcome challenges is very similar to get what they want in the end. I do think differently about labeling a hero. Hercules was very troubled and once one digs deeper into the story, one could see that is darker when you go deeper than just the plot. Jason's myth also ends in a terrible way. I would think differently of a hero if he slaughtered the innocent like Hercules does.
The patterns I have noticed are they are mostly the same storyline, their flaws, and labors. They all have the storyline because they all find out they have something that they want to get back to. Hercules wanted to be free of Hera and his murderous acts, Jason wanted his kingdom back, Perseus wanted his mother back, and Theseus wanted to retrieve his sword and sandals to show him of his royalty. Hercules laws included his knowledge which led to many mistakes also the killing of his family, Jason when he cheated on his first wife, Theseus leaves love behind and causes his father to commit suicide, and Perseus accidentally turned a Titan into stone. Finally all of them had some sort of labor to deal with before finishing their journey Hercules had 12 labors, Jason had 7, Perseus had a few, and Theseus had some as well. This just proves that they are mostly the same story line even if they are all different heros and in different years.
The patterns i have noticed most are based off the same story line, a hero and their flaws and all the hard work they do in order to gain people trust, and their labors. for example Hercules and Jason both and something they needed to cover come.
The patterns I'm noticing is that each of the heroes are trying to redeem themselves from doing something that they regret. I think differently now about how the labeling of a hero or heroine by the people that our in our culture today that we call heroes that are not immortals. They live their everyday lives the way they want to live. In Greek Mythology, the heroes were given a second chance after what had happened. They would go through a lot of trials to try to redeem themselves for what they had done. In Hercules, he did his 12 labors which showed that he was redeeming himself for killing his family.
The patterens that I noticed were Hercules and Jason embrace there flaws. They work hard always to represent there selves in a good manner even though they don't have the best life.
Parallels I am seeing through all heroic stories is the basic goal of proving ones worth to a divine figure. Each hero has selfish desires to gain recognition for their heroic actions that would provide a pathway for them to get what they selfishly desire. As a result of this all heroes have ulterior motives where they do things for other people only to benefit themselves in the end. What differs in this world of greek mythology is the redeem ability of each hero. Chances are given to them multiple times where in the real world multiple chances are not naturally provided.
Common patterns that are noticed in these stories is that they follow the same rules. Sometimes the hero may upset the gods so the gods present them with a trial, sometimes the hero must rescue someone or something of great importance, sometimes the hero goes on a quest to seek honor and glory through their actions and through gaining this recognition they may gain hubris and that would snowball into a lot more things. These stories become predictable and no matter what the hero does, they are made out to be a hero rather than for what the possible misdoings in their past have been they always seem to redeem themselves.
When looking at the myths I notice the myths all seem to follow a very interesting and similar pattern. The pattern is started off by a call to action followed by trials and labors that are set up along the journey that the hero takes. There is some form of outside help whether it’s a god in the case of Perseus or a prophet that brings down the will of the gods like in Hercules. Or there is an influence that a god causes like in Jason. They end up completing their quest with some sort of betrayal at the end. Now that I look over the information that has been given to me I look at things differently based on the fact that not every hero is in fact a true hero. The hero’s code. The guiding light that shows me this and the fact that there are heroes that end up betraying who helped them in the first place. Overall shows how my views have shifted.
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