Lesson: RL: 1 The Odyssey What is a Hero
Aim: How can an understanding of Greek myths and heroes prepare us for our examination of Homer’s epic poem, The Odyssey?
Do Now:
With a partner, brainstorm and list qualities that you feel belong to a “hero”. Then create a unified, working definition of “hero” to share with the class.
Do Now Response 1 (Bridget Meier): A hero is a person that usually has flaws, but that uses all their assets and skills to do something good for others. A hero is not perfect, but tries to be good. A hero is defined in the eyes of others and the person’s actions and attitude play a role in that as well.
Do Now Response 2 (Andrea Dong): The characteristics of a hero is that they should be determined and selfless, and they accomplish a deed that benefits a group of people.
Do Now Response 3 (Tianna): A hero is someone who is brave and does something significant to help others.
Do Now Response 4 (Erica): A hero is someone or something that understands suffering and uses their past experiences, but are given a godly ideal by the people they help, even if they have flaws and their morals are flawed.
Do Now Response 5 (Mina): A hero is someone who works for the greater good and is often characterized by distinguishing characteristics including selflessness and willingness to help others.
Do Now Response 6 (Aurora Fernandez): Help others regardless of who they are, compassionate and will help others
Class Discussion
What (if anything) do you already know about Greek heroes and Greek mythology?
Response 1 (Elizabeth Superfin): Percy Jackson, Greece believed in multiple gods, myths of gods, religion different from other common cultures/religion, gods similar to people, very flawed
Response 2 (Abigail Hecht): Percy Jackson, Greeks were polytheistic, the gods were childish, sibling feuds, similar to people, inbred with humans, city-states protected by a specific gods
Response 3 (Nicole Vafiadis): Theater camp, plays based of mythological tales, movie Hercules, gods were not perfect, acted like children
Response 4 (Luca Gianquinto): Percy Jackson, mythical creatures (centaurs, others) the gods act like children
Notes (Slides 4-9):
Gods and Goddesses: Zeus (god of the sky, king of the gods), Hades (god of the underworld), Athena (goddess of wisdom), Poseidon (god of the sea)
The Greeks were polytheistic, and believed that gods interacted with humans and behaved like humans.
Greek culture known for hero-worship.
Greek gods were similar to humans so that the gods could represent them when they prayed, worshiped, or went to war, and giving their gods human-like attributes gave the Greeks something to relate to.
Ancient mythology belongs to the oral tradition, stories were passed orally, and these stories were a form of entertainment and representation of culture.
An epic is a long, narrative poem about a hero, Ancient Greece had 2, The Iliad and The Odyssey, which were both written by Homer.
An epic uses a flashback (the hero recounts his adventures), vast setting, lengthy speeches, divine interventions.
Slide 9: Class Discussion
Why would an author/storyteller choose to use these elements?
Response 1 (Erica Yu): The idea of what a story is, a story is a piece of the author's soul, these elements are used to demonstrate the divine power and the ideal depiction of something. Want to ignore what is happening in society
Response 2 (Wendy): Real life elements, like the Trojan War
Response 3 (Elizabeth Flyshmakher): Interesting to add flashbacks, insight into character, information, development of the character
Response 4 (Cassandra Ng): Features morals of the people, shape how society should be or how it is.
Notes (Slide 10-13):
A hero epic usually has superhuman qualities, has weaknesses or flaws, difficult tasks, physically beautiful, on a quest, villains try to prevent the hero from his quest.
Warrior with special abilities, becomes known as the hero
Hero is often overused, people are often described as heroes, and now the word doesn’t have much meaning anymore.
Team Collaboration Activity:
Draw your own conclusion on this argument. Do you agree or disagree with the concept that the word “hero” has become overused? Why or why not?
When we create heroes in fiction, we almost can't help but give them superhuman powers because what a hero does to be a hero is something which seems like people should be incapable of doing. It is something truly “other”.
Compare some of today’s superheroes with the original definition of “hêrôs”.
Do you think, as a modern society, we are searching for a “superhuman” hero similar to the Ancient Greeks, despite our overuse of the term? Why or why not?
Proficient Responses:
The term hero is too broad of a definition to be overused because the meaning can differ.
Today’s superheroes are like doctors, nurses, or superman and batman in the film world. Our definition of hero has seemed to be evolving for modern times.
A hero has evolved to just a role model or someone with realistic expectations who is a living person trying to do good in the world.
Reflection: I learned that the concept hero is a very important term in society, and especially in Ancient Greek society. The term hero however, has changed to suit the time period and culture. Now people may be considered heroes for just doing their part in life. I personally think that this could be a good or bad thing, because it could mean that society is more appreciative of people without superhuman characteristics, but could also mean that they are unfittingly giving people the term hero, just to have someone to look up to and solve their problems. I learned that in Greek mythology including Homer’s epics, ideologies and expectations of people were often portrayed, along with human flaws and nature. The ancient Greek definition of hero is a person that has physical beauty, superhuman qualities, faces villains on a quest, but is also flawed. Compared to the more modern definition of hero, the idea that a hero is flawed is very prominent. A hero has empathy, sympathy, is compassionate, selfless, but also makes mistakes and is very much human. Important takeaways from this lesson are that heroes are not perfect, and are flawed, and heroes are often chosen based on their deeds and humanity, because generally society wants to represent itself and they do that by choosing humane, selfless heroes, and this is shown throughout all history, especially in the Greek and modern time period.
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