Blogger 20- Agnes Liu - Period 1- 12/3/20 Day A - Freshman 2021

#20, Agnes Liu, Period 1, 12/3/20, Day A


Aim: How can an understanding of Greek myths and heroes prepare us for our examination of Homer’s epic poem, The Odyssey?


Do Now: THINK/PAIR/SHARE

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.

In the beginning of class we discussed how we viewed heroes. As a class we concluded that heroes are those who have strong morals and most of the time have superhuman power. But just as humans, they have their own flaws that may be taken advantage of by villains.



Today we learned about Heroes and how it can correlate with modern society. We think of heroes as those who are brave, selfless, and an overall good person. The original definition of “hêrôs” which literally means “protector” or “defender.” It was also said “particularly one such as Heracles with divine ancestry or later given divine honors.”




We are able to know so much about Ancient Greece and their mythology because of epic poetry. Epics are a long, narrative poem about a national or legendary hero. A poem is an epic if they begin in medias res and use flashbacks to explain important action that occurred before the story, a lot of different settings, features formal speeches, has devine characters such as gods, and lastly has a hero that shows good morals and values. Not only are poems epic, but so are the heroes. Heroes are epic when they show superhuman qualities, have flaws since they are still human, conquer many difficult tasks, are on a quest, have a villain who is trying to stop the hero from their quest, and is most likely physically beautiful. Epics are so important since ancient mythology were mainly oral traditions and we can thank Homer for writing epics such as The Iliad and The Odyssey.



As a class we also discussed how the word “hero” may or may not be overused in today’s society. We also discussed if today's superheroes can compare to the original definition of hêrôs. As well as a modern society, are we searching for a superhuman hero just as the Ancient Greeks did.



Reflection:

In today’s class I learned a lot about poetry and ancient Greek literature. Not only did we talk about epic poetry, but we also talked about epic characters that were in the poems. Within the lesson the word hero came up a lot. I learned that the original Greek word “hêrôs” means “protector” or “defender.” We also talked about how we overuse the word hero. We started using the term hero to describe those with a specific attribute. For example, nurses, doctors, and firefighters could be called heroes. But the Greeks used the word hero as one with a devine ancestry or later given divine honors.