Odysseus

In "The Odyssey" by Homer, Odysseus is portrayed as a larger than life man that everyone looks up to. Unfortunately, during Odysseus's journey, everyone believes he is dead so he does not receive the respect he deserves. A large part of this story is hospitality, and since no one knows that he is the famed hero of the Trojan War, nobody s being very respectful to him. Odysseus is also portrayed as having a lot of respect for himself, and when this is challenged, he will be swift to react. This is first shown when Odysseus was at the festival and the young kid disrespects Odysseus. Odysseus was hesitant, but surely accept the kids challenge and beat him with ease. While Odysseus is portrayed as a huge hero through stories, is not given the respect he deserves throughout his journey home in "The Odyssey".

Odysseus Hero

In many stories describing epic heroes, the hero is called from their normal life and into battle to help protect the people he left in his normal life from danger. This is very evident in both the movie “The Avengers” and “The Odyssey” by Homer. While in “The Odyssey” only one main hero is called to battle, in “The Avengers”, a team of very different heroes must come together to defeat not only their enemy but also themselves.

While there are many centuries separating both pieces of media, there are many characteristics that are the same in each. In “The Odyssey”, the hero is called to battle in a time of need. This hero, Odysseus, is a strong and courageous man who is the only survivor from the Trojan War. Odysseus must face many obstacles in his way, but he must first overcome himself to be able to complete this journey. In “The Avengers” many heroes come together with one main task, save New York from Loki, the evil god from Norse Mythology. While this main task is in full sight, the heroes must overcome their own egos to be able to save their normal lives from destruction.

Odysseus faces many challenges including budging in from the gods, to almost dying while wandering around. While many of these challenges were natural events, every one was explained by an action that Odysseus had previously done. So, Odysseus is bringing the pain onto himself throughout the entire journey. Like Odysseus, the Avengers team faces many challenges including an insurmountable amount of drones, in which a member must make the ultimate sacrifice to save his teammates that he has come to love.  

Penelope's Diary

Monday,

This is the final straw. I can no longer deal with these freeloading people. I know my husband is still alive, and if he isn't, he's rolling in his grave with the actions of these men. I cannot believe they are trying to make me choose one of them to marry, even know I know in my heart that my husband is still alive. But, what if he isn't? Will I really have to choose one of them?  I really don't want to do this, but we will see how it goes.

Tuesday,

I really wish my husband would show up soon. I really miss him. I do not know how long this can go on for.

Wednesday,

I can no longer do this. With Telemachus leaving, I will have no defense against these pigs that call themselves men. I guess I need to make a decision and get my life on track. Hopefully everything will work out alright.

Johnny Myth

Once upon a time, there was a kid named Johnny. Johnny was a normal boy from Tennessee. He was in the fifth grade and didn’t like school, but loved all of his teachers. He would do anything for his teachers, and this unfortunate flaw was what dragged him into this story that I am about to tell.

         It was a normal afternoon for Johnny, he was about to exit lunch and enter his favorite class, English. Johnny loved English and his teacher made it even better.  His teacher, Mr. Stromberg was Johnny’s idol. He looked up to Stromberg, and even wanted to be him. On this strange day as Johnny was walking into class, Mr. Stromberg stopped him and asked him to stay with him for a few minutes. So, because Johnny liked him so much, he happily obliged. After the entire class entered the room and sat down, Mr Stromberg and Johnny walked out of the classroom. After the door shut, Mr Stromberg looked down at Johnny and said, “Johnny I need you to do me a very important favor.”

        

Johnny looked up very hopeful and asked, “What do you need me to do?”

“I need you to get me a stapler from the copy room”, said Mr. Stromberg.

         As soon as the task was given, Johnny was off. He was navigating throughout the hallways of his elementary school to find the copy room. He encountered his unexpected foe, the media cart. While most media carts are harmless, this certain one had mad cart disease. This cart started barreling towards Johnny as fast as it could, and at the last moment Johnny dived out of the path of the way to survive and keep his journey alive. Finally, after what seemed for hours, Johnny arrived at his destination, the copy room. As Johnny slowly entered, he realized that it was nothing he had expected. It was all white and very quaint, like a room in a mental hospital. Johnny sees his prize, but he could not reach it so he had to come up with a plan. He decided to stack the copy paper he found in a corner to scale to claim his prize. Shortly after he did, he returned with his prize and was celebrated as a hero by the entire fifth grade class. Johnny will be forever known as the “stapler saver”.

In the movie Lord of the Rings, it is heavily filled with archetypes. An archetype is a universally known symbol. The main one in the Lord of the Rings is in fact the Ring. The Ring represents not only the shadow archetype, but also the self archetype in regards to Sauron because it contains his soul. The Ring is very important to the movie because it is the reason that they all went on the journey in the first place. They must destroy it because Sauron is searching for it so he can come back and control the entire world.

In Ancient Greece and Rome, mythology was used to explain natural events and common questions that people would wonder in everyday life. To the peoples of this time, mythology was a large part of their society because scientific answers had not arisen by then. The creation of gods and goddesses was to explain the reason that natural occurances happened, like thunderstroms or hurricanes.
To currnt times, science has overtaken the roles of myths by explaining why everyday occurrences happen. Today, myths are used more in  an entertainment aspect. While myths do entertain and fascinate the people reading them, they do not have the same importance as they did to the people of the time area in which they myths were created.
When having a written record was not available, myths were passed verbally from generation to generation. For example, the myth of Hercules. When the myth first appeared, there could have been some truth hidden in the myth. Unfortunately, when Disney made the movie, it was completely different from the original. While the movie and the original myth had some similarities, they could not be the same because the myth became more and more exaggerated as it was told from generation to generation.
While the most recent and most well known myths, Lord of the Rings, finally gave England their own set of myths, it did not focus on the main set of classic mythological characters. There were no gods who controlled natural phenominoms, nor were the heroes with superpowers. This recent myth was more logical and had more specs of plausibility within the myth. While this myth was not overly important for modern life, it finally gave England something that they have wanted for a very long time.
       

About myself.

I am currently a Sophomore at LMP and I play football for the Griffins. I have been going to LMP for 3 years now. I hope to continue my schooling at LMP throughout my senior year. I have 4 pets, all fish. I really enjoy playing football especially at LMP. I like all of my classes at Lake Mary Prep, and I really enjoy having the teachers that I do.