Hohneke

Chance Hohneke

Mrs. Weaver

LNG 311

10 December 2010

The Heroes of Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

Flying over the world and being the strongest man on earth are

descriptions of Earth’s savior and Superman like heroic qualities.

Cultures through various times create their version of a powerful hero

who has the human need on mind that has a mentor who guides him

to do the right thing and the hero goes on a perilous journey that he

must complete in order to bring peace. The ancient Greek invented

Odysseus, Homer’s epic hero, while thousands years later

contemporary writer, Rick Riordan created young Percy Jackson. Each

of the different heroes symbolizes their beliefs and culture. Even

though the time between the two heroes is different, but they both

have some similarities in relationships with gods, mentors, and their

quests.
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In these particular stories there are gods and goddesses who

inhabit Mount Olympus. These gods and goddesses intervene with the

heroes in both terrible ways and in favorable ways. Percy Jackson is a

demigod, half human and half god, whose father is the great sea god,

Poseidon. Poseidon, as a father was not a normal one. The typical

father in modern times would live with their child and care for him until

he grows to be an adult, but in ancient times it was normal for a father

to not see his child till later life and maybe not even once. When

Percy’s mother given birth to him, Poseidon much rather stay and

nurture Percy than to be on his throne in Olympus , but gods were not

supposed to have any contact with their child in order to prevent

themselves from becoming like a human which Zeus considers a bad

thing. But Poseidon always watches Percy and he protects him in ways

he didn’t even realize. One prime example of Poseidon’s secret father-

son relationship with Percy is when Percy and his companions got

trapped in the Lotus casino. The casino is where the ancient Lotus

eaters pulled travelers into a never ending fun environment. Percy and

his comrades ate the Lotus flower and they felt like they didn’t want to

do the quest, they wanted to relax and have fun. Then when the Lotus

flower started to wear off Poseidon spoke through his mind telling him

to wake up and refuse any Lotus flower that offered. Poseidon helped
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him get back on his quest to save the world by returning the lightning

bolt. Poseidon’s relationship with Odysseus is far from Percy’s kind of

relationship with his father because even though Odysseus is favored

by most gods for his wit and courage, his flaw is his arrogance and it is

his pompous and arrogance that gets him in trouble with Poseidon.

Odysseus landed on an island where the Cyclops lived. The Cyclops is a

son of Poseidon who welds armor and weapons for him. Odysseus and

his men entered into his home and saw many bundles of wool and

mounds of cheese; his men wanted to take the resources and run away

to safety, but the Cyclops arrived. Odysseus lied to the Cyclops about

where his ship was and he told him his name was “Nohbody.” It was a

clever plan until he stabbed the Cyclops in the eye. Blinded with fury,

the Cyclops ran after him. As Ody’s men got on the ship, he jeered the

Cyclops which made Poseidon angry with him. Poseidon sent a wave to

wash over him. These two characters have very different relationships

with Poseidon. Gods usually favor the heroes who are related to them

or show respect towards them unlike Odysseus, who let his pride get

over him. Percy and Odysseus have very different relationships with

one god because they both have different personalities and relatives.

The quests for most epic heroes are long, precarious, and usually

are conquered towards the end of the story. Mystical creatures that are
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large scale and dangerous attack the hero when he tries to retrieve

someone or something, a damsel in distress gets captured by an

adversary, and finding the path to home are some of the main

catalysts of epic quests. Percy’s quest was to retrieve the stolen

lightning bolt that belonged to the king of the gods, Zeus. Percy was

attacked by a fury, minotaur, and the true form of Hades before he

even knew about the lightning bolt. He was confused at why his creepy

teacher turned into a fury and assaulted him. He was like “What is

going on?! And what was that thing!?” Then his principal centaur told

Grover to take him to a place where no one will hurt him. So Percy’s

mother drove him and Grover to Camp Half Blood, a camp for

demigods. Right at the exit a Minotaur attacked them and apparently

“killed” his mother. Then after five days at a bonfire after Percy’s

victory in capture the flag, Hades appeared out of the fire and burned

most of the camp. Hades ordered Percy to bring him the lightning bolt

and he will give him his mother, who was trapped in the underworld.

Percy brought the main archetypes of most stories, companions which

were Grover and Annabeth with him to negotiate with Hades. His first

thought was to save his mother, but the actual quest was to save the

world from a god war. The actual lightning thief was Luke, son of

Hermes. Another archetype in the quest is a betrayer who misguides

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the hero into peril and danger. Percy defeated Luke and got the

lightning bolt (victory of the quest). He hurried to the Mount Olympus

before the solstice. Zeus was happy and everything was resolved. On

the