Eternally Classic

Mythology is timeless. There is no doubt about that statement. Despite happening numerous

centuries ago, mythology persists in the present, or what we prefer to call the “Modern Age”. Greek

mythology, in particular, has achieved incredible resonance throughout the ages. Why is this so? This is

because no other mythology is as grand, as vividly imaginative, or as human as the the various tales

that the Greeks were able to concoct.

What really stands out in their various myths are undoubtedly the characters. Be it the

omnipotent yet morally flawed gods and goddesses or the fearsome and truly original creatures, the

myriad beings that are involved in each story are unique and memorable in their own rights. Among the

plethora of characters, however, none is as popular and unforgettable as the heroes. These men and

women of utmost virtue and power are the ones whom the readers rally behind, not only due to the fact

that the story is told from their point of view, but also because they are most of the time the de-facto

“good” people, the type of person whom we aspire to be and whom we try to emulate.

Besides the fact that heroes are usually the epitomes of humanity's physical and mental

capabilities and display amiable qualities such as leadership and nobility, what really makes the heroes

the most loved among all the characters presented in mythology is how easy it is to relate their

strengths and weaknesses to ourselves as persons. The fact that these heroes are relatable also makes

them extremely relevant, as human nature, as well, is timeless. We have the inherent desire to read

about people similar to us, as no matter what time they were created, we still believe that the heroes'

stories somehow describe who we are as people. First of all, just as how heroes are the centers of their

own stories, so do we humans perceive ourselves as the most advanced, most intelligent and most

capable beings on Earth, essentially believing that the world revolves around us and our lives, that by

default, we've been given the reigns of . Another factor, one that is more profound, is that the hero

represents the human side of the story, or in other words, how we would act if we were in the story.

Heroes may seem to be perfect, but they have flaws and make mistakes that we also commit. For
example, Odysseus, the protagonist of the Odyssey and also a great hero of the Trojan War, was a very

intelligent and resourceful man. However, there were times when he wanted to shirk responsibility,

such as when recruitment for a team of great men to go to Troy to retrieve Helen of Sparta began,

Odysseus tried to find a way to not be one of the chosen, pretending to have gone insane, just so that he

wouldn't have to participate in the princess's rescue. This relates to how we as humans also have the

tendency to be lazy, to let others do the work so that we won't have to, and to come up with excuses just

so that we would be exempted from doing a task. Another sign of Odysseus' weakness was how, during

his trip back from the Trojan War, he met various women and was obviously tempted to have sexual

intercourse with them, though he fully knew that he had a wife and children back home. Just as how we

are sometimes tempted to do morally inappropriate deeds, so was this hero.

Another means in which we can connect our lives to the heroes' is that we follow a daily

routine, and in comparison, the heroes follow a sequence of events called the monomyth, which are all

similar in nature but vary from hero to hero. Cadmus, another great hero, followed the cycle as well.

Starting from a life of riches in Egypt, he was drawn to a life of heroism when his sister Europa was

kidnaped by a runaway Zeus disguised as a bull. In his pursuit of Europa, he experienced many things,

married, conversed with the gods, and even founded a city of his own. Though he never was able to

find his sister and never returned to Egypt, he still was able to go back to a life of prosperity and

success, ultimately ending with his demise and ending up in the favorable area of the Underworld. Just

as the monomyth played a part in Cadmus' story, the monomyth also exists in the stories we have in this

day and age. Any book or short story in the present also has a cycle that the hero follows, with some

variations, and this is because the monomyth is forever connected to our lives on both a daily basis and

our existence as a whole.

As I said, mythology is timeless. It is also currently relevant not only because of how its heroes

relate to us, but also how the stories affected the information and concepts we now believe to be fact.

One area of knowledge that was enhanced by mythology is the English language. Besides numerous
words being derived from the names and places found in mythology, such as Herculean or Odyssey,

some of the heroes and characters had a hand in arriving at the form of communication that is most

used in the world of today. As mentioned earlier, Cadmus was a great man, and one of his contributions

was using words with both vowels and consonants together, and this affected how words were created

and spoken for years to come. Though we cannot be sure if Cadmus was fictional or historical, his story

greatly affected speech and writing of the English language.

Mythology is forever imbedded in the minds and hearts of all human beings, due in great part to

the heroes that the stories focus on, their qualities and experiences, and their achievements which

contributed to the overall improvement of human society. Historical? Probably not. But perpetually

relevant? Certainly.

http://homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/Cadmus.html

http://homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/Underworld.html

http://xsibenglish2012.wordpress.com/