1

Cartwright
Connor Cartwright

Mrs. Field

LNG 311

09 December 2010

Heroes

Heroes are great people that battle monsters, save others, and protect those

who cannot protect themselves. People make stories about heroes in the

world .The Odyssey, by Homer, is considered an epic, and is the granddaddy of all

epics to date. Everybody knows about The Odyssey. It’s a story about Odysseus, a

humble hero, on his journey to get home, and the many challenging obstacles he

goes through to get there. Percy Jackson from The Lightning Thief, on the other

hand, is a hero in modern day society created by author Rick Riordan. He has to

save the world he loves by returning the lightning bolt to Zeus that someone has

stolen (the lightning thief). These two heroes are alike in many ways, including that

they both fight evil monsters and that they both are considered great heroes;

however, as they are alike, they are also different, like their motivations for going

on their quests are very different.

What defines a monster? A monster is a creature unhuman that usually

inflicts unbiased and unjust harm on anyone, innocent or not, without feeling or

remorse. Percy and Odysseus deal with these monsters on a regular basis during

their journeys. Odysseus deals with a Cyclops who tries to murder and eat his crew

for trespassing on his island. Then he deals with a group of two giant sea monsters

known as Scylla, which is a giant 6 headed monster looking to devour Odysseus’s

crew for access to get past it, but this monster has a weakness that it can only eat 6

things at a time, and cannot do anything while chewing. Then there’s Charybdis,
 2

Cartwright
which is pretty much a huge whirlpool with teeth that swallows anything that comes

upon it. So his crew dies either way, just fewer with Scylla.

It appears that Percy encounters and kills more notable monsters such as Medusa,

whose gaze turns anything to stone, a Minotaur, who kidnaps his mom based on

order from Hades himself, and finally a Hydra, which is a huge dragon beast that

whenever you cut off one head, two grow back. Monsters have come straight from

the minds of human imagination since the beginning of mankind. But usually, there

is a hero or group of heroes who slays the beasts and protects those who cannot

protect themselves. Odysseus and Percy slay these monsters only for the greater

good, simply because they are heroes, but what makes a hero a hero?

Being a hero requires certain qualities that only a select few have that sets

them above the rest, the two heroes Odysseus and Percy have many heroic

qualities, but they are very different. Our ancient hero Odysseus is strictly human,

nothing else. But he has superhuman qualities that only a few can have, such as

his most famous trait, his strong intelligence, which gets him out of any tough

situation he finds himself in, like all the challenges he faced during his trip home.

He is also a great leader; he leads his men into battle and fights alongside them.

Even though his whole crew dies, he got these average humans really far in an epic

quest only a hero can triumph over, and other than that, a grown man weeping for

his dead comrades, which shows he really cares for them. This man also fears

nothing, as he fought all these dangerous monsters and never gave up hope. Percy

on the other hand, is not completely human, he has an advantage that others don’t,

and he’s half god. This son of Poseidon has control over all water, and has the

ability to breathe underwater, which are very useful skills in his difficult journey to
 3

Cartwright
save the world. Odysseus may be just a man, but in ancient Greek culture, they

imagined supermen with great abilities able to conquer mighty beasts, but they had

to do it realistically, so they gave him possible to achieve superpowers to fight the

monsters. However, in modern day society, people don’t have the attention spans

that they used to, so Riordan created a flashy, super power hero to entertain. It is

viewed mainly by children and teens and not so much by adults, because most

adults don’t care much for this sort of thing anymore, so storytellers have to get

kids attention with superpowers. Overall, Odysseus and Percy have the skills to pay

the bills, but what motivation does one have to pay bills? They both have very

different reasons, check it out.

For someone to go on a life-threatening adventure, it mostly isn’t just for fun.

You must have some sort of reason, and Odysseus and Percy are no exception.

Odysseus was far away from the world he created with his bare hands, that he

loved very much. His loyal and wonderful wife, his son, and the kingdom he built.

He spent so long making all of this a reality, and he’ll do anything to get it back,

which is why he went on this journey in the first place. Percy, on the other hand,

went to save the world, and his mother, who was kidnapped by Hades. Odysseus

loved his home, and back then, and even today, your house and wife are

everything, so he did all he could to have them. Percy was a little obligated to do

his quest however, I mean, if he didn’t do it, his mother would be in Hades and the

whole world would be destroyed. I believe any non depressed human would feel

sympathy for the world and their mom so they would kind of have to try and save it

all.

Great heroes are created, some fact, some fiction, by man since the dawn of

time. Odysseus is the most popular of all. Percy Jackson is the modern day hero.
 4

Cartwright
The further humanity goes, the more developed its heroes become. From

Odysseus’s incredible wit and intelligence to think his way out of any situation, to

Percy, who is born with the actual superpower of water control, heroes have to fight

vicious deadly monsters without fear. They also must be born with powers that puts

them above everyone else, and go on an epic journey for one reason or another.

Whether it’s for their own personal reasons, if they were forced to, or just because

they’re simply bored, heroes are always being made. Some survive the test of

time, and some are long forgotten. These two heroes set the bar for heroes across

the world.