Hopefully now you will see why we'll spend some time this year on Greek mythology!!
What do you think? Will having some knowledge of Greek mythology enrich your reading experience? Does using mythology make the writing better? What about naming characters after mythological characters? Can you think of any? (Do you remember the name of the girl Alan was trying to "woo" in The Chaser????)
I think knowledge of Greek mythology would definitely enrich reading experience. In a lot of literature authors allude to different parts of Greek mythology and we couldn't really understand what the author was trying to say if we don't know anything about Greek mythology. There are a lot of stories that have characters with the names of mythological characters. In the Chaser, the old man tells Alan that after the girl takes the love potion and he came home late that she would fear that he was tempted by Sirens, which is an allusion to the Sirens in the Odyssey.
ReplyDeleteI think knowing some Greek mythology will help authors. You see it in just about every book you read. Like in the House of Night novels there is a girl named Aphrodite. She is said to be very beautiful and charming, which the goddess Aphrodite was the goddess of love. It will help us as readers because it will help us get on the level that the author was pushing for. It will also help us understand things on a deeper level.
ReplyDeleteHaving some knowledge of Greek mythology will help enrich a person's reading experience. Greek mythology is alluded to so much in literature. I don't think that using creatures from Greek mythology makes a story better unless you know about Greek mythology. Some people who read stories have no idea that a certain thing is alluding to something from Greek mythology and don't make the connection. The name of the girl from "The Chaser" was Diana.
ReplyDeleteI think knowing Greek mythology is a huge advantage when reading books. So many authors relate their characters or stores to Green mythology, it would be a huge advantage for readers to know. In the "Chaser" Alan was trying to "woo" a girl named Diana. Diana is the name of the roman goddess, which is equivalent to the greek goddess of Artemis. So whether you realize it or not, authors try to find many sneaky ways to include greek mythology in their writings.
ReplyDeleteYes. I think a background of greek mythology will help any reader better understand things. We need to learn briefly what each god or goddess stands for or represents. We studied this briefly in Mr.McElrath's class and i studied it briefly in 7th grade english. When authors say that we are supposed to "read between the lines", this is what they are talking about. They just don't come right out and tell us that a nice sweet girl named Hestia is supposed to represent the greek goddess Hestia. We need to already know what they represent to we can be prepared to make that connection.
ReplyDeleteHaving Greek mythology is an advantage because it gives us information back from the past that was a big deal then, and Greek mythology is used so much in current literature to not know about it would make a mass of confusion. I think it definately enriches your reading experience. Naming characters after mythological creatures and people is not a bad thing in many cases it kind of foreshadows how the book will be or what a person will be like just by their name. The girl Alan was trying to "woo" in The Chaser was Diana.
ReplyDeleteI believe that having a knowledge of Greek mythology could definitely help your reading experience. So many authors use allusions to Greek mythology and the characters in the myths, you wouldn't be able to understand the point that the author was trying to make by using those allusions if u didn't have a knowledge of the Greek mythology. The girl's name in The Chaser was Diana. The old man also used the allusion of the sirens from The Odyssey.
ReplyDeleteI think that knowing Greek mythology will definitely help you when it comes to reading. In literature there are many literary devices used but one that is used a lot is allusions. There are a lot of allusions to Greek mythologies in literature. Even in the chaser there was an allusion to the Sirens. The women Alan was trying to woo in the chaser was named Diana. So, I think that if you know a lot about Greek mythologies then you will have an easier time understanding literature.
ReplyDeleteGreek mythology is a hag part of literature so having some sort of background information will only help you for the better. As the author said in the chapter many stories are rewrites of greek legends or at least have aspects from some characters. Some characters today are named after the greek gods to help display their personalities and characteristics. For example if somebody was named Hector in a book he would probably strong and a leader figure just like Hector of Troy. In The Chaser the girl Alan was pursuing was named Diana. Diana is greek mythology was the same as the goddess Artemis, who was the goddess of hunting. Alan was hunting or 'chasing' this love. Sirens from the Odyssey are also mentioned in the context of they would try to lure Alan away just like unfortunate sailors in the mythology.
ReplyDeleteHaving knowledge of Greek mythology will increase your knowledge in reading. Many times you could be reading a book and you get introduced to several characters but you don't really think about their name or why the author chose for that character to have that name. I think that's why several authors will include Greek names for their characters because it shows meaning and purpose to their story. The girl who Allen was trying to give the potion to was named Diana.
ReplyDeleteI think that Greek mythology is in a lot more of the literature that we read than we know so having background information will allow you to understand what the writing is saying better. Using Greek mythology in literature can be good because Greek mythology was used to explain happenings that the people didn't really understand. Im sure there are books that I have read that had characters named after Greek mythological characters that I just didn't notice. The girl in "The Chaser" that Alan was buying the love potion for was named Diana.
ReplyDeletei think that having knowledge in Greek mythology will help anyone in most english classes today. Lots of authors refer to Greek characters in a lot of stories that they write. The girl that allen likes in the story, Diana is obviously an allusion to the sirens in the oddessey
ReplyDeleteI do think having knowledge of Greek Mythology will enrich the readers knowledgeable. You do see a lot of author's alluding back to Greek myths so not only will they be more knowledgeable in general, but will have more in sight to what most author's are referring to. In the chaser the girl's name Alan was trying to "woo" was Diana. The author also alluded back to the sirens in the chaser.
ReplyDeleteI love greek mythology first of all . But yes i do think having it in our reading is a good thing. something about it adds an interesting flavor to a story. Im sure there plenty of small references to it in lots of stories we read we just dont notice it. I can see why an author would want to add these things as well. Lots of greek stories usually have a life lesson. and the are just down right nifty. In the chaser i think Diana is supposed to represent something like a siren
ReplyDeleteI think that this is really cool! I think that knowing the basics of greek mythology will really help people with their reading experience. I also think that sneaking mythological references in stories is really cool, because not only are you reading an intriguing story but you're also learning bits and pieces of greek mythology. When characters are named after gods/goddesses it gives a little background information about that character. The girl's name in the "chaser" was Diana, and like Jon said, her name is an allusion to the sirens in the oddessey.
ReplyDeleteI think that greek mythology is pretty cool, and I agree that it enriches my reading experiences. Like the author said, greek mythology covers the greatest range of human situations, and by naming characters after mythological creatures will help you understand more of the story if you catch on to those names and know the meaning of them.
ReplyDeleteI think having a knowledge of Greek mythology is a good tool to have, but I don't think it's necessary, nor do I think it's a determining factor for wether a book is good or not. I'm not saying I'm anti-Greek-mythology, but I don't think having it makes a book automatically amazing. I honestly don't have a VAST understanding about it (but I'm not hopelessly ignorant about it). I don't think having a basic knowledge of it makes my reading experience ABSOLUTELY AMAZING, and I don't think having a complete understanding of it would either. If an author bases a whole book off of it, I think it's important, but not if there's a subtle hinting to it.
ReplyDeleteHaving knowledge of Greek mythology is a excellent tool to have because the more you read the more you will realize a lot of authors connect their work to some sort of Greek mythology. I absolutely love Greek mythology, it interests me. I remember learning about the different gods and goddesses in 5th grade and it was like my favorite thing in learning, its stuck with me since then.
ReplyDeleteI definitely think that a knowledge of greek mythology will enrich your reading experiences. There are so many references to greek mythology in all media types. I think using mythology makes things have a deeper meaning, a depth that goes much deeper than surface deep. Diana was the name of the girl. He mentions O Brother Where Art Thou, which is one of my favorite movies, definitely some Homer references in there.
ReplyDeleteGreek mythology will help us in writing because any story will help us become better writers. Thats all that these mythes are. But also knowing how these mythes were told will help us expand to a larger audience. For example if we were to create a "rewrite" that the author talked about we would know exactly what audience we would reach and how to portray this story.
ReplyDeleteGreek mythology is cool and will help out a lot with our writing. I read these books called The House of Night and they had a character named Aphrodite, her name helped you get a sense of who she was and how she will act. I think greek mythology can help a lot with writing simply using a name can connect you to so many things. Mythology will help us understand and write better.
ReplyDeleteYes, having some knowledge of Greek mythology can enrich your reading experience. I believe that using mythology does make writing better. Naming characters after mythological characters allow readers to infer characteristics not specifically stated in the story and foresee future events in the story. An example of this is Percy Jackson from the book Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Percy is named after the Greek hero Perseus. This is shown through similarities found in the tasks that Percy has to accomplish and those of the mythological character.
ReplyDeleteWithout greek mythology, more than half of the allusions in our everyday writing would cease to exist. There are more than a fair share of stories that link to things in the Odyssey by homer such as the sirens, or the island of the giant. One book that I know that has these references was the short story we read in class. "The Chaser" alludes to the sirens in the part where they are talking about the love potion. The girls name in the chaser was diana.
ReplyDeleteYes, knowing greek mythology can increase your reading knowledge greatly. When you are reading and come across a name of a character you don"t know anything about, you might be able to use the gods and goddesses names to figure out a little about the character and such. Without knowing any of it, you could look right past some of the important parts of a story.
ReplyDeleteI love greek mythology, and yes i think that it can help you read literature better because it gives u more knowledge about what the author is saying or referring to and if u know the gods and goddesses names sometimes that has a deeper meaning in the story that u realize like in the chaser
ReplyDeleteI find Greek mythology very interesting. When I see allusions to it I find myself able to better connect with the story being told. I also think that it will help our writing. When I think of Greek mythology I immediately think of Disney's Hercules, which is completely based on Greek mythology.
ReplyDeleteI think knowing Greek mythology would help because im pretty sure a lot of authors refer to it in their stories or books some way or another. The reference characters in a story to a Greek mythological person. Hercules is the main one i think of it is practically about the Greeks!
ReplyDeleteI think the girl off of The Chaser was Diana. Diana is the goddess of hunt and fertility, the emblem of chastity, she protected women and virgins. I.e., the untouchable. As she was to our good Alan. Until he used the love potion, that is.
ReplyDeleteGreek mythology, I think helps with reading because you notice little things. A river crossed to an evil land, like the Styx in the Underworld. If you've read about Lilith, feminist publications from the late 19th century, early 20th, will make a lot more sense. There's a small pass in the Mediterranean, the locals refer to is as Hercules Pass or something of that sort, because in mythology, whilst performing his 12 labors, had to cross the mountains, go around, or bust through. He bust through. Some stances on vampirism are about Cain being the first. Dracula 2000 sucks to most people, but I love it and think it gives a nice mythological tie in with the bible. I love naming characters after mythological characters it automatically gives something to the story. Either who they are, will be, or the exact opposite, giving hand to tremendous irony. An example of that would be Avalon High by Meg Cabot, a modern day take on Arthurian Legend.