Personal Background Leonidas was born in Greece Peloponnesian Peninsula in 530 B.C. (Leonidas I, par.1) Leonidas was the second son of Spartan King’s Anaxandridas first wife. Leonidas’ mother was his father’s niece. When he was a child, he received very strenuous physical conditioning for many years of military training, trying to reach to the top of the martial perfection to hone his warrior’s skills. One in a few Spartan kings received this harsh training.
What is it about the heroes of ancient Greece that continues to fascinate readers thousands of years after their origination? Perhaps it is the tales of glory and the impossible feats of the heroes or the certain death that awaits them. Whatever the reason, the life of the Greek hero is one of intrigue and intoxication. The life cycle of the Greek hero is divided into events spanning his extraordinary birth to his untimely death and accentuated by his accomplishments throughout his life. This essay will analyze the recurring events, patterns, and traits in the typical hero in conjuction with the lives of Achilles, Heracles, and Odysseus.
Athena’s presence is prominent and fundamental in Odysseus’ journey; this great goddess saves Odysseus an exuberance of grievances, ranging from the shipwreck early in the poem to the battle of the suitors towards the end. Despite fighting for Odysseus’ freedom for twenty years, and aiding him in his homecoming in a matter of days, there is a crucial moment where Athena remains inactive. Prior to his release from Ogygia, Calypso’s island, Odysseus encountered a series of devastating events. One of many is in the sun god, Helios’ island, whereby Odysseus’ crew devoured the god’s cattle despite previous warnings. In this scene Athena inconveniently chooses to remain inactive, causing an abundance of tribulation.
The Rise of Macedon The rise of Macedon began with King Philip II of Macedon in 359 BC. (Montagu, 2000) Where he conquered nearly all of Greece twenty three years later in 336 B.C. (Hemingway, Hemingway, 2004). It is important to know that when Philip II was a young teenager in 368-365 B.C. he was held as a hostage by the best Greek fighting force at that time the Thebes.
You are in Phaeacians, my father’s kingdom. Now, where are you from? O: I am a suppliant at your knees, O Queen. I am a shipwrecked man, alone and helpless. N: You are very lucky to land here.
Miltiades, a great general for Greece, convinced other Greek commanders that the Greeks should fight the Persians at Marathon. The Athenians sent a runner named Pheidipiddes to Sparta, in desperate need of help. He ran such a long time and eventually died. He is still remembered today. The Spartans although, could not help because they were celebrating a religious festival, and couldn’t leave their homeland until the next full moon.
Lance Armstrong: His Fall from Grace Lance Edward Armstrong was idolized; he was the ultimate superhuman, an Ironman. As a child athlete and national triathlon champion, Armstrong was a definite trailblazer. Armstrong won the Tour de France a record setting seven consecutive times between 1999 and 2005. In October 2006, at the age of 25, he was diagnosed with stage three advanced testicular cancer, yet after extensive surgery and chemotherapy treatments, he beat the cancer and returned to being a professional athlete. In 1997, Armstrong founded the Lance Armstrong Foundation later renamed Livestrong Foundation.
He lives with his aunt and uncle and whenever he asks who his father was they just abruptly say he’s dead. In the Greek myth “Theseus”, Theseus’s, the hero of the story, origins are also mysterious as he lives with his mother in a small fishing viallage and is told that his father is a king in a far off land. Both of their actual fathers are essentially gods, as Luke Skywalker’s dad is Darth Vader and Theseus’s father is Poseidon. Another way Luke Skywalker’s story is the same as a Greek myth is his decision to leave home. In almost all Greek myths the hero has a hard time leaving his home until he is pushed to do so.
"I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too,” was said by a brave woman in 1588. As I honor my lady’s words, I have fostered myself into becoming the lionhearted woman that I am today. If I can spend a day talking with anyone in history, I would cull Queen Elizabeth the First. I have spent many of my days admiring her valiant actions, but I have come to realize, the Queen and I have many things in common. One in particular that has aggravated us the most, was our capabilities being greatly undermined.
In The Power of the Positive Woman, Schlafly explains that there is indeed a difference, besides the obvious physicality, between men and woman that cause them to play different roles in society. She in no ways demoralizes the role of either men or women, but instead explains how each gender has an equally important role to play in society. She explains the ideals of liberationists by saying, “The second dogma of the women’s liberationists is that, of all the injustices perpetrated upon women through the centuries, the most oppressive is the cruel fact that women have babies and men do not” (Schlafly 296). This puts the blame of female anatomy on the males instead of on the Divine Creator of human lives. Although this seems to be a ridiculous reason to hate the male population, it is Schlafly’s way of making their movement seem ridiculous.