10/3/19 William Fedornyak PD 7

Modern Mythology

William Fedornyak

Period 7

10/03/2019

Aim- How do the images of Greco-Roman gods/goddesses enlighten modern philosophy?

Do Now- List the following qualities and list them in order of personal importance:

Brawn, Wisdom, Justice, Valor / Bravery, Patience, Nurturing, Reason, Purity, Truth,

Beauty, Innovation, Charity, Love, Athleticism, Cunning, Confidence, Mercy

The class discussed their orders of characteristics and explained their choices:

Taya put love first because she believes that it is important to create and maintain

relationships, and patience is necessary to be tolerant of others’ ideas and allow connections

such as friendships to survive in spite of disagreements.

Shannon chose reason because she believes that rationality is important to maintain a society

and survive

Cornelia believes that wisdom is important because, although rationality is beneficial to

making decisions, following the heart is also sometimes just as useful. She disagreed with a

later point made by Steven by pointing out that reason doesn’t define humanity as it can be

used by anyone to make decisions, however it is still an important trait, as are all of the traits

listed. Cornelia also defined a major theme of today’s discussion that will be prevalent

throughout the rest of the unit: Greek gods were made to portray humanity.

Steven felt that reason is what allows humanity to have free will and define itself to be

humanity, but multiple classmates disagreed and explained their reasoning.

Iandra also put love first on her list for similar reasons to Taya, but she also disagreed

with Steven by explaining that reason helps us justify ideas, but everyone is capable of

making rational decisions.

Billy also put love as his first characteristic and drew a compassion to The Road by

Cormac McCarthy. He explained that just like the Boy exhibits sympathy when he offers

food to Ely, love and compassion is crucial to decision making and therefore a necessary trait.

George believes that love, purity, and reason are a priority because reason is necessary

to justify your actions, but you must also be capable of showing compassion and being honest.

Terrance brought up the point that everyone is motivated to achieve their goals for people

or things that they love, and so it is a necessity for progress.

Following the discussion, Mrs. Fusaro then asked the class to find antonyms for each characteristic:

Brawn - Weakness

Wisdom - Ignorance

Justice - Corruption, Depravity

Valor / Bravery - Cowardice

Patience - Impulsiveness, Intolerance

Nurturing - Neglect, Destructive

Reason - Impulsive, Irrational

Purity - Corruption

Truth - Deceitful

Beauty - Ugliness

Innovation - Regression

Charity - Selfishness, Greed

Love - Hate, Indifference

Athleticism - Scrawniness

Cunning - Naive

Confidence - Doubt

Mercy - Unforgiving

The purpose of the activity was to help the class draw parallels and recognize the Seven

Deadly Sins: Wrath, Sloth, Lust, Pride, Greed, Gluttony, and Envy. These sins not only

relate to the Greek gods, but they were also inspired by the Greeks’ use of the gods to

establish moral codes.

Student Reflection:

Throughout today’s discussions, the class was able to gain a personal insight on personal

traits that, as later revealed, were actually shared by Greek gods. We were able to not only

rank the characteristics how we deemed fit, but we were also able to defend and discuss

why we believed in them and understand how the morals of others might differ from ours.

his was shown by healthy disagreement across the classroom to Steven’s beliefs and ranking,

and it allowed the class to grasp a crucial theme of the lesson that will be applied to the rest of

the unit: Greek gods depicted humanity and its flaws. The debates in class are just one of

many examples that depict the prevalence of Greek ideals written centuries ago and how they

have evolved and adapted to today’s standards, and understanding these past ideals is crucial

to having productive discussions regarding modern values.