After reading The Odyssey Book 5-8, it came to my attention that the modern world of today and the classical myths of the past have somewhat different beliefs on what a trickster is all about. The current myth I am going to use come from the movie The Dark Knight(2008), where we are introduced to a trickster known as the Joker. The Joker is a villain who dresses up as a clown and commits crimes. In addition to being a villain he is also consider a criminal mastermind due to his ingenuity when it comes to the creation of chaos. The Joker has no real motif when committing crimes beside his desire to show people the unimportance of life through death and pain. As a trickster, he constantly tries to adjust his personality in order to respond to
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In classical mythology a trickster was more of a character who controls and manipulates boundaries in order to win fame. The characteristic of a trickster back then was this belief that a trickster should have certain attributes such as being a psychopomp (guider of souls), a liar, a thief, and even someone who’s able to persuade others. But one of the classical myth beliefs that differs from our modern society cultural truth values and caught my attention in The Odyssey is Hermes ability to be obedient (respectful) towards Zeus. Now one can argue that Hermes obedience and loyalty towards Zeus was simply because of his compassion towards Odysseus which lead to him deciding upon himself to deliver Zeus’s message to Kalypso but for the sake of this report I believe Homer define Hermes as being …show more content…
Hermes is described as being this very polite guy who sounds as if he was reciting Zeus’s command to Kalypso and in the same passage he says “It was Zeus who told me to come here. I did not wish to. Who would willingly make the run across this endless salt water?” This passage shows just how much Hermes’s obedience for Zeus is unquestionable. Despite his unwillingness to make the trip to the Island of Ogygia; he did not hesitate to take the task at hand.
In contrast our modern society beliefs of a trickster (the Joker) is considered to be a bad guy (evil), an agent of chaos, an unpredictable character who’s obsession is to harm others. This description of him seems to be the complete opposite of what The Odyssey shows us with Hermes. Yes, both modern and classical myths beliefs have a few similarities for instance both characters are master liars and thieves but when looking at this cultural truth value introduced by Homer which is this level of obedience Hermes has towards Zeus, we can see that this attribute is no longer value in today’s
In classical mythology a trickster was more of a character who controls and manipulates boundaries in order to win fame. The characteristic of a trickster back then was this belief that a trickster should have certain attributes such as being a psychopomp (guider of souls), a liar, a thief, and even someone who’s able to persuade others. But one of the classical myth beliefs that differs from our modern society cultural truth values and caught my attention in The Odyssey is Hermes ability to be obedient (respectful) towards Zeus. Now one can argue that Hermes obedience and loyalty towards Zeus was simply because of his compassion towards Odysseus which lead to him deciding upon himself to deliver Zeus’s message to Kalypso but for the sake of this report I believe Homer define Hermes as being …show more content…
Hermes is described as being this very polite guy who sounds as if he was reciting Zeus’s command to Kalypso and in the same passage he says “It was Zeus who told me to come here. I did not wish to. Who would willingly make the run across this endless salt water?” This passage shows just how much Hermes’s obedience for Zeus is unquestionable. Despite his unwillingness to make the trip to the Island of Ogygia; he did not hesitate to take the task at hand.
In contrast our modern society beliefs of a trickster (the Joker) is considered to be a bad guy (evil), an agent of chaos, an unpredictable character who’s obsession is to harm others. This description of him seems to be the complete opposite of what The Odyssey shows us with Hermes. Yes, both modern and classical myths beliefs have a few similarities for instance both characters are master liars and thieves but when looking at this cultural truth value introduced by Homer which is this level of obedience Hermes has towards Zeus, we can see that this attribute is no longer value in today’s