Greek Myths Connection To The Modern World

Greek myths are a collection of short stories that aim to explain the origins of the world, give a detailed explanation about the gods and goddesses’ lives of that era, and try to teach a lesson to the reader. Greek mythology also includes a connection to the modern world which is where the myth resembles a story or movie from the more recent times. Three Greek myths that have a strong connection to the modern world include the stories of Theseus, Orpheus, and Midas and each of the connections come from a book/movie.

The first Greek myth, Theseus, connects to the popular book entitled, The Hunger Games. In Theseus’s story, the people of Athens are forced to send seven of their best noblemen and seven of their fairest maidens to go to Crete
The story of Midas connects to the old Disney Tale, Pinocchio. In the Greek Myth, King Midas was extremely self-centered and only wanted fame and fortune, so when he was granted one wish from Dionysus, he chose to have everything he turned into gold. That unfortunately backfired and had negative consequences. Later in the story, with the guidance of Midas, Pan challenged Apollo to a musical contest. When Apollo was given the victory, Midas objected which resulted in an embarrassing addition to his look. As stated in the reading, “Poor old Midas, self centered and earthly! Apollo could not suffer such a depraved pair of ears to wear human form any longer. He touched Midas’ ears and they began to lengthen, to move where they joined his head, and they grew heavy inside and outside. Midas had the ears of an ass!” (Bailey 2) The appearance appearance that Midas experienced also occurred in the story Pinocchio. In the story, Pinocchio’s nose grew every time that he made an untrue statement, which was similar to Midas as his ears grew with his self-centeredness. Both stories show that untruthfulness and being full of yourself can have unfavorable
In the myth, Orpheus travels to the Underworld to bring back his love, Eurydice, to Earth due to the fact that was bitten by a snake and died. Orpheus was the son of Apollo. Apollo gave Orpheus a lyre when he was young. But it turns out that Orpheus was extremely gifted in the art of music because as a self-taught musician, he could make everything at peace and he could make people do anything he wanted them to when he played his lyre. When traveling to the Underworld, Orpheus encounters a three-headed watchdog named Cerberus. With Cerberus being the guard at the door, he did not want to allow Orpheus into the Underworld. But once Orpheus played his sweet tune on his lyre, Cerberus was silent and amazed at the glorious sound. So while Cerberus was under Orpheus’ musical spell, Orpheus was able to pass the wild beast calmly and easily. An event similar to this took place in the book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. In the book, Harry, Ron, and Hermione encountered three dangerous dogs that were forbidding them to enter. But just like Orpheus did, Ron picked up a flue left by Snape and when Ron began to play the beasts instantly fell to their knees and fall fast asleep. According to the text, “It really wasn’t a tune, but from the first note the beast's eyes began to droop...they slipped out of the cloak and crept toward the trapdoor. They could feel the dog’s hot