Transcript:

Leading Question: What is today’s most popular mythology?

In the past when there was some strange life altering phenomena we couldn’t explain we turned to the local shaman, priest, or prophet to find out what vengeance the Heavens were exacting upon us. Lightning destroys your home? That’s Zeus/Thor/Jupiter the god of thunder striking once again. Your home destroyed when your corrupt city was swept up in a flood? That’s God’s justice washing away all of our sins so that society can repent and start afresh with a clean conscience. Has your family’s cow died in the night? That was the Chupacabra come for its blood. Do you hear the wailing of the sea at night? Is your way of life at war with the authorities? Who among us can rise up as a hero to sleigh the dragon? Who will take up the magical sword and defeat the dark father? 

We may look down on the old stories as superstition or meaningless fictions, but where do we turn when we face chaos that we cannot explain? A pandemic is sweeping the world into a frenzy and we feel powerless to stop it so what do we do? We all stay indoors and turn on the television set. We watch stories about zombies, aliens, science fiction, and fantasy. And of all the genres, the one that is the most popular, the movie teasers that get the most views, the most epic genre fiction is the genre that looks most similar to the ancient mythologies of old. We look to modern day demigods, humans with supernatural abilities. We turn to SuperHeroes. 

SuperHeroes are Nothing New

They come from comics that have not existed for more than 100 years. But look how similar they are to the old Greek mythological heroes. You can find an ancient equivalent for nearly every modern day superhero. 

In both the Avengers and Justice League humanity is defended by a pantheon of demigods threatened by a dark force from the Heavens who is almost no different from Lucifer who was originally an angel descended from the Heavens. Katniss from the Hunger Games is just like Artemis, the Greek goddess of hunting. Aquaman looks exactly like Posiedon the Greek god also known as Neptune in Roman mythology. 

Wonder Woman is literally the daughter of Zeus, a direct descendant of Greek mythology. Thor is exactly the same Thor, completely unchanged, the god of thunder from Norse mythology.

Superman the son of God

Superman is the literal physical manifestation of the Jewish Messiah. He was created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster who were both Jewish. Like Jesus he was raised by a poor humble family on earth, but really is descended from the Heavens. His one weakness, kryptonite, like Lucifer, is also descended from this Heavenly world. His real heavenly name is Kal-el. His birth father’s name is Jor-el. These names are distinctly Hebrew. All Hebrew names contain either EL or YAH. Kalel and Jorel both contain EL the letter meaning Lord. He, like Jesus, is the ultimate archetype of all that is good and ideal. The ultimate savior. 

Batman

One like the son of man who shines as bright as the sun coming down on the clouds from the Greek mount of Olympus or mount Zion or the New Jerusalem of Revelations in the Judeo-Christian tradition casts a great shadow. And that shadow realm must have it’s Lord, the God of Hades. Batman is Lord of the underworld, the dirty streets where low lives commit crimes in secret, where costumed villains haunt our psyche with various psychological traumas. The Dark Knight is the ultimate anti-hero, willing to break every rule of society just shy of execution to keep order in the criminal world of chaos. Batman’s one rule, to never kill his enemies, makes sense in a mythological sense, because the one rule of the underworld you can’t escape, not even through death. Even his design is the same iconic shape of a dark devil with two horns and a black silhouette. 

Why Mythology?

Why have we turned to mythology for comfort in the face of trying times? What is it about the modern times that we find solace in spending time with demigods and supernatural heros? Do we believe these fictional characters will save us? Of course not. Superheroes, just like mythology aren’t real. At least not objectively real no matter how we strive to make them realistic. So what is it about them that we find so meaningful? 

Mythology might not be objectively accurate, and superheroes might not be real, just as humans are not physically immortal, but the ideals they fight for and represent are absolutely real and immortal. They are physical representations of the eternal virtues of human nature. The ones that can’t be explained by science, logic, or rationality. Each hero and villain represents a philosophy, and their fight is symbolic of the fight between contemporary ideologies. 

Greek Philosophy Playwrights

Movies, television, and film are merely descendants of theatre. To this day some of the greatest plays, dramas, tragedies, and comedies go back to the ancient Greeks. Originally the Greek tragedies were written by philosophers. They took their abstract teachings and showed us how these philosophies play out in reality by pitting them up against each other in a story. One character, the protagonist, will represent one philosophy and another character, the antagonist, will go against him with his conflicting philosophy. The drama is a simulation to see which philosophy will win in a one on one fight.

Modern day superheroes are no different. Superman fights for truth, justice, and the American way. Captain America represents patriotism. Hulk, Wolverine, Beast, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde all represent the challenge of conquering our more violent primitive urges with more civilized contemporary academics. Dr. Strange represents eastern philosophy. War Machine represents the military industrial complex. Iron Man represents the ingenuity of the individual, capitalism, egotistical charisma of entrepreneurs, and technology. But just like Silicon valley he always finds himself caught in the moral gray area between the gains of self-interest and traditional virtues. 

Iron man is just like the ancient Greek hero, Icarus, who invented wings out of wax but was tragically warned by his father not to fly too close to the sun.

Every young hero, especially those who have lost their parents, needs a wise old man or a mentor like Professor X, Gandolph, or Dumbldore. This is yet another archetype, or trope that we see in nearly every mythological story. Every archetype can appear in a positive form of light or its negative form of shadow. For every protagonist hero, you must have an antagonist the villain. Just as we have the wise old man or trustworthy father figure, we also have the fearsome dark lord. Luke Skywalker has a mentor in Obiwan Kinobi, but he also has a dark father figure in Darth Vader. The word Darth Vader is literally German for Dark Father. 

The Difference Between a Great Villain and a Terrible Villain

We can easily see that superhero stories are best when they represent philosophical ideas when you look at the difference between a meaningful villain and a lame villain. The villains from Justice League and Dr. Strange are lame because they are evil for no real reason. They are simply power hungry aliens who want the ancient stone of power so they can destroy the world. They feel alien to us because they don’t have any of the relatable flaws of human nature. No reason or purpose. They aren’t fighting for any ideal. You could exchange these villains for any other and it wouldn’t change the story at all. I will bet many of us can’t even remember their names. 

But a great villain is one who truly believes in what they are fighting for. Magneto survived the Holocaust and has good reason not to trust humanity. The older aged version of Thanos that we see at the beginning of End Game is weak and easy to kill because he no longer has anything to fight for, but his younger version is terrifyingly powerful because his Nihilistic philosophy gives him a sense of purpose. He is driven to restore a sense of meaning to the world through death. The Avengers believe that meaning is found in restoring life. Which philosophy is true? The one that wins the fight of course. 

The Joker uses his intelligence to expose the corruption of our ideals. He is the most terrifying of all because he is a true believer in nothing. He represents the same resentful Nihilism that school shooters believe in, that the rules and order are all corrupt and existence itself is guilty deserving only to be punished. His superpower is his lack of empathy. 

Twoface represents hypocrisy and duplicity. Lex Luthor represents greed and self-interest, and is an ally just as often as he is a villain. 

Lucifer was originally an angel. He was an ally before he became a trickster like Loki from the Norse pantheon or Snape from the magical world of Harry Potter. These shape shifters are often extremely intelligent, relying on their own wit, and ambitious to the point of threatening the ancient authorities. They represent the dangerous aspect of humanism. Man is most powerful when he aspires to reach the Heavens, but is it not megalomaniacal to think man great enough to rule at the center of the universe in place of God? But if God doesn’t exist, or if His justice is corruptible like the rest of us then why not one of us to rule over the reset of us? These are the kind of interesting philosophical ideas we can explore through mythology. And I don’t think their popularity will die down any time soon. 

Concluding Question

So let me ask,

Q: Who is your favorite superhero and what philosophy or ideal of your own do you think they represent?

Many of us see ourselves in our heroes. Some people even tell me I look like Christopher Reeves, the actor who originally played Superman. If you could be any character in any film who would you want to be? Let us know in the comments…

Here’s another interesting question.

Q: Would you rather have invisibility or the ability to fly?

They say the answer can reveal a lot about a person. 

Life of Pi Questions

Next week we’ll be revisiting last week’s theme by discussing the film Life of Pi as it relates the story of Adam & Eve. So if you have not watched the film or if you have never read the story from Genesis, I suggest you do your homework. If you have seen the film, please share your response to some questions I have posted on the website. Who knows, maybe I will be able to incorporate your ideas into the week’s lesson. Again you can find notes from today’s show and the questions concerning Life of Pi at www.BestClassEver.org