Poem: Phaethon's Legacy

I wrote a new poem! But it might need a little context first:
"Phaethon" is a story from Roman mythology found in Ovid's Metamorphoses. In this story, a human named Phaethon learns that he is the son of the sun god Apollo and he goes to visit his father for the first time. Phaethon's dad offers to give his son whatever he wants and Phaethon asks to drive his father's chariot (Which actually causes the sun's daily movement across the sky), Apollo is upset about this because nobody else (Not even the king of the gods) can pilot this vehicle properly. Phaethon takes out his dad's chariot and rides it through the sky but it loses control and one of the other gods strikes Phaethon down. I read a poem about this where the tone seemed to suggest that the author finds Phaethon's audacity, in this case, to be arrogant and I disagreed with him. So, my poem is a response to him, Enjoy!

Phaethon’s Legacy
By Emma Probst

 
They claim it such audacity
that Phaethon held those reins.
Such arrogance to reach beyond
the bounds of mortal frame.

 
They say he lacked the wisdom
uncognizant of the risk.
Recklessly striving in vain to prove
his worth to indifferent gods.

 
What did Phaethon really think
as he reached to grab those reins?
He had to know that he would fall
shattered smoldering to the ground.

 
Yet Phaethon stood unphasѐd
ambitiously seeking his goal.
To steer that golden chariot
which only one god could control.

 
Phaethon knew this course may take his life
as he bid the horses to run.
The carriage veered wildly out of control
still he clutched, enduring his pain.

 
The gods couldn't endure such chaos
so they cast Phaethon out of the sky.
He died within his youthful prime
yet he lived a triumphant life

 
We are Phaethon's legacy
his tenacity worth reflection.
To hold on, refusing to compromise
until our ride comes to an end

 

Insights into Frozen: Community, Sisterhood and Genuine Love

Just finished watching Frozen at home with my family. I really enjoy this movie and I think it did a lot of refreshing things that haven't been done before in a Disney Princess film. One thing that I have noticed with my literary training is that I am now staring to see themes and insights within everything that I interact with, which includes books, movies, and music. With this in mind, I thought that I would share some of the themes I found while watching "Frozen". So, here goes!

1. Misperceived Romance

One thing I love about this movie is the fact that Anna is completely and utterly wrong about who she is in love with. One thing that has been the rule of most Disney films (And most other films with a romantic subplot) is the fact that the protagonist ALWAYS falls in love with the first person that they meet. This is such a formulaic part of most films that I was expecting Anna and Hans to get married and this is where I was pleasantly surprised. I have occasionally been frustrated by the fact that when a woman in a Disney movie thinks that she might be in love, she usually is and the dude is usually perfect for her and Disney never alludes to the possibility that she could be wrong. I thought I was in love once but it turned out that I was simply infatuated with my perception of this man and I didn't even know him well enough to learn his faults. This film even makes fun of previous Disney films where the man and woman get married after only knowing each other for a brief time (Seriously, Snow White and Prince Charming only met once, as did Cinderella and her prince).
     
2. Sisterly Love

This film truly showcased sisterly love in the relationship between Elsa and Anna. It seems that many Disney films involve a character who is an orphan and an only child which means that for all intents and purposes, they are alone in the world. In cases where the protagonist does happen to have siblings, there is usually an intense level of sibling rivalry which lends to the impression that all siblings hate each other or at least feel burning indifference toward each other. As a woman with ten (Almost eleven) siblings whom I love dearly, I never understood why siblings had to have trouble getting along. I have had disagreements with my siblings from time to time but at the end of the day, I love them so much and nothing can take this love from me. We can observe this in "Frozen". No matter how many times Elsa tries to push Anna away, Anna remains devoted to her sister and sacrifices herself to save her sister in the end. Some people have come to the conclusion that Anna and Elsa are in a lesbian relationship with each other, I think this notion is ridiculous and forgets the fact that Anthropologically speaking, we all have incest taboos and dating your own sister is one of those taboos. Has a thriving sisterly relationship become so foreign to us that we expect other forces to be at work? And what does this say about us if we cannot trust in the existence of an innocent sibling relationship?
 
3. Importance of Community

This movie explores additional interpersonal relationships by looking at the relationship between a woman and her community. Elsa spends most of her life avoiding the company of others in order to follow the instructions of her father. But another reason for doing this is fear that the community will not understand her struggles and assume that she has sinister intentions. But by distancing herself, Elsa misses out on a supportive and dedicated community, an example of which we can see when we look at Kristoff's "family" and this community misses out on the unique and beautiful contribution that Elsa can offer to them as a whole.

4. Vulnerability

Elsa fears exposing her shortcomings because she doesn't think that people will understand her but vulnerability is one of the most powerful forces in bringing people together. When we share our frailties and shortcomings with others, we are saying that we trust them. Kristoff shares all of his faults with his loving family and he eventually shares with Anna as well. Once Anna understands Elsa's trials in controlling her powers, Anna's sympathy increases and she wants to do whatever she can to help her sister.

5. Self-Sacrifice

I really enjoy films that promote self-sacrifice because to me, this is the highest form of love. Analogous to the love that Christ showed in his death on the cross. We can observe self-sacrifice in two places. One is the part where Olaf risks melting so that he can save Anna and help her to keep warm. And the other part is at the very end when Anna gives up what looks like her only chance at restoring herself and then places herself directly between her sister and a weapon that is poised to kill her. We see something noble in self-sacrifice and I think we have good reason to.

6. Love in General

This films showcases many different forms of love: Love between sisters, family members, friends, and of course, romantic love. Although these relationships have differences between them, Olaf's definition can work quite well for all of them when he says: "Love is putting someone else's needs before yours." This definition of love can and should permeate all of our interpersonal relationships. When Jesus tells us that we should "love our neighbor as ourselves" he means that we should put their needs before our own, not that we should start smooching them or anything weird like that.  

7. Not Being Ruled by the Perceptions of Others

Some people have difficulties with Elsa's "Let it Go Song" song because they see it as Elsa's ballad of rejecting community and attempting to face this cold world on her own. While this is true to a certain extent, I think that we forget the fact that Elsa already spent the majority of her life on her own in her room. While she is seeking a more prominent form of isolation, Elsa is also saying that she will no longer conceal herself as a means of achieving approval with the people around her. Elsa is "letting go" of the idea that she needs to maintain a plastic persona in order to have people like her. In the end, it is better to have people dislike you for being yourself than it is to pretend to be someone you aren't.     

8. We all Have Our Faults

This movie has a song that states that we are all a "fixer upper". We all have our failings, our shortcomings, our imperfections and we should recognize this and embrace each other along with any faults that we happen to have. None of us are as perfect as Richmond or Prince Charming or Superman, but we are all endearing in the midst of our failings.

Insights into "The Rape of Lucrece": Finding True Virtues and Avoiding the Counterfeits

I finished reading "The Rape of Lucrece" by William Shakespeare and I am fascinated by the many interesting concepts that this poem addressed (To be honest, I really liked reading this story and I will most likely be writing my term paper on "The Rape of Lucrece", but it doesn't seem proper to put the word "like" anywhere near the word "rape" so I'll stick with "fascinated"). Here are some of the interesting things that this poetic piece got me to think about:

1. Love vs. Lust

Lust is ultimately shown to be more about self-absorption and self-pleasuring than about the actual object of this attention who basically becomes a means to achieving the other person's desires without consideration of the needs and concerns of this objectified person who is impacted. In "Rape of Lucrece" Tarquin basically ruins Lucrece's life by taking her when she is striving to remain true to her husband. This is because Tarquin is more interested in what he wants then he is in Lucrece's wishes. This can also be observed in Shakespeare's "Venus and Adonis" where Venus wants to have Adonis but Adonis isn't ready because he doesn't know himself enough to share himself with someone else. In contrast, Love is supposed to be concerned with the needs and wishes of others above your own personal needs. Although lust is self-absorption, it is also an eventual source of self-destruction. Lust is very much a counterfeit to love even though the two are essentially opposites.

2. Misdirected "Virtues"

There are some traits that we admire such as bravery or ambition that are certainly worthy of admiration...as long as they are pursued to the right purpose. I have already discussed Richard III's ambition and how he uses this ambitious pursuit to murder the people around him. In this story, Tarquin feels afraid of the task he about to undertake (Raping Lucrece) and he reasons that because he is afraid of doing this task, he must be "courageous" by ignoring this fear. Because Tarquin is about to do something wrong, it seems like it might be better to be a "coward" in regards to committing such evil acts. However, it seems like what Tarquin is pursuing is not courage, but yet another counterfeit, courage is more than the opposite of fear, it is experiencing fear and continuing to do the right thing, Tarquin forgets this. Another virtue that Tarquin thinks he is achieving is determination because he breaks many locks separating himself from Lucrece and doesn't give up until he has Lucrece in his power.

3. Your Life is an Example to Others

When Tarquin is about to take Lucrece by force, she warns him that as a prince, other people look up to him and they may get the idea that rape is appropriate behavior and follow his example. While I think that people have a little more critical thinking than that, we should keep in mind that other people are watching our actions and that we should be a good example to those who follow behind us.

4. Internal Debate

This story has a lot of internal wrestling going on in the characters's minds, Tarquin wonders whether he should bend to his conscience or his passions and Lucrece wonders whether she should end her disrepute with suicide or avoid taking her life and preserve her soul. (I really like books that have internal wrestling and I've noticed it more often in reading Hawthorne and Melville)

5. Suspicion

After Lucrece's experience with Tarquin, she feels tainted and guilty and begins to suspect other people around her (Especially men) as knowing about her rape and accusing her. It is somewhat suspicious how much I have run into fiction discussing suspicioun lately, especially in Melville's "Benito Cereno".

6. Do Outer Appearances Reflect Inner Being?

This question is another one I have run into a lot lately. In this story, Tarquin is fairly good looking and Lucrece who at first only sees the best in people doesn't suspect the dark inclination of his thoughts. As we discover throughout the story, Tarquin actually is evil even if he looks charming (I found this refreshing after reading Richard III where he looks ugly and he is evil as well). I personally believe that the exterior is superficial and does not reflect a person's character, their actions are what reflects their character.

I think it is interesting how many connections I have been finding lately with other things I have been reading. I am at that point in the semester where everything begins to converge

Life Lessons from Richard III

I recently finished reading Richard III by William Shakespeare and in the spirit of the post I wrote about The Odyssey, I thought it might be a good time to share some "life lessons" that I got out of Richard III as well.

1. Dream big

Richard has some pretty ambitious dreams! He wants to be king and I can imagine his friends staring at him in disbelief like he is crazy (That has happened to me more than a few times). Throughout the play, Richard is considerably driven and goal-oriented which is pretty great....of course his methods of achieving these goals involve murdering various people (Including two children) which is not exactly a good pattern to follow. I have some pretty big dreams myself, including becoming a professor. I usually get some bizarre looks from people for saying that, probably because I look like I'm thirteen and people don't think I realize what I am getting myself into but I am willing to fight for this dream in order to make it happen.....however, I am not planning on killing people in order to get to this dream.

2. Always listen to the crazy lady, she usually knows what she's talking about

Early in the play, this crazy former Queen named Margaret comes in and basically gives most of the main characters spoilers related to what is going to happen to them before the end of the play. You'd think that a warning like this would give the characters some opportunity to examine the current direction in life and change something but instead, they just move on like nothing happened. As each of their characters go to their deaths, the usually remember what Margaret said and say something to the effect of "Oh yeah, that crazy woman was right".

3. If there is some sort of weird prophecy predicting your demise, try to cover all your bases when it comes to avoiding this fate

The currently reigning king is given a prophecy that he will have his throne taken from him by a guy whose name starts with "G". This causes him to imprison his own brother George, Duke of Clarence in order to avoid this fate. What he doesn't seem to think about is the fact that Richard III is the Duke of Gloucester and EVERYBODY in the play calls him "Gloucester". If I were a paranoid king, I would have locked them both up and none of this would have happened.

4. Try to set reasonable standards when it comes to defining a "true friend"

Richard seems to think that the only way that someone can be a true friend to him is if they are willing to viciously murder innocent children for him and if they never ask him for their "fair share" in the treasure that comes out of it. Aside from the fact that these standards seem to be more fitting when it comes to finding the ideal assassin rather than a loyal friend. These standards are ridiculously high, I really don't think that you will ever be able to find a "friend" like this.

5. Some people can get away with blaming others for their problems (You shouldn't blame people for your problems even if you could get away with it though)

In the play, there is a point where Richard claims that the queen and a friend of hers plotted to kill him by cursing him with a withered hand. This is ridiculous and when he said this in the play I felt very inclined to yell: "You were born that way dude!". Yet, in spite of how ridiculous this claim is, Richard is able to get rid of one of his rivals this way because the people believe this story.

6. Don't let your physical deficiencies turn you into a monster

Fairly early in the play (Basically page 1), Richard says that because he is deformed (He has a humpback and a withered Hand) and won't be able to settle down or find a gal who loves him, he is going to "play the villain" and implement this whole drawn out, evil plan to achieve his goal of being king. This probably isn't the best motivation for being evil because if you look hard enough, I bet that you can find a physical flaw in pretty much everyone. For example, I've got my wandering eye. Sometimes, you just need to accept things and move on with your life....Richard does not.

7. Nobody is perfect....unless you're Richmond, in which case, you can do no wrong

At the end of this play, Richard, who has already been established as an evil character, goes up against Richmond and eventually loses. What is interesting about Richmond is that he is insanely "good" and perfect at everything he does. This guy prays, delivers inspiringly humble speeches, asks his underlings for advice, and I picture him as a pretty good-looking guy. Even the ghosts like him! Compare this to Richard who is suspicious of everyone, grouchy, tormented by the ghosts, and who designs the battle plan entirely by himself. Frankly, I find Richard to be a far more realistic picture of humanity than Richmond, no one could possibly be as good as Richmond all the time unless you're talking about Jesus.

Insights into Benito Cereno: Trying to Find the Truth in a Crazy World

I finished reading Bonito Cereno by Herman Melville a few weeks ago. This is an amazing story with a lot of imagery and symbolism and it was accompanied a lot of pondering on my part. With this in mind, I thought I'd share some themes that I found (I'm really beginning to enjoy telling you guys about what I've found in literature, I think I might do it after every book if I can). So, without further delay, her are some of the themes I found:

1. Deliberateness

I think I may have just made this word up but what I'm getting at here is this question: How do we know if someone is doing something on purpose? For example, how can we tell if someone is genuinely ignoring us or if we are just reading into the situation and being paranoid. In this story, Capt. Deleno, the protagonist boards a ship in distress, he begins to think that the crew members are sending secret signals and plotting to kill him. In the midst of his suspicions, he often talks himself out of his suspicion by stating that is paranoid to assume that these men are plotting to kill him.

2. Suspicion

It seems to me that this entire story is a test of the reader's trust levels by having a series of extremely suspicious events and a protagonist who wants to retain his excessively idealistic trust in the scenario that Bonito Cereno, the captain of the distressed ship, tells him (In spite of the fact that there are numerous holes in his story). I am a pretty trusting person so I was trusting the account right along with Capt. Deleno...right up until Cereno started asking Deleno a whole bunch of questions about how many men he had and what weapons were on his ship (It's kinda like if you give a man on the street corner some money to help him out and he asks for you phone number, birthday and SSN number, that would creep you out right?). At that point, I became pretty suspicious of the whole situation myself.

3. Power

This story spends a considerable amount of time looking at power dynamics by looking at the topic of slavery. What is most interesting is that the person in this tale who is the most enslaved is probably the last person that you would expect to find as a slave because he doesn't fit the prototypical view that we have of slavery in America in the early 1800's. I think Melville did this for two reasons: the first was to increase empathy for slavery by having the enslaved person be an individual that even a profoundly racist person would feel sympathy for. However, I think another reason for doing this was to widen the scope of the definition of slavery. In this story, the enslaved person is eventually freed from his captivity....that is, freed physically. Although this person has been physically freed, he is still enslaved within his mind. This suggests to me that Melville is discussing forms of slavery that go beyond the physical variety that we see. Perhaps it is possible to find yourself in a state of ideological or social slavery where you feel constrained to voice certain views or behave in a specific way simply because society believes that behaving differently is somehow socially unacceptable.

4. Truth

This whole story can be seen as Capt. Deleno's search for truth in his attempts to discover what is really taking place on board Bonito Cereno's ship. What I find interesting is that we never discover the whole truth of what took place and what we do wind up discovering is reported by voices that we don't entirely trust. At the end of the tale, we are given an official account of what happened on Benito's boat, the problem is that a lot of this account is delivered by Capt. Deleno and based on his bad track record of noticing the truth throughout the story, we cannot really be sure that he knows the whole story. Another problem with this truthful account is that it is missing large chunks, several times it claims to be offering the "highlights" of the events that took place and cuts out things that are deemed "not important". The big problem with this is, if you are trying to discover the whole truth about something, do you really want someone else to decide what is or isn't relevant? Of course not! If you are researching or generally attempting to discover the truth in a situation, you are going to want as much information as possible so as to arrive at an informed decision. In the pursuit of truth, this story ends with the idea that there is still a considerable amount of mystery regarding what actually took place and you probably will never know the entire story.

5. Identity

This story takes a look at the concept of identity by posing this question: How do you know if a person you have just met is behaving unusually? If you have just met them, you don't have a baseline for judging their behaviour and even if you have known them for a while, how can you tell if they are truly behaving as themselves when they are around you and not disguising themselves in some way as part of their social register in a process known as self-othering. In this story, Benito Cereno acts very strangely for a deliberate reason but, because Capt. Deleno doesn't know Cereno, he assumes that Cereno is just a generally bizarre person rather than supposing that Bonito is a person who is not acting like he usually would.

6. Perspective

This story also has some interesting exploration of perspective. Even though this story is written in third person (Which I found somewhat odd considering the fact that most of the Melville I have read is written in first person), we are presented with the rather limited viewpoint of Capt. Deleno as the lense through which events are interpreted. Deleno's understanding of the events that take place would be extremely divergent from Bonito Cereno's knowledge and understanding of the events that take place. When we are presented with the account at the end of the story that claims to retell the events that have taken place, there is a significant perspective of the events that took place that remains silenced throughout this inquiry, in fact, this source isn't consulted and none of the authorities seem to consider the fact that this perspective should be considered.

7. Statement V.S. Action

There is character in this story who at a certain point, refuses to speak and is silently executed (Not for being silent, there is way more to it than that). The rationale that is provided for the silence of this individual is simply the idea that "talk is cheap". If talk is not accompanied by action, it is ultimately ineffective and wasted. It seems to me that this concept may have been addressed to members of the abolitionist movement or other advocacy groups in order to remind them that their movement requires action or it is as good as dead.

I hope you enjoyed reading what I found in Bonito Cereno. You may have noticed that I was somewhat vague at times when it came to describing characters and plot points, this was by design. Bonito Cereno is one of those "Heraclitus"-type books, by this I mean that you cannot step into the same "river" twice. After you have read the ending, it is unlikely that you will be able to read the beginning the same way again, things have changed dramatically and perhaps you have changed as well. If I told you too much, it would be a lot like announcing the perpetrators in a murder mystery and nobody likes that.

How The Cat in the Hat and The Odyssey are Actually Similar Stories

I've been thinking about it and I found that there are some interesting plot similarities between "The Cat in the Hat" and "The Odyssey".

In both stories, the main protector figure (Mom, Odysseus) leaves the house

In their absence, a chaotic entity shows up (The Cat in the Hat + eventually Thing 1 & Thing 2, the Suitors) and attempts to charm the individual(s) remaining in the house (Sally and her brother, Penelope).

While this is is going on, a voice of reason criticizes the behavior of the chaotic entity but is largely ignored and seems to be powerless to physically do something to put an end to the chaos (The Fish, Telemachus).

Eventually, things go too far and someone within the house rises up in order to get rid of the chaotic entity (The main speaker in the Cat in the Hat does this by capturing Thing 1 and Thing 2 with his net, Telemachus plays a vital role in helping Odysseus to clean house and get rid of the suitors).

There are, of course, several differences between these two stories, especially when it comes to the way that they end. At the end of "The Cat in the Hat", the Cat leaves peacefully and even helps to clean up the place while at the end of "The Odyssey", Odysseus and Telemachus basically kill everyone (Including slave women who helped out the suitors and slept with them). The end of "The Odyssey" is extremely gory with all sorts of stabbing and torture....somehow, I don't think that would be appropriate for children. In spite of these differences, it is amazing how far you can get through each story by looking at the similarities

On Chaucer's Canterbury Tales

I think sometimes it is easy to think that a book written hundreds of years ago can no longer truly relate to people and the experiences that they go through today. Somehow, the impression is that just because people have changed their clothes or their cultural practices in the time since these tales have been written that the content is no longer an accurate depiction of humanity. Reading from the Canterbury Tales has really shown me that we still through the same struggles and deal with the same issues. So, without further delay, here is what I learned from Chaucer:

1. Human Beings are on the same journey together through life

In the General Prologue, we meet a lot of really interesting characters including: a knight, a starving college student, a drunken mill worker, a woman who enjoys travelling and getting married, a corrupt friar, a summoner who takes bribes, a rich guy who loves to eat, an innkeeper, and a spiritual adviser to a nun. All these people have their faults, some of these people have their virtues as well and all of them are joined together in order to take this journey to Canterbury. They soon decide to pass the travelling time by sharing tales and giving a meal to the person who tells the best story and every person is welcomed to participate regardless of their wealth or education. There are so many people in this world and no matter how different we are, the fact remains that we are all breathing the same air and trying to understand what life is all about.

2. People really don't like being cheated on

This one seems somewhat obvious because people aren't really all that fond of being cheated on today either. But somehow, it just makes things a whole lot worse if your spouse is having an affair while you sleep paranoid in a tub afraid of the end of the world like we see in the Miller's Tale

3. Concern about the end of the world

Somehow people didn't quite get the memo when Jesus said "It is not for you to know the time" when it concerns the end of the world. People are still making predictions that generally don't happen but some people believe them. We can see this in the Miller's Tale when Nicolas tells a man named John that the flood is coming back so that Nicolas can get a chance to sleep with John's wife.

4. What does a successful marriage look like

We can see concern about marriage in several stories by Chaucer. The Wife of Bath suggests that Marriages would be successful if women were put in charge while the Clerk tells a story where the wife needs to listen to her husband unquestioningly. The Franklin also poses an answer by suggesting that the man should let his wife be in charge in the home but that she needs to act like he is in charge when they are in public. While not being an expert on marriage, I would say that the question of "who's in charge" is not really the right one to be asking. In a loving relationship, both the husband and the wife should put their spouse first.

5. Trying to upstage the other guy

For some reason, the Friar and the Summoner decide that they don't like each other and the both are able to figure out that each of them are corrupt and are using their work for the church as a means of stealing money from the people. The Friar tells a story that basically says that the Summoner is best buddies with the devil and sold his soul a long time ago. The Summoner then upstages him by saying that all of the Friars live in hell, beneath the devil's tale so really the friars are much more geographically close to the devil.


6. The Problem of Evil

Basically, this "problem" is still one of the most asked that people have about Christianity: "If God is good, why is there so much evil in the world". Chaucer asks this question in the Franklin's tale when a young woman named Dorigen is waiting for her husband to return from sailing and wonders why God placed such sharp rocks along the English coastline when they only seem to serve the purpose of sinking ships. I think Chaucer answers this question in the story by having the rocks covered by the tides. Basically, there will be hard times but there will be good times too and God has his reasons for both.

7. Free Will V.S. Predetermination

This a debate that many Christians are caught up in by asking "How much choice do we really have?" In The Nun's Priest's Tale, a rooster named Chaunticleer has a dream that he will meet a monster and possibly die but his wife tells him that dreams are ridiculous and that he should go on with his life. Chaunticleer then wonders if he has a choice and he chooses to ignore his dream, he is then almost eaten by a fox until he discovers a way to escape. It seems to me that Chaunticleer thinks that he is making his own decisions but that God is orchestrating things outside of the rooster's knowledge.

So, there you go, I know this is much longer and more philosophically dense than the one I made last time about The Odyssey, but I really got some deep Philosophical stuff out of Chaucer and I wanted to share.

Life Lessons from The Odyssey

I finished reading The Odyssey recently and I thought that I'd share a few "life lessons" that I got out of it:

1. A good swineherd is hard to find, If you happen to have a swineherd who will remain loyal even after you have been gone for twenty years, make sure that you pay him well!

2. If you are going to horribly maim and then taunt someone DO NOT give them your full name and contact info, this is the cause of pretty much all of Odysseus' problems

3. Don't shrink back from the hard things. Odysseus had to go through a lot, and even after he got home, he still had a lot of problems that he had to deal with. Odysseus' response? Roughly Translated: Bring it on!

4. Be an inspiration to others and try to find people who are an inspiration to you. Athena is a considerable help to both Odysseus and his son, appearing in the guise of an old man named "Mentor" and inspiring these men whenever they felt like they were afraid or unable to do what was required (I'm wondering if the term "mentor" that we use to describe supportive individuals such as professors is a term that we have borrowed from Homer)

5. Be willing to be vulnerable and show others your faults. On several different occasions, the only way that Odysseus is able to prove that he actually is who he claims to be is by showing people a scar that he got on his thigh when he was young