Lucas Stopper: Mortals versus Gods (topic of choice)

 A question that we posed in class last week was something along the lines of “do the Greek gods act in the erratic ways they do because they do not have the fear of death inherent in humans?” I loved this discussion because it related back to a book series I read when I was quite a bit younger that still has an impact on me today. Funnily enough, it is a fictionalized series about the god Apollo. I’m sure quite a few people who take this class know of the Percy Jackson series, and these books are one of the sequel series’ to those original books. These books discuss what it means to be mortal versus a god and what it means when one of those especially erratic and egotistical gods becomes a mortal who now has to reconcile with death. I loved these books when I was younger, not only because they were entertaining, but also because I think they discussed an incredibly profound philosophical concept in ways digestible to young children. While these books obviously never give an answer to this rhetorical question, they generally pose the idea that even the “worst” of gods can be changed by becoming a mortal human, mostly due to said inevitability of death that we all must face.

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