Heroes, Gods and Monsters of the Greek Myths

The stories in this collection often depict the gods caught up in feelings of rage and jealousy. Which stories demonstrate how moderation, restraint, and love can counterbalance these primal feelings? How does this benefit the characters—gods or humans—in these stories? What happens in the stories where strong negative emotions are unchecked by moderation, restraint, and love?

Teaching Suggestion: This prompt intentionally does not specify how many stories students need to consider in their answers so that the prompt can be tailored to classes of different ability levels and to different time constraints. You might challenge students to cover all of the stories or ask for coverage of only a subset of the stories, depending on the needs of your classroom. More advanced students might enjoy debating exactly what constitutes “restraint” or “love” in these cases, and what criteria can be used to classify different kinds of outcomes for the characters involved in the stories. For example: Is the outcome of Daphne’s story tragic when compared to the outcome of the Orpheus and Eurydice story?

Differentiation Suggestion: Even if the class is asked to discuss a larger number of the stories in their responses to this prompt, you might consider selecting a smaller subset of stories for English language learners, students with dyslexia or executive-function/attentional issues, and students who struggle with written expression.