Percy Jackson Archetypes

Percy Jackson and the Olympians The Lightning Thief draws on and modernizes the events, the hero type, spiritual help, the monsters, and the good vs. evil theme of the story “Danaüs, Perseus, and The Gorgon” . The events that were taken and recreated have been fit to the surrounding and knowledge of the modern civilizations.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians The Lightning Thief modernizes the plot/evidence of the story “Danaüs, Perseus, and The Gorgon” . First of all, in both stories the main character is sent on a quest by a higher power, which is the inciting incident. Percy modernizes this because in the movie he is sent by Hades (Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief) instead of a King (which is not used everywhere today) showed by this

To kick us off, Percy was the archetypal hero, the prodigy, because it is something that we people in the present world like to ride along the story of someone who didn’t always used to be awesome, and there is a lot of inventions that have made this easier to make a story off of in present times (Such as a phone that he uses as a mirror). While on the flip side, Perseus was always an amazing hero; hence, the perfect hero status, because back in the old days the “Gods” were looking for people who were all around amazing, and that was easier for them to use for a story because people could relate. Furthermore, Percy modernizes the dramatic event. In Percy, his sub turns into the monster that asked him for the lightning bolt (Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief), and in the old times, a sub would have never existed seeing as there wasn’t even any schools. Finally, both stories used spiritual help to it’s main character , but Percy's modernizes the concept. Percy uses the medical term, dyslexia, that helps through his trials (Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief), and this is totally an idea discovered only through time, while in Perseus, the God’s helped him along the way. Percy, by taking the hero archetypes, has modernized the story of

evil from “Danaüs, Perseus, and The Gorgon” . First, Percy used the new invention of a phone as a mirror to defeat the Medusa (Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief). However, in Perseus the Medusa was defeated using a shield as a mirror (we do not use shields in combat nowadays), “Looking into the mirroring shield, Perseus swooped down, and with one deft stroke he cut off the head off the Medusa’s head,” (D'aulaires, 118). Nextly, Perseus faced the Hydra by the Sea, “As he spoke, a horrible sea monster came from the sea…” (D'aulaires, 120). Percy modernized this part of the good vs. evil theme because he defeated the Hydra in a museum (Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief), and a museum was a structure that did not exist in the coming of the story of Perseus. Last but certainly not least, Perseus killed the King with the Medusa head to resolve the theme, “Startled, the King and his men looked up, and there they sat, turned into statues of stones…” (D'aulaires, 120). Percy modernized this by killing his step dad, who smelt like a sewer, with the Medusa head in a refrigerator (Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief), and both sewers and refrigerators are new innovations. Percy, without a shadow of doubt, modernizes the theme of good vs. evil.

Percy took the encounters and adventures of Perseus and made them interesting to the eye of the present people. Clearly, Percy Jackson and the Olympians