An important part of who we are. Mythology An important part of who we are.

You can tell a great deal about people by what they believe in. Religion Superstition Conspiracies Political beliefs

Skepticism Questioning the source of information. Not believing something until you have proof. Myth and mythology are an important study because they teach us to take what we need from a story and disregard the rest. Therefore, something doesn’t need to be true to have value: positive or negative. Human beings like to believe things that are exciting, scary and fill a personal need. To ignore facts is fun but dangerous.

Example: What is a Rumor? Does it need fact? Why do people like to spread them? Once it has spread, why is it so difficult to disprove?

Myth and Legends They are stories meant to inspire us and warn us. They use amazing events to show us the extreme sides of human behavior. We admire stories about great achievement because they represent our potential. We also love stories about tragedy because they make us feel lucky that it didn’t happen to us.

Iwo Jima

Brittany Spears

Part One: The life of a hero

What do these individuals have in common?

Real or Myth – Heroes follow a certain path. There is a reason that they are as great as they are. Origin

They have abilities that we could only dream of. Impossible or improbable – they are impossible to us.

Achievements They do something incredible.

They have enemies or advocacies (competition) They have a weakness that makes them human and threatens to bring them down.

Assignment: Wikipedia Choose somebody you find inspirational. Write a fake Wikipedia page about them that is partly true and partly made up. A partner should not be able to tell what’s real and what is not without research.