Ideas for Greek Mythology Paper

The influence of classical myth on the modern world extends to the virtual world of the internet. Search-engine searches of classical names and figures will usually turn up thousands of hits. A Google search of “Hermes” returns 44 million hits! At the top of the list is Hermes designer handbags, the “Hermes Experiment” at the German particle physics laboratory DESY, the “Hermes Project” in computer science at University of Maryland, and the webpage of the multinational corporation Euler Hermes “the global leader in credit insurance.” Of course there are also many pages that discuss or present classical mythology, web pages on myth at schools and colleges, or blogs or other personal sites where individuals explore, discuss, or fantasize about classical myth (or, sometimes, very curiously digested versions of it).

In other words, classical myths—the gods, heroes, and heroines—have become common parlance in the global culture with its endless mirrorings on the web. Your assignment is to choose a figure, place, or other item from classical myth and study its presence on the internet and thus in the wider real world. Write a 2 page report about what you find that interests you. You may focus on between 1-2 things (e.g. websites) that you find, describing and discussing why you find them interesting. Ask yourself, why is this entity using the classical figure? How does their use fit, or not fit, the associations of the classical figure as you have learned them? Do you think their usage makes sense? If you are reviewing informative sites (like school webpages), how well are they using sources, and do they present accurate information as far as you can tell?