Lynch a hero?

Remove all ads!

Math - lol, good one.
Lord Depaara - speaking of buckup. How about Buck from Jack London's Call of the Wild? He's a good hero also, IMO.
Pac Man -- Yes, if we wanted to speak of myth making we should include the Bush speech writing team on WMD. Oh yes, we were speaking of real facts, weren't we?

 

Mathetais - LOL

 

Greek myths and Lynch's case discussed here are similiar, hero making. The Hang Tuah's case that i mentioned is real. He is not mythical. He is the greatest hero recorded in Sejerah Melayu, the only accurate historial record for Melaka Empire.

Mithrantir, sorry, i know you will hate me for this.
Herakles (Hercules) went mad and killed his wife and 3 sons. The one that you mentioned was his second wife. He didn't kill her, he is dying himself, she commited suicide. The reason why she mistakenly gave him the poisonous cloth was because she thought that the potion she used was love potion. Herekales came back with Iole after he destroyed the whole kingdom just to get her. Of course, being his wife, Deianira was desperate to win back Herakles' heart. i suggested Herakles is the greatest hero of all because he became immortal at the end. How many mortals managed to become immortal?

Odysseus was a hero too, after he came back from his extraordinary journey. Why he has to suffer that? Because Poseidon made it so. Why? Becasue he blinded Poseidon's son, Polyphemus. Why? Because Odysseus and his crew went to place, ate his stuff and abused suppliance. He could have leave after he blinded Polyphemus eye but he didn't. He turned back and taunt Polyphemus, gave away his name. Since Polyphemus had a name to curse, why not? A series of stupid decisions sealed his long journey of suffering which in turn made him heroic.

Now where are we getting to?
Well, we now know that hero making quality has changed. One don't really have to wield great power to become a hero. As long as the media thinks you have a eye catching, heart grabbing story, you can become a hero.

 

I will be again off topic but i must clarify a few things.
First of all Teekc you are right about Hercules he killed his first wife and his three sons although as it is said in the myth (don't you know that every myth has a little piece of history in him) he was in frenzy that Hera put him. He was forced to repentance and cleansing from the oracle of Delphi.I remembered it afterwards right before i slept.
But Odysseus was not forced to travel for so long because he blinded Polythimous after all this happened during Oddyseia but because although the gods (and especially Athena) told him to hold the army away from their temples in the city they went in and did killings, rapes etc
@Yago the guy they left on a god forsaken island ( IIRC Allonisos or skiathos not god forsaken) they picked him up afterwards and he was left because he was bitten by a snake and his wound started to smell pretty quickly and he told them to do this because he knew he could not survive the trip or be of much use to the rest. Noone was abandoned in the island he could cure himself since he knew the use of the herbs.

I fear you have it all wrong here they were forced to anchor on his island by a storm and they were caught in their sleep in order to become food for the cyclop giant. And Oddyseus did not give away his name ( and this is a famous part of Oddyseia) since he said he was nobody.
Polyphemus was blinded not for revenge, it was part of the escape plan.
He was living in a cave which sealed every night with a huge rock (naturally since he was a giant) in order to keep his flock of sheep inside and protected. His prisoners were there too and they could not move the stone without him so Oddyseus decided the following course of actions. They got him drunk and after he went to sleep they got a big branch of olive, heated it in the fire and put it in his eye (they did not want him dead that is the reason they cauterized the wound) and they hided among the sheeps. Polyphemus tried to find them but he could not and in the morning that was the time to move the stone and let his sheep out Oddyseus told his people to hang themselves UNDER the sheeps. Polyphemus knowing that his prisoners would try to escape was letting the sheep out one by one and was examining their backs in order to confirm that the subject was a sheep (see the craft mind how ahead it was ).
Of course he didn't even manage to catch even one and he understood what happened too late and after Oddyseus and his crew had set sail. So he went to the beach and start crying and asked who did this to him and again the cunning mind answered "me, Nobody". And Polyphemus started cursing nobody. Anyway Poseidon knew what happened and he understood who blinded his son (only one could have thought this plan) and he was angry to Oddyseus but that is another story and if you want to learn it please read Oddysey it is an intersting book and it is too huge for me to write it here
And Hercules is a great hero of ancient mythology but he was a godling Oddyseus was just a man and did unbelievable things (i mean with his mind and cunning)
Again i'm sorry for being out of topic
I believe that here the real question is not if Lynch is a hero. She is not, she is a scared young woman that happened to be in the right place in the right time (hospital, easy rescue and easy for the reporters to follow and record the operation) and i don't think she even put a fight when they arrested her. And for all that the answer to the real question does she deserve the Bronze star medal or not is NO. The people they rescued her maybe yes but she no. All she deserves is some vacations and peace in order to help herself to deal with and put in the back of her mind this adventure she had. Nothing more nothing less. I believe that is what she wants too

[ July 25, 2003, 18:04: Message edited by: Mithrantir ]

 

Here

They told me that Gladstone read Homer for fun, which I thought served him right.

[ July 25, 2003, 20:03: Message edited by: Yago ]

 

You really can't compare modern heros with people who were considered heroes in Greek mythology because the meaning of the word hero has changed greatly since the time of the ancient Greeks.

The title of hero meant that the person was somehow special compared to normal people and thus was worthy of respect and/or fear. The ancient Greeks commonly built shrines to appease the spirits of these powerful people but quite often did not like them. Thus, the hero was someone who was mortal but had qualities that made them almost God-like compared to the regular folk.

Under this definition, the brave warrior who defends the village could be a hero but then again so could the evil warlord who went on a bloody killing spree.

Thus, Heracles was the greatest of heroes because he was the most powerful and strongest of them all. The Greeks considered him to have prodigious strength but also considered him crude and extremely ill-tempered. He was the type of guy that they would love to have in a military crisis but would not want around any other time because of his terrible appetites for food, wine, women, brawling etc. Heracles is often tidied up to fit modern standards of what a hero should be but the original myths paint him in a much less favourable light.

 

Well, most greek heros are bastards of the gods. But getting back to topic. Those medals where made for people who performend astoningshly in action, not for people who had the misfortune to come near the frontlines.

 

Nope, at the last part Odysseus gave his name to the cyclops, who then asked his father to send Odysseus home as a broken man in a stranger's ship.

Didn't Odysseus became immortal with this book?

 

The ultimate guide how to talk Off Topicish.

 

An interesting article about Lynch, subtitled:

It's not that she really has a choice - in the army she's bound to what her superiors say - and they need her for PR. The media don't care about anything but quotas - and praise for her or dismissing the gvt hype about her are equally good stories.

That may well be true; no one asks her about her opinion, she's just the object of both media and US proaganda. And that's just another cynical game on someone elses cost.

* Just as with the official US cause for war - spin, spin, spin - but who still cares about 16 silly words? The president has moved on and so should you ... we have to look ahead ...

 

If it's anything like the present, I'd rather not.

 

No, she is not a hero. She simply is a very fortunate survivor of an accident.

 

It is ironic in more than one layer that Lynch is getting lynched in public for a bronze star of heroism she probably didn't even want, but had to get to please the public...

 

Well, this sure isn't about Lynch but some sober background info about the 507th and the incidents that led to her capture:

http://www.sftt.org/PDF/article07102003a.pdf
http://www.sftt.org/article07112003a.html
http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/csNews.cgi?database=Unlisted%2edb&command=viewone&id=2&rnd=782.8331550247905