Luca Gianquinto, Period 6, 09/26/23

 Luca Gianquinto Period 6 9/29/23 Modern Mythology 2024

I never liked reading. In fact, I found it more of a chore, since usually it was just for English class. Just like any other homework, it simply delayed me from playing Xbox which, as a child, was the most important thing to me. It didn’t help that I found most concepts of the books to be incredibly boring, such as ‘Of Mice and Men’ and ‘Charlotte's Web’. I was too young to appreciate those books and I was instead put off by the fact that they were not action oriented, like my favorite games and movies. However, this all changed once I entered seventh grade English class. 

As usual, we had a list of books we would be reading throughout the year. The first book was ‘Percy Jackson’, the infamous and cliche firestarter for most people’s experience with Greek Mythology. The night that we were assigned to read the first chapter, I accidentally read half the book. This is not sarcasm, as I experienced something I had never felt before with reading: I was completely lost in the picture painted by the author, absorbed in the concept and feening to discover what would happen next. Before the year was over, I had already finished the series and began to read it a second time. By high school, I had read the series three times and had expanded into reading other books by the same author, Rick Riordan, such as ‘The Red Pyramid’, which was about Egyptian mythology. 

At first, my favorite character was Percy. After all, he was the cool protagonist, a descendent of Poseidon, one of the big three. He could control water at will and he was known around the camp for being the son of Poseidon, as nobody had ever been discovered as a demigod of such a high status god before. However, as I began to read the series more, my favoritism quickly switched to that of Leo Valdez. After I looked past the usual interest around Poseidon, I discovered a much more interesting and complex god: Hephaestus. Leo was able to make practically anything he wanted, and even ended up fixing a mechanical dragon named Festus that he could fly around on. This was my introduction to Hephaestus, and his ability captivated me like no other.

I have always been a very technical person even since childhood. Like most, I played with Lego constantly, but I began to get bored of following directions and instead freestyled to make my visions come to life. Even with robotics kits, I had a tendency to create what I wanted instead of what was intended. My parents even got me a lego table in my room, given that I was constantly tinkering away. Naturally, being that building is ingrained in my personality, I was drawn to the characteristics and abilities of Hephaestus. Eventually, having read the series a multitude of times, I moved on from the books and quite honestly got out of my obsession with Greek mythology. 

To my surprise, I was reintroduced to Hephaestus this year in class. I discovered his backstory, and my knowledge of him was furthered by things that I never knew just by reading Percy Jackson. For example, I learned that, although being the best creator amongst the gods, he was renowned as “the ugly god”, as he was ugly from birth. Effectively, he was thrown from olympus, the damage of the fall causing his face to be disfigured even further. After coming back to Olympus, he was rejected by most, except Hera. Furthermore, I also learned of his role in the creation of Athena. He was tasked with helping Zeus, who was experiencing splitting headaches. With his eye for detail, Hephaestus was able to see “something” moving around within Zeus’ forehead, and was prompted to strike down with his axe to release it. He did, and subsequently Athena was born. I was surprised at this, as I never knew that Hephaestus had a role in the birth of the goddess of war and wisdom. 

What I learned is deeper than just the backstory of Hephaestus. Looking deeper, I learned that there is always more to learn. I have to look past the surface and truly research what interests me in order to grasp it fully and completely. What I know is just what I know, and will never be everything that I can know. However, at the same time, I cannot know everything, leaving me in a hopeless pursuit of knowledge. Although this presented itself through the means of Hephaestus, I discovered my curious nature and expanded upon a part of myself that I was not very familiar with.