It's a Homer-run!

As a grade school kid, my fascination with Greek Mythology and stories was prominent. 

I've written about this factoid on this blog before, but I'd spend hours in the library reading Edith Hamilton's "Mythology" and Homer's "The Odyssey."

That was decades ago, and it's been a while since I've held those 2 books.

So, it's exciting that one of those 2 pieces of Greek literature is now a film. By Christopher Nolan, no less.

Judging by the trailer, it looks like "The Odyssey" will be a must watch for me. 

I'm sure it'll bring me back to my childhood, and I'm all for it!

Boxed out

It's no secret that I'm a fan of Greek Mythology. As a kid, it's what I would read while my classmates would read Archie Comics or Questor Magazines.

They have a plethora of wonderful stories, and one of my favorite tales is the one of "Pandora's Box."

I was reminded of this story again when a Chinese doctor used the tale as a parallel regarding the current Covid-19 crisis that's affecting the world today. He said that when the box was opened, so many scary and destructive things came out of the box. But at the end of all that, something emerged from the bottom of the box.

And that is hope.

Just like prayers, hope is one of the things we need most of right now.

At the bottom of the box

One of my favorite mythological stories is "Pandora's Box."

It was my favorite when I was in grade school, and I'd read it on our encyclopedia over and over again. Then, when I was in high school, I did my first school play as Prometheus. Needless to say, the play was "Pandora's Box."

In the story, Pandora inadvertently releases different misfortunes and ills to the world by opening a forbidden box. She closes it after she realizes what she did, and feels so much remorse after. But as she was about to keep the box, she hears a stirring from inside.

When she opens it again, she saw that at the bottom of the box was hope. She releases it so that even with all the ills and misfortunes, people can hope that things will be better.

Typhoon Yolanda is like Pandora's Box. After reading, watching and seeing its trail of death and destruction, you can see how the typhoon released different misfortunes and ills in Tacloban and the Visayas area.

But despite all that destruction, we remember that there is hope.

Hope that generosity will prevail. Hope that the world is coming to their aid. And hope that this, too, shall pass.

So I pray that the people of Tacloban, Samar and other typhoon-struck areas never lose hope.

Hope is, indeed, a powerful thing.

Pro(me)theus

Walking around SM Megamall, I saw a lot of posters, banners and standees promoting the upcoming film "Prometheus."

It's Ridley Scott's latest outing, and it's supposed to be a prequel to his iconic 1979 film "Alien." The title is based on the spaceship that takes the crew to another universe to discover the origins of man.

But that wasn't the first thing that struck me when I saw the title. The first thing that came to my mind was that "Prometheus" was the first role I played in high school. No, I did not play a spaceship. My role was that of the real Prometheus.

It was for our English class, and we were supposed to do a play about Greek Mythology. The tale assigned to us was "Pandora's Box," and Prometheus had a role in this story. Although I don't remember how the roles were chosen or assigned, but what I do remember is that I ended up tied to a rock in that play.

As a huge fan of Greek Mythology, I was actually hoping that the film "Prometheus" would really be about the Titan son of Iapetus and Clymene. It would be fun to see the role I played done on the big screen.