Reflect ideas and issues of significance to a specific audience in a specific time in a specific genre.

Some heroes are defined by their accomplishment of heroic deeds; others by their fidelity to particular constructs or ideology through which they are defined. These constructs often hold resonance for particular audiences – we have studied this under the rubric of ‘myth as society’, ‘myth as history’, and myth as genre. For this essay, please select one Greek or Roman hero — in a text other than then Iliad or Odyssey– and explain how his or her exploits and the constructs to which s/he is faithful (e.g. justice and 5th century Athens, the transition to democracy in the early 5th century, the cult and character of Dionysus, etc.), and the way that his/her story is told, reflect ideas and issues of significance to a specific audience in a specific time in a specific genre.