I have always found mythology fascinating – the ancient lores and legends of the Greeks have always been especially enticing. I feel a sense of nerdy pride at times when I recognize plot lines in modern books and movies that have been derived from ancient myths. It fascinates me that though these stories were created thousands of years ago, people still remember and use them in their day to day lives, whether they intend to or not. I chose to devote my multigenre research project to the usage of these ancient stories and legends in various aspects of modern society.
I knew a fair amount of information about some modern usages of the myths before I began my research. I've been reading myths for years, and after reading one, it's easy to pick out everyday movies, shows, and even products and businesses that have traces to the myth you just finished. Though I knew that mythology was still widely used today, I wasn't aware of just how immense the impact the ancient stories had on modern society until I began researching.
I was most interested in researching the more popular cultural influences for my project – I wanted to learn more about words and phrases that had roots in mythology, major businesses and products, and pop culture influences such as books and movies. I wanted to know how many times the average person encountered Greek mythology in their day to day lives and didn't even realize it. What back stories formed the basis words used by people everyday.
The internet, unsurprisingly, proved to be one of my most valuable resources. There was a wide variety of articles to assist me in my research. However, these articles were from trustworthy sites – a lot of information was gathered from articles written from professors of mythology.
What surprised me the most was the presence of Greek mythology in medicine. Though it impacts almost every aspect of modern culture, I wasn't expecting Greek mythology to reach quite that far. However, I was able to gather a lot of information to satiate my curiosity for word origins, back stories for plots to modern movies, and inspirations for businesses and products.
My research has enhanced my respect for these stories. They have remained ingrained in our culture for thousands of years – there aren't many things left in this world that can earn and retain that amount of popularity and respect. Despite the changing of times, these myths are going to stick around long before and long after businesses succeed or crash and movies become blockbusters or box office busts.
I included a magazine article in my project that focuses on a topic I wasn't able to explore as much as I would have liked to in my report– the mythological background in the hit movie Inception. I created a concrete found poem displaying various names, movies, products, and myths I referenced in my report to give my readers a unique visual to stand out to them. Lastly, I created a Glogster to provide illustrations to the reader of the various characters and myths referred to in my project. I hope the variety of genres is as much fun to explore as it was for me to write.