Over the course
of these Hope-themed postings, I have mentioned Hercules from time to time, mostly
to say that Hercules is the focus of the activities I am designing for autistic
children. With the current posting, I am going to turn in more depth to
Hercules – to give a sense of why I have chosen this figure. I shall start by
following up on one thing I looked at in the previous posting namely the activities
developed around another mythological character by Nicola Grove and Keith Park.
This is Odysseus. As I said in the previous posting, one reason Grove and Park
pick Odysseus is his enduring popularity. Because of just how rooted Odysseus
is in a shared cultural heritage, there is the potential for opening up a
cultural experience to people who might find such experiences difficult to
access. I shared some views a few views I have around this... I am going to
keep reflecting on these, but, for now, I am going to turn to
some of the other reasons for the selection of Odysseus.
According to Grove and Park, the story of Odysseus is “a brilliant story which everyone can enjoy”. As they continue, this story can enable a teacher to “nourish the imagination and emotions of students, as well as providing them with practical skills.” Among the reasons why the Odysseus story is so “brilliant” and so full of potential for stimulating the imagination, and for engaging the emotions, is its concern with a traveller, who keeps reaching new places. There is a good fit here with Hercules who, like Odysseus, is a traveller who keeps reaching new places: some pleasant, some strange, some full of dangers to negotiate.
According to Grove and Park, the story of Odysseus is “a brilliant story which everyone can enjoy”. As they continue, this story can enable a teacher to “nourish the imagination and emotions of students, as well as providing them with practical skills.” Among the reasons why the Odysseus story is so “brilliant” and so full of potential for stimulating the imagination, and for engaging the emotions, is its concern with a traveller, who keeps reaching new places. There is a good fit here with Hercules who, like Odysseus, is a traveller who keeps reaching new places: some pleasant, some strange, some full of dangers to negotiate.
This leads me
to a second point about the parallels between Hercules and Odysseus. Hercules
is often regarded as one who achieves his successes thanks to his distinctive
strength. This is often true – but not always. Hercules often finds a way to
succeed in a given task though cunning, a quality above all linked with Odysseus
among classical mythological figures. But Hercules, like Odysseus, keeps
getting himself out of a particular difficulty not so much by brute force but by
finding some clever solution. The image that illustrated my previous posting
showed him wielding his club above the Hydra, one of his victims, but how he
defeats the hydra isn’t though superior strength, but is through finding a way
to stop the hydra being able to grow new heads. Hercules does this, mind you,
by an act of violence – by searing the severed neck of each Hydra head he cuts
off.
This takes me
back to the heading of one of my previous postings: “But Hercules is horrible…”
He often is. But what I am going to look at is Hercules as the hero in a strange
place: the hero when he finds himself in a location which is overpowering – a
place whose rules he needs to work out. This is a hero who needs to work out
what to do in this place because, here, he is faced with making a choice: a choice
over the road he will take from this point on, and a choice between two very different
ways of living – hard work and pleasure. It is a stark choice, and choices that
people encounter in life are not likely to be so stark. However, for autistic
people, choice-making can be especially difficult, and what I would like to
propose is the following. Hercules’s choice can provide an opportunity to
engage with choice-making. And there can be a fit with other aspects of being
autistic too, including feeling out of place in some spaces and, conversely, finding
other spaces pleasant or reassuring. Another is going though sensory and
emotional experiences, both pleasant ones and ones that are so intense that
they are too much to deal with.
In the next
posting, I shall turn in earnest to this particular episode: the choice Hercules
faces and makes.
1 comment:
Looking forward; keeping up; catching up ...
My encounter with Hercules was a long one - especially reading some Greek myths in a Scholastic text some time in June/July 1997.
In the Bouches du Rhone ten years before - every student had access to the classics - even if they had to have a private tutor to do it - someone in the extended family. [my education was disrupted and interrupted for reasons].
Will be VERY interested to see the engagement the children have.
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