Heroes from Literature or Mythology

[Jeff Lebowski]

Excellent choices, Venkman.

[SeattleUte]

Literature/mythology

Jesus Christ
Achilles
Hector
Aeneas
Job
Prince Andre
Alyosha
King Leonidas

Non-fiction

Alexander the Great
Catherine the Great
Alexander Hamilton
George Washington
Ulysses S. Grant
William T. Sherman
Socrates
Cicero
Adam Smith
Isaac Newton
Scipio Africanus
Epicurus
Charlemagne
Horatio Nelson
Julius Caesar
Charles Darwin

Many more. These are some highlights.

[Archaea]

Originally Posted by SeattleUte

Literature/mythology


Aeneas


Non-fiction


Scipio Africanus

Horatio Nelson


Many more. These are some highlights.

Why these?

[bluegoose]

Nice jab there, Seattle. Or was it an uppercut?

[SeattleUte]

Originally Posted by Archaea

Why these?

Aeneas
--The hero of Rome's version of the Illidad--the Aeneid. He's the mythic hero who founded Rome (in case you haven't noticed I have a thing for Rome), and is also a minor character in the Illiad.

Non-fiction


Scipio Africanus

--"The Thunderbolt of War," he led Roman troops that crushed Carthage and made Rome the preeminent power of the known civilized world.

Horatio Nelson

--I have a thing for war heros and thought I needed more British on the list because I think GB is cool. He's probably the most highly regarded of all British military leaders, a certifiable genius on the seas.

[Archaea]

What's odd is no mention of any of the Asian geniuses.

I like Sun Tzu of the Art of War, and the Japanese who wrote about sword fighting. Names quickly leave my mind as my posts show.

Confuscius was also fascinating and few other more minor.

Be that as it may I know of no significant leaders from S. America beyond Simon Bolivar, and Africa, outside of Madela, is a large void for me.

Seattle has an impressive bank of knowledge regarding Rome. One the Utes over there has an impressive knowledge of Islam, with many of their great thinkers.

This is a major qualm I have with American education, we, and I include myself therein, are so ignorant of world history and world knowledge, it's downright embarrassing.

How many are familiar with much of Russian history? I'm not.

German History, a little being a German language major.

French a tad.


But China, Japan, Thailand, Indochina, Australia, S. American, Africa, Egypt, Babylon?

Most of us are ignoramuses.

[creekster]

Originally Posted by SeattleUte

Literature/mythology

Jesus Christ
Achilles
Hector
Aeneas
Job
Prince Andre
Alyosha
King Leonidas

Non-fiction

Alexander the Great
Catherine the Great
Alexander Hamilton
George Washington
Ulysses S. Grant
William T. Sherman
Socrates
Cicero
Adam Smith
Isaac Newton
Scipio Africanus
Epicurus
Charlemagne
Horatio Nelson
Julius Caesar
Charles Darwin

Many more. These are some highlights.

Interesting list.

I assume you mean Jesus as described in the Gospels, as there is some record that he existed (Josephus, etc.).

Why Hamilton/Washington but not Jefferson/Adams? I don't necessarily disagree (although I have a fond spot in my heart for Jefferson) but curious why you owuld choose those two.

[Surfah]

Jean Louise "Scout" Finch.

Jonas, of The Giver. Not the whale.

Jean Val Jean.

Ender Wiggin.

Ethan Frome.

Huck Finn.

[creekster]

Originally Posted by Archaea

These historical figures are great in my mind, but many of our more liberally-minded friends give them short shrift due to some of the cultural baggage that existed in their times.

It is fascinating how the PC police expect persons from a distant time to share the same political views as we modern, "enlightened" persons.

Cook was an interesting guy. He is painted with the brush of unbridled colonialism and all the excess and abuse that such a label implies, yet it is largely undeserved. He was very-open minded about the natives of the lands he came across reamrking, for example, how the ABorigines seemed much happier than Europeans beacsue of their lack of materialism (and this was an opinion shared by none of his crew and virtually no other Europeans until the late 19th century). After seeing the effects of European contact on native islanders, he attempted to keep diseased sailors away from natives (although with limited success) and unlike most of his contemporaries he adopted a policy of non- or limited violence in dealing with natives, including using non-lethal shot when he found it necessary to engage in military confrontations. He showed tremendous curiosity about native culture and was remakrably non-judgemental about the very different social mores and notions of morality he encountered in parts of the south pacific. He was even non-critical of instances of cannibalism under the circumstances in which he observed it (again unlike anyone else in his crew or in his society).

Becasue he was the leader of the first EUropeans to have significant, extended and repeated contact with many Pacific cultures, however, and becasue many of these cultures and their popultaions have been decimated by disease and social changes in the ensuing decades, the blame for their problems is laid at his feet. It is unfair. He is a very heroic figure.

[SeattleUte]

In reply to Archaea and Creekster, my intent was to create a list not just of literary or historical figures I admired but also taking into accounttheir qualities as literary characters whether fact or fiction. Hence Socrates and not Plato or Aristotle, Jesus and not Confuscious. Also, in further response to Archaea, I'm equally interested in the history of each European nation, as their histories are very intertwined, of course. The histoey of ancient Rome is a part of this. As for other parts of the world, yes, I'm less interested, except when Europeans come into contact with these places and peoples. I'm not uninterested in any of it.