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Myths and Legends:Perseus and the Gorgon
Monday 8th February 2021
You must submit work to your Monday English teacher today.
Dr Dennant: [email protected]
Dr Murray: [email protected]
Miss Couzens: [email protected]
Miss Quinton: [email protected]
Miss Price: [email protected] (make sure to include the ‘c’)
Mr Jones: [email protected]
Mr Wright: [email protected]
Ms Wright: [email protected]
Learning purposes
• Identify key information and ideas and select evidence from the text.
• Develop understanding of mythical creatures.
• Continue to improve analytical writing skills.
Previous learning:• What was the moral
behind the myth of King Midas? What did it warn us against the dangers of?
Future learning:• Continue to develop a
knowledge of various myths and legends, inferring information from them and writing analytically about them.
Starter
• Medusa, also known as one of the gorgons, had the power to turn anyone to stone if they made eye contact with her.
• If you were to create a monster, what would their superpower be?
The myth
• Perseus, in Greek mythology, the slayer of the Gorgon Medusa and the rescuer of Andromeda from a sea monster.
• Perseus was the son of Zeus and Danaë, the daughter of Akrisios of Argos.
• As an infant he was cast into the sea in a chest with his mother by Akrisios, to whom it had been prophesied that he would be killed by his grandson.
• After Perseus had grown up on the island of Seriphus, where the chest had grounded, King Polydectes of Seriphus, who desired Danaë, tricked Perseus into promising to obtain the head of Medusa, the only mortal among the Gorgons.
Perseus, the demigod
• The only son of Zeus and Danae – and, thus, a half-god by birth.
• Perseus was one of the greatest heroes in Greek mythology, most renowned for beheading the only mortal Gorgon, Medusa, and using her severed head (capable of turning onlookers into stone) as a mighty weapon in his subsequent adventures.
• Due to the complicated nature of the relationships in Greek mythology, Perseus is both the half-brother and great-grandfather of Heracles, another famous Greek hero.
Medusa, the gorgon
• Medusa was originally a beautiful maiden who belonged to the temple of Athena, the goddess of wisdom and war.
• One evening, Poseidon, god of the sea, harassed Medusa in hopes that they might have a love affair.
• Appalled that such a thing would take place in one of her temples, Athena took away Medusa’s beauty and instead gave her a head of writhing, vicious snakes and cursed her so that her gaze would turn the men who looked upon her into stone.
• Medusa would later die at the hands of Perseus.
Medusa, the gorgon
• At this stage of the lesson, Medusa has been presented as a victim.
• How does this contrast the way we ordinarily view her?
• Create a mind map, with ‘Medusa’ in the middle, and list fiveadjectives that we could use to present Medusa positively.
• Make sure to leave extra space as we will be adding to this later on.
Reading the myth
• Using the link provided on the remote learning timetable, read the BBC School Radio script for the myth.
• Spend ten minutes reading this to yourself.
• Pay particular attention to the way that Medusa is presented in this version.
Comprehension
• Assess your understanding of the text by completing these questions in full sentences – find quotes to support your answers:
1. Who is narrating the tale?
2. Why does Akrisios want his grandson dead?
3. What is the name of the king of the island?
4. Where do the Grey Sisters live?
5. What items does Hermes collect from Olympus?
6. Where does Hermes put Medusa’s head?
7. What did Polydectes never do again?
Perseus, the demigod
To help in his quest, Perseus was given the following gifts:
• A sack to safely contain Medusa's head.
• An adamantite (diamond-like) sword
• Hades’ cap of invisibility
• Hermes’ winged sandals to fly
• Athena’s polished shield
• Draw a sketch of Perseus and annotate all the items given to him by the gods
Medusa, the gorgon
• How has Medusa been presented to us in this version of the myth?
• Add five new adjectives to your Medusa mind map that we could use to present her negatively.
• Then, add three quotes from the script that describe Medusa (you will need these later).
Analytical writing
• Copy out the following question and underline:
How is Medusa presented in the myth of Perseus and the Gorgon?
• We are going to be using the ideas that we have put together in lesson to produce another extended written response.
• Use the following slides to help.
Analytical writing
• Two weeks ago, we looked at the structure of how to write an analytical paragraph. ❑ A topic sentence that introduces your idea – what is the purpose of your
response? What are you telling us about?❑ Evidence from the text (your embedded quotation)❑ An explanation of what your evidence shows❑ Close language analysis (pick a specific word to focus on)❑ Concluding sentence
• Some people are still struggling with this so we will go through each step and develop our own examples.
Topic sentences
• A topic sentence is what we use to introduce our ideas.
• This comes at the start of the paragraph and helps your teacher understand what your response is about.
× She’s presented as __________.
✓ In the myth, Medusa is presented by the writer as __________.
• Using the good example, write your own topic sentence about how Medusa is presented.
Embedding quotations
• When writing a piece of analytical writing, is important for you to be able to embed you quotations so that your writing sounds more sophisticated and articulate.
• Quotes needs to be blended into your work writing and not simply tacked on after your first sentence.
× Medusa is strong. ‘Medusa lunged at Perseus’ back with teeth and claws’.
✓Medusa’s aggression is demonstrated when she attacks Perseus ‘with teeth and claws’.
• Using the good example, write your own sentence with an embedded quotation that supports your topic sentence.
Explaining your ideas
• When explaining your point, it is important for you to use analytical vocabulary. Avoid using phrases such as:
× I know this because…
× This proves my point…
× This tells me/us that…
• It’s also important that you do not repeat the idea from your topic sentence.
• If you have, for example, said that Medusa is portrayed as aggressive, do not explain your topic sentence and evidence with ‘this shows that she is aggressive.’
Explaining your ideas
• Try to use simple, direct phrases such as:
This…
✓ shows
✓ highlights
✓ demonstrates
✓ implies
that...
• Using one of the good examples, explain how your embedded quotation supports your topic sentence.
Analysing language
• After you have made your point, with evidence, and explained it, the next step is to pick apart the language (or structure) within your quotation.
• You should focus on using subject specific vocabulary – this is language that you would only use in your English lessons. Metaphor, alliteration, simile are such examples. Think about grammar and syntax features from your literacy lessons too.
× The word ‘claws’…
✓ The plural noun ‘claws’…
• Using your knowledge of grammar, identify which word and its class that you will analyse from your embedded quotation.
Concluding sentence
• Your concluding sentence should simply summarise and wrap up your ideas (without repeating what you have already said).
• You can introduce your conclusion using phrases like:
✓ In summary…
✓ To conclude…
✓ Ultimately…
• Using one of the phrases above, summarise your ideas about Medusa into one final sentence. Consider using the negative adjectives we came up with to describe her.
Putting it all together
In the myth, Medusa is revealed to be a vicious and deadly creature. Medusa’s aggression is demonstrated when she attacks Perseus ‘with teeth and claws’. This highlights just how challenging a foe she was for the young demigod. The plural noun ‘claws’ has connotations of tearing something apart, further showing the danger that Perseus was in. In summary, Medusa is portrayed as an evil force who ultimately meets her end at the hands of a hero.
❑ A topic sentence that introduces your idea❑ Evidence from the text (your embeddedquotation)❑ An explanation of what your evidence shows❑ Close language analysis (pick a specific word to analyse)❑ Concluding sentence
What you need to do now
• You need to put all of your practice sentences into one full paragraph for your teacher.
• It is important that you follow the structure that you are being taught – it is how we expect you to write analytically.
• If you want to challenge yourself, you might want to write a completely fresh response.
• Spend no longer than five minutes doing this.
Directed reading
• In a moment, your Zoom teacher will dismiss you from the call.
• Only submit your paragraph to your Monday teacher, not all of today’s work.
• For the rest of session, complete directed reading.
