Sta. Maria, Jian Karlo R.

2017142112 Assignment 2 GED117/A9

In the 200 thousand years of humans existing on planet earth, we have completely
changed our ways, our lives, our mental thought process, in thousands of ways, we have also
learned to worship gods, and their beliefs. Majority of the world, in present time, has a religion.
We could look back at our history as humans, and discover multiple gods in multiple parts of
the world, with multiple cultures that have yet to have met. In one of those many cultures, is
the Greeks, and their Mighty Gods and Goddesses. During that time many believed in myths
and legends about these Gods and their power, and many were afraid to defy these Gods
because of those beliefs. In the given reading material named “ON DEFYING THE GODS” by
Salman Rushdie, I have interpreted Rushdie’s short story as a cry to rise above all, be yourself
and make yourself matter.
Rushdie would mention multiple characters that have defied the gods and have suffered
consequences, these characters would be Arachne the prideful artist that grew arrogant and
challenged Athena, she would later be punished and is turned into a spider. Prometheus the
titan that stole fire from the goods for the humans, as punishment he was bound to chains and
had an eagle eat his immortal liver every day. Queen Niobe of Thebes that chose to tell her
people to stop believing in the goods they have never really seen, the Gods punished her by
killing her children and her husband and would turn herself into a rock because of great amounts
of grief.
In a lot of these characters stories, they would end up losing and suffering, however these
stories would show how we are capable to go toe to toe with Gods. These stories were
supposed to serve as a warning to respect the Gods, however it showed that the Gods were
flawed. I think Rushdie is trying to say how Humanity is greater than we expect and we should
not let anyone take that away from us.