did you ever know that you're my hero?

The Pseudo-Polymath has come up with another interesting idea, this time calling for bloggers to contribute their thoughts about heroism. Nerdy, but fun, and with possibilities of profundity. The description:

The idea is to compare and contrast two heroic stories from almost the same eras but from very different cultures. The two stories I had in mind were the Hebrew heroic story … that is the story of King David in Samuel I & II … and the Greek heroic poems from the same era by Homer … that is the Iliad (and perhaps the Odyssey). I had in mind perhaps posting once weekly (say Thursdays) on the similarities and differences - to contrast and compare the stories of David and Achilles. We could write on the same subtopic on this theme each week. For example, for next week I was thinking we could write on the openings. To compare and contrast the Iliad’s immortal opening cadences to the more subtle (tender?) vignette of Hannah giving up of Samuel, her firstborn, to the Temple.
Other topics might include,

• Musing about what makes a hero a hero. Compare what makes David a Hero to the Hebrews and Achilles a Hero to the Acheans.
• Compare how the two cultures (and authors) treat Death.
• How are the two Heroes flawed? How do these flaws impact their stories?

Check it out.