The Hunger Games, Ancient Greek Myth, and the 99%

According to myth associated with Knossos Palace in Crete, King Minos required Athenians to send seven young men and seven young women every year as tributes to be eaten by the creature the Minotaur. The Minotaur was a monstrous combination of human and bull, housed within the mazing halls of the Knossos Palace. One year, the young hero Theseus put an end to the slaughter by navigating the labyrinth and killing the Minotaur.

The meaning behind the story may be political. During the prehistoric times of King Minos, Crete was the dominant political, military, and trading power in the area. It is likely that the Athenians had lost a war to Crete and were being oppressed by them. The victimization of the innocence of Athens by Crete is represented by the fourteen young tributes.

A modern day interpretation of this story is present in pop culture: the film The Hunger Games applies the stressed circumstance of the suppressed Athenians to an imagined, dystopia of the future. In The Hunger Games, a central powerful capitol of elitists dominates twelve oppressed, poverty stricken states. As punishment for the states having rebelled many years ago against the capitol and villainous President Snow, they are forced every year to offer two tributes, a boy and a girl from ages twelve to eighteen, to fight in an arena where they will face almost certain death. In this version, President Snow equates King Minos and the arena the tributes enter serves as the labyrinth. Theseus is embodied in the character Katniss whom, like Theseus, volunteers as self-sacrifice to be a tribute and in the end does the impossible and triumphs over the monstrous suppressor in the humble yet heroic effort of protecting the innocent youth of her state.

Just as in ancient Greece, the story holds real-world political significance. In a time of recession, low employment, and the masses feeling suppressed by an elite few, the story of victimization by means of demanding young tributes can seem like a true impending future or in the least a metaphor for the demands on the innocent and bleak future for the young who are disproportionally punished for events of the past (think student loan debt). The idea of a young, moral hero rebelling for the sake of protecting the innocent is still an inspiring story that bares connections to the 99% and Occupy movements, largely led by the young.

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