Celia Levy Midterm

Great Job! I have always enjoyed reading Greek myths but I have never looked at them through a disability lens. I found your insights to be very informative. One idea that was new to me was how disability was accepted as a norm or common place and how standards of beauty were incorporated into the ideas of disability. I also think your description and breakdown of Hephaestus' story showed how his disability contributed to his greatness  while others ridiculed him. I also thought that you did a great job showing how these stories reflected and contributed to how the society of the time percieved disability. 

I was also so impressed with your knowledge of these Greek stories which built on images of these past standards and understandings of disability. Great job!

Hi Cecilia! This was such a fantastic paper and so fun to read! I've always had a love of the Greek myths and gods; they are so interesting and something I became very passionate about as a kid (and now I'm at Bryn Mawr :)) Anyway, after all of my hours learning about the Greek gods, I knew little about Hephaestus other than he was an outcast and a blacksmith. In fact, I didn't even know he was disabled. I appreciated learning about how the Greeks and Romans viewed disability and how our current society's perspective both has similarities and differences. A core part of their perspectives seems to be about the idea of symmetry, and it was more a beauty standard that disability fit into. Something else I thought was interesting was how it was more accepted and seen as normal or commonplace to be disabled. I appreciated your disclaimer and the footnotes you included as well! This was very well written.