Content from Dr. E's upcoming book The Hero's Odyssey in Art, Entrepreneurship, & Technology:

     LEVERAGE THE RAGE OF ACHILLES

At the beginning of the film Braveheart, a narrator states something to the effect, "I shall tell you of William Wallace.  Historians from England will tell you I am a liar, but history is written by those who have hung heroes."  'Tis true!  Instead of teaching of the feats of actual heroes--of the likes of Achilles, Moses, Odysseus, Aeneas, Socrates, Aristotle, Copernicus, and Galileo--all too many "professors" merely teach of the generic stages of "hero's journey," as if the actual hero is an inconvenient relic of ages gone by. As neither Homer, nor Moses, nor Socrates, nor Copernicus, nor Galileo, nor Newton ever published any peer-reviewed papers, they are deemed inferior to the postmodern tenured administrator.   The peer-review system sentenced both Socrates and Jesus to death, and thus it is held in higher regard than Epic Poetry.  Epic Poetry has ever been detested and exiled by the administrative elite, as Epic Poetry reminds them that they are the false suitors in the realms of art and entrepreneurship.   They are the corrupt, leaching King Agamemnons who hang back from the front lines of art and innovation, while trying to seize the rightful Prize of the the Poet Warrior, earned via blood, sweat, and tears on the front lines of the battle to serve via the creation of novel art and enterprise.  Their dismal, pedantical behavior is nothing new, and the original sin can be traced on back to the very first word of Homer's Iliad--RAGE.  For the divine RAGE of Achilles is ignited when his corrupt commander claims the prize of Achilles for himself, just as the pedants and scholars have ever tried to claim the wealth of art, poetry, prophecy, and philosophy for themselves by "hanging heroes."  This book will teach you to call their eternal bluff, and like Achilles, seek your honor not from committees of scribes and Pharisees, nor web companies who built their businesses by never paying the artists and creators, but from Zeus.       

When the student is ready, the mentor will appear, and today is the day you commence riding with the mentors of all mentors, from Homer and Moses on down, letting their enduring wisdom exalt your art, business, and life.  Today is the day you begin incorporating the vast wealth of the Great Books and Classics in your ventures.  Not only will you save vast amounts of money by forgoing student and educational debt, but you will also receive a far-superior education.  I say this not as someone who took on a lot of student debt myself, as I was fortunate enough to attend Princeton University and UNC on scholarships as well as teaching and research stipends, but I say it as a former university professor who felt bad about the massive amounts of debt students were taking on to support bloated administrations enforcing a dumbed-down curriculum. Today is the day we leave it all behind, as "we let the dead bury the dead."

 As the first word of Homer's Iliad was "rage," let us too begin with the Rage of Achilles:

ACT I: DREAMS OF IDEALS: THE RAGE OF ACHILLES: x4=ict ergo dx4/dt=ic

The center and circumference of Homer's Iliad is the RAGE of Achilles--that original poet-warrior-entrepreneur who tells his corrupt boss--his inferior king and commander--to get lost.  The RAGE of Achilles is the physical manifestation of the HONOR of ACHILLES.  Achilles' RAGE is the manifestation of his spirit and soul in the form of action.  

In the Iliad's first pages, Achilles' commander King Agamemnon seizes Achilles' rightful prize.   Agamemnon, the archetypal bureaucrat, pulls rank on Achilles in front of the Greek assembly so as to let him know that even though Achilles is the far-superior poet-warrior, Agamemnon yet rules over him.  Publicly dishonored, Achilles' deep-seated sense of honor wells up in him, manifesting itself as RAGE.  Achilles quits the Greek army, whence the Greeks begin to lose, as "The will of Zeus was done."  And so it is that Homer shows that both he and the gods side with Achilles over corrupt kings and commanders--over the scribes and Pharisees who have ever hung heroes.  Zeus--the highest of the gods--is the god of the indie-entrepreneur--of the poet-warrior artist on the front lines of creation, favoring Achilles over all the bureaucrats who try to own Epic Poetry not via creation, but by criticism--the archetypal pedants who must forever try to seize the wealth gained by the artists, as when it comes to doing the actual work and taking the risks, they are talentless and impotent.  

In Book 9 of The Iliad, after the formidable Hector and his Trojan warriors have been decimating the Greeks in battle, King Agamemnon sends an envoy of Achilles' friends to beg to have Achilles back, as only Achilles can stop Hector.  They offer Achilles immense honors, prizes, and wealth to return to battle, many times over that which was taken from him.  He politely declines.  Achilles explains that all the money in the world is not worth the life he risks battling on the front lines, while King Agamemnon hangs back in the rear.  Achilles explains that the poet-warrior fights for honor above all else, and once that honor is taken from him, no amount of wealth can replace it.  The envoy tells him of all the honors, medals, and fanfare he will receive if he returns, whence Achilles explains that he has no need of honors and medals from corrupt kings, as he receives his honor from Zeus.  Long story short, Achilles is a man who cannot be bought.

Achilles does ultimately return to war.  As Homer's genius exalts the universe's subtle moral symmetry, Achilles returns to war in the same state he left it--in a fit of divine RAGE.

Achilles' goddess mother Thetis had told him that he could choose between living a long, pleasant life far from battle, or die in battle and live on forever in the glory of story.  When the envoy of his friends visits to beg to have him back, Achilles is planning on that long, happy life farming, far away from battle.  But when his good friend Patroclus donnes Achilles armor and is killed by Hector after Hector mistakes him for Achilles, Achilles returns to battle in a vengeful RAGE, ultimately vanquishing Hector and thusly paving the way for the Greek victory.  

The RAGE of Achilles is the physical manifestation of the HONOR of Achilles, and Achilles both lives and dies for HONOR.  He fights not for corrupt Kings, nor prizes and wealth, but for HONOR alone, even if it means he must himself die.  And so we see the soul and spirit of Van Gogh and Herman Melville, who created vast wealth by fighting for the higher ideals instead of the bottom line.

The great SOCRATES would cite the HONOR of ACHILLES during his own trial whence he was sentenced to death for teaching that "Virtue does not come from money, but money and every lasting good of man derives from virtue," thusly giving birth to Western Philosophy--to Plato and Aristotle--and thus, giving birth to Western Science and Technology.  Richard Feynman stated that science is ultimately the belief in the ignorance of  experts, and this spirit of valuing Truth and Honor of bureaucrats can be traced all the way on back to the very first word of Homer's Iliad--RAGE--the divine RAGE of Achilles.  Galileo called out the perpetual peer-review pedants with, "in the sciences the authority of thousands of opinions is not worth as much as one tiny spark of reason in an individual man."  And Newton characterized the scientist's need to value Honor over Authority, writing, "Plato is my friend, Aristotle is my friend, but my greatest friend is Truth." At his trial, SOCRATES returned to the fount of it all--to the Honor of Achilles, stating:

Someone will say: And are you not ashamed, Socrates, of a course of life which is likely to bring you to an untimely end? To him I may fairly answer: There you are mistaken: a man who is good for anything ought not to calculate the chance of living or dying; he ought only to consider whether in doing anything he is doing right or wrong - acting the part of a good man or of a bad. Whereas, according to your view, the heroes who fell at Troy were not good for much, and the son of Thetis above all, who altogether despised danger in comparison with disgrace; and when his goddess mother said to him, in his eagerness to slay Hector, that if he avenged his companion Patroclus, and slew Hector, he would die himself - "Fate," as she said, "waits upon you next after Hector"; he, hearing this, utterly despised danger and death, and instead of fearing them, feared rather to live in dishonor, and not to avenge his friend. "Let me die next," he replies, "and be avenged of my enemy, rather than abide here by the beaked ships, a scorn and a burden of the earth." Had Achilles any thought of death and danger? For wherever a man's place is, whether the place which he has chosen or that in which he has been placed by a commander, there he ought to remain in the hour of danger; he should not think of death or of anything, but of disgrace. And this, O men of Athens, is a true saying. 

Homer and Socrates are trying to tell you, the poet-warrior artist--the same thing.  Value truth, beauty, and honor over mere money as you set out on your epic hero's odyssey.  Do not be afraid to Speak Truth to Power and call out your unappreciative boss or the bureaucrats who try to seize your hard work as their own, even if it means exile.  For so often it is that we must lose the life we have in the cubicle so as to find the higher life we were meant for.  And without you--the creative, freethinking, artistic individual, their business and brand will begin to lose, in the same way Apple faltered and failed after the CEO John Sculley seized the company from Steve Jobs.  

The value of Epic Poetry is that it teaches us Faith--that if we stick by our guns come hell or high water, we will make it on home in Epic Story, and rid our rightful realms of the false suitors.  The Good King shall Return.  The Epic Hero's Odyssey teaches us that just as there is the death, there is the resurrection, and both Jobs and Achilles returned to the front lines of battle so as to ultimately lead their armies to victory--not for the mere sake of money and prizes, of which both already had plenty of, but for the sake of honor.

THE CALL TO HONOR & ACTION: SERVE EPIC HONOR OVER PASSIONS & BLISS

I have always stated that if you are seeking a mere journey, you follow your passions and bliss.  But if you are seeking an Odyssey, you must begin by following your Honor, which, you will find, is the source of your higher passions and greater forms of bliss. . . . Continued in Dr. E's book The Hero's Odyssey in Art, Entrepreneurship & Technology!

REFUSAL OF THE QUEST: MOSES AND ODYSSEUS BOTH REFUSED THE INITIAL CALL

When Moses was called upon the Lord to speak Truth to Power and liberate his people from slavery under the Pharaoh, Moses at first refused.  "I am not eloquent," Moses explained.  "Please choose someone else." But the Lord commanded him to man up and go forth anyway, promising him that he would rise to the occasion, and the words would come.  

When Odysseus was called forth to make good on his to help retrieve any abducted Greek woman, and thus join the Greek army in winning Helen back from the Trojans, Odysseus feigned insanity.  He just wanted to stay home, live in peace, and farm with his family.  In order to test his sanity, the Greeks placed his infant son Telemachus in front of his plow, reasoning that if Odysseus was truly insane, he would have no problem plowing right over his son.  At the last second, Odysseus changes direction, thusly demonstrating his sanity.  He reluctantly heads off to lay siege to Troy with the Greek army, spending ten years fighting the Trojan War, and another ten years trying to make his way on back home.  

Towards the beginning of the Odyssey, Odysseus is offered the opportunity to stay forever young with the goddess Calypso.  She tells him that he will almost certainly die should he try to make it home across the vast sea.  She tells him that his wife Penelope will be twenty years older, and no longer the pretty young woman he married.  She tells him that he can live forever with her--a beautiful, young goddess, instead of heading on back, only to find that Penelope has married a suitor who will kill Odysseus, just as Agamemnon's wife took on a new lover who killed Agamemnon upon his homecoming.  

Odysseus says, "Yes, I know all this my beautiful goddess, but yet, I must get home."  

And so it is that the center and circumference of Odysseus's Odyssey, like the story of Achilles, is HONOR. Odysseus leaves home for HONOR and ultimately returns for HONOR.  

Are ye yet still wondering why  Homer has endured for 2800 years?  Because the center and circumference of both the Iliad and Odyssey exalt the nobler part of our immortal souls--HONOR--faith, family, friendship, truth, beauty, loyalty, in that highest art of all art--epic poetry.  For while Epic Poetry has inspired the vast array of classical paintings exalted in DR. E's books, those paintings have yet to return the favor and father an equivalent amount of Epic Poetry.

Like Odysseus, Braveheart (Mel Gibson's William Wallace), the Gladiator (Russel Crowe), King Leonidas (300), and Luke Skywalker all refuse the initial call to honor and action.  Like Odysseus, they would all rather stay with their families and farm in peace.  But when Luke's, the Gladiator's, the Outlaw Josey Wales's farms are burned and families murdered--when William Wallace's love is killed by an agent of the British Empire--the Call to Honor forces them across the Threshold, so as to save and avenge the faith and families they so love.  Like Moses, Neo (The Matrix) initially refuses the "Call to Adventure," which literally comes as a phone call from Morpheus.   . . . Continued in Dr. E's book The Hero's Odyssey in Art, Entrepreneurship & Technology!

MASTERING TALENTS/CRAFTS: FIRST MASTER THE FORCE & TRUTH OF THE MATRIX

Too often the pedantical professor and professional critic throw the stages of the hero's journey at the student and say, "There, now you know the way!  That will be $60,000+ in tuition!"  What they fail to teach the student is that true gateway to the hero's odyssey is not to be found in following a laundry list of steps, but in mastering a talent and craft.  And the only way to do this is via rugged, hard, unrelenting work in the realm of your choice--pursuing and honing your personal vision, forging it into art with your very own blood, sweat and tears.  Imagine if Luke had skipped out on mastering the Force (spiritual) and Light Saber (physical), or if Neo had skipped out on mastering the Truth of the Matrix (spiritual) and the martial arts (physical).  They would have never emerged victorious.   And so it is that Dr. E teaches students to hone their spiritual command via reading Epic Poetry (the spiritual) while personally mastering a craft such as painting, photography, writing, and filmmaking in that higher classroom that lies far beyond the classroom. 

"Men follow not titles, but courage," Braveheart tells us, and all the MFAs and MBAs in the world will not replace mastery. . .  Continued in Dr. E's book The Hero's Odyssey in Art, Entrepreneurship & Technology!

SEEKING MENTORS & GODS: WHEN THE STUDENT IS READY, THE MASTER WILL APPEAR

Face it people.  For whatever reason, the modern (postmodern) university hath exiled the Great Books and Classics--the Mentors of All Mentors.  "The stones the builders tossed aside became the keystones for our new ventures," stated the prophet, and so it is that you can save a lot of money while gaining a vast advantage in turning towards the Epic Poetry and Art exalted by the Masters throughout these books.  . . .  Continued in Dr. E's book The Hero's Odyssey in Art, Entrepreneurship & Technology!

TAKING ACTION: LEAVING PORT: CARPE DIEM! SEIZE THE DAY! CROSS THE THRESHOLD!

SOUL SHINES ON DARK, STORMY SEAS:  ONLY THOSE WHO SET OUT WALKING ALONE LEAD

FIRST SHOWDOWN': FROM THE WOUND THE SOUL FLIES FREE IN ETERNAL ART & POETRY

ART, INVENTION, & INNOVATION: STOICS KNOW THE WOUNDED DEAR LEAPS THE HIGHEST

The three ACTS of your Epic Hero's Odyssey are all fleshed out in Dr. E's books! :)

ACT II: RENDERING IDEALS REAL: ODYSSEUS'S ODYSSEY: THE JOURNEY IS THE THING
THE EPIC ROAD OF TRIALS: LIFE'S A JOURNEY, NOT A DESTINATION: CRAVE AN  ODYSSEY
FORTUNE FAVORS THE BOLD: AUDACES FORTUNA IUVAT--VIRGIL'S AENEID: BEGIN TODAY 
FORMING THE FELLOWSHIP: OUT HERE, WE MEET THOSE FOLLOWING THE SAME IDEALS
THE GODDESS ARCHETYPE: THE NOBLE FEMININE SOUL & SPIRIT: QUEEN, WIFE, & LOVE
TESTS, ALLIES & ENEMIES: OUR FRIENDS SERVE & SHARE VIA ART, THE VILLAINS STEAL
SIRENS AND SORCERERS: BEWARE OF SHAPESHIFTING TEMPTERS & TAKERS OF MAKERS
THE FAITH OF OUR FATHERS: FAR FROM HOME, WE FIND IT IN DEEP WITHIN OURSELVES
APOTHEOSIS VIA SERVICE: HIGHER POTENTIAL IS FOUND IN SERVICE OF IDEALS & OTHERS
ACT III: IDEALS RENDERED REAL: SOCRATES' WISDOM: THE HEROIC BATTLE FOR THE SOUL
CAUGHT IN THE MATRIX: THE REIGNING DARK FORCES PREVENT RETURN WITH THE ELIXIR
THE DEATH OF THE BODY: WE LOSE THE TEMPORAL FLESH SO & FIND THE ETERNAL SOUL
LOVE CONQUERS ALL: THE SOUL'S LOVE OF IDEALS TRANSCENDS DEATH & TIME ITSELF
RESCUE FROM BEYOND: ALL THOSE WE SOUGHT TO SERVE NOW RETURN TO SAVE US
RESURRECTION OF THE SOUL: OUR DEEPER, TRUER SELF RISES: PHOENIX FROM ASHES
FINAL SHOWDOWN: WE MEET THE VILLAIN IN OUR ETHEREAL FORM, IMMUNE TO BULLETS
TRUTH, ART & FREEDOM FOR ALL: THE ONLY TRUE TRUTH IS TRUTH WHICH SERVES ALL
RETURN OF THE KING: THE MORAL MAJESTY EARNS THE HIGHER THRONE VIA SERVICE
MASTER OF MANY WORLDS: THE EPIC MONOMYTH IS THE SOUL OF ALL EXALTED ENDEAVORS.

More images from Dr. E's upcoming Hero's Odyssey books!