A Hero's Death - Basis in mythology??

[Susan]

No: HPFGUIDX 99839

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "nkafkafi" <nkafkafi at y...> 
wrote:
> >Hedwigstalons wrote:
> > Hi!
> > Would anyone out there be able to give me the msg. # of a posting 
by
> > Hans (may be from last summer) that talks about heroes and 
needing 
> to
> > die (meaning Harry)? I thought the hero _can't_ die, but it seems
> > that they can - Argh!! Not the fate I want for our Harry!!

> 
> Neri now:
> It is certainly true that the hero can die, but it depends a lot on 
> the genre. Mythological heroes (which Kneasy mostly mentioned, some 
> of which I snipped) usually die in the end of the story (although 
> there are some notable exceptions - Odysseus, Perseus, Rama). In 
> fairytales, OTOH, the hero almost always lives happily ever after. 
> Modern (last 200 years) adventure literature, mainly for children 
but 
> also for grown-ups, is modeled more after the fairytale genre than 
> the myth genre, and the hero usually survives. Even when he "dies" 
he 
> might still be resurrected (Sherlock Holmes being the famous 
> example). This is also true for Science Fiction, which includes 
many 
> cases of "universe building" more impressive than the Potterverse. 
> The style of HP is typical to this kind of literature. It is 
> certainly not myth or "modern myth" like LOTR. If I had to bet on 
> Harry's chances based on the genre's statistics I'd say he has 
about 
> 95% chances to live.
> 
Susan now:
I'd also like to add, particularly in light of the Sci-fi reference, 
that we are dealing with wizards here, and as many posters have 
pointed out, they have a very long lifespan, and well, magical 
powers!  Surely they're more resilient than regular old muggles.  In 
SS, Hagrid roars at the Dursleys for telling Harry that his parents 
died in a car crash, and the way he says it always made me think that 
just the notion of a regular old car crash being able to kill two 
accomplished, powerful wizards was ridiculous.  As in, it would take 
way more than a simple car crash to kill them.

Plus, there's all that new info re: graveyards and body parts, etc.  
OT, I know, but in Wm Shatner's series of books that pick up after he 
died in ST:Generations(the movie), he has borg renegades pump his 
freshly dead body full of nano technology so that he is literally 
resurrected and can continue having adventures.  Maybe that's why 
another graveyard scene(besides if GoF I mean)will be important in 6 
& 7.