Hephaestus, the god of the forge, is handing a helmet for Achilles to Thetis, a sea goddess. From a two-handled ancient Greek wine cup made around 490–480 B.C.E. Photo by: Altes Museum, Berlin, Germany/Public Domain
By
Homer
Recommended For
Upper Elementary School - Middle School
Words
178
Lexile
840L
Published
2026-05-01
The Song of Ares and Aphrodite (Abridged from The Odyssey, and adapted by Newsela for classroom use)
Ares and Aphrodite secretly betrayed Hephaestus. The sun god Helios saw what happened and quickly told him.
When Hephaestus heard the news, he went to his forge and began to plan a careful revenge. He created a fine metal net, so strong that no one could break it, yet so thin it could not be seen. He fastened the net around his bed, stretching it across the posts and beams above so that it would fall at the right moment.
Then Hephaestus pretended to leave his home.
Ares, watching closely, saw that Hephaestus was gone and returned. He and Aphrodite entered the house, unaware of the trap. As they stepped into the space, the hidden net suddenly dropped around them. The chains held them fast, and no matter how they struggled, they could not escape.
This reading was adapted from Odyssey, book 8, lines 340-461. Translated by Ian Johnston, 2019. Johnston’s complete translation of the Odyssey can be found here: http://johnstoniatexts.x10host.com/homer/odysseytofc.html
Turn and Talk
Turn and Talk
This section introduces students to a shift in focus from Percy’s personal growth to the larger conflicts among the gods. Students activate prior knowledge from Chapter 14 and begin anticipating how divine rivalries may create new dangers. The goal is to move students from prediction into analysis by framing the gods not just as background figures, but as active forces shaping the plot. Encourage students to ground predictions in prior text evidence rather than speculation. This sets up the comparative work that follows.
Say these directions: Turn and talk with a partner to discuss your response to the question.
Ask: After Percy’s underwater revelation in Chapter 14, what new kind of danger do you predict Chapter 15 will reveal about the gods?
Percy already learned that monsters are dangerous, but Chapter 15 might show that the gods are dangerous too because their grudges pull mortals like Percy into problems that started long before they were born.
Connection to Today’s Learning:
Say: We now move from prediction into word study so we can unpack Ares’s dialogue with more precision.
Context Clues
Context Clues Routine
Morphology / Vocabulary
Use this sentence from Ares’s explanation in Chapter 15 to teach students how to infer meaning from dialogue and then verify the meaning using the base word temper.
Target Sentence Block:
“Aphrodite can be temperamental.”
Say: When a character says a word we do not fully know, we do not have to stop reading and give up. We can use clues around the word and then check our smart guess against a word part we already know.
Teach:
Say: When I read “Aphrodite can be temperamental,” I ask myself what Ares is warning Percy about. In this scene, Ares is describing Aphrodite as someone whose mood can swing fast and cause trouble. That clue helps me infer that temperamental means likely to get upset or change moods quickly. Then I check the base word temper, which connects to mood or anger, which strengthens my inference. Now I can read the dialogue with a clearer sense of Ares’s attitude.
Say these directions: In your Personal Dictionary, write temperamental, a meaning in your own words, one clue from the dialogue, and the base word temper. Then cover the displayed word and write it from memory.
Check your spelling against the displayed word. Revise if needed, underline temper, and circle the ending -al.
Ask: Which clue helped you most, and what does temperamental mean in this scene?
The best clue is that Ares is warning Percy about Aphrodite’s behavior, so the word means she can get upset easily and act out quickly.
Verify Meaning: Prompt students to confirm their inferred meaning with a dictionary or other reference material.
Say these directions: Check your definition using a dictionary or other reference material. Does the definition match what we figured out? Revise as needed.
Ask: Which part of the word helped you remember how to spell it?
The base word temper helped me because I already know that word has to do with mood and anger.
Say: Words like temperamental help us understand how the gods behave. This will matter when we compare how each text shows their personalities and conflicts.
Connection to Today’s Learning
Say: Understanding Ares’s word choice will help us compare how each text portrays the gods and their conflict.
Check for Understanding
In your Personal Dictionary, write the word temperamental, a student-friendly meaning, one context clue, and the base word that helped you verify the meaning.
🎯PURPOSE
Support students in using context clues and familiar word parts to build an accurate meaning for a character description.
Language Focus:
Context clue language
Base word meaning
Character description language
Before Activity
Have students quietly say the sentence once and then underline the word they are solving and box one clue in the surrounding dialogue that helps them infer meaning.
🗣️SAY / ASK
Prompt students to explain which nearby words or ideas helped them infer the meaning, not just guess a synonym.
If students give a broad answer like “bad,” press for precision with questions such as “What kind of bad mood or behavior does Ares seem to mean?”
You said “She gets mad fast”—we can explain that by saying “She is quick to change moods or become upset.”
That idea connects to temperamental because the base word temper relates to mood or anger.
The dialogue suggests temperamental means ______ because ______.
A clue that helped me infer the word was ______.
The base word temper helps me think the word means ______.
Allow students to discuss the word briefly in a shared home language before restating the meaning in English.
Invite students to connect temper to related words they know in other languages or from everyday speech about mood.
👁️WATCH FOR / SUPPORT IF NEEDED
If students define the word only as “mean” → Prompt: “Does Ares describe a permanent personality trait, or does he describe moods that can change quickly?”
If students ignore the context and jump to a random meaning → Prompt: “Point to one word or idea in the dialogue that supports your guess.”
Student names at least one specific clue from Ares’s dialogue to support an inferred meaning.
Student revises a vague synonym into a more precise character description.
Situation
Try this
Struggling with: Using Context Clues Precisely
Offer a reduced prompt: Which words around temperamental tell you Ares is warning Percy, not praising Aphrodite? Recording Their Thinking in Writing: Allow students to give an oral explanation first or use speech-to-text before copying a final definition into the Personal Dictionary.
Ready for extension
Find another word in Ares’s dialogue that reveals his attitude and explain how it shapes the tone. Write a new sentence using temperamental to describe a character from another myth or from The Lightning Thief.
Learning in Action Part A: Comparing the Trap Across Versions (RL.6.9) (15 minutes)
Teach: Genre Study: Ancient Myth Poem
This section introduces students to the work of comparing how two texts present the same core myth while making different choices about tone, setting, and perspective. Students should focus first on identifying the shared conflict before analyzing how each version develops it. Guide students to pair specific details from each text and then explain how those details shape the reader’s experience of the rivalry.
Before reading, explain that students will read an abridged version of an ancient myth from The Odyssey. Because the text has been shortened and rewritten, it does not show all the features of the original poem. Instead, focus on how the myth presents the core conflict and how it compares to a modern retelling.
Elevated Diction: formal or serious word choice (more common in older versions of myths)
Modern Narrator Voice: conversational or sarcastic language
Retelling: a new version of an older story that keeps some core elements but changes others
Betrayal: breaking trust
Revenge: harming someone in response to being wronged
Think-Pair-Share
Think-Pair-Share
Students compare the abridged myth with Chapter 15, focusing on Hephaestus’s trap, rivalry and betrayal, and the creation of danger.
Say: Use the Venn Diagram graphic organizer to record details from each version and the shared theme in the center.
Teach:
Say: A strong comparison starts with a shared core idea. In both texts, Hephaestus uses intelligence and invention to trap Ares and Aphrodite after being betrayed. Homer presents the revenge in a formal and serious way, while Riordan turns the trap into an abandoned water park with Percy’s modern voice. That shift changes the mood even though the conflict stays the same.
Homer only
Both
Riordan only
Hephaestus builds a hidden, unbreakable net.
Hephaestus uses a trap as revenge for betrayal.
The trap appears in an abandoned water park with cameras, mechanical danger, and Percy caught in the middle.
Homer only
Both
Riordan only
The language sounds formal and serious.
Rivalry leads to revenge.
Percy’s first-person voice makes the scene feel tense and weirdly funny.
By the end of this section, students should be able to explain how Riordan preserves the myth's central idea while transforming its presentation. They should have moved beyond listing similarities and differences toward making interpretive claims about why those differences matter.
Pulse Check
Which statement best explains the most important relationship between the two versions of this myth?
Homer and Riordan tell completely different stories with different conflicts and different gods.
Incorrect: A student may notice the changed setting and tone, but the core rivalry and trap remain the same in both versions.
Riordan keeps the central conflict but changes the setting and tone to make the myth feel modern.
Correct: This answer recognizes both continuity and transformation, which is the heart of RL.6.9.
Homer focuses only on humor, while Riordan focuses only on danger.
Incorrect: This distractor oversimplifies both texts and ignores the serious humiliation in Homer and the humorous elements in Riordan.
Riordan removes Hephaestus’s intelligence and replaces it with random action.
Incorrect: A student may focus on the action scene, but Riordan still preserves Hephaestus’s clever invention through the trap.
🎯PURPOSE
Support students in comparing how two texts portray the same mythic relationship while moving beyond plot summary into interpretive comparison.
Language Focus:
Comparative transitions
Citing dialogue and description
Explaining characterization and tone
Before Activity
Have students rehearse one oral comparison using this pattern: “In both texts, ______. However, ______.”
🗣️SAY / ASK
Prompt students to pair one Homer detail with one Riordan detail before making a claim.
If students stay at the plot level, ask “How does that change affect the way the rivalry feels to the reader?”
You said “They both get trapped”—we can explain that by saying “Both versions keep Hephaestus’s trap as an act of revenge.”
You said “Riordan makes it more funny”—we can say “Riordan shifts the tone toward dark humor through setting and narrator voice.”
Both texts show ______, but Riordan changes ______.
In the Homer abridged excerpt, ______, whereas in Chapter 15, ______.
This difference matters because it makes the rivalry seem ______.
Encourage students to rehearse a comparison in a home language and then restate it in English using one comparative connector.
Validate students’ experience with retellings from films, games, or family storytelling as background knowledge for noticing how stories change across versions.
👁️WATCH FOR / SUPPORT IF NEEDED
If students compare only settings and ignore the relationship conflict → Prompt: “What emotion or motive drives the trap in both versions?”
If students say one text is “serious” and the other is “funny” without evidence → Prompt: “Point to one line of dialogue or description that creates that tone.”
Student cites one detail from each text before making a comparative claim.
Student explains how a changed detail affects tone, not just plot.
Situation
Try this
Struggling with: Moving Beyond Plot Summary
Give students this frame: “Both texts show ______ because ______. Riordan changes ______, which makes the rivalry seem ______.” Organizing Evidence in the Venn Diagram: Have students highlight one detail about motive, one about setting, and one about tone before writing. Getting Ideas onto the Page: Allow students to orally rehearse their Venn diagram entries with a partner or use speech-to-text before copying their notes.
Ready for extension: Adding a Comparison as Evidence
Add a second comparison about how each text portrays public embarrassment, not just jealousy. Explain whether Riordan’s changes make Ares seem more threatening, more ridiculous, or both, using evidence from Chapter 15.
Part B: Tracking Tone and Register (W.6.2.e, L.6.5.b) (15 minutes)
This section supports students in translating their comparison thinking into a clear, structured piece of explanatory writing. Students should draw directly from their notes to select precise evidence and use comparative transitions to connect ideas across texts. Emphasize that strong writing not only identifies differences in tone but also explains how specific language choices create those differences and affect the reader. Encourage students to use academic vocabulary accurately to describe the rivalry and its impact.
Quick Write
Quick Write
Students use their comparison notes to write a short explanatory paragraph about tone, register, and figurative language across versions.
Say these directions: Reread your notes. Write one paragraph explaining how Riordan changes the tone of the myth. Remember that tone is the author’s attitude toward the subject, shown through word choice, details, and narrator voice. Use at least one detail from The Odyssey, one detail from Chapter 15, two comparative transitions, and one target word such as rivalry, betrayal, or divine.
Teach:
Say: A strong comparison paragraph does more than say one text is old and one text is new. I need to name a specific language choice, connect it to tone, and then explain why that shift matters. Homer’s words sound elevated and public, while Riordan’s scene uses Percy’s reactions and exaggerated details to make the gods seem messy and dramatic. That change affects how I see the rivalry. So my paragraph should move from evidence to effect, not just act as a summary.
Ask: Which language choices create the biggest tone shift between the two texts, and how do they change your view of the gods? Write a five-to-six-sentence paragraph.
Both texts show that betrayal leads to revenge, but they sound very different. In Homer’s text, Hephaestus creates a powerful trap, which makes the conflict feel serious and controlled. In contrast, Riordan places the same conflict in a water park and uses Percy’s voice to make the scene feel strange and tense. That shift makes the gods seem more reckless. Riordan keeps the same idea but changes how readers experience it.
By the end of this section, students will have produced a paragraph that moves from evidence to explanation and clearly communicates how the retelling reshapes the original myth.
Checklist
Make sure your writing includes:
one detail from Homer and one detail from Chapter 15.
comparative transitions such as however, while, in contrast, or both.
at least one accurate tone word and one target vocabulary word.
an explanation of how a language choice changes the reader’s perception of the gods or the rivalry.
🎯PURPOSE
Support students in writing a clear comparison that explains how language choices shape tone and change readers’ perceptions of mythic characters.
Language Focus:
Tone words
Academic register
Comparative sentence structures
Explanation language
Before Activity
Ask students to choose one Homer phrase and one Riordan detail before they draft so their paragraph begins with evidence instead of general opinion.
🗣️SAY / ASK
Prompt students to explain the effect of a language choice with words like makes, shifts, emphasizes, or reveals.
If students repeat the same sentence structure, model how to expand with while, however, in contrast, and because of that.
You said “Homer sounds old”—we can say “Homer uses elevated diction that makes the scene sound formal and serious.”
You said “Percy makes it more funny”—we can say “Riordan uses Percy’s modern narrator voice and exaggeration to create dark humor.”
Homer’s diction creates a tone of ______, while Riordan’s narrator voice creates a tone of ______.
Riordan changes readers’ perception of the gods by ______.
Unlike the Homer version, Chapter 15 uses ______ to emphasize ______.
Allow students to draft key ideas in a mix of English and a home language and then shape those ideas into an English comparison paragraph.
Invite students to use familiar storytelling language from oral traditions or media retellings as a bridge to the idea of register.
👁️WATCH FOR / SUPPORT IF NEEDED
If students write “Homer is serious and Riordan is funny” with no explanation → Prompt: “What exact word choice or description creates that tone?”
If students compare only what happens, not how it is told → Prompt: “Add a sentence that begins, ‘This language choice matters because . . .’”
Student uses at least one comparative connector to link evidence from both texts.
Student explains how language choices affect tone or perception rather than listing details only.
Situation
Try this
Struggling with: Explaining Tone
Offer this frame: “In Homer, the phrase ______ creates a ______ tone. In contrast, Riordan uses ______, which makes the gods seem ______.” Building a Full Paragraph: Have students draft one sentence at a time: shared idea, Homer evidence, Riordan evidence, explanation, concluding sentence. Written Expression: Allow students to orally record their paragraph or use speech-to-text and then revise for comparative transitions and tone words.
Ready for extension
Add a final sentence explaining whether Riordan’s humor weakens or strengthens the warning about divine jealousy. Compare how public embarrassment functions in both texts and connect it to the theme of betrayal.
Quick Write
Quick Write
By the end of this lesson, students should understand how a modern retelling can preserve a myth's central conflict while changing its tone, setting, and impact on the reader. Students should be able to explain how specific details from each text work together to reveal the dangers of divine jealousy. This reflection reinforces the importance of comparing texts to deepen understanding of theme and character. Ensure students can clearly articulate both what stays the same and what changes across versions. This prepares them to apply the same comparison skills in the unit performance task.
Say these directions: Today, you compared an ancient version of a mythic rivalry with Riordan’s modern retelling. That is exactly the kind of work you will need for the performance task, where you will explain what myths reveal about danger, values, and human behavior. The clearer you can compare theme, tone, and character portrayal, the stronger your final explanation will be.
In three to four sentences, explain how both texts show the danger of divine jealousy and how Riordan changes that idea for modern readers. Use one detail from each text.
Both texts show that divine jealousy leads to betrayal and revenge. In Homer’s version, Hephaestus carefully plans a trap to expose Ares and Aphrodite. In Chapter 15, Riordan keeps the same conflict but places Percy in danger inside the trap. This change makes the rivalry feel more immediate and shows how the gods’ conflicts can harm others.
Have students access their copy of The Lightning Thief. Instruct students to:
