Myths are supernatural or religious tales with cultural and historical backgrounds, often containing moral lessons enhanced by the culture from which they originate. The film Avatar is a modern myth, its popularity comes from the inspiration it draws from familiar and widespread themes found in classical myths. Avatar reuses and updates these themes for current audiences. Ancient stories such as those of Icarus, Prometheus, Gilgamesh, and Hercules, as well as contemporary issues, represent many of the same themes revealed in Avatar. Avatar is the story of Jake Sully, a paraplegic Marine who is sent to the world Pandora to take over his dead brother's job as a Na'vi avatar pilot. The humans on Pandora use these avatars to communicate with the Na'vi and try to convince them to leave the Hometree, which is the pillar of life for the Na'vi; the humans want it so they can mine the element "unobtanium", most of which is found under Hometree. Jake initially pilots the avatar to achieve military objectives assigned to him, but over the course of the film he is initiated into Na'vi culture through Neytiri and begins to ignore his orders. When the military commander discovers Jake's betrayal he gives the order to destroy Hometree and Jake is forced to reveal his true intentions in piloting the avatar to the Na'vi. This results in Jake being expelled from both the Na'vi and human societies. The humans then destroy the Hometree and many of the Na'vi, Jake realizes it is up to him to save the rest of the Na'vi and leads the resistance. To regain the Na'vi's trust, Jake tames a Toruk, Pandora's most feared predator. Through Jake's leadership, the Na'vi push the humans back and... mid-card... is often seen as an invasion as many cities and innocent lives have been destroyed through this process. The outcome of this war is still being determined, but based on the political models depicted in the classical myths and Avatar, it is clear that both sides will be greatly affected by the conflict. Avatar has been derided for being highly derivative of other films and stories, but that just goes to show how deeply these same themes run in the human psyche. Even in ancient times, legends and tales contained similar problems and their heroes faced similar trials, demonstrating how important these things are to us as a race. The anxiety of doing too much and becoming too powerful is as widespread today as it was thousands of years ago. No matter the consequences we may face, humans will always try to reach a little higher and gain a little more power..