Synthesize and compare the value systems depicted across this unit's legends and epics, explaining what each reveals about the culture that told it.
This unit has studied five very different hero codes: Arthurian chivalry (honor, courtesy, protection of the weak -- an aspirational ideal the code itself admits can fail), the Sinbad tales' merchant-adventurer ethic (curiosity and resourcefulness rewarded, danger accepted as the cost of ambition), the Three Kingdoms' chosen brotherhood (loyalty built deliberately between unrelated men), the Tale of the Heike's acceptance of impermanence (honor found in facing an inevitable fall with dignity, not only in winning), and Sundiata's epic perseverance (unseen strength proven only through years of obstacle and exile). Crispin, still being read, is beginning to suggest a sixth: a peasant's hero code built on self-reliance and chosen loyalty rather than any inherited status at all.
Comparing these side by side is not about ranking which hero code is "best." It is about noticing that every culture's most treasured stories reveal what that culture believed mattered most in a person -- and that these values, while different in their specific shape, often rhyme with each other across cultures that had no contact at all. That rhyme is itself worth noticing: independently, again and again, human cultures have told stories praising loyalty, courage, and perseverance through hardship, even while disagreeing about exactly how those values should be expressed.
Mastery looks like: They can name a specific shared value and a specific point of difference between at least two hero codes studied this unit, using textual evidence for both.
Common stumbles: Ranking the hero codes as simply better or worse than each other instead of analyzing what each reveals about its own culture.