Hercules : The Greatest Hero In Ancient Greece

In countless stories where males give birth, gods use humans for their own pleasure, and fathers swallow their children, it’s impossible to lose oneself in the soap-opera-esque reminiscence. With a glorious name that is known to this day, Hercules is seen as a hero because of his great strength and courage. He has multiple archetypes, but the question is, which one is more predominant? Hercules is different in each story. In the myth he is considered one archetype and in the Disney animation he is considered a completely different archetype.

Hercules is thought to be one of the world’s greatest hero. There are children’s movies about him, but they all have a happy ending. Hercules, originally born “Heracles” lived a short cruel, yet heroic life. “The 12 Herculean tasks he performed over a period of 12 years have been immortalized in everything from classical poetry to Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion.” (French 1). Hercules, in Greek mythology, was a hero known for his strength and courage and for his legendary adventures. Hercules is the Roman name for the Greek hero Heracles. He was the son of the god Zeus and a human mother Alcmene, wife of the Theban general Amphitryon. Hera, Zeus' jealous wife, was determined to kill Hercules, and after Hercules was born, she

“Hercules demonstrated his strength right from birth. He choked the serpents that had been sent to him by the jealous Hera.” (classicsunveiled.com)

Heracles, son of Zeus and Alcemena was a strong baby ever since he was born. His stepmother, Hera, was tremendously jealous of him, because Zuse had an affair with Hercules mom. So she would always try to make his life miserable. She made him go crazy, to the point that Heracles murdered his wife and kids. When Heracles was little, Hera tried to kill him by putting two snakes in his crib. But Hercules being the tough baby he was, killed the snakes by choking them. Later on Heracles asked king Eurystheus to make him immortal so that he can clear his sins. So heracles had to do some labor, that in my opinion did not make him a hero. Because when he was doing his 3rd labor heracles knew that the hind was a special pet to Diana, but he still shot it either way. Also Heracles killed a lot of centaurs with his poisonous arrows in his 4th labor. Then Heracles killed Hippolyte in labor 9 for her belt.

In Greece: Heracles and Dionysus, part 4 of the Introduction to Mythology book, it gives a multitude of examples that describes both Heracles and Dionysus as Hero’s, Anti-Hero’s, as well as, helps portray how they make order in the world. Heracles and Dionysus are illegitimate sons of the Greek god Zeus who both eventually achieve divine status, albeit through two completely different paths. Heracles or more commonly known by the Romans as Hercules, is one of the more recognizable hero’s throughout history, his stories are filled with feats of great strength, bravery, and cunning and is on full display in his series of twelve labors, where he earns his divine status. On the other hand,

He was also known for being stupid and prideful which sometimes outshined his strengths. Hercules was very playful and easygoing especially when entertaining children. Being Born a demi-god with incredible strength and stamina, even as a child he was not normal, when Hera sent two snakes to kill Hercules as a baby, he easily strangled them with his hands. Hercules faced many difficulties in his lifetime due to incurring Hera’s wrath, most of the other Olympian gods favoured him. As he help them in their battle against the Giants, but he was particularly favoured by

Physical strength is an essential characteristic of a hero and is associated the most with Hercules. Unlike other heroes, Hercules used his strength in his first heroic deed to help others, rather than proving himself to gain the title of a hero. The gods needed the help of a mortal to conquer the Giants who were inflicting terror on Olympos, and they chose Hercules. Hercules shot one of the two Giants with his bow and arrow, wounding him fatally, then dragged him to a land where he could die. “Hercules… played an important part” when defeating these supernatural creatures (Hamilton 167). Hercules’ killing of one of the Giants that the gods couldn’t kill on their own shows that he possessed godly strength and gives him the characteristics of a hero. Furthermore, Hercules helped the Thebans fight the Minyans, and won Princess Megara’s hand in marriage. “The grateful citizens” depended on the strength of Hercules for winning the battle against the Minyans (Hamilton 169). The people of Greece valued Hercules immensely, to the point where they believed he was worthy of being married to Thebes’ Princess. Additionally, strength was extremely important in Greek culture considering the fact that this was a time of war, and strength is what Greece needed to protect themselves. Thus Hercules, the strongest man, is the most valued hero in Greece.

Hercules’s strength and good looks were undeniable. There is no doubt that they helped him sometimes, but most of the time they just caused him problems more than anything. His good looks got him all the girls for good and for bad, he had many affairs, some would say he has summer kids (some are here some are there). Weather it was affairs or just a hook up when he was single he always could get a lady with eaz. Hercules encounter his first problems with girls when

In conclusion, Hercules and April had their similarities but the is always a little difference here and

Hercules had no thought-out plan, in this moment he was driven solely by empathy. The ancient Greeks (with the exception on Athens, who preferred the hero Theseus), valued

Nowadays, we live different lives compared to the Greeks. We have different problems that affect us in our day to day routines. We value different things. We wouldn’t value Hercules’ traits because we have a different way of dealing with conflicts than the Greeks did. If Hercules were alive today, we wouldn’t value his trait of redemption, or revenge, because he would be a very unstable person. He would be unstable because he tried to get revenge, or redeem himself, a lot. An example of this is when he killed King Eurytus. This started off when someone had insulted him. Knowing Hercules, he has a very small tolerance for something offending him or not going his way. Hercules will do anything to make himself feel better. In this case, he had

Hercules was supposedly the greatest hero to ever live. He is the son of Jupiter and Alcmena, and was tracked all his life by Juno. Juno was unhappy with Jupiter when he cheated on her with Alcmena. She thought Hercules was living proof of her shame and unhappiness. She decided to kill him and so, sent two snakes into his bed, which he killed

Beloved by all Gods, cherished by his father, and set for a life of eternal bliss was the one they call Hercules. Many speak of the great tales of his 12 labors, but not a lot know of his hardest and most challenging, 13th labor. For most, not knowing of the 13th labor is for the best and only the strong willed shall read this tale for it is not for the meek. Even though the mightiest beasts born of Typhon and Echidna were no match to the strength Hercules possessed. It didn’t much matter, his strength on the outside was useless for this test but rather his spirit and perseverance through the toughest of times was needed.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have in human strength ? Hercules (is also known as Heracles) has this strength. He was half man and half god. His father is Zeus, who is the god of the sky and and ruler of the Olympian gods and his mother is a mortal named Alcmene. Hercules also has a mother of the gods Hera, who is married to Zeus. He didn't know he was part god until he had grown into a man. Zeus always watched over his son on earth and was a proud father. This made Hera despise Hercules over the years. Hera tried all kinds of ways to kill him, including sending a couple of big snakes into his crib. Hercules crushed the snakes heads with his bare hands. He had to deal with much more obstacles during his life. Hercules had to overcome his unstable emotions, the 12 labors, and his after acceptance quests.

Heroism played a large part in the development of Greek Mythology and Greek civilization. Arguably one the most notable heroes in Greek mythology was Achilles, hero of the Trojan war and the Iliad. Achilles was looked upon with awesomeness because of the lifestyle he chose, and the way in which he helped the Greeks win the trojan war. Homer describes Achilles as “God-like” in the Iliad, which is a very common description of Greek heroes. And God-like they were in the deeds they accomplished, making the stories all the more great. In many ways, the Ancient Greek heroes were almost honored as much as the gods themselves. A great example of this is the Temple of Heracles in Akragas, which is a colossal peripteros temple that stretches 70 meters in length, and 25 meters in width. Going back to Achilles, people loved his choice of ‘lifestyle’ because of the decision he made when he was young. He chose to live a short, but a memorable one rather than an old but ‘basic’ life. When Achilles died, he was given a very extravagant funeral, as was to be expected. Thucydides once said that “The whole earth is a grave to heroes”, and this was true for the Greeks. If the tales of the heroes are true, than the Greeks had ever need to praise their heroes for their sacrifice, because without them the Greeks would never have reached the glory they