King Heracles Research Paper

Using the portrayal of Hercules in Sophocles' tragedy Women of Trachis, a puzzling image of the Greek hero emerges. Most of the myths of Heracles portray him as a fierce warrior, tamer of beasts and a master of everything he attempts. This myth however, shows honorable traits juxtaposed with very negative aspects of the same man. Heracles is a paradox because even though he is a very great man and ideal hero, in some ways he is savage, highly emotional and even vulnerable.

In Greek mythology Hercules is known for his strength and courage, considered as half man and half god. He was an adventurous superhuman born from mortal mother and the son of god Zeus. Hera, the jealous wife of Zeus decided to kill Hercules after his birth. Hercules then married the Theben princess Megara and had three children. However, Hera wasn’t happy about him. She was filled hatred of him, and as time goes, this situation made him to kill his wife and all his children. Hercules then felt guilty about the crime he had done. Hercules was charged to serve his cousin, king Eurystheus, and the ‘twelve labors’ were given to him as punishments. Those labors are a call to adventure that made Hercules to cross the threshold

Greek mythology has been passed on and retold over generations. Literature and movies have been created to entertain as well as provide specific themes based off of myths. There are many heroes that mythology talks about and each one has lived an epic life, but there is one famous hero that has been immortalized throughout history. Hercules is the son of Zeus and a mortal named Alcmene. Zeus impregnated her while her husband was away and this is where his story began. Zeus' wife, Hera, found out about the affair and was outrageous about his careless actions. She tried to prevent Hercules' birth; however, when that didn't work she sent snakes to kill the baby. Hercules was too mighty for the snakes and strangled them before they could even hurt him. As stated in this source, "Hera remained angry. How could she get even? Hera knew that she would lose in a fight, and that she wasn't powerful enough to prevent Zeus from having his way. Hera decided to pay Zeus back for his infidelity by making the rest of Hercules' life as miserable as she could" (Crane WEB). Hercules grew up to be a great young warrior and was all around. With this god-like strength, also came an uncontrollable temper that made him react at times without thinking, but later made him realize the wrongdoings of his violence. He later then married a woman named Megara and had two beautiful children. But one day, Hera instilled a fit of rage into Hercules and made him slaughter his family with his very own hands. He was shocked by his actions and asked Apollo for assistance since he was drowning in guilt. Apollo later then gave him specific tasks to help Hercules redeem himself for the bloodshed he caused. The hero was sent to Eurystheus, and under his strict hand, he was to accomplish twelve labors over the next twelve years.

One day Hera, still wanting to wreak havoc upon Hercules’ life, influenced Hercules to kill his own wife and children. When Hercules came to his senses and realized what he had done, he was overcome with grief. He immediately went to the oracle at Delphi and asked how he could cleanse himself of his sins. The Oracle replied, “You must go to Mycenae and serve King Eurystheus for twelve years. Only by doing this will you ever be free of your pain and guilt” (Richardson and Baxter 10).

Iolas, Hercules' nephew, came to his rescue. Hercules would cut off one head and Iolas would sear it with a flame to prevent it from growing back. Hercules buried the head that was supposedly immortal deep beneath a rock.

They both agreed on how he had his heroic parts, and his non-heroic parts. His heroic parts were that "As part of his Twelve Labors, Heracles killed monstrous creatures (the Nemean lion, the Hydra, and the Stymphalian birds) and captured dangerous animals (the Erymanthian boar, the Cretan bull, and man-eating horses). He even brought the hound Cerberus up from the underworld in a symbolic conquest of death itself (abcclio.com)." His non-heroic deeds were that "Heracles committed many outrages against relatives, friends, and innocent strangers when he was unable to control his passions, and he was also prone to gluttony and other excesses that were not considered admirable in Greek society (abcclio.com)." In Stephanie Budin's article she wrote about how he struggled keeping his emotions stable. She talked about how he sometimes had outrages, and went very violent towards people. She also talks about his heroic deeds as well. Emma Stafford, on the other hand, talks about how the story of Heracles developed over time and how his heroism has also changed over time. In conclusion, even though Stephanie Budin and Emma Stafford had different viewpoints on why Heracles was a hero, they still agree that he was a heroic person for Ancient

Many years ago the kingdom was ruled by a king who was known as Carolus. The Kingdom experienced great prosperity under the king which was largely due to the large peace time that the nation experienced.

The story of Heracles that comes to people’s mind is not what Heracles had to do during his life. Throughout the life of Heracles, he has shown that he deserved to be remembered as a great hero, through the opposition that he faced from the

Heracles’s death was unusual. After going through numerous challenging labors and getting nearly dead, he died at his home. According to our textbook, his wife was jealous that Heracles could have been in love with another woman, gave him a tunic that contained the poisonous blood of the Hydra. At the moment Heracles put on that tunic, the poison was activated, and made the tunic to stick to his skin and burn it. It is mentioned that the pain he felt was so strong he decided the only way to relieve it was with death. He laid down on a funeral pyre and asked people to burn him, but no one was willing to do it. Until Philoctetes agreed and put him to death. Heracles gave him his great bow and arrow. Even though he was a demigod, he felt the same

Heracles heroic qualities were seeking the fair judgment of higher authority so he could sacrifice his safety also possesses physical and psychological strength and utilize intellect. Heracles has been assigned to twelve rather difficult tasks his first task was to slay a fearsome

King Eurystheus fearing Heracles would be a threat to his power he commanded him to perform the labors and Heracles gladly declined. Hera then made Heracles go insane and in his instanity he killed his wife and children as he thought they were enemies. Heracles then withdrew from society.

These labors were designated to him through King Eurystheus because of the unspeakable acts he committed. Hercules sought out many prophets, only in the end to return to King Eurystheus to complete his 12 suicidal labors. One of the last 6 labors completed was to capture the Cretan Bull. Minos promised Poseidon that he would sacrifice whatever the god sent to him. Poseidon sent a great bull, but Minos thought it was too beautiful to kill. So he killed another bull, and Poseidon grew angry so he made it rampage through the city of Crete. Hercules wrestled the bull to the ground. He carried the bull back to Eurystheus, but it could not be tamed so Eurystheus set it free. The 8th labor Hercules had to complete was stealing the Mares of Diomedes. Diomedes’ Mares are 4 men eating horses with terrible tempers. Diomedes kept the horses chained to a golden post to keep them from escaping. Hercules snuck behind the golden post taming the horses, and right before he could release them Diomedes soldiers began attacking Hercules. From hearing all the commotion Diomedes awakens. He is informed that Hercules is trying to steal the mares from a random foot soldier. Diomedes is irate and attacks Hercules.

     The inhabitants of different cities had their fears put to rest when Heracles came to town. Many of the twelve tasks that Heracles endured involved killing things that had the people living in fear. The people of the cities as well as continued generations following considered Heracles to the greatest of heroes. The Disney version, Hercules, the Latin name for Heracles, was a completely different version. Its portrayal of the story was inaccurate in a lot of ways. It painted the picture as Hercules’ enemy being Hades. It depicted Hercules through the eyes of what society considers a hero now.

fell victim to Hera's hatred towards him. What Hera did was send a fit of

I Heraclitus, am a Greek philosopher from the native of the Greek city of Ephesus, Ionia which is on the coast of Asia Minor. I was born in 535 BCE. I am of a distinguished parentage. My knowledge is based on self-taught and I consider myself as the pioneer of wisdom. People say I live a lonely life, some say I am full of riddles while others feel that I am nothing but a paradoxical being meaning that I am seemingly absurd or a self-contradictory human. One thing that I know for sure is that I love myself. I have stressed upon the needless unconsciousness of humankind this made most people nickname me as the obscure and others call me the weeping philosopher. I care