The Greek Hero Of Fame

Perseus is special because he is the son of Zeus and the heir of Argos.

Heroes in classical mythology are often compared with gods and are seen to be more akin to gods than mortal men. They are famously known for the quests or the deeds carried out by them. These quests usually do not take place near where they originate from. They need to travel long distances and usually transgress geographical, cosmological and physical boundaries. During these quests, they come across and have to interact with a range of divine and supernatural creatures, objects, and people. In doing so, they can be seen helping keep the society more ordered and civilized. Due to their deeds they too like gods have their own cults and/or are worshipped. Many of the heroes also gain apotheosis (immorality). Heroes can have divine parentage which classifies them as hemitheoi (half gods/ demi-gods). All these qualities of heroes truly makes them more akin to gods than mortal men.

Some people think of a hero as someone with courage, determination, or someone that have risked their lives for others. Others think of a hero as someone who has outstanding strength and is clever. A hero, not only has physical strength, but also has mental strength as well. Odysseus, ruler of Ithaca, proves he is a hero by having all of these traits. Odysseus fights through hard times and overcomes obstacles, he kept his men together for most of the story, and he avenges himself when returning to his home, Ithaca. All of those are very heroic.

In the month of October the great King of Macedonia, Alexander the Great, was born. He was the son of Philip II, who is considered as an excellent general of Macedonia, and princess Olympias of Epirus. He inherited the best qualities and character of both of his parents. His father possessed strong and determined abilities of a real general and his mother was unreliable and out of control. Throughout his childhood, most of his friends were women. Lanice, who is a nurse, took good care of Alexander during his early life. Her younger brother, Clitus, was Alexander‘s playmate and considered one of his faithful friend. Alexander's early life was just like an ordinary Greek life. He often played hoop and balls and

How would you feel if your uncle took the throne of a kingdom that your dad was supposed to have, and wanted to kill you after just being born?This is what the Greek hero, Jason, had to go through. He was born of royalty, selfless, and had extreme feats. He was accompanied by some heroes on his journey, including, Heracles and Atalanta. Many people, in the beginning, thought he was a weird man, because he only had one sandal. While Jason was a very heroic hero, Jason did not have a very noble death. He died by being crushed by his rotted ship, after he broke his oath to love Medea.

Hercules, Perseus, Theseus, and Achilles are all known as epic or homeristic heroes. They have all had their legendary battles and journeys that have classified them as an epic hero. Epic heroes all have good and bad qualities, for example Hercules is known as the strongest man in the world, but he is not that smart. Odysseus is a great example of an epic hero. He is smart, strong, and protected by gods and goddesses, but he does have faults in his actions considering he is only just a mortal. In Homer’s book, The Odyssey, Homer shows how Odysseus is truly an epic hero, by showing his journey back home to Ithaca.

Hercules was a well known hero he had many trials which made him famous. Hercules had strength and courage.

After finishing Gilgamesh, we transitioned to The Iliad, my favorite of all the six epics we had to read for class. With Achilles as the poem’s hero, my understanding of an epic hero partially shifted back towards where it originally was in the beginning of the semester. The hero of Achilles fell much more in line with what I had originally believed an epic hero would be like coming into the class. He possessed superhuman traits that gave him an edge on the battlefield, and while he did not necessarily fight for good or bad, he was a character that I could actively root for. The early scene in which he and Agamemnon feud over Briseis and he ultimately decides to abstain from fighting in the war did surprise me however, as I expected Achilles

Zeus the Greek God of the heavens and supreme God over all other Gods. Zeus's story begins with his mother hiding him from his father Cronus the Titan who was eating all his children. Cronus being a hector, did this in fear that one of his children may take his power. At this time Zeus was impassioned and unable to defeat his father so his mother sent him to earth to be raised. Zeus grew to be a adonis and soon found the golden fleece a powerful aegis that would help in his battle against Cronus. Though defeating Cronus would be a herculean task it did not intimidate him. Thus surviving through the martial times until he became a man, he seeked aid from another titan to create a chimerical brew that when his father Cronus drank it he would

The fact that many of the Superheroes we love were inspired by the ancient gods, mostly by those of western civilizations, is indisputable. There are examples of superheroes were this is obvious, as in the case of Thor who comes directly from the Nordic mythology and others were you have to dig a little deeper to see the connection, but it is there. The similarities though, don't stop at a hero's character or power arsenal. There are motifs in the superhero universe that are widespread, and appear in almost every mythology.

Perseus grew up on an island, because before he was born, his mother’s father, Acrisius, fought his brother for the throne of Argos, when he won he forced his brother into exile. Acrisius had no male heir, but he had a daughter named Danae. Acrisius wanting a son from his daughter went to an oracle and was told a prophecy, that his daughters son will kill him, so Acrisius, fearing for his life, imprisoned his daughter in one of the towers, but then Zeus came down in the form of a gold shower, and fell onto her. Then Danae gave birth and named the child Perseus, so Acrisius placed Perseus and his mother in a wooden chest and threw them in a river, Zeus sent winds and blew them to an island where a poor fisherman, called Dictys, fished them out, and Perseus ended up having a happy childhood.

Hero’s come in all sizes, shapes, and forms. Most times a hero is inhuman like a mutant, or takes on a God like power of some sort through a transformation. How these character become superhuman or God like generally changes as time goes on and the story gets told. It generally is a character that isn’t famous or has anything special about them and then all of the sudden the have superpowers and fame and every notices them. This is where beginning of a legend starts, but a legend generally won’t come about without the death of the hero. A legend never really has a death though as the character lives on through the stories by all that tell it. Stories are passed on from parents to kids, to their kids, and so on. This is when the hero becomes

The heroes in Greek and Roman mythology had the characteristics of violent masculinity and bravery, the ideology of a patriarchal society in which all the men were elite than the women. According to Kampmen in Gender Theory in Roman Art, “Roman society evolved in such a way as to enable elite men to establish and maintain power over everyone else, ” such men included heroes like Hercules, Achilles, and Pentheus (1996, p.152). They represented the elite males who had stable physical attributes that emphasized their masculinity and heroism. Heroes like the ones mentioned above had been idolized and worshiped with cults due to their works in helping their societies to fight monsters, the gods also favored them. Gender is emphasized by one 's appearance, dressing being the primary attribute. The mythic narratives of Achilles on Scyros, Hercules and Omphale and lastly Pentheus and Dionysus give a rather strange definition on the characteristics of heroes when they crossdress. In this essay, I shall discuss how male heroes characteristics become subverted than emphasized due to the myths of cross-dressing.

Zeus was considered to be the leader of the Olympian gods of Mount Olympus. He was the god of the sky and thunder. He had many powers, but the most significant was the power to wield lightning bolts. He could hurl lightning bolts at people who defied him or other gods who he was displeased with. He was the youngest child of Cronus and Rhea and Cronus was planning to get eaten by Cronus like all of his brothers and sisters before him, but he was hidden from Cronus at Mount Dicte. He then went on to overthrow Cronus and control the gods. He had twenty-four children and some of them were powerful gods. He also had some half god children like Hercules. He lives on the top of Mount Olympus with Hera, his wife (Wikipedia).

He is also the son of Zeus and Danae, who was the daughter of Acrisius of Argos. When he was given birth too he was cast into the sea in a chest with his mother by Acrisius who was the father of his mother because he had been prophesied to by the oracle of Delphi that he would be killed by his grandson, after Perseus grew up on the island of seriphus where the chest him and his mother and him washed up on, the king of seraphs desired his mother then tricked Perseus into promising he would obtain the head of medusa being helped by  Hermes and the goddess Athena Perseus pressed the Graiae, sisters of the gorgons into helping him by seizing the one eye and one tooth that the sisters shared and not returning them until they provided him with the winged sandals which would enable him to fly, the helmet of hades which gave him invisibility, a curved sword to decapitate medusa’s head and a bag to put it in because just the gaze of medusa's head turned anyone who looked at it to be turned to stone Perseus guided himself by her reflection in a shield given to him by Athena and beheaded her as she slept after beheading her he then on his way to Seriphus he saw the princess of Ethiopia left to be sacrificed for the sea monster he fell in love with her instantly and he saved her by showing the head of medusa to the sea monster and turned it to rock when he got to Seriphus he