Heracles 'Tragic Hero In Homer's Odyssey'

Hella’s greatest friend, though he was guiltless.” (1303-1310 Euripides) This drastic change in his beliefs and the grief of losing his family breaks Heracles’s inner strength. Heracles believes that the gods have abused their powers for debauched purposes, and hence are no longer his gods. This is critical because as a demi-god, Heracles is meant to have a closer bond to the gods; however, he chooses to distance himself from them. Heracles says, “but I do not believe the gods commit adultery, or bind each other in chains, I never did believe it, I never shall; nor the one god is tyrant of the rest.” (1341- 1346 Euripides) After the set of unfortunate events he experienced, Heracles starts regarding courage and strength in terms of enduring

However, at the end of the day, Heracles’s opinions do not hold any significance as he may refuse to consider them his gods, but these gods with all their imperfections will still continue to exist according to Theseus. Theseus offers consolation to Heracles by telling him that these ‘earthly misfortunes’ could have occurred to anyone. Nonetheless, like Heracles, he too is equally dismissive of the Olympian gods. Theseus is quick to understand that these unfortunate events have occurred because of Hera, when he says,“ This is Hera’s war.” (1191 Euripides). However, unlike Heracles, Theseus also believes that the gods are only exhibiting what they feel and since they have several human-like emotions, they are expressing them at a heightened level due to being gods. He accepts the traditional gods similar to Amphitryon, with their imperfections and their misuse of powers to destroy humans. However, also like Amphitryon he believes that friendship and human solidarity can empower mortals who have brought down by the gods. Theseus, however, never expresses this empowerment in terms of gods being negligent like Heracles does. He believes that knowledge is won through suffering and that through these tribulations one will learn to endure the miseries of life. He tells Heracles, “ My advice is this: be patient, suffer what you must, and do not yield to grief. Fate exempts no man; all man are flawed, and so the gods, unless the poets lie.” (1312-1315 Euripides) As demonstrated here, Theseus believes that Heracles should not blame himself or his fate as even the gods go through these emotions. Unlike Heracles, Theseus was always aware of the shortcomings of his gods; hence it was not surprising to him when they were unfair to Heracles. These differences in their opinions were imperative in how they experienced the situation and pivotal in shaping their opinions of the