THESIS STATEMENT
Heracles favorite of the Greeks is a primary example of Joseph’s Campbell’s hero’s journey, proven by all the actions that Heracles has done during the span of his Life.
PURPOSE STATEMENT
This paper is to show that Heracles is the prime example of a hero’s journey through his actions and the struggles that he faced during his life until he was about to die but instead of death, his father, Zeus, saved him and he conquered the mortal realm, to become a god.
INTRODUCTION
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 husband of Zeus, the king of the gods, wife, Hera, because he was the son of Zeus and a mortal woman. Hera is the main reason that Heracles had to complete the 12 labors.
Hera caused Heracles to go mad and kill his family. The only way for Heracles to purify himself was to accomplish the 12 labors that was assigned to him by his cousin Eurystheus as the oracle described: “As atonement for the dreadful killings, the oracles put Heracles in to the servitude of his cousin, King Eurystheus, who would impose upon the young hero the Twelve Labors, seemingly impossible tasks” (Reference book 68). Heracles must have completed these difficult trials to help him return to his usual life
The main reason that Hera hated Heracles is because he was the illegitimate son of her husband Zeus. Hera usually would show hatred for woman that Zeus had slept with, but in this case her hatred was for son of the woman. The hatred of Hera is also ironic because Heracles’ names even means “Glory of Hera”, but with Hera’s h...
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...ro. In the Helicon Encyclopedia of Literature they interpret Heracles myth as “Viewed as the personification of strength, courage, and endurance, Heracles and his legends may have been regarded as an allegory of the triumph of good over evil” (Helicon Encyclopedia). Heracles can be viewed as a story of good vs. evil because Heracles had to overcome the struggles placed on him from his opposition.
Some people will believe that Heracles is not a great hero and they criticize Heracles like the poet Tom Sleigh and in his poem. “[H]is own good opinion of himselfmirrored back indulgentlywhenever he committedsome indiscretion borne of selfishness:” (Sleigh C: 9 L: 12-16). Sleigh is showing that all people don’t have to like or admire Heracles. But according to the mono-myth Heracles is a hero and went through harder things that other heroes didn’t have to complete.
It must be noted that there does seem to be a discrepancy. Some texts imply that Zeus tossed him to earth instead of Hera. He landed on the island of Lemnos (Seltman 99). That is why the people of Lemnos were his favorites and that was why he always headed there to relax and recuperate.
In Homer’s The Odyssey, the main protagonist, Odysseus, is trying to make his way home to Ithaca, ten years later, after the end of the Trojan War. Odysseus is portrayed as a hero throughout the epic; however, the events surrounding his heroism is with considerable help from the gods and goddess. Being a hero is defined as a person who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities. Based on the play, there is evidence to suggest that Odysseus is not a hero as defined but that he relied on the help of the gods and goddess.
Schein, Seth L. The Mortal Hero: An Introduction to Homer's Iliad. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984.
Rosenberg, Donna. "The Labors and Death of Heracles." World Mythology. 3rd ed. Chicago: NTC/Contemporary Publishing Group, Inc., 1999. 100-05. Print.
Briefly speaking, Heracles is a sane man that is plagued by madness and has his innocence ruined. Heracles himself cause his ruin because of the ruin he has cause so many other people. His personality makes him his own worst enemy which leads to his demise. However, he still possesses qualities of a model son, good friend, and a caring and protective father. Furthermore, the Goddess of madness also protest again the deed that is to be done upon Heracles, showing that even the most mysterious, far-fetched character in this Myth supports the noble Hero.
Hercules, or known in Latin as Heracles, was the greatest of the Greek heroes, a paragon of masculinity. In art Hercules was portrayed as a powerful, muscular man wearing lion's skin and armed with a huge club. He was also described as being a macho man buffoon, who was very impulsive. Hercules’ home and birthing place is in Thebes, Greece. Thebes is a city in central Greece. It plays as an important setting in many Greek myths, such as the stories of Cadmus, Oedipus, Dionysus and many other important roles in Greek Mythology. The demigod, Hercules has an interesting origin, he is most famous for his 12 labors, and leaves a legacy in words and expressions.
A hero has many admirable traits that are attributed to them. Today, one would describe a hero as someone with courage, bravery and a clear conscience to invoke good deeds. In mythology, heroes are also present and hold the same qualities as our modern heroes. Heroes just like Odysseus who after spending ten years trying to return home from the Trojan War, wants nothing more than to get back to his wife, son and reclaim his position as king of Ithaca.. But hardships that appear during his voyage demonstrate his courage and intelligence. Using these traits he is able to reach his ultimate goal and become the hero he is meant to be. But to become the hero, Odysseus needs to fulfill the six steps that were set by Joseph Campbell, who illustrated these steps in his text Hero with a Thousand Faces. These steps include: 1. Leaving home; 2. Deciding upon a quest; 3. Encountering dragons; 4. All-out fights; 5. a wound (left upon the hero from his/her encounter with a dragon.; 6. Wisdom which the hero learns that informs his or her life thereafter, or a wisdom won that can be shared with the hero’s people. Odysseus almost illustrates the true definition of a hero and, goes on a hero’s journey to attempt just that. Odysseus must face many challenges and dangers to reach his objective. Through the way he eradicates them, it is evident that he has successfully completed parts of the hero’s journey but fails to complete the last step.
Hera was not a principal deity; her job was a subservient one – she was Zeus'
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
The word “hero” has several definitions. In Greek mythology, a hero was originally a demigod. A hero can be the principle character in a play, movie, novel, or poem. A hero can even simply mean someone who is discerned by outstanding courage, dignity, or power. Even though there a many different types of heroes, they have all been through a journey with many obstacles that they had to overcome. The journey of a hero is one huge cycle, starting at the home of the hero and ending at the same place, the home. There are two very important stages of journey cycle—the road of trials and crisis/salvation. The road of trials stage is basically the obstacles the potential hero had to overcome. The crisis/salvation stage is the disaster that occurred and how the hero was saved from it. Odysseus faced many obstacles, and there were many crises that he underwent. The journey of Odysseus was mythological. He left his homeland of Ithaca to go fight in the Tro...
The first hero I will compare him to is Jason, who had a similar adventure. His adventure was made to claim a throne that was rightfully his, just like Odysseus' adventure to get home to Ithaca and regain his throne. They both faced many perils on the sea, and both persevered to reach the end of the journey and gain the throne.
Since Hercules was sentenced to many labors and accomplished the almost impossible tasks it’s safe to say that he is one of the bravest heroes. When Hercules was a child the goddess Hera was very jealous of Hercules Hera was jealous because Zeus cheated on her many times with mortal women to pass on his great genes to offspring and the more offspring Zeus had the better off Greece would be. Hercules was born because Zeus had an affair with another women name Alcmene or Hercules’s mother. So Hera sent two snakes into Hercules’s room when he was an infant to kill him but Hercules grabbed the snakes by the head and killed them. Also on his labors he defeated the Hydra, Nemean Lion, and the man killing Stymphalian Birds. In all of those labors Hercules showed a tremendous amount of bravery, because most mortals couldn’t even come close to these creatures or they would be killed. Fortunately for Hercules his adventurous personality, this helped him with the many adventures that he had to face.
Heracles VS Hercules The legend of Hercules has been told and retold thousands of times; it is by far one of the best known Greek myths of all time. In fact, it was so well known that Disney made it into a movie. Like any story that’s adapted into a movie, there are some differences and similarities between the myth and the movie. This paper will go over the main differences and similarities between the two versions of the same myth.
Schein, Seth L. The Mortal Hero: An Introduction to Homer's Iliad. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984.