Should Hercules Be Considered A Hero Essay

“A true hero isn’t measured by the size of his strength, but by the strength of his heart.” This is a quote from the movie Hercules, said by the person who voiced Hercules in the movie. This completely explains Hercule’s situation. Hera despised Hercules, made him go crazy and slaughter all of the people he loved. He then completed 12 seemingly impossible tasks. His second wife thought he was betraying her, and she killed him, but the gods took pity on him, and made him a god. Hercules should be considered a Greek Hero for three reasons. He went through a lot of suffering, he fought for his own honor, and he accomplished many magnificent, treacherous feats.

First, Hercules should be considered a Greek Hero because he went through a lot of suffering,

Since Hera was vengeful, she was always trying to destroy everything that had meaning to Hercules, or attempting to kill him. Although he ended up in a good place at the end of his life, on Mt. Olympus with the gods, a wife, and immortality, he went through many hardships to deserve his immortality. To begin with, when Hercules was a young adult, Hera whispered in his ear, causing him to go insane, and while he was insane, he bashed his wife’s and children’s heads in. When he was once again sane, he was heartbroken by what he had done, and wanted to make up for what he had done, which is when the twelve labors came into the picture. After that, he was tasked with the 12 labors. Each of these took a year to complete, and all of the tasks were seemingly impossible. The twelve labors, as listed at theoi.com, were: Kill the indestructible Nemean Lion, kill the Lernaean Hydra, bring back the Cerynitian Hind, a stag with golden horns

Even though Hercules had some help accomplishing these tasks from the gods, he did most everything himself. He used his intelligence and strength to his advantage while completing these tasks. Hercules defeated the Nemean Lion with his intelligence and strength. He cornered the lion, and wrestled it to death, basically using it’s own claws to strangle itself. The Nemean Lion was indestructible, no weapon could penetrate its hide, so Hercules had to think of another way to kill the lion. After Hercules killed the lion, he skinned it, making a lion-skin cape that couldn’t be penetrated, a talisman to prove that he killed the lion. Next, he used his intelligence when he tricked Atlas back into taking his appointed spot as sky bearer. To get the Apples of Hesperides, which belonged to Hera of all people, he had to be a major part in the family tree, and he wasn’t, so he found Atlas, and took the burden of the sky for him while he went to get the apples for Hercules. Mythologian.net said that Atlas did not want the burden back, so he told Hercules, and Hercules tricked him into thinking that he was okay with it. Hercules told Atlas that he wanted to put shoulder pads on, because he was going to bear the weight of the sky, and asked Atlas to hold the sky while he put the pads on, but he ran as soon as