Author: Ryan Hunt

Mindless Meat Head or Caring Hero?

 

Coming into this class I had no knowledge of Greek mythology whatsoever. Other than watching Hercules when I was a kid, and Percy Jackson when I was a teenager, I was pretty much clueless about the subject. All I knew was the names of a few Gods (Zeus, Poseidon, Hades) and one Hero (Hercules). The extent of my knowledge about Hercules was what I could recall from the movie I watched as a little kid. In my mind, he was a big strong guy who helped people and everyone liked him. He was almost a celebrity in my eyes, but after taking this course I have realized that he wasn’t what I had imagined. Being so surprised about the stories I heard about Hercules it made me rethink my original perception of him. With that, it made me wonder if Hercules was a good guy or a bad guy. That is want I hope to determine after writing this paper.

I want to start with a little background about Hercules because I came into this class with no real knowledge of the subject. So, everything we talked about was new information to me and I found it very interesting. To start, Hercules is a demigod which means one parent is a god and the other is a mortal. In Hercules’ case, his father is Zeus and his mother in a mortal named Alcmene. Zeus was
married at the time to Hera and she hated the fact that there was a child born out of wedlock. She hated this so much that she sent snakes to kill the infant Hercules, but the young boy killed the animals. Even though Hera tried to kill Hercules when he was a young boy, her plan failed. Hera was still very angry at Zeus for having Hercules and wanted to get even with him. Knowing she would lose in a fight, she thought that making Hercules’ life miserable would be a good punishment for Zeus.

After Hercules strangled the snakes sent by Hera, he grew up to become a strong warrior. He got married to Megara and they had two children together. Everything seemed to be going well for Hercules, but Hera’s anger never went away and she decided it was time to start making Hercules’ life as miserable as possible. Hera struck Hercules with a fit of madness. This incident was recorded by Euripides, a Greek tragic dramatist playwright. This playwright says that the madness made Hercules lose control; “his children looked at him; he was no longer himself; his eyes were rolling; he was distraught; his eyes were bloodshot, and foam was oozing down his bearded cheek”. Hercules had zero control of his actions and ends up killing Megara and his children. When I heard this for the first time in class I was confused because I thought Hercules was a good guy, not someone who would have killed his whole family. I understood that my only knowledge about him is from a children’s movie where they obviously left that part out. Nevertheless, this still shocked me because I never knew he killed people, especially his own family. Initially, this made me think that Hercules was a bad guy, and Disney just changed the story to make a good movie. Hercules went from being a hero in my eyes to a murderer.

After looking over the story for a second and third time I realized that I was just looking at the fact that he killed his family. I wasn’t looking at the fact that Hera sent him madness and he didn’t have any control over what he was doing. With that in mind, it makes it a little easier to understand, but it’s hard to not disapprove of him because he did still do it. It makes the question of whether he is a good or a bad guy a little bit more complicated. Even though he wasn’t in his right mind, someone has to take the blame and I think that it still lands on his shoulders.

When Hercules came to and realized what he had done, he was very distraught and wanted to somehow fix his mistakes. He asked the God Apollo how he could get rid of his sins. Apollo told Hercules that he had to preform 10 heroic labors (this increases to 12 later on) if he wanted to be free from his sins. Not going too in-depth with all 12, I will just give a brief description.

  1. The Nemean Lion- Kill the lion of nearby Nemea.
  2. The Lernean Hydra- Kill the hydra (water snake). It was difficult because every head cut off three more would grow.
  3. The Hind of Ceryneia- Catch a hind that was dedicated to the goddess Aretmit.
  4. The Erymanthean Boar- Catch a boar from the slopes of Erymanthus.
  5. The Augean Stables- Cleanse the stable of king Augias of Elis in one day.
  6. The Stymphalian Birds- Remove the many man-eating birds.
  7. The Cretan Bull- Fight against the Cretan Bull.
  8. The Horses of Diomedes- Catch four flesh-eating mares.
  9. Hippolyte’s Belt- Collect a belt from a queen for Eurypterus’s daughter.
  10. The Cattle of Geryon- Steal the cattle of Geryon.
  11. The Apples of the Hesperides- Obtain apples of the Hesperides.
  12. Cerberus- Catch a three-headed dog.

These are the 12 labors that Hercules had to do to have his mistakes forgotten and his soul be cleaned. Hercules obviously felt bad for what he had done and was trying to make it right. He did everything he was told to and completed 12 very difficult tasks. Now does this make up for killing his family? Does it make him a good guy in the grand scheme of things?

After reading these stories for the first time I wrote Hercules off as a bad guy because I don’t think you can make up for killing your wife and children. Also, my perception of Hercules was a little skewed because I knew very little and expected him to be good guy. Re-reading the stories, I have a different perception of Hercules. I think he is a good guy because even though he killed his family, Hera put the madness on him so he couldn’t control it. She also put the madness on him because of something his father did. Hercules didn’t do anything wrong. After he realized what happened, he knew that he was under the madness and that Hera didn’t like him because of his father.  Therefore, killing his family wasn’t his fault at all. But, he still felt so bad about something that he didn’t have any control over that he went out and did 12 very difficult tasks. That shows his true character and for him to do that proves that Hercules is a good guy.

Bibliography

Pictures