Heracles Essay

Hieu Pham

Clas160

Final Draft

11/26/14

Essay #3

Heracles

In the Ancient Greek world heroes are defined by their epic exploits and the glory and fame that follows after, while villains are often remembered as tyrants and individuals who often scheme heinous plots to sabotage a hero.  Heroes and villains often change or are changed by an individual’s perspective and who they are. Someone as heroic as the courageous Heracles could be the hero you look up to and admire or he could be the villain who we fear. In Euripides’ play, “Heracles” Heracles is seen as a gallant hero finishing his 12 labors but Euripides introduces the idea “is he really a true hero”, Heracles is a hero because he carries all the ancient Greek hero motifs.

Heracles has all the features of a hero, from his extraordinary birth to his conquering of beasts and monsters. In the play Lycus questions if beasts and monsters can be compared to fighting amongst men and battles against true warriors.  Heracles has slain ferocious beast such as the Nemean Lion and the Lernean Hydra but has never been involved in a war amongst men where he has had to battle against other warriors. Although many other great Ancient Greek heroes are commonly associated in wars, this does not make Heracles less of a hero. Other heroes substitute an impossible task or conquering of beast for war as a way for them to achieve their honor and legacy but Heracles is different.  Ancient Greek heroes are known for conquering beasts and Heracles as killed many.

        Another motif Heracles’s legend contains is the loss of a friend or someone precious to him.  In the play Heracles becomes a victim to madness caused by Iris and Hera’s spite. After being the savior of his family and killing the tyrant, Lycus, he is lost in madness and kills his beloved children and wife. In the play we learn that he believes his children are actually the children of Eurystheus. Many believe because he killed his children believing they were Eurystheus’s children that Heracles’s becomes the villain.  I do not see Heracles’s as a villain because it because of the god’s intervention that he killed these children. Heracles is known for his endless courage and heroic adventures not his pursuit of revenge against Eurystheus. Heracles only wanted save his family from Lycus’s evil and it was unstoppable forces that caused him to do evil. In my perspective Hera and Iris become the villains for forcing Heracles to kill his own family and almost killing his father.