(1) CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY – HERO: HERACLES

 

“Long ago, in the far away land of ancient Greece, there was a golden age of powerful gods and extraordinary heroes. And the greatest and strongest of all these heroes was the mighty Hercules.”

Classical mythology’s greatest and most famous hero, known as Hercules in Latin – hence the name in my feature quote from and title of the Disney film.

“Son of Zeus and mortal Queen Alcmene…His name means glory of Hera (explanations for this name are varied), but she hated him and tried her best to kill him since his infancy.”

Hera’s attempt to kill him involved her sending two giant serpents but the infant Heracles just strangled both of them, one in each hand. Speaking of him as infant, he was originally born with the name Alcaeus or Alcides but subsequently assumed his more famous name.

Heracles was “a divine hero in Greek mythology…the greatest of the Greek heroes, the ancestor of royal clans who claimed to be Heracleidae and a champion of the Olympian order against chthonic monsters. In Rome and the modern West, he is known as Hercules, with whom the later Roman emperors, in particular Commodus and Maximian, often identified themselves. Details of his cult were adapted to Rome as well.”

His most famous feats were the Twelve Labors usually named for him (as the Twelve Labors of Heracles), although the term labors made them sound like chores rather than the impossible tasks they were unless you were superhuman.

However, as distinctive as his Twelve Labours were, they are but part of his feats of heroism – which amusingly, he often did as side quests while engaged in other feats of heroism. His feats of heroism were made even more impressive because he couldn’t and didn’t just use his superhuman strength to punch his way out of them but like Odysseus thought his way out of tricky situations almost as much as he fought his way out.

A divine hero and demi-god during his life, after his death he had an apotheosis to become fully a god, ascending to Olympus as god of strength and heroism while marrying the goddess of youth Hebe.

“The core of the story of Heracles has been identified by Walter Burkert as originating in Neolithic hunter culture and traditions of shamanistic crossings into the netherworld. It is possible that the myths surrounding Heracles were based on the life of a real person or several people whose accomplishments became exaggerated with time.”

 

SUPERMAN-BATMAN SCALE

The archetypal divine superman, although he could use his wits like Batman as well.

 

PUNCHING OUT CTHULHU RANKING

And how! He was the best at what he did and what he did was punching out eldritch abominations. He literally punched out Death.

 

PARTY ROCK RANKING

Heracles could get down and party like the divine superhuman hero he was – although arguably it cost him his mortal life (through the dying centaur Nessus manipulating his wife) but then he just rose up to Olympus and partied on as a full god.

 

RATING: 5 STARS*****

S-TIER (GOD TIER)