Euripides’s Heracles – Villain or a Hero?
Heracles is an ancient Greek tragedy and is the work of the Greek playwright Euripides. This tragedy explains the rage of the divinely persuaded insanity of the Greek hero Heracles that prompted him to slay his own wife and offspring. This work was authored around the 416 BCE or even earlier. Besides, this work of Euripides is one of the two extant plays written by him in relation to the family of Heracles. The first work was Heraclidae.
Heroes are always adored and the hero myth that was idealized by many famous authors like Joseph Campbell, among others, is evident in some form or the other in almost every culture known on the face of the earth. According to history and historians, heroes are the individuals representing the highest virtue that is held dear by the human kind, and one who fights for the safety and security of the human race as well as the virtues against undefeatable odds. One individual who truly fits this explanation of a hero is none other than the classic Greek hero Heracles. He is incredibly strong, invincible, audacious, conqueror of monsters, protector of the innocent, hilarious, an extremely simple and down-to-earth, ingenious yet has a little arrogance. He is the ostentatious and magnificent prospect that the human kind can desire to be, and, the way he was doomed in a macho style from the very beginning is no secret.
Such type of heroic deeds were intended to provoke a sense of marvel or spectacle and are extremely difficult for the contemporary mind to figure out, particularly in a time when even such words have lost much of their reminiscent influence. In general, to be portrayed as a tragic hero, a character in a story must display heroic characteristics throughout the story or at least in a few instances and Heracles can be accorded with the fame of being a great hero.
Heracles seems to lead the entire story with more mellowness. His people respect him due to the respect he displays towards them. Heracles is a man of true action and he leads by doing such heroic and courageous deeds. His people are motivated to fight because they see their leader – Heracles doing the same. He has a better personality than Apollo, as there were instances when Apollo was very childish in the sense that he substantiates to fight against Heracles. Apollo seems to be respected and venerated only because of the fear that he implants in the hearts of the people.
The journeys that are taken by us as human beings take during the course of our lives are all a matter of individual choices. As we put on age, our day-to-day decisions contour the overall result of our shared destinies.
Heracles, in this work has been represented as an individual who is full of confidence about his own glory right from the start of the play but however had been gradually brought to the realization of the horrible guiltiness in which he had lack of knowledge about being involved himself.
Heracles is an affectionate and kindhearted family man who fights for his people. This quality of him makes him more of a hero when compared to Apollo. Apart from just being an excellent warrior who fights well and heroically and also being the lone warrior, he is also much kinder.
Assembling our personal outlooks, our viewpoints, and our general knowledge of what is correct and incorrect gives us the capability to shape the decisions which may in turn shape our destinies and the fortunes of the people living around us. This is an option that we take as one that is granted, but an option that Heracles was not at all permitted to choose for his own sake.
According to the ancient mythology of the Greeks, heroes were considered as humans, both male and female, having hailed from the isolated past, bestowed with mystic powers. Such humans, the Greek mythology believes, to have been descended on to earth from the eternal gods. Myths often make use of awe-inspiring and sublime happenings or characters for elucidating the nature of civilization and the creation. The stories, more or less, are accounts that are related to divine or normal people who have descended through the generations with the basic premise of inspiring and advising the reader.
Works Cited
Mastin, Luke. Ancient Greece - Heracles - Euripides. 2009. 21 November 2014. <http://www.ancient-literature.com/greece_euripides_heracles.html>.
Reynolds, M.D. Richard. Super Heroes: A Modern Mythology. London: B.T. Batsford Ltd., 1992.
Witnessing101. Modern Mythology: What Superheroes Can Show Us About Humanity. 2012. 22 November 2014. <http://witnessing101.hubpages.com/hub/Modern-Mythology-What-Comic-Books-Can-Tell-Us-About-Humanity>.
