Heroes

What is a hero?

Cleomedes of Astypalaia, 492 BC (Pausanias 6.9.6ff)
lost his prize (in boxing) at Olympia for killing his opponent
he went out of his mind through grief and returned to Astypalaia; attacked a school of 60 children, knocked over the column and the roof fell in & killed them. Stoned by the townsfolk, he took refuge in the temple of Athena, leaped into a chest there & pulled down the list. The townsfolk couldn't open the lid; eventually broke through the planks, but he wasn't in the box. so they sent to Delphi, and the oracle said "He is the last of the heroes: honour him with sacrifices, since he is no longer mortal."
A hero isn't necessarily someone who is BETTER than the rest of us; frequently in fact they aren't; but they are always MORE than the rest of us - specifically, they suffer more and greater things.
They are usually stronger, faster, bigger, win fights, and attempt (and succeed) at things that the common run of humanity could not possibly do
the "Heroic Pattern" and the "Heroine's Pattern" - both surround passages (birth, marriage, death; or just marriage) - been suggested that the storiees are therefore associated with RITES of passage
were the heroes real people? Or local gods? Both have been suggested - Dionysus for example fits the heroic pattern very well - or perhaps the 'hero pattern' fits the stories that accreted to them, or those that were remembered, rather than all the ones that were told

there is an oracle about his birth
at manhood he fall under an enemy's power & must perform an impossible labour (or labours)
often must go on a distant quest
his ultimate quest is often to the Land of the Dead or against an enemy with strong ties with death
he will succeed usually with divine help
or human: they often have buddies, whose significance is that they suffer the things the hero doesn't (i.e. death - Pirithous)
he gets to marry the princess and become king
he may end as a god

a warrior; someone who fought in the Trojan war, someone who was of that generation of Bronze-Age guys, who could 'lightly lift with one hand a boulder that 2 men and a wagon could not shift now', and throw it the length of a football field.
more specifically: someone who is WORSHIPPED as a hero.
"hero-cults" a specifically Greek thing - worshipping a mortal who became a local minor deity, to be invoked in times of particular crisis
for this reason they tended to have more than one 'burial spot' - because more than one town wanted to claim them

specifically they tended to be powerful people who died angry, and you would pray to direct their anger on your enemies.

Aethra (daughter of king of Troezen) and Aegeus, or Poseidon
Aegeus left sword & sandals under a rock as tokens - when he's old enough to shift the rock, come to Athens
Labours on the way to Athens - modelled on Heracles - while Theseus is an old hero, he underwent a lot of remodelling as Athens became an imperial power

Sinis - pine trees bent together and released
Cremmyonian sow was very savage
Sciron - would make passersby wash his feet, and then kick them into the sea where a giant turtle finished them off
Cercyon lived near Eleusis and made passers-by wrestle with them until he killed them
Procoptes - Procrustes - made passersby lie in his bed and then cut or stretched them to fit it

Medea tried to get his father to poison him, but was recognized at the last second
caught the "Marathon bull" and sacrificed it
went to the Labyrinth - your reading p. 171 ff.
Theseus pacifies the local countryside and makdes it all "Athenian"
Theseus and Pirithous
Theseus and Pirithous against the Centaurs
Theseus and Pirithous against Helen and Persephone
Theseus driven out of town, dies on Scyros where the king throws him off the cliff (so why the bones?)

mother Danae daughter of Acrisius; father is Proetus? (her uncle) or Zeus
underground chamber
tossed into a chest when he's born; raised by Dictys, brother of Polydectes
who sends Perseus on the quest for the Gorgon's head
he wins the help of Hermes and Athena (his siblings after all!)
he gets the location of the nymphs who give him the cap of invisibility, the winged sandals, and the wallet for the Gorgon's head from the Graiai bytaking away their eye and tooth
on the way home from killing Medusa he sees Andromeda, kills the sea monster, overcomes her other suitors, goes home to Seriphos, wipes out his MOTHER's suitors, goes to Argos, accidentally kills his maternal grandfather, and rules Tiryns after that (happily ever after)

Ovid - he deserved it since he had murdered his nephew the same way his son died
modern idea of a hero - someone who dies "over there", doesn't affect most of the rest of us

was worshipped as a god at least in the 7th century, maybe before (interpolation in Homer)?
mother Alcmene; father King Amphitryo or Zeus; Hera tries to kill him at birth, by sending snakes
he defeats the enemies of Thebes,impregnates all the daughters of the king in short order
He performs the labours either before he murders Megara and his children or as payment for them
three groups of activities: the "TWELVE LABOURS", the "INCIDENTAL ACTIVITIES", and the "EXPEDITIONS" - we will only touch on the labours

the 50 daughters of Thebes is just a 'strong man' story
numerous kings and townships claimed to be descended from Heracles and yet another local princess/ serving woman/ whatever - these are likewise 'strong man' stories but also allow the town to claim a heroic ancestry
he overcomes the Amazons and takes the belt of Hippolyte in a pitched battle
murders his first wife Megara in a fit of madness, along with the children
his second wife kills him (by accident?) when he falls in love with yet another woman but makes the mistake of sending her home

the play seems to be about what happens to an ordinary human who tangles with a god - Deianeira is collateral damage
but it also illustrates his uncontrollable appetites and how they eventually destroy him - a hero is hard to integrate into an orderly society
he was worshipped on Mt. Oeta, where the play puts the funeral pyre; he was also worshipped elsewhere

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Last Updated: 12/2/974:24 PM