Heracles 'Tragic Hero In Homer's Odyssey'

Hella’s greatest friend, though he was guiltless.” (1303-1310 Euripides) This drastic change in his beliefs and the grief of losing his family breaks Heracles’s inner strength. Heracles believes that the gods have abused their powers for debauched purposes, and hence are no longer his gods. This is critical because as a demi-god, Heracles is meant to have a closer bond to the gods; however, he chooses to distance himself from them. Heracles says, “but I do not believe the gods commit adultery, or bind each other in chains, I never did believe it, I never shall; nor the one god is tyrant of the rest.” (1341- 1346 Euripides) After the set of unfortunate events he experienced, Heracles starts regarding courage and strength in terms of enduring

life, similar to Theseus’s view. The development of inner strength is a pivotal point in Heracles’s character, as he comprehends the importance of this quality and transforms to a courageous person who is able to bear suffering. This allows him to depend on himself during a difficult time and hence no longer be reliant on the gods to help him. Thereby, aiding in transforming his view on the immortals. Prior to the insane fit, Heracles does not have any major character flaws that could be used to demonstrate his downfall. Hence, a divine antagonist induces this fit out of rage and another divine character stops this fit. Gods are described as the engineers of this horrible turn of events, “ Up, then, unmarred child of blackest Night, rouse up, harden that relentless heart, send madness on this man, confound his mind and make him kill his sons. Madden his feet; drive him, goad him, shake out the sails of death and speed his passage over Acheron, where he must take his crown of lovely sense. Let him learn what Hera’s anger is and what is mine. For the gods are nothing, and men prevail, if this one man escapes” (833-840 Euripides) This demonstrates that gods once again act impulsively when they feel threatened, exhibiting human like emotions. Euripides demonstrates the other gods playing a passive role in the occurrences, further exacerbating their negligence towards Heracles. The immortals also believe that they should always be invincible and that a mere mortal should not be the cause of their downfall. Heracles’s actions due to his madness are an example of a man’s vulnerability to the selfishness and cruelty of the gods. Similar to Theseus’s views of the immortals, the gods in this scene of the play are depicted to have human-like emotions of jealousy, hatred, and pride that drive them to commit crimes against a mortal without any remorse. Heracles is demonstrated to be a man with a brave spirit and someone who upholds justice, characteristics he believed the gods he worshiped held as well. However, as the gods fail to live up to their expectations, it further demonstrates Hercules’s changing opinion of the gods and supports his beliefs of gods being unjust and biased in their rule. Hence, the events outline and exhibit Theseus’s view of the immortals
The series of events that occur in Hercules’s life are due to the immortals being unfair towards him.

However, at the end of the day, Heracles’s opinions do not hold any significance as he may refuse to consider them his gods, but these gods with all their imperfections will still continue to exist according to Theseus. Theseus offers consolation to Heracles by telling him that these ‘earthly misfortunes’ could have occurred to anyone. Nonetheless, like Heracles, he too is equally dismissive of the Olympian gods. Theseus is quick to understand that these unfortunate events have occurred because of Hera, when he says,“ This is Hera’s war.” (1191 Euripides). However, unlike Heracles, Theseus also believes that the gods are only exhibiting what they feel and since they have several human-like emotions, they are expressing them at a heightened level due to being gods. He accepts the traditional gods similar to Amphitryon, with their imperfections and their misuse of powers to destroy humans. However, also like Amphitryon he believes that friendship and human solidarity can empower mortals who have brought down by the gods. Theseus, however, never expresses this empowerment in terms of gods being negligent like Heracles does. He believes that knowledge is won through suffering and that through these tribulations one will learn to endure the miseries of life. He tells Heracles, “ My advice is this: be patient, suffer what you must, and do not yield to grief. Fate exempts no man; all man are flawed, and so the gods, unless the poets lie.” (1312-1315 Euripides) As demonstrated here, Theseus believes that Heracles should not blame himself or his fate as even the gods go through these emotions. Unlike Heracles, Theseus was always aware of the shortcomings of his gods; hence it was not surprising to him when they were unfair to Heracles. These differences in their opinions were imperative in how they experienced the situation and pivotal in shaping their opinions of the

immortals.
To conclude, Heracles initially starts off as being a believer in the Olympian gods. However, as the series of events occur in his life, his belief from the traditional Greek gods shifts and his dependency on the mortals increases. He starts valuing their presence more and depends on them to be his guide and support. On the other hand, Theseus’s perception of gods was largely unchanged throughout the play. He believed that gods had human-like personalities and hence is prone to act the way they did. However, he is also a strong believer in solidarity and hence aids Heracles in his transformation of thought process. In summary, Theseus’ view of the immortals is prevalent throughout the play as the series of events that occur are due to the gods acting upon their emotions, like humans.