Hercules Hero's Journey

Mythology by Edith Hamilton, is a collection of stories from greek myths that are told and passed down from generation to generation in order to give life a meaning. Humankind learns from each of these stories a lesson to apply in their own lives. Although most of them have lessons, there are a few that are honored. These stories that are honored follow the concept of a hero’s journey, a cycle which Joseph Campbell created. He believed that a true hero follows it. Hercules, the strongest man on earth, fits into it perfectly. Battling with his arrogance, to feeling remorseful for his actions, to never finding tranquility in his heart, until finally, Hercules comes to the conclusion that he is in the wrong, and changes it to receive his reward. These are the characteristics and the cycle of a true epic hero, that Hercules manifests.

Many protagonists struggle with a negative

quality that they embody. Hercules’ flaw is that he is arrogant. “Throughout his life Hercules had this perfect confidence that no matter who was against him he could never be defeated; and facts bore him out”(Hamilton 226).
Hercules believed he was equal to the gods because he could not be defeated on earth. The adventures Hercules experience fed his arrogant tendencies. Hercules feared the people having a negative perception of him. Recognition from the people, fuels the flames of Hercules’ haughtiness. Blinded with arrogance and strength, Hercules perceives himself as a powerful individual, and rightly so, however, the aspects of his favorable human qualities are possessed by his arrogance. The one and only obstacle that Hercules had to face was himself

Hitting rock bottom is the worst feeling to have.

In Hercules’ adventure, it was when he murdered his family that Hercules hit rock bottom. Feeling bad for his actions, he was assigned the twelve labors. After the labors are completed, the reader assumes that he will finally feel tranquility in his heart. That is wrongly assumed. “When all were completed and full expiation made for the death of his wife and children, he would seem to have earned ease and tranquility for the rest of his wife...but it was not so.” (Hamilton 236). After all of these heroic deeds and nothing? Not a single ounce of serenity? Following the cycle, Hercules had a resurrection. “He ordered those around him to build a great pyre on Mount Oeta and carry him to it...he could die and he was glad…This is rest, this is the end.”(Hamilton 244) Ironically, the resurrection of Hercules was his death. After all of the suffering on Earth, there was no ease in his soul. He only had one option to feel that again. To kill himself. That is the very moment when Hercules overcomes his Hubris, and is reborn as a new and improved

hero.

Afterward Hercules came to the realization that he was scornful and humbled himself. Once that occurred, “He was taken to heaven, where he was reconciled to Hera, and married her daughter Hebe.” (Hamilton 244) The reward and or restitution for overcoming his Hubris was that he was welcomed into Olympus and married Hebe. It took a lifetime of adventure and experience for Hercules to learn his lesson that he is not equal or as powerful as the gods. From this story, humanity can learn the universal lesson of confronting to that of which haunts the soul in order to achieve peace in the heart.

Fighting with his overbearance, to feeling regretful for his actions, to never finding ease in his heart, until finally, Hercules comes to the realization that he is in the wrong, and changes it. To learn how to recognize the problem within, reflect on those problem, and change, is what the lesson is to learn from Hercules’ story. The reward afterwards is to achieve harmony in the heart.