Mythological Heroes: Achilles And Hercules

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Mythological Heroes: Achilles and Hercules

The subject of mythology deals mainly with the notion of battle, or good versus evil. In this struggle many individuals are singled out for either the evil they cause, or from the good they bring to people. When you mention heroes in mythology, there are two distinct names that a majority of people bring up, those names are Achilles and Hercules.

Achilles was born to King Peleus and the sea-nymph Thetis. Soon after
Achilles was born his mother dipped him in the River Styx, she was told, by doing this, that the water would make every part of his body that it touched invincible. Little did she know that the one part of his heel which he was held by would not touch the water.

When Achilles mother found out about the war in Troy between the Greeks and the Trojans she did not want her son to fight because she knew that he would eventually be killed there. The way that she tried to prevent him from going into the army was to hide him among the women of the court so that he could not be persuaded by his close friend Odysseus to join the Greek forces.
While trying to find Achilles, Odysseus easily spotted him among the women, and persuaded him to join the Greek army.

After many years of battle with the Trojan forces, Achilles ended up in a famed duel with Trojan hero Hector, over the slaying of Achilles close friend
Patroclus. After killing Hector, Achilles tied his dead body behind a chariot and dragged around the walls of Troy seven times to show his hatred and anger towards the Trojans and their hero. Shortly after the famed battle, Achilles was killed when he was struck, with a poisonous arrow, in the one small spot on his heel which was vulnerable. The arrow was fired by the Trojan prince Paris and was guided by the sun god Apollo.

Hercules was the strongest and swiftest man ever to walk the earth. As the son of Zeus and mortal woman Alcmene, Hercules was destined to be a hero.
This destiny was shown before he was one year old. Enraged at his affair with a mortal woman, Zeus' wife Hera set out on a plot to kill Hercules.

One night after Alcmene put her children to bed, Hercules' twin brother
Iphicles was awoken by two huge serpents th...

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...ld when he saved himself and his brother from two deadly serpents.

Both of these warriors fought great battles and suffered tremendous hardships, neither of them were perfect, they both had their faults. In the case of Achilles, during the Trojan War, in the middle of battle his favourite slavegirl was taken away from him and instead of continuing to battle, he stayed in his tent and sulked until his close friend ,Patroclus, was killed. For
Hercules, his temper was his weak spot, it could be easily become deadly if he was told to do something that he did not want to do.

One thing that both men possess a great deal of is courage. Neither of these great heroes would back down to any challenge or battle that would come before them, no matter how hard the battle may be both of these great men would die trying.

Out of all the many stories told about mythology, the stories ofthese two great men will never be forgotten. Both of these men conquered hardships, and turmoil. They overcame all of these ailments to conquer their task and fulfil their goal, qualities which could regard them as two of the greatest heroes of all time.

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