Tales of the Greek Heroes

4 ideas

1. Heracles' Twelve Labours as Atonement

   Driven mad by Hera, Heracles killed his own children, and the Delphic oracle sent him to serve his lesser cousin Eurystheus of Tiryns and perform whatever labours were set. The tasks included killing the Nemean Lion, cleansing the Augean Stables by diverting rivers, and fetching Cerberus from the Underworld. Eurystheus disallowed two of the ten labours first set, because Heracles had help with one and took payment for the other, so the count rose to twelve and his penance grew longer.

2. Jason, Medea and the Golden Fleece

   Pelias sent Jason to fetch the Golden Fleece from Colchis, expecting him to die. Jason succeeded only because the Colchian princess Medea used sorcery against her own father. The quest credited to Jason and the Argonauts rested on the betrayal and magic of an outsider, and the later tragedy came from that debt.

3. Prophecy Fulfilled Through Attempts to Evade It

   In these myths an oracle's warning sets off the actions that make it come true. Acrisius locked away his daughter Danaë to stop the birth of the grandson fated to kill him. Perseus was born anyway, and he later killed Acrisius by accident with a discus throw at games. The effort to escape fate becomes the means by which it arrives.

4. Divine Favour Is Conditional and Partisan

   Athena and Hermes arm Perseus, while Hera persecutes Heracles from birth because he is Zeus's son by another woman. A hero's fortunes depend less on his virtue than on which god has taken him up or turned against him, and hubris toward a god brings punishment out of proportion to the offence.

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