In this paper I would like to analyze some hero characters in Greek mythology through the story

of Heracle (Hercules) and The Twelve Labors and I will compare to the other stories such as
Perseus and Medusa and Odysseus. From these three stories have the resemblance characteristic
about the concept of Hero in Greek Mythology. The questions which are needed to be answered
are that what is the concept of Hero characters depicted in Hercules, Perseus, and Odysseus?
What the characteristic of Hero character in these three stories? Why Hero is always identical to
almighty? Before we going further let me define what is hero. Webster's Ninth Collegiate
Dictionary defines "hero as: a) "a mythological or legendary figure often of divine descent
endowed with great strength or ability, b) an illustrious warrior, c) a man admired for his
achievements and noble qualities, d) one that shows great courage." In some myths, in fact, the
hero literally descends into the fabled Underworld in order to retrieve a lover, friend, or relative
(Leeming, 1990). Yet this hero, again, journeys not for himself but for others, even when going
into the darkest regions of Hades.

Mostly, in these three mythologies the hero has certain characteristics. First, hero is mortal, they
must experience the journey, and they have to suffer a lot during their lifetime. Along the
journey, the hero characters met various kinds of monster and they have to defeat them in order
to prove their power. After they have been completed the mission, they will be immortal as the
prize and given hero cult. The most interesting things that have to be underlined are the enemy of
Hero characters in Greek Myth is god and goddesses. Moreover, hero is capable to do inhuman
behavior such as become a murderer. The further analyzes will describe in the next paragraphs.
In the story Heracles (Hercules) and Twelve Labor, Heracles lived in Thebes and he known as
mortal man. In the beginning, the Heracles power showed when Hera sent two serpents to
destroy him as he lay in his cradle, but Heracles strangled them with his own hand. And the
adventure of Heracles began when Heracles' hometown of Thebes has had to pay a tribute every
year to Erginus, the King of the Minyans. When Heracles met some Minyans in the road, he
bravely cuts their ears, nose, and hand. These made the King mad at him and declare for war to
Heracles. Heracles didnt afraid and he succeeded defeat the king in war. And the king allowed
him to marry her daughter. In the first beginning before Heracles journey began, he showed his
power by defeat the King and the Kings armies. This indicates the concept of heroic character in

Greek Mythologies that to become hero must be have great strength and almighty at the first
beginning. Without these, Heracles maybe does not consider as Hero. Heracles considered as
hero because he has great strength that impossible for mortal human beings to have such a great
power, however he considered as hero not just simply because he succeeded defeat the King and
his armies. Heracles must test his great strength by doing journey before he is given the label the
real hero. Before he began his adventure, he has great enemy, Hera, the goddesses ruin his life.
Hera hates Heracles so much because hes the illegitimate son of her husband, Zeus. She Hera
decides to drive Heracles to insanity. This causes Heracles to behave in some seriously un-herolike ways. He kills his own children. You could argue that he kind of refuses his role of "hero" by
behaving in such a heinous way. This is one of the reasons that Heracles cannot just simply
consider as Hero even though he has great power, but he uses his power to murder his own wife
and child. In the other side this is also shows Heracles weakness that he could have power to
against the god. The position of Hera, the goddesses as the enemy is more superior to Heracles.
Therefore, compare to Hera, the great power that Heracless has is nothing so that he cannot just
simply consider as hero.
In order to redeem Heracles horrible behavior, Heracles goes to the Oracle of Delphi. The
Oracle tells him he can atone or make up for his horrible crimes by serving King Eurystheus of
Argos. Heracles offers to serve King Eurystheus of Argos in order to atone for the crimes he has
committed. King Eurystheus tells him he must successfully complete ten labors. Heracles agrees.
Then, the adventure of Heracles began. The adventure here is the metaphor of life journey. To be
the real hero, it is not enough just having great power, but also have to succeed to overcome the
problems in life. And the labors that will be defeated by Heracles are the metaphor of the
problems in life. But, the further analyses about the metaphor will discuss later. Now, the main
focus of the analyses is about the Heracles power testing toward ten labors. First labor, there was
this place called Nemea, which was being troubled by a giant lion that couldn't be pierced by
sword or spear. Eurystheus orders Heracles to go and kill this monster. Heracles goes to Nemea,
finds the lion, and strangles it to death. (Heracles does not need a sword when he killed lion).
The concept of lion is kind of wild animal that is dangerous and almost impossible to defeat
without any weapon such as sword. But, it doesnt work to Heracles, Heracles could easily kill
the lion prove that how mighty Heracles. Sword is a weapon to protect human from dangerous
thing. When humans need a sword means that they just ordinary human being, weak and need a

tool to protect themselves. Again, this concept is doesnt work to Heracles who has great power.
This is emphasizes that Heracles not just ordinary mortal creature.
The second labors, Eurystheus orders Heracles to go kill the Hydra. This monster was a huge
venomous snake with nine heads but the other version said that a hundred heads. The Hydra was
particularly hard to kill because when Heracles cut off one head, two more sprouted in its place.
The picture of monster Hydra shows the level of difficulties in each labor. In this mission,
Heracles cannot defeat Hydra by himself but he is helped by his servant Lalaus. In some part,
Heracles shows his mighty but in some part, even Heracles has a great power but he cannot stand
by his own in defeat dangerous monster like Hydra. It could be indicates that even Heracles is a
almighty hero, but he cannot forget that he is a mortal creature and human beings which is
cannot forget about his nature as human being he still need other no matter how powerful
Heracles is because he is not a god. Eurystheus orders Heracles to capture a giant boar and
bring it back alive. And Heracles is done his task easily. Now the wimpy king orders Heracles to
capture an incredibly fast deer with golden horns. There are some version how Heracles capture
faster deer with golden horns. Some say that Heracles snared the deer with nets, others say he
pounced on it while it was asleep, and still others say that he just ran behind it until it got too
tired to run anymore. No matter what the most important thing is Heracles succeeded in capture
the deer with golden horn.
The next, Heracles has done his task easily in defeating Augean Stables, oxen monsters with
three bodies. Then Heracles easily get rid of rid of a flock of man-eating birds at Stymphalian
Lake, defeat the Cretan bull at the island of Crete, until he got the ninth labors that he has to take
the belt of Hippolyte, the queen of Amazon. Hera thought that the ninth labors were too easy for
Heracles thats why Hera again made Heracles slew the queen. Even, the Heracles send to the
end of the world, he still succeed in completed his task. He also be able to keep the heaven in his
shoulder when he got a task to brought the golden apple and he also succeed came back alive
from Hades, the underworld. From the journey Heracles learn a lot about life. These monsters
represent extraordinary violence. If Heracles not killed them, it might be the monsters will kill
him. These monsters test Heracles' strength and intelligence. His ability to vanquish them says a
lot about his ability to be a god or to be worthy of the gods. These monsters not only test
Heracles' athletic ability, they also test his brains, his heart, his determination, and his desire to

achieve his dreams. This various kinds of monsters that has to be defeated by Heracles and how
the Heracles defeat them all using various ways, I could argues to draw conclusion that as I have
mentioned before, the monster is a symbol of problems that have to be solved in life and it has
different level. Somehow it is easy and somehow it is difficult. As a hero, Heracles life not just
simply being happy, but he has to suffer a lot during their lifetime to prove his great power and
he could do anything. His sacrifices during his lifetime constitute the price that has to be paid to
clean all of his sin when he murdered his child and wife. After completing these twelve labors,
Heracles is finally able to atone for the murder of his children. His guilty conscience is wiped
clean. Then, Heracles is made immortal after completing these twelve labors. Regardless of
when he was made immortal, one thing is certain: Heracles eventually becomes a real god as the
prize.
Compare to the other stories that have the same concept of hero like in Heracles is the story of
Odysseus. Odysseus proves that he has a power when he succeeded came back alive to Ithaka
after Trojan War ended. Like Heracles, Odysseus also has a god enemy that is Poseidon, the god
of the sea. The enemy symbolizes the superiority of the god that he is more powerful then
Odysseus. As we know most of Heros journey that has to be completed by Odysseus is across
the sea. And Poseidon is the god of the sea, of course he has more power to create such as storm
in order to test his capability as a heroes. As a heroes Odysseus has to feel sacrifice during his
lifetime and he could overcome the difficulties to prove that he is the real hero. The first monster
that has to be defeated is Cyclop. Odysseus and his men came to the land of the Cyclopses
giant one-eyed monsters. Odysseus and his men stumbled into a cave, which, unfortunately,
belonged to one of these man-eating creatures. Using his brain, Odysseus made the Cyclops
drunk on wine and stabbed it in the eye with a sharpened log. He said to the monster that his
name was nobody. Before he leaves the cave, Odysseus tell his real name and the Cyclops (the
son of Poseidon) prayed to his father to make Odysseus suffer. And suffer. And lose all his men.
And maybe die too. This is why Poseidon hates Odysseus so much. From this case shows that
even though Odysseus is clever but it cannot deny that he also has the weakness by telling the
Cyclops his true name. The journey to become a god cannot be separates from the mistake which
is made as human nature. And also, Oddyseus do not go to the land of Cylopses by himself, but
by his men. The case resembles with the Heracles stories, even though he is powerful but he uses

his strength to kill his children and wife. And Heracles also needs help when he wants to kill
Hydra.
The next, it clearly shows that Odysseus is powerful when he went to the Hades, underworld in
order to meet prophet Teiresias, and he succeed comeback alive. Hades is the place for the soul
of the dead human. No one of ordinary human being succeed comeback from Hades alive except
a hero. And both Odysseus and Heracles is succeed conquer Hades. Not only that, Hades is
depicted horrible place which is guarded by Pluto, the most wicked god and no one could defeat
him. But the characters of hero like Heracles and Odysseus succeed go to underworld and
comeback alive, imagine how mighty they are can survive. Hero characters could consider the
real hero after they complete the successful comeback from Hades alive means that hero must
struggle against the fear of death, in order to achieve the most perfect death. He also became the
only man to hear the Sirens' song and survive. When, they met two horrible monsters, also
female, named Skylla and Charybdis. Odysseus also survives from poisoned. After faces
sacrifice and difficulties, the hero character still become the winner and got the noble prize by
given immortality.
The cases in the story Perseus and Medusa also have some similarities. Persesus start his
adventure when he met with King Polydectes and the King orders Perseus to bring back the head
of Medusa. Perseus accepts the challenge even though it seems like an impossible task. Perseus
really commits to his adventure when he blackmails the Graeae into telling him how to find the
Nymphai. And He succeed defeat Medusa and the Gorgon. Perseus finds Medusa sleeping and
chops off her head. The other two Gorgons chase him, but Perseus escapes with the help of
Hades' helmet of invisibility. Perseus needs some tools in his journey such as the shield, the
winged shoes, and Hades helmet. As I mentioned before the tool that the hero uses is represent
the weakness of human nature even though the hero is considered powerful but still he must use
their brain in using some tools to help him. After he completed the mission of course he is given
immortality and considered the real hero. Medusa was a symbol of warning. It was emblazoned
on warriors' shields to intimidate the enemy.
In conclusion, the concept of hero in Greek Mythology is represented how human beings should
overcome the difficulties of life journey. Hero must be succeed in vanquish all of the monsters
that symbolize the problems of life and overcome the fear of the death. The strength in almost all

hero characters symbolizes the capability of human being in face the life. After completing the
journey and survive from the death, the real hero will receive prize such as immortality. Hero is
just not enough by having a power but must be testing his power through the difficulties that they
have to face during his lifetime journey. Even though here characters is depicted powerful but he
is still weak when he could not against the gods superiority as his enemy. And when the hero
became a winner, his name is unseasonal means that eternal. The concept of Hero character also
brought up the issue of gender role that man has to be powerful and become a hero in his life
journey. The way how Heracles, Odysseus and Perseus defeat their enemy shows the masculinity
concept in men. Men are adventurous; they have to show their power, they have to vanquish
extreme things, etc.