Heracles Hero Characteristics

Throughout the beginning of Heracles’ life he possessed many heroic traits. Heracles was born to a mistress of Zeus. Since Heracles was the son of Zeus and a mistress, he was immediately hated by Hera, Zeus’s immortal wife. During his early years Heracles was constantly coming close to death because of Hera. Throughout these hard years Heracles started to posses and show heroic qualities such as courage, devotion, and patience.
The first heroic quality displayed by Heracles in his young life was courage. Heracles had a difficult time growing up not just due to his stepmom, but also his society. On page one, paragraph three, the myth says “In that female-dominated society, the youth who aspired to become the sacred king and the companion of the reigning priestess of the Great Goddess had to compete against a number of other contenders for this, the greatest honor a man could achieve.” This proves that Heracles had a difficult life because he grew up in a matracial society. A matracial society is a society where a great goddess rules and is female dominated. Therefore, since Hera was a goddess, she had more control in the society. And, since Hera hated Heracles, …show more content…
Heracles begins to possess the trait, courage, when Hera sent snakes to kill Heracles. On page two paragraph two the myth says “Wishing to kill him, she sent two huge snakes into his nursery. As the snakes approached his bed, Heracles gleefully extended his arms, grabbed a snake in each hand, and strangled both serpents.” This proves he has a strong devotion to become immortal by him not screaming, but killing the snakes himself. Heracles was devoted to becoming an immortal, so he was not going to let anything keep him from being immortal. Therefore, when Hera sent to snakes into his room to kill him he gleefully strangled them. In conclusion, Heracles shows that he is devoted to becoming immortal by killing two