Every mythic hero or heroine’s journey can be traced through the outline of seventeen steps devised by Joseph Campbell. George Lucas’s Star Wars saga contains a unique blend of traditional elements of science fiction and the archetypal structure of a myth. The main protagonist of episodes IV-VI is Luke Skywalker, a boy from Tatooine who goes on an interplanetary journey and learns how to use the Force. Like any other mythic hero or heroine, Luke’s journey can be traced through the seventeen outlined steps.…
King Eurystheus gave Hercules a series of 12 difficult and dangerous tasks known as the Twelve Labors of Hercules. These tasks which were his most famous feats. Hercules first task was to kill the Nemean Lion, a beast that could not be killed by any weapon. Hercules strangled the beast and made a cloak out of its skin.…
Since the beginning of recorded history, man has been telling grand adventure stories; exciting tales of heroes defeating enemies, seeking treasure, and experiencing perilous tribulations. “The Odyssey”, by the Greek poet Homer, is one of the most famous epics to date. It follows the adventures of the Greek king, Odysseus, as he travels through the Mediterranean, trying to return home. The protagonist of an epic is called the “epic hero”, and he must exhibit certain characteristics to fulfill this title: he must represent the values of his culture, be either aided or hindered by the gods, and demonstrate one or more character flaws. Because he meets all three criteria, Odysseus can be considered the definitive epic hero.…
In “The Odyssey”, Odysseus’s hubris is an advantage because it tricks individuals into viewing the almighty epic hero as more of an iconic and courageous figure. When Odysseus and his crew, cleverly fight off and get past the horrendous cyclops Polyphemus, Odysseus bravely taunts the beast to make sure he knows never to attack him or his crew again. In fury, Polyphemus pounds out to Odysseus’s boat, forcing Odysseus to get the “longest boat hook out” and begin “fending off” his crew (95-96). This act of fearlessness shows Odysseus’s crew that he’s willing to protect them for the future, even if that means sacrificing his own safety. Any other person would’ve taken that get out of jail free card, and quickly got off the island, waiting like bait for Polyphemus to strike again.…
All three of these feats showed exceptional skill, courage, and strength. To summarize, even though Hercules cut a few corners and was sometimes malicious toward others, most of his feats were stupendous, which characterized him as a hero in Greek…
Odysseus has been a very known character throughout Greek mythology. He has always been a great hero that is admired by all of the people around him. And, like any hero, he had many qualities and flaws. All of this and more makes Odysseus an archetype of an epic hero.…
Being a hero is not shown by who they are but what they do. Hercules and Heraclês showed he was a hero. He also showed that he had to progress to become the hero he wanted to be. Along the way of becoming a hero, he met people that he may have loved. There are many similarities and differences between the cultural values of love, progression, and being a hero in the movie Hercules and the myth, “Heraclês.”…
Here is a mural glorifying the trials and ultimate glory of Former President Barack Obama, who is illustrated as Rome’s Hercules. The three scenes depict Obama during his presidency, during the campaign of current President Donald Trump, and his status post-election. The first scene demonstrates Obama holding a boulder, which symbolizes his metaphorical strength as he carries the burden of the United States on his shoulders in a Herculean fashion; Hercules too had “the weight of the world on his shoulders,” often doing the seemingly impossible for his people. The second scene illustrates Trump placing the poisonous cloak that inevitably leads Hercules to his death. In terms of the mural, the cloak represents the slander and defamation of Obama that Trump perpetuated throughout his campaign in efforts to turn the American people against the former president.…
A true hero is somebody with courage or ability, he or she is admired for his or her brave deeds and noble qualities. As a reader, if you are reading the Odyssey then you will read about a character Odysseus. Reading the Odyssey you have to know what type of person Odysseus is. The reader has to determine whether Odysseus is a hero or a bad person. Odysseus is a hero because he disguised himself as a beggar to see how the suitors were treating his land and his wife, Penelope and he came home, traveling through horrible conditions, to be with his family once again, and to meet his son him and Penelope had before he went to the Trojan War.…
First Odysseus demonstrates his memorable Heroism when he is faced with the task of taking down the Cyclops. Face up to by this gigantic danger, Odysseus is steady in his battle with Polyphemus. Odysseus could have…
Every sentient being has someone that they look up to at some point in their life, whether it be a mother, father, sibling, or maybe even a friend or celebrity. This person can be considered a hero, but not in the same context as Odysseus from Homer’s Odyssey. In this epic poem, Odysseus travels home from his victory in the Trojan War. His journey will take almost a decade, and the dangers he encounters will be great. Even when he reaches home his journey continues.…
The whole reason why it takes Odysseus so long to reach home is that Odysseus needs an epic challenge to prove that he is an epic hero. The crew being disloyal on the island of Helios shows Odysseus as the epic hero. On the island of Helios, Odysseus warns his crew and tells them not to eat Apollo’s cattle. “They quickly swore the oath that I required.” (12.328).…
I viewed a piece of art by the name of Ercole y Cacco or, Hercules and Cacus, sculpted by Gino Ruggeri. This was not the original, which stands 5.05 meters high in the Piazza della Signoria in Florence, Italy and was sculpted by Baccio Bandinelli from white marble. I viewed a sculpture of the statue, which stands a mere 19 inches high and is made from alabaster and has a polished finish. This sculpture is a full round work, even with its lack of height. Gino Ruggeri, used a subtractive method to carve the work out from a slab of alabaster, “a compact fine-textured usually white and translucent gypsum often carved into vases and ornaments” (Merriam-Webster).…
Hercules strangled the snakes before they could do anything to him. It’s at that point that people realized that Hercules was no ordinary child. Hercules grew up to because a…
The tale of a hero is one of the most classic of stories, told in various forms throughout the ages. Every hero, classical and modern, has different strengths, weaknesses, and challenges that they demonstrate and face along the way, exhibiting traits that prove them a hero. While there is no doubt that the central figures of the Greek myths of Perseus, Hercules, and Atalanta are all heroes, Hercules, strong both in will and physically, stands as the best example of a classic hero. Heroes are not made without challenges, some of which they face early on in their journey. Hercules and Atalanta meet their first struggle as children, with the goddess Hera sending the former “two great snakes [that] came crawling into the nursery” (Hamilton 228), which Hercules promptly kills, and the latter being “left on a wild mountainside to die of cold and hunger” (Hamilton 246) by her father.…