Today I want to talk about Hellenic heroes and what they meant. The Hellenic view of a hero differs much from the modern one. Simply because the Hellenic heroes were very different and very human. But most of them could be considered superheroes because they were part divine and that part makes it more interesting.
A Hellenic hero does not do deeds in the interests of the public. He does it for his own reasons. Sometimes those were very selfish.
Perseus killed Medusa not because he wanted to save the nearby towns where Medusa resided. He did it to save his mother and himself. He wanted to act out on his soon to be stepfather. His stepfather wanted to get rid of him.
Theseus killed the Minotaur and seduced Ariadne for it and dumped her afterwards on a island. He didn’t look back. When he and his friend Peirithous wanted to “free” Persephone from Aidoneos, he did it because he wanted to marry her. He was trapped by Aidoneos and stayed there until he was freed years later by Herakles.
Herakles, Son of Zeus, was there greatest of the Halfgods and loved the lifestyle so much because of the god part that he was feared by his enemies. He was cold and ruthless towards his enemies.
The God part of these demigods made them different. It made them superhuman in ways we can’t fathom because they were part God and part human. And the God part always was present. For example the tv version of Herakles in Hercules The legendary Journeys was very different from the actual Herakles. He wasn’t all good and wasn’t particularly interested in doing things for selfless reasons.
The modern version what a hero should be like is a flawed one. It’s based on the Judeo-Christian worldview where everything has to be black and/or white. There aren’t any shades of grey while you do find those shades of grey among demigods and heroes of polytheistic cultures.
the modern version is flawed because no one can be just good or just bad. The last 20 years saw the rise of what they call the antihero which is what a hero really was for ancient Greeks and Romans. The reason why people love them is because they represent a shade of grey in a otherwise boring world where the heroes are only good. Every hero even the half human ones are flawed and not perfect. Just as the rest of humanity. So saying that a hero has to be a perfect person is ridiculous if you ask me. In that sense the depiction of heroes in the comics and tv show The Boys does fit the narrative of how actual superheroes could be like if they really exist. The heroes in The Boys are superheroes by a drug. They weren’t born like that, but made. Demigods w re also made but in a more “natural” way.
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