Heroic Pattern: Relation to Real Life

-stages a hero goes through can be understood as exaggerated symbols of real life events

-hero wins a royal throne = real life individual becoming the head of his own household

Heroic Pattern: Birth

-noteworthy in some fashion, showing his distinct nature

-sometimes conception or birth is miraculous in some fashion (ex. various forms Zeus took to reach his desired partner)

-may have divine parentage; not required

-typically born to a royal family but is ousted from the position at an early stage

Heroic Pattern: Childhood

-faces challenges from birth

-often abandoned and then rescued; foundling narrative pattern (ex. Oedipus)

-raised away from native land

-receives special upbringing/education (ex. centaur Chiron raises the heroes Jason and Achilles)

Heroic Pattern: Journey

-returns to native land upon adulthood

-finds his position has been taken by another/ someone blocks his return to his kingdom

-hero must fulfil some exceptional task/tasks to prove his worth (slaying monsters and overcoming villians)

-typically will have the help of a god(s) (often Athena)

-heroes deeds act as a means to acquire fame and reputation

Defeat of Monsters

= defeat of the feminine principle (many monsters in Greek mth are feminine)

-reflects the idea that the child must move from the world of the mother to the world of the father through the process of maturation

Culture Hero

-by performing his exploits the hero often makes previously uninhabitable areas of the world safe for humankind

-this extends human culture beyond its current boundaries

Heroic Pattern: Return

-returns and reclaims his throne

-obtains wife in the process

-he has become an adult, represented by him becoming the head of his own family and household

Heroic Pattern: Death

-very few deified upon death

-generally heroes are mortal like any other mortal

-sometimes die in a less than glorious way as if to emphasize their humanity

Perseus: Backstory and Conception

-Acrisius usurps throne of Argos from his brother

-has daughter Danae, but no male heirs

-oracle tells him that Danae will give him a male descendant, but that the heir will kill him

-Acrisius locks Danae in an underground chamber

-Zeus comes to her as a shower of gold and Perseus is conceived

Perseus: Birth and Exile

-Acrisius discovers child

-has Perseus and Danae shut up in a box and cast out to sea to die

Box represents...

-womb and coffin

-exile of hero is presented as a kind of death and rebirth

Perseus: Journey at Sea and Saviour

-Zeus protects the box

-washed up on island of Seriphos

-fisherman, Dictys, takes them in and raises Perseus

Perseus: Journey, Conflict

-Dictys' brother Polydectes, king of the island, comes to desire Danae

-at a dinner, Perseus rashly promises to give the head of a Gorgon to the king as a gift

-Polydectes takes him up on this offer in order to get him out of the way so he could make his advances on Danae

w/ are the magical items Perseus acquires to help him w/ his task?

-helmet of Hades (gives invisibility)

-winged sandals (give flight)

-special weapon

Perseus: Journey, Adventure 

-Perseus is aided by Athena and Hermes in his quest, they advise him how to acquire various magical items to help him w/ the task

-there were 3 Gorgon sisters, Medusa was the only mortal, their gaze would turn an individual to stone

-w/ Athena using a bronze shield to cast a reflection of Medusa, Perseus decapitates her and puts the head in a bag

-the other sisters pursue him, but the helmet of Hades and the winged sandals allow him to escape

Perseus: Return, Marriage

-on the way home to Seriphos, Perseus sees Andromeda about to be sacrificed for a mistake by her mother

-he falls in love

-gets her father to agree to the marriage he he can save her

-he kills the monster to whom she was to be sacrificed

Perseus: Return, on Seriphos

-when the two arrive on Seriphos, Polydectes has attempted to rape Danae

-Danae and Dictys have taken refuge at an alter

-Perseus uses Medusa's head to defeat the king and his men

-gives back all of the magic items and gives the Gorgon's head to Athena who sets it in her shield

-Perseus gives rule of the island to his adoptive father, Dictys

Perseus: Return, at Argos

-goes w/ Andromeda to Argos

-accidentally kills Acrisius

-in remorse he does not take the throne of Argos, but trades w/ his cousin for the kingship of Tiryns

Perseus: Death

-dies after long and happy life w/ his family

-he and Andromeda were turned into constellations upon death

Why is the myth of Perseus understood to be a kind of folktale?

-happily ever after plot

-emphasis on magical items

Perseus' Relation to the Feminine

-uncommon balance in regard to the hero's relationship to women

-defeats feminine principle in the form of Medusa (sign of his movement from the world of women to men)

-shows a positive side in this regard as well, in that he saves his wife Andromeda and is protector to his mother Danae (reconnects in a peaceful and productive fashion w/ women)

Unlike most heroes, in addition to being worshipped as a hero....

he was also understood as a god

Heracles is able to perform great of feats of heroism due to his abilities, these same abilities....

often lead to harm for himself and those around him

How is Heracles a perfect example of a culture hero?

defeat of various monsters around the world was understood as a process that allowed the spread of human civilization into previous unhabitable areas

Heracles: Conception

-Alcmene was a descendant of Perseus

-married to Amphitryon

-Zeus desired her, and sleeps w/ her in the disguise of her husband over a period of 3 days

-at the same time Amphitryon also sleeps w/ her thereby conceives Heracles fully mortal brother Iphicles

Zeus' plan for Heracles, how it was thwarted

-Zeus planned for Heracles to rule Mycenae and Tiryns

-boasted near time Alcmene was to due to give birth, that his next descendant would rule

-Hera, angry at Zeus for his unfaithful ways, made him promise to abide by this boast

-in this way Eurystheus ruled instead of Heracles 

Heracles: Birth

-when Heracles and Iphicles are born, it is unclear at first which is Zeus' child

-Hera sends twin snakes to kill the children

-Heracles strangles the snakes as a baby (is first famous exploit)

Heracles' name was understood by the Greeks to mean 'glory of Hera'. Why?

-Heracles labours caused by his step-mother give glory to the goddess in addition to himself 

-Heracles' famous exploits and sufferings are a reflection of the importance of marriage, since they result from the god of marriage's anger at the sanctity of marriage not being respected

Youth: Training

-trained by various experts in military and peacetime arts

-spent time w/ Chiron

-takes more readily to military arts (killed his music teacher in frustration over his training)

Youth: Sexual Prowess

-one time he was hunting a dangerous lion, which took 50 days

-he stayed w/ the king of the land who had his 50 daughters sleep w/ Heracles, one each night

-all of the girls produced children

Youth:1st marriage

-marries Megara, has children by her

-Hera sends divine madness to Heracles and he kills her and the children

double determination: madness is sent by a god, the destructive act can be understood as also being part of the character's personality

Youth: Atonement

Nemean Lion

-lion has impervious skin and razor sharp claws

-terrorizing Nemea

-unable to pierce skin w/ arrow, so he strangles the lion

-he skins the lion using its own claws and takes the pelt as a trophy which he wears as a protective garment

Lernaean Hydra

-assisted by Iolaus

-must defeat a water snake monster of many heads and poisonous blood that regrows when Heracles cuts one off

-they solve the problem by having Iolaus cauterize the neck stumps once the head has been cut off

-Heracles cuts off the one immortal head, buries it in the eart, tears of the body and dips his arrows in the venom/blood of the hydra to make them poisonous

Significance: hydra is female monster, fits w/ it being a snake, as well as its uncontrolled regeneration, thus it represent's Heracles conflict w/ the feminine principle

The Augean Stables

-Augeas has many herds of animals, but never cleaned out the stables

-Heracles' task was to clean up all of the dung

-Heracles does this by diverting a river and washing it away

-later kills Augeas

The Girdle of Hippolyta

-Hippolyta was an amazonian queen

-Heracles commanded to fetch her girdle (in essence means to possess her sexually)

-since the Amazons represented a distortion/reversal of what the Greeks through proper for women, for Heracles to take Hippolyta's girdle is to est. Greek gender norms on them

-Hippolyta falls in love w/ Heracles and is willing to give the girdle w/ out any conflict

-Hera stirs up conflict btwn Heracles and the Amazons; thinking he is betrayed he kills Hippolyta

Capture of Cerberus

-Heracles must descend to the underworld and capture the fearsome multiheaded guard dog of hell

-while in the underworld, Heracles secures freedom for Theseus, who was prisoned there for trying to seize Persephone

-he gets Hades' permission to take Cerberus, so long as he can do so w/ out the aid of weapons

-Heracles overpowers the beast w/ his bare hands

-Heracles takes Cerberus to Eurystheus, who cowardly hides in a vase at the sight of the creature

-having fulfilled his task, he returns the dog to Hades 

The descent to the underworld is an important task for the hero, as it represents two important ideas:

(1) hero symbolically overcomes death, this reflects the "undying fame" of the hero

(2) hero dies and is reborn, rebirth, reflects maturation/coming of age process which Greeks saw as a kind of rebirth

Heracles: Death

-after labours Heracles marries Deianeira

-once when crossing a river, she was sexually assaulted by a centaur, Heracles killed him w/ his poisoned arrows

-the dying creature convinces Deianeira to collect his blood as it will work as a love charm

-later Heracles falls in love w/ a princess named Iole; he destroys her city in order to obtain her and then brings her back to live w/ him and Deianeira

-in jealousy Deianeira uses the supposed love charm, which is poisonous due to having the hydra's blood/venom in it, she applies it to a garment and gives it to Heracles thereby accidentally causing his death

The institution of marriage the abuses against it

-Hera (goddess of marriage) persecutes Heracles due to Zeus' infidelity and neglect of his own marriage

-Heracles clearly has issues w/ marriage (and the feminine principle in general), as he kills his first wife Megara

-he mistreats his 2nd wife Deianeira, just as did his father did, as a result he is killed by her

-Heracles' famous exploits and sufferings are a reflection of the importance of marriage, since they result from the god of marriage's anger at the sanctity of marriage not being respected

How is Heracles' pattern of problems w/ marriage corrected?

-upon being deified he is married to the goddess Hebe (youth)

-he is linked w/ his bride for eternity

-there are no further accounts of any domestic problems