Cameron Santoro

Blog Post # 4

11/13/13

Hercules Hero or Antihero?

In ancient mythology and storytelling in general, all of the protagonists of a story are heroic figures or put the needs of others before others. But in some rare instances there is a protagonist who doesn’t possess those same qualities. Hercules is one of these people.

After Hercules, tricked by Hera, killed his wife and kids he needs to accomplish twelve trials to purge himself of the sin. These also reveal that he is an  anti hero. The biggest example of this fact is during his ninth labor he had to bring back the belt of Hippolta queen of the Amazons. Hercules convinces her to hand over the belt, but then Hera makes the queen attack him. He then responds to this by promptly killing her.

This shows he is an anti hero because if he wasn't he would have tried to talk to her like a normal hero would do he takes the easy way out, but he is still trying to do something heroic, and that is trying to redeem the sin of killing his family.