The Depictions of Hercules in Greek Mythology Essay Example

In turn, there was the merging by the Romans of the many of their native gods with those of the Greeks.

There was the Romanisation of the gods and the goddess for them to be worshipped and glorified. The manner that it took place was through the handing down of the predominant mythologies of the Romans and the Greeks through the ages. There were the mythologies of each of the culture including the gods and the goddess that had the interaction with the human beings, with the bad, right and the indifferent motives. There was the ascribing to the deities with the comparable powers and the spheres of the influence by each of the cultures.

There were the names of the most important deities in both the Greek and the Roman mythology and the description of the God that enabled it to for worshipping. For example, there was the deity Jupiter in the Roman name and Zeus in the Greek name and was known as the King of the Gods, the Juno in the Roman name and the Greek name was Hera, and this was the Goddess of marriage (Ohly, 2002, pp, 102). There was also the deity of the Neptune and Saturn in the Roman names and Poseidon and the Cronos in the Greek name respectively. Theses deities represented the God of the sea and the youngest son of the Uranus, who was the Father of the Zeus. The other deity was the Pluto in the Roman name, Hades in the Greek name and was the God of the Underworld. Moreover, there was the deity of the mercury in the Roman name and the Hermes in

the Greek name and regarded as the messenger of the Gods. The other one was the Cupid in the Roman name and the Persephone in the Greek name and was the God of love. There was the association of a certain deity with a particular description enabling their worship and idolization.

Hercules, the Roman name of the hero of the Greek, Herakles, was the most famous figure from the mythology of the ancient Greek. He was the son of the king of the gods, Zeus, and the mortal woman Alcmene. Zeus used to chase one woman or the other and took on the form of the husband of the Alameda, Amplitron and visited Alameda on the bed at night and therefore, there was the birth of the demi-god who had the incredible stamina and strength (Hazel, 2001, pp, 57). Hercules performed various amazing feats that involved the wrestling death and the travelling twice to the underworld, and there was the widespread telling of his stories throughout the Greece and later in the states of the Rome.

The life of Hercules was far from the easy from the moment of the birth and the relationships with the others was very disastrous. The reason was that the wife of the Zeus, the Hera was aware that Hercules was the illegitimate son of her husband and thereby sought to destroy the child. The son was born with the name Herakles to mean the Glory of the Hera and to signify that the son would be famous through the difficulties he experienced with the goddess.

The demi-god suffered as the mortal and would mess the things easily like any other man or

woman but would make the deeds no mortal could. He had the great appeal for the people of the Greece and the Rome (Eusebius, 2007, pp, 96). He was a form of the super powered and every man and suffered any disappointments; he had some of his worse days and even the bad years and at the long last died due to the another deception.
He suffered some of the challenges. It was after he consulted the Oracle at the Delphi where he was told to attach himself to his cousin who was the king of the Tiryns and Mycenae and called Eurystheus and he would devise the labours expiate his sins. There was the numbering of the works as only ten, but they later grew to twelve. Alcaeus then took the name Herakles after the Delphi. Among the twelve labours were the two most prominent works, the killing of the Nemean lion that was indifferent to all the weapons. Herakles trapped the lion in a particular cave and thereby suppressed it by the use of the bare hands, later skinned the lion and even afterwards wore the skin as his cloak.

He also had the labour of killing the monster that was known as the Hydra and had nine deadly heads and after the cutting of one head, there would be the growth of two more in that place. Together with his nephew, Hercules cut off the heads and the luaus burned the necks with the torch in the attempt of preventing the heads from growing back. He then dipped his arrows in the blood of the Hydra for the use in the future since it

was very destructive and it would kill quickly. Since there was some help given to the Hercules in the labour, it was not counted as one of the labours and therefore, there was the signing of a new form of work.

In the conclusion is the death and the legacy of Hercules. At the period of his death, he climbed the mountain of Etna, and he constructed his personal pyre for the funeral in a clearing, and he gave away his belongings and thereby laid his head down with his head resting on his club and with the skin of the NE median lion covering him. He was with his torches lit and the pyre often took the flames. The goddess themselves had the feeling of the troubling after the seeing of the champion on the earth brought to his end.

References

• Daly, Kathleen N., and Marian Rengel. 2009. Greek and Roman mythology, A to Z. New York: Chelsea House Publishers.
• Eusebius, and Paul L. Maier. 2007. Eusebius--the church history. Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications.
• Hazel, John. 2001. Who's Who in the Roman World. London: Routledge.
• Matyszak, Philip. 2010. The Greek and Roman myths: a guide to the classical stories.
• Ohly, Dieter, and Helen Hughes-Brock. 2002. The Munich Glyptothek Greek and Roman sculpture ; a brief guide. Mu?nchen: Beck.