Greek Mythology: Brave and Transgressive Heroes - Assignment Example

Greek Mythology: Brave and Transgressive Heroes "Greek heroes are as problematic and transgressive as they are capable of extraordinary feats of strength and bravery." Discuss in relation to one or more of the following: Perseus, Heracles, Theseus, Oedipus, Pelops. Introduction The lives of the Greek heroes are full of drama, action, novelty and traditions which created the foundations of ancient Greek religion, philosophy and culture for many centuries (Powell, 2003). They performed extraordinary feats of bravery and showed intelligence in dealing with problems which could have vexed even the greatest minds alive today. Yet at the same time, as mentioned in the statement above, they were problematic and transgressive since their actions and the retributive justice handed out by them far exceeded the crimes of their respective opponents. Heracles Perhaps the most famous, well known and recognizable hero of them all is Heracles who is popularly known in the west as Hercules. Arguably, he was the greatest of the Greek heroes since he represented the ideal of masculine behaviour, fathered many kings and was a champion of the Olympian Gods against monsters (Wikipedia, 2006). Fathered by Zeus and Alcmene, he was the grandson of Perseus and is typified in Greek art through his clothes of lion skin and the club which he wields against his enemies (Powell, 2003). However, the stories of his life and works have to be balanced with the actions and crimes he committed. Of course the start of his 12 tasks have been attributed to atonement for killing his family but Heracles remains blameless here because the fit of madness was caused by Hera (Hansen, 2005). Additionally, he remains innocent of the fact that the labours and the misery he goes through as recommended by the Oracle are also being caused by Hera. In his tasks, the fifth labour of cleaning the Augean stables in one day stands out because of Heracles’ transgression. Although Augeas did not keep his word of giving Heracles 1/10th of his cattle for cleaning the stables, it can not be considered provocation enough to murder (Morford & Lenardon, 2003). Heracles could have simply taken the cattle he wanted without any bloodshed and murder is not just reward for breaking promises. Additionally, while obtaining the Mares of Diomedes, he manages to capture the horses but goes beyond the call of duty by killing Diomedes and letting the horses eat him (Powell, 2003). While the symbolic nature of the story can be debated, the act itself is certainly transgressive and it is not clarified if it can be considered just to kill someone just because they want their stolen goods returned to them. Clearly a character like Heracles is beyond the moral rulings which can apply to other mortals. Surprisingly, in the tenth task where some cattle are stolen from Heracles, he sets the punishment for the theft as murder. During the process of obtaining the cattle from Geryon, he sees no harm in killing him to obtain his possessions (Hansen, 2005). Again, Heracles shows us that the rules apply to him differently as compared to others since he is able to reward theft with the death penalty while he himself robs others of their belongings without any reprisal. However, despite these problems with the narrative, the stories do show that Heracles was indeed a mighty hero who performed amazing feats. Perseus Another great hero of Greek mythology is Heracles great grandfather, i.e. Perseus (Wikipedia, 2006). He too like Heracles was born of a mortal mother and Zeus and therefore had the strength of the gods within him (Powell, 2003). However, like Heracles, he also did not believe in the rules and often preferred to do what was convenient rather than what can be thought of as the right course of action. For example, his act of killing Medusa was at the very root nothing more than securing an invitation to a party. Additionally, he used the head of the Medusa to turn Phineus into stone. Phineus was the person whom Andromeda had been promised to before Perseus rescued her from the rock and decided to marry her after the rescue. Perseus used the head again to turn Polydectes into stone when he discovered that he had made undue advances towards Perseus’ mother (Hansen, 2005). Since he had the strength and ability to do away with Polydectes by other means, it certainly seems like an extravagance to give such a punishment. Strangely enough, the blame for the crimes committed by the heroes is dulled simply due to the expectations of the crimes which are prophesised by the oracles. For example, it was prophesised that Perseus would kill his grand father and he does exactly that (Powell, 2003). It does raise some interesting questions about predestination and freewill which can be given as answers for the transgressions committed by the heroes. For instance, Oedipus also kills his father and marries his mother but that was foretold as events which would happen in any case. Theseus Of course Theseus remains relatively free of the preordained fate which the oracles had made for several other heroes. Like Perseus or Heracles, Theseus was also a founder for a nation and overcame powerful odds in battling with monsters as well as winning himself a nation. He too was fathered by a mortal woman and a god (Poseidon in this case) and therefore had access to godly strength and might (Powell, 2003). His father was King Aegeus from Athens who left his mother (Aethra) when she became pregnant and buried his shoes, shield and sword under a rock telling his wife that once their child was old enough and strong enough he should be able to move the rock and have access to the equipment. Surely enough, once Theseus was old enough, he moved the rock and took the equipment. He had to visit his father in Athens to claim his parentage and he could have taken two different paths i.e. the land route which was unsafe and riddled with bandits or the sea path which was much safer (Morford & Lenardon, 2003). As the story goes, he took the land route which engaged him in his own adventures. While Heracles was looking for atonement for his sins, Theseus was seeking adventure and renown which he got by completing the journey and killing many different robbers and bandits on his way (Powell, 2003). However, while he was stopping robbers and bandits, he did not give much thought to raping their daughters or returning the stolen goods to the rightful owners. For instance, his meeting with Siris went successfully since he managed to kill Siris with the methods used by Siris himself but Theseus went on to rape Perigune and fathered Melanippus. This is certainly transgressive behaviour but then again, it seems to be acceptable coming from demigods. Conclusion Clearly, the Greek heroes were problematic and transgressive as they were capable of extraordinary feats of bravery. However, the problem with calling them transgressive is that we are judging them by our own standards for evaluating transgressions against individuals. The punishment for theft is not forfeiture of life but in the eyes of the ancient Greek listeners or readers who were told about these stories, such behaviour could be condoned even applauded. The idea of transgression can only come to reality when we have a comparative reality for the idea of justice. This certainly can not happen in the case of examining the Greek heroes. Our idea of justice which has been established by society and law in the 21st century can not be easily applied to the actions of the heroes in mythological stories. If we apply the rules and acceptable customs of the Greeks, the transgressions of the heroes are certainly reduced because the way they acted was perfectly honourable and acceptable for the times. At the same time, their transgressions were often punished by the various gods who they had angered or hurt during their adventures. In some sense, justice did prevail at the end of the story but it was not justice as we recognize it, it was justice as the Greek culture expected justice to happen. In conclusion, I have to say that regardless of the measure we take to test the transgressions and problems created by ancient Greek heroes, their bravery and force of will against opposition certainly stand as shining examples for us even today. They are not the unreal heroes presented in modern film and television who can do no wrong and are always on the side of the truth. The ancient Greek heroes are closer to the idea of a human being who has human failings and does not always do the right thing. They may seek to extract more revenge when they have been hurt and apply different rules for themselves as compared to the rules they apply to others but that is what makes them humans and not gods. Word Count: 1,549 Works Cited Powell, B. 2003. Classical Myth, Fourth Edition. Prentice Hall. Morford, M & Lenardon, R. 2003. Classical Mythology. Oxford University Press. Hansen, W. 2005. Classical Mythology: A Guide to the Mythical World of the Greeks and Romans. Oxford University Press. Wikipedia. 2006. Heracles [on-line]. Wikipedia.org. available from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heracles; internet; accessed 1 May 2006. Read More