Was Hercules “Heroic”?

 by Dinura Ranmandala

Heracles, strangling a snake as a child

Hercules is often depicted as a very heroic individual but there is a limit to how well of a hero he could be due to the atrocities he had committed. To start off with, Hercules completed 12 dangerous tasks which took lots of time and energy, all without getting paid or rewarded but rather for redemption. The completion of these tasks portrayed Hercules as a very heroic being as a normal human being wouldn't dare try these tasks due to the low payout with the high risk of mortality.

However it's what made Hercules do this stuff in the first place that really set the heroic bar lower. Heracles killed his first wife and children after a wraith sent from Hera, even though technically it wasn't his fault he still felt the burden of this dreadful event and suffered dearly hence he isn't as heroic as he seems to be due to his big secret. However in the Roman version, Hercules saves a Roman town from a fire breathing monster under the name of Cacus, who stole belongings from the citizens and killed them. This makes Hercules more brave as he had completed a task that wasn't part of his original 12 showing he cares about people and that he will protect them. Heracles also took part in the Argonauts where he teamed up with people like Jason to look for a gold fleece, again going out of the way to complete an extra task 

In conclusion I believe Heracles was slightly heroic but not enough to fit the complete definition of the word because of his terrible start in life by Hera which ruined most of his life and potential. He had done enough heroic acts to be called an ancient saviour but not enough to be called Zeus on earth.