Euripides' Heracles

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Euripides’ Heracles – A Hero Denied a Family. Heracles (Hercules) was one of the most famous of all Greek heroes. The mortal son of Zeus, he was renowned for completing twelve incredible labors involving taking wild beasts and visiting the ends of the earth. In this play, Heracles has been away from home for a year trying to complete his final labor - an impossible journey to the underworld where only the dead may go. His wife, Megara, his step-father, Amphityron, and his children wait for his return and fear the worst – that he has perished and will never return. In the meantime, there has been a violent coup and the king, the father of Megara and benefactor of Heracles, has been overthrown and killed by a man called Lycus, who feels he has a right to the throne. Lycus is a man of the people – a soldier who despises the aristocrats who have been in power. He places Heracles’ family under a death sentence and tells them that they must all die, including the children so the line of the king will be extinguished. Megara asks for a little more time to prepare her children for their deaths and Heracles appears just in time, having secretly made his way into the city. He learns of what Lycus intends to do to his family and plans to stop him. His father urges him to hide inside the house. When Lycus arrives, Amphitryon asks him inside and we know he is going to meet his death at the hands of Heracles. But the goddess Hera sends the spirit of Madness on Heracles. Her anger stems from the fact that Heracles is the illegitimate son of her husband, Zeus, but also, as a warrior, she hates his destructive powers. Hera protects childbirth and families and so she prevents Heracles from ever having domestic peace. In the scene here, a messenger comes out of the house and tells the audience that after killing Lycus, Heracles changed – his eyes rolled back in his head and he fell on his own wife and children, believing them to be his enemies. His father was only spared because Athena pinned Heracles under a great rock and sent him into a deep sleep. Heracles awakes and is told what he has done and his pain is too much for him to bear; he wants to die. Finally his friend, Theseus, comes and pleads with Heracles to be saved and comes with him back to Athens where he can help protect the city. Heracles had rescued Theseus from the Underworld and even though he is defiled with the blood of his own kin, Theseus picks him up and leads him away in friendship, leaving Amphityron distraught to bury his own family. Heracles was produced in Athens sometime between 421 and 416 BCE. Athens was in the midst of the debilitating Peloponnesian War against Sparta. The Athenians fortified their city and refused to engage with the powerful Spartan army, preferring to rely on her supremacy of the sea. This means that the entire population of Attica had to live between the walls during campaigning season while the Spartans ravaged the countryside. These policies led to huge losses from an outbreak of the plague and to the war, which was dragging on, with no end in sight. .

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The Heracles : Myth Becoming
Natibnal Library Bibhotheque naticmale I* of Canada du Canada Canadian Theses Service Services des theses canadiennes Ottawa, Canada K1 A ON4 CANADIAN THESES THESES CANADIENNES NOTICE The quality of this microfiche is heavily dependent upon the La qualite de cette microfiche depend grandement de la qualite quality of the original thesis submitted fcr microfilming. Every de la these soumise au microfilmage. Nous avons tout fail pour effort has been made to ensure the highest quality of reproduc- assurer uoe qualit6 superieure de reproduction. tion possible. D If pages are missing, contact the university which granted the S'il 'manque des pages, veuillez communiquer avec I'univer- degree. Some pages may have indistinct print especially if the original certatnes pages peut laisser A pages were typed with a poor typewriter ribbon or if the univer-- ont 6t6 dactylographi6es sity sent us an inferior photocopy. a I'aide d'un ruban us6 ou si Imuniversit6nous a fa;t parvenir une photocopie de qualit6 inf6rieure. Previously copyrighted materials (journal articles, published cuments qui font d6jA I'objet d'un droit d'auteur (articles tests, etc.) are not filmed. ue, examens publi&, etc.) ne sont pas microfilmes. Reproduction in full or in part of this film is governed by the La reproduction, mGme partielle, de ce microfilm est soumke Canadian Copyright Act, R.S.C. 1970, c. C-30. A la Loi canadienne sur le droit d'auteur, SRC 1970, c. C-30. THIS DI~ERTATION LA THESE A ETE HAS BEEN iICROFILMED M~CROFILMEETELLE QUE EXACTLY AS RECEIVED NOUS L'AVONS REGUE THE HERACLES: MYTH BECOMING MAN.
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Folktale Types and Motifs in Greek Heroic Myth Review P.11 Morphology of the Folktale, Vladimir Propp 1928 Heroic Quest
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Nagy Commentary on Euripides, Herakles
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An Analysis of Heracles As a Tragic Hero in the Trachiniae and the Heracles
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The Twelve Labors of Herakles
The Getty Teacher Resource Villa The Twelve Labors of Herakles Herakles was a universal hero, celebrated by the Greeks, the Etruscans (who called him Hercle), and the Romans (who knew him as 1. The Lion Hercules). He was the son of Zeus (king of the of Nemea gods) and a mortal woman, Alkmene. Ironically, his name means “the glory” (kleos) of Hera (queen of the gods), his jealous stepmother, who drove him mad and caused him to kill his wife and children. As penance, the hero was bound to serve King Eurystheus of Mycenae and Tiryns. The king sent him on a series of The Lion of Nemea had an impervious hide difficult tasks, or labors, twelve of which and could not be killed with traditional weapons. Herakles strangled it and then became standardized in art and literature. used its own claw to skin it. Afterward he wore its pelt as a talisman. 2. The Hydra of Lerna 3. The Hind of Keryneia The Hydra of Lerna was a serpentlike, multiheaded monster. Every time a head was cut off, two more grew in its place. With the aid of his nephew Education Iolaos,Educ Heraklesation killed the beast by cauterizing each wounded neck with a torch. 6/8 point The J. Paul Getty Museum The J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center The Hind of Keryneia was sacred to Artemis ducation (goddess of the hunt and wild animals). Herakles E was ordered to bring the deer, or its golden The J. Paul Getty Museum horn, back to Eurystheus without harming it.
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How Disney's Hercules Fails to Go the Distance
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