Heracles: A Tragic Hero in Constant Struggle Anonymous 12th Grade

Heracles, Greece’s greatest hero, is a demigod whose mortal life is dominated by a series of successes due to his tremendous strength and failures due to his excessive passions. While, ostensibly, his passions cause him pain and bring about misfortune, he ultimately gains eternal glory through the hardships he endures. Through images of unnecessary conflict and violence, Heracles is directly and indirectly characterized as tragically flawed by a lack of self-control, indicating the necessity of proper judgment and intelligence to offset brute force.

Heracles’s just inclination to self-inflict punishments in contrition for his avoidable misdeeds ironically becomes one of his greatest sources of suffering and thus one of his greatest sources of fame. Though “without his consent he could not have been punished by anyone” (227), he shows a “greatness of soul” (227) by always going above and beyond to make up for his wrongdoings. Unfortunately, this would often result in his punishing “himself when others were inclined to exonerate him” (227), subjecting himself to extremes no other human could withstand. For example, in order to purify himself for killing his “children and Megara” (229), he completes “the Labors of [Heracles]”...