The definition of a hero is someone who does good deeds because they are good, with no alternative reasons for doing them. When someone says “ hero” you think of, Superman, Spiderman or even more classical, Perseus or Theseus. Often what we see in the modern day is people romanticising these types of people, there can be good reason for this. But is this a good thing?

A lot of people would also think of Heracles. He is a big mythological figure. Many people agree that he is one of the greatest heroes. However , I am here to tell why he isn’t.

Heracles was born to Zeus and Aclemene, a mortal woman. He grew up in Thebes and eventually married Megara. With which he had three sons. Hera, Zeus’s wife was furious that Zeus had had another affair with a mortal woman. Knowing that she couldn’t do anything to Zeus, she sent Heracles mad, and made him kill his wife and children. Now Apollo, knowing that it wasn’t Heracles’s fault, sent him to do 12 labours to atone for his crimes. In reward he would gain a place as a god on mount Olympus. We all know what happens next. He does good things, bettered people’s lives, all the classically heroic things. But does this mean he is a hero?

Heracles can’t be a good hero, since a hero is someone who does good things with no alternative motive. Becoming a hero wasn’t even the reason for doing those labours, his reasons for doing his labours were to atone for his crimes and gain a spot as a god on mount Olympus. Since a hero has no alternative reasons for doing those good things, Heracles can’t even classify. He did those labours so he wouldn’t be a criminal any more and so he could become a god.

Most of us have seen the Disney movie ‘Hercules’. The actual story that they put on the screen is very different from the myth. Even Disney, a huge animation company, didn’t think that Heracles’s story was heroic enough. They had the change the whole motive and plot. And he eventually saves Meg with no alternative motive, meaning that he had become a hero. If you look at what Disney shows us, Hercules did all those amazing labours and was still turned away by his father. Only when he had done a truly heroic thing did he earn his spot on mount Olympus. The movie perfectly depicts what a hero is and makes the necessary adjustments so that he did appear as a hero. We can now see that to make the movie successful Disney had to make those changes otherwise they wouldn’t have their perfect hero.

In modern day society, we often romanticise classical figure like Heracles. This can become a problem, in idolising these people in a toxic way that could have negative repercussions on the rest of society. And if we do this to figures like Heracles, how could it affect us? Are we supposed to romanticise them, or are they a warning to us, so we don’t take those paths? Are these people really toxicity masked in a disguise of glamour and fame?