The subject of mythology deals mainly with the notion of battle, or good
versus evil. In this struggle many individuals are singled out for either the
evil they cause, or from the good they bring to people. When you mention heroes
in mythology, there are two distinct names that a majority of people bring up,
those names are Achilles and Hercules. Achilles was born to King Peleus and the
sea-nymph Thetis. Soonafter Achilles was born his mother dipped him in the River
Styx, she was told, by doing this, that the water would make every part of his
body that it touched invincible. Little did she know that the one part of his
heel which he was held by would not touch the water. When Achilles mother found
out about the war in Troy between the Greeks and the Trojans she did not want
her son to fight because she knew that he would eventually be killed there. The
way that she tried to preventhim from going into the army was to hide him among
the women of the court sothat he could not be persuaded by his close friend
Odysseus to join the Greek forces. While trying to find Achilles, Odysseus
easily spotted him among the women, and persuaded him to join the Greek army.
After many years of battle with the Trojan forces, Achilles ended up ina famed
duel with Trojan hero Hector, over the slaying of Achilles close friend
Patroclus. After killing Hector, Achilles tied his dead body behind a chariot
and dragged around the walls of Troy seven times to show his hatred and anger
towards the Trojans and their hero. Shortly after the famed battle, Achilles was
killed when he was struck, with a poisonous arrow, in the one small spot on his
heel which was vulnerable. The arrow was fired by the Trojan prince Paris and
was guided by the sun god Apollo. Hercules was the strongest and swiftest man
ever to walk the earth. As the son of Zeus and mortal woman Alcmene, Hercules
was destined to be a hero. This destiny was shown before he was one year old.
Enraged at his affair with a mortal woman, Zeus' wife Hera set out on a plot to
kill Hercules. One night after Alcmene put her children to bed, Hercules' twin
brother Iphicles was awoken by two huge serpents that were sent by Hera to kill
the son of Zeus. When Hercules awoke he grasped the two snakes in order to play
with them, and squeezed the life right out of them. When Alcmeneawoke to see
what all the commotion was about, she was amazed at the sight of her infant son
holding two snakes that he had killed with his bare hands. When Hercules grew to
manhood, he married and had six sons, and again fell victim to Hera's hatred
towards him. What Hera did was send a fitof madness upon Hercules who mistook
his wife and children for enemies and killed them. When his sanity returned he
realised what he had done he shut himself up from the world for a long time.
After a long time in seclusion Hercules finally emerged and went to the Oracle
of Delphi to beg for punishment for his crime. Hercules was sent to King
Eurystheus and toldthat the king would assign a punishment to Hercules. The
punishment was to perform twelve nearly impossible tasks which are known as the
twelvelabours of Hercules. The first of these tasks was to kill and skin the
Nemean Lion, whose skin could not be punctured by any weapon. His second labour
was to killthe Hydra of Lerna which had numerous heads, one of which was
immortal. Every time one of the mortal heads was cut off two or three new heads
would growin its place. The third of his tasks was go to the Ceryneian Hill and
capture a beautiful bronze-hoofed hind without spilling one drop of its blood.
For his fourth task Hercules was to capture alive a huge wild boar which often
killed humans and lived on Mount Erymanthus. The fifth task assigned to Hercules
was to clean the filth of many years out of the stables of King Augeias of Elis.
The sixth labour of the great Greek hero was to get rid of a flock of birds
which resided in the Stymphalian Marsh. The birds had long straight bronze
beaks, sharp bronze claws, and a taste for human flesh. For his next labour,
Hercules was to capture the wild bull of Crete. For the eighth task Hercules was
to bring King Eurystheus the mares of the King Diometes. These mares were fed
human flesh for food. The ninth labour Hercules was to performwas to go to the
tribe of the feared Amazon women and steal the golden girdle of Hippolyta, the
Amazon queen. Hercules tenth task was to bring King Eurystheus the cattle of
Geryon. Geryon was the owner of the cattle and he split above the waist into
three bodies which were difficult to defeat. Hercules' eleventh task was to try
and find the Garden of Hesperides and fetch the fruit from the golden apple
tree, this was difficult for him because he had no idea where the Garden of
Hesperides was. For his twelfth and final labourHercules was venture the most
feared place on earth, the realm of Hades, and bringup the three-headed watchdog
Cerberus. After spending nearly his entire life completing the twelve labours,
Hercules decided to settle down and he married the fair maiden Deianeira. When
Deianeira was captured by a centaur named Nessus, Hercules shot the centaur with
a poisoned arrow. With the centaur's dying breath he gave Deianeira a vial of
his poisoned blood telling her she could use it to rekindle Hercules' love for
her if it ever faded. One day when she felt that his lovewas fading, she made
him a robe that was dipped in the blood. When Hercules received the gift from
his wife he was overjoyed and put it on, almost immediately his skin started to
burn and he caught on fire. Knowing hisdeath was near he called his servants to
bring him a funeral pyre which he placed himself on. As the pyre burned it was
carried up to Mount Olympus where he became the god of strength. Each of these
heroes have at least one thing that separate them from regular men, something
that is special about them. For Achilles it is his invulnerability and his
incredible courage that make him a great Greek hero. For Hercules it is his
god-like strength, and his luck of being the son of the king of the gods. Each
of these Greek heroes was destined to be great at a very early age. Just after
Achilles was born he was dipped in the River Styxby his mother which made him
invincible. In the case of Hercules, his heroic effort was shown when he was
less than one year old when he saved himself and his brother from two deadly
serpents. Both of these warriors fought great battles and suffered tremendous
hardships, neither of them were perfect, they both had their faults. In the case
of Achilles, during the Trojan War, in the middle of battle his favourite
slavegirl was taken away from him and instead of continuing to battle, he stayed
in his tent and sulked until his close friend ,Patroclus, was killed. For
Hercules, his temper was his weak spot, it could be easily become deadly if he
was told to do something that he did not want to do. One thing that both men
possess a great deal of is courage. Neither of these great heroes would back
down to any challenge or battle that would come before them, no matter how hard
the battle may be both of these great men would die trying. Out of all the many
stories told about mythology, the stories of thesetwo great men will never be
forgotten. Both of these men conquered hardships, and turmoil. They overcame all
of these ailments to conquer their task and fulfil their goal, qualities which
could regard them as two of the greatest heroes of all time.