Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks

Pleasure and Leisure 299
to the underworld, where the hero encountered what might be
described as a negation of the self.
The range of heroic challenge is illustrated by the diversity of labors
performed by Herakles, the greatest hero of all. Six of his labors take
place in or around Olympia in the northwest Peloponnese, four send
him to the cardinal points of the compass, and the last two—bringing
Kerberos up from Hades and fetching the golden apples from the
Hesperides—require him to journey beyond the confines of mortality.
In meeting such challenges, Herakles stands as a symbol of the
indomitability of the human, specifically Greek spirit.
The Greek hero was not merely an ancient version of the Lone
Ranger, however. On the contrary, many of the myths emphasize
the violent streak in human nature that is integral to man’s lust for
achievement. Many heroes, too, are less than heroic in their dealings
with women. Herakles was repeatedly unfaithful to his wife
Deianeira, whose death he inadvertently caused when she sought
to revive his flagging affections. Theseus abandoned Ariadne on
the island of Naxos after she had provided him with the means of
killing the Minotaur, a creature half human and half bull that fed on
a diet of Athenian youths and maidens. Jason rejected the sorceress
Medea after she had assisted him in his theft of the golden fleece
and had aided his escape by slaying her own brother Absyrtos.
Unlike his popular, much diluted, modern descendant, the Greek
hero was a morally complex individual who frequently failed to
conduct himself honorably, yet whose courage and prowess, in
the eyes of the Greeks, did not release him from the obligation to
live as a morally responsible human being. The hero was, in other
words, by no means a forerunner of the Christian saint. Nor was
he primarily or predominantly a public benefactor. Although many
heroic exploits did provide incidental beneficial consequences to
mankind, this was by no means the only reason why they were
undertaken. While Herakles’ killing of the Nemean lion and the
Stymphalian birds rendered the Greek world a safer place, his journey
to the Hesperides in search of the golden apples was of no benefit
to mankind whatsoever. In many cases, the principal motive for
taking on the challenge seems to have been similar to that which
inspires modem mountain climbers to risk their lives climbing K2:
simply because it’s there.
Despite or perhaps because of the questionability of their morals,
heroes were a force to be reckoned with. Their powers did not
cease upon their death, which is why hero worship (in the technical
sense of the word), which took the form of blood sacrifice, was a