“Hercules was the strongest man on earth and he had the supreme self-confidence magnificent physical strength gives.” He excelled from the others at a very young age, when he killed two snakes with his own, bare hands. Hera, Zeus’s jealous wife, sent the snakes to kill Hercules while he was sleeping. He proved that he is strong and he can defeat anybody and anything.
Theseus was a strong child, too. His father placed in a hallow a sword and a pair of shoes and he covered them with a great stone. The reason why he did that, was that he wanted to see, if his son Theseus can move that stone. If yes, then he is able to take over the kingdom. “The child was a boy and he grew up strong far beyond others, so that when his mother finally took him to the stone he lifted it with no trouble at all.”
At a very young age both characters became heroes by killing monsters and doing good to mankind. Theseus’s “…idea was to become a great hero as quickly as possible…” On his way to Athens he killed many bandits and he also killed the Minotaur. “It can be imagined how Greece rang with the praises of the young man who cleared the land of these banes to travelers”. Hercules was renamed after his strength and he was called a hero when he defeated the Minyans.
Of course they had some different characteristics as every people do. But these differences were important. Their intelligence level was like sky and ground, and their life experience differed, too.
Hercules’s “Intelligence did not figure largely in anything he did and was often conspicuously absent”. Theseus was at a higher level of his mental capabilities, because he wanted a people’s government where all would be equal. About Hercules we get a clear picture from the story, that what kind a man was he: “His intellect was not strong. His emotions were.” Even if his feelings were strong, he always blamed himself for the way he acted. He usually acted first and then thought about the consequences. This characteristic is proven by the scene from the funeral, where Hercules gets drunk and then he realized his fault and to make a recompense he bring back Admetus’s wife from the underworld.
During their long journey, both heroes, Hercules as well as Theseus, had different life experiences. The “strongest man on earth” engaged three times (in order: Megara, Deinanira and Hebe), while Theseus married only two women (in order: Hippolyta and Phedra).
Theseus decided to dedicate his life for saving innocents and helping mankind. He knew how to treat people and how to understand himself with the peoples that supported him.
Another difference between them was that Hercules always had to make up his fault. He gets twelfth labors (bringing back the lion for Nemea, to kill the nine headed creature, Hydra, to bring back alive a stag with hums of gold, to capture a great boar, to clean the Augean stables in a single day, to drive away the Stymphalian birds, to go to Crete and fetch from there the savage bull, to get the man-eating mares of King Diomedes, to bring back a the girdle of Hippolyta, to bring back the cattle of Geryon, to bring back the Golden Apples of the Hespiredes, and to bring up Cerberus from the Underworld) for killing his family, but he also killed innocent people by accident. The water-boy, and the musician were the victims of his angriness.
Even if they were uncles why were they supported by different part of Greece? Athens supported Theseus while Hercules was the Spartans favorite. Athens was the home of the thinkers, doctors and scientists. As Theseus acted after his mind, he was considered as one of them. Another reason why Athenians like him best, because he never had to make labors like Hercules did many-many times.
Athenians didn’t liked Hercules, because he was wild. The rest of Greece preferred wildness and the strength. “But Hercules embodied what the rest of Greece most valued. His qualities were those the Greeks in general honored and admired”. In Greek tradition, the boys are taken at very young age for military practices and they are educated to kill. As Hercules was strong and able to kill, Spartans considered him as one of them.
In my opinion Theseus was a better hero than Hercules. I admire Hercules for his enormous powers, but sometimes he was out of control of his strength and killed people that he shouldn’t have killed. I think that if we didn’t think ahead before we act something always going to end with a disaster. That’s why I like Theseus. He is a carefully thought out person, he never had to make up labors, and he also treated people equally and cared about their feelings.
