Overkill
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0The heroic figure in myth has long been lauded as an example of what humanity can achieve. Strong, moral, and courageous, these individuals have set the bar for pushing ourselves beyond our limitations.
There is, however, a darker side to the heroic characters that we have long held dear. That’s right, I’m talking about criminal negligence.
One of the things I’ve wondered about for some time while reading and studying myths is what the long term effects a hero would have on a country. You’ve got these amazing things happening: beating up lions, killing off monsters, and, in the case of Heracles (Hercules), diverting a river in order to clean some truly disgusting stables. What about the people that rely on that river for their livelihoods? What about the havoc a new body of water running through a city would wreak upon the people living there? It seems heroes are just tragically short sighted.
That’s kind of an allegory for our politicians. Think about it.
Heracles remains one of the most recognizable heroes in the history of humankind. The stories of his deeds continue to be retold in both good and bad (Kevin Sorbo, I’m looking at you) ways, but the essential character remains the same. What we don’t hear about so much nowadays is the rather tragic tale that sets in motion his twelve great deeds. Poor Heracles, son of Zeus and a mortal woman, was stricken with madness by the jealous Hera. In his insanity, Heracles brutally murdered his wife and children. Upon snapping out of his rampage, he found his family dead and their blood on his hands. Heracles felt he did not deserve to live but was given the opportunity to purify himself by the Oracle of Apollo. The Oracle tasked him with performing ten deeds that would redeem him. Heracles spent years wandering and completing these tasks and was given two more when it was decided that he’d technically cheated at two of them (the cleaning of the stables of Augeus was one of those two). The Twelve Labors of Heracles lead him to become one of Greece’s greatest heroes despite the horrific crimes he’d committed against his family. The stories surrounding those labors are all fun, exciting, or interesting, but the story as a whole, a story of redemption, is hopeful and one that I don’t know most people today would entirely identify with.
If Heracles lived today he’d have been thrown in a jail cell to rot and never given the opportunity to redeem himself or atone for his crimes. The story of Heracles is a story of hope and goodness despite the insanity that can happen in a moment. It is also about forgiveness, that is, forgiving someone of their crimes so they might become a better person and a productive member of society. None can say that Heracles did not make up for what he had done.
This is what I like most about this particular tale. It shows us that the “eye for an eye” mentality can rob us of valuable people, that everyone makes mistakes and that we should forgive those mistakes whenever possible. We’ve been taught that crimes must be punished, and they should be, but they should be useful punishments that attempt to teach rather than to beat down.
Heracles shows us that the world is not always black and white, that people can redeem themselves, and most importantly, that criminals should be put to use cleaning stables.
I think that was the lesson, anyway.
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Oh you. Great strip, as always! Been following for a while, not sure if I’ve ever commented until now xD
But I love your style! And coloring. Brilliant work. (And I’ve got an unreasonable crush on the Necromancer king). Keep it up.
I’ll give JP Necromancer your digits. Though, not being a corpse, you may find it difficult to capture his attention
I just discovered the strip less than a week ago, now i’ve read them all and have become addicted. I love your work!
Yeah, it’s clean alright, Herc. Can’t say he didn’t try. ^_^;;;
The story of Heracles ends up being a redemption story, and a good one, I agree with you there.
But I’m pretty sure that Hera’s intentions were less about redemption and more about messing him about. Knowing Hera as anyone who’s read Iliad or the Aenied knows Hera, she was probably mad as hell when her labors resulted in redemption and glory.
The moral, of course, is maintained, since the Greek attitude (and my history teacher would kill for this kind of generalization, but whatever) hold that the results of actions were more important that their probably really malicious intent.
Oh absolutely agree with you about Hera, she’s a menace throughout most Greek myths and definitely held no love for Heracles. I was referring to the story itself rather than any moral teachings Hera might impart. You’re right that if her actions in other stories are any indication, she would have been completely enraged over the reception of Heracles after his deeds.
I think the phrase “Eye for an Eye” is really misrepresented the way people use it. Most people seem to think it’s a call for justice: He takes an eye, you take an eye.
Have you ever thought about it as a call for mercy? i.e “He takes an eye, you take no more than an eye.” Thus, the punishment should be no worse than the crime. A maximum, not a minimum.
Just throwing that out there.
But that’s ignoring the phrase in its original Biblical context: If a man puts out your eye, you are obliged to put out his eye. It’s both a minimum and a maximum.
Also known as…equal.
Yeah, that was pretty silly of me. In my defense I was very tired.
I really enjoy the way you put a nowadays point of view in your comics, a relaxed nowadays point of view
My favorite part of Herc’s life is when he tries his hands at teamwork, as one of the Argonauts. In some versions, the legendary ship spends the first day going in circles inside the harbor because he pulls the oar so much stronger than all the other heroes…
Talk about sheer enthusiasm.
i recently had a similar thought concerning Storm from X-Men, she can create huge weather disturbances in a matter of seconds, there has to be some consequences to that.
Your news post reminds me of the discussion we had with Ryan.
Also, I love me some redemption stories. Maybe I should write one.
For some reason I imagine Heracles’ voice as Captain Qwark from Ratchet and Clank XD
you’re work is clever and i’m also kind of a mythology nerd so it’s really cool
hivemind.
I believe after he cleaned the stables he was rewarded with the vaginas of, like, 100 princesses.
That’s how the spartans were concieved, or something. Fuzzy memory.
Hilarious comic~!
ON THE ONE HAND– yes, the idea of letting people attone for their crimes and become better people is great.
ONE THE OTHER HAND– Real people don’t get sent violently insane by jealous Goddesses. So, really? Doesn’t work out. There are circumstances where people are thought to have been forced to their actions, and they are given lesser sentences, but if someone is murderously insane you lock that fucker up before he kills another batch of innocents.
You know the story of Heracles is awfully similar to God of War’s Kratos’ back story. Killed his family, forced to serve Athena… It’s almost like the modern collective consciousness couldn’t deal with not telling ‘Hercules’ story properly, so it channeled the ‘evil’ part into a different story. Fascinating.