Importance Of A Hero

Flames are coming out of every opening in a building and a firefighter runs in to save someone that is inside. A police officer is shot while trying to ensure that no innocent lives are taken of those being held hostage inside a bank. A lifeguard jumps into the deep end of the pool to save a drowning child. Firefighters, police officers, lifeguards or even the next door neighbor could be considered heroes. Why does society have a need for heroes? What traits should heroes have? The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a hero in the following ways: a) a mythological or legendary figure often of divine descent endowed with great strength or ability b) an illustrious warrior c) a man admired for his achievements and noble qualities d) one that shows great courage. Most of society considers a hero to be someone that saves another person's life. The person doesn't necessarily have great strength or ability. In mythology, a hero is a role model with extreme courage that does something to change or improve life for everyone.

Heracles, from Greek mythology, is one of the greatest examples of a hero.

The story of Heracles is a simple one. Alcmene, a mere mortal, is tricked by Zeus when he turns himself into her husband. She becomes pregnant with Zeus' child. Heracles is born part mortal and partly immortal because of the situation. Hera, Zeus' wife, became angry that Zeus has been unfaithful once again and tries to kill Heracles. As Heracles began to grow older, Hera became more and more jealous of him. She became jealous of his strength, prowess and good looks. Knowing that every other scheme she had failed, she decided to drive him to a state of insanity. In his insane state of mind, he murdered his wife and children. He exiled himself and didn't know what he was going to do. Feeling extremely remorseful and wanting to atone for his sins, he was told to serve his cousin, Eurystheus, king of Mycenae and perform twelve labors. Each task became more difficult than the one before it but Heracles successfully completed them all. After his success with the twelve tasks and being freed, he obtained another wife. An enemy of Heracles, on his death bed, gave Heracles' wife poison which she thought was a love potion. He told her that it would make Heracles fall back in love with her if she suspected that he was falling out of love. She washed his clothes with it and ended up poisoning him. As the flames arose around his funeral pyre, Zeus ascended from Mount Olympus and took Heracles back with him. He was to spend eternity on Mount Olympus, immortal and among the rest of the gods.

The inhabitants of different cities had their fears put to rest when Heracles came to town. Many of the twelve tasks that Heracles endured involved killing things that had the people living in fear. The people of the cities as well as continued generations following considered Heracles to the greatest of heroes. The Disney version, Hercules, the Latin name for Heracles, was a completely different version. Its portrayal of the story was inaccurate in a lot of ways. It painted the picture as Hercules' enemy being Hades. It depicted Hercules through the eyes of what society considers a hero now.

Some wonder if or why it is important to be a hero. Others don't think that heroes are important at all. Why would it be important to be a hero? A hero, in today's society, is someone that simply saves another person's life. The "hero" doesn't have to have an enormous amount of strength or ability. When a situation occurs where a life needs to be saved, there isn't always an enormous amount of danger involved. Heroes show the rest of the world how to help others. Heroes also display what can be done in an emergency situation. Heroes are important because they provide everyone with good examples of morals that are lacked in present day society. Each minute of everyday, the morality of our country is reduced. Heroes show us all that there are still good people left in the world. Most people that become heroes already have good reputations within their communities. They are people of good character that care about others. Knowing that some individuals need and want heroes, devil's advocate plays a role when dealing with a subject such as this.

One should look at the other side of the coin and analyze why some individuals don't think heroes are important. Heroes don't necessarily have good morals in their own lives. Sometimes a potential hero just stumbles upon a situation in which a person needs help. A lot of heroes seek out those that potentially need help so that they might gain fame in some form or another. Fame and greed will drive some people to do anything. Even when a person becomes a hero without any bad intention, it's never a good thing. If the hero was a quiet, reserved person and they save a little child's life, reporters follow the story for as long as possible leaving the people with more problems than they began with. Once the gratitude/"thank