I really enjoyed the play and the readings because it kept me on edge about what I was feeling. Knowing that Herakles ended up killing his family made me feel disgusted because I could not believe that he would do something like that. Then, finding out that he really had no control over it and was overshadowed by madness made me feel kind of bad for him. Obviously, he killed his family and should be looked down upon because of it, but it seemed that trauma got the best of him, and had no choice. It sucks to be tripped out like that and not know what is going on, only to find out that he killed his family. It was a rude awakening for him once he came back from his madness, so in that regard, I feel awful for him.
Herakles
8 discussions
Around lines 1110-1130, Madness goes into detail at how Herakles will kill his children. She describes him being in a fit of rage, not realizing what he is doing in that moment. My favorite line is 1110-1111, "When I enter Herakles' heart and make it beat louder and louder in his ears," because it allows the audience to experience what Herakles is experiencing. I imagine that hearing about someone going mad and not realizing what they are doing would be difficult to understand, but the imagery and descriptions in this quote from Madness really helps. The "heartbeat" in Herakles' ears describes a pulsing feeling, when one is very angry and their blood pressure is high and it almost feels like your head is throbbing, so I really really like this little excerpt.
My thoughts on Zeus have somewhat changed since reading the ending of this play. I considered to be ruthless and mean, what we saw of Zeus in this play and Prometheus Bound made it seem like he was the worst god of them all. I have since realized that Hera is the meanest and most spiteful of all the gods and goddesses. I feel like Hera shouldn't be taking her anger about Zeus' affairs on his children with mortal women, they can't help who their parents are. Instead, Hera should be getting mad a Zeus for not being a faithful husband. I think that Hera has her priorities off and shouldn't be worshipped as this great goddess who, in my opinion, is only significant because she is the queen of the gods. One thing I found somewhat ironic is that Herakles seems to be named after Hera, even though he has no relation to her. It makes me wonder if Zeus and Herakles' mother make the affair up to Hera by giving her the honor of having the child named after her.
I feel bad for Herakles in the first half of this play. Herakles should be revered as a hero to Athens's people but is instead seems to be criticized for leaving his family. They won't say whether or not Herakles is dead, and I believe there is a reason the author decided to leave it up to question. Zeus plays a similar role at the beginning of this play as he does in Prometheus Bound. Even though we haven't met Zeus in this play, Megara prays to Zeus hoping that he will answer her prayers and bring Herakles home. Zeus is the father to Herakles, and just like in Prometheus Bound, Zeus doesn't seem interested in helping his son or his family in any way. It leads to questions like did something happen between Zeus and Herakles that led Zeus to reject his son's protection? Or does Zeus just see himself as too high and mighty to help? This play and Prometheus Bound more than other depicts Zeus as a 'bad guy' in attitude towards mortals. Before these two plays, I thought of Zeus as this high and mighty God that wanted to protect the people of Earth and in return be worshipped for his greatness. I now believe that Zeus knows that he can still be praised and worshipped without having any compassion for mortals.
In both Prometheus Bound and the beginning of Herakles, Zeus is a character that is recognized for his power but criticized and hated for his unjust practices. In Prometheus Bound, we saw Zeus chaining up Prometheus for helping out humans and a large theme of the play is tyranny, which is represented by Zeus. In Herakles, we see Amphitryon talking about Zeus in a similar way to Io, who was raped by Zeus; Amphitryon says "So Zeus, you slip into my bed, you take what you want, and you pay me back like this?" To think of how Amphitryon "pimped" out his wife, Alkmene, to Zeus, it is understandable the frustration that he would be feeling over how he is being repaid. It is interesting to think of Zeus as a character who lets his sexual appetite and escapades get in the way of being a just and good ruler. The Ancient Greek perception of the relationship between sex and power seems very interesting to explore, especially through the lens of Zeus.
It is hard to feel bad for a man that kills his own family. At first when I first read the details given for the slaughter of his family of course I was disgusted in Hercules and couldn't see his side. I see though that it was a fit of madness that he was in and he really actually loved his family. It's sad to me that he will never have his family back all because of what he did. I can imagine It is hard to live with the fact that he is responsible for his own family's death but was not in control of it.
Before reading about Herakles from actual ancient texts, I honestly did not like Herakles much at all. He was too stuck up and proud to me, and I have never really liked those characters. But, learning more about his past and his mental health and lovers, he is much more of a human being than a god in my opinion. Despite all that he has done, a moment of PTSD shatters him, as it would any person. It just breaks my heart.
After reading Herakles, I was surprised by the overwhelming sense of genuine friendship found at the end of the play between Herakles and Theseus. I feel like friendship isn't discussed a ton in the Greek literature that we've read, especially between humans, but this play focuses in on friendship in difficult times. Even in thew beginning of the play and when Herakles returns from the Underworld, his father talks about how all of their friends abandoned them when they lost power and fell into a bad situation. Despite all of this, even though Theseus walks in to the scene after Herakles murders his wife and children, Theseus stills is loyal to Herakles and is a genuine friend while he is grieving over what he has done. It was really cool to see that dynamic play out and see what the Greeks considered friendship to be between humans.