Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-1820614-20150509232606/@comment-26434670-20150615013123

Seekquaze1 wrote: Solangeloisendgame wrote:

The dressing up as a woman part doesn't count. That was a punishment from Zeus, for purposely killing a good friend because of an insult offered to Hercules from the boy's father. Hercules took the punishment, but he vowed to get revenge on his friend's father , because he blamed him for being sent to the queen. I think it does. Like many kings Hercules deposed Eurytus made a promise and broke it. Being king Eruytus could usually get away with that. Except Hercules would not tolerate it and unlike the average person could do something about it. He did wrongfully kill Iphitos in a fit of madness not purposely, but served out his punishment. Hercules was so strong that unless Zeus came off Olympus himself no one could have done anything to Hercules. And there are plenty of stories of villanize demigods, giants, and monsters terrorizing the mortal world without the Olympians doing anything about it.

And that ignores several other stories as well. If you go with the version that no one blamed Hercules for the death of his family he still willingly underwent the labors. And in another story he killed the servant of a king in a fit of rage. The law decreed Hercules has to go into exile, but the king and people were willing to waver the law. Hercules willingly went into exile anyway. Point being Hercules was not a psychotic murderer who went around killing people and not suffering the consequences. Most of the people he willingly killed would have seen as having "deserved it" by the standards of the day and those he did not he willingly underwent punishment/purification as dictated by the oracles. No one could have forced him to if he did not willingly go along with it.

I know that ; but he didn't always except the punishment gracefully when he was through with it. All in all, the overall assessment of Hercules' character is that he was a great hero who had strong emotions and weak intelligence.