With richness of the different culture in each story, they enlighten us with the universal moral lessons.
The given heroes – Hercules, Gilgamesh and Sun Wukong are legendary characters from different mythologies. The stories of these heroes has influenced the whole world.
- Hercules
Hercules, the Roman mythical hero, is inspired from the Greek divine hero Heracles. This adapted character from Greek mythology was given the adapted name ‘Hercules‘ from ‘Heracles’.
Hercules was one of the most famous and beloved hero from ancient mythology who was seen as an idol and worshipped in many Greek and Roman temples.
The story of the birth of Hercules has evolved over time and has many different versions. Though the common belief in all the different stories is that Hercules is said to be the son of Zeus – God of Gods and Alcmene – beautiful wife of Amphitryon.
Zues fell in love with Alcmene and made her pregnant. Upon hearing this, Hera, the Queen of Gods and Zeus’ wife become so angry that she tried to kill the baby Hercules. Though, she was not succeeded in her motives, it doesn’t stop her from the making the life of Hercules as difficult, hard and troublesome as possible.
In his youth, because of one of the Hera’s cruel trick, Hercules was caste under that drove him to madness. He murdered his wife and two children because of this insanity. After the spell was broken, Hercules become heartbroken and depressed and went into isolation. He pleaded the god Apollo to punish him for all his horrific sins. In order to cleanse his soul, Hercules was ordered by the god Apollo to perform 12 heroic labors. After that, Hercules had completed a numerous other adventures.
There is a general perception that after consuming poison unknowingly given to him by his second wife Deianira, Athena carried him to Olympus where he will spend rest of the eternity.
2. Gilgamesh
Gilgamesh was an ancient Greek Mesopotamian mythology hero. He is also the protagonist of the great poem the Epic of Gilgamesh which is the Sumerian work written before Homer’s text by 1500 years. It is known as the one of the oldest literature of the world.
After a heated first encounter and an epic 7 days long fight, both the celestial beings began to admire each other’s strength. This was the blossoming of the friendship between Gilgamesh and Enkidu.
Later, the death of close friend Enkidu marks the turning point for Gilgamesh. He embarks on a quest for immortality. After of his own death, Gilgamesh wanted to achieve the power of eternal life.
Though he was not succeeded in achieving the immortality, the quest taught him many lessons and gave a meaning to his life.
૩. Sun Wukong
Sun Wukong is the Chinese fictional character, believed to be born from the strong magical stone found on the top of the mountain of flowers and fruits. And as per Taoist traditional faith, the stone was the result of the combination of both Yin and Yang.
The baby monkey born from the womb of the stone grew up alongside the animals of the jungle. Due to the Sun Wukong’s unimaginable powers, he was declared as the King of the monkeys. After a brief period of experiencing regality, the Monkey King needed more. So he decided to go on a search of immortality.
Sun Wukong then later became developed proud for his new found abilities and began to abuse these power and knowledge, disturbing the Life and Death balance. In order to solve this, Yan Wang, the Kings of Hell, pleaded for the help from the Jade Emperor. Though, in quest on more power and to achieve highest status among Gods, Sun Wukong fight and defeated the army of the Jade Emperor. Even after all his rebellion act the he was not satisfied with his position.
Having enough of the Monkey King, the Jade Emperor decided to ask the help from Buddha.
Buddha immediately banished the monkey king from Heaven and imprisoned him under a mountain as a result of his actions.
Later, the character of the Sun Wukong developed from a trickster to a loyal protector of Xuanzang. His characters reflects the journey of self-development and self-enrichment.
As we had seen in the above stories of some great mythological heroes that greed is root of all evil. It is an endless quest to nothingness. Rather, a person should explore oneself and try to overcome their inner flaws. Like the heroes in the above stories who fight numerous battles which taught them the complexities of life, value of satisfaction, acceptance of morality, redemption etc. we should also fight the internal battle against the blemishes of oneself which will lead to the personal development, growth and self-discovery.
Article By Megha Dave । Edited By Sanika Vahora
