Euripides’ Hercules And Fortune Essays Examples

In the Greek tradition of mythology and epic storytelling, most of the mortal characters of the stories are dragged about on their adventures through fate that is out of their control. Some of these characters are more victims of fate than others; Hercules, especially in the way that Euripides portrayed the epic hero, was one of these characters that was constantly being tried by fate.
In the stories about Hercules, he is constantly being tested by one character or another; Hera, Zeus’ wife, has hated Hercules since the beginning of his life, because Zeus fathered Hercules with a mortal woman. However, in Euripides’ version of the Hercules tale, Hercules is sent to kill Lycus, the new king of Thebes who is ruling in a manner that is unlawful. Lycus is about to kill Megara and her children because Megara is the daughter of the rightful king. It is during this scene that Hercules kills Lycus, and the Chorus of the play sings happily about the death of the tyrant.
However, Hercules cannot escape his fate. From the very beginning, Hercules was hounded by fate; he had to go through many tasks to prove his worth, and even once he became a father, he had to continue doing great deeds for the people of Thebes. In the second act of the play, Hercules cannot escape his fate: he is taken by Madness, and he kills his three sons and his wife, whom he has fought to protect for most of his life and for whom he killed Lycus.