Hercules and Theseus in the Greek Mythology Essay Example

Hercules and Theseus in the Greek Mythology Essay Example Hercules and Theseus in the Greek Mythology Paper Hercules and Theseus in the Greek Mythology Paper Essay Topic: History Hercules and Theseus, the two great heros of the Greek Mythology In the Greek Mythology two characters played a main role in defeating the monsters and all evil enemies. The two great heroes of Greece were Hercules and Theseus. It is true that they were uncles, but they were preferred by different part of Greece. Athens liked Theseus while Sparta or the rest of Greece preferred Hercules. Both heroes had some characteristics in common, like both of them had supernatural powers and when they realized their abilities, they wanted to help mankind and to save the world. In the same time they were totally different from each other in mental way. Their intelligence level and the life experience that they had through their journey, made them two separate characters. Theseus was a good thinker, which is the reason why Athens liked him best, while Hercules used his enormous power; he was preferred by Sparta. If somebody asks the question what is the ability that is in common in Hercules and Theseus, the answer is: strength. With this ability, they decided to help innocent people and to become heroes of Greece. Hercules was the strongest man on earth and he had the supreme self-confidence magnificent physical strength gives. He excelled from the others at a very young age, when he killed two snakes with his own, bare hands. Hera, Zeuss jealous wife, sent the snakes to kill Hercules while he was sleeping. He proved that he is strong and he can defeat anybody and anything. Theseus was a strong child, too. His father placed in a hallow a sword and a pair of shoes and he covered them with a great stone. The reason why he did that, was that he wanted to see, if his son Theseus can move that stone. If yes, then he is able to take over the kingdom. The child was a boy and he grew up strong far beyond others, so that when his mother finally took him to the stone he lifted it with no trouble at all. At a very young age both characters became heroes by killing monsters and doing good to mankind. Theseuss idea was to become a great hero as quickly as possible On his way to Athens he killed many bandits and he also killed the Minotaur. It can be imagined how Greece rang with the praises of the young man who cleared the land of these banes to travelers. Hercules was renamed after his strength and he was called a hero when he defeated the Minyans. Of course they had some different characteristics as every people do. But these differences were important. Their intelligence level was like sky and ground, and their life experience differed, too. Herculess Intelligence did not figure largely i n anything he did and was often conspicuously absent. Theseus was at a higher level of his mental capabilities, because he wanted a peoples government where all would be equal. About Hercules we get a clear picture from the story, that what kind a man was he: His intellect was not strong. His emotions were. Even if his feelings were strong, he always blamed himself for the way he acted. He usually acted first and then thought about the consequences. This characteristic is proven by the scene from the funeral, where Hercules gets drunk and then he realized his fault and to make a recompense he bring back Admetuss wife from the underworld. During their long journey, both heroes, Hercules as well as Theseus, had different life experiences. The strongest man on earth engaged three times (in order: Megara, Deinanira and Hebe), while Theseus married only two women (in order: Hippolyta and Phedra). Theseus decided to dedicate his life for saving innocents and helping mankind. He knew how to treat people and how to understand himself with the peoples that supported him. Another difference between them was that Hercules always had to make up his fault. He gets twelfth labors (bringing back the lion for Nemea, to kill the nine headed creature, Hydra, to bring back alive a stag with hums of gold, to capture a great boar, to clean the Augean stables in a single day, to drive away the Stymphalian birds, to go to Crete and fetch from there the savage bull, to get the man-eating mares of King Diomedes, to bring back a the girdle of Hippolyta, to bring back the cattle of Geryon, to bring back the Golden Apples of the Hespiredes, and to bring up Cerberus from the Underworld) for killing his family, but he also killed innocent people by accident. The water-boy, and the musician were the victims of his angriness. Even if they were uncles why were they supported by different part of Greece? Athens supported Theseus while Hercules was the Spartans favorite. Athens was the home of the thinkers, doctors and scientists. As Theseus acted after his mind, he was considered as one of them. Another reason why Athenians like him best, because he never had to make labors like Hercules did many-many times. Athenians didnt liked Hercules, because he was wild. The rest of Greece preferred wildness and the strength. But Hercules embodied what the rest of Greece most valued. His qualities were those the Greeks in general honored and admired. In Greek tradition, the boys are taken at very young age for military practices and they are educated to kill. As Hercules was strong and able to kill, Spartans considered him as one of them. In my opinion Theseus was a better hero than Hercules. I admire Hercules for his enormous powers, but sometimes he was out of control of his strength and killed people that he shouldnt have killed. I think that if we didnt think ahead before we act something always going to end with a disaster. Thats why I like Theseus. He is a carefully thought out person, he never had to make up labors, and he also treated people equally and cared about their feelings.

About the Influential Henry Hobson Richardson

About the Influential Henry Hobson Richardson Famous for designing massive stone buildings with semicircular Roman arches, Henry Hobson Richardson developed a late Victorian style that became known as Richardsonian Romanesque. Some people have argued that his architectural design is the first truly American style- that up to this point in American history, building designs were copied from what was being built in Europe. H.H. Richardsons 1877 Trinity Church in Boston, Massachusetts has been called one of the 10 Buildings That Changed America. Although Richardson himself designed few houses and public buildings, his style was copied throughout America. No doubt youve seen these buildings- the big, brownish red, rusticated stone libraries, schools, churches, row houses, and single-family homes of the wealthy. Background: Born: September 29, 1838 in Louisiana Died: April 26, 1886 in Brookline, Massachusetts Education: Public and private schools in New Orleans1859: Harvard College1860: Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris Famous Buildings: 1866-1869: Unity Church, Springfield, Massachusetts (Richardsons first commission)1883-1888: Allegheny County Courthouse, Pittsburgh, PA1872-1877: Trinity Church, Boston, MA1885-1887: Glessner House, Chicago, IL1887: Marshall Field Store, Chicago, IL About Henry Hobson Richardson: During his life, cut short by kidney disease, H.H. Richardson designed churches, courthouses, train stations, libraries, and other important civic buildings. Featuring semicircular Roman arches set in massive stone walls, Richardsons unique style became known as Richardsonian Romanesque. Henry Hobson Richardson is known as the First American Architect because he broke away from European traditions and designed buildings that stood out as truly original. Also Richardson was only the second American to receive formal training in architecture. The first was Richard Morris Hunt. The architects Charles F. McKim and Stanford White worked under Richardson for awhile, and their free-form Shingle Style grew out of Richardsons use of rugged natural materials and grand interior spaces. Other important architects influenced by Henry Hobson Richardson include Louis Sullivan, John Wellborn Root, and Frank Lloyd Wright. Richardsons Significance: He had a superb sense of rather monumental composition, an uncommon sensitivenss to materials, and a creative imagination in the way to use them. His stone detailing especially was unusually lovely, and it is not strange that his buildings were imitated far and wide. He was an independent planner as well, continually feeling for greater and greater originality....Richardsonian came in the popular mind to mean, not sensitivenss to material, nor independece of design, but rather the indefinite repetition of low, wide arches, intricate Byzantinelike ornament, or dark and somber colors.- Talbot Hamlin, Architecture through the Ages, Putnam, Revised 1953, p. 609 Learn More: H. H. Richardson: Complete Architectural Works by Jeffrey Karl Ochsner, MIT PressLiving Architecture: A Biography of H.H. Richardson by James F. OGorman, Simon SchusterThe Architecture of H. H. Richardson and His Times by Henry-Russell Hitchcock, MIT PressThree American Architects: Richardson, Sullivan, and Wright, 1865-1915 by James F. OGorman, University Of Chicago PressHenry Hobson Richardson and His Works by Mariana Griswold Van Rensselaer, DoverHenry Hobson Richardson. A Genius for Architecture by Margaret H. Floyd, Photographs by Paul Rocheleau, Monacelli PressH. H. Richardson: The Architect, His Peers, and Their Era by Maureen Meister, MIT Press