56 pages • 1-hour read
Tales of the Greek Heroes
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Chapters 6-10Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of graphic violence, animal death, substance use, child death, and death.
Chapter 6 Summary: “The Adventures of Dionysus”
Zeus anticipates the hero who will help him defeat the giants. He marries Semele, Cadmus’s third daughter, which sparks Hera’s jealousy because she fears Semele might give birth to a son more powerful than Hera’s own children, Ares and Hephaestus. Hera, disguised as a mortal, tries to trick Semele into doubting Zeus by claiming that he’s pretending to be immortal. Semele therefore asks Zeus to prove his immortality. Zeus transforms into his shining glory, but Semele cannot endure it and dies.
Zeus names Semele’s son Dionysus. To protect him from Hera’s anger, he secretly entrusts him to Semele’s sisters, Ino and Agave. When Dionysus grows into a man, the Satyrs become his loyal followers. Dionysus learns how to make wine from grapes on Mount Nysa and then begins teaching humans how to make wine.
Dionysus travels around the world and faces many adventures. When he returns to Greece, many kings prevent him from sharing his wine-making skills. For example, King Lycurgus drives Dionysus into the sea, but the nymphs save him. Lycurgus is punished for his actions, but in trying to leave the caves of the sea nymphs, Dionysus is captured by pirates. In response, Dionysus floods the ship with wine and fills the sails with grapes. Terrified, everyone jumps into the sea except the helmsman, who realizes early on that Dionysus is an immortal and brings him to Athens. Dionysus later goes to Thebes, where Pentheus, Cadmus’s grandson, imprisons him. Again, Dionysus frees himself, breaking the walls of his cell with vines.
Before claiming his place on Olympus, Dionysus faces King Perseus in Argos. Perseus attacks Dionysus with a sword and kills him. Dionysus then goes to Hades, sharing in humanity’s fate. He declares he will join the immortals following Zeus’s wish but asks Hades for permission to take his mother, Semele, with him. Hades agrees only if Dionysus gives up his “best beloved” on earth. Dionysus agrees and causes a vine, his “best beloved,” to grow in the Underworld. Dionysus and his mother then ascend to Olympus, where every immortal, including Hera, welcomes him.
Chapter 7 Summary: “Perseus the Gorgon-Slayer”
Danae, the daughter of King Acrisius, lives in Tiryns, a city in the region of Argolis. Acrisius prevents her from marrying because Apollo’s oracle has predicted that her son will kill Acrisius. Nevertheless, Zeus has a son with Danae named Perseus. Acrisius sends Danae and Perseus away to sea inside a chest, hoping it will sink. However, they land on the island of Seriphos, where Polydectes reigns.
Perseus grows up in Seriphos. Meanwhile, Polydectes falls in love with Danae, who denies him because he is a tyrannical ruler. To get rid of Perseus, Polydectes plots against him and asks him to bring back the head of the monstrous Gorgon. Perseus accepts the challenge.
Athena and Hermes appear before Perseus, telling him that Zeus sent them to help. Hermes gives him Cronos’s sharp sickle, and Athena grants him her shield. Athena explains that mortals who look at Medusa, the Gorgon, turn to stone but that Perseus will be safe by looking at Medusa’s reflection in Athena’s shield.
Following Hermes’s advice, Perseus departs to find the Grey Sisters, old women who have only one eye, which they pass among themselves. From them, Perseus gets directions to the nymphs’ garden. The nymphs give Perseus Shoes of Swiftness to escape Medusa’s sisters (also Gorgons), a magical wallet to hold the Gorgon’s head, and the Cap of Hades to turn invisible.
Perseus finds Medusa and carefully cuts off her head, which has snakes in place of hair. However, the other Gorgons awaken, and Perseus must escape their fury. Flying away across the world with the help of his magical shoes, Perseus encounters a woman chained to a rock. Her name is Andromeda, and her father, King Cepheus, has chained her as a sacrifice to the sea nymphs. Perseus instantly falls in love with Andromeda. Using Medusa’s head, he quickly defeats a sea monster that the nymphs have sent to kill Andromeda and frees her.
Andromeda’s father agrees to her marriage with Perseus. However, a prince named Phineus, to whom Andromeda was promised, arrives with followers to claim her. Perseus uses the Gorgon’s head again and turns them to stone, and Perseus and Andromeda sail to Greece. There, Perseus discovers that Polydectes has enslaved his mother. He finds Polydectes in his palace and, with Medusa’s head, turns him and his men into stone.
Perseus and Andromeda return to Argolis, where Perseus accidentally kills Acrisius, fulfilling the prophecy. The couple reigns for years in Argolis and has many children. Perseus dies after his battle with Dionysus, but his granddaughter, Alcmena, will give birth to Heracles, the hero Zeus expects.
Chapter 8 Summary: “The Birth of Heracles”
Electryon, Perseus’s son, arranges a marriage between his only daughter, Alcmena, and his nephew, Amphitryon. However, following a quarrel over stolen cattle, Amphitryon accidentally kills Electryon and is exiled by his uncle, Sthenelus, another of Perseus’s sons.
Amphitryon and Alcmena flee to Thebes, where King Creon rules. In Thebes, Amphitryon faces the Teumessian Fox, which Dionysus sent as punishment for his imprisonment. Creon tasks Amphitryon with destroying the fox. With help from Artemis and Zeus, Amphitryon defeats the fox and successfully punishes the cattle robbers.
Zeus feels anxious about the expected hero’s birth. He believes this hero will be born in Thebes, within the royal family. Zeus focuses on Alcmena, who is beautiful and virtuous. Before Amphitryon returns to Thebes, Zeus assumes his likeness and marries Alcmena. The next day, Amphitryon arrives. Late in Alcmena’s pregnancy, Zeus summons all the immortals to inform them about the imminent birth of Heracles, vowing that a child will be born that day who will rule all of Argolis. Out of jealousy, Hera arranges for Heracles to be born a day later than Eurystheus, King Sthenelus’s son. Because Zeus cannot break his promise, he is forced to accept that Heracles will be subject to Eurystheus’s rule.
At just 10 months old, Heracles accomplishes his first feat. Hera sends two huge snakes to kill him. However, when they approach him and his twin brother, Iphicles, Heracles wakes up, seizes the serpents, and kills them. Alcmena consults the prophet Tiresias, who tells her that Heracles will become the most celebrated hero in Greece. Tiresias also notes that Heracles will suffer due to Hera’s envy but will join the Olympians in the end. Finally, he reveals to Alcmena that Heracles is Zeus’s son.
Heracles grows up safely and learns early on how to sing, play the lyre, and read and write. As a boy, he is taller than others and has a violent temperament, killing his lyre teacher, Linus, after Linus strikes him. Heracles is forgiven, but Amphitryon, fearing he might repeat his deed, sends him to Mount Cithaeron to tend cattle. There, Heracles grows to manhood.
Chapter 9 Summary: “The Choice of Heracles”
While on Mount Cithaeron, two mysterious maidens visit Heracles. One, named Happiness, offers him an easy, trouble-free life if he becomes her friend. The second promises great feats and fame if Heracles follows her but says that doing so will require hard work: He must serve Greece and use his strength wisely. She warns him that the first maiden is deceptive; her true name is Vice. Heracles ultimately chooses the second maiden, Virtue.
Heracles notices a lion in the valley attacking the cows. He charges toward the cattle with “fury,” discovering that the lion is gone and all the cows are dead. Heracles vows to kill the lion. He tracks the beast to a cave 50 days later, and the fight begins. Heracles strikes the lion on its head with his club and kills it. He skins the animal and then wears its hide as armor.
Heracles engages in a battle with a king named Eriginus after quarreling with his messenger, who demands tribute from the Thebans. The king seeks Heracles’s punishment, but the hero gathers an army of men and defeats him. King Creon is indebted to Heracles and arranges his marriage to his daughter, Megara. Following this, Heracles settles in Thebes and has three sons. During that time, he performs no great feat, which troubles Zeus. Hera convinces him to enslave Heracles to Eurystheus, so Zeus allows her to afflict him with “madness.”
In his altered state, Heracles furiously attacks and kills his sons; Megara also dies, heartbroken. Soon, King Thestius visits him on Zeus’s orders. He prompts Heracles to visit Delphi and ask Apollo what to do to make amends. Heracles does, learning that he should start his labors and fulfill his purpose as Zeus’s son. The oracle instructs him to go to Eurystheus and serve him. Heracles agrees, taking his nephew, Iolaus, with him.
Chapter 10 Summary: “The Beginning of the Labours”
Eurystheus doubts that Hercules will complete his tasks. The first labor he assigns is to capture the Nemean Lion. The lion has fallen from the moon and is impossible to kill. Heracles asks him to wait 30 days. After a long search, Heracles finds the lion and attacks it with sword and club, but it remains unharmed. He then grabs it by the neck and, after a fight, kills it. When Heracles presents it to Eurystheus, the king demands that he kill the Lernean Hydra.
Since the Lernean Hydra is a venomous serpent, Athena appears to assist Heracles. She advises him to shoot fiery arrows into the cave to attract the serpent and to hold his breath because its smell is deadly. Heracles follows Athena’s instructions, but when he tears off the Lernean Hydra’s head with his club, two new heads grow back. Heracles smashes the heads, and Iolaus burns them with a torch. Heracles buries the serpent’s immortal head and dips his arrows into its venomous blood.
In response, Eurystheus accuses Heracles of cheating because Iolaus helped him. He then sends him to capture the Hind with the Golden Horns. This reindeer belongs to Artemis, and no one dares to touch it. Heracles travels across Greece for a year and finally finds the hind in Arcadia. There, Artemis intercepts him. When he explains his task, Artemis allows him to show the hind to Eurystheus, provided he returns it unharmed.
Next, Eurystheus asks for the Erymanthian Boar. On the way, Heracles meets Pholus, a centaur (a being who is half-human, half-horse). Pholus welcomes Heracles, but the other centaurs accidentally drink Dionysus’s wine and nearly kill the hero, and Pholus touches Heracles’s poisonous arrows and dies. After burying him, Heracles captures the boar and returns to Eurystheus.
Eurystheus then orders Heracles to clean Augeas’s stables in one day. They are extremely dirty, so Heracles has to devise a plan. He opens holes on the sides of the stables and digs a channel so that the rivers Alpheus and Peneus flow inside.
Eurystheus refuses to reward Heracles, instead sending him to fight the Stymphalian Birds of Ares. Athena gives Heracles brazen castanets to fend off the birds’ beaks. The birds flee upon hearing the noise, and Heracles shoots some with arrows.
Still unsatisfied, Eurystheus asks for the Cretan Bull. Heracles goes to Knossos and asks King Minos for the bull. King Minos explains that the bull is enraged, causing chaos everywhere. However, Heracles captures it easily and returns to Eurystheus. The bull manages to escape to Marathon and Athens, killing anyone who tries to approach it for years.
Eurystheus asks Heracles to travel to Thrace and retrieve King Diomedes’s horses. On the way, Heracles stops in Thessaly to visit Prince Admetus.
Chapters 6-10 Analysis
The Complex Relationship Between Gods and Humans is evident in Dionysus’s story, which highlights the anthropomorphism of the Olympian gods. Although he is a demigod ultimately elevated to divine status, Dionysus embodies human desires and passions, bridging the gap between divinity and mortality. Dionysus seeks joy and pleasure, with Satyrs as followers, but also faces trials and hardships like any other human, as when he is captured by pirates and imprisoned. His dual nature is most strongly emphasized by his encounter with death, which Green casts as the ultimate evidence of Dionysus’s humanity, explaining that Dionysus “shared the fate of all mankind” (82). In this context, his ultimate resurrection is not simply a personal apotheosis; rather, it symbolizes human life’s potential for rebirth and renewal, foreshadowing the resolution of Heracles’s story.
Indeed, Green uses several of the earlier myths to prefigure elements of Heracles’s arc as he frames it. Perseus is another example, solidifying how Green uses the monsters of Greek legend to create a good versus evil framework, simplifying the moral ambiguities of many of the source texts in the process. Perseus becomes the first human hero to achieve a feat in the book, establishing heroes as moral figures: His killing of the Gorgon Medusa represents human victory over great threats, particularly as Green omits Medusa’s origin story as a victim of the gods’ anger, casting her as a straightforwardly evil figure. Perseus faces other enemies and trials throughout this quest, emerging as a symbol of overcoming fear and hardship. Nevertheless, hints of moral complexity emerge in Perseus’s use of Medusa’s head. This object, originally a symbol of monstrosity and terror, becomes a powerful weapon in Perseus’s hands, symbolizing empowerment and protection against evil.
The Significance of Heroism in Greek Mythology dominates in this section with the introduction of Heracles as the central heroic figure in the narrative. Green frames Heracles as an archetype, a hero destined to serve and save humanity. His anticipation by Zeus and Tiresias’s prophecy paints him as a messianic figure; as Green describes, Heracles was “born […] to save both men and immortals” (104). Similarly, Tiresias’s speech describes Heracles as a savior “whose coming was foretold at the beginning of the world” (110). This framing of the legendary hero reflects the centrality of the heroic ideal in ancient Greek culture, where heroes were often venerated, but also recasts the myths’ religious dimensions in terms more likely to be familiar to modern readers.
As a mythical hero, Heracles demonstrates supernatural powers from an early age, showcasing his superiority over other heroes. When Hera seeks to destroy him while he is merely an infant, Heracles survives, foreshadowing his legendary future. Heracles’s confrontation with virtue and vice, personified as women, establishes the moral dimensions of his heroism. Heracles stands at a crossroads but resists Vice’s tempting offer and selects the difficult path with Virtue as his guide. In this way, Heracles’s character arc reflects the classic hero’s journey, which shows that a hero only grows through confrontation and overcoming challenges. Heracles’s choice also reflects ancient Greek values, emphasizing that excellence only comes through “strife and labor” and thus suggesting that hardship and adversity are fundamental parts of human experience (117).
Heracles’s labors expand the theme of heroism, providing a vivid depiction of the hero’s challenges. To achieve his ultimate immortal glory, Heracles must humbly serve Eurystheus and complete his assigned labors. While facing challenges with bravery and relentlessly pursuing his tasks, Heracles also demonstrates wit and intelligence, relying not only on his physical strength but also on effective strategies. For example, when he realizes the Nemean Lion cannot be killed with conventional weapons, Heracles must act quickly to ensure the beast’s death. These traits reinforce the idea of a heroic figure possessing both spiritual power and strength, aligning with the ancient Greek concept of virtue.
However, while Green emphasizes conventional aspects of heroism for narrative purposes, Heracles also demonstrates flaws that complicate the dichotomy of good versus evil. For instance, Heracles displays a “very violent” attitude as a young man, murdering his music teacher. This reflects the original Greek myths’ complicated relationship to the modern heroic archetype, as the stories often center characters with both virtuous and villainous traits.
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