Superheroes: Then And Now

Unless otherwise stated, I assume that under the plate of mythological spaghetti there is a piece of really meatball meat. Unfortunately, our modern superheroes are set on the contrary – it’s pure mythological pasta without meatballs. Superman (as well as Supergirl), Batman (and Robin), Tarzan, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash, Phantom, Buffy, Van Helsing, James Bond and many others do not contain meatballs.

Modern superheroes with extraordinary abilities can also be superheroes with exceptional mental and/or observant abilities as opposed to pure superpowers, muscles or sports abilities – examples may include Sherlock Holes, Perry Mason, Miss Jane Maple or Hercule Poirot; maybe those who have fast guns like Paladin (TV “You have a gun – go”). Unfortunately, it is also a fictitious pasta without meatballs.

Superheroes of antiquity, when, as they say, dominated by mythology, did not have real superpowers, unless, of course, they were gods. Even then, the power of the deity turned pale in comparison with our modern superheroes – here shifted a small lightning; slightly changes the shape (although it’s a pretty graceful superpower). Even most of the gods needed chariots or horses to move around, or they had to do it themselves. There were a few exceptions, such as Hermes (Mercury for the Romans), which had special high-tech winged sandals and a winged helmet.

Excluding this category – ‘gods’, the surviving superheroes of ancient times did not possess real superpowers (X-ray vision, faster than a fast bullet) or super-fast gadgets. Technology like jetpacks and vehicles like the Batmobile or sounds like Green Lantern to help them. Were they as fictional, as non-meatballs as our modern superheroes?

Here I need to clarify what I really mean by superheroes. It’s not so much about having special superpowers or high technology beyond normal, even if it’s part of it. Rather, superheroes past or present – professional heroes, even if sometimes they resist.

Logic, no doubt, suggests that the non-divine superheroes of ancient times have a common trait with the superheroes of today, “today,” defined, for example, in the days of our grandparents, great-grandfathers and great-grandfathers, to revive the superheroes of the past. your time. . – the common feature is that then they were imaginary, as now. I’m not sure.

I will confine myself here to a mostly ancient Greek (and therefore Roman) clan of superheroes, as well as a few others that do not fall under this direct. I’m going to do this because 1) they are most familiar to us and 2) it doesn’t let this essay become a folio.

Here is our line-up of former non-divine superheroes (although some of them are demigods). Note that there is nothing in the ancient texts that describes the exploits of these characters by explicitly stating that they are imaginary or fictional manifestations. There is no such warning. As if there is no objection to the fact that the Bible is a work of fiction, although biblical stories are much more bizarre than anything that the ancient Greeks invented in their philosophy.

Alexander the Great (356-323 BC) – In reality, there is certainly no doubt about this man, and although the military ‘superheroes’ (depending on whether you win or lose) – pennies in the top ten countries in each era Alex is also heroically known for taming the wild horse Of Bucephalus and unleashing a gored knot (although in some versions he is a little deceived).

Bellerophon (Greek) tamed the wild winged horse Pegasus, and killed the monster (see Below).

Beowulf was a Scandinavian warrior until the 8th century AD, whose main fame was the killing of monsters (again, see below).

Daedalus is best known in Greek mythology as the father of Icarus. They both wore homemade wax wings to escape captivity in Crete, and although the father warned his son not to fly too close to the sun, that’s exactly what his son did, and as a result the wax holding the feathers of his wings melted and the young Icarus melted. plunged the swan into the sea from a height greater than the recommended norm.

Hercules: Wait, isn’t Hercules imaginary? Aside from the TV show and the myriad of movies about him and his mythology (some modern, some old), at least four whole cities are named after him, so you have to be pretty special and probably quite real., what more than I can say about modern superheroes. Is there Batmanville or Superman City? Which of these ancient places honor Hercules in this way? Well, there is Heraklion on the border of Macedonia and Northern Thessaly; Iraklion (Crete); the port city of Iraklion in Egypt, now under water about four miles offshore; and, of course, Herculaneum (Italy), which was destroyed along with Pompeii when Vesuvius staged a ka-boom in 79 AD. In addition, there are Hercules pillars in the Strait of Gibraltar. It should not be forgotten that it was built and dedicated to quite a lot of temples (then there were many worship of Hercules), as well as more statues than you can find in museums – well, not quite, but there are many of them. ; statues that is. His image is also found on several coins of the Empire IV and 5th centuries BC. Some sources acknowledge the creation of the Olympic Games in Hercules. Lots of PR for an imaginary character!

I argue that when cities, villages, settlements of any kind and other geographical objects are named after people, they are named after real people, not mythological or fictional people. And as soon as you admit that Hercules existed, there was also his father, and he was a minor character named zevs!

Jason (and the Argonauts) went in search of the treasures of the Golden Rune with Hercules on board as a crew (among many others). They had together many great heroic adventures!

King Gilgamesh was indeed king Gilgamesh, ruler of Varca (Uruka) at the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC in Mesopotamia. The wall he built around Uruk is his archaeological glory. He also had many heroic adventures, as described in “The Epic of Gilgamesh.”