Heracles
The hero is away in the underworld on his last labour while a usurper in Thebes prepares to kill his wife, his children and his aged father at the altar where they have taken refuge; he returns in time and puts the tyrant down, at which point Hera sends Madness into the house. Theseus arrives afterwards to a man who cannot bear what he finds there. Known also as Heracles Mad or Hercules Furens, it breaks in two at the midpoint by design, and what it says about the claims of friendship on a ruined man has been argued over ever since.
Open Heracles in the archive — filters, lineage graph and full facet browsing.
Lineage
Attributes
Genre
Archetype (Jung / Campbell)
Plot structure
Symbol / motif
Conflict
Mode / tone
Culture / tradition
Closest analogues
- 60% · 12 shared
- 49% · 8 shared
- 48% · 10 shared
- 46% · 8 shared
- 45% · 10 shared
- 43% · 9 shared