Superheroes: Then And Now
Unless stated or identified to the contrary, I hypothesize that buried under any plateful of mythological spaghetti lays a between-meal edible of a assuredly meaty meatball. Alas, our contemporary superheroes have been identified to the contrary - they are all meatball-less pure mythological pasta. Superman (and Supergirl too), Batman (and Robin), Tarzan, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, The Flash, The Phantom, Buffy, Van Helsing, James Bond, and multi-dozens more are meatball-less.
Superheroes: Then And Now
Modern superheroes, those with abilities out of the ordinary, might also comprise those with exceptional mental and/or observational abilities as opposed to pure superpowers, brawn or athletic skills - examples might comprise Sherlock Holes, Perry Mason, Miss Jane Maple or Hercule Poirot; possibly those with a fast gun like Paladin (Tv's "Have Gun - Will Travel"). Alas, they too are meatball-less fictional pasta.
The superheroes of yesteryear when mythology allegedly ruled didn't have real superpowers unless they were deities of course. Even then the deity's powers paled compared to our contemporary superheroes - a bit of lighting bolt chucking here; a bit of shape-shifting there (though that's a pretty neat superpower). Even most of the gods needed chariots to get around, or horses or they had to hoof it themselves. There were a few exceptions like Hermes (Mercury to the Romans) who had special high-tech winged sandals and a winged helmet.
Eliminating that kind - the 'gods' - the remaining superheroes of ancient times didn't have real superpowers (X-ray vision, faster-than-a-speeding-bullet velocities) or super-ultra high-tech gadgets like jetpacks and vehicles like the Batmobile or rings like Green Lantern's to help them. However, they did have powers, ordinarily nerves-of-steel and/or heavy strength. Were they as fictional, as meatball-less as our contemporary day superheroes?
At this point I should elucidate what I assuredly mean by superheroes. It's not so much having special superpower abilities, or possessing high-tech above and beyond the ordinary, though that's part of it. It's more that superheroes, past or gift are heroes by profession, even if sometimes reluctantly. Or, superheroes are superheroes at least as a matter of personal pride or sense of duty and therefore it's a serious hobby. Superman doesn't save the world just once; he does it again and again. Jessica Fletcher (Tv's "Murder, She Wrote") doesn't solve one whodunit, but one murder difficulty after other after another. Paladin doesn't outdraw one outlaw, but routinely, episode after episode. possibly the concept of superheroes can be summed up as those with the "Right Stuff".
Now assuredly logic dictates that the non-deity superheroes of ancient times share one base trait with the superheroes of 'today', 'today' defined as say back through the days of our grandparents and great grandparents to incorporate the superheroes of their times - that commonality is that they, then as well as now, are imaginary. Well, I'm not so sure.
I'll restrict myself here in general to the ancient Greek (and therefore Roman) superhero clan, plus a few others that fall face that immediate pigeonhole. I'll do that since 1) it's those that are most customary to us and 2) it saves this essay from developing into a book-length tome.
Here's our cast of ancient non-deity superheroes (though some are demigods). Note that there's nothing in the ancient texts that chronicles the exploits of these figures that explicitly states they are imaginary or fictional make-believe entities. There's no such disclaimer. It's just like there is no disclaimer that the Bible is a work of fiction though Biblical tales are way more outlandish than anyone the ancient Greeks dreamt up in their philosophy.
Alexander the Great (356 - 323 Bce) - There's assuredly no query about the reality of this man, and while soldiery 'superheroes' (depending on whether you're on the winning or losing side) are a dime-a-dozen, every country in every era has some, Alex is also known heroically for taming the wild horse Bucephalus and for undoing the Gordian Knot (though in some versions he cheated a bit).
Bellerophon (Greek) tamed the wild and winged horse Pegasus, and killed a monster too (see below).
Beowulf was a pre-8th Century Ce Scandinavian warrior whose main claim to fame was monster-slaying (again, see below).
Daedalus in Greek mythology is best known as daddy to Icarus. They both donned self-manufactured wax-wings in order to flee imprisonment in Crete, and while daddy cautioned his son not to fly too close to the Sun, son did just that and as a corollary the wax keeping the feathers of his wings melted and young Icarus did a swan dive into the sea from a higher altitude than is ordinarily recommended. Of course that part of the story is idiotic on two counts. Firstly, as you rise higher in the climate the temperature gets colder. Secondly, the Sun is 93 million miles away, so whether you are at an altitude of 1000 feet or 10,000 feet or 100,000 feet it's hardly of any consequence in terms of being that much closer to the Sun. That aside, Daedalus travelled far and wide on his hand-crafted wings, and is well represented over the Greek influenced Mediterranean region, for example on Sicily. That aside and prior to his acquisition of man-made winged transport, Daedalus was credited with creating the Labyrinth on Crete in which the Minotaur (part man, part bull) was kept in order to devour young men and women.
Hercules: Now wait, isn't Hercules assuredly imaginary? Well, quite apart from the Tv show and numerous movies that highlight him and his mythology (some modern, some ancient), the man has at least four whole towns named after him, so you have to be pretty special and probably pretty real, which is more than I can say for contemporary superheroes. Is there a Batmanville or Superman City? What are some of those ancient sites that so honour Hercules? Well there's Heracleion on the border between Macedon and Northern Thessaly; Heraklion (Crete); the port city of Herakleion (Egypt), now submerged some four miles offshore; and of course Herculaneum (Italy), which, along with Pompeii was wiped out when Mount Vesuvius did it's ka-boom thing back in 79 Ce. Apart from that there's the Pillars of Hercules out by the Straits of Gibraltar. Least us not forget the rather numerous amount of temples constructed and dedicated to him (there was many a Hercules cult back then), as well as more statues than you can find museums for - well not quite but there are an awful lot of them; statues that is. Then too his image is featured on discrete coins of the realm dating from the 4th and 5th Centuries Bce. Some sources accredit the creation of the Olympic Games to Hercules. Not bad Pr for an imaginary character!
I utter that if cities, towns, villages, settlements of any kind as well as other geographical features are named after people, they are named after real people, not mythological or imaginary ones. And once you admit that Hercules existed then his daddy also existed, and that was some minor character named Zeus!
Jason (and the Argonauts) went on a treasure hunt for the Golden Fleece with Hercules on board as crew (among many others). They had many great heroic adventures together!
King Gilgamesh - there assuredly was a King Gilgamesh, ruler of Warka (Uruk) in the early 3rd Millennium Bce of Mesopotamia. The wall he built colse to Uruk is his archaeological claim to fame. He too had many heroic adventures as outlined in the "Epic of Gilgamesh".
King Arthur, agreeing to scholars, probably has some historical foundation, and probably lived colse to the 5th or 6th Centuries Ce, albeit well removed from Excalibur, the Round Table and Merlin. There's assuredly exiguous doubt there was some relatively sublime chieftain back then that over time morphed into the popular image of King Arthur, Camelot and the Arthurian legends/mythology.
Odysseus (or Ulysses to the Romans) was the central shape in the ten year super heroic odyssey called by Homer, oddly adequate "The Odyssey". It was a companion volume to "The Iliad" and since "The Iliad" led Heinrich Schliemann to peruse and excavate Troy (once concept to be pure fiction), then there's every hypothesize to think "The Odyssey" isn't a work of fiction whether (Homer never says so) but the historic chronicles of our superhero, Odysseus. Odysseus was also one of the heroes in the "Iliad" and of the Trojan War. He crafted the idea for the Wooden Horse among other heroic deeds in the Battle of Troy (see below for some more of his adventures).
Oedipus, in good old fashion whodunit detective logic solved the riddle of the Sphinx (and thus avoided becoming Sphinx-food). Now the Sphinx in this case was still a hybrid creature but the Greek version, not the more sublime Egyptian one. The Greek counterpart had the head of a woman, the body of a lion and wings. From what ancient images survive of the Greek Sphinx, I get 'she' was rather well endowed. Anyway, once bested, once her riddle was solved, 'she' committed suicide.
While the Trojan War is way too big in scope in terms of citing the exploits of all the heroes concerned here, one other mention will do. King Agamemnon of Mycenae who commanded the army loaded onto those 1000 ships (plus 13 more) launched by that face - the face of Helen, wife of Menelaus (King of Sparta) and brother to King Agamemnon. Mycenae was excavated by Heinrich Schliemann (of Troy fame). Though a relatively minor site in its time, Mycenae and its Lion Gate are now one of the more sublime historic and archaeological sites in Greece.
The main occupation of our ancient superheroes was dealing with, ordinarily killing monsters. I guess there was a shortage of mad scientists bent on world domination Bce; expert criminals trying to illegally angle the gold market back then; and I get alien invaders were invading somewhere else at that time as well. The job article for superheroes has assuredly blown out of all proportion since the time of Hercules! Anyway, dealing with monsters was occupation adequate back then.
Bellerophon, tamer of Pegasus the flying horse, also killed the Chimaera, a gruesome monster, a hybrid composite of lion, snake and goat.
Beowulf (the warrior) had his Grendel to slay, and once that was accomplished, he had to deal with Grendel's pissed-off mother. That too was accomplished. However, 50 years of peace and quiet later, the now King Beowulf went down swinging against a dragon, but the dragon was struck out too. It's a tied ball game with both players retired from the living.
Hercules encountered a lot of beasties when doing his twelve labours, most of which were the object of his ordeals. However, in only two labours did he apparently slay the critters; a monstrous lion and the multi-headed Hydra. Though he killed some man-eating birds, he drove away most of the flock of these predatory birds in his sixth trial. He captured a lot of animals alive as required in some of his other exploits, like a hind, a boar, a bull, some mares, a herd of oxen, and Cerberus.
Odysseus, on his way home to Ithaca from Troy, gave the Cyclops called Polyphemus a hard time. Unfortunately this was a bad move as it assuredly pissed-off the god of the sea, Poseidon (Neptune to the Romans). Now if you are undertaking a sea voyage, trying to get back home to the exiguous lady of the household after a ten year absence - fighting that Trojan War - you assuredly don't want to annoy Poseidon. Anyway, between Poseidon's tricks and other obstacles, our superhero had to face man-eating giants; the enchantress Circe; the Sirens (bird-like creatures with feminine faces and perfect singing voices that could tempt any man); some 'wandering rocks'; a incorporate of sea monsters (Scylla & Charybdis); but as a 'reward' finally ended up in the arms of Calypso for seven years. Then he got that seven-year-itch and continued on his way back home to still more obstacles and adventures.
Perseus lopped off the head of Medusa, old snake-hair herself and chief of the dreaded Gorgons. Perseus also did the time-honoured hero-thing and saved a damsel in distress - Andromeda, chained naked to a rock, an gift and snack food for a hungry sea monster. The weapon of choice - Medusa's head, since whoever or anyone looked at Medusa, even when that head was in a rather state of ultimate rigor mortis, got turned into an even greater state of rigor mortis - pure stone. That applied to sea monsters too. After the fight it was love at first sight - some heroes have all the luck even though some trials and tribulations were still ahead for Perseus.
Saint George had a run-in with a dragon - St. George 1; dragon 0. Now I get you do not get the honorary word "Saint" attached to your name if the granting powers-that-be concept that you were imaginary.
Sigurd is the legendary hero of Norse mythology. In German he's cited as Siegfried (known in general today via the Wagner operas "Siegfried" and "Gotterdammerung"). In whether case, among many other and heroic adventures, a bit of dragon slaying was the order of the day.
Theseus slew the Minotaur in Crete, much to the relief of potential hereafter human sacrifices.
Monsters aside, if you tone down some of the more probably embellished bits, there's not anyone assuredly unbelievable about these superhero tales. Of course some tales have to be taken with more than just a grain of salt - possibly an whole salt-shaker worth - like the Biblical Samson since there's no way anyone can join together hair distance with corporeal strength, so Samson, for example, is pure fiction.
Unfortunately these ancient exploits and heroics aren't ordinarily the kind of things that tend to leave behind firsthand hardcore archaeological evidence. There is of course lots of second-hand archaeological evidence - images and carvings - and that's a start. I have to base their bona-fides or reality on 1) the numerous authors of these epics that never hinted that they were anyone but the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth; 2) the base population of those eras appropriate those heroic events as real history in much the exact same way as we digest and accept unfolding events we get from the press or radio/Tv news bulletins; and 3) the ancients often went to some quite indispensable trouble to honour and retain these stories and characters via inexpressive and communal images, as official emblems, on coinage, pottery galore, jewellery/amulets, on armour/shields, via statutes, dedicated temples, and even naming whole cities dedicated to their memory.
It's pretty spectacular, that these ancient mythical characters and events - if mythical they are - are still with us thousands of years later. That's real staying power. I wonder whether 3000 years from today anyone will remember or have way to the tales of Wonder Woman, Paladin, or Miss Marple.
While there assuredly were some imaginary heroes (though not whether equipped with superpowers or who made heroics their profession) in relatively ancient times from "Jack and the Beanstalk" to "Hansel & Gretel", for some assuredly weird reason, there seems to be a relative lack of superheroes between the times we join together with ancient history and say the early 20th Century when Sherlock Holmes, Tarzan, John Carter of Mars (or Barsoom to the Martians), Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers appeared. Even then no superpowers were involved. It wasn't until Superman came to be in the 1930's that the true age of the contemporary superhero, accent on superpowers, had arrived.
Where are all the current real larger-than-life superheroes - the kind who seemingly make super-heroism an everyday profession? assuredly over the past some centuries there have been numerous heroes (and of course heroines) - Medal of Honor and Victoria Cross winners, those employed in discrete emergency services, as well as lowly citizens who rise to spectacular, heroics when a special and ordinarily one-off set of circumstances arise. But where are our expert dragon slayers? Okay, no current dragons therefore no currently employed dragon slayers. That aside, there clearly are no longer those superheroes colse to equivalent to those that were so well known and popular by the ancient Greeks and other citizens of associated ancient cultures. Wrong!
If you reputation the tales of Jason and the Argonauts or Odysseus with superhero status, overcoming obstacle after obstacle while striving ever forward, then possibly that status should be bestowed on say those unknown and unnamed explorers (voluntarily or involuntarily) who discovered and colonized Hawaii, Tahiti or Easter Island. And if they are worthy of superhero status, then assuredly ditto that for the likes of seafarers Columbus, Magellan, Captain Cook, and Darwin of the Hms Beagle, and of course dozens more. In fact, that equally applies to all those other explorers who boldly went where no one went before; to the polar regions as well as the tropics, from the top of the climate to the lowest of the sea, and on to the Moon - a list of superheroes far too many to name. They too had the "Right Stuff"!
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