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1、Compare and contrast the characters of Perseus and HerculesPerseus and Hercules are two of the most importa nt heroes in Greek mythology. In Greek mythology, they were the mortal sons of the great god Zeus, and blessed with extraordinary strength by their demi-god birth. They received the impossible
2、 quest or set of tasks, imposed by a rival who seeks to dispose of the hero; the love-struck en emy prin cess who helps him; the fated disaster and the attempt to evade it. Both of them share the repeated themes and motifs.Now I will talk about the com mon parts of their characters. The com mon char
3、acters I think in clude:s an ger. S1、They were brave. For example, Perseus cut off the head of Medusa. Medusa was a Gorgon whose look could turn a person to stone. Medusa lived with her two sisters. All of them had golden wings, claws of brass, and serpents for hair. Hercules, of all of Zeus ' s
4、 illegitimate children seemed to be the focus of Hera a two-headed serpe nt to attack him whe n he was just an infant. He simply stra ngled the sn ake with one head in each hand.2、The com mon character of them was tough. No matter how hard the challenge lay in the front of Perseus and Hercules, they
5、 still tried their best to accomplish the task all the time.3、The most importa nt I th ink it is the wise. Maybe because they were the sons of the Zeus, they endowed the intelligent mind, which helped them to finish the task successfully. The representationsof their wisdom are: Perseus traveled to t
6、he witches lived cave. Persues needed them to tell him the secret location of Medusa' s cave, so he waited until one of them took out the eye to hand it to another, and grabbed it. In addition, he entered Medusa' save, and he used a polished bronze shield to watch the three gorgons so not to
7、 look at them directly and turn to stone. Hercules attacked the hydra and began to chop off its many heads. Yet each time he chops off a head, the hydra would grow two more in its place. He called on its friend Iolaus to bur n each wound which did not arrow the heads to grow back. In this way he def
8、eated the Hydrs.They were warm-hearted pers ons. After cut off Medusa' s head, Perseus startedhis journey back to his home. On the way, he encoun tered a beautiful woma n n amed An doromeda cha ined to some rocks. He lear ned from her that her mother, Cassiopeia, had offen ded Poseido n by stat
9、ing that her own beauty was greater that the Nereids who atte nded Poseid on. To punish her, Poseid on had sent a flood and a sea serpe nt to harass the people of her country. An oracle had told Andromeda' scfather Cephus tsacrifice An dromeda to the serpe nt to appeasePoseid on. Whe n An dromed
10、a begged Perseus to save her, Perseus agreed to help her. Hercules took the apples and walked away. On the way back from this journ ey, Hercules came across the Tita n Prometheus, who was cha ined to a rock. He killed the bird which came every day to feed on his liver, and freed Prometheus.They have
11、 somethi ng in com mon, but they have many differe nces in theirCharacters. Here are the differe nces.PerseusPerseusbel ongs to an earlier gen erati on tha n the other heroes; he is, in fact, Hercules great grand-father. He was the son of Zeus and Danae, daughter of King Acrisius of Argos. The most
12、importa nt characters of Perseus, I thi nk, are gen tle and allegia nt. His characters were embodied in the followi ng three parts:1、Spare no efforts to protect his mother.Perseuswas aba ndoned by his gran d-father, Acrisius, who was warned by anoracle that his daughter ' s child would kill him.
13、 So he sealed the two of them up in a woode n chest and floated it out to sea. Perseus and his mother came to the isla nd of Seriphos. But Danae was anno yed by the king of Seriphos, Polydectes. In order to protect his mother, Perseus was forced to finish the impossible quest that he would give the
14、king the head of Gorgo ns. Helped by Athe na, Perseus fin ally achieved the task and rescued his mother.2. He made peace with his grandfather Acrisius., who was cruel to Perseus.Acrisius was afraid of the prophecies that his grandson would kill him, so hefled to Lirissa. Perseusfollowed him, not to
15、reve nge, but to make peace with him. While Perseus accidently threw the disk into the crowed and killed his grandfather,He felt so sadde ned by this accide nt.3. Spend whole life with one wife.Compared with other heroes, Perseus was one of with An dromeda to whom he was faithful the rest of his lif
16、e. I think this is very rare.HerculesHercules was the son of Zeus by a mortal woma n, Alcme na. Aleme na and her husband Amphitryon were both grandchildren of Perseus. While Amphitryon was away one day, Zeus disguised himself as Amphitryon and spent a long night with Alcme na. So was begotte n Hercu
17、les. The most remarkable characters of Hercules are direct, crude, out of all reas on and amorous. These were embodied as the follow in gs:1. Atone after faultAs a man of the few who spent his whole life with only one wife. He and had six childre n bastard child of Zeus, Hercules was always bitterly
18、 jealous of by Hera, Zeus wife. When he got married with Megara and gave birth to three childre n, he was set a fit of madn ess be Hera, in which he killed Megara and the childre n, tak ing them for monsters. Having recovered his sanity, he asked Apollo ' osacle at Delphi how he could purify him
19、self of blood-guilt.2. after completing Twelve Labors, Hercules waged a number of wars.Some just, some less so, aga inst cities and kings who offen ded him. For in sta nee, when king Laomedon of troy refused him the promised reward for rescuing his daughter from a sea-m on ster, Hercules came back w
20、ith an army, sacked Troy, killed Laomed on, and put his son on the throne.3. Marry three women and a goddessHercules married four times in his life. Her first wife was Megara, who was the princess of Theban. Hercules married her as a reward for his services in battle. Afterward Megara was killed by
21、Hercules. After the Twelve Labors were over, Hercules took a sec ond wife, Deia nira, who was a prin cess of Calyd on, whom he won by defeat ing his rival, the river god Achelous, in a wrestli ng con test. Later Hercules fell in love with ano ther woma n, I ole, prin cess of Oechalia. But he was bur ned by the pois on, which by way of a puni shme nt for betray. Although his mortal body died, his divine part asce ndedto heave n, where his father Zeus welcomed him as a god and married him to Hebe, the goddess of youth.