49 pages • 1 hour read
EuripidesHeracles
Fiction | Play | Adult | BCEA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Essay Topics
What are some of the different definitions of courage and heroism put forward in the play? In what ways do each of the characters exemplify their unique definition of courage or heroism?
Analyze the debate between Megara and Amphitryon about hope and perseverance. How does each character characterize hope? How does hope function in the play more generally?
What kind of leadership does Lycus represent? How do his ideas of power and courage differ from that of Heracles and the other characters?
Consider the depiction of fatherhood in the play. What is the significance of Heracles’s double paternity, as a son of Zeus but also of Amphitryon? How does Heracles conceive of his role of father towards his own children?
In what ways does Heracles represent an exemplar of heroism or arete? Are there any ways in which Heracles falls short of this ideal?
How does Euripides’s depiction of Heracles conform or depart from depictions of him in traditional mythology? What is the significance of Euripides’s depiction? Is Euripides’s Heracles a new kind of Greek hero? Why or why not?
What roles do culpability and guilt play in Heracles’s experience? Is he responsible for his crimes? Why or why not?
To what extent do the gods drive the action of the play? To what extent are the gods themselves controlled by forces such as fate or necessity?
What is the purpose and significance of Heracles’s denial of his divinity at the end of the play? To what extent does this denial allow—or not allow—Heracles to take control of his own fate?
Friendship is an important motif in Heracles. How do different characters represent friendship? What role—if any—does friendship play in ideals of heroism in the play?
Related Titles
By Euripides
