Heracles, A Tragedy

About the Book

William Shakespeare Meets Heracles Most tragic literature of the Greek Classical period resulted from mythology of the 13th Century B.C. The following paragraphs relate the lives of three innocent boys who were cast out of their homes to die—but were all destined to live. The first doomed child was Oedipus. An oracle said, “This son would kill his father, become king, and marry his mother.” The second child, Jason, born posthumously and ordered destroyed by his uncle so that he would not succeed to his father’s throne. The third was Paris, in Troy. The oracle there said “If he lived it would be the end of Troy.” A fourth child, Heracles was the son of Zeus, born after Oedipus and a before Jason, whose entire life was an endless struggle. Zeus to Hera: The first man-child born today to the house of Persus becomes king of Mycenae. He will be the strongest, most powerful, and greatest warrior on earth and who “cannot by mortal die.” Hera And who is the father of this extraordinary child? Zeus Let my deed be witness to my worth. Hera, very angry, knowing now that he must have had an assignation to produce this outstanding child, plans revenge. Hera’s hatred of Heracles begins. In a search beginning with the Greek Classic period authors, I found no playwright willing to use Heracles as his principal character. Heracles deserves the leading role in a play depicting his most unusual tragic life and I hope William Shakespeare has done it – with my assistance. There is very little original material here except my concept – a plan – by selecting “lines” from all of his works which were suitable to fit this mold – a total of 425 were selected from his complete works. Every play and poem is represented at least once. William Shakespeare had great background knowledge of Heracles, having referred to him in fifteen plays and in many of them several times.

About the Author

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