Some people thought of firemen and policemen as heroes but after that devastating day almost everyone thinks of them as heroes. Possibly in a few thousand years stories of the men who pulled the living bodies out of the flames and dust will be considered myth. .
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Most, if not all of the qualities that we give our heroes in today's world share them with Heracles. The most obvious being his physical ability. People today admire others who have special ability. Take the major sports stars for example. Ninety percent of the role models today are sports figures. Kids all over the world grow up wanting to be like Michael Jordan, John Elway, Barry Bonds, and countless other athletes who the best at what they do. Heracles was the best at what he did. Getting the task at hand done no matter what the circumstance. Braveness is another quality that Heracles showed. Throughout all of his labors, Heracles had to be brave. The labor that best describes this would be his final task. He was told to capture Cerberus from the gates of Hades and bring him back to the living world. Think about it. If you had to go into the underworld, subdue the gatekeeper of hell, and bring him back alive, most people would not be brave enough to even think about doing it. But the select few who would, we admire. You are probably thinking "If Heracles was such an important person why is there not an epic or tragedy written about him?" Well Heracles was such a diverse character "it was impossible to write a unified epic about him" (Aristotle, Poetics 8).
Another quality that played a major role in Heracles character was his generally good nature. I say generally because he, like all of the rest of us, have some things in his past that he probably regretted. He killed Megara and their children although Hera was responsible for that mishap. He is said to have wounded Ares and Hera, but they deserved it. His good deeds far out way his bad ones.
