The hero I want to talk about is a modern day hero, a man who was influenced by the military his entire life. That hero is General H. Norman Schwarzkopf. General Schwarzkopf spent his childhood and adolescent years in a military family and upon graduation of high school entered West Point. His young adult years were forged in battle after battle in Vietnam. He spent two separate tours in Vietnam were he was wounded twice and repeatedly decorated for bravery. He saw action again as Commander of U.S. ground forces in Grenada and capped his career with the triumphant expulsion of the Iraq Army from Kuwait. He retired from the Army in 1991.
I want to compare General Schwarzkopf our modern day hero to Heracles the Greek myth hero. Although one is history and the later is myth, they both have similar beginnings and life stories, and they both had a positive affect on the societies of their time.
During Desert Storm General Schwarzkopf had a huge impact on American society. A quote from a short introduction for General Schwarzkopf stated, "Not since W.W.II has a military man won the affection of the American Public the way General Schwarzkopf has. He gave the American people the satisfaction of seeing their armed forces triumph in a decisive confrontation with a hated enemy. This victory helped many Americans regain an almost forgotten pride in our men and women in uniform.".
Like General Schwarzkopf, Heracles had a big impact on Greek society and mankind. His twelve deeds make the lands and waters of Greece safer for mankind, he also showed the people of Greece what it meant to be Greek. General Schwarzkopf came from a gallant blood line as did Heracles. General Schwarzkopf's father graduated from West Point and became a Captain in W.W.I, When the war was over he went back to El Paso, Texas were he joined the Calvary and guarded the border between the United States and Mexico.
Such physical allegories were first used in the fifth century B.C to explain Greek mythology, because; "with the growth of philosophic rationalism in Greece [], the traditional myths [with its humanlike, and sometimes immoral gods] came under attack. [] Physical allegory assumes that the myths were invented to account for natural phenomena," (Isabel Rivers, 21). ...
