No labor was more Heraclean than the labor of being Heracles. In his uncomplaining life of pain and persistence, in his compassion and desire to do the right thing, he showed, as the American classicist and mythographer Edith Hamilton put it, “greatness of soul.” Heracles may not have possessed the pert agility and charm of Perseus and Bellerophon, the intellect of Oedipus, the talent for leadership of Jason, or the wit and imagination of Theseus, but he had a feeling heart that was stronger and warmer than any of theirs.
Heroes By Stephen Fry
