Heroes: Volume II of Mythos

Tiresias thought for a moment. ‘Well, there is one thing. Perhaps you could change the child’s name.’
‘Change his name?’ said Amphitryon. ‘How would that help?’
‘If you were to call him “Hera’s glory” for instance? “Hera’s pride”.’
And so it was decided. From now on Alcides would be called Heracles.fn11

‘Relaxed but focussed, that’s the key,’ said Hermes.

Enthusiasm meant, originally, possession by a god. The verb ‘enthuse’ was a later American English back-formation.

It would be pleasing to think that they were rattlesnakes and that this remarkable incident initiated the custom of giving newborn babies rattles to wave, but sadly there is no evidence that the species ever existed outside the Americas.

Herms or hermai were square columns used as good-luck boundary markers and signposts. They had a carved head, typically of the god Hermes (though usually uncharacteristically bearded) on top and male genitals lower down, which were thought to bring good luck when stroked in … a certain way.

To personify them is a rather smart way – not of managing them perhaps, but of giving shape, dimensions and character to the uncontrollable and unfathomable forces that control us. Do ‘superego’ and ‘id’ reveal any more about our inner selves than Apollo and Dionysus?

It’s the archetype of fiction for children, young adults and – let’s be honest – pretend grown-ups like us too. A mysterious absent father. A doting mother who encourages you to believe that you are special. The Chosen One. ‘You’re a wizard, Harry!’ that kind of thing.

Men! It’s not that they’re brutish, boorish, shallow and insensitive – though I dare say many are. It’s just that they’re so damned blind. So incredibly stupid. Men in myth and fiction at least. In real life we are keen, clever and entirely without fault of course.

‘I suppose it is arrogance and unwavering self-belief that propels them to their triumphs, just as surely as it is arrogance and unwavering self-belief that unseats them and sends them plummeting to their ends.’

In reality I should, but luckily for you I’m triskaidekaphobic.