Myths ans Heroes : Do they really need to have super powers to be heroes ?

Myths and heroes

I’m going to present the notion of myths and hero, think that the most important thing is to give a concret definition of this notion.

A myth is a story that may or may not be true, all cultures have myth and this mythology has been developed overtime. It is a social practice generally orally which given an explication about the foundation of the world. It’s the cosmogony, for example: in the cosmogony greek, Gaia created the earth, the sea and the mountains, still in greek mythology there are many heroes who saved everyone and who were ready to defy gods to save humanity.

How can we define a hero ? A hero risk his life to save others, he is brave and face of danger regardless of risks and consequences.

There are different types of heroes with different traits and who bring special things to the humanity. We mostly know them as heroes with superpowers (such as Spiderman, Superman…) but:

Do they really need to have super powers to be heroes ?

Characteristics of an hero with superpowers

Each heroes have their own qualities who makes them different, nevertheless, they have qualities in commun and who everyone recognize (cliches) as:

-He is strong for example, superman is presented in the short film to celebrate the 75th super hero’s anniversary, as a strong character, he lifts a car as if it’s a feather.

He can run very fast and fly, then he uses a plane to destroy an enemy.

-The first and the foremost quality of a hero is his courage. A hero always overcomes his fears and confronts any challenge head on.

-He is nice with everyone and shows tenderness and empathetic to people. He is ready to risk his life to save anyone, he is loved and admirated for that, it makes him popular.

But, finally, have there not heroes with these qualities ? Do they necessarily need to lift a plane to make the world a better place ?

II. Real powers of an hero.

Do you know Ip Man ? Actually, he is a master of Wing-Chun (a chinese martial). He is an humble and honest man who didn’t stop to give hope to people during the occupation of the Japanese. Moreover, he opened martial arts school in order to learn to Chinese who need to defend themselves against Japanese. People believed in him. He never gave up despite his poverty, he always has preserved the honor of his homeland. It’s a model for everyone.

Without superpowers, he succeeded to be a great and honorable man.

We can talk about Rosa Parks too, this iconic woman who fight against racial segregation with a simple act. She doesn’t left her place to a white man in the bus, a man who were humiliated her and insulted her. I think we have to consider this woman as a heroine because she did what everyone was scared to do, she has shown courage and she has been shaking things up.

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