What exactly is a hero? Is it someone who rushes into a burning house to rescue a child? Or is it a monk who abstains from worldly pleasures and comforts in order to be closer to the Gods? Joseph Cambell, one of the foremost authorities of Greek mythology, defined the literary hero as someone who accomplishes extraordinary feats in at least one of two basic realms: worldly or spiritual. If the aforementioned prospective heroes were …showed first 75 words of 939 total…

…showed last 75 words of 939 total…legs in the afternoon, and three legs in the evening? The answer is a man and that is exactly what Oedipus was, a man and nothing more (foreshadowing?). What exactly is a hero? A hero is a protagonist in a story who accomplishes extraordinary feats while going through the process of being transformed into an extraordinary human. Oedipus was visited upon by many trials and tribulations but was not transformed. He was, therefore, an antihero.