🏆 The Legend — Hercules was the Roman version of the Greek hero Heracles. Known for his strength and courage, his legend has been told in many books, movies and cartoons. Nearly everyone has heard about his twelve labors, where he had to slay a vicious lion, some voracious birds and the infamous Hydra, capture a mythical deer, the Cretan bull and the multi-headed dog Cerberus, and steal a few high-priced trophies. All these feats were demanded by his cousin, King Thespius, who he served for 10 years, as this was his punishment for having murdered his own wife Megara and all his children.
🏆 The Man — Hercules might be a symbol of courage and strength to some, but he was first and foremost a man driven by his acts of public expiation. Madness and rage made him a murderer and his whole life was continually tainted by his multiple crimes. After his years of servitude to King Thespius were over, Hercules continued with his path violence and entered into another long term of servitude with Queen Omphale, who would later become one of his many wives. Not only did Hercules exemplify madness and murderous behavior, but he also gained a reputation for sexual prowesses. From the 50 children begot in a single night with the 50 daughters of King Thespius, to his multiple homosexual affairs, Hercules was a man of extreme excess who eventually was poisoned by his last wife, Deianira, in recompense. Hercules, despite his impressive attributes, lacked moderation, self-control and discipline, and only accomplished his most famous feats under the direction of another.
🏆 The Legend —Gargantua and his son Pantagruel are two giants living in 16th-century French Renaissance. Gargantua is a giant by size, but he also has a giant appetite for food, sex and war. In their burlesque adventures Gargantua and his son use their size but also urine, defecation and other comical excesses to win over significantly stronger armies. Any excuse is used to eat an out-of-this-world amount of food, drink wine by the barrels, organize epic culinary fights, travel to unknown islands, accidentally eat people, drown some of them in their urine and never miss any opportunity to enjoy life.
🏆 The Man – The life and deeds of Gargantua and his son are described by French novelist Francois Rabelais. The two giants are the perfect rebels of their time. Pantagruel is sent to the most famous universities and simply rejects the pseudo-scientific education he receives. The giants seem to enjoy the company of outcasts and misfits, as they find them more honest than the wealthy men hiding behind titles and official authority. Their opinions about politics, social interaction, war and education are in direct opposition with mainstream thinking in the 16th century, Rabelais’ books almost banned by the King of France and the Catholic Church. Hidden behind the general grotesque tone, it is clear that Gargantua and his companions are first and foremost men driven by their opinions and their goals, rejecting without compromise conventions and political correctness.
🏆 The Legend — Samson is described in the Bible as someone who strictly adhered to his religion, not cutting his hair, shaving or drinking alcohol. That gives him extreme strength, first demonstrated when he grabs and rips apart a lion, then when he kills a thousand men with the jawbone of a donkey. Betrayed by a woman named Delilah, his hair is cut and he becomes too weak to fight. Captured by his enemies, his eyes are gouged and he is imprisoned. As his hair grows back, he uses his recovered strength to break the supporting pillars of the temple, killing himself and 3000 Philistines in the process.
🏆 The Man – Like many men, Samson is struggling with two sides of his personality. On one side, his incredible strength can be used in cause greater than himself. On the other hand, his love for women puts him in situations where he has to violently fight and slaughter many enemies. He was first betrayed by his Philistine wife who made him reveal the solution to a riddle he told to his groomsmen. After slaying an army, he was then betrayed by Delilah who asked him on several accounts what was the secret of his incredible strength. He refused and teased her several times but, blinded by love, he failed to see that she was bribed by his enemies. He finally capitulated and agreed to tell her his secret, leading to his demise and his capture.
🏆 The Legend — Odysseus is a key character in Homer’s Iliad about the Trojan war. He is also the hero of The Odyssey. A Greek King of extreme valor, he is well known for his intelligence and wisdom, and for being the designer of the Trojan horse that will seal the fate of the besieged city. After the fall of Troy, Odysseus’ multiple adventures take him on a 10-year trip back home, fighting cyclops, cannibals, storms, whirlpools, mermaids and seducing nymphs. Even when finally back in his kingdom, he still has to fight his wife Penelope’s suitors and convince her of his identity.
🏆 The Man – Odysseus is different from most Greek heroes, as he combines in one individual, valor, courage, strength, but also diplomacy, eloquence and persuasion. He is the voice of reason and self-restrain, capable of thinking and analyzing instead of impulsively acting. He is brave without being blind and stupid. In other words he is the very personification of “Brawn and Brain” that should inspires every man.
🏆 The Legend — Vlad III was the ruler of Wallachia, a part of 15th century Romania. He was the son of Vlad Dracul – Vlad the Dragon – and was therefore called Dracula, the Son of the Dragon in old Romanian. He is known for his never-ending war against the Ottoman Empires and its allies, winning many campaigns thanks to a series of massacres and destructions based on a scorched-earth policy he applied in Moldavia, Hungary and Transylvania. Dracula died in combat, his body cut in pieces and his head sent to the Ottoman Sultan.
🏆 The Man – Vlad’s reputation for cruelty started when he had two monks and their donkey impaled, and was then described in gruesome details in several German and Slavic manuscripts between the 15th and the 18th century. Vlad became the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Dracula and the myth of the vampires. But more than anything else, Vlad the Impaler is the perfect example of how a psychopath and a mass murderer in a position of power was able to use this power to commit war crimes and genocides on a massive scale.
🏆 The Legend — The Count of Monte Cristo is the most captivating novel written by Alexandre Dumas. It is the story of a French sailor, Edmond Dantes, who is falsely accused and imprisoned without trial. His enemies, either by jealousy, envy or to keep him silent, let him rot in a cell for 14 years, until he manages to escape. By a strike of good fortune, he finally becomes extremely wealthy and plots a long and complex revenge over his long time enemies, hoping in the process to recover his fiancee Mercedes.
🏆 The Man – Dantes/Monte Cristo’s story combines the typical journey of a hero described by Joseph Campbell, with the elaborate revenge plot that is so popular in modern action movies. But the story also highlights the potential of change that is within each man. For 8 years, Dantes trains with his mentor, teacher and companion in prison. Every day, Faria teaches him read, fight, behave in society, understand science and speak foreign language. Dantes the rough sailor slowly becomes Monte Cristo the educated and charismatic Count who navigates the aristocratic world of finance and politics. The death of his figure father and the inheritance of his hidden treasure are the final elements of his re-birth as a completely new man, ready to fight for what has been taken from him.
🏆 The Legend — Tarzan is the famous story of a feral child born in the African jungle after his parents were abandoned by mutineers. His parents killed, Tarzan was raised by a group of great apes, and developed through a natural life a large array of physical qualities rarely seen in civilized human beings. In his multiple adventures, Tarzan fights a wide variety of threats, from giant gorillas to Russian communists, learns the language of the animals of the jungle, meets Jane who will become his wife and the mother of his son Jake, and travels all over the world to find some mysterious hidden cities.
🏆 The Man – What is interesting in the popular novels written by Edgar Rice Burrough, is that even in 1912, Tarzan is the example of how developing mind and body in a natural environment helps creating a more capable individual. Tarzan, even after visiting the civilized world, prefers to return to the jungle, avoiding weak and ill-minded men. The stories are overly simplistic and sometimes plain racist but the whole concept of self-education through the contact with nature has been used many times since then in novels and movies. It reminds us that even more than 100 years ago, people already thought that body and mind were not thriving in an industrial world