Something to keep you going while I finish packing my flat into boxes

[andrewducker]

[Poll #1016539]

Comments

[surliminal.livejournal.com]

Not quite the same. The Greek gods represent not-human forces eg love, the sun, wine-drunkenness. They just happen to have man shapes (and nt always - Zeus v fond of being a swan, etc etc.)

The concept of the NIetzschian uber man is quite distinct - it is a human but a certain perfect quality of human, vamped up as it were... (=> Aryan super-man, etc etc)

[0olong.livejournal.com]

That's why I referred to heroes, not gods. Hercules, to the best of my knowledge, doesn't represent any particular primal force, but it's probably fair to say he has super-strength; similarly Achilles' invulnerability everywhere but his heel; in Celtic myth, Cúchulainn's 'warp spasm' could certainly be considered a super-power, etc.

I'm not equating this with the Nietzschian Übermensch, but I would suggest that such heroes are for the most part more direct fore-runners of comic-book superheroes.