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Herakles is indeed a God. He doesn't get enough credit as one. His story didn't end upon reaching Olympus and having two kids with Hebe. He's been behind every modern hero we know after his death 3200 years ago.
The God of Heroes is no longer a demigod, nor just a glorified hero of the past. Hero worship doesn't do him justice, in my opinion.
He's the spirit behind the heroes. The Strength needed, both inner and outer, to be the hero who rises to the challenge, reguardless of gender identity, sexuality, or if the rise to be a hero is for someone else... or yourself.
Yes, being your own hero is okay, too.
Athena may be the Patron of Heroes, and Herakles's patron when mortal, but Herakles is the Strength that has heroes standing up again, and again, and again, after each knockdown. Ares helps supply the Courage and Bravery to keep embodying the Strength of Herakles to Strategically follow Athena through the 'battlefield'.
Herakles is a God that deserves to stand alongside his divine siblings and be counted amongst the Olympians. To be more realistic, there's 13 since Dio was added and Hestia was never actually replaced. People like uniformity and boxes. However, the family has only grown over time. Ganymede, Hebe, Asclepius and Herakles are also Olympians who bring the number to 17. But reality knows that number is actually a lot higher. Zeus and Hera have more children than people like to focus on.
Even Herakles and Hebe's twin sons, Alexiares and Anicetus, Twin Gods of Defense, are rarely looked at, and they deserve recognition, too, as they were born on Olympus and actively defend it.
Focusing on "the 12" insults the rest who have earned their place on Olympus over time.
Time and archeology has proven that being a hero was far from 'exclusive' to men.
Herakles spent a year serving "as a woman" for ending someone while embodying/channeling Ares. Mortal courts ruled that Herakles was responsible anyway since it was his body that performed the action, even though the War God was in the pilot's chair. He was sentenced to a year of servitude to a nearby queen. She paraded his club and lionskin around as if she owned them while he wore a long dress and learned and did "womanly" duties. She was a warrior herself, strong enough to lift his club. Leader and possible hero to her local people, especially while wearing an impenetrable lionskin. And this is just an example of how his spirit is all around us.
He wasn't just Strength Incarnate, I firmly believe he was also the Hero's Spirit Incarnate. Despite violent and questionable actions here and there, he inspired people where ever he went.
The hero's spirit doesn't care what your vessel looks or feels like. The Hero inside can arise in anyone.
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Hear me O' Herakles please give the righteous people the Strength to rise up and be the Heroes our selves, communities, countries, and world needs. Please protect humanity from self destruction. Please give humanity as Second Chance.
Hear me, O' Zeus, Dionysus, and Herakles, Breakers of Chains, please free this world from the grip of oppression, control, and forced disconnection from Nature. From Gaia.
Hear me O' Pan, Dionysus and Artemis, please help humanity reconnect to Gaia and learn how to thrive alongside nature, and not against it.
Hear me O' Apollon and Themis, please help humanity see the truth of errors of current ways and the grant humanity the light to see the all the ways to counter the harm and pursue the balanced way forward, in accordance to divine law and nature.
Hear me, O' Athena and Ares, please help the world navigate ongoing and future conflicts with minimal damages.
Hear me O' Hera, Hebe, and Artemis, please help us remember the importance of family, community, and the importance of leaving this world better for our children.
Hear me, O' Hekate, please help humanity remember our connection to, and regain the sight to see, the magic the world has to offer, as well as the fierceness to protect the natural magic and beauty of this world.
Hear me, O' Olympus and all the Deathless Ones, please help humanity to not move backwards and against nature, but forwards to thrive alongside Nature and with Gaia in mind. Please help humanity remember how to be true caretakers of this planet and cultivate a thriving world, worthy of the living footsteps of the Gods again.
Hear me, O' Humamity, please remember and choose to collectively follow the Law of Xenia, once more.
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