There are many who do not understand the sublime wisdom of the Mysteries, who claim that mankind has no ability to touch the divine sphere- they cry "hubris" at those who seek the Mysteries and deny that Man's destiny is among the Immortals.
Many have considered the tale of Herakles to be a metaphorical story of the "Labors of the Soul" as it moves towards its final realization and transformation into the Daemonic estate; and, like Herakles, the mortal, confined, and limited "portions" of being will eventually be burned off in the pyre of Truth and the Kouros, the Immortal, will ascend to Olympus to take its place among the Deathless Gods.
But there are some who have denied the reality of this story referring to the human psyche- and they base their denial on the fact that Herakles had, after all, a divine parent- making him capable of achieving divine status. Being half divine, he was capable of this feat, in the way that a "regular mortal" would not be. On this point, I must disagree and show why- I believe that All Human Beings are half divine; I believe that All Human Beings are children of the Gods- specifically children of the Great Mother of the Gods, Gaia, Nature, or Earth, whose other name was Truth. Allow me to show evidence for this:
All humans are children of Gods. Thus, we can all achieve Godhood- but when we do, we will no longer be Mortal- thus, Hubris is avoided and the walls between mortal and immortal are maintained.
To Quote the incomparable Carl Kerenyi: (Gods of the Greeks, pg. 209)
"Gods and Men are of common origin, says Hesiod, who based this statement on the most ancient tales. One of these tales I have already told- how Gaia, Mother Earth, conceived of the blood shed by maimed father Ouranos, and brought forth upon the mighty earth the
Erinyes, the huge Giants, and those nymphs called the Meliai, "Ashes".
In the Great Tale, of the various successive human races- "The Ages of Antiquity", as they were later called- the "Ashes" produced the race of bronze. In his story of the theft of fire, Hesiod preserved for us the word "Melioi" the masculine form of Meliai, as meaning the Human Beings- or, more accurately, the Men- who belonged to the Ash-
Nymphs.
These men, like the Melioi, were later described as lying beneath Ash-Trees like fallen fruit. In many other tales- and almost every country of Greece or Asia Minor had such a tale- the first male being, Primordial Man, sprang directly from the Earth, who in this
manner too, was the common mother of Gods and of Mortals."
All humans descend from A Goddess- Gaia or Earth. We have a Godly Nature just as she does, and like her other children, the Gods, do.
I think it is no accident that in Norse Mythology, the first man was literally named "Ask"- which means "Ash Tree", and he was made from that Tree. His wife, the Primordial Woman, was made from an Elm Tree- her name was 'Embla'.
