MEGARA

Real Name: Megaera (original spelling)

Identity/Class: Normal Human (13th Century BC, Post-Hyborian)

Occupation: Monarch

Group Membership: Member of the House of Thebes

Affiliations: Hercules

Enemies: Hera

Known Relatives: Creon (father), Eniocha (mother), Haemon, Menoeceus II (brothers), Sthenele (sister-in-law), Patroclus (nephew), Menoeceus I (grandfather, deceased), Jocasta (aunt, deceased), Laius (uncle, deceased), Oedipus (cousin/uncle, deceased), Polyneices, Eteocles (cousins/sons of Oedipus), Antigone, Ismene (cousins, daughters of Oedipus), Hercules (husband), son, daughter (names unrevealed, both deceased), Alcmena (mother-in-law), Amphitryon (father-in-law, deceased), Iphicles (brother-in-law)

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Thebes, 13th Century BC (now part of Modern Greece)

First Appearance: Hercules III#5 (September, 2005)

Powers/Abilities: Megara possessed the normal human strength level of a woman of her size, height and build who engages in extensive physical exercises. In spirit form, she would have all the conventional attributes of a ghost (the astral spirit of a person who is deceased).

History: (Greek Roman Myth) - Megara was the daughter of King Creon of Thebes. Her father only served as regent after the death of King Laius, the legitimate heir to the throne. During his reign, Creon promised the throne and his sister's hand in marriage to whoever could solve the riddle of the Sphinx, a female creature which terrorized the countryside. Jocasta's own son, Oedipus, defeated the beast after solving her riddle and won the throne by right. Jocasta gave him two sons and two daughters. He never knew the truth about his relationship to the throne until years later, and his sons killed each other over their rights to throne. Creon once more served as regent until Laodamas, the son of Eteocles, was old enough to assume the throne.

During his second reign,  Thebes was often attacked by warring Minyan armies, but they were finally repelled by the hero Hercules, son of Zeus and Alcmene of Mycenae. Grateful for his help, Creon awarded Hercules his daughter Megara as a bride. Megara had a son and daughter by Hercules.

(Greek Roman Myth, Hercules III#5 (fb)) - A few years after the birth of his children, Hercules returned from war feeling battle-fatigued and in a state of ancient shellshock. The goddess Hera, who had always hated Hercules as she did all of the children of Zeus born out of wedlock, mystically altered Hercules' senses that he mistook his wife and children for enemy soldiers and slaughtered them with his bare hands. As his stupor wore off, he realized what he had done and exiled himself from Thebes. Eventually, he ended up up Delphi where the oracle told him he had to serve his cousin Eurystheus. Eager to have Hercules killed, Eurystheus gave the repentant hero ten labors and eventually two more.

(Hercules III#4) - In modern years, Eurystheus, since restored to life and made temporarily long lived, sent Hercules on a series of modern labors. As a one last final insulting labor, he sent Hercules to the underworld to take a flower from the head of Megara.

(Hercules III#5) - In the underworld, Hercules and his camera crew encountered the specters of his deceased enemies and then the spirits of Megara and his son and daughter. Realizing the nature of his carousing and chiding him for his drinking, she forgave him for his sins and turned over a flower from her hair. After a brief moment reunited with them, Hercules returned to earth.

After the end of his modern labors, he left her flower near her grave in modern Thebes.

Comments: Adapted by Frank Tieri, Mark Texeira and James Palmiotti

Megara has rarely been featured in modern telling in the story of Hercules. Sometimes her role in TV and the movies is designated to another character, such as in "Hercules, the Legendary Journeys," when Deianeira, played by Tawni Kitaen, takes her place at the wrath of Hera. She was voiced by Susan Egan in Disney's "Hercules" and portrayed by Australian actress Leeanna Walsman in the recent largely inaccurate "Hercules" (2005) with Paul Telfer as the son of Zeus. 

In the myth, Hercules' children by Megara are never named, but they are traditionally sons. No daughters are ever mentioned.

The Marvel account of the actual myth strays a bit far from the truth. In the myth, Megara wasn't killed by Hercules. She actually lives for several more years and is still alive after the Twelve Labors. Creon is murdered by Lycus of Euboea, who seizes the throne and takes Megara as his wife, but she is saved by Hercules who slays Lycus and places Laodamas, the true heir, on the throne. From there, nothing more is known of her life.

 In Hercules III#5, Megara has a very modern gravestone; any such gravestone would have been worn down over the years, destroyed by armies or looted by thieves or a myth-crazed souvenir hunter. On the other hand, Hercules might have erected these stones himself.

Profile by: WillU

CLARIFICATIONS:  Megara is not to be confused with:  

 

Images:
Hercules III#5, pg 22, page bottom
Hercules III#5, pg 26, page bottom

Issues:

Hercules III #5 (September 2005)

Last updated: 12/04/05

Any Additions/Corrections? Please let me know.

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