Would you rather be great or happy?

The Choice Of Hercules is a 2,500 year old myth about the timeless conflict between pleasure and glory. This parable was so loved by one US President that it almost became the national emblem. This story is also behind a popular internet meme. Read on 👇

Hercules’ father was the God Jupiter but his mother was a human female. Hercules is one day out in the woods, doing what the young everywhere tend to do: daydreaming about the future. Suddenly two female figures make their way to him: Lady Virtue and Lady Vice.

Vice reaches Hercules first and makes a tempting offer: “If you befriend me, I will lead you to the most pleasant and easiest road; you will not miss the taste of any delight, and you will live your life without experience of the hard things.”

Vice paints a picture that many today consider ideal: “You will roam about examining what delightful food or drink you might find, what delight you might see or hear, what pleasant things you might smell or touch.” This will come with no “labor and hardship of body and soul.”

Lady virtue catches up to the Young Hercules and says: “I shall not deceive you with preludes about pleasure. But I shall truthfully describe the disposition the gods have made of the things that are.” Virtue doesn’t promise pleasure but an honest account of reality.

Lady Virtue tells Hercules as Lady Vice fumes: “I will not bribe you with sloth. The gods give nothing to those on earth without toil. You must honor the gods, render the city services, you must become a benefactor.” There is no magical shortcut; to win the war you must bleed.

Vice interrupts: “Reflect how hard and long is the road to the delights that this woman describes for you! But I shall lead you to an easy and short road to happiness.” Is not the long path to glory an argument against it? Isn’t our time too limited to be wasted on hard work?

This is where Lady Virtue tears into Lady Vice: “No bed is soft enough for you. You spend the night in debauchery and the day in sleep. A sordid old age awaits your votaries, as does shame and regret, fear and faltering under the load of uncertainty and undone tasks.”

Adams described the Paris of 1780, and modernity more broadly, as a perpetual Herculean choice: "There is everything here that can inform the Understanding and indeed purify the Heart. Yet there is everything here too which can seduce, betray, deceive, corrupt and debauch it."

John Adams: “Hercules marches in full View of the Steeps of Virtue on one hand, and the flowery Paths of Pleasure on the other, and there are few who make the Choice of Hercules. That my Children may follow his Example, is my earnest Prayer.” His son became the President too.