Antigone

I truly believe that Creon is the tragic hero in the play Antigone.  The play starts off with Creon as being seen as a great king, especially by his family.  But what turns out to be his tragic flaw is his arrogance and stubbornness.  Creon even admits this flaw by saying "The mistakes of thoughtless minds, stubborn, deadly mistakes, you who look upon kinsmen slayers and the slain.  Ah me!  The unhappy counsels among counsels.  O boy, new to life with a new kind of death, aiai, aiai, you died, and you have departed because of my bad counsels, not yours."

The central idea of being questioned and essentially betrayed by his own people begins to scare Creon, setting the stage for his big tragic fall. "The people, all Thebes together, deny it" Haemon says to Creon showing this idea of his people beginning to lose trust in him.  Creon goes from being a good and just leader, to having hubris which leads to his demise..  He doesn't realize it until it is too late.  Creon refuses to believe Tiresias and will not compromise over the fact that he could be wrong about Antigone. He even says "Know that you are not going to sell my purpose" ....basically saying that whatever you say will not change my mind.  He finally realizes towards the end of the play that his hubris led him to his downfall and that it was his fault that Haemon died after not listening to his advice.

What makes me believe that Creon is the tragic hero over Antigone is that he goes through all the phases of a tragic hero.  He is royalty, a king, more so than Antigone.  He has incredible arrogance, stubbornness, and hubris.  After allowing all three of those traits to lead to his downfall, be recognizes his flaws at a time when it is too late.  He has officially fallen.

Heroism

A hero on contemporary TV or cinema that has some characteristics that relate to the Ancient Greek hero Herculues is Batman/Bruce Wayne.  Batman, at a young age is fueled by the murder of his parents where he devotes his entire life to ending the corruption in the city of Gotham.  He became a skilled fighter both with his body and weapons, but one thing that separated Batman from the rest is that his number one rule is no killing.  This becomes a crucial problem for Batman later on in the trilogy of whether he must face the decision of breaking his rule in order to accomplish his goals.  He inspires good in all people, not just Gotham, which relates to Hercules' feats as well.  Like Hercules, Batman's best weapon is not just his physical strength, but his superior intelligence and tactics.  They both used these tactics as well as their ability to manipulate their surroundings in their favor.  As difficult as their foe or challenge may be, once given the chance to prepare and analyze, they overcome and succeed in all of their challenges.  An example for Hercules is his defeat of the centaur Chiron, and for Batman, his defeat of Bane.  They do not know what the meaning of failure or impossible is.  They are willing to sacrifice themselves as the scapegoat if it is for the greater good. 

Of the gods discussed in the pantheons PDF, I select Poseidon.  Poseidon was the god of the sea, earthquakes and horses.  He was considered one of the supreme gods of Mount Olympus, but he spent most of his time under wate.  He was the brother to Zeus and Hades; all three divided up creation.  One of the myths revolved around Poseidon was that he and Athena, the god of wisdom and war among other things, clashed heads with who would be the patron of Athens.  Poseidon used his three-pronged spear to strike the Acropolis, creating a spring of salt water. Athena, on the other hand planed an olive tree for the Athenians to use.  Despite the fact the water spring Poseidon created was salt water, the people of Athens knew they could not favor one god over the other, so they were careful over who they honored the most.  

Another myth that circulated around Poseidon, was that he cursed the wife of King Minos of Crete.  Minos called upon Poseidon to send a bull form the sea, which the king promised he would sacrifice.  When the bull was sent, Minos liked it too much to sacrifice it, so Poseidon asked Aphrodite, the goddess of love, to make Minos's queen fall in love with the bull.  This love resulted in the infamous Minotaur, half man and half bull.  

Lastly, another myth having to do with Poseidon that I found somewhat interesting was when he and Medusa were having a small love affair.  They had a sexual encounter in on of Athena's temples, which infuriated her.  As a punishment she transformed Medusa into a monster, and when Perseus decapitated her, Pegasus and Chrysaor came out from her neck.