Edith's Mythology on Heroes

In the Mythology book, the stories told of heroes are often similar. One of the similarities is that the heroes usually get help from the gods. E.g. Athene helping Perseus kill Medusa, or Athene helping Odysseus as he was returning home. The heroes are also rather clever and have many tricks up their sleeves. Take Heracles for example: He cleaned the Augean Stables in one day using the river and tricked Atlas into holding the sky again. And when the heroes lose something in the tales, they also regain something in return.