Heracles Karpusi

**Heracles Karpusi** is a good friend of Kiku Honda in the manga/anime series *Hetalia* and the *Tea Leaves* series. He is the personification of Greece.

## Appearance and Personality

### Appearance

Heracles has brown hair, green eyes, and olive skin. He wears a brown jacket, with brown pants and a white t-shirt. He occasionally wears a brown hat. In artwork, he is shown to carry a giant cross, which represents Mount Athos.

In a color chart for the characters by Himaruya, his eyes were shown to be teal. However, in all of the actual artwork for the manga, his eyes are colored green.

### Personality

He is said to have a serious personality, but he often seems carefree and casual. He is often seen with cats, a reference to Greece's stray cat population. He loves naps and is often seen sleeping, but even though it seems there is nothing in his head, he has a love for philosophy and history. It is said that if you dig in his backyard, you'll find many ancient ruins and things belonging to his mother, Ancient Greece.

It is also implied that he frequently takes part in sexual activity; this is shown in a contribution Himaruya made to a Hetalia doujinshi anthology where Arthur and Francis try to place the "blame" of the creation of the condom on him, seeing as he uses it very often. He replies by saying that while he does do these "activities" often, he doesn't really use condoms.

## Back Story

Heracles first appeared in Episode 01, where he was shown sleeping during the world meeting. He later shows up in Episode 14 at the supermarket, handing Antonio his groceries and taking his time in doing so.

He previews after the credits of Episode 34 walking behind Matthew with a cat hanging off the front of his shirt, before finally having a speaking role in Episode 35, conversing with Francis about the Olympics.

## Storyline History

### Tea Leaves and Silver Rings

Heracles can already sense what is about to unfold. His cats already started to avoid him. A sense of dread comes over him as he remembers the time that the Woman in Red roamed the earth. Heracles later tells Sadik about what's happening. They both know that the Woman in Red is trying to break free in Ikebukuro.

It is revealed that it was Heracles' mother who sealed away the Woman in Red with ancient magic of the gods and China placed her in the Land of the Dead over in Japan.

### Tea Leaves and Opal Necklaces

It falls on Heracles to summon the Great Beast to defeat the Woman in Red. Sadik goes over to his house and tells them that the other countries have no choice but to use that option. After the Turkish man tells him to do it for Kiku, Heracles agrees. He asks Cyprus to help him with the process of learning the summoning spell. After five days, Heracles learns the summoning spell and collapses from exhaustion. Sadik stays by his side until the Greek man wakes up and sends him and Cyprus out to get the supplies he needs for the summoning spell. Heracles manages to successfully summon the Great Beast in the form of a centaur. He names him Dio, short for Dionysus, because he loves to drink. For the time being, the Greek man can see Dio's reigns, but can't take hold of them yet because his magic isn't strong enough.

### Tea Leaves and Diamond Bracelets

Heracles is struggling with taking Dio's reigns. He is trying to build his magic as well.

### Tea Leaves and Sapphire Earrings

Sena winds up going to his house for help.

## Relationships

### Sena Honda

*Main Article: Sena Honda*

Sena isn't too fond of Heracles because of his relationship with Kiku. He doesn't seem to like her too much either.

### Kiku Honda

*Main Article: Kiku Honda*

The two get along pretty well, due to their countries' good relationship (see Greece–Japan relations), and also share a love of cats. It's strongly implied that they once slept together during Heracles' first visit to Kiku (where they discussed the results of a sex frequency poll, Greece being the highest and Japan the lowest), but Kiku denies it, believing that "It was a dream!".

### Sadik Adnan

*Main Article: Sadik Adnan*

The two of them don't get along, and often fought with each other before finally deciding on a cease-fire. Even so, they're still ready to fight over anything, and Sadik takes pleasure in whatever he's able to beat Heracles at. One of the most frequent fights between them is about who Kiku likes more, though as Kiku proved they are very and easy to distract and entertain.

### Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus

*Main Article: Cyprus*

Heracles openly despises TRNC, even threatening to disown Cyprus unless he stops communicating with Sadik. Comparatively, TRNC dislikes Heracles' constant fights and struggles with Sadik, and aids Sadik in any conflicts with Heracles.

## Triva

* Heracles' birthday was originally listed as October 28th, but was retconned to February 3rd by the time the published manga was released. His first retconned birthdate corresponds to the date that Greece's independence (from the Ottoman Empire) was officially recognized in the London Protocol, on February 3rd, 1830. Greece's 2010 profile, however, changed his birthday to March 25th, corresponding to Greece's national day of independence to commemorate the Greek Revolution.
* An early draft for a Heracles character shows him as a short-haired man with glasses. It first appeared on the Bamboo Thicket blog, though Himaruya left the identity of the nation for viewers to guess. The character was later outed as an early Greece in the special edition booklet that came with Hetalia: Axis Powers volume 3. Himaruya noted that the design was his perception of Greeks, but that it changed after he met a few Greek people even though nobody who is Greek looks like Greece in the finished anime.

## Source

* Basic Information: http://hetalia.wikia.com/wiki/Greece