SOURCE: Waith, Eugene M. “The Herculean Hero.” In William Shakespeare's Coriolanus, edited by Harold Bloom, pp. 9-31. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1988.

In the following essay, originally published in 1962, Waith dissects Coriolanus's character, finding him to be a praiseworthy, though flawed, hero. Waith maintains that Coriolanus's greatness may be observed in his valor, generosity, and his faithfulness to his personal honor.

As Coriolanus marches on Rome at the head of a Volscian army, the Roman general, Cominius, describes him thus to his old enemies, the tribunes:

He is their god. He leads them like a thing Made by some other deity than Nature, That shapes man better; and they follow him Against us brats with no less confidence Than boys pursuing summer butterflies Or butchers killing flies. … .....                                                                                He will shake Your Rome about your ears 

(4.6,90-94, 98-99)

To which Menenius adds: “As Hercules / Did shake down mellow fruit...