Can someone explain Hercules death to me ?

So When Hercules received the cloak and tried it on, his body immediately began to burn with excruciating pain. He tried to pull the cloak off, but the pain burned even harder and deeper. Hercules would rather die than live in unbearable pain and put himself on a funeral pyre to be burnt alive. He puts his body on the pyre and it was lit. Zues comments on the fact that his mortal side would die but the part he got from him would endure and he asked athena to go get him.

Athena goes with her chariot and picks hercules up and carries him to Olympus and he becomes a god.

Question:

1. What do Athena pick up ? Hercules is mortal and so if he was killed on the pyre then all that remains would be his spirit. So athena could only pick up his spirit.

2. In order to become a full fledge god don't you need ambrosia and need to take it while alive ?

you forgot that hercules is a half god half mortal and you forgot that greek gods can appoint anyone as a god

"you forgot that hercules is a half god half mortal "

I stated that indirectly with the choice of words. Also common knowledge.

How do you make a dead man a god ?

@prettygurl12: if that was common knowledge, then why did you even argue with the mortal part or dead man part ? if you understood the heritage of hercules/heracles, the one that athena or zeus takes or ascends to olympus is the immortal aka god side of hercules.

i repeat, hercules/heracles is a half man half god. he built his funeral pyre to kill his human side because the agonizing pain it suffered from the hydra's poison.

Demi-gods even though they comprise of 1/2 gods/1/2 men are still considered mortals. Perseus was sent to underworld as well as, Achilles when he died.

When hercules was burn on a funeral pyre he would have been dead. A spirit. How then can you make a spirit of a demi-god into a man ?

perseus was merely sent to the underworld, he didn't die to go there. achilles died because he was injured in the one part where his invulnerable/immortality doesn't exist since that part was where thetis held him when he was given immortality/invulnerability by being dipped in river styx or burned in a sacred fire. not that it matters because every half god half man in greek mythology has their own story that don't follow the general rule of immortality

the stories state that his mortal self died in the funeral pyre and that his immortal side was left for zeus or athena to take to olympus. there was no mention of spirit or so whatsoever. how can you dispute that when a lot of stories of heracles's death is essentially that ? you are putting way too much modern thinking on greek mythology.

When Perseus died he was sent to the underworld. Achilles is a demi-god whose mother was a goddess. He died and was sent to underworld. When Theseus was thrown off a cliff his corpse did not just vanish and his god side did not just remain. He was sent to the underworld as well.

"

the stories state that his mortal self died in the funeral pyre and that his immortal side was left for zeus or athena to take to olympus. there was no mention of spirit or so whatsoever. how can you dispute that when a lot of stories of heracles's death is essentially that ? you are putting way too much modern thinking on greek mythology."

Because general rule of all demi-gods is that the mortal and god halves don't seperate after death.

there is no mention of perseus dying and being sent into the underworld afterwards. heck he was made a constellation. achilles was still basically human or else thetis wouldn't dip him in the river styx or burn his mortal side away. again achilles was not mentioned to have gone to the underworld. theseus was either still seated in seat of forgetfullness in the underworld for daring to take persephone or was generally reburied in athens after being thrown off a cliff . why must you assume that every hero that had a god's blood and died went into the underworld when there's no mention of it ?

that so called general rule of demi-god halves don't separate after death is not strictly followed in a lot of mythology. why must you assume that greek mythology would even adhere to that ?