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Ἡρακλῆς
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: Ηρακλής
Contents
1 Ancient Greek
1.1 Alternative forms
1.2 Etymology
1.3 Pronunciation
1.4 Proper noun
1.4.1 Inflection
1.4.2 Derived terms
1.4.3 Descendants
1.5 References
Ancient Greek
Alternative forms
Ἡρακλέης (Hērakléēs) (verse; uncontracted)
Etymology
From Ἥρα (Hḗra, “Hera”) + κλέος (kléos, “glory”)
Pronunciation
(5th BC Attic): IPA: /hɛ ͜ɛraklɛ́ ͜ɛs/
(1st BC Egyptian): IPA: /heːrakléːs/
(4th AD Koine): IPA: /iraklís/
(10th AD Byzantine): IPA: /iraklís/
(15th AD Constantinopolitan): IPA: /iɾaklís/
Proper noun
Ἡρακλῆς • (Hēraklês) (genitive Ἡρακλέους) m, third declension
This article is about Hercules in classical mythology.For the Greek divine hero from which Hercules wasadapted, see Heracles. For other uses, see Hercules(disambiguation).
Hercules is the Roman name for the Greek divine heroHeracles, who was the son of Zeus (Roman equivalentJupiter) and the mortal Alcmene. In classical mythology,Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerousfar-ranging adventures.The Romans adapted the Greek hero’s iconography andmyths for their literature and art under the nameHercules.In later Western art and literature and in popular culture,Hercules is more commonly used than Heracles as thename of the hero. Hercules was a multifaceted figure withcontradictory characteristics, which enabled later artistsand writers to pick and choose how to represent him.[1]This article provides an introduction to representations ofHercules in the later tradition.
1 Labours
Main article: Labours of Hercules
Hercules is known for his many adventures, which tookhim to the far reaches of the Greco-Roman world.One cycle of these adventures became canonical as the“Twelve Labours,” but the list has variations. One tradi-tional order of the labours is found in the Bibliotheca asfollows:[2]
1. Slay the Nemean Lion.
2. Slay the nine-headed Lernaean Hydra.
3. Capture the Golden Hind of Artemis.
4. Capture the Erymanthian Boar.
5. Clean the Augean stables in a single day.
6. Slay the Stymphalian Birds.
7. Capture the Cretan Bull.
8. Steal the Mares of Diomedes.
9. Obtain the girdle of Hippolyta, Queen of theAmazons.
10. Obtain the cattle of the monster Geryon.
Hercules and the Hydra (ca. 1475) by Antonio del Pollaiuolo;the hero wears his characteristic lionskin and wields a club
11. Steal the apples of the Hesperides.
12. Capture and bring back Cerberus.
1.1 Side adventures
Hercules had a greater number of "deeds on the side"(parerga) that have been popular subjects for art, includ-ing:
• Side adventures
• Killing a fire-breathing Cacus (Sebald Beham,1545)
• Holding up the world for Atlas (based on HeinrichAldegrever, 1550)
• Wrestling with Achelous (16th-century plaque)
• Fighting the giant Antaeus (Auguste Couder, 1819)
Main article: Hercules in ancient RomeThe Latin name Hercules was borrowed through
Etruscan, where it is represented variously as Heracle,Hercle, and other forms. Hercules was a favorite sub-ject for Etruscan art, and appears often on bronze mir-rors. The Etruscan form Herceler derives from the GreekHeracles via syncope. A mild oath invoking Hercules(Hercule! or Mehercle!) was a common interjection inClassical Latin.[3]
Hercules had a number of myths that were distinctly Ro-man. One of these is Hercules’ defeat of Cacus, who wasterrorizing the countryside of Rome. The hero was asso-ciated with the Aventine Hill through his son Aventinus.Mark Antony considered him a personal patron god, asdid the emperor Commodus. Hercules received variousforms of religious veneration, including as a deity con-cerned with children and childbirth, in part because ofmyths about his precocious infancy, and in part becausehe fathered countless children. Roman brides wore a spe-cial belt tied with the "knot of Hercules", which was sup-posed to be hard to untie.[4] The comic playwright Plautus
This Roman statuette is a copy after a Greek original that depictsthe hero at an advanced age. Walters Art Museum, Baltimore.
Baby Hercules strangling a snake sent to kill him in his cradle(Roman marble, 2nd century CE)
presents the myth of Hercules’ conception as a sex com-edy in his play Amphitryon; Seneca wrote the tragedyHercules Furens about his bout with madness. Duringthe Roman Imperial era, Hercules was worshipped locallyfrom Hispania through Gaul.
Tacitus records a special affinity of the Germanic peoplesfor Hercules. In chapter 3 of hisGermania, Tacitus states:
... they say that Hercules, too, once visitedthem; and when going into battle, they sang ofhim first of all heroes. They have also thosesongs of theirs, by the recital of this barditus[5]as they call it, they rouse their courage, whilefrom the note they augur the result of the ap-proaching conflict. For, as their line shouts, theyinspire or feel alarm.
Some have taken this as Tacitus equating the GermanicÞunraz with Hercules by way of interpretatio romana.[6]
In the Roman era Hercules’ Club amulets appear fromthe 2nd to 3rd century, distributed over the empire (in-cluding Roman Britain, c.f. Cool 1986), mostly madeof gold, shaped like wooden clubs. A specimen found inKöln-Nippes bears the inscription “DEOHER[culi]", con-firming the association with Hercules.In the 5th to 7th centuries, during the Migration Period,the amulet is theorized to have rapidly spread from theElbe Germanic area across Europe. These Germanic"Donar's Clubs” were made from deer antler, bone orwood, more rarely also from bronze or precious met-als.They are found exclusively in female graves, appar-ently worn either as a belt pendant, or as an ear pendant.The amulet type is replaced by the Viking Age Thor’shammer pendants in the course of the Christianization ofScandinavia from the 8th to 9th century.
3 Medieval mythography
After the Roman Empire became Christianized, mytho-logical narratives were often reinterpreted as allegory,influenced by the philosophy of late antiquity. In the4th century, Servius had described Hercules’ return fromthe underworld as representing his ability to overcomeearthly desires and vices, or the earth itself as a consumerof bodies.[7] In medieval mythography, Hercules was oneof the heroes seen as a strong role model who demon-strated both valor and wisdom, with the monsters he bat-tles as moral obstacles.[8] One glossator noted that whenHercules became a constellation, he showed that strengthwas necessary to gain entrance to Heaven.[9]
Medieval mythography was written almost entirely inLatin, and original Greek texts were little used as sourcesfor Hercules’ myths.
Hercules and the Nemean lion in the 15th-century Histoires deTroyes
4 Renaissance mythography
The Renaissance and the invention of the printing pressbrought a renewed interest in and publication of Greekliterature. Renaissance mythography drew more exten-sively on the Greek tradition of Heracles, typically un-der the Romanized name Hercules, or the alternate nameAlcides. In a chapter of his book Mythologiae (1567),the influential mythographer Natale Conti collected andsummarized an extensive range of myths concerning thebirth, adventures, and death of the hero under his Ro-man name Hercules. Conti begins his lengthy chapter onHercules with an overview description that continues themoralizing impulse of the Middle Ages:
Hercules, who subdued and destroyedmonsters, bandits, and criminals, was justly fa-mous and renowned for his great courage. Hisgreat and glorious reputation was worldwide,and so firmly entrenched that he'll always beremembered. In fact the ancients honored himwith his own temples, altars, ceremonies, andpriests. But it was his wisdom and great soulthat earned those honors; noble blood, physicalstrength, and political power just aren't goodenough.[10]
In Roman works of art and in Renaissance and post-Renaissance art, Hercules can be identified by his at-tributes, the lion skin and the gnarled club (his favoriteweapon); in mosaic he is shown tanned bronze, a virileaspect.[11]
5.1 Roman era
• Hercules of the Forum Boarium (Hellenistic, 2ndcentury BCE)
• Hercules and Iolaus (1st century CEmosaic from theAnzio Nymphaeum, Rome)
• Hercules bronze statuette, 2nd century CE (museumof Alanya, Turkey)
• Hercules and the Nemean Lion (detail), silver plate,6th century (Cabinet des Médailles, Paris)
5.2 Modern era
• The Giant Hercules (1589) by Hendrik Goltzius
• The Drunken Hercules (1612-1614) by Rubens
• Hercules in the Augean stable (1842, Honoré Dau-mier)
• Comic book cover (c.1958)
• Hercules, Deianira and the Centaur Nessus, byBartholomäus Spranger, 1580 - 1582
• Henry IV of France, as Hercules vanquishing theLernaean Hydra (i.e. the Catholic League), byToussaint Dubreuil, circa 1600. Louvre Museum
6 In numismatics
Hercules was among the earliest figures on ancient Ro-man coinage, and has been the main motif of many col-lector coins andmedals since. One example is the 20 euroBaroque Silver coin issued on September 11, 2002. Theobverse side of the coin shows the Grand Staircase in thetown palace of Prince Eugene of Savoy in Vienna, cur-rently the Austrian Ministry of Finance. Gods and demi-gods hold its flights, while Hercules stands at the turn ofthe stairs.
• Juno, with Hercules fighting a Centaur on reverse(Roman, 215–15 BCE)
• Club over his shoulder on a Roman denarius (ca.100 BCE)
• Maximinus II and Hercules with club and lionskin(Roman, 313 CE)
• Pillars of Hercules, representing the Strait of Gibral-tar (19th-century conjecture of the Tabula Peutinge-riana)
• The Cudgel of Hercules, a tall limestone rock forma-tion, with Pieskowa Skała Castle in the background
• Hercules as heraldic supporters in the royal armsof Greece, in use 1863–1973. The phrase"Ηρακλείς του στέμματος" (“Defenders of theCrown”) has pejorative connotations (“chief hench-men”) in Greek.
8 In films
For a list of films featuring Hercules, see Hercules inpopular culture#Filmography.
A series of nineteen Italian Hercules movies were madein the late 1950s and early 1960s. The actors who playedHercules in these films were Steve Reeves, Gordon Scott,Kirk Morris, Mickey Hargitay, Mark Forest, Alan Steel,Dan Vadis, Brad Harris, Reg Park, Peter Lupus (billed asRock Stevens) and Michael Lane. A number of English-dubbed Italian films that featured the name of Hercules intheir title were not intended to be movies about Hercules.
9 See also
• Hercules (comics)
• Hercules in popular culture of the 20th and 21st cen-turies
[1] “Hercules,” inThe Classical Tradition (HarvardUniversityPress, 2010), p. 426.
[2] Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheke 2.5.1-2.5.12.
[3] W. M. Lindsay, “Mehercle and Herc(v)lvs. [Mehercleand Herc(u)lus]" The Classical Quarterly 12.2 (April1918:58).
[4] Festus 55 (edition of Lindsay); William Warde Fowler,The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic (Lon-don, 1908), p. 142; Karen K. Hersch, The Roman Wed-ding: Ritual and Meaning in Antiquity (Cambridge Uni-versity Press, 2010), pp. 101, 110, 211.
[5] or, baritus, there being scribal variants. In the 17th cen-tury, the word entered the German language as barditusand was associated with the Celtic bards.
[6] Simek, Rudolf (2007:140—142) translated by AngelaHall. Dictionary of Northern Mythology. D.S. Brewer.ISBN 0-85991-513-1
[7] Servius, note to Aeneid 6.395; Jane Chance, MedievalMythography: From Roman North Africa to the Schoolof Chartres, A.D. 433–1177 (University Press of Florida,1994), p. 91.
[8] Chance, Medieval Mythography, pp. 168, 218, 413.
[9] Chance, Medieval Mythography, p. 219.
[10] Natale Conti, Mythologiae Book 7, Chapter 1, as trans-lated by John Mulryan and Steven Brown (Arizona Cen-ter for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2006), vol. 2,p. 566.
[11] Hercules almost suggests “Hero”. The Classical and Hel-lenistic convention in frescoes and mosaics, adopted bythe Romans, is to show women as pale-skinned and menas tanned dark from their outdoor arena of action and ex-ercising in the gymnasium.(See also Reed.edu, jpg file.Reed.edu, subject).
Sources
• Charlotte Coffin. “Hercules” in Peyré, Yves (ed.)A Dictionary of Shakespeare’s Classical Mythology(2009)
11 External links• Media related to Hercules at Wikimedia Commons
• Texts on Wikisource:
• "Hercules". The Nuttall Encyclopædia. 1907.• "Hercules". The New Student’s ReferenceWork. 1914.
• “Hercules and the Wagoner,” by Aesop• “Hercules,” from Heroes Every Child ShouldKnow by H. W. Mabie
• Hercules discovery in Israel
• Etruscan mirror illustrated Uni and Hercle
• Hercle and Menerva on an Etruscan mirror fromCittà di Castello, c 300 B.C.: Badisches
• The Apples of the Hesperides
• Images of Hercules
• Warburg Institute Iconographic Database (ca 2,500images of Hercules)
org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/Antonio_del_Pollaiolo_-_Ercole_e_l%27Idra_e_Ercole_e_Anteo_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg License:Public domain Contributors: 8AEOTC1DwCpqNQ at Google Cultural Institute, zoom level maximum Original artist: Antonio del Pollaiolo
• File:Greek_-_Aged_Herakles_-_Walters_54764.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/Greek_-_Aged_Herakles_-_Walters_54764.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: Walters Art Museum: <ahref='http://thewalters.org/' data-x-rel='nofollow'><img alt='Nuvola filesystems folder home.svg' src='//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/81/Nuvola_filesystems_folder_home.svg/20px-Nuvola_filesystems_folder_home.svg.png'width='20' height='20' srcset='//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/81/Nuvola_filesystems_folder_home.svg/30px-Nuvola_filesystems_folder_home.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/81/Nuvola_filesystems_folder_home.svg/40px-Nuvola_filesystems_folder_home.svg.png 2x' data-file-width='128' data-file-height='128'/></a> Home page <a href='http://art.thewalters.org/detail/37884' data-x-rel='nofollow'><img alt='Information icon.svg'src='//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/35/Information_icon.svg/20px-Information_icon.svg.png' width='20'height='20' srcset='//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/35/Information_icon.svg/30px-Information_icon.svg.png 1.5x,//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/35/Information_icon.svg/40px-Information_icon.svg.png 2x' data-file-width='620'data-file-height='620' /></a> Info about artwork Original artist:After Greek
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