Gods, Myths, and Heroes - Part 65

Hercules

Hercules was one of the principal heroes of Greek mythology.  The Greeks called him Herakles, but I will use the Roman name Hercules which is more familiar to most people.

We have already looked at the twelve labors of Hercules.  Today we look at two other myths.  The fresco above shows Hercules at left, carrying his trademark lion skin and club, with the river god Achelous and Deianeira, daughter of the king of Calydon.

This fresco is in a house in the Roman town of Herculaneum. The town was named after Hercules and was destroyed by the same eruption of Mount Vesuvius that destroyed Pompeii in 79 A.D.

Both Hercules and Achelous wanted to marry Deianeira, and they fought over her.  Achelous, being a god, was able to change shape.  He transformed himself into a snake.  Above, Hercules fighting Achelous in the form of a snake, by Francois-Joseph Bosio, 1824, in the Louvre museum.

The front view of Hercules fighting Achelous as a snake.  Amusingly, it looks like Hercules is holding a can of beer or soda, but I guess it's supposed to be a rock.

Unable to win as a snake, Achelous then transformed himself into a bull.  Above, Hercules fighting Achelous in the form of a bull, a 17th century sculpture by Ferdinand Tacca.  Ultimately, Hercules won the fight, and he married Deianeira.

A second myth involves the centaur Nessus.  A centaur was half horse, half man.  Above, a fresco in Pompeii showing Hercules, Deianeira and Nessus.  Nessus acted as a ferryman, carrying passengers across the river Euenos.  In this story, Nessus carried Deianeira across the river, then tried to rape her while Hercules was still on the other side of the river.  Hercules could see what was happening, and he shot Nessus with an arrow that was poisoned with the blood of the Hydra, a monster that Hercules had killed in his earlier twelve labors.

This vase from 420 BC shows Hercules attacking Nessus, but it omits the poisoned arrow, which is vital to the myth, as we will see.

Here's a 2nd century Roman sculpture of Hercules attacking Nessus, again omitting the poisoned arrow.

And here's the rear view of that same sculpture in the Uffizi gallery in Florence, Italy.

The myth continues.  As Nessus lay dying, he gave Deianeira his blood-soaked robe, telling her that if she gave it to Hercules, it would ensure that Hercules would be true to her forever.  Actually, he knew that his blood was deadly, infected with the virulent poison of the Hydra.

Later, Deianeira told Hercules' servant Lichas to give Hercules the robe.  When Hercules put on the robe, the poison blood in the robe burned his skin.  Thinking that Lichas was behind this, Hercules threw Lichas into the sea.

Above, Hercules and Lichas by the sculptor Antonio Canova, 1815.  Canova concealed Hercules' genitals with a fig leaf ...

but interestingly, if you look from below, Canova's sculpture shows Hercules' balls behind the fig leaf (above).

Here's a modern painting of Hercules and Lichas by William Horace Littlefield, 1937.

Even without the robe, the poison continued to burn Hercules, and it became unbearable.  So Hercules lit a funeral pyre and jumped onto it, burning to death, as seen in this 1655 illustration by Michel de Marolles.  A dramatic end for a dramatic mythical hero.

Gods, Myths and Heroes - Part 5c

Hercules

Conclusion of the Twelve Labors of Hercules, or how many different deeds can a naked hero do?

The ninth labor was to bring back the "girdle of Hippolyta", queen of the Amazons, a race of mythical female warriors.  It wasn't a girdle in the modern sense of the word; it was worn around the waist like a belt.  In any case, the goddess Hera was still holding a grudge against Hercules after all these years.  She convinced the Amazons that Hercules was trying to kidnap their queen, and the Amazons attacked.  In the resulting melee, Hippolyta was killed, but Hercules got the girdle and returned with it.

(The Belt of Hippolyta  by J.M.Felix Magdalena, 2010)

The tenth labor was to obtain the cattle of the giant Geryon, who lived at the western edge of the world.

(Hercules defeats king Gerion by Francisco de Zurbarán, 1634, Prado Museum, Madrid)

In Roman versions of the myth, when Hercules was returning with the cattle, the giant Cacus stole some of them, and Hercules had to fight and kill Cacus.

(Hercules and Cacus by Baccio Bandinelli, Palazzo Vecchio, Florence)

But the most interesting part of the story is the legend that on this journey to the far west, Hercules split a mountain in half, creating the Strait of Gibraltar and leaving the mountain halves on either side, one of which is the Rock of Gibraltar.  The other one is a mountain in Morocco.  In ancient times these mountains were known as the Pillars of Hercules.

(Hercules separates Mounts Calpe and Abylla by Francisco de Zurbaran, 1634, Prado museum, Madrid)

The durability of this myth is demonstrated by this 1915 poster for the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, celebrating the completion of the Panama Canal.  The poster is labeled "the Thirteenth Labor of Hercules" at the bottom.  It shows a giant Herculean figure (nude, of course) creating the Panama Canal to link the Atlantic and Pacific, just as Hercules supposedly created the Strait of Gibraltar, linking the Atlantic and Mediterranean.

King Eurystheus had told Hercules that he had to do ten labors.  Then Eurystheus reneged on the deal, claiming that the second labor (killing the Hydra) didn't count, because Hercules had help, and neither did the fifth labor (cleaning the Augean stables) because the river water had done the cleaning, not Hercules himself.  So Hercules still had to perform two more labors.

The eleventh labor was to steal the golden apples of the Hesperides from a mythical garden.  Some side incidents are more interesting than the actual part about the apples.  Along the way, Hercules met Antaeus, a man who wrestled and killed all passers-by.  Antaeus was the son of the earth goddess Gaia, and as long as his feet touched the earth, he could not be defeated.  Hercules lifted his feet off the ground (above) and crushed him to death.

(Hercules and Antaeus by the circle of Vittore Gambello, early 1500s)

The other interesting incident is that Hercules met Atlas, who held up the heavens on his shoulders.  Hercules offered to hold the heavens for a bit while Atlas retrieved the apples of the Hesperides for him (in one version of the myth, Atlas is the father of the nymphs who guard the apples).  Upon his return, Altas decided he didn't want to hold up the heavens any more, and he was going to leave Hercules holding them forever.  Hercules agreed, but asked Atlas to take the heavens back for just a minute so Hercules could adjust the pad on his shoulder.  Atlas took the heavens back, and it was "So long, sucker!"  Hercules departed with the apples.

This statue is the Farnese Atlas in the National Archaeological Museum, Naples.  It's a Roman copy c. 150 AD of an earlier Greek sculpture.  You might think Atlas is holding a globe of the earth, but it's not the earth, it's a celestial globe depicting the constellations of the sky.  Atlas didn't hold up the earth; he held up the sky.

The twelfth labor was to bring back Cerberus, the fierce three-headed dog that was the guardian of the gates of the underworld.  Hercules descended into the underworld and asked Hades, the god of the underworld, if he could bring Cerberus to the surface.  Hades agreed if Hercules could subdue the beast without weapons.

(Hercules (center) with Cerberus, Greek krater, c. 330-310 BC, Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Munich)

Of course, Hercules subdued Cerberus with his bare hands, just like the lion and the bull.  He then brought Cerberus back to Eurystheus, who was so frightened that he begged Hercules to take Cerberus back, and he released Hercules from performing any more labors.

That ends the Twelve Labors of Hercules, but we have many more myths from other cultures to come.

(Hercules and Cerberus by "FP", 1500-1550, now in the Museum of New Zealand)

Gods, Myths and Heroes - Part 5b

Hercules

We continue our story of the Twelve Labors of Hercules.  How do you depict a naked hero?  Let me count the ways.

The fourth labor was to bring back the savage Erymanthian Boar alive.  On the advice of Chiron the centaur, Hercules drove the boar into thick snow on Mount Erymanthos, where it lived.  Hercules was then able to capture the boar.

(Hercules and the Erymanthian Boar, by Antoine-Louis Barye, c. 1820, Walters Museum, Baltimore)

For the fifth labor, King Eurystheus set Hercules a task that was not dangerous, just humiliating.  The task was to clean the stables of King Augeus.  Supposedly, 1000 cattle lived in the stables, and it hadn't been cleaned in 30 years.  That would be a lot of manure!  Instead of shoveling shit, Hercules rerouted a river to flow through the stables and wash it out. So, he had brains, not just brawn.

(Hercules diverting the Course of the River Alpheus by Francisco de Zurbaran, 1634, Prado Museum, Madrid)

The sixth labor was to get rid of the Stymphalian birds, which were man-eating birds with sharp metallic feathers that they launched at their victims.  They lived in Lake Stymphalia, but Hercules could not approach them because the area was swampy and would not support his weight.  The goddess Athena gave Hercules a noisemaker which he shook, frightening the birds into the air, and then he shot them with bow and arrow.

(This voluptuous sculpture is by Antoine Bourdelle, 1909, Middleheim Museum, Antwerp, Belgium)

The seventh labor was to capture the Cretan Bull, father of the Minotaur, which had been wreaking havoc in Crete.

(Relief from a sarcophagus in Asia Minor, c. 160 BC, now in the Galleria Borghese, Rome)

Like the lion, Hercules subdued the bull with his bare hands.

(Drawing by Giovanni Antonio da Brescia, 1500-1520)

The eighth labor was to steal the Mares of Diomedes.  Diomedes was the king of Thrace, and these mares were vicious creatures that fed on human flesh.

(Hercules and the Mares of Diomedes, mosaic from a Roman villa, c. 170-180 AD, Valence, France)

This sculpture showing Hercules stealing the mares was made in 1905 by Gutzon Borglum, best known as the sculptor of Mount Rushmore.  It is now in the Metropolitan Museum, New York.

Of course, Diomedes didn't appreciate his mares being stolen.  This sculpture shows Hercules and Diomedes fighting.  Diomedes is the one upside-down who's fighting dirty by grabbing Hercules' equipment.  But it's not a good idea to annoy Hercules.  In some versions of the myth, Hercules ended up feeding Diomedes to his own man-eating horses.

(Hercules and Diomedes by Vincenzo De Rossi, c. 1560, Palazzo Vecchio, Florence)

Tomorrow: the conclusion of the Twelve Labors of Hercules.

Gods, Myths and Heroes - Part 5a

Hercules

Last time, we looked at he Biblical strongman, Samson.  Now we examine the most famous Greek/Roman strongman, Hercules.  Hercules has been a favorite nude subject for artists for thousands of years.

He was originally called Herakles in Greek myth.  The Greek myth was adopted lock, stock and barrel into Roman mythology, with his name changed to Hercules.  I will use the Roman name Hercules, because it is more familiar today to most people.

Hercules was a demi-god, the son of the god Zeus and the mortal woman Alcmene.  As always, Zeus' wife Hera did not take kindly to news of her husband's infidelity.  Hera sent two snakes to kill the infant Hercules, but the infant strangled the snakes in his crib.

Later, after Hercules grew up and got married, Hera, still nursing a grudge, induced a temporary madness upon him that made him kill his wife and children.  When the madness lifted, the stricken Hercules went to the oracle at Delphi, who told him that to atone, he had to serve the Mycenaean king Eurystheus for ten years.  Eurystheus, a weak and jealous man, ordered Hercules to perform a set of what he thought were impossible tasks, which have become known as the Twelve Labors of Hercules.

The first labor was to slay the Nemean lion, a beast with impenetrable fur that could not be pierced by an arrow or blade.

(Hercules and the Nemean Lion by Lorenzo Mattielli, 1729, in the Hofburg palace, Vienna)

Hercules stunned the beast with his club and strangled it to death with his bare hands.  We have already seen how similar this myth is to the Biblical story of Samson killing a lion with his bare hands.

After completing the first labor, Hercules went around draped in the lion's skin, and his favorite weapon was his club.  Any time you see a Greek or Roman muscular figure with a club and/or a lion skin, you know it's Hercules.

(Hercules and the Nemean Lion by Romano Romanelli, 1935, Florence, Italy)

I couldn't resist including this, which I stole from BatRedneck's blog Workmen & Rednecks.  It's funny because it's so true, as anyone who ever had to give a cat a pill knows.

The second labor was to kill the Hydra, a monster with multiple snake-like heads.

(Hercules Slaying the Hydra by Tiziano Aspetti, c. 1580, Doge's palace, Venice)

The catch: every time Hercules cut off a head, two heads grew back in its place.

(Painting of Hercules and the Hydra by George Michael Moser, 18th century, Royal Academy)

Realizing the futility of this approach, Hercules called on his nephew Iolaus for help.  After Hercules cut off each head, Iolaus cauterized the neck with fire, preventing it from growing back, and in this way they killed the Hydra.

Note that the identification of Hercules as the guy with the club was so strong that all of these artists depicted Hercules attacking the Hydra with a club, despite the fact that the myth clearly says that Hercules cut off the Hydra's heads; he didn't club them.

(1545 drawing by Beham showing Hercules at left and Iolaus at right)

Above is a mosaic of Hercules (right) and Iolaus from the Anzio Nymphaeum, Rome, 1st century BC.  Plutarch wrote that Hercules' male lovers were beyond numbering, and they included his nephew Iolaus.  However, Hercules was an equal-opportunity stud.  He is said to have deflowered 49 daughters of King Thespios in a single night.

The third labor was to capture (not kill) the Ceryneian Hind (deer), which was so fast it could outrun an arrow.  The catch: the animal was sacred to the goddess Artemis, and King Eurystheus hoped that by capturing the hind, Hercules would anger the goddess.

(Mosaic from a Roman villa in Valence, France, c. 179-180 AD)

After chasing it for a year, Hercules finally caught the hind.  Encountering Artemis, Hercules begged for forgiveness, explaining the situation, and promised to return it.  The goddess forgave him.  As Hercules was giving the hind to King Eurystheus, as soon as Hercules let go of it, in the blink of an eye it ran off.  Hercules said he had fulfilled his part of the bargain, and Eurystheus wasn't quick enough. 

(Bronze fountain of Hercules and the Ceryneian Hind from Pompeii, now in the regional archaeological museum, Palermo)

It's going to take a few days to get though the 12 Labors of Hercules.  Stay tuned.