Hercules — The Quintessential Greek Hero
Although Hercules is the much more popular name, the original Greek name for the mythic figure who is the subject of this website is Heracles. Hercules was the name used by the Romans who later adapted the Greek myth into their art and literature. While Hercules is the modern stereotype of a hero, his story is very interesting and multifaceted — he wasn’t always the good guy.
Most of the information we have about Hercules is from two main ancient Greek and Roman texts that consisted of lots of Greek myths and heroic legends — the Bibliotheca, traditionally thought to be written by Apollodorus of Athens, and Gaius Julius Hyginus’ Fabulae. Also, the play Herakles by Euripides is a good source of information. These sources date back to the first century A.D. though the actual myths date back thousands of years before that. It is also believed that because of Hercules’ popularity in Greece as a hero, feats of other lesser known heroes were attributed to him.
Hercules was the son of Zeus and a mortal woman, Alcmene. Hera, Zeus’ wife, wasn’t a big fan of his extra-marital affairs so she continually intervened in the lives of the offspring of his dalliances and made them difficult. While Hercules was a baby, she sent two snakes to kill him, but he was able to easily strangle them because of his super-human strength as a demigod. The snakes were not Hera’s first misdeed towards Hercules — she had tricked Zeus to decree that the next born in the House of Perseus shall be a great king, then she delayed Hercules’ birth until after his cousin Eurystheus was born. This was a crucial event eventually leading up to Hercules’ most famous myths — the twelve labors.
Locations
One of the most significant locations in Hercules’ story is Thebes, which is where he was born and lived. He also traveled through many places in and around Ancient Greece, including Argos, Arcadia and Mycenae, while completing his twelve labors and other feats. Hercules was also one of the Argonauts that accompanied Jason to Colchis in a quest to find the golden fleece.
As a hero, however, Hercules was worshipped all over Ancient Greece and Rome. Olympia was one of the more notable locations involved in his worship. Though Olympia is primarily Zeus’ shrine, a frieze on the Temple of Zeus has some artwork and sculptures that depict Hercules’ twelve labours. On the Western side of the temple (in the order shown in the images below), there are metopes of the Cerynean Hind, the Cretan Bull, Hippolyte’s girdle, the Lernean Hydra, the Nemean Lion and the Stymphalian Birds; on the eastern side, the Apple of the Hesperides, the Cleansing of the Augean Stables, the Cattle of Geryon, Cerberus, the Erymanthian Boar and the Mares of Diomedes. Currently, the sculptures are mostly damaged but reconstructions give us an idea of what they looked like.
Western Side
Eastern Side
Attributes
As with most Greek heroes, Hercules is usually depicted nude. Heroic nudity is a concept in classical Greek art to showcase the strength and athleticism of heroes and semi-divine beings. Hercules is usually shown with his weapons: club and bow and arrows. The choice of weapons can be attributed to the earlier era in which Hercules lived. Also, he usually wears or carries around the skin of the Nemean lion which he killed.
Myths
Hercules’ most important myths are the twelve labors. One of Hercules’ feats involved winning back Creon’s kingdom from the Minyans. Creon, king of Thebes, rewarded Hercules by giving him Megara, Creon’s daughter, in marriage. Hercules and Megara had three or eight children depending on the source and lived happily in Thebes, until Hera struck Hercules with madness and he killed Megara and all his children. Hercules, recovering from the madness, realized what he had done and fled to the Oracle of Delphi to enquire what he most do the cleanse himself from the miasma brought on by slaughtering his entire family. The oracle instructed him to serve his cousin, King Eurystheus, for twelve years. Eurystheus commanded Hercules to complete ten seemingly impossible tasks initially, and added two more tasks since Hercules had help completing two of the tasks. These became known as the twelve labors of Hercules.
The labors and how Hercules completed them are summarized below, along with Greek vase depictions of some of the labors.
The Nemean Lion
The Nemean lion terrorized the region of Nemea and had a hide impervious to weapons. After realizing arrows were useless, Hercules was able to defeat the lion by wrestling and strangling it with his bare hands. He skinned the lion and carried around and wore its pelt as a protective cloak.
Philadelphia L-64–185, Attic red figure stamnos, ca. 490 B.C.
Photograph by Maria Daniels, courtesy of the University of Pennsylvania Museum
The Lernean Hydra
The hydra attacked areas around the swamps of Lerna were it lived. It was a poisonous serpent with many heads, and each head was replaced by two more when destroyed. Hercules, with the help of his cousin, destroyed each head and cauterized the remnants. He also dipped his arrows in the blood of the hydra so they became poisonous.
Main panel: Hercules slaying the Lernean hydra
Collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, California
The Cerynean Hind
The Cerynean Hind was a deer sacred to the goddess Artemis. Hercules hunted and finally captured the deer after a one year chase.
The Erymanthean Boar
This boar plagued the areas of Mount Erymanthos in Arcadia. Hercules hunted and captured the boar, tied it up and carried it back to Eurystheus.
The Stables of Augeas
Augeas’ stables were extremely dirty and smelly and Eurystheus mandated Hercules to clean it up in one day. Hercules was able to divert a river to pas through and wash the stables.
The Stymphalian Birds
These were aggressive, man-eating birds that occupied a forest in Arcadia. Hercules used a krotala given to him by Athena to disturb the birds and cause them to take flight. He then shot them down with his arrows.
London B 163, Attic black figure amphora, ca. 560–530 B.C.
Photograph courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum, London
The Cretan Bull
This destructive bull terrorized inhabitants around Crete. It is believed to be the bull that mated with Pasiphae and fathered the Minotaur. Hercules captured the bull and took it to Eurystheus, who released the bull. The bull was later killed by the hero Theseus.
Mississippi 1977.3.61a and b, Attic black figure neck amphora, ca. 530–520 B.C.
Photograph by Maria Daniels, courtesy of the University Museums, University of Mississippi
The Mares of Diomedes
Diomedes, a son of Ares, owned flesh-eating horses in his stable. Hercules’ task was to capture them and hand them over to Eurystheus. Hercules is believed to have pacified the horses by feeding Diomedes to them.
The Girdle of Hippolyte
Hippolyte was an Amazon queen and had a special girdle gifted to her by Ares. Hercules, along with some companions, sailed to the home of the Amazons. Hera convinced the Amazons to fight the heroes, but Hercules ultimately secured the girdle.
The Cattle of Geryon
Hercules had to capture the cattle of Geryon, a three-bodied monster, and return them to Eurystheus. Hercules defeated Geryon; Orthus, a two-headed dog; and Eurytion, son of Ares, to complete this task.
The Apples of the Hesperides
The Hesperides in their garden, had a tree that bore golden apples. It was given to Zeus by Hera as a wedding present and was protected by Ladon, a hundred-headed dragon. Hercules subdued Nereus, the old man of the sea, to get information about the location of the garden (which was in Mount Caucasus). On the way there, he killed the eagle Zeus sent to torture Prometheus. Hercules offered to hold up the sky for the titan Atlas in exchange for Atlas helping obtain the apples. Athena helped Hercules bear the weight of the sky and upon Atlas’ return, Hercules tricked him into resuming carrying the sky and returned to Eurystheus with the apples.
London E 224, Attic red figure hydria, ca. 410–400 B.C.
Photograph courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum, London
Cerberus
Hercules had to travel to the underworld, the land of Hades, and capture the three-headed guardian dog, Cerberus. Hades allowed Hercules take the dog is he defeated it without weapons. This was meant to be an ultimate, impossible, final task, but Hercules was able to succeed. Cerberus was safely returned to the underworld.
Main panel: Hercules and Kerberos
Photograph by Maria Daniels, courtesy of the Musée du Louvre
Recent Interest
Because of Hercules’ popularity even in modern times, his myths have inspired a multitude of films including Disney’s animated Hercules (1997) and Hercules (2014) starring Dwayne Johnson.
Both films mentioned above were quite successful, grossing north of $200 million in the box office. In these movies, the stories are usually modified to omit Hercules’ more immoral actions that do no fit the contemporary idea of a hero, like when he killed his music teacher because he was tired of learning to play the lyre. It is important to note that the Greek Hero Archetype is not necessarily “good” by modern standards of good and evil but includes semi-divine individuals who accomplished difficult feats and usually had unhappy later lives and violent deaths.
