ELT 212 HANDOUTS: HERCULES
HERCULES
 (known in Greek mythology as
Heracles or Herakles) is one of the
best-known heroes in ancient
mythology. His life was not easy—he
endured many trials and completed
many daunting tasks—but the reward
for his suffering was a promise that he
would live forever among the gods at
Mount Olympus.
 Hercules is better known for his brawn
than his brains. He is also known for
supreme courage and self-confidence,
regarding himself as an equal to the
gods who "needed his help to conquer
the Giants."
 Characteristics: Strength, Courage,
and Rage
 Hercules' weakness was his temper
and lack of intelligence. He was
notorious for getting himself into
trouble because of his temper
HERCULES: THE UNIVERSAL
 Most popular hero in Greek myth
 More exploits than a (logical) lifetime
can hold
 Geographically diverse
 Found in Linear B tablets,
 (Indicating that he is as old as the
Greek gods)
 Constantly reinterpreted over time
 Even different contemporary stories
show him in very different lights.
MASTER OF ANIMALS
 Heracles is, basically, not a heroic
figure in the Homeric sense: he is not
a warrior fighting warriors, he is
mainly concerned with animals, just as
he is a savage clad in a skin; and his
main job is to tame and bring back the
animlas which are eaten by man.
Walter Burkert
HERACLES’ BIRTH
 Alcmene, had just married a young
warrior, Amphitryon, who had to go to
war before he could consumate the
marriage.
 Zeus took his form and spent the night
with Alcmene.
 Confusion when the real Amphitryon
came home!
 Punishment vs. Salvation: Amphitryon
tried to punish his adulterous wife;
Zeus protected her.
 Twinship: Heracles was a twin: he was
born to Zeus, while his brother
Iphicles was born to Amphitryon.
HERACLES AND EURYSTHEUS
 Kingship prophecy: the child born that
day would be king.
 Hatred of Hera: she delayed Heracles’
birth, sped up the birth of his cousin
Eurystheus.
 Eurystheus became king and Heracles
was denied.
 Wanderer and outcast: Heracles was
deprived of his birthright due to
Hera’s interference.
BEFORE THE 12 LABORS OF
HERCULES
 Hercules is the son of Zeus and a
mortal named Alcmene. Alcmene, the
mortal mother, comforts the mortal
baby, while Athena shows her favor
toward Heracles.
 Hera sends serpents to strangle
Heracles: he strangles them instead.
Hercules strangles one snake in each
of his hands, presenting the limp
creatures to his parents when they
come to the boys' rescue.
 As a young man, Hercules conquers a
tribe called the Minyans to stop them
from exacting "a burdensome tribute
from the Thebans." Thebes gives him
a bride, Princess Megara.
 They have three sons and are happy
until Hera strikes him with a madness
that leads him to kill Megara and
Their children.
 Hercules cannot forgive himself. He
goes to Eurystheus, King of Mycenae,
who gives him a series of tasks for
purification. These 12 tasks become
known as the "the Labors of
Hercules."
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HERACLES’ TWELVE LABORS
 Heracles’ deeds are too vast to fit in
any one lifetime, but twelve of them
eventually became cannonized as the
“Labors,” duties undertaken in service
of King Eurystheus.
 In most versions, Heracles had to
undertake the Labors to expiate his
guilt for killing his wife and children.
 He had married Megara and had three
children by her. But Hera drove him
mad, and he killed his family, thinking
they were enemies.
 Heracles is known for irrational
violence in other stories as well – even
though he is not to blame for the
murders, they are the result of his
larger-than-life, almost god-like
nature, which brings about both great
benefit and great harm.
FIRST LABOR: THE NEMEAN LION
 First, Hercules kills the lion of Nemea
with his hands because the lion is
impervious to weapons
 Trapped the lion in a cave and
strangled it with his bare hands.
 He then skinned it and ever after wore
the skin as his cloak
SECOND LABOR: THE LERNAEAN
LION
 Second, he kills the multiheaded
Hydra, who grows two heads in the
place of each one that is cut off.
 To add insult to injury, Hera sent a
crab to bite Heracles’ foot as he fought
the Hydra. It was characterized – as
Cancer.
 With his nephew Iolaus, Hercules cut
off the heads and Iolaus then seared
the necks with a torch to prevent them
growing back.
 Heracles saved the hydra’s venom and
used it as poison on his arrows – this
would later come back to haunt him.
THIRD LABOR: CERYNEAN HIND
 Heracles appears as a master of
animals.
 Third, Hercules brings Eurystheus a
sacred stag with golden horns.
 To capture the Cerynitian Hind who
was sacred to the goddess Artemis.
Hercules spent over a year trying to
catch the deer with the golden antlers
alive.
 Artemis decided not to kill Hercules
after hearing his story
FOURTH LABOR: ERYMANTHIAN
BOAR
 Fourth, he captures a wild boar
(Erymanthian Boar). in deep snow on
Mount Erymanthus
 This labor took Hercules to the land of
Centaurs, and the wine he had been
given to attract the boar drew the
centaurs to him.
 Heracles caught the rampaging boar
with nets, then took it to Eurystheus.
FIFTH LABOR: THE AUGEAN STABLES
 Fifth, Hercules ordered to clean the
Augean stables, home to thousands of
cattle; Hercules diverts two rivers to
accomplish the task.
 Hercules said he would do it but made
Augeius promise him a tenth of the
herd if he succeeded
 Augeus refused to pay him; later
Heracles kills Augeus.
 Afterwards, he founded the Olympic
games, pacing out the stadium
himself.
SIXTH LABOR: THE STYMPHALIAN
BIRDS
 Nasty creatures. He startled them up
with castanets, then shot them (with
arrows or a slingshot).
 Athena helps Hercules shoot a flock of
birds that plague the people of
Stymphalus.
 He accomplished this with a rattle
startled the birds who flew away, and
Hercules shot them down with his
arrows in flight
SEVENTH LABOR: THE CRETAN BULL
ELT 212 HANDOUTS: HERCULES
 The bull Minos refused to sacrifice
(more later). Heracles caught it,
showed it to Eurystheus, then released
it.
 Seventh, takes him to Crete to tame
and capture a bull Poseidon gave King
Minos. Minos no longer wanted the
bull because his wife had fallen in
love with it.
 Minos happily gave the bull to
Hercules who rode it across the sea
from Crete to Athens and brought it to
Eurystheus
 The bull was then released and would
cause further trouble throughout Attica
until it was finally killed by Theseus
EIGHTTH LABOR: THE MARES OF
DIOMEDES
 He sails to the ends of the earth in a
golden cup lent by Helios
 Eighth, he goes to Thrace and slays
King Diomedes to take his man-eating
horses.
 Hercules fed Diomedes to the horses
and, when they were full, brought
them back to Eurystheus.
 Hercules stopped to visit his old friend
Admetus whose wife Alcestis had
recently died
NINTH LABOR: HIPPOLYTE’S GIRDLE
 Ninth, He went to the Amazon which
is to fetch the girdle of their queen
Hippolyta. She assents easily, but
Hera inspires the other Amazons to
attack Hercules.
 Hercules kidnaps Hippolyte’s sister
and ransoms her for the belt and then
leaves peacefully
TENTH LABOR: CATTLE OF GERYON
 For his tenth labor, he takes the oxen
that belong to a three-bodied monster
called Geryon.
 Bringing the cattle back to Greece,
Hera sent gadflies to sting the beasts
and scattered them, so Hercules had to
round them up again.
 The princess Celtine saw Hercules and
fell in love with him. Celtine hid the
cattle and would not divulge their
whereabouts unless he had sex with
her.
ELEVENTH LABOR: THE APPLES OF
HESPERIDES
 Prometheus was grateful and told him
that the apples were guarded by a
dragon.
 Heracles must go to the Island of the
Hesperides, daughters of night, and
get the golden apples from their tree,
which is guarded by the unsleeping
serpent, Ladon.
 First he has to wrestle Nereus to get
the “old Man of the Sea” to tell him
where the island is.
 In some versions, he gets Atlas, the
Titan who holds up the world, to get
the apples for him, by temporarily
taking on the burden himself.
 Athena helps out a little . . . Heracles
has to trick Atlas into taking the
burden back, showing his faint but still
present “trickster” element.
 Heracles crosses the ocean in a golden
bowl.
 In other versions, Heracles kills the
serpent and get the apples himself
 The apples of the Hesperides are
parallel to “magical” apples in many
traditions: the Tree of Knowledge in
Eden, the Norse apples of immortality
TWELVETH LABOR: CERBERUS
 The twelfth labor is most difficult
because Hercules must descend to the
underworld and bring back the three-
headed guard dog, Cerberus.
 Before he could enter the underworld,
Hercules had to become initiated in
the Eleusinian Mysteries at the sacred
city of Eleusis.
 He journeyed to Hades, where he had
further adventures in the underworld
such as freeing his cousin Theseus
from the Chair of Forgetfulness where
he had been bound.
 Hades and Persephone give him
permission
ELT 212 HANDOUTS: HERCULES
 He charms and tames the dog; He
wrestles it and defeats it.
 Eurystheus who was so terrified of the
animal that he told Hercules all the
labors were done and to bring the dog
back to where he’d found it.
The last two Labors put him in the borders of
the world; this one actually shows him
descending into the Underworld and coming
back again. This is a “conquest of death” and
shows his extraordinary power as a hero.
AFTER THE 12 LABORS OF HERCULES
Parerga (Alcestis)
 Another conquest of death...
 His friend Admetus is in mourning for
Admetus’ wife, Alcestis.
 Heracles wrestled death and brought
Alcestis up from the Underworld,
where she was reunited with her
family.
The Cercopes
 “beware the black-bottomed man.”
 Heracles subdues (then releases) these
mischievous creatures
The Pythia’s Tripod
 Irritated by an unpleasant oracular
response, Heracles chased the Pythia
off her tripod and tried to walk off
with it. Apollo came down and
wrestled him for it. Zeus made them
stop.
Busiris
 Heracles spent a lot of time making
things better for ordinary mortals.
Many of these deeds involved
capturing rampaging animals.
 Busiris was an Egyptian priest who
performed human sacrifices; Heracles
treated him to his own medicine
Antaeus
 Antaeus, son of Gaia, challenged
passersby to wrestle. Every time he
was thrown down onto the ground, he
got up stronger. Heracles defeated him
by holding him up in the air and
strangling him.
Gigantomachy
 Though the chronology of this is hard
to figure, Heracles also fought on the
side of the gods against the giants – in
one version killing the giants as the
gods disabled them.
 His nature is divine, though also
different from that of the “other” gods.
Omphale
 After committing crimes against his
host and attacking the Pythia, Heracles
had to serve as a slave for two years.
His mistress was Omphale.
 In some accounts he performed
ordinary masculine slave tasks; in
others he switched clothes and roles
with the perverse queen.
 Either way it makes a good story.
Heracles & Deianira
 Heracles was bringing his chosen
bride, Deianira, back home, when the
centaur Nessus tried to rape her.
Heracles fought Nessus, killing him
with an arrow. As he died, Nessus
caught some blood from the wound in
a vial and gave it to Deianira, saying it
was a love potion.
 Deianira kept it for years, thinking it
might come in handy.
 When Heracles was at war, she heard
that he had fallen in love with the
maiden Iole. To keep his interest,
Deianira soaked a shirt in the centaur’s
blood and give it to her husband.
 Heracles unsuspectingly put on the
shirt, and the poison began to eat away
at him. In incredible agony, he
repudiated Deianira, who killed
herself.
 Unable to recover, but unable to die,
Heracles determined to burn himself
alive on his funeral pyre.
 Of course, the blood was not a love
potion, It was poison, infected by the
hydra’s blood on Heracles’ arrow.
The Death of Hercules
 Heracles handed his famous bow to
his friend Philoctetes, then had the
pyre lit.
ELT 212 HANDOUTS: HERCULES
 As it burned, he underwent a
transformation – the human side was
burned away, leaving the divine.
 In some versions, his shade went to
Hades, while his divine element went
to Olympus. Athena, always his
protector, takes him to Olympus.
Heracles As A God
 Heracles is often depicted banqueting
at ease with the gods; his wife is Hebe
(“Youth”), daughter of Zeus and Hera.
Heracles as Savior
Heracles’ accomplishments are
remarkable:
 Defeated a huge number of rampaging
animals
 Overcame death (alcestis)
 Went into the underworld and came
back alive (maybe more than once)
 Overcame many semi-human
monsters
 Established the olympic games &
many other institutions
 Made an impact all over the world
Yet he was not a king, and in fact often
appears in positions of servitude (Eurystheus,
Omphale).
Heracles’ Violence
 Kills his music tutor, Linus, for
criticizing him
 Kills Iphitus, with whom he had (in
some versions) a relationship of xenia
 Takes violent revenge for minor
slights (e.g. Overthrowing/killing
Aegeus for non-payment)
 Attacks the Pythia
 Makes war very freely
Heracles also perpetrates many violent,
unlawful acts, balancing his role as humanity’s
savior with a role as a violent, chaotic force.
Comic Heracles
 Heracles is often portrayed in comedy
as a big-eating, big-drinking, sexually
voracious oaf.
 Despite his seeming lack of finesse, he
does manage to go out and get things
done, though.
 The larger-than-life comedy is also an
integral part of the hero.
Philosophical Heracles
 Heracles also underwent great
suffering in his lifetime, some brought
on himself, some inflicted by the gods,
and some in between. He murdered his
own family – though not of his own
accord. He endured slavery. He was
deprived of his birthright. He
wandered for many years with no
secure home.
 In some more philosophical treatments
of Heracles’ life, especially in the later
Greek & Roman world, he was an
exemplar virtutis, a model of
virtue/courage, laboring for the good
of mankind, showing how to engage
suffering for the common good.
The Nature of Heracles
 It is impossible to underestimate the
importance of this hero, who had
shrines everywhere, visited every city
in the Greek world and figured in so
many local legends, was worshipped
at more shrines and sanctuaries than
most of the gods, was called “savior”
and “protector” and invoked almost
unconsciously by Romans with
“mehercule!”
Of Heracles I will sing, whom Alcmena bore
in Thebes . . . to be by far the greatest of men
on earth. He traversed long ago vast distances
of land and sea at the order of King
Eurystheus; many were the bold deeds he did,
many were the things he endured. Now he
dwells in joy in the beautiful palace of snowy
Olympus and has for wife the slender-ankled
Hebe. Hail, Lord, son of Zeus. Grant me both
excellence and wealth.