Myth 14
Heracles / Hercules
(metathesis --natural sound
change)
The most popular of
all Greek heroes
BIRTH: divine and
convoluted
Told in epic Shield of
Heracles (6th century)
Heracles never becomes a great ruler (on the
contrary)
Story told in Iliad, 19.90-159
How do you tell the difference between the
Twins?
Hera sends some snakes
recounted by Pindar
Hera tried to nurse
him and ...
Marries Megara
daughter of Creon, new king of Thebes
three kids
Euripides Heracles
Insane (c. 416BC)
He think s he is going to kill his cousin Eurystheus
The Twelve Labors
Seeks out Oracle at Delphi to find out how to
atone for his crime
--how to clean himself of this pollution
Must travel to his hometown, and serve his
cousin Eurystheus
the Labors, or "athloi"
12 or 10 Labors, plus Deeds, plus "side
deeds"
LABORS:
1. Nemean
Lion
Brings skin to Eurystheus--the
coward
"never let him into the city again"
show your prizes to Copreus
"shitty"--my herald
builds a giant underground
jar to hide in
2. the Hydra
Iolaus cauterizes the stumps with a
firebrand
Heracles buries the central, immortal head
under a rock
dips his arrows in
the poison of the hydra (!!!)
reproached by Apollo for hassling his sister
(Artemis') deer
SIDE DEED: Pholus
and the Centaurs
The rest come running,
Heracles attacks
They get Chiron--the wise, immortal Centaur
5. Augean Stables
7. Cretan Bull
threw it into the sea and
rode it to Peloponnesus
they eat human flesh
SIDE DEED: Alcestis
so he goes off stage and
wrestles death
present her to him as
a “new wife”
Feeds Diomedes to the horses
9. Girdle of Hippolyta
Hera
incites the Amazons against him
he kills her
10. Cattle of Geryon
kicks ass, rustles the cattle
into the cup, and sails back
SIDE DEED: Cacus
Near the site of
Rome, a three-headed monster stole cattle
Hera’s wedding
present from Zeus
SIDE DEED: Antaeus,
Busiris
Antaeus—a
giant, and son of Gaea he meets in Africa
“don't throw him on
the ground”
Busiris
King of Egypt
kill a foreigner to
restore the crops
SIDE DEED: Prometheus
In the Caucasus—finds Prometheus—kills the eagle; sets him free
in Theogony—Zeus
consents,
“gives up his
long-held anger”
APPLES:
Atlas—holding up the world
12. Ceberus
Descend to the underworld, and bring back
the doggy
sacrifices one of Hades cows to him
Twelve Labors: OBSERVATIONS:
Monster-slayer
Edge of the world
Conquer Death (or at least compete)
When /Why 10/12 ?
Oldest accounts show no counting:
Theogony — genealogy of monsters, mentions 4
Geryon, Hydra, Cerberus, Nemean Lion
Oldest case of twelve
METOPES
on the temple of Zeus at Olympia
(470BC)
Romans like to depict themselves as Heracles
most especially Commodus—basis
for emperor in Gladiator
Alexander the Great, too—with lion skin
VARIOUS DEEDS:
Attempts to win Iole,
daughter of Eurytus
Heracles leaves, steals cattle?
Iphitus goes to ask,
Heracles throws him over a cliff
BLOOD-pollution: violate Xenia
Delphic Oracle will not even
speak with him
so he steals her tripod
Apollo stops him, and agrees to cleanse him
—he must serve a woman for 3 years
Sold at slave auction
sex slave-cross dressing
Pan, smash!
Cecopes
story
Death of Heracles
one of the most horrific in all Greek lit and
Myth
Perseus, we don't know
Most fully told in Sophocles, Women of Trachis (c. 430BC)
Heracles has married Deianira
— “man-killer”
had to wrestle Bull / sea-monster river god Achelous
Rips off horn, gets his bride
Had to cross river: Centaur Nessus ferries across for
fee
puts Deianira on
his back
Nessus gets frisky
shots with poison arrow
Nessus tells Deianira
to collect blood and semen as love potion
Heracles goes back and captures Iole by force
—asks his messenger Lichas
for a clean cloak for sacrifice
Deianira is upset about Iole
and uses the “love potion” on the shirt
Hercules death is reported in Women of Trachis
See also Ovid, 9.1-304
