Myth 14
(metathesis
--natural sound change)
The most popular
of all Greek heroes
Despite this, however, there are few
specific (surviving) texts devoted to him
We have to rely on mythographers
(esp. Apollodorus) a lot
Depicted in art frequently
Characteristics:
Strong and willful
Longing for experience
Natural / civilized
Monster killer /monstrous
After death taken to Olympus and became a
god
His stories show up in the oldest Greek art
We have no continuous story of his career
BIRTH: divine and
convoluted
Told in epic Shield of
Heracles (6th century)
descended from Perseus and
Andromeda
Amphitryon and Alcmena:
Zeus shows up
The real Amphitryon
shows up and does the same
Becomes pregnant with fraternal TWINS:
Iphicles and Heracles
“Twinning”
Heracles never becomes a great ruler (on
the contrary)
Story told in Iliad
beware of foolish
action/boasting
Zeus boasts that a descendant of his own
seed would be born that day, and rule over the surrounding lands
Hera delays birth of Heracles and
hastens that of Eurystheus
Heracles’ cousin,
and grandson of Perseus
hence Zeusian
Eurystheus is born immature
Ovid bonus (Book 9.329 ff):
the divine midwife
crossed legs and fingers
How do you tell the difference between the
Twins?
Hera sends some snakes
recounted by Pindar
Hercules is soo
strong jokes ...
When he was a baby, Hera tried to nurse
him and ...
Heracles was given the finest teachers:
Wrestling
Archery
Fighting in Armor
Playing the lyre, with Linus
Goes to live out in the country, tending
cattle
Hunted a lion that was bothering Thespius, king of Thespiae
for 50 days
Thespius sends him a
daughter each night
impregnates them all, and
kills the lion
Buffoon and sexual genius
But can be a danger in peacetime
Marries Megara
daughter of Creon, new king of Thebes
three kids
losses it
—because of Hera?
Euripides Heracles
Insane (c. 416BC)
He think s he is
going to kill his cousin Eurystheus
Big difference here
Euripides loves to focus on these
irrational aspects of human life
Genuinely horrific
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
magic skin--no bow and
arrow
wrestled in and broke its
neck (cf. Beowulf and Grendel)
Has to use its own claw to skin it
Always wears the skin--with head like
helmet
(with club and bow
and arrow--wild man)
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
brings his nephew--Iolaus (one of his few "buddy" stories")
burning arrows, then moves
in with the sword
Chops of heads, but two more grow
Hassled by a crab the whole time
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 (!!!)
female; golden antler;
brazen hooves
tracks for a year-wounds
with an arrow
carries on shoulder
reproached by Apollo for
hassling his sister (Artemis')
deer
He's under orders--shows it to Copreus, then lets it go.
SIDE DEED: Pholus
and the Centaurs
while tracking, stops
for a meal with Pholus
gets him to open the
wine
The rest come running, Heracles
attacks
They get Chiron--the wise, immortal Centaur
hit with
arrow--eternal suffering PARADOX
trades
mortality/immortality with Prometheus
Pholus drops an arrow on
his hoof, and dies
5. Augean Stables
Augeas never cleans
Eurystheus wants to humiliate
Heracles
Heracles negotiates in disguise
--to get 1/10 of the cattle if he can do it
in one day
redirects a river through
the stables
Augeas refuses to pay
Heracles later returns and kills Augeas
according to Pindar, then
establishes the Olympic Games
deadly bird with
arrow-firing wings, and armor piercing beaks
clanging castanets--shoot them down
7. Cretan Bull
Summoned from the
sea by Minos
threw
it into the sea and rode it to Peloponnesus
killed by Theseus
A son of Ares
they eat human flesh
SIDE DEED: Alcestis
Argument btw Zeus
and Apollo (Asclepius saved Hippolytus)
Apollo servant to Admetus
Apollo grants him
to not die, if he can find a replacement
His wife agrees:
Alcestis
Euripides: Alcestis
(438 BC)
Heracles acts like
a boor because everyone is mourning
they don’t want to
burden him with sorrow
is ashamed when he
finds out it’s for the queen
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
Queen of the
Amazons
she gives it up right
away--he’s so charming
Hera
incites the Amazons against him
he kills her
10. Cattle of Geryon
red cattle in the far
WEST
Sails out the
Mediterranean--sets up the Pillars of Heracles
so hot in Africa--he
fires an arrow at Helius, who lends him his cup
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
SMASH
Vergil tells the
story
Hera’s wedding
present from Zeus
guarded by hundred header—Ladon
Way out in the West
SIDE DEED: Antaeus,
Busiris
Antaeus—a
giant, and son of Gaea he meets in Africa
wrestles the death then
build house of skulls
“don't
throw him on the ground”
Busiris
King of Egypt
kill a foreigner to
restore the crops
Heracles allows to
be bound, then kicks some ass
(Bu-Osiris—a temple
dedicated to god of death.
Heracles overcomes
death)
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 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)
twelve blank spaces
but really an origin?
Significance of 12—Olympians; months;
Titans
By Hellenistic times, the order is more or
less set, with some logic
Peloponnesus—widening
Heracles was a huge deal to expatriate
Greeks
—esp. In the West,
Italy and Sicily
90% of surviving illustrated pots are found in Italy
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
Shirt tightens, sweating—agony
“the gift was
yours (Deianira's) alone”
Smashes Lichas in
his pain
Curses his marriage
“take me away”
Orders son Hyllus
to marry Iole
Deianira kills herself
After his pyre, his whole body is gone—ascended
into heaven
marries Hebe, “Youth”
Eurystheus attempts to kill
the Heraclids
but is easily beheaded
by Hyllus
Dorians (especially
Spartans) trace their ancestry to Heracles
HERACLES: “the renown of Hera?” ???
a common name, like John
or Paul?
Origin of tales?
Argive plains?Thebes?
“Archetypal Greek hero”, but old-fashioned
even by Homer's time
Doesn't fight other heroes, like
Troy-fighters, but MONSTERS
Violence can solve anything
non-stop adventure
hard living, die
“young”
He does everything too much
Fights Death—all the time
The greatest and most beloved of all Greek
heroes
— Mi Hercule!
