Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures.
The Romans adapted the Greek hero's iconography and myths for their literature and art under the name Hercules. In later Western art and literature and in popular culture, Hercules is more commonly used than Heracles as the name of the hero. Hercules is a multifaceted figure with contradictory characteristics, which enabled later artists and writers to pick and choose how to represent him."Hercules," in The Classical Tradition (Harvard University Press, 2010), p. 426.
Mythology Birth and early life In Roman mythology, although Hercules was seen as the champion of the weak and a great protector, his personal problems started at birth. Juno sent two witches to prevent the birth, but they were tricked by one of Alcmene's servants and sent to another room. Juno then sent serpents to kill him in his cradle, but Hercules strangled them both. In one version of the myth, Alcmene abandoned her baby in the woods in order to protect him from Juno's wrath, but he was found by the goddess Minerva, who brought him to Juno, claiming he was an orphan child left in the woods who needed nourishment. Juno suckled Hercules at her own breast until the infant bit her nipple, at which point she pushed him away, spilling her milk across the night sky and so forming the Milky Way. She then gave the infant back to Minerva and told her to take care of the baby herself. In feeding the child from her own breast, the goddess inadvertently imbued him with further strength and power.
Death
Roman era
The Latin name Hercules was borrowed through Etruscan, where it is represented variously as Heracle, Hercle, and other forms. Hercules was a favorite subject for Etruscan art, and appears often on bronze mirrors. The Etruscan form Herceler derives from the Greek Heracles via syncope. A mild oath invoking Hercules (Hercule! or Mehercle!) was a common interjection in Classical Latin.W. M. Lindsay, "Mehercle and Herc(v)lvs. [Mehercle and Herc(u)lus]" The Classical Quarterly 12.2 (April 1918:58). Though not native to Italic religion, Hercules had become a popular god amongst various Italic cultures, primarily in the south and center of Italy. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, a 1st-century BCE Greek historian, testifies to the popularity of Hercules, stating that "one could scarcely find any place in Italy in which the god is not honored."Dionysius of Halicarnassus. Roman Antiquities. 1.40. Bronze statuettes dedicated to Hercules have been uncovered from sanctuaries throughout Samnium and the Apennines, with over a hundred such bronzes surfacing near a 3rd-century BCE sanctuary in Corfinium—a Paelignian territory. The popularity of these bronzes may have stemmed from the supposedly militaristic cultures of the Samnites and the Marsi and perhaps mercenaries serving under Hippocrates of Gela. However, the classicist Karl Galinsky suggests that these statuettes may instead continue an earlier "Mars" type, which also depicted a warrior figure.
Amongst the hundreds of known Sabellic votive statues of Hercules, a particularly common type—referred to as "Hercules in assault"—portrays a beardless Hercules posed in a manner akin to other warrior statuettes. Hercules is varyingly depicted with certain accompanying accoutrements—in some figurines he is portrayed wielding a club, whereas others depict the hero holding the apples of the Hesperides. Depictions specifically of Hercules are distinguished by the presence of a lion skin on the figure. The "Rorschach Hercules," a subtype of the aforementioned "Hercules in assault," portrays the lion skin as a geometric shape resemblant of an ink blot. According to Karl Galinsky, it is likely that the "Rorschach" style derives from local Italic artistic customs, in contrast to an alternative Hellenised style, in which the distinct muscles of the body were emphasised and the lion skin was depicted in a less abstract manner.
According to Macrobius, a 5th-century CE Roman historian, the earlier author Varro—who lived in the 1st-century BCE—had claimed the Hercules was the same as Mars.Macrobius. Saturnalia. 3.6. Confusion between the two deities may have resulted from the agrarian associations of both gods. In the Oscan Agnone tablet, Hercules is mentioned with the epithet , equivalent to Latin , itself a reference to Ceres—the Roman goddess of agriculture. Certain places dedicated to Hercules across southern Italy may be associated with prominent agricultural and transhumance routes, such as in Alba Fucens, where a deity referred to as ("Hercules of Salt") was honored. According to the archaeologist Annalisa Marzano, the connection with salt may have itself related to the importance of salt in cheese production and food preservation, both of which are themselves vital for animal husbandry.
However, the archaeologist Tesse Stek notes that various sanctuaries of Hercules are not easily connectable with transhumance routes. For instance, a sanctuary of Hercules in Campochiaro is located above the Boiano basin on the side of a mountain and is therefore—according to Stek—not easily accessible to any pastoralists. Stek further notes that the primary archaeological evidence for a relationship between Hercules and transhumance dates to the 2nd-century BCE—after Hercules had already become a prominent deity in Italic religions. It is perhaps possible that these 2nd-century BCE sites could preserve the functions of older religious sanctuaries, though Stek states that there is no "self-evident" justification for asserting such continuity. Likewise, the classicist Guy Bradley doubts the supposed pastoralist role of these sanctuaries, noting that these sanctuaries could easily have served the needs of any of the other traders, artisans, or travelers who utilised these roads, not exclusively farmers. Additionally, Bradley argues that the monumentalisation of these temples required a level of financial power that was likely unavailable to Samnite shepherds.
Hercules had a number of myths that were distinctly Roman. One of these is Hercules's defeat of Cacus, who was terrorising the countryside of Rome. The hero was associated with the Aventine Hill through his son Aventinus. Mark Antony considered him a personal patron god, as did the emperor Commodus. Hercules received various forms of religious veneration, including as a deity concerned with children and childbirth, in part because of myths about his precocious infancy, and in part because he fathered countless children. Roman brides wore a special belt tied with the "knot of Hercules", which was supposed to be hard to untie.Festus 55 (edition of Lindsay); William Warde Fowler, The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic (London, 1908), p. 142; Karen K. Hersch, The Roman Wedding: Ritual and Meaning in Antiquity (Cambridge University Press, 2010), pp. 101, 110, 211. The comic playwright Plautus presents the myth of Hercules's conception as a sex comedy in his play Amphitryon; Seneca wrote the tragedy Hercules Furens about his bout with madness. During the Roman Imperial era, Hercules was worshipped locally from Hispania through Gaul.
Germanic association
Tacitus records a special affinity of the Germanic peoples for Hercules. In chapter 3 of his Germania, Tacitus states:
Some have taken this as Tacitus equating the Germanic Þunraz with Hercules by way of interpretatio romana.Simek, Rudolf (2007:140–142) translated by Angela Hall. Dictionary of Northern Mythology. D.S. Brewer.
In the Roman era Hercules' Club amulets appear from the 2nd to 3rd century, distributed over the empire (including Roman Britain, cf. Cool 1986), mostly made of gold, shaped like wooden clubs. A specimen found in Köln-Nippes bears the inscription "DEO HER[culi]", confirming the association with Hercules.
In the 5th to 7th centuries, during the Migration Period, the amulet is theorised to have rapidly spread from the Elbe Germanic area across Europe. These Germanic "Donar's Clubs" were made from deer antler, bone or wood, more rarely also from bronze or precious metals. The amulet type is replaced by the Viking Age Thor's hammer pendants in the course of the Christianisation of Scandinavia from the 8th to 9th century.
Late ancient and medieval mythography
After the Roman Empire became Christianised, mythological narratives were often reinterpreted as allegory, influenced by the philosophy of late antiquity. In the 4th century, Servius had described Hercules's return from the underworld as representing his ability to overcome earthly desires and vices, or the earth itself as a consumer of bodies.Servius, note to Aeneid 6.395 ; Jane Chance, Medieval Mythography: From Roman North Africa to the School of Chartres, A.D. 433–1177 (University Press of Florida, 1994), p. 91. In some early patristic texts, Hercules was identified with the biblical figure Samson.
In medieval mythography, Hercules was one of the heroes seen as a strong role model who demonstrated both valor and wisdom, while the monsters he battles were regarded as moral obstacles.Chance, Medieval Mythography, pp. 168, 218, 413. One glossator noted that when Hercules became a constellation, he showed that strength was necessary to gain entrance to Heaven.Chance, Medieval Mythography, p. 219.
Medieval mythography was written almost entirely in Latin, and original Greek texts were little used as sources for Hercules's myths.
Renaissance mythography The Renaissance and the invention of the printing press brought a renewed interest in and publication of Greek literature. Renaissance mythography drew more extensively on the Greek tradition of Heracles, typically under the Romanized name Hercules, or the alternate name Alcides. In a chapter of his book Mythologiae (1567), the influential mythographer Natale Conti collected and summarised an extensive range of myths concerning the birth, adventures, and death of the hero under his Roman name Hercules. Conti begins his lengthy chapter on Hercules with an overview description that continues the moralising impulse of the Middle Ages:
Hercules, who subdued and destroyed monsters, bandits, and criminals, was justly famous and renowned for his great courage. His great and glorious reputation was worldwide, and so firmly entrenched that he'll always be remembered. In fact the ancients honored him with his own temples, altars, ceremonies, and priests. But it was his wisdom and great soul that earned those honors; noble blood, physical strength, and political power just aren't good enough.Natale Conti, Mythologiae Book 7, Chapter 1, as translated by John Mulryan and Steven Brown (Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2006), vol. 2, p. 566.
This renewed interest in Hercules was party because Hercules was being thought of as a philosopher, and Renaissance humanists began to consider Hercules as the god of inspired eloquence, as well as being connected to the idea of logos.
It also became common for the figure of Heracles to become adopted for political reasons. In the Renaissance period, there was a massive explosion in the creation of gardens, and in particular citrus gardens became associated with Hercules, specifically his eleventh labour, where he had to steal the apples of the Hesperides. This associated was particularly exploited by the Medici family, who wanted to link their family with ideas of strength and power.
Gallic Hercules