1.2 heracles/hercules

greece - heracles

birth
- son of zeus and alcmene
- zeus disguised as her husband, slept with alcmene, her husband amphitryon, also slept with alcmene in the same night, she was pregnant with two kids, zeus’ heracles, amphitryon’s iphicles
- zeus boasted that he would rule the skies and heracles would rule the earth, hera got mad - made zeus vow that whoever from the house of perseus was born first that night would rule
- hera got eileithyia (her daughter) to prolong alcmene’s labour until sthenelus’ (uncle of amphitryon) son eurystheus was born
- hera wanted alcmene to die, she lived, heracles and iphicles lived, eurystheus was born first
- hera sent two snakes to poison heracles, heracles strangled the snakes
- alcmene abandoned heracles in woods to avoid hera’s wrath
- athena took heracles to mt olympus, hera ordered he be returned to alcmene
- athena became heracles’ protector

early life
married creon’s daughter - megara
hera sent the goddess Madness to infect heracles, caused him to kill his wife and kids
depressed, exiled himself from thebes
went to oracle at Delphi, hera controlled oracle and told him he needed to serve king eurystheus for 12 years

12 labours
as punishment for killing family, eurystheus gave heracles 10 labours (supposedly impossible), heracles received help or payment for the labours so had to complete 2 more

the nemean lion
- lion had impenetrable skin
- strangled it to death
- needed to bring prize - skinned lion with its own claws

the lernean hydra
- hydra had many heads and venom for blood
- when one head was removed, 2 grew back in its place
- got help from his cousin iolaus, heracles cut the heads off, iolaus sealed neck with flaming torch
- once all heads were removed, heracles detached the immortal head and buried it under pile of rocks
- used hydra’s venom as poison for arrows
- labour didn’t count as he was helped by cousin

the golden hind
- hind was very quick, sacred to artemis
- tracked hind for 1 year before catching it by snaring it
- met by apollo and artemis on way back, allowed him to carry on when he said he was borrowing animal and was forced to

the erymanthian boar
- terrorising countryside of arcadia, much larger than other boars
- had to bring back alive
- wore boar down by chasing it through thick winter snow
- when boar was tired, heracles caught it and carried it back
- king was scared when heracles arrived - hid in sunken pithos jar (large clay storage jar)

the augean stables
- clean the stables of augeas, king of elis, in one day
- very large cattle with large amounts of dung
- diverted rivers alpheios and peneios through the stables
- augeas promised payment, never gave it, heracles returned with army, defeated the king
- to commemorate his victory, heracles founded the olympic games for zeus
- labour didn’t count as he was offered money

the stymphalian birds
- defeat the birds
- had been ravaging farmlands of stymphalos
- athena gave heracles a rattle made by god hephaistos
- when shaken, birds flex into sky, heracles shot them with arrows or sling shot

the cretan bull
- bring cretan bull to mycenae
- was destroying cretan homes and farmland
- crept up behind bull and strangled it, released grip before it passed out
- rode bull across sea to greece
- king was scared, hid in pithos
- heracles let bull loose, it wandered to marathon, was later killed by theseus

the mares of diomedes
- diomedes was king of the bistones in thrace
- had set of horses, horses were crazed as diomedes fed them limbs of defeated enemies and strangers
- heracles defeated stablemen
- diomedes took men to fight heracles, heracles left horses with abderos, horses ate abderos, in return heracles fed diomedes to horses
- took horses back to eurystheus
- 2 versions: horses were now eternally calm and roamed free in argos / horses were set free and were killed by wild animals when they arrived at olympus

the belt of hippolyte
- hippolyte was queen of amazons, had magical belt from her father ares
- eurystheus’ daughter wanted belt, heracles had to get belt
- heracles took army but hippolyte admired heracles so freely offered belt to him
- hera took form of amazonian and spread rumour that heracles plotted to steal hippolyte
- amazonians planned to kill heracles, heracles saw them, thought queen betrayed him
- heracles killed hippolyte and took belt

the cattle of geryon
- had to steal cattle from the edge of the world
- had to kill herdsman eurytion and his dog orthrus, beat them with club
- another shepherd warned geryon of the theft
- geryon had three heads, three sets of arms and legs, chased after heracles as he was leaving
- heracles killed geryon with club and bow
when returned, eurystheus sacrificed bulls to hera

the apples of the hesperides
- in garden of hesperides the golden apples grew, wedding gift from gaia (earth) to hera and zeus
- guarded by the hesperides, nymphs, daughters of atlas
- had to get apples, was longest task
- didn’t know where apples were, prometheus told him how to get apples as heracles killed the eagle that pecked out his liver every day
- travelled to atlas, atlas got apples while heracles held up the sky
- atlas didn’t want to take sky back, heracles asked atlas to take sky while heracles gets pillow for his shoulders
- atlas took sky back, heracles took apples and ran
- after being presented to eurystheus, athena took apples back to garden as they were property of zeus

cerberus
- had to get cerberus
- initiated into eleusinian mysteries to be in favour of persephone
- hades and persephone told heracles if he could capture cerberus with no weapons, he could take him
- strangled cerberus, took him to eurystheus, was then returned to hades

the olympic games
two versions of how olympic games were set up, heracles and augean stables + pelops and hippodamia
- hippodamia was daughter of oinomaos, king of pisa
- oinomaos received oracle that he would die when his daughter married, set up chariot contest to avoid daughter marrying, had special chariot that always won
- any suitors had to race him, if they lost they would be killed, if they won they would wed hippodamia
- pelops challenged oinomaos to race, bribed his charioteer to replace linchpins with wax replicas
- friction heated up wheel, melted wax, wheels came off, oinomaos died
- pelops marries hippodamia and set up olympics as funerary games in honour of oinomaos

heracles and the temple of zeus
- story of pelops is on eastern pediment
- labour of heracles are on 12 metopes, 6 over front entrance, 6 over back entrance

metopes
- create a scene that could be easily recognisable
- create realism in his scene
- fill the space so as not to leave big blank spaces

rome - hercules

hercules and cacus:
- took place during the cattle of geryon labour
- hercules had the cattle, geryon is dead, hercules was sleeping, cacus stole eight of his cattle, led the cattle backwards to trick hercules
- hercules heard a trapped cow moo, got angry, went to find it
- cacus hid in his cave and put huge boulder in front, hercules couldn’t move rock
- hercules circled aventine hill three times then took off the entire top of the mountain
- hercules kills cacus

hercules and achelous
- achelous - god
- both wanted princess Deianira of Aitolia’s hand in marriage
- other suitors backed out, hercules said - divine heritage + completed labours, achelous said - god + labours were hercules’ own fault + hercules’ birth was a lie or a scandal
- hercules got mad, fought achelous, hercules won first fight, achelous changed into a snake, hercules won second fight, achelous changed into a bull with one horn, hercules won fight, broke off horn, horn used as cornucopia

hercules and nessus
- hercules marries deianira
- arrived at river evenus, hercules could swim, deianira couldn’t, centaur nessus offers to carry deianira, when hercules is crossing nessus runs off with deianira
- hercules shoots nessus in chest with hydra poison arrow
- nessus gives his tunic soaked with warm (poisoned) blood to deianira

death of hercules
- years later, juno got goddess rumour to spread lies about hercules to deianira
made her think hercules was in love with iole, princess from oechalia
- deianira gives tunic to hercules thinking he will fall in love with her
- while giving sacrifice to god, heat from fire causes cloak to catch fire and stick to his skin
- jupiter gave speech to gods asking that hercules be allowed onto olympus, all gods agreed