Heracles,
the greatest of Greek
heroes. His name is that of a mortal (compare Diocles), and has been
interpreted as 'Glorious through *Hera' (Burkert 210, Chantraine 416,
Kretschmer 121-9 (see bibliog. below)). In this case, the bearer is taken
as being— or so his parents would hope—within the protection of the
goddess. This is at odds with the predominant tradition (see below),
wherein Heracles was harassed rather than protected by the goddess:
perhaps the hostility was against worshippers of Heracles who rejected
allegiance to the worshippers of Hera on whom the hero depended. This
could have happened when
*Argos (2) had
established control over the *Heraion and *Tiryns (possibly reflected in
an apparent falling-off of settlement at Tiryns late in the 9th cent. bc:
Foley 40-2). Some of the inhabitants of Tiryns might have emigrated to
Thebes (1), taking their hero with him. Traditionally Heracles' mother and
her husband (*Alcmene and *Amphitryon) were obliged to move from Tiryns to
Thebes (1), where Heracles was conceived and born (LMC 1/1. 735). However,
there is no agreement over the etymology of the name, an alternative
version deriving its first element from i 'Hero'.
Heracles shared the
characteristics of, on the one hand, a hero (both cultic and epic), on the
other, a god. As a hero, he was mortal, and like many other heroes, born
to a human mother and a god (Alcmene and *Zeus; Amphitryon was father of *Iphides,
Heracles' twin: the bare bones of the story already in Homer, /!. 14.
323-4). Legends arose early of his epic feats, and they were added to
constantly throughout antiquity. These stories may have played a part in
the transformation of Heracles from hero (i.e. a deity of mortal origin,
who, after death, exercised power over a limited geographical area, his
influence residing in his mortal remains) to god (a deity, immortal, whose
power is not limited geographically). See hero-cult.
Outside the cycle of
the Labours (see below), the chief events of Heracles' life were as
follows: Hera pursued him with implacable enmity from before his birth,
which she managed to delay until after that of *Eurystheus. She then sent
serpents to Thebes to attack Heracles in his cradle, but the infant
strangled them. Later, she drove him mad and caused him to murder his
Theban wife, Megara, and their children (there are different versions). In
his youth, Heracles led the Thebans in their successful revolt against
*Minyan *Orchomenus
(1). He also took part in an expedition against Troy and sacked Oechalia (LIMC
5/1.111-13), accompanied the *Argonauts (113-14), founded the "Olympian
games, and ultimately died by burning on Mt. Oeta (128-9: death came as a
relief against the
poison given him inadvertently by his wife *Deianira, who had hoped to
regain his love thereby: the dying "Centaur Nessus, from whom Heracles
rescued his wife, had given her the poison as a love potion. She used it
when Heracles took up with lole).
The Labours themselves
(twelve is the canonical number, but there is little agreement on the full
complement) support, by their geographical distribution, the contention
that, however popular Heracles became in other parts of the ancient world,
his origins were in the *Peloponnese, and more specifically in the Argolid.
He was sent to perform them by Eurystheus of Argos, to whom he was bound in
vassalage. Six belong to the northern part of the
Peloponnese, and might be taken
to represent either a gradual spread of Argive ambitions in that region, or,
with equal likelihood, the growing popularity of Heracles over a steadily
widening area. These tasks were to deal with (1) the Nemean lion (northern
border of the Argolid; see nemea); (2) the Lernaean Hydra (SW Argolid); (3) the Erymanthian boar (NW *Arcadia);
(4) the hind of Ceryneia (*Achaea); (5) the Stymphalian birds (NE Arcadia;
see stymphalus); (6) the stables of Augeas (*Elis). The other Labours are
situated at the ends of the habitable world or beyond: the Cretan bull to
the south, the horses of the Thracian *Diomedes (1) to the north, the quest
for the belt of the *Amazon queen to the east, the search for the cattle of
Geryon to the west, the apples of the *Hesperides at the edge of the world,
and *Cerberus in the world of the dead. Many but not all of the Labours are
already depicted in Greek art of the geometric and early Archaic periods
(LIMC 5 /1. 5-111 and 187). Also early to appear are two feats outside
the canon, a fight against Centaurs (187), and a struggle with *Apollo for
the Delphic tripod (133-43 and 187; see omphale). The encounters with
Centaurs take place in Arcadia and Thessaly; the fight with Apollo might
reflect a struggle for political control over *Delphi between its
inhabitants and those of Malis (Trachis and Mt. Oeta). A good survey of
Heracles' Labours (Praxeis) and Parerga (incidental labours)
in art is given by Carpenter 117-34.
The iconography of
Heracles was firmly established by the Archaic period, but even before then
it is possible to identify him from the subject-matter. The major
identifying symbols were the lion-skin cape and hood (flayed from the Nemean
lion), his club, and his bow and arrows (L7MC 5/1. 183-6).
Throughout his life and
many adventures, Heracles was guided closely by *Athena (LIMC 5/1. 143-54),
by whom he was introduced to *Olympus (1) after his death (122-8). The
apotheosis of Heracles was represented in literature and art by giving
him—after his death—a wife in the person of *Hebe, i.e. 'youth', or rather
the embodiment of the prime of life, for it is the permanent possession of
this boon which most distinguishes gods from men. The story is attested
definitely by the 6th cent. bc (121-2 and 160-5). In popular cult, Heracles
was recognized and invoked as a god from at least late in the 6th cent, (for
example, the inscription CEG 1.309 = IG I2. 825
from *Phaleron). "Herodotus (1) (2. 44. 5) writes approvingly of those
Hellenes who worshipped Heracles both as an immortal Olympian and as a hero.
The practice must have been common, if not widespread (cf. Pind. Nem.
3. 22: Heracles a 'hero god').
As in the case of
Apollo, his divine rival for the Delphic tripod, the cult of Heracles spread
at least partly through the absorption of local cult figures—in Heracles'
case, mostly heroic—of similar nature. Individuals adopted Heracles as a
more or less personal patron (Rusten 296); at the communal level, he
presided over ephebes (see epheboi) as their ideal in warfare and their
patron
in military training (Burkert
211; Graf 99), whence his patronage of the *gymnasium (a role often shared
with *Hermes), and over the young in general (Kearns 35-6). He was primarily
associated with the activities of men rather than women, which may explain
the regulations barring women from his rites or even his sanctuaries, e.g.
LSS 63 (*Thasos), LSAM 42 (*Miletus). Occasionally, however, the
character of the local hero whom Heracles had deposed might override the
general practice, as in the case of the western Boeotian Charops Heracles,
who was served by a priestess (Schachter 3-9).
The geographical
distribution of his cults is, as one might expect, as wide as that of his
legends. Interestingly, evidence from Tiryns and Argos, although early in
the former, is sparse (Tiryns: SEG 30. 380. 15a, first half of the
6th cent.; Argos: his name scratched on two fragments of an Attic crater of
the fourth quarter of the 5th cent., BCH 1989, 721). That he was
established at Thebes by the Homeric period cannot be doubted, although the
earliest contemporary evidence for cult occurs in the 5th cent. (Schachter
14-30). He was worshipped fairly widely throughout Boeotia, and neighbouring *Attica
(Woodford 211-25).
One of the earliest
places to produce archaeological evidence for a cult of Heracles is the
sanctuary on Mt. Oeta, site of his immolation (Bequignon
206—15). Another important early site is at Thasos, where evidence extends
from soon after the foundation of the colony (Des Courtils and Pariente).
The Thasian cult exemplifies several features of the worship of Heracles:
first, his treatment as a god; second, his function as promachos,
champion or protector, of the community (particularly its urban centre);
third, the tendency to syncretize (see syncretism) Heracles with other
deities, local or otherwise, in the case of Thasos, the other being Melqart
of *Tyre (Bonnet 346-71).
The sanctuary at Thasos,
which may be typical, included not only a sacrificial area, but also a
temple and extensive dining-facilities (the last often illustrated in
vase-painting and so probably typical: Woodford 213-14); descriptions of
other Herakleia (e.g. at Thebes: Paus. 9. 11. 4-7) would lead us to expect
the existence of extensive athletic facilities as part of the complex. All
of this public devotion to bodily well-being would have helped to produce
the impression of Heracles as a boisterous glutton.
As noted above, Heracles
was adopted by individuals or states
as a symbol or protecting deity, to which numerous towns named
after him bear eloquent testimony. Boeotian Thebes used Her
acles as its symbol from at least the second half of the 5th cent.
ec, if not earlier. In the preceding century *Pisistratus of Athens
made Heracles his personal divine protector and legitimator of
his actions (Boardman 1988 and 1989; but see imagery;
propaganda). The Macedonian royal family ('Argeads') claimed
lineal descent from Heracles for similar motives (Hammond
and Griffith 164-5; see hellenism; kinship). Most notoriously,
however, the *Dorian rulers of the *Peloponnese sought to legit
imate their claims to sovereignty by tracing their descent to
Heracles through his sons, the *Heraclidae, who, as the tale was
told, 'returned' to the Peloponnese from the north to claim their
inheritance (Hooker
41-5).
Y. Bequignon, La
Vallee du Spercheios (1937); J. Boardman, CAH 42
(1988), 421-2, andJHS (1989), 158-9; J. Boardman and others, LIMC 4.
1 (1988), 5/1 (1990); C. Bonnet, Mdqart (1988); Burkert, GR;
T. H. Carpenter, Art and Myth in Ancient Greece (1991); P. Chantraine,
Dictionnaire etymologique de \a langue grecque 2 (1970); J. Des
Courtils and M. Pariente, in R. Etienne and M.-T. Le Dinahet (eds.),
L'Espace samficiel(W91), 67-73; A. Foley, The Argolid 800-600 BC
(1988); F. Graf, Nordionische Kuke (1985); Hammond and Griffith, HM
2; J. T. Hooker,
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