Chapter Fourteen, Lecture One

Heracles

Heracles

• Strong man and primitive tough guy

• But still admired and venerated for “heroism” – dangerous tasks done with physical strength for a good purpose

Heracles

• Panhellenic hero– Adventures take him throughout the Greek

world and beyond– Principal hero for colonists– “Washington slept here”

• Enormous body of myth and tales– Complete picture must be pieced together

from many sources

The Birth of Heracles

The Birth of Heracles

• Perseus– King of Tiryns and founded Mycenae

• Electryon

• Alcaeus

• Sthenelus

The Birth of Heracles

• Electryon (Mycenae)– Nine sons– Alcmena

• Alcaeus– Amphitryon

• Sthenelus– Eurystheus

The Birth of Heracles

• Pirates kill all but one of Electryon’s sons.

• Prepares a campaign against them

• Gives Amphitryon Alcmena to watch over

• But he and Amphitryon get into a fight and Amphitryon kills him.

• Amphitryon escapes to Thebes with Alcmena and marries her.

The Birth of Heracles

• Alcmena won’t have sex with him until Amphitryon avenges the death of her brothers.

• Meanwhile, Zeus sneaks in.• Amphitryon comes later.• Thus, there are divine and human seed in

her and she gives birth to twins.– Heracles (Alcides)– Iphicles

The Birth of Heracles

• Zeus’s boast about Eileithyia delivering a ruler on that day

• Hera holds up his birth and advances Eurystheus’s birth

• Ovid– Galanthis untangles Eileithyia through a trick.

Twin and Divine Births

Twin and Divine Births

• Twins viewed with superstition

• Simultaneous intercourse with divine and mortal male from Egypt and widespread– Ammun and Ahmes, wife of Tutmosis, I =>

Hatshepsut

Heracles’s Youthful Deeds

Serpents

The Milky Way

Autolycus

Eurytus

Linus

Daughters of Thespius

Erginus of the Minyans

Madness and Murder

Madness and Murder

• Married to Megara, daughter of Creon, the new king of Thebes

• Driven mad by Hera and kills Megara and their three children

• As punishment, Heracles must serve Eurystheus, his cousin.– In Euripides’s play, the murders take place

after the labors (athloi).

The Twelve Labors

The Twelve Labors

1. Nemaean Lion 7. The Cretan Bull

2. Lernaean Hydra 8. Horses of Diomedes

3. Ceryneian Deer 9. Girdle of Hippolyta

4. Erymanthian Boar 10. Cattle of Geryon

5. Augean Stables 11. Apples of the Hesperides

6. Stymphalian Birds 12. Cerberus

Other tasks interspersed with them: the Side-Deeds

Side-Deeds

Labor Side Deeds

4. Erymanthian Boar Pholus, Chiron

8. Horses of Diomedes Alcestis and Admetus

10. Cattle of Geryon ErythiaCacusHelius Cup

11. Hesperides Nereus

Antaeus

Busiris

Prometheus || Altas

Observations: The Twelve Labors

Observations

• Like Gilgamesh, struggles against beasts and journeys to the land of the dead

• When did labors become organized into twelve?– Not in Hesiod

• Perhaps in 470 BC on the Temple of Zeus at Olympia– 12 metopes available

Observations

• Labors grouped into thematic units– Early adventures around Mycenae– Six of the first seven largely against animals

• The Augean stables the exception

– Later adventure farther out, and final adventures in the underworld

• Popular with Greeks living abroad, Sicily and Italy in particular

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