Hercules carrying a bow, his club and the skin of the Nemean Lion , detail Crater Niobides, v. 460 - 450 BC. BC , Muse du Louvre

Heracles (in ancient Greek / his first name Hercules, son of Zeus and Alcmene , is one of the heroes of the most revered ancient Greece. The Greek mythology lends him a great number of adventures that are traveling the world known to the Dorians and the entire Mediterranean from the expansion of Magna Graecia, to Hades , and whose most famous the twelve labors. It is mentioned in Greek literature from Homer.

Hercules is the Hercules of Roman mythology. Hercules The Romans sometimes portrayed as less violent than his alter ego in the Greek stories and knows where it comes down to a few adventures specifically in Italy.

Myth

Conception and birth

Heracles was born in Thebes of Zeus and Alcmene , wife of King Amphitryon . Taking advantage of the absence of the husband in the war against Taphians Tlboens and , Zeus descends from the Olympus , and taking on the appearance of Amphitryon , with layer after Alcmene persuaded Helios , god of the sun not to stand for three days, making his last night with the wife of Amphitryon . In the same night, Alcmene is also visited by her husband to return campaign.

Then she will give birth, Zeus promised that the unborn child that day reign over all its neighbors . Revenge for her husband's infidelities, Hera delayed the issuance of Alcmene retaining the Eileithyia , goddesses of childbirth itself is born prematurely Eurystheus , son of King Sthenelus of Argos . Eurystheus and receives royalty of Argolis in place of Heracles . Alcmene can then give birth, she gave birth to two children: Hercules, the son of Zeus, and Iphicles , son of Amphitryon .

Children

Hera suckling Heracles lekythos aryballisque Apulian, ca 360-350 BC. BC, British Museum

Shortly after the birth of Heracles, Hermes takes the child and places it in the bed asleep Hera: None of the son of Zeus can become immortal if he has sucked in the goddess . Hungry, the toddler approached it and began to suck. Waking up, sees the child and Hera indignantly rejects it, the divine milk spreads across the sky in a trail of white, the Milky Way . In another version, Alcmene gave up her child for fear of revenge of Hera. Athena convinces the latter to breastfeed the baby, but Heracles head too greedily and Athena shall return to his mother .

While Heracles was still an infant, Hera sent serpents to kill him, but he strangles them without difficulty. Alerted by the screams of women, Amphitryon and Alcmene rush and find the dead snakes. Amphitryon then summons the seer Tiresias , who prophesied the great deeds of the hero and his apotheosis .

In another version, Amphitryon himself shall place the snakes to discover which of his two children and who is the son of Zeus . This story includes Amphitryon is aware of the infidelity of his wife. On some vases of Magna Graecia , as we see elsewhere stacking wood around an altar near which Alcmene fled, he was preparing to set it on fire when Zeus sends a lightning bolt to deter Amphitryon and two clouds extinguish flames .

According to some accounts, Heracles is the first name of Alcide (in Greek / Alkedes, derived from / alke, force, force "); renamed Hera Hercules, that is to say "glory of Hera", because it is because of his orders that the hero has earned its reputation . Alternatively, it is the Pythia of Delphi , who advised him to change his name after he killed his children, urged on by Hera, who was driven mad (see below ), he takes the name after so propitiatory atonement his crime . According to others, the original name of the hero is Alcaeus, referring to his paternal grandfather Alcaeus son of Perseus , the responsibility for change of name is then either the Sibyl or to Argos .

Training

Like many Greek heroes, Heracles is the pupil of the centaur Chiron . Later sources give many masters: Castor (originally from Argos, not to be confused with the Beaver Dioscure ) for the use of arms, Amphitryon for driving tanks, Eurytus or Rhadamanthus for archery arc .

Linos teaches literature and music to Orpheus and Heracles. Unlike his half-brother, the hero is unruly and turbulent struck by Linos, Heracles killed it with blows of stool or, depending on the version, by dint of lyre . Heracles is accused of murder and acquitted after asserting a sentence of Rhadamanthus enshrining the principle of self-defense . Because the fire of Heracles and his lack of self-control becomes a threat, Amphitryon away from the court . The hero is sent to monitor their flocks in the countryside where his education was taken over by Teutoros a drover Scythian who taught him archery . He pointed out already by his strength and stature as he reached the large size of four cubits .

In Thespios

The young Hercules, holding his club, sat on an altar, 450-400 BC. AD Regional Archaeological Museum Palermo

At 18 , Heracles was invited by the king Thespios , sovereign Thespiae. Anxious to have the hero as the father of her grandchildren , Thespios sends every night one of his fifty daughters; Hercules thinks he finds always the same girl and became the father of fifty son, Thespiades . In other versions, the feat was accomplished in seven nights , or even a single night . In the latter tale, one of the girls Thespios refuses to enter the layer of Heracles and is punished by becoming a priestess of heroes and doomed to perpetual virginity . Here are Thespiades the number of fifty-one, the eldest and the youngest daughter of Thespios giving birth to twins .

According to one account, the primary reason for coming to Thespiae Heracles is the lion of Mount Cithaeron , ravaging the herds of Amphitryon and Thespios . Heracles kills the animal, cut up and covered the head of his skin for a helmet .

The war against Minyans

Perieres , the charioteer of Menoeceus (king of Thebes and father of Creon ), was mortally wounded Clymnos king of Orchomenos , by throwing a stone while he is in the sanctuary of Onchestos during one festivals of Poseidon . Before dying, he promised to his son, Erginos , to avenge him. Erginos defeated King Creon and forced the latter to furnish annually, and for twenty years, a herd of one hundred animals . To collect the fee, Erginos annually sends a delegation.

After his exploits on Mount Cithaeron, Heracles descends to Thebes and crosses paths with these emissaries. Do not support the humiliation imposed on Creon, Heracles slice nose and ears to all of them and made a pendant and collectors are redirected to the palace of Erginos .

Furious, Erginos march against Thebes. Equipped with weapons provided by Athena , Herakles leads his people into battle and wins, despite the death of Amphitryon in battle . The hero requires Minyans Orchomenos double the toll inflicted on Thebes.

The madness of Heracles

The madness of Heracles, the work of Asteas probably inspired by the tragedy of Euripides , v. 340 BC. BC , National Archaeological Museum of Madrid

As a reward for his victory against Erginos , Creon gave Heracles the hand of his daughter Megara , which he has several children: Chalkoarai. Their number varies from two to eight following the authors .

In the older version , Heracles mad throws his sons in the fire . When he awoke, Hercules returns home Thespios to be purified and then, after consulting the oracle of Delphi , go to Tiryns to serve Eurystheus . This fit of madness is generally attributed to Hera, who wants to force him to serve Eurystheus of .

According to Euripides , the episode is linked to the usurpation of the throne of Thebes by Lycos , the son of Dirce. In the absence of Heracles descended into Hades to search for Cerberus , Lycos kills Creon and his son . Upon his return, Herakles kills Lycos . Struck by Iris and Lyssa (Madness), sent by Hera , the hero falls prey to a murderous rage that drives him to kill her children, taking them for those of Eurystheus . Megara is trying to save her children but she also joined the ranks of victims . Upon waking, lucid dream income Heracles first to commit suicide . Theseus , who has just arrived, convinced him to do nothing and takes him to Athens .

Exploits

By the number of his deeds, Heracles is different from most Greek heroes such as Perseus , Theseus and Bellerophon , whose career is centered around a unique feat . The best known are the Twelve Labors, undertaken at the behest of Eurystheus. It was during the first of them, hunting the Nemean lion , it acquires its main attributes: the club, cut in the trunk of a wild olive , and Leontes is to say the lion's skin.

The Twelve Tasks selected by tradition do not exhaust the list of feats of Hercules.

• Killing the Nemean Lion ;
• Killing the Hydra of Lerna ;
• Catch the boar Erymanthus ;
• Beat the race Biche Crynie ;
• Breaking down Lake Bird Stymphalus ;
• Steal the oxen of Geryon ;
• Taming the mares of Diomedes ;
• Catch the Cretan bull of Minos ;
• Bring the golden girdle of the Queen of the Amazons ;
• Steal the golden apples of the Hesperides ;
• Clean the Augean stables ;
• Enchainer Cerberus.

Added to side adventures, more or less artificially grafted on Twelve Tasks:

• the struggle against the Centaurs , while the hero is hosted by Pholos ,
• the struggle against the centaur Eurytion ,
• the resurrection of Alcestis ,
• the fight against Cycnos and Ares ,
• the fight against the king of Egypt Busiris ,
• the fight against Antaeus and the battle against the Pygmies ,
• the fight against mathion , son of Dawn ,
• the issue of Prometheus ,
• the fight against Lycaon ,
• the fight against Alcyone when Gigantomachy ,
• the assistance of archery with the king Eurytus
• captivity in Omphale and capture of spittlebug ,
• captivity in Syle ,
• the fight against Lityerss.

Heracles also takes part in several expeditions that are all operating cycles. The first is rooted in an adventure that occurred after the quest for the belt of Hippolyte Herakles killed the sea monster that was ravaging the city of Troy , saving the princess passing Hesione that was to be sacrificed. King Laomedon , returning to its initial promise, refuses to pay her salary. Once completed the Twelve Labors, Heracles mounted an expedition to punish the bad payer : after taking Troy, he killed his son and Laomedon, with the exception of Priam. During his second stay in the city, he joins Aug , which will give Telephos.

During its return journey, Hera asks the god Hypnos to lull Zeus then took advantage of her sleeping husband to trigger a storm which threw the ship off the coast of Kos . The islanders, believing the landing of pirates attacked Heracles and his crew with stones, then kills the hero Eurypylus king of the island, and united with his daughter, Chalciope , which will give Thessalus.

The second cycle is the war against Augean, which refused to pay his due after the hero has cleaned his stables. Again, an expedition Heracles, but his army is massacred by Molionides , benefiting from a disease of the hero to attack his camp by surprise. In turn, Hercules catches them in an ambush, then attack again and kill Augean. It was after those adventures Heracles founded the Olympic Games.

The third cycle is that the expedition against Pylos , where, in revenge for the refusal Neleus to purify it after the murder of Iphitos , Heracles besieged the city and killed its king and all his children except Nestor who happened to be absent.

The last cycle is that of chalie. Wanting revenge for not having obtained the hand of Iole , the daughter of Eurytus , he had won in the contest of archery, Heracles led an expedition against the king. Leaving Dejanira , his last wife, Trachis , he left chalie (or Euboea Thessaly) to the head of an army of allies. A violent struggle ensued, in which two of the son of Ceyx were killed. Heracles won the victory and killed Eurytus and all his son. Iole, who tried to escape by throwing himself from the ramparts, was strong in the air by the wind that blew out his robe, and descended without injury. She became the mistress of the hero who sent it to Trachis with other prisoners.

Love

Mosaic of the ^first century BC. BC depicting Hercules and Iolaus , National Roman Museum , Rome.

Heracles married four times during his life. His first wife was Megara. Later, as a slave, he was freed by Omphale , queen of Lydia , and married her. He then fought against the river god Achelous for the love of Dejanira. After her death he married on Olympus with the goddess of youth Hebe.

Heracles had several relationships pederastic : it is the erastes of Hylas and his nephew Iolaus.

Death and apotheosis

Entry of Heracles into Olympus, surrounded by Poseidon and Athena, Olpe of Amasis and Painters Amasis, 550-530 BC. BC, Muse du Louvre.

Heracles then married Dejanira , daughter of Oene. Sophocles in The Trachiniae , describes how Dejanira gets a poisoned robe which is then fatal Hercules. During a trip, facing the great river venos experiencing an exceptional flood, Heracles saw that he could easily cross it, he could not do it by wearing Dejanira. He then ran to them a centaur named Nessus who earned his wages by crossing the river with passengers, he offered to bring Dejanira, while Heracles would swim on his side. Lorsqu'Hracls arrived, he saw that Nessus tried to abuse Dejanira. He then took an arrow smeared with the poison of the Hydra of Lerna and let fly between the shoulder blades of Nessus. In agony, he told Dejanira collect his blood and then give it to Hercules and to ensure for eternity for his loyalty. Dejanira obeyed and coated with the blood on a tunic.

Much later Deianeira, fearful of losing her husband who was in love with Iole the daughter of King Eurytus , put the tunic Lichas who insisted that he clothed them. Heracles, however, felt that the clothing was burning; trying to discard them, he found that his skin came off with, in tatters. He then realized the trap that had been caught Dejanira: the centaur's blood was contaminated by the poison of the Hydra of Lerna, which killed Nessus and now killing the son of Zeus. Being erected a pyre on Mount Eta , he threw himself while Dejanira be hung. Zeus (Athena or Hermes, depending on version) took him up to Olympus among the gods.

On Olympus, Hercules could be reconciled with Hera, became immortal and was consecrated ephebes god. He also married the goddess of youth Hebe , and they had two children together. According to other versions, his "death" would have been a necessary move to separate elements inherited from his mortal mother, Hercules had won her immortality as a child after having suckled the milk of Hera .

Worship

Greece

Intaglio magical Hercules with the inscription: "Go away, bile, God pursues you," Cabinet of medals.

The cult of Herakles is widespread throughout Greece , with the exception of Crete and it is for now the god, sometimes the hero. Sometimes the two faiths coexist, as in Thasos or Sicyon . He is particularly attached to ephebes and gym and is characterized by large banquets of meat - the comedy is based on this particular feature to depict Herakles as a glutton. Festivals devoted to Heracles, the Heracleans (Herakleia), are celebrated in several parts of Greece.

In the private sphere, primarily Alexikakos Heracles, who protects them from evil . Therefore, we find his image on amulets. Herakleis "by Hercules," is a common exclamation, as is mehercle then in Latin.

Heracles is also celebrated as the ancestor of the Dorians through the myth of Heraclides.

Outside Greece

Ancient writers mention several cults outside Greece to Heracles or gods they identify with Herakles. Herodotus , in the survey , evokes a homonym of Heracles Heracles son of Alcmene and older than him was honored in Egypt.

In Gaul, Heracles had a great popularity among the Celts Romanized. More than three hundred sculptures represent him, a large number of bronze statuettes, over one hundred entries are devoted to him. This interest is fostered by the myth of the Hesperides. According Parthenios of Nicaea , the union of Heracles and Celtine born a son, Celtos , from whom the Celts took their name . Lucian , a prolalia (foreword) titled Hercules recalls a god of eloquence honored by the Gauls he presents in the name of Heracles Ogmios and closer to the Gallic god Ogmios.

Heracles in the arts in antiquity

Literature

No literary work showing all the adventures of Hercules has reached us. However, we know that such works have existed, during the Archaic period , the poet Pisander Heraclides had composed a now lost which, according to an epigram of Theocritus , first recounted the exploits of heroes detail , at the very beginning of the classical period , Panyasis of Halicarnassus in turn consists Heraclea (Heracleia) which, according to Suda , contained 14 pounds for a set of 9000 to . Only a few fragments have reached us. Some evocations of summarizing all the exploits of Hercules are found in the tragedies at the time of the character (at the beginning of The Madness of Heracles of Euripides ) or at the time of his death (in the Trachiniae of Sophocles ). A passage from the Aeneid of Virgil describing a sacrifice to Hercules includes a reminder of his many exploits . Many other works contain references to several episodes, like the Iliad and the Odyssey / Sup>. However, most works of ancient Greek literature relating to Heracles focus on one episode they develop in detail, very variable according to the literary genre to which they belong and the particular perspective adopted by the author.

In the Archaic period , the poet of Samos Crophylos composes epic , the jack chalie , citing a conflict between Heracles and Eurytus king of chalie and only a few lines and several indirect evidence tell us about this lost work. One of the Homeric Hymns evokes the exploits and the apotheosis of Heracles .

In ancient Greek drama of the classical period , Heracles been (or appears) many tragedies. In Aeschylus , it intervenes in Prometheus Bound to free Prometheus from his torment. Sophocles' tragedy, devotes his Trachiniae The episode of the death of Heracles, and shows a more timely as deus ex machina for the ending of his Philoctetes. Euripides devotes a tragedy Madness of Heracles. Euripides also shows Herakles in his Alcestis , where he described in an ambiguous way, the same way that any part oscillates between tragedy and comedy : Hercules is a glutton and he gives Admetus philosophical advice to drunkard, but it behaves as a true hero and ensures the successful outcome of the play. Heracles is also mentioned in the comedy , but no Greek comedy among those who have survived not specifically devoted to them. In the comedy The Birds of Aristophanes , Heracles appears as an agent serving the gods, but his greed makes him easily corruptible. In another comedy of Aristophanes, The Frogs , the god Dionysus decides to go to hell , but as he is afraid of not coming back alive, he disguised himself as Heracles to give confidence and will seek advice from the hero beginning of the play.

The Oxyrhynchus papyri No. 2331, dated III ^centuryBC. BC , contains fragments of a poem describing the battle of Herakles against the Nemean lion.

The ancient Greek philosophers also appropriated the figure of Hercules. The philosopher pre-Socratic and Sophist Prodicus of Ceos writes a fable in which he portrays a young Hercules faces the seductive discourse of two women who are other than allegories of vice and virtue. We know this text indirectly, by evoking in fact Xenophon in the Memorabilia . This episode allegorical, often called "Herakles at the Crossroads," is experiencing abundant posterity after antiquity, especially in Renaissance painting.

In the Hellenistic period , Heracles appears in poetry epic and pastoral. Apollonius of Rhodes in his Argonautica , makes him take part in the expedition of the Argonauts , which he left after the disappearance of his eromene Hylas. Theocritus devotes an idyll of "Heracles child" where he recounts his first feat in the cradle against the serpents sent by Hera in " Hylas , "it also evokes the disappearance of the beloved hero of .

One of the Oxyrhynchus papyri of , dated III ^centuryBC. BC , contains fragments of a poem dedicated to the works of Heracles , namely the struggle against the Nemean lion. Several drawings illustrate the text.

Mythological studies and interpretations

Historical anthropology

Continuing the analysis of Jean-Pierre Vernant on the concept of personality in Greek religion and developments of Delcourt , which devotes several pages to Heracles in his study of the heroes , Nicole Loraux insists that the figure of Heracles tends to diminish the accomplishments that accumulates Herakles does not really interiority. "Hercules is not tragic, because it is not ambiguous, and into a tragic hero, Euripides him he will invent something like an inner (Nicole Loraux refers to the tragedy of Euripides' Madness of Heracles ). In return, the "silent force" of Hercules becomes the means of expression to all kinds of speech, particularly philosophical, making a figure of virtue and edifying wisdom . Conversely, the comedy derives Heracles to the opposite extreme by featuring the guise of a gross and stupid greedy .

Comparative mythology

In one approach under the comparative mythology , it is interesting to compare the Babylonian epic of Heracles called Epic of Gilgamesh : some authors , king of Uruk, two-thirds god and one third human, performing a series of works before the lead to immortality, and Heracles, "Glory of Hera" half god and half man, performing twelve tasks which in turn will lead to immortality.

Hercules is the god of Germanic Thor / Donar, with whom he has similar attributes and functions. They are both killers of monsters and giants, human gods and men against the forces of chaos. Thor also possesses a powerful weapon, his hammer Mjollnir. The interpretatio romana Thor already associated with Hercules. In the Germania , Tacitus called the Germanic gods, and mentions the sacrifices made in honor of Hercules, which would then be the god Thor. In Germany Roman inscriptions on many monuments or pieces bear the name of Hercules and the Hercules mean truly Germanic Thor .

Analytical psychology

Carole Sedillot , in The Quest of the self: the twelve labors of Hercules, has conducted a mythological figure of Hercules from the perspective of analytical psychology , bringing it closer to the notion of primitive man. In analytical psychology , the name of primitive man is used to refer to unconscious mental processes, of importance in the psychic life of the subject. These processes are termed archetypes . In this perspective, the trials of Hercules can be interpreted as an allegory of events experienced by the patient during his work on itself . In Jungian theory, the primitive man is present in the animus primarily the masculinity of the woman: it is what is called an archetype. But it also relates to the man. The images and thoughts associated psychological and which identifies the woman, in whole or in part, through the positions are intellectual, emotional, emotions, actions unconsciously referring to a model which should be held - a Primitive man - or related to a primitive man. This "man" is close to cultural models such as Tarzan , the athlete, Dionysus or Heracles in this case.

Heracles in the arts after Antiquity

Literature

Christian writers of the early centuries of our era, like Tertullian , Lactantius and St. Augustine , make Heracles a model of courage (Fortitudo) but it was not until the fourteenth century the figure of Hercules is fully integrated Christian symbolism, with the moralized Ovid , which is a symbol of Heracles of Jesus or God . In the fifteenth century, the stories of Troy Series of Raoul le Fevre features a knightly and courteous Hercules similar to the characters of novels medieval.

In the sixteenth century, Pierre de Ronsard takes Christian symbolism associated with Heracles for composing, among his hymns published in 1555, a "Christian Hercules," which enumerates the possible parallels between Hercules and Jesus . At the same time develop other symbols associated with Hercules. An Egyptian Hercules, namesake son of Alcmene and Heracles older than him, was mentioned by Herodotus in his survey . In the sixteenth century, one begins to make this Hercules, known as "Libyan Hercules", the ancestor of the Gauls , through a son, Galatians, he would have had with the daughter of a Gallic chieftain and would become the namesake of Gaul , this genealogy is elaborated in the context of a political and cultural rivalry between European countries, where it aims to benefit the France by lending even more ancient origins that Latins and Greek .

Another Hercules yet, "said Hercule Gaulois," inspired by a namesake who appears particularly Herakles in ancient times in Lucian under the name of Heracles Ogmios and is presented as a god of eloquence honored by the Gauls : the sixteenth century, this Hercules is then represented with both traditional attributes of Heracles (the skin of the Nemean lion and the club ) and a series of strings from his tongue to hang the ears of a crowd that follows, the symbol of his captivating oratory Pierre de Ronsard , in his poem "Hylas" published in the seventh book of poems in 1569, ready to Hercules all these characteristics of Hercules "Libya" and Hercules "Gauls" . Joachim du Bellay evokes the Gallic Hercules in the conclusion of the defense and illustration of the French language in 1549 .

In the seventeenth century playwright Jean Rotrou evokes death and the apotheosis of Heracles in the tragedy dying Hercules , founded in 1634 and published in 1636 .

In the mid-nineteenth century France, Herakles is mentioned by the poets of Parnassus. Jose-Maria de Heredia consists in Trophies (published in 1893) , a series of six sonnets entitled "Hercules and the Centaurs". The first two sonnets, "Nemea" and "Stymphalus" are devoted to two works of Heracles, the Nemean lion and birds of the lake Stymphalus. The third, "Nessus," evokes the love of the centaur Nessus for Dejanira. "The Centauress, where Heracles is not, describes the decline of the people of centaurs , Heracles chases and killings in the last two sonnets, "Centaurs and Lapiths" and "Flight of the Centaurs." In these poems, Heracles was often described as terrifying, giving it an unexpected affinity with monsters to destroy it is charged . Leconte de Lisle , in the ancient poems , evokes Hercules in several poems : "Hylas," "The Children of Heracles", "Heracles in Taurus", "Heracles sun" (it will sometimes called Heracles, Heracles in a sometimes archaic spelling, and sometimes Hercules).

In the twentieth century, Heracles takes all kinds of faces according to the authors. The French writer Andr Dubois The Charter rewrote his exploits in The Diary of Hercules in 1957 . The German playwright Heiner Mller in fact a comic character in Herakles 5 . The French writer Guy Rachet devotes a novel, The Twelve Labours of Hercules .

Painting

Pompeo Batoni Hercules at the Crossroads, v.1753, one of many paintings inspired text allegorical of Prodicus of Ceos.

Heracles is represented by many painters. In the fifteenth century, Albrecht Drer shows several episodes of his adventures on his engravings and sketches, including Hercules at the Crossroads (c. 1498) inspired by the allegorical text Prodicus of Ceos. The German painter Lucas Cranach the Elder painted in 1537 a Hercules and Omphale whose characters wear contemporary clothing . Peter Paul Rubens represents several of his exploits, including Hercules struggling with the Nemean lion (after 1608, kept at Bucharest) and Hercules in the garden of the Hesperides, circa 1638 (preserved in the gallery Sabauda in Turin ) . The painter and sculptor Antonio Pollaiuolo painted Hercules fighting the Hydra of Lerna (preserved at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence ). In Italy in the early seventeenth century, the guide painted a series of tables forming the cycle of the labors of Hercules. Domenichino painted a Landscape with Hercules Cacus pulling his cave and a Landscape with Hercules fighting Achelas changed into a bull to 1621-1622 .

In the early eighteenth century, the painter Rococo Franois Lemoyne realizes for the Palace of Versailles , between 1733 and 1736, an Apotheosis of Hercules, which gives its name to the exhibition called "Salon d'Hercule." In the years 1740-1750, Italy, Pompeo Batoni made several versions of Hercules at the Crossroads.

In the nineteenth century, Heracles is present in the paint symbolist. Gustave Moreau painted a Hercules and the Hydra of Lerna between 1869 and 1876 . Bcklin Arnold painted Dejanira Nessus and then The Sanctuary of Hercules in 1888 . Painters Raphaelites also represent it: John William Waterhouse inspired by the Alcestis of Euripides for his Hercules fights against the Death to save Alcestis, painted between 1869 and 1871 .

In the early twentieth century, between 1921 and 1925, the American painter John Singer Sargent makes the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, a series of mythological paintings which include a Hercules and the Hydra .

Sculpture

Canova , Hercules and Lichas , 1815, Gallery of Modern Art , Rome.

Like many other Greek myths , Hercules is the subject of many sculptural works, especially during the Renaissance. In the fifteenth century, Antonio Pollaiuolo realizes a bronze group Hercules and Antaeus, in the Museum of the Bargello in Florence. In the sixteenth century Italian sculptor Baccio Bandinelli carved a colossal group Hercules and Cacus placed before the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. At the same time, the Italian sculptor Giambologna carries a set of Hercules fighting the centaur Nessus cons (Ercole con il centauro Nesso), subsequently exposed to the Loggia dei Lanzi , along with his Rape of the Sabines. During the same period, before 1560, the Italian sculptor Guglielmo della Porta carries a Hercules killing snakes representing Heracles child killing one of the snakes of Hera , while the skits on the base of the sculpture represent future twelve tasks . In France, in 1660, Pierre Puget carved a Hercules slaying the Hydra of Lerna (Vaudreuil said Hercules); sculpture, broken during the Revolution, then restored and preserved in the museum of Rouen. Puget also sculpts in 1663, a Hercules at rest (also known as Hercule Gaulois) kept at the Louvre Museum .

In the eighteenth century, Laurent Delvaux completes Hercules and the boar Erymanthus presentation to the Royal Library of Belgium . In the nineteenth century, in 1815, Antonio Canova, Hercules and makes a spectacular Lichas inspired by the story of the death of Lichas and stored at the Gallery of Modern Art in Rome. In 1823, Antoine-Louis Barye carved a Hercules and the boar Erymanthus bronze, preserved at the Louvre. During the same period, Franois Joseph Bosio designing a set of Hercules fighting Achelous transformed into a snake with a stone model is exhibited at the Salon of 1814 and whose bronze sculpture, completed in 1822, is preserved in the Louvre ) . In the early twentieth century, in 1909, the French sculptor Antoine Bourdelle completes Hercules the Archer by the episode of Lake Bird Stymphalus.

Music

Many operas are dedicated to Heracles (usually by its Latin name) in the late seventeenth and during the eighteenth century . Reinhard Keiser made a Hercules and Hebe (Die Verbindung Herkules mit der groen of schnen Hebe) created Hamburg in 1700 . Graupner composed a Hercules and Theseus established in Hamburg in 1708 .

Handel composed a musical drama, Hercules (whose libretto is in English, read English section ), which takes about the death of Heracles, drawing mainly Trachiniae of Sophocles. The drama is created January 5, 1745 at King's Theatre in London.

In France, Claude Terrasse composed a comic opera in three acts, The Works of Hercules, established in 1901 at Theatre Bouffes-Parisiens , where it Augean who performs the feats of Hercules, while the latter 's appropriate in all the glory and do nothing . In a different kind in 1953, Maurice Thiriet consists Herakles, a partition choreography for ballet drama.

Comics

Heracles appears in the comics in the U.S. # 8 All Star Comics published by DC Comics in 1941, which integrates the DC universe by its Latin name Hercules ( English article on the DC Comics character ). In 1965, a number of Journey into Mystery , of Marvel Comics , adds turn his vision of the character of Hercules in the Marvel universe. In 2008, the publisher Radical Comics is launching another series on Hercules and Hercules: The Thracian Wars and Hercules: The Knives of Kush .

In European comics, Hercules is the main character in The Glory of Hera written by Serge Le Tendre and designed by Christian Rossi (Casterman, 1996) . Hercules also appears in the first book in the series Socrates half dog written by Joann Sfar and designed by Christophe Blain ( Dargaud , 2002).

Movies

Page ad in an American magazine for the film The Labours of Hercules by Pietro Francisci ( 1958 ).

Heracles was the subject of many films, especially epic films in the twentieth century. It appears rather late in the film compared to other mythological heroes, as it is hardly mentioned by the silent film : only Febo Mari performs a Hercules (Ercole) in 1918 . It was in the 1950s that the Italian peplum begins to stage the hero with films Pietro Francisci , as The Works of Hercules (1958) and Hercules and the Queen of Lydia (1959). In the films of Francisci, Hercules, mentioned in his Roman name, Hercules is played by Steve Reeves and is described as the ultimate hero, handsome, noble and virtuous . Then there are films of Vittorio Cottafavi , The Vengeance of Hercules (1960) and Hercules at the Conquest of Atlantis (1961), the second a clear orientation towards science fiction ; Hercules is depicted as a jovial surprisingly peaceful Cottafavi playing subvert the codes of the genre . Following the success of genre and character, Hercules is subsequently used in many different contexts: the fantastic with the Vampire Hercules cons of Mario Bava and Franco Prosperi (1961), the movie adventure pulp with Hercules against the son Sun Givirami Osvaldo (1964), where Hercules confronts Incas , the urban fantasy with Hercules in New York ( Arthur Allan Seidelman , 1970) where Arnold Schwarzenegger makes his debut, and many other films. Hercules sometimes alongside the other heroes of muscular peplum Italian Maciste , as in The Giant of the Valley of the Kings (C. Campogalliani, 1960). Heracles also acts as a secondary character in adaptations of the quest of the Argonauts , the most famous is Jason and the Argonauts of Don Chaffey (1963) . Outside the peplum genre, the German director Werner Herzog makes a Herakles in 1962, one of his earliest films, which has about six of the twelve labors of the hero in a contemporary context .

The animation, meanwhile, captured early on Heracles: Emile Cohl , one of the pioneers of French animation, cartoon makes a paper cut, The Twelve Labours of Hercules, 1910 . Much later, in 1997, it's time for Disney to stage the hero with the movie of animated Hercules , which takes a humorous graphic cartoon.

TV

The first television series Hercules is an animated series, The Mighty Hercules (The Mighty Hercules), designed by Adventure Cartoon Productions, aired on syndication from 1963 to 1966. Next comes a series in real images, Hercules , created by Christian Williams and broadcast for the first time on Syndication in 1994, originally conceived as a series of five films , the concept is extended in a television series that gives rise to turn to several spin-offs , including Xena: Warrior in 1995 . The feature-length animation from Disney in 1997 resulting in an adaptation animated series on television, Hercules , the following year.

Heracles is also the subject of a miniseries , Hercules , directed by Roger Young in 2005 for American television.

Video Games

Hercules appears in 1984, an American video game platform developed by Interdisc for the Commodore 64 , in which the player must travel Heracles and twelve levels strewn platforms trapped ( read the English article ). In 1987, Smart Egg Software made The Labours of Hercules, a text-adventure programmed by Terry Taylor in which the player embodies Heracles and must perform twelve tasks . In June 1987, the Japanese studio Data East realizes Tojn Makyo-den Heracles No Eiko (The Legend of Devil's Den fighter: the glory of Heracles), a role-playing game for Famicom . The game has several suites in various formats, scripted by Kazushige Nojima . In 1988, Gremlin Interactive publishes Hercules: Slayer of the Damned, a game of beat 'em all . In 1997, the output of feature-length Disney animation results in a video game derivative, Hercules, published by Disney Interactive . In 2007, the French studio Neko Entertainment publishes Heracles: Chariot Racing, a racing video game console where the player is attending Hercules chariot races in a world inspired by Greek mythology .

Notes and references

See also

Related Articles

• Labours of Heracles
• Eurystheus
• Heraclides
• Heracleans

Bibliography

On Heracles in Ancient

Utilities and general works

• (In) Walter Burkert (trans. John Raffan), Greek Religion ["Griechische Religion und archaischen klassichen Epoche"], Blackwell, Oxford, 1985 (ed. orig. 1977) ( ISBN 978-0-631-15624-6 ) , P. 208-211.
• (In) Timothy Gantz, Early Greek Myth, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993 [ retail edition ], Volume I, p. 374-466.
• Pierre Grimal , Dictionary of Greek and Roman mythology, Presses Universitaires de France, coll. "Great Dictionary", Paris, 1999 ^(1st edition 1969) ( ISBN 2-13-050359-4 ) the article "Heracles", p. 187-203.
• (En) MC Howatson (ed.), Dictionary of antiquity, Robert Laffont, 1993 (first edition: Oxford, 1989).
• (En) Yves Bonnefoy (ed.), Dictionnaire des mythologies and religions of traditional societies and the ancient world, Flammarion, 1999, 2 vols. (Article "Heracles" by Nicole Loraux , vol.1, p.944-955).

Studies of the myth of Herakles

• (En) Corinne Bonnet, Colette Jourdain-Annequin (eds.), Second Meeting Heracleans Herakles, women and the feminine. Proceedings of the Grenoble Symposium, University of Social Sciences (Grenoble II), 22-23 October 1992, Brussels, Belgian Historical Institute in Rome, 1996.
• (En) Corinne Bonnet, Colette Jourdain-Annequin, Vinciane Pirenne-Delforge (eds), The Bestiary of Heracles. Third Meeting Heracleans, Kernos, Supplement No. 7, 1998.
• (En) P. Devambez and Robert Flacelire, Heracles. Images and narratives, Paris, 1966.
• (En) C. Jordan-Annequin, "Hercules in the West. Myth and History in Ancient History of Dialogue ^No. 8 (1982), p. 227-282 [ read online ].
• (In) David Adams Leeming, Mythology: The Voyage of the Hero, Oxford University Press, 1998.
• (En) Carole Sedillot , The Quest of the self: the twelve labors of Hercules, Dervy, 2007.
• (Fr) Bernard Sergent , Homosexuality and Initiation among Indo-European, part I: Homosexuality in Greek mythology, Payot, Paris, 1996 ^(1st edition 1984) ( ISBN 2-228-89052-9 ), p. 167-201.

On the Posterity of the myth of Herakles

• (En) Claude Aziza, Guide to Ancient imagination. Novels, movies, comics, Paris, Belles Lettres, 2008.
• (En) Ariane Eissen, Greek Myths, Belin, 1993 (accessed edition reissue Belin collection bag).
• (In) CK Galinski, The Herakles Theme. The Adaptations of the Hero in Literature from Homer to the Twentieth Century, Oxford, 1972.
• (En) Impelluso Lucia, gods and heroes of antiquity, Hazan, coll. "Art Guide", 2003, p.105-121.
• (En) M.-R. Jung, Hercules in French literature of the sixteenth ^century, Geneva, 1966.

External Links

• Representations of Herakles (Insecula).
• Representations of Hercules on coins of the Roman Empire.

• Portal of Greek mythology
• Portal Roman mythology

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