A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

(Ἡρακλῆς), and in Latin Hercules (Alcides), the most celebrated of all the heroes of antiquity. The traditions about him are not only the richest in substance, but also the most widely spread; for we find them not only in all the countries round the Mediterranean, but his wondrous deeds were known in the most distant countries of the ancient world. The difficulty of presenting a complete view of these traditions was felt even by the ancients (Diod. 4.8); and in order to give a general survey, we must divide the subject, mentioning first the Greek legends and their gradual development, next the Roman legends, and lastly those of the East (Egypt, Phoenicia).

The traditions about Heracles appear in their national purity down to the time of Herodotus; for although there may be some foreign ingredients, yet the whole character of the hero, his armour, his exploits, and the scenes of his action, are all essentially Greek. But the poets of the time of Herodotus and of the subsequent periods introduced considerable alterations, which were probably derived from the east or Egypt, for every nation of antiquity as well as of modern times had or has some traditions of heroes of superhuman strength and power. Now while in the earliest Greek legends Heracles is a purely human hero, as the conqueror of men and cities, he afterwards appears as the subduer of monstrous animals, and is connected in a variety of ways with astronomical phaenomena. According to Homer (Hom. Il. 18.118), Heracles was the son of Zeus by Alcmene of Thebes in Boeotia, and the favourite of his father. (Il. 14.250, 323, 19.98, Od. 11.266, 620, 21.25, 36.) His stepfather was Amphitryon. (Il. 5.392, Od. 11.269; Hes. Scut. Herc. 165.) Amphitryon was the son of Alcaeus, the son of Perseus, and Alcmene was a grand-daughter of Perseus. Hence Heracles belonged to the family of Perseus. The story of his birth runs thus. Amphitryon, after having slain Electryon, was expelled from Argos, and went with his wife Alcmene to Thebes, where he was received and purified by his uncle Creon. Alcmene was yet a maiden, in accordance with a vow which Amphitryon had been obliged to make to Electryon, and Alcmene continued to refuse him the rights of a husband, until he should have avenged the death of her brothers on the Taphians. While Amphitryon was absent from Thebes, Zeus one night, to which he gave the duration of three other nights, visited Alcmene, and assuming the appearance of Amphitryon, and relating to her how her brothers had been avenged, he begot by her the hero Heracles, the great bulwark of gods and men. (Respecting the various modifications of this story see Apollod. 2.4.7, &c.; Hyg. Fab. 29; Hes. Scut. 3.5, &c.; Pind. I. 7.5, &c., Nem. 10.19, &c.; Schol. ad Hom. Od. 11.266.) The day on which Heracles was to be born, Zeus boasted of his becoming the father of a man who was to rule over the heroic race of Perseus. Hera prevailed upon him to confirm by an oath that the descendant of Perseus born that day should be the ruler. When this was done she hastened to Argos, and there caused the wife of Sthenelus to give birth to Eurystheus, whereas, by keeping away the Eileithyiae, she delayed the confinement of Alcmene, and thus robbed Heracles of the empire which Zeus had intended for him. Zeus was enraged at the imposition practised upon him, but could not violate his oath. Alcmene brought into the world two boys, Heracles, the son of Zeus, and Iphicles, the son of Amphitryon, who was one night younger than Heracles. (Hom. Il. 19.95, &c.; Hes. Scut. 1-56, 80, &c.; Apollod. 2.4.5, &c.) Zeus, in his desire not to leave Heracles the victim of Hera's jealousy, made her promise, that if Heracles executed twelve great works in the service of Eurystheus, he should become immortal. (Diod. 4.9.) Respecting the place of his birth traditions did not agree; for although the majority of poets and mythographers relate that he was born at Thebes, Diodorus (4.10) says that Amphitryon was not expelled from Tiryns till after the birth of Heracles, and Euripides (Eur. Her. 18) describes Argos as the native country of the hero.

Nearly all the stories about the childhood and youth of Heracles, down to the time when he entered the service of Eurystheus, seem to be inventions of a later age: at least in the Homeric poems and in Hesiod we only find the general remarks that he grew strong in body and mind, that in the confidence in his own power he defied even the immortal gods, and wounded Hera and Ares, and that under the protection of Zeus and Athena he escaped the dangers which Hera prepared for him. But according to Pindar (Pind. N. 1.49, &c.), and other subsequent writers, Heracles was only a few months old when Hera sent two serpents into the apartment where Heracles and his brother Iphicles were sleeping,, but the former killed the serpents with his own hands. (Comp. Theocrit. 24.1, &c.; Apollod. 2.4.8.) Heracles was brought

up at Thebes, but the detail of his infant life is again related with various modifications in the different traditions. It is said that Alcmcne, from fear of Hera, exposed her son in a field near Thebes, hence called the field of Heracles; here he was found by Hera and Athena, and the former was prevailed upon by the latter to put him to her breast, and she then carried him back to his mother. (Diod. 4.9; Paus. 9.25.2.) Others said that Hermes carried the newly-born child to Olympus, and put him to the breast of Hera while she was asleep, but as she awoke, she pushed him away, and the milk thus spilled produced the Milky Way. (Eratosth. Catast. 44; Hygin. Poet. Astr. ii. in fin.) As the hero grew up, he was instructed by Amphitryon in riding in a chariot, by Autolycus in wrestling, by Eurytus in archery, by Castor in fighting with heavy armour, and by Linus in singing and playing the lyre. (See the different statements in Theocrit. 24.114, 103, 108; Schol. ad Theocrit. 13.9, 56; Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 49.) Linus was killed by his pupil with the lyre, because he had censured him. (Apollod. 2.4.9; Diod. 3.66; Aelian, Ael. VH 3.32.) Being charged with murder, IIeracles exculpated himself by saying that the deed was done in self-defence; and Amphitryon, in order to prevent similar occurrences, sent him to attend to his cattle. In this manner he spent his life till his eighteenth year. His height was four cubits, fire beamed from his eyes, and he never wearied in practising shooting and hurling his javelin. To this period of his life belongs the beautiful fable about Heracles before two roads, invented by the sophist Prodicus, which may be read in Xenoph. Mem. 2.1, and Cic de Off. 1.32. Pindar (Pind. I. 4.53) calls him small of stature, but of indomitable courage. His first great adventure, which happened while he was still watching the oxen of his father, is his fight against and victory over the lion of Cythaeron. This animal made great havoc among the flocks of Amphitryon and Thespius (or Thestius), king of Thespiae, and Heracles promised to deliver the country of the monster. Thespius, who had fifty daughters, rewarded Heracles by making him his guest so long as the chase lasted, and gave up his daughters to him, each for one night. (Apollod. 2.4.10; comp. Hyg. Fab. 162; Diod. 4.29; Athen. 13.556.) Heracles slew the lion, and henceforth wore its skin as his ordinary garment, and its mouth and head as his helmet; others related that the lion's skin of Heracles was taken from the Nemean lion. On his return to Thebes, he met the envoys of king Erginus of Orchomenos, who were going to fetch the annual tribute of one hundred oxen, which they had compelled the Thebans to pay. Heracles, in his patriotic indignation, cut off the noses and ears of the envoys, and thus sent them back to Erginus. The latter thereupon marched against Thebes; but Heracles, who received a suit of armour from Athena, defeated and killed the enemy, and compelled the Orchomenians to pay double the tribute which they had formerly received from the Thebans. In this battle against Erginus Heracles lost his father Amphitryon, though the tragedians make him survive the campaign. (Apollod. 2.4.11; Diod. 4.10, &c.; Paus. 9.37. 2; Theocrit. 16.105; Eur. Her. 41.) According to some accounts, Erginus did not fall in the tattle, but coneluded peace with Heracles. But the gorious manner in which Heracles had delivered his country procured him immortal fame among the Thebans, and Creon rewarded him with the hand of his eldest daughter, Megara, by whom he became the father of several children, the number and names of whom are stated differently by the different writers. (Apollod. 2.4.11. 7.8; Hyg. Fab. 32; Eur. Her. 995; Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 38; Schol. ad Pind. Isthm. 3.104.) The gods, on the other hand, made him presents of arms : Hermes gave him a sword, Apollo a bow and arrows, Hephaestus a golden coat of mail, and Athena a peplus, and he cut for himself a club in the neighbourhood of Nemea, while, according to others, the club was of brass, and the gift of Hephaestus. (Apollon. 1.1196; Diod. 4.14.) After the battle with the Minyans, Hera visited Heracles with madness, in which he killed his own children by Megara and two of Iphicles. In his grief he sentenced himself to exile, and went to Thestius, who purified him. (Apollod. 2.4.12.) Other traditions place this madness at a later time, and relate the circumstances differently. (Eur. Her. 1000, &c.; Paus. 9.11.1; Hyg. Fab. 32; Schol. ad Pind. Isthm. 3.104.) He then consulted the oracle of Delphi as to where he should settle. The Pythia first called him by the name of Heracles--for hitherto his name had been Alcides or Alcaeus,--and ordered him to live at Tiryns, to serve Eurystheus for the space of twelve years, after which he should become immortal. Heracles accordingly went to Tiryns, and did as he was bid by Eurystheus.

The accounts of the twelve labours of Heracles are found only in the later writers, for Homer and Hesiod do not mention them. Homer only knows that Heracles during his life on earth was exposed to infinite dangers and sufferings through the hatred of Hera, that he was subject to Eurystheus, who imposed upon him many and difficult tasks, but Homer mentions only one, viz. that he was ordered to bring Cerberus from the lower world. (Il. 8.363, &100.15.639, &c., Od. 11.617, &c.) The Iliad further alludes to his fight with a seamonster, and his expedition to Troy, to fetch the horses which Laomedon had refused him. (5.638, &c., 20.145, &c.) On his return from Troy, he was cast, through the influence of Hera, on the coast of Cos, but Zeus punished Hera, and carried Heracles safely to Argos. (14.249, &c., xv 18, &c.) Afterwards Heracles made war against the Pylians, and destroyed the whole family of their king Neleus, with the exception of Nestor. He destroyed many towns, and carried off Astyoche from Ephyra, by whom he became the father of Tlepolemus. (5.395, &c., 2.657, &c.; comp. Od 21.14, &c.; Soph. Trach. 239, &c.) Hesiod mentions several of the feats of Heracles distinctly, but knows nothing of their number twelve. The selection of these twelve from the great number of feats ascribed to Heracles is probably the work of the Alexandrines. They are enumerated in Euripides (Here. Fur.), Apollodorus, Diodorus Siculus, and the Greek Anthology (2.651), though none of them can be considered to have arranged them in any thing like a chronological order.

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