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| {{otheruses|Hercules (disambiguation)}} | {{otheruses|Hercules (disambiguation)}} | ||
| ] (detail), ] ], ] (], ]).]] | |||
| '''Hercules''' is the ] name used in ] for the divinity corresponding to the ] hero ''']''' (or '''Herakles'''). Hercules is the son of ], the Roman counterpart to the Greek ] ], and the mortal ]. He was made to perform twelve great tasks, called '']'', to become a god. | |||
| ==Birth== | |||
| Hercules was the Roman name for the greatest hero of Greek mythology -- Heracles. Like most authentic heroes, Heracles had a god as one of his parents, being the son of the supreme deity Zeus and a mortal woman. Zeus's queen Hera was jealous of Heracles, and when he was still an infant she sent two snakes to kill him in his crib. Heracles was found with a strangled serpent in each hand. | |||
| ==Etymology== | |||
| Hercules' ] name is not directly borrowed from Greek ''Herakles'', but is a modification of the ] name ''Hercle'', which derives from the Greek name via ]. An oath invoking Hercules (''Hercle!'' or ''Mehercle!'') was a common interjection in ]. | |||
| ==Character== | |||
| ] ].<br> 1st c. CE mosaic from the Anzio Nymphaeum, Rome]] | |||
| In Roman works of art and in Renaissance and post-Renaissance art that adapts Roman iconography, Hercules can be identified by his attributes, the ] and the ]: in ] he is shown tanned black, a virile aspect.<ref>The Classical and Hellenistic conventions of frescoes and mosaics is to show women as pale-skinned and men as tanned dark from their outdoor arena of action and exercising in the ].(See also and ).</ref> He is a paragon of action and masculinity, and thus embodies characteristics such as great strength, great courage, and great appetites, including erotic adventures with both women and ]. These qualities did not prevent him from being regarded as a playful figure who used games to relax from his labors and played a great deal with children.<ref>Aelian, ''Varia Historia,'' 12.15</ref> While he was a champion and a great warrior, he was not above cheating and using any unfair trick to his advantage. However, he was renowned as having "made the world safe for mankind" by destroying many dangerous monsters. His self-sacrifice obtained him the ascent to the Olympian realms and he was welcomed by the gods. | |||
| ] in 1864, (], Rome)]] | |||
| ==Roman cult== | |||
| In popular culture the Romans adopted the Etruscan '''Hercle''', a hero-figure that had already been influenced by Greek culture— especially in the conventions of his representation— but who had experienced an autonomous development. Etruscan Hercle appears in the elaborate illustrative engraved designs on the backs of Etruscan bronze mirrors made during the fourth century BC, which were favoured ]. Their specific literary references have been lost, with the loss of all Etruscan literature, but the image of the mature, bearded Hercules suckling at ]/]'s breast, engraved on a mirror back from ], is distinctively Etruscan. Also a two way mirror. | |||
| This Hercle/Hercules— the Hercle of the ] "Mehercle!"— remained a popular cult figure in the Roman legions. The literary Greek versions of his life and works were appropriated by literate Romans from the ] onwards, essentially unchanged, but Latin literature of Hercules added anecdotal detail of its own, some of it linking the hero with the geography of the Western Mediterranean. Details of the Greek ], which mixed ] libations and uneaten holocausts with Olympian services, were adapted to specifically Roman requirements as well, as Hercules became the founding figure of ] and other places, and his cult became entwined with Imperial cult, as shown in surviving frescoes in the Herculanean ''collegium'' that was devoted to Hercules. | |||
| The cult of Hercules may have been the first foreign one to be adopted in Rome. According to legend, Hercules is said to have founded his most important shrine in Rome, the ''Great Altar of Hercules'' (''Ara Maxima Herculis''), later housed within the ], the cattle market of Rome, within Rome's original ] settlement<ref>The various founders of this altar, including Hercules himself, are discussed at the .</ref>. This altar has been dated to the 6th or 5th century BC. It stood near the ]. Hercules became popular with merchants, who customarily paid him a ] of their profits. | |||
| ] identified himself with Hercules, and even invented a son of Hercules, called ], from whom Antony claimed descent. In response, his enemy ] identified with ]. | |||
| Some early emperors took up the attributes of Hercules (eg Trajan), and later ]s, in particular ] and ], went further and often identified or compared themselves with him and supported his cult; Maximian styled himself "Herculius". | |||
| The cult of Hercules spread through the Roman world. In Roman Egypt, what is believed to be the remains of a are found in the ]. | |||
| ==]s of Hercules== | |||
| The Romans adopted the ] of Heracles' life and works essentially unchanged, but added anecdotal detail of their own, some of it linking Hercules with the geography of the Western Mediterranean. | |||
| In ], ] was Hercules' mistress. She was married to ], a wealthy merchant. When he died, she gave his money to charity. In another version, she was the wife of ]. | |||
| ==Art== | |||
| Roman images of Hercules were modelled upon Hellenistic Greek images and might be contrasted with the images of Heracles that appear in Attic vase-painting ''(see ]).'' One aspect of Greek Heracles was not adopted by Roman culture: the ambivalent relationship with his patroness/antagonist ] that was an archaic aspect of "Hera's man", Heracles. | |||
| ] | |||
| ==Hercules in popular culture== | |||
| :''See ].'' | |||
| ==See also== | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| ==Notes== | |||
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