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Hercules, Greek hero
(hûr´ky l z´´),
Heracles, or Herakles (both: h r´klz´´) ,
most popular of all Greek heroes, famous for extraordinary strength and
courage. Alcmene, wife of Amphitryon, made love to both Zeus and her husband
on the same night and bore two sons, Hercules (son of Zeus) and Iphicles
(son of Amphitryon). Hercules incurred the everlasting wrath of Hera because
he was the child of her unfaithful husband. A few months after his birth
Hera set two serpents in his cradle, but the prodigious infant promptly
strangled them. 1
When he was a young man, Hercules defended Thebes from the armies of a
neighboring city, Orchomenus, and was rewarded with Megara, daughter of King
Creon. But Hera later drove Hercules insane, and in his madness he killed
his wife and children. After he had recovered his sanity, he sought
purification at the court of King Eurystheus of Tiryns for 12 years. During
those years Hercules performed 12 arduous labors: he killed the Nemean lion
and the Hydra; caught the Erymanthian boar and the Cerynean hind; drove off
the Stymphalian birds; cleaned the stables of Augeas; captured the Cretan
bull and the horses of Diomed; made off with the girdle of the Amazon queen
Hippolyte; killed Geryon; captured Cerberus; and finally took the golden
apples of Hesperides. 2
After his labors were completed, Hercules was involved in many other
adventures and combats, including the Calydonian hunt and the Argonaut
expedition. He killed Iphitus, son of the king of Oichalia, because the king
would not give him his daughter Iole. When Neleus, king of Pylos, refused
him absolution for that crime, Hercules sacked his kingdom and killed all
his sons except Nestor. For that outrage the Delphic oracle bade him serve
Omphale, queen of Lydia, who, in some legends, dressed him in women’s
clothes and had him work with her maids spinning wool. He later was her
lover, but after he finished his servitude he returned to Oichalia and
carried off Iole. 3
When his second wife, Deianira, daughter of King Oeneus, was seized by the
centaur Nessus, Hercules killed Nessus with arrows dipped in the poisonous
blood of the Hydra. As he died, Nessus told Deianira that blood from his
wound would restore Hercules’ love for her if ever it were to wane. Later,
when Deianira sought to win back her husband’s love, she contrived to have
him don a robe smeared with the blood. The robe stuck fast to Hercules’
skin, burning him unbearably. In agony, he built a huge pyre atop Mt. Oite
and had it set afire. His mortal parts burned away, but the rest rose to
heaven, where he was finally reconciled with Hera and married Hebe. 4
Although worshiped as a god, Hercules was properly a hero, frequently
appealed to for protection from various evils. In art Hercules was portrayed
as a powerful, muscular man wearing a lion’s skin and armed with a huge
club. Perhaps the most famous statue of him is the Farnese Hercules in the
National Museum in Naples. He is the hero of plays by Sophocles, Euripides,
and Seneca. 5
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright © 2002 Columbia
University Press
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