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| Background | |||||
| In Greek mythology, Heracles or Herakles ("glory of Hera", or "Glorious through Hera," Alcides (original name) "Hρα + κλέος, H ρακλnς)" was a divine hero, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, nephew of Amphitryon and great-grandson (and half-brother) of Perseus. | |||||
| He was the greatest of the Greek heroes, a paragon of masculinity, the ancestor of royal clans who claimed to be Heracleidae and a champion of the Olympian order against chthonic monsters. In Rome and the modern West, he is known as Hercules, with whom the later Roman Emperors, in particular Commodus and Maximianus, often identified themselves. | |||||
| Together with Hermes he was the patron and protector of gymnasia and palaestrae. His iconographic attributes are the lion skin and the club | |||||
Many popular stories were told of his life, the most famous being The Twelve labors of Heracles; Alexandrian poets of the Hellenistic age drew his mythology into a high poetic and tragic atmosphere. His figure, which initially drew on Near Eastern motifs such as the lion-fight, was known everywhere: his Etruscan equivalent was Hercle, a son of Tinia and Uni. |
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| Sacred Festivals | |||||
| The Herakleia were ancient festivals honoring the divine hero Heracles. The ancient Athenians celebrated the festival, which commemorated the death of Heracles, on the second day of the month of Metageitnion (which would fall in late July or early August), at the Κυνοσαργες (Kynosarges) gymnasium at the demos Diomeia outside the walls of Athens, in a sanctuary dedicated to Heracles. His priests were drawn from the list of boys who were not full Athenian citizens (nothoi). | |||||
| Many famous nothoi exercised there (such as Demosthenes) but it was probably not exclusively set aside for them. The Attic cults of Herakles were often closely connected with youth: at several of his cult sites there was a gymnasion attached, and there was a mythological tradition (perhaps originating in Boetia) that after Heracles died he was translated to Olympus, where he married Hebe, the personification of youth. | |||||
| Because of this Heracles is sometimes worshipped as a god and sometimes as a dead hero. In Thebes, the center of the cult of Heracles, the festivities lasted a number of days, and consisted of various athletic and musical contests (agones), as well as sacrifices. They were celebrated in the gymnasium of Iolaus, the nephew and eromenos of Heracles, and were known as the Iolaeia. The winners were awarded brass tripods. | |||||
| Mythology | |||||
| A famous aspect of the mythology of Heracles concerns his ten (10 ) labours: | |||||
| To kill the Nemean Lion. To destroy the Lernaean Hydra. To capture the Ceryneian Hind. To capture the Erymanthian Boar. To clean the Augean Stables. To kill the Stymphalian Birds. To capture the Cretan Bull. To round up the Mares of Diomedes. To steal the Girdle of Hippolyte. To herd the Cattle of Geryon. To fetch the Apples of Hesperides. To capture Cerberus. |
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