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Herakles rescues Theseus from the Underworld

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Achilles Herakles

father is mortal: Peleus father is immortal: Zeus

mother is immortal: Thetis mother is mortal: Alcmena

(“foster” father is mortal: Amphitryon

cf. Aegeus, mortal father of Theseus, while Poseidon is his “biological” father)

The paradoxical Herakles

• Hounded by Hera, his name, “Herakles,” nevertheless means “glory of Hera”

Herakles nurses at the breast of Hera… and from the spilled milk originated the milky way

Hera’s opposition to Herakles starts early on: she sends deadly

snakes, which baby Herakles chokes with his own hands

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The incident also serves to highlight Herakles’ physical superiority over his twin and half brother Iphikles

Herakles as a Symbol of Excess … in all its

Forms

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Herakles is sold as slave to Omphale, Queen of Lydia (to atone for the murder of his guest, Iphitus)

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Herakles as a Symbol of the Human Condition

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Plan of Temple Zeus at OlympiaThe Labors of Herakles are depicted on the metopes,

six on the east end, six on the west

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• A: triglyph• B: metope

The 12 labors on the 12 metopes

Apollo and the Centauromachy on the West Pediment of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia

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Zeus and the Fatal Chariot Race (between Pelops and Oinomaos) on the East pediment of the temple of Zeus

at Olympia

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The 12 Labors of Heraklesthe successful/victorious athlete IS a

CIVILIZING FORCE

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The (invulnerable) Nemean Lion whom Herakles kills by choking him

Herakles fights the Lernaean Hydra, whose hundred serpent heads he cuts with a sickle and cauterizes with

fire

The Keryneian Hind, whose horns were made of gold and who was sacred to Artemis. Entrusted not to kill the hind, Herakles tried to outrun it but failed, and ended up

wounding the animal with his arrow

The Erymanthian boar: Classic Heraklean tale about killing baneful animals who plague the land

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Athena instructs Herakles how to clean the stables of Augeas: by diverting a river

The Stymphalian birds, whom Herakles defeats with castanets (made by Hephaistos) given to

him by Athena

Herakles and the Cretan Bull

The defeat of the Cretan Bull is a bit like defeating the Minotaur (in some versions, this is the very bull, whom Minos refused to sacrifice to Poseidon and who mated

with his wife Pasiphae

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The Mares of Diomedes devour human flesh

Herakles claims the war belt of Hippolyte, Queen of the Amazons:

the male culture hero symbolically defeats/subdues female anti-order

Herakles against the triple-bodied Geryon, whose cattle he has stolen (note the fallen dog, the 2-headed Orthos,

offspring of Typhon and Echidna)

The Golden Apples of the Hesperides (located in Hyperborea) guarded by a serpent: the impossible object of desire, the eternally young, virgin woman

Herakles’ last labor: bringing Hades’ hound from the underworld