Hercules - a history:

Hercules, the Roman equivalent of the Greek Heracles and the name more commonly used name in Western art and culture, was the son of Zeus and the mortal Alcmene. Famous for his great strength and far ranging adventures in classic mythology, Hercules’ character and nature was multifaceted and contradictory.

Hera, wife of Zeus and jealous of her husband’s affair with Alcmene resulting in the birth of Hercules, tried desperately to prevent the birth and when unsuccessful sent poisonous serpents to his cradle, which Hercules strangled. Alcmene then abandoned Hercules in the forest to protect him from the unending wrath of Hera. Athena discovered Hercules, brought him to Hera, and not knowing his parentage, welcomed and nourished the baby by breast feeding him. While Hercules suckled too intensely Hera shoved him away, whereby her breast milk sprayed across the night sky creating the Milky Way. Hera returned the child to Athena, who took over care of the child and unknowingly increased his strength by also feeding him from her own breast before returning him to Alcmene.

Hercules’ troubles with Hera did not stop there. As an adult he married Megara, the daughter of King Creon, who bore many children with him. Hera, relentless in her determination to destroy Hercules, drove him so mad that he killed Megara and all their children. Hercules fled to the Oracle of Delphi in hopes of a cure to his insanity and to beg absolution. Hera again intercepted, forcing the oracle to punish Hercules further by commanding him to serve the king of Mycenae, Eurystheus. Eurystheus ordered Hercules to perform ten impossible tasks over the next ten years, which became the Labors of Hercules. Among these labors which Hercules successfully accomplished were the slaying of the Nemean Lion, the Lernaean Hydra, the Erymanthian Boar and the Cretan Bull. Eurystheus demanded two more labors for Hercules enlistment of Iolaus, (his eromenos or male lover), in slaying the Hydra and being paid for the cleansing of the Augean stables.

After Hercules succeeded in accomplishing the Twelve Labors, he joined the Argonauts, a group of superheroes, searching for the Golden Fleece, conquering Troy, fighting against the Gigantes and on.

Hera, vengeful and determined, did not stop there. She caused Hercules to throw his companion, Iphitus, over a city wall which killed him. Hercules again was forced into servitude as absolution for the murder under Queen Omphale of Lydia this time, who demanded he serve her by acting as one of her hand maidens, donning women’s clothes and performing women’s work. Hercules must have impressed Omphale, as she eventually freed and married him. 

Hercules was eventually undone, ironically poisoned by his third wife, Deianira, for his adultery with Iole. Soaking his clothes in the tainted blood and semen of Nessus the centaur, who Hercules killed for attempting to rape her, Deianira offered the clothes to Hercules when she suspected him of infidelity, as Nessus had suggested to her just before he had died. The clothes burned the flesh from Hercules who threw himself on a fire to end his misery.

After his death, Hercules joined the ranks of full gods and goddesses on Mount Olympus.

Why did I choose Hercules as subject matter to investigate?

The Road of Hercules, a route across Southern Gaul that is affiliated with the tenth labor of Hercules, is the same passage Hannibal took in 218 BC on his March towards Italy, encouraging the belief he was the heir and parallel hero to Hercules. Some scholars believe there is evidence that in ancient Rome women were completely prohibited from worshipping Hercules or taking part in Hercules’ cults.

Like all Greek and Roman mythology, the Hercules legends are filled classic exemplars of destructive standards, ancient pernicious themes of stereotyped sexual identities, justifications for intolerance, exclusion, prejudice and convoluted social structures, focus on and rationale for incest, infidelity, retribution, retaliation, revenge, vindication and war. The Greeks and Romans covered every imaginable scenario in their stories in terms of inter- and intra- personal relationships and basically justified or validated any situation or behavior no matter how violent, extraordinary, excessive or preposterous. 

The mythological narratives of Hercules were appropriated and reinterpreted as allegories within the Roman Empire when it was Christianized. Retold as classic tales of good against evil, metaphorically representing the ability to overcome earthly desires and vices and as a capable role model demonstrating wisdom and valor while overcoming the monsters of moral obstacles. Most Greek and Roman legends, commandeered by Christianity for propaganda, infused Western culture and civilization with never ending exorbitant archetypes, combative patterns and destructive models—all paradigms which I feel strongly needs altering if the human race is to survive.

Thus, I investigate these narratives while translating them, embracing some elements and obliterating others, in order to make room for a revised story moving forward. 

—Lawrence Fodor