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Chapter Fourteen, Lecture One

Chapter Fourteen, Lecture One. Heracles. Heracles. Strong man and primitive tough guy But still admired and venerated for “heroism” – dangerous tasks done with physical strength for a good purpose. Heracles. Panhellenic hero Adventures take him throughout the Greek world and beyond

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Chapter Fourteen, Lecture One

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  1. Chapter Fourteen, Lecture One Heracles

  2. Heracles • Strong man and primitive tough guy • But still admired and venerated for “heroism” – dangerous tasks done with physical strength for a good purpose

  3. Heracles • Panhellenic hero • Adventures take him throughout the Greek world and beyond • Principal hero for colonists • “Washington slept here” • Enormous body of myth and tales • Complete picture must be pieced together from many sources

  4. The Birth of Heracles

  5. The Birth of Heracles • Perseus • King of Tiryns and founded Mycenae • Electryon • Alcaeus • Sthenelus

  6. The Birth of Heracles • Electryon (Mycenae) • Nine sons • Alcmena • Alcaeus • Amphitryon • Sthenelus • Eurystheus

  7. The Birth of Heracles • Pirates kill all but one of Electryon’s sons. • Prepares a campaign against them • Gives Amphitryon Alcmena to watch over • But he and Amphitryon get into a fight and Amphitryon kills him. • Amphitryon escapes to Thebes with Alcmena and marries her.

  8. The Birth of Heracles • Alcmena won’t have sex with him until Amphitryon avenges the death of her brothers. • Meanwhile, Zeus sneaks in. • Amphitryon comes later. • Thus, there are divine and human seed in her and she gives birth to twins. • Heracles (Alcides) • Iphicles

  9. The Birth of Heracles • Zeus’s boast about Eileithyia delivering a ruler on that day • Hera holds up his birth and advances Eurystheus’s birth • Ovid • Galanthis untangles Eileithyia through a trick.

  10. Twin and Divine Births

  11. Twin and Divine Births • Twins viewed with superstition • Simultaneous intercourse with divine and mortal male from Egypt and widespread • Ammun and Ahmes, wife of Tutmosis, I => Hatshepsut

  12. Heracles’s Youthful Deeds

  13. Madness and Murder

  14. Madness and Murder • Married to Megara, daughter of Creon, the new king of Thebes • Driven mad by Hera and kills Megara and their three children • As punishment, Heracles must serve Eurystheus, his cousin. • In Euripides’s play, the murders take place after the labors (athloi).

  15. The Twelve Labors

  16. The Twelve Labors

  17. Other tasks interspersed with them: the Side-Deeds

  18. Side-Deeds

  19. Observations: The Twelve Labors

  20. Observations • Like Gilgamesh, struggles against beasts and journeys to the land of the dead • When did labors become organized into twelve? • Not in Hesiod • Perhaps in 470 BC on the Temple of Zeus at Olympia • 12 metopes available

  21. Observations • Labors grouped into thematic units • Early adventures around Mycenae • Six of the first seven largely against animals • The Augean stables the exception • Later adventure farther out, and final adventures in the underworld • Popular with Greeks living abroad, Sicily and Italy in particular

  22. Next Lecture

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