The Oxford Handbook of Heracles (OXFORD HANDBOOKS SERIES) 0190650982, 9780190650988

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T h e Ox f o r d H a n d b o o k o f

H E R AC L E S

The Oxford Handbook of

HERACLES Edited by

DANIEL OGDEN

1

3 Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries. Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America. © Oxford University Press 2021 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above. You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Ogden, Daniel, editor. Title: The Oxford handbook of Heracles / edited by Daniel Ogden. Other titles: Oxford handbooks. Description: New York : Oxford University Press, 2021. | Series: Oxford handbooks series | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2021001219 (print) | LCCN 2021001220 (ebook) | ISBN 9780190650988 (hardback) | ISBN 9780190651008 (epub) | ISBN 9780190650995 | ISBN 9780190651015 Subjects: LCSH: Heracles (Greek mythological character)— Handbooks, manuals, etc. Classification: LCC BL820.H5 O94 2021 (print) | LCC BL820.H5 (ebook) | DDC 398.20938/02—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021001219 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021001220 DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190650988.001.0001 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2 Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc., United States of America

In memoriam ANTON POWELL οὐκ ἔστιν προφήτης ἄτιμος

Contents

List of Figures Contributors Introduction Daniel Ogden

xi xiii xxi

PA RT I :   B E F OR E T H E L A B OR S 1. Birth and Childhood Corinne Pache 2. The Madness and the Labors Katherine Lu Hsu

3 13

PA RT I I :   T H E L A B OR S ( AT H LOI ) 3. Labor I: The Nemean Lion Jenny March

29

4. Labor II: The Lernean Hydra Christina Salowey

45

5. Labor III: The Cerynean Hind Emma Aston

62

6. Labor IV: The Erymanthian Boar (and Pholus) Daniel Ogden

71

7. Labor V: The Augean Stables Fiona Mitchell

80

8. Labor VI: The Stymphalian Birds Emma Aston

95

viii   Contents

9. Labor VII: The Cretan Bull Daniel Ogden

107

10. Labor VIII: The Mares of Diomede (and Alcestis) Daniel Ogden

113

11. Labor IX: The Girdle of the Amazon Hippolyte Adrienne Mayor

124

12. Labor X: The Cattle of Geryon and the Return from Tartessus P. J. Finglass

135

13. Labor XI: The Apples of the Hesperides Gina Salapata

149

14. Labor XII: Cerberus Pauline Hanesworth

165

PA RT I I I :   T H E SI DE - ​D E E D S ( PA R E R G A ) 15. Brigands and Cruel Kings Debbie Felton

183

16. The Argonauts Richard Hunter

198

17. Laomedon, Hesione, and the Sea-​Monster Bronwen Wickkiser

209

18. Auge and Telephus Emma Griffiths

224

19. The Gigantomachy Christina Salowey

235

20. Oechalia, Delphi, and Omphale Kristin Heineman

251

21. Deianeira, Death, and Apotheosis Dámaris Romero-​González

266

Contents  ix

PA RT I V:   G E N R E S A N D M E DIA 22. Epic Elton Barker and Joel Christensen

283

23. Tragedy Michael Lloyd

301

24. Comedy John Wilkins

316

25. The Philosophical Tradition Philip Bosman

332

26. Classical Art Amy Smith

345

PA RT V:   T H E M E S 27. Heracles as a Quest Hero Graham Anderson

371

28. Heracles between Hera and Athena Susan Deacy

387

29. Heracles Rationalized and Allegorized Greta Hawes

395

30. Heracles and the Mastery of Geographical Space Antonio Ignacio Molina Marín

409

31. Heracles as Ancestor Lee E. Patterson

418

32. Heracles, Macedon, and Alexander the Great Christian Thrue Djurslev

432

33. The Greek Cult of Heracles Jennifer Larson

447

34. Heracles and Melqart Megan Daniels

464

x   Contents

35. The Roman Cult of Hercules Christopher Siwicki

489

36. Hercules, Caesar, and the Roman Emperors Matthew P. Loar

507

37. The Early Christian Heracles Alexandra Eppinger

522

38. The Reception of Heracles Emma Stafford

540

Index

557

Figures

3.1. Heracles fighting Geryon

37

3.2. Heracles traveling in the Cup of the Sun

38

3.3. Heracles with Deianeira and the robe

39

3.4. Heracles wrestles the Nemean Lion

41

3.5. Heracles wrestles the Nemean Lion

42

4.1. Heracles and the Hydra

51

4.2. Heracles and the Hydra

52

4.3. The Argive Plain with geographical features and hydrological improvements 56 5.1. The Cerynean Hind

68

8.1. The Stymphalian Birds

96

8.2. Heracles and a Stymphalian Bird

101

15.1. Heracles wrestling Antaeus

188

15.2. Heracles killing the Egyptian king Busiris and his servants

190

15.3. Remnants of the portico at Roquepertuse

193

19.1. Heracles, Zeus, and Athena battle the Giants

238

26.1. Heracles on the Telephus frieze from the Altar of Zeus at Pergamon

346

26.2. Naked Auge and drunken Heracles

347

26.3. Heracles at the court of King Eurytus of Oechalia

348

26.4. Heracles, Iphicles, and snakes in the crib

349

26.5. Heracles wrestling the giant Antaeus

350

26.6. Farnese Heracles

351

26.7. Heracles cleaning the Augean stables

353

26.8. Heracles and Iolaus battling the Lernaean Hydra

354

26.9. Heracles and a sea god, perhaps Triton

355

26.10. Heracles attacking Linus

356

26.11. Heracles struggling with Apollo over the Delphic Tripod

357

26.12. Heracles and Hebe approaching Mt. Olympus on a chariot

358

xii   Figures 26.13. Alexander the Great in Heracles’ lion-​scalp helmet

360

26.14. A handshake between a Commagene king and Heracles

361

26.15. The madness of Heracles

363

26.16. Drunken Hercules with Omphale

364

26.17. Heracles’ death (among satyrs) and apotheosis

365

29.1. Heracles wrestles with Geras (Old Age)

397

33.1. Heracles with a four-​pillar roofless shrine

458

34.1. Melqart brandishing a fenestrated axe

469

34.2. Melqart riding a sea monster, holding bow and quiver in his left hand; owl with crook and flail

470

34.3. The Master of Lions

472

34.4. Alexander the Great as Heracles; seated Zeus

475

35.1. Plan of the Forum Boarium

492

35.2. Denarius of Q. Pomponius Musa

494

35.3. Fragments of the Forma Urbis Romae

495

35.4. The round temple in the Forum Boarium

497

35.5. The via tecta running through the sanctuary of Hercules Victor at Tibur

500

35.6. The podium and reconstructed façade of the temple of Hercules Victor at Tibur

501

35.7. The remains of an ancient temple (Dionysus and Bacchus?) on the Quirinal Hill

503

Contributors

Graham Anderson is Professor Emeritus of Classics at the University of Kent. His main interests have been concentrated in prose narrative literature, especially the ancient novel. Most relevant to the current volume is the treatment of “The Alexander Romance and the Pattern of Hero-​Legend” in Stoneman et al., The Alexander Romance in Persia and the East (2012). He has also written extensively on the precursors of Arthurian legend, and on the roots of fiction in popular literature and subliterature. His most recent study has been Fantasy in Greek and Roman Literature (2020). Emma Aston is Associate Professor of Classics at the University of Reading. Her first monograph was on the depiction of gods in part-​animal form (Mixanthrōpoi: Animal-​ Human Hybrid Deities in Greek Religion, 2011). She is now working on the regional identity of ancient Thessaly, but myth and monsters are still important to her work (for example, the centaurs of Mount Pelion). She has an abiding interest in interactions between human and nonhuman animals in ancient Greek life and mythology, and also in the use of myths about animals and animal-​hybrids in the expression of local identity. Elton Barker is Reader in Classical Studies at The Open University. He has written widely on epic, historiography, and tragedy, including on cross-​genre representations of debate (Entering the Agon, 2009) and mapping Herodotean space (in New Worlds out of Old Texts, 2016). With Joel Christensen he has published A Beginner’s Guide to Homer (2013) and a monograph, Homer’s Thebes (2020). Since 2008 he has been developing digital methods and annotation tools for the study of historical geography: in 2019 he cofounded the Pelagios Network Association for linking online resources about places. Philip Bosman is Professor of Ancient Greek at Stellenbosch University. His research interests are mainly in Greek literature and philosophy, and the legacies of ancient Greece in Africa. He has published on the ancient conscience, Euripides, the Cynics and Cynic tradition, Plutarch’s Life of Alexander, Lucian, and Julian, and has edited a number of thematically based volumes, including Corruption and Integrity in Ancient Greece and Rome (2012), Alexander in Africa (2014), and Intellectual and Empire in Greco-​Roman Antiquity (2019). Joel Christensen is Associate Professor of Classical Studies at Brandeis University. In addition to articles on language, myth, and literature in the Homeric epics, he has

xiv   Contributors published a Beginner’s Guide to Homer (2013) and Homer’s Thebes (2019) with Elton Barker. Other recent publications include Commentary on the Homeric Battle of Frogs and Mice (2018; with Erik Robinson) and The Many-​Minded Man: The “Odyssey,” Psychology, and the Therapy of Epic (2020). Megan Daniels is Assistant Professor of Greek Material Culture at the University of British Columbia. Her interests focus on cultural interactions in the eastern Mediterranean in the Late Bronze and Iron Ages. She is currently completing a monograph on the shared ideologies of divine kingship between the Aegean and western Asia through the figure of the Queen of Heaven. Further interests include interdisciplinary approaches to ancient migration and the intersections of religion and economy in the ancient Mediterranean. She publishes mainly on religious syncretism in the contexts of economic and political expansion in the Mediterranean, and is also currently preparing publications of pottery from sites in Greece and Tunisia. Susan Deacy is Professor of Classics at the University of Roehampton, London. She is especially interested in ancient Greek religion, myth, gender, and sexuality, particularly how these categories cohere around deities, notably Athena. She has published a number of studies of Athena including to date two books, with a third forthcoming. She is currently developing a set of Hercules-​themed activities for autistic children. Christian Thrue Djurslev is Assistant Professor of Classics and Carlsberg Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at Aarhus University, Denmark. He has published on Alexander the Great, late antiquity, and imperial literature, including the monograph Alexander the Great in the Early Christian Tradition: Classical Reception and Patristic Literature (2020). Another notable publication is “Four Beasts and a Baby: The ‘Baleful Birth’ Omen of Alexander’s Death in Its Hellenistic Context” (2020). Djurslev’s current work focuses on the literary traditions of other controversial monarchs of antiquity, including Semiramis of Assyria, Tomyris of Scythia, and Cyrus of Persia. Alexandra Eppinger is Research and Teaching Fellow in the Department of Ancient History at Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany, where she teaches courses on Roman history and epigraphy. She is the author of Hercules in der Spätantike: Die Rolle des Heros im Spannungsfeld von Heidentum und Christentum (2015). Her research interests include late antique cultural history, early imperial history, and the reception of Hercules in eighteenth-​century English political cartoons. She is currently working on a research project on atheism in the Roman Empire. Debbie Felton is Professor of Classics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she specializes in folklore in classical literature (especially the supernatural and monstrous). In addition to Haunted Greece and Rome (1999) and her edited volume Landscapes of Dread in Classical Antiquity (2018), she has published widely on folklore in antiquity. Her most recent work is Serial Killers of Classical Myth and History (2021). She has been editor of the journal Preternature since 2015 and associate review editor

Contributors  xv for the Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts for many years. On the side, she serves as a content consultant for Bearport Press for various series of children’s books on ghost stories. P. J. Finglass is Henry Overton Wills Professor of Greek at the University of Bristol. He has published a monograph Sophocles (2019) in the series Greece and Rome New Surveys in the Classics; has edited Sophocles’ Oedipus the King (2018), Ajax (2011), and Electra (2007), Stesichorus’ Poems (2014), and Pindar’s Pythian Eleven (2007) in the series Cambridge Classical Texts and Commentaries; has (with Adrian Kelly) coedited The Cambridge Companion to Sappho (2021) and Stesichorus in Context (2015) and (with Lyndsay Coo) Female Characters in Fragmentary Greek Tragedy (2020); and edits the journal Classical Quarterly, all with Cambridge University Press. Emma Griffiths is Lecturer in Classics at the University of Manchester. She has published widely on Greek myth and drama, including Medea (2005), Euripides: Heracles (2006) the 2020 monograph Children in Greek Tragedy. Pauline Hanesworth is Head of Learning and Teaching at Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC). With her classicist hat on, she focuses on archaic and classical Greek myth and religion and their representations in modern film. She is particularly interested in how mythmaking can shape and reshape society. She translates this into her pedagogic research, where she focuses on how what, how, and why we teach—​our pedagogic mythmaking—​can be an impetus for societal change. Greta Hawes is Senior Lecturer in Classics and Ancient History and DECRA Fellow at Australian National University. She is author of Pausanias in the World of Greek Myth (2021) and Rationalizing Myth in Antiquity (2014), editor of Myths on the Map: The Storied Landscapes of Ancient Greece (2017), and codirector of MANTO, an initiative to collect, analyze and visualize the data of Greek myth using digital methods. Kristin Heineman is Associate Teaching Professor at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado, where she teaches widely in Greek and Roman History, Women’s Studies, and Religion. Her research interests include women and religion in the ancient world and the intersection between paganism, Christianity, and the occult, as seen in her recent book, The Decadence of Delphi: The Oracle in the Second Century AD and Beyond (2018). Her newest research incorporates sacred space and memory at various sanctuaries in the Greek world and the changes brought by Christianity. Katherine Lu Hsu is Assistant Professor of Classics at College of the Holy Cross. In addition to articles on literary papyri, Greek tragedy, and myth, she is author of the monograph The Violent Hero: Heracles in the Greek Imagination (2020) and a coeditor (with David Schur and Brian Sowers) of the volume The Body Unbound: Literary Approaches to the Classical Corpus (forthcoming).

xvi   Contributors Richard Hunter is Regius Professor of Greek at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Trinity College. His research interests include Hellenistic poetry, ancient literary and cultural criticism and reception, and ancient drama. His most recent books include Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica IV (2015), The Measure of Homer (2018), and (with Rebecca Laemmle) Euripides, Cyclops (2020). Many of his essays are collected in On Coming After: Studies in Post-​Classical Greek Literature and Its Reception (2008). Jennifer Larson is Professor of Classics at Kent State University. Her fields of research are ancient Mediterranean religions, Greek poetry, and gender and sexuality in antiquity. Her current projects focus on perceptions of divine knowledge among the Greeks and cognitive approaches to ancient magic. She is the author of numerous articles, chapters, and books including Greek Nymphs: Myth, Cult, Lore (2005), Ancient Greek Sexualities: A Sourcebook (2012), and Understanding Greek Religion: A Cognitive Approach (2016). Michael Lloyd is Professor of Greek Language and Literature at University College Dublin. He is the author of The Agon in Euripides (1992), Euripides’ Andromache: With Introduction, Translation, and Commentary (1994; second edition, 2005), a companion to Sophocles’ Electra (2005), and articles on Homer, Herodotus, and Greek tragedy. He is also the editor of Aeschylus in the Oxford Readings in Classical Studies series (2007). He has publications forthcoming on Aristophanes and Plato in the light of politeness theory, and a chapter on realism in Euripides appeared recently in the Brill Companion to Euripides. Matthew Loar is Director of Fellowships and Assistant Professor of Classics (by courtesy) at Washington and Lee University. He has (with Carolyn MacDonald and Dan-​el Padilla Peralta) coedited Rome, Empire of Plunder: The Dynamics of Cultural Appropriation (2017) and (with Sarah C. Murray and Stefano Rebeggiani) The Cultural History of Augustan Rome: Texts, Monuments, and Topography (2019). Jenny March is an author specializing in Classical myth and Greek tragedy. Her several books include the award-​winning Dictionary of Classical Mythology, The Penguin Book of Classical Myths, and the Aris and Phillips editions of Sophocles’ Electra and Oedipus Tyrannus. She was also the founder and editor for twenty years of the Classical Association’s CA News. She has taught at London, Reading, and Southampton universities, was a British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellow at University College London, and is now attached to Corpus Christi College, Oxford, as an Associate Member of the Centre for the Study of Greek and Roman Antiquity. Antonio Ignacio Molina Marín is Research Fellow in the University of Alcalá de Henares. He earned his doctorate in ancient history at the University of Murcia and has been a visiting researcher in the Universities of Exeter (2014) and Santa Clara (2018). He specializes in ancient Macedonia, Alexander the Great, and ancient geography. His main publications are Geographica: Ciencia del espacio y tradición narrativa de

Contributors  xvii Homero a Cosmas Indicopleustes (2011), and Alejandro Magno (1916–​2015): Un siglo de estudios sobre Macedonia Antigua (2018). He is a member of the editorial board of Karanos: Bulletin of Ancient Macedonian Studies. Adrienne Mayor is Research Scholar in Classics and the History and Philosophy of Science Program at Stanford University. She is the author of several books, including Gods and Robots: Myths, Machines, and Ancient Dreams of Technology (2018); The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women across the Ancient World (2014); The First Fossil Hunters (2011); The Poison King (a biography of Mithradates VI of Pontus, 2009); and Greek Fire, Poison Arrows, and Scorpion Bombs: Biological and Chemical Warfare in the Ancient World, 2003). Mayor’s articles about ancient Amazons have appeared in National Geographic History Magazine, History Today, Foreign Policy, Natural History, and Encyclopedia Iranica. Fiona Mitchell is Teaching Fellow in Ancient Language and Culture at the University of Birmingham. She undertook her PhD at the University of Bristol and previously worked at the University of Wales Trinity St. David as a Lecturer in Classics. Her research focuses primarily on representations of monstrosity and bodily abnormality in ancient Greek literature and iconography. She has produced articles on monstrosity in Herodotus, Hesiod, and the Orphic theogonies, and has a forthcoming monograph titled Monsters in Greek Literature: Aberrant Bodies. As part of her ongoing project on the use of personification and abnormal bodies as representations of time in ancient cosmogonies she is the editor of Time and Chronology in Creation Narratives. Daniel Ogden is Professor of Ancient History in the University of Exeter. His publications include Greek and Roman Necromancy (2001), Aristomenes of Messene (2003), Perseus (2008), Magic, Witchcraft and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman Worlds: A Sourcebook (2nd ed., 2009), Drakōn: Dragon Myth and Serpent Cult in the Greek and Roman World (2013), The Legend of Seleucus: Kingship, Narrative and Mythmaking (2017), The Werewolf in the Ancient World (2021) and, as editor, A Companion to Greek Religion (2007). Corinne Pache is Professor of Classical Studies at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. Her work focuses on Greek archaic poetry and the modern reception of ancient epic. Her publications include Baby and Child Heroes in Ancient Greece (2004) and “A Moment’s Ornament”: The Poetics of Nympholepsy in Ancient Greece (2011). She is also the editor of the Cambridge Guide to Homer (2020). Lee E. Patterson is Professor of History at Eastern Illinois University. He is the author of Kinship Myth in Ancient Greece (2010) and a number of studies on Strabo’s use of myth, including one in The Routledge Companion to Strabo (2017). He is currently writing a book on Roman–​Armenian relations, while forthcoming items regarding Armenia will appear in Revue des Études Arméniennes and Latomus. He has also ventured into the Persian world with a chapter on politics and religion in the Sasanian

xviii   Contributors Empire in the edited volume Sasanian Persia: Between Rome and the Steppes of Eurasia (2017). Dámaris Romero-​González is Associate Professor of Classical Philology at the University of Cordoba, Spain. Her main research is on Plutarch, in particular on the relationship between dreams and character in his work. She has also worked on the Lives of the monks and saints of late antiquity, and on New Testament Greek semantics, as the director of the Greek-​Spanish New Testament Dictionary project. Her publications include articles on Plutarch, the Spanish translation of the History of the Monks of Egypt (with Israel Muñoz; 2010), and, as coeditor, Visitors from beyond the Grave: Ghosts in World Literature (2019). Gina Salapata is Associate Professor and Program Coordinator of Classical Studies at Massey University, New Zealand. Her main research interests lie at the intersection of Greek material culture and religion. A Classical archaeologist by training, she has published widely on iconography, terracottas, votive offerings, and hero cults, including the monograph Heroic Offerings: The Terracotta Plaques from the Spartan Sanctuary of Agamemnon and Kassandra (2014). She is currently working on Boeotian terracottas and on the cult of Adonis. Christina Salowey is Professor of Classics at Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia. She has also served three times as the Gertrude Smith Professor at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. Her current research interests are environmental history, the mythology and religion of ancient Greece, and war memorials in modern Greece. She has published on Heracles as a cult figure, archaic funerary korai, Hellenistic grave stelae for women, and the use of maths and science in the teaching of ancient art. Christopher Siwicki is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Norwegian Institute at Rome. He has previously held fellowships at the Warburg Institute and The British School at Rome, as well as lecturing positions at John Cabot University, the University of Exeter, and the School of Architecture at the University of Lincoln. His research explores the cultural role of architecture in antiquity and he has published on Roman architecture and the topography of Rome. His monograph Architectural Restoration and Heritage in Imperial Rome (2019) addresses the treatment of historic buildings in ancient Rome. Amy Smith is Professor of Classical Archaeology and Curator of the Ure Museum at the University of Reading (collections.reading.ac.uk/​ure-​museum). She has published widely on ancient art, especially Greek vases, and is preparing a volume on the Athenian Classical red-​figure painter known as the Pan Painter. Her research considers also cult, ritual, and religious practice, including music, personifications, and weddings. Her work with museum collections considers both the present/​future, for example, the pedagogic and research value of digital visualizations, and the past, for

Contributors  xix example, collections histories and the reception of antiquity, including the legacy of J. J. Winckelmann. Emma Stafford is Professor of Greek Culture at the University of Leeds. She is author of numerous works on Greek myth, religion, and iconography, including the monographs Herakles (2012) and Worshipping Virtues (2000), and coeditor (with J. E. Herrin) of Personification in the Greek World (2005). She is coordinator of the project “Hercules: A Hero for All Ages” (https://​herculesproject.leeds.ac.uk), and coeditor of its four volumes—​Herakles Inside and Outside the Church, The Exemplary Hercules, The Modern Hercules, and Hercules Performed—​published in Brill’s Metaforms series (2020–​2021). Bronwen Wickkiser is Associate Professor of Classics at Wabash College, Indiana. Much of her research focuses on intersections between religion and healthcare in Greco-​Roman antiquity, as examined in many articles and two books: Asklepios, Medicine, and the Politics of Healing in Fifth-​Century Greece (2008), and The Thymele at Epidauros: Healing, Space and Musical Performance in Late-​Classical Greece (2017). She also publishes articles on the poetry and culture of Augustan Rome. Recent work extends to classical reception, including investigation of the complicated history of the Confederate Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery and its presence in a contested landscape of memory. John Wilkins is Professor Emeritus at the University of Exeter. His research is on Greek drama, the history of food in the ancient world, the Greek sympotic writer Athenaeus of Naucratis, and Greek nutrition and medicine. His books include The Rivals of Aristophanes (2000, edited with David Harvey), The Boastful Chef: The Discourse of Food in Ancient Greek Comedy (2000), Food in the Ancient World (2006, with Shaun Hill), and A Companion to Food in the Ancient World (2016, edited with Robin Nadeau). He is currently completing the first translation into a modern language of Galen’s major work on pharmacology, Simple Medicines I–​V, for the Cambridge Galen series.

I ntrodu c tion Daniel Ogden

The Need for This Book No apology need be given for the production of a handbook on Heracles, for many the type and quintessence of the ancient Greek hero. His myth-​cycle and his ancient tradition, in all their ramifications, are expansive and rich, and require both a broad scope and diverse expertise if justice is to be done to them. Indeed, this myth-​cycle constitutes over an eighth of the totality of the literary and iconographical remains of Classical myth, if one can use the number of pages devoted to it in Gantz’s masterly 1993 review of early Greek myth as a proxy indicator: over 100 of its 750 pages are devoted to the hero. The cycle encompasses myths of all kind: quest myths; monster fights; world-​foundational myths; people-​, city-​, and dynasty-​foundational myths; aetiological myths; philosophical myths; allegorical myths; and indeed myths rationalized out of their very mythhood. It informs and is informed by every genre and variety of Classical literature. And the figure of Heracles opens windows onto numerous aspects of ancient religion, including those of cult, syncretism, Christian reception, the problem of the relationship between gods and heroes, and the intersection of religion with politics.

The Structure of the Book Readers turning to a volume boasting the title “Handbook” expect to find within it all the basic information about the subject in question, presented in an accessible

xxii   Introduction and well-​structured form. This volume aspires to meet such an expectation, and is ordered as follows. The first half of the book is devoted to the exposition of the ancient evidence, literary and iconographic, for the traditions of Heracles’ life and deeds. We begin, of course, with a chapter on Heracles’ childhood (1) before turning to the canonical set of his Twelve Labors (athloi), our review of these (one chapter each: 3–​14) being preceded by a chapter devoted to his madness (2), the most traditional of the ancient explanations for their imposition on him. The next seven chapters (15–​21) are devoted to groups of Heracles’ further, non-​Labor adventures or “side-​deeds” (parerga), some of which constitute more elaborate and engaging tales than those of the Labors proper. The second half of the book then cuts aslant this first half to offer a thematic approach to Heracles’ myth-​cycle, his cults and the uses made of him in the ancient world. We begin here with a series of chapters devoted to the contrasting ways in which he is manifest in different genres of ancient literature and in art more generally (22–​26). Then a number of his myth-​cycle’s diverse fils rouges are given dedicated treatment: Heracles’ fashioning as a folkloric quest-​hero; his role as a football between two great goddesses, the Hera that persecutes him and the Athena that protects him; and the rationalization and allegorization of the cycle’s constituent myths (27–​29). We pass on to a series of chapters devoted to the ways in which the figure of Heracles was exploited for political purposes (in the broadest sense) by various communities and individuals in the Greek world (30–​32). The three following chapters are devoted to his cult, its syncretism with that of Melqart, and its Roman manifestation (33–​35). A pair of chapters looks at the use made of Heracles more specifically in the Roman empire, by the Roman emperors themselves, and by early Christian writers, who could hardly ignore a figure so fundamental to their heritage and so important still to the pagans with whom they sought to engage (36–​ 37). Finally, we close with a chapter expressing a perspective on the vast subject of Heracles’ reception in the western tradition (38).

Existing Work on Heracles It is strange to tell that there currently exists no English-​language treatment of Heracles in his original ancient context of the scale and depth of the volume offered here. The closest we come among recent books in English is Emma Stafford’s admirable midlength monograph Herakles in the Routledge Gods and Heroes series edited by Susan Deacy (2012), a lucid and engaging read. Other recent books specifically devoted to Heracles in English barely deserve mention.1 One must look rather to two substantial 1  Alistair Blanshard’s Hercules: A Heroic Life (2005) is aimed at the mass market; it extends to a mere c. 60,000 words, is glancingly referenced and belletristic; even so it remains a strangely challenging read. The Classical Press of Wales’ variorum volume Herakles and Hercules (also 2005), edited by

Introduction  xxiii contributions on Heracles made in the context of wider works. We have already had cause to mention the fine hundred pages devoted to Heracles in Gantz’s Early Greek Myth of 1993.2 The art-​historical aspects of this work, however, were trumped by the appearance of the detailed treatment of Heracles’ iconography presided over by Sir John Boardman in the outstanding Lexicon iconographicum mythologicae classicae (LIMC) in 1988–​1990.3 The specific field of the reception of Heracles after antiquity is served rather better. Here Karl Galinsky’s still valuable 1972 book The Herakles Theme is now supplemented by a formidable series of four volumes emanating from the “Hercules: A Hero for All Ages” project run by Emma Stafford (again) in Leeds, and all (co-​)edited by her: Herakles Inside and Outside the Church (Allan et al. 2020), The Exemplary Hercules (Mainz and Stafford 2020), The Modern Hercules (Blanshard and Stafford 2020), and Hercules Performed (Stafford forthcoming). The currency of this major project is one of the reasons that the attention the present volume offers to the subject of Heracles’ reception is quite circumspect; we have largely confined ourselves to an invitation to Professor Stafford herself to share her uniquely authoritative perspective on it. The standard German reference works of a century or more ago continue to underpin—​directly and indirectly—​the philological aspects of this Handbook.4 There is no recent comprehensive treatment of Heracles in German scholarship, but note must be made of Alexandra Eppinger’s recent (2015) and important book on the more specific subject of Heracles in late antiquity (Dr. Eppinger also kindly shares her work on an aspect on this subject with us here). French scholarship did much for our hero in the last generation. One must note the impressive series of technical essay collections

Louis Rawlings and Hugh Bowden, is a short collection of papers on a quite random selection of topics; the Greek ones are perhaps stronger than the Roman. Padilla’s The Myths of Herakles in Ancient Greece: Survey and Profile (1998) is something of an oddity: a mere thirty of its hundred pages constitute its main text, no easy read, with another thirty devoted to dense endnotes and fifteen to (well-​selected) bibliography. Three brief art-​focused treatments appeared in the later eighties. Brommer’s 1986 book Heracles: The Twelve Labours and the Hero in Ancient Art and Literature (originating in the 2nd German ed. of 1979) comprises a main text of only sixty-​seven pages, albeit followed by some serious endnotes and illustrations, but it confines itself to the Labors only. Uhlenbrock’s 1986 exhibition catalog, Herakles: Passage of the Hero Through 1000 Years of Classical Art comprises thirty-​seven lightly referenced pages of text, distributed across a series of variorum essays. Finally, Vollkommer’s 1988 book Herakles in the Art of Classical Greece extends to 124 pages. 2 

Gantz (1993, esp. 374–​466). Boardman (1988–​1990). 4  I.e., in primis, Roscher’s Ausführliches Lexikon der griechischen und römischen Mythologie (in which see the articles of Furtwängler [1886–​1890] on Herakles and Peter [1890] on Hercules), the Pauly-​ Wissowa Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft (in which see the article of Gruppe [1918]) and above all the Preller-​Robert Griechische Mythologie (specifically Robert [1921]). Note also the monographs on Heracles of Friedländer (1907) and Schweitzer (1922). 3 

xxiv   Introduction produced on him in the 1990s in the context of a project spearheaded by Bonnet and Jourdain-​Annequin.5 The remit of introducing readers to the study of Heracles in the round is better achieved by encouraging a variety of approaches rather than by attempting to impose some sort of intellectual homogeneity. The effects of this policy will be clearest in the contrasts between those chapters ostensibly addressing similar or parallel projects: the ones expounding the mythical traditions of the Labors and the parerga. *** The single most defining characteristic of Heracles is his canon of the Twelve Labors (athloi). Before we investigate these individually and in detail, together with their parerga or “side-​deeds,” in the main body of this volume, let us survey the process by which the notion of the canon itself came about.

Near Eastern Forerunners of Heracles? Ancient Near Eastern literature and art are replete with gods and heroes fighting animals and monsters. If we want to claim that a resemblance to Heracles among these figures is anything more than coincidental, we have to set the bar high. Two of them are left particularly worthy of consideration:6 • Ninurta/​Ningirsu, in the Akkadian epics Anzu and The Return of Ninurta to Nippur (both originally second millennium BC). He is the son of the storm-​god and ruler of the gods, Enlil (cf. Zeus); he wears a lion-​skin, carries a club and a bow (cf. Heracles’ equipment); he fights eleven or twelve monsters (cf. the Labors); after defeating them he brings them back to his city as trophies (cf. the demands of Eurystheus); and the beasts in question include a seven-​headed serpent (cf. the Hydra), a wild bull (cf. the Cretan Bull), a stag (cf. the Cerynean Hind), the Anzu-​ bird (cf. the Stymphalian Birds), and a lion (cf. the Nemean Lion).7

5 

Namely, Bonnet and Jourdain-​Annequin (1992) (particularly good on cult); Jourdain-​Annequin and Bonnet (1996) (a strong collection of articles on Heracles’ women); and Bonnet, Jourdain-​Annequin, and Pirenne-​Delforge (1998) (Heracles’ “bestiary”); cf. also Bonnet’s (1988) monograph on Heracles and Melqart. 6  After Stafford (2012, 13). 7  Anzu: text at Hruška (1975); translation at Dalley (2000, 205–​227). Return of Ninurta: text and translation at Cooper (1978).

Introduction  xxv • The Babylonian storm-​god Marduk in the Enuma Eliš, the Babylonian-​Akkadian epic of creation (also probably second millennium BC). Marduk defeats Tiamat, the serpentine principle of the Sea (cf. the non-​Labor sea-​monster of Troy?), and eleven other monsters, twelve in total (cf. the Labors).8 The recurring number of twelve here is suggestive, but more problematic than first appears for any relationship with Heracles, given that we can only be sure that Heracles acquired a canon of twelve Labors at the relatively late stage of the mid-​fifth century BC (in the metopes of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia of c. 460 BC). If the parity of numbers here is to be considered more than just coincidental, then we must either conclude that the Near Eastern influence, in this regard at any rate, came in only at a surprisingly late stage, or that the notion of a canon of twelve Labors for Heracles, though deeply ancient and indeed of Near Eastern origin, had long constituted only one tradition among many in relation to the hero.

The Development of the Canon of the Twelve Labors, the Dodekathlos The following is a (roughly) chronological list of attestations from the archaic and classical periods of the notion that Heracles was engaged in a set of Labors of some sort (as opposed to a random series of individual feats):9 • Homer Iliad 8.362–​369, 15.639–​640, 19.95–​125, c. 700 BC. Specific mention of the Cerberus Labor only (cf. also Odyssey 11.620–​626), and general references to Heracles having to perform an unspecified number of Labors for Eurystheus, with Copreus as go-​between (cf. Chapter 6). • Hesiod Theogony 215–​216, 270–​336, 517–​531, c. 700 BC. Mention, as Labors, of: Geryon, Hydra, and Lion. Mention also of Ladon (the Serpent of the Hesperides), the Hesperides, and Atlas, possibly with a hint of a Labor context. Mention of Cerberus without a Labor context. • Pisander Heraclea FF1–​6, 9 West, later vii BC. Mentions of the Labors of the Lion, Hydra, Hind, and Birds, and mention too of Heracles’ journey over Ocean in the Cup of Helios, which implies either the Geryon or the Hesperides Labor, or indeed both. Mention also of the parerga (to be) of Antaeus and an encounter with one or more centaurs—​i.e., Pholus, Nessus or Oreios? 8 

Enuma Eliš: text at Talon (2005); translation at Dalley (2000, 228–​277). This list is based principally on the work of Robert (1921, ii: 431–​440), Boardman (1988–​1990, v.1: 5–​ 16 [“Herakles Dodekatholos”]), Gantz (1993, 381–​383), and Stafford (2012, 26–​30). 9 

xxvi   Introduction • The Chest of Cypselus at Olympia, LIMC Herakles 1697, early vi BC. Pausanias’ incomplete description of the object (5.17–​19) tells that it included scenes of the following Labors: Hesperides-​Atlas; Hydra; either Geryon or a parergon (to be) with centaurs; the Lion Labor may be implied by Pausanias’ observation that Heracles was recognizable from the way in which he was represented (i.e., inter alia, wearing the lion-​skin?). Zeus’ seduction of Heracles’ mother, Alcmene, was also represented. • Homeric Hymn 15 (to Heracles), probably vi BC. A brief reference to Heracles performing his Labors (none specified) under the direction of Eurystheus. • Bronze panels of the Temple of Athena Chalkioikos at Sparta, later vi BC. Pausanias (3.17) tells that its bronze panels were decorated with many of the Labors and the parerga. • The throne of Bathycles at Amyclae, later vi BC. Pausanias’ incomplete description of the object (3.18–​19) tells that it included scenes of the following Labors: Hydra, Mares, Cerberus, and Geryon. Atlas was featured too, but not necessarily in the context of the Hesperides Labor. It also included scenes of parerga (to be): Cycnus, Pholus, the Giant Thurius, Nessus, the Moliones, the centaur Oreios, Achelous, and also a scene of Athena escorting Heracles to Olympus. • Metopes of the Treasury of Hera at Foce del Sele, Campania, LIMC Herakles 1698, mid vi BC. Represented, among the Labors, are the Lion and the Boar. Also represented are parerga (to be): Apollo’s tripod; Cercopes, Antaeus; a Giant; Pholus and the centaurs; Nessus and Deianeira; a further lone centaur; the defense of Hera from an attack by Sileni (a scene only known in art). • Metopes of the Athenian Treasury at Delphi, LIMC Herakles 1703, early v BC. The Labors (combined with those of Theseus) featured are: Lion, Hind, Geryon, Bull/​Mares, Hesperides-​Atlas (?), and Amazons. Also represented are parerga (to be): Cycnus and a centaur.10 • An artwork of unspecified nature dedicated at Olympia by the city of Heraclea Pontica, LIMC Herakles 1704, probably late archaic. Pausanias (5.26.7) tells that it included the following Labors: Lion, Hydra, Cerberus, Boar. • Volute crater, Malibu, Getty, 77.AE.11 = LIMC Herakles 1702, early v BC. This includes one frieze with the following Labors: Hydra, Geryon, Hesperides-​Atlas Labor; and another with the Amazon Labor. • Pindar F169a l.43 Snell-​Maehler, early v BC. A possible fragmentary reference to a “twelfth” Labor. • Metopes of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, LIMC Herakles 1705, c. 456 BC. The canon of twelve Labors as it was to become established (though not quite in the order that was to become established): 1. Lion, 2. Hydra, 3. Birds, 4. Bull,

10 

See the discussion at Stafford (2012, 168–​169).

Introduction  xxvii 5. Hind, 6. Amazons, 7. Boar, 8. Mares, 9. Geryon, 10. Hesperides, 11. Cerberus, 12. Stables. Boardman and Gantz suggest that the positioning of the Stables-​of-​ Augeas Labor last, which is anomalous in comparison to all other lists, represents a desire on the part of the Olympian authorities to make the local Labor the capstone (it was located in Elis, like Olympia).11 • Sophocles Trachiniae 1087–​1100, c. 468–​406 BC. Five Labors are listed, interrupted by one parergon (to be): 1. Lion; 2. Hydra; [Centaurs]; 3. Boar; 4. Cerberus; 5. Hesperides-​Atlas. The progression of such Labors as are specified is roughly similar to that of the Temple of Zeus. • Metopes of the Temple of Hephaestus at Athens, LIMC Herakles 1706, c. 450 BC. Nine Labors are shown in the order: 1. Lion, 2. Hydra, 3. Hind, 4. Boar, 5. Mares, 6. Cerberus, 7. Amazons, 8. Geryon (across two metopes), 9. Hesperides-​Atlas. • Euripides Heracles 359–​442, c. 416 BC. Twelve deeds are described, including eight canonical Labors, one of which is bisected, mixed in with three parerga (to be): 1. Lion; [Centaurs of Pelion]; 2. Hind; 3. Mares; [Cycnus]; 4a. Hesperides; [the calming of the sea]; 4b. Atlas; 5. Amazons; 6. Hydra; 7. Geryon; 8. Cerberus. • Marble votive relief from the Heracleum at Sounion, LIMC Herakles 1708, iv BC. The incompletely preserved monument once included many scenes from the lives of Heracles and Theseus. The surviving Heracles scenes are: Hind, Boar, Mares, Geryon, Hesperides-​Atlas; and a parergon (to be) scene of Heracles with a centaur. • The Pediments, by Praxiteles, of the Temple of Heracles at Thebes, iv BC. Pausanias (9.11.16) notes that the Labors of Birds and the Stables are missing from the canonical twelve on the decoration of this temple. However, the Antaeus parergon (to be) was included. In the Hellenistic age the canon of twelve becomes well established, although the order of the Labors continues to vary as is indicated by the following examples: • Theocritus Idylls 24.82–​83, c. 270 BC. The sum of twelve Labors is given. • Apollonius Argonautica 1.1317–​1318, c. 270s BC. The sum of twelve Labors is given. • Callimachus Aetia F23.19–​20 Pfeiffer, mid iii BC. The sum of twelve Labors is given. • Euphorion F51.13 Powell/​71 Lightfoot, c. later iii BC. The sum of twelve Labors is given. • Diodorus 4.8–​27, c. 30 BC. A complete and detailed account of all twelve Labors. Order: 1. Lion, 2. Hydra, 3. Boar, 4. Hind, 5. Birds, 6. Stables, 7. Bull, 8. Mares, 9. Amazons, 10. Geryon, 11. Cerberus, 12. Hesperides-​Atlas.

11 

Boardman (1988–​1990, v.1: 15), Gantz (1993, 382–​383).

xxviii   Introduction • Tabula Albana, IG xiv 1293 = FGrH/​BNJ 40 F1, i BC–​ii AD. All the Labors in twelve metrical lines, followed by a prose summary of the parerga. Order: 1. Lion, 2. Hydra, 3. Boar, 4. Hind, 5. Birds, 6. Stables, 7. Bull, 8. Mares, 9. Amazons, 10. Geryon, 11. Cerberus, 12. Hesperides-​Atlas. • Apollodorus Bibliotheca 2.5, c. AD 100. A complete and detailed account of all twelve Labors. Order: 1. Lion, 2. Hydra, 3. Hind, 4. Boar, 5. Stables, 6. Birds, 7. Bull, 8. Mares, 9. Amazons, 10. Geryon, 11. Hesperides-​Atlas, 12. Cerberus. • Hyginus Fabulae 30, ii AD. A summary list of the twelve Labors. Order: 1. Lion, 2. Hydra, 3. Boar, 4. Hind, 5. Birds, 6. Stables, 7. Bull, 8. Mares, 9. Amazons, 10. Geryon, 11. Hesperides-​Atlas, 12. Cerberus. • Ausonius 7.24, iv AD. All the Labors in twelve metrical lines. Order: 1. Lion, 2. Hydra, 3. Boar, 4. Hind, 5. Birds, 6. Amazons, 7. Stables, 8. Bull, 9. Mares, 10. Geryon, 11. Hesperides-​Atlas, 12. Cerberus. • Anonymous epigram, Greek Anthology 12.92, undated. All the Labors in fourteen metrical lines. Order: 1. Lion, 2. Hydra, 3. Boar, 4. Hind, 5. Birds, 6. Amazons, 7. Stables, 8. Bull, 9. Mares, 10. Geryon, 11. Cerberus, 12. Hesperides-​Atlas. • Hilasius epigram, Latin Anthology 1.627, undated. All the Labors in twelve metrical lines. Order: 1. Lion, 2. Hydra, 3. Boar, 4. Hind, 5. Birds, 6. Amazons, 7. Stables, 8. Bull, 9. Mares, 10. Geryon, 11. Cerberus, 12. Hesperides-​Atlas. It is generally recognized that the key pivot-​point in this tradition is construction of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia. There may have been canons of twelve Labors before this (the Pindar fragment cited earlier), but it is from the point of the construction of this understandably influential temple that the identity of the twelve deeds classified as Labors begins to become fixed (even if their actual order never fully settles down). The impression one gets from the earlier part of this tradition is that the deed or parergon (to be) that came closest to making the cut as a fully fledged Labor was an encounter with a centaur or centaurs. One imagines that an original centaur proto-​Labor may have been diffracted into the three familiar parerga of Pholus, Nessus, and Oreios (and perhaps even into Heracles’ dealings with Chiron).

Chronology and Geography The following table, based on a modified version of Brommer’s, charts the earliest attestations of the individual Labors using the admittedly crude and unsatisfactory measure of centuries. Grayed-​out squares indicate first attestations in art; text entries indicate first attestations in literature.12 12 

Brommer (1986, 55–​64, esp. 56).

Introduction  xxix Labor

viii BC

vii BC

1. Lion (Nemea, Pelop.)

Hesiod Theogony 332

2. Hydra (Lerna, Pelop.)

Hesiod Theogony 313

vi BC