HERCULES Vs HERACLES - THE OLYMPIAN GOD AND MIGHTY HERO

 


HERCULES Vs HERACLES  -   THE OLYMPIAN GOD  AND  MIGHTY HERO

Hercules (Roman), Heracles (Greek), was the strongest man on earth. Greek and Roman mythology honors this son of Apollo/Zeus (King of the Gods, whose abode is Mount Olympus) with laurels.


Heracles was the original Greek name, and Hercules is the later Roman form that became famous in modern culture.

Heracles was not simply an Olympian god in the same sense as Zeus, Athena, or Apollo. In Greek mythology, he was born a mortal demigod—the son of Zeus and the mortal Alcmene—and only after his death was he granted immortality and admitted among the gods.

Hercules, his Roman counterpart, followed essentially the same mythological trajectory. Yet in popular culture, “Hercules” became overwhelmingly identified with the mortal hero, famous for his extraordinary strength and the Twelve Labors.  His later deification is much less prominent in the stories people commonly tell.

My observation points to an interesting cultural transformation:

Heracles begins as a divine man's son, becomes a mortal hero through suffering and extraordinary deeds, and ultimately becomes a god. But the world remembers him primarily as the hero.

That is probably why Hercules has such an unusually universal presence.  His stories work almost like folktales: the strongman who faces impossible monsters, completes impossible tasks, suffers through injustice, and triumphs through courage and endurance.  The theological question of his eventual immortality becomes almost secondary.

There is also a fascinating difference in emphasis between Greek Heracles and Roman Hercules.  The Greeks often portrayed Heracles as a deeply tragic, violent, and psychologically complicated figure; the Roman tradition increasingly elevated him as an exemplar of virtues, strength, endurance, and civilization.

In that sense, Hercules became less a deity people worshiped and more a mythic archetype people inherited—the archetypal strong hero who accomplishes what ordinary humans cannot.


                                                                     

                                   


                                                Heracles with his wife

       Heracles /Hercules

Heracles was the son of Zeus and Alcmene, granddaughter of Perseus. Zeus swore that the next son born of the Perseid house would rule Greece, but—by a trick of Zeus’s jealous wife, Hera—another child, the sickly Eurystheus, was born first and became king. When Heracles grew up, he had to serve Eurystheus and suffer vengeful persecution by Hera.

Birth and childhood:

A major factor in the well-known tragedies surrounding Heracles is the hatred that the goddess Hera, wife of Zeus, had for him. Heracles was the son of the affair Zeus had with the mortal woman Alcmene.  When Zeus desired Alcmene, he decided to make one night last three by ordering Helios, the god of the sun, not to rise for three days, so he would have more time with Alcmene.  Zeus had sex with her after disguising himself as her husband, Amphitryon, who was home early from war (Amphitryon did return later the same night, and Alcmene became pregnant with his son at the same time, a case of heteropaternal superfecundation, where a woman carries twins sired by different fathers). Thus, Heracles's very existence proved at least one of Zeus's many illicit affairs, and Hera often conspired against Zeus's mortal offspring as revenge for her husband's infidelities.  His twin mortal brother, son of Amphitryon, was Iphicles, father of Heracles's charioteer Iolaus.

On the night Heracles and Iphicles were to be born, Hera, knowing of her husband Zeus's adultery, persuaded Zeus to swear an oath that the child born that night to a member of the House of Perseus would become High King. Hera did this knowing that while Heracles was to be born a descendant of Perseus, so too was Eurystheus. Once the oath was sworn, Hera hurried to Alcmene's dwelling and slowed the birth of Heracles and Iphicles by forcing Ilithyia, goddess of childbirth, to sit cross-legged with her clothing tied in knots, thereby causing the twins to be trapped in the womb. Meanwhile, Hera caused Eurystheus to be born prematurely, making him High King in place of Heracles. She would have permanently delayed Heracles's birth had she not been fooled by Galanthus, Alcmene's servant, who lied to Ilithyia, saying that Alcmene had already delivered the baby. Upon hearing this, she jumped in surprise, loosening the knots and inadvertently allowing Alcmene to give birth to Heracles and Iphicles.

Fear of Hera's revenge led Alcmene to expose the infant Heracles, but he was taken up and brought to Hera by Goddess Athena, who played an important role as protector of heroes.  Hera did not recognize Heracles and nursed him out of pity. Heracles suckled and bit Hera's nipple so strongly that he caused Hera pain, and she pushed him away.  Her milk sprayed across the heavens and there formed the Milky Way.  After drinking Hera's milk, the boy became very strong.  Athena brought the infant back to his mother, and he was subsequently raised by his parents.

The child was originally given the name Alcides by his parents; it was only later that he became known as Heracles.  Heracles was named on Athena's advice in the hope that Hera would not hate a child named after her.
 

Hera was furious at having been deceived by Zeus and Athena and swore to make Heracles’ life miserable, even though he had been named after her and she had once nursed him.  When Heracles and his twin brother, Iphicles, were only eight months old, Hera sent two enormous snakes into their chamber.

Iphicles cried out in terror, but Heracles showed no fear.  He seized one snake in each hand and strangled them.  His nurse later discovered him sitting on his cot, playing with the dead snakes as though they were toys.

Astonished by what had happened, Amphitryon summoned the seer Tiresias. Tiresias foretold that the boy would have an extraordinary future and would go on to defeat many fearsome monsters.

Youth

:

After killing his music tutor Linus with a lyre, he was sent to tend cattle on a mountain by his adoptive father Amphitryon.   Here, according to an allegorical parable, "The Choice of Heracles", invented by the sophist Prodicus (c. 400 BCE) and reported in Xenophon's Memorabilia 2.1.21–34, he was visited by two allegorical figures—Vice and Virtue—who offered him a choice between a pleasant and easy life or a severe but glorious life; he chose the latter. This was part of a pattern of "ethicizing" Heracles over the 5th century BCE.

Later, in Thebes, Heracles married King Creon's daughter, Megara.

Heracles waged a victorious war against the kingdom of Orchomenus in Boeotia and married Megara, daughter of Creon, king of Thebes.  However, Hera drove him into a fit of madness, during which he killed Megara and their children. As a consequence, Heracles was required to become the servant of Eurystheus, king of Tiryns.  It was Eurystheus who imposed upon Heracles the famous Twelve Labours:



The 12 labors of Heracles (Hercules) in their traditional canonical order, as assigned by King Eurystheus, are:

Slay the Nemean Lion: Strangled the invulnerable beast and used its pelt as armor.

Slay the Lernaean Hydra: Defeated the multi-headed water serpent with the help of Iolaus.

Capture the Ceryneian Hind: Tracked the sacred golden-horned deer of Artemis for a full year.

Capture the Erymanthian Boar: Chased the fierce mountain beast into deep snow to subdue it.

Clean the Augean Stables: Rerouted two rivers to wash out years of accumulated manure in a single day.

Shoot the Stymphalian Birds: Flushed out and killed the man-eating, bronze-beaked marsh birds.

Capture the Cretan Bull: Subdued the majestic, rampaging bull sent by Minos.

Retrieve the Mares of Diomedes: Captured the flesh-eating horses of King Diomedes.

Steal the Girdle of Hippolyta: Obtained the magical belt of the Amazon queen.

Get the Cattle of Geryon: Defeated the three-bodied monster to steal his red cattle.

Steal the Golden Apples of the Hesperides: Picked the guarded apples with help from Atlas.

Capture Cerberus: Wrestled the three-headed hound of the underworld using only his bare hands.

         


                                   Heracles vs Hercules

After completing his famous Labours, Heracles continued to take part in wars and other adventures. He wanted to marry Deianeira, but first had to fight the river god Achelous, whom he defeated.

While Heracles and Deianeira were traveling home, the centaur Nessus tried to assault Deianeira.  Heracles shot Nessus with a poisoned arrow.  As Nessus was dying, he deceived Deianeira by telling her that his blood could be used as a love charm: if Heracles wore clothing treated with the blood, he would supposedly love only her.

Years later, Heracles fell in love with Iole, the daughter of King Eurytus. Jealous and afraid of losing Heracles, Deianeira sent him a garment covered with Nessus's blood.

However, the blood was actually poisonous because Nessus's wound had been contaminated by Heracles' poisoned arrow. When Heracles put on the garment, the poison caused terrible suffering and eventually killed him.

Heracles was then placed on a funeral pyre on Mount Oeta.  His mortal body was burned, while his divine nature survived and ascended to heaven.  He became a god and was eventually reconciled with Hera, who had previously been his enemy. He then married Hebe, the goddess of youth.

                     



Hercules, Deianira and the Centaur Nessus, by Bartholomäus Spranger, 1580–1582

The Four Wives of Heracles :

Megara: The eldest daughter of King Creon of Thebes, she was his first wife. Hercules tragically lost this family when the goddess Hera drove him mad.

Omphale: The Queen of Lydia, whom Hercules served as a slave for a period as punishment for a murder. Some traditions count her as a wife.

Deianira (or Deianeira): His third wife, who accidentally caused his mortal death using the poisoned blood of the centaur Nessus.

Hebe: The goddess of youth and daughter of Hera. Hercules married her on Mount Olympus after he died as a mortal and achieved full godhood.


Aside from these four marriages, he also had numerous mortal and divine lovers throughout his adventures.


The Original Greek Name: Heracles comes from ancient Greece. The name means "glory of Hera", even though the goddess Hera spent his life trying to torment him.


Pop Culture Influence: For centuries in Western Europe and via Hollywood films, the Roman name "Hercules" stuck around as the more common household term, while modern history and literature prefer using his original Greek name, Heracles.



Disney named the movie Hercules using the more familiar Roman version of the hero's name instead of the original Greek Heracles to ensure broader mainstream appeal and recognition.


In Hollywood Movies, actors Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Dwayne Johnson among others, portrayed the role of Hercules.


The Latin name Hercules is much more common in Western culture and modern English.

 

In art and literature, Heracles was represented as an enormously strong man of moderate height, a huge eater and drinker, very amorous, and generally kindly but with occasional outbursts of brutal rage.  His characteristic weapon was the bow but frequently also the club.

In Italy, he was worshiped as a god of merchants and traders, although others also prayed to him for his characteristic gifts of good luck or rescue from danger.



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