HeraclesHercules Glorious through Hera

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Heracles/HerculesGlorious through Hera?

• kle-os speech, fame, glory

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hero, aretê, kleos, aristos, timê, aidos, charis
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Heroes/demi-gods - a peculiarity of Greek
religion two senses the Homeric figures en
masse, or a deceased person who exerts from his
grave a power for good or evil and who demands
appropriate honourthe hero cult - the heroon,
sacrifices, gifts and grave monument from 8th
century old graves are discovered and attributed
to epic heroes the Nilsson thesis, hero cult a
direct continuation of the Mycenaean cult of the
dead contending forces of 1) the aristocratic
cult of the dead, 2) claims of the polis, 3)
Homeric epic heroes are almost always confined
to a specific locality if the same hero is
worshipped in two places, homonyms are assumed,
but sometimes disputes break out the roster of
heroes is never fixed apheroizein in Hellenistic
times of the deceased heros ktistes of the
founder, who is buried in the market place
Cleisthenes (508 BC) and the ten tribes heroes
are manifest as ghosts, but especially as snakes,
and when ignored can bring plagues through their
menima the honour of an anonymous heros the
benefit from an appeased hero, especially in
battle heroes are pictured in the full force of
youth and worshipped by youth in gymnasia, each
with its own hero
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• Homeric Hymn 15 I will sing of Heracles, the son
  of Zeus and much the best (aristos) of those on
  earth. Alcmene bore him in Thebes, the city of
  lovely dances, when the dark-clouded Son of
  Cronos had lain with her. Once he used to wander
  over unmeasured tracts of land and sea 5 at the
  bidding of King Eurystheus, and himself did many
  reckless (ata-sthala) deeds of and endured many
  but now he lives happily in the glorious home of
  snowy Olympus, and has neat-ankled Hebe for his
  wife.
• Hail, lord, son of Zeus! Give me success and
  prosperity.

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Homer, Iliad 19. 95 Once Hera blinded Zeus,
although men say that he is the greatest among
men and gods yet even him Hera, though feminine,
beguiled in her craftiness on the day when
Alcmene in fair-crowned Thebe was to bring forth
the mighty Heracles. 100 Zeus indeed spoke
proudly among all the gods Listen to me, all
you gods and goddesses, that I may speak what the
heart in my breast bids me. This day shall
Eileithyia, the goddess of childbirth, bring to
the light a man who shall be the lord (anax) of
all them that dwell round about, 105 even one
of the race of those men who are of me by blood.
But with crafty mind the queenly Hera spoke to
himYou will play the cheat, and not bring your
word to fulfillment. Come, Olympian, swear to me
now a mighty oath that in very truth that man
shall be lord of all them that dwell round about,
110 whoever this day shall fall between a
woman's feet, even one of those men who are of
the blood of your stock. So she spoke and Zeus
in no way noticed her craftiness, but swore a
great oath, and in so doing was blinded sore.
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But Hera darted down and left the peak of
Olympus, 115 and swiftly came to Achaean Argos,
where she knew was the stately wife of Sthenelus,
son of Perseus, that carried a son in her womb,
and the seventh month was come. This child Hera
brought forth to the light even before the full
tale of the months, but stayed Alcmene's bearing,
and held back the Eileithyia. 120 And she spoke
to Zeus, son of Cronos Father Zeus, lord of the
bright lightning, a word will I speak for your
heeding. Look, even now, there is born a valiant
man that shall be lord over the Argives, even
Eurystheus, son of Sthenelus, the son of Perseus,
of your own lineage not improper is it that he
be lord over the Argives. 125 So she spoke,
and sharp pain struck him in the deep of his
heart, and he quickly seized Ate by her brightly
clad head, angry in his soul, and swore a mighty
oath that never again to Olympus and the starry
heaven should Ate come, she that blinds all.
130 So said he, and whirling her in his hand
flung her from the starry heaven, and quickly she
came to the tilled fields of men. At thought of
her would he ever groan, when he beheld his dear
son in unseemly labour beneath Eurystheus' tasks.
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Pindar, Nemean 1 But as for me, I cling to the
theme of Heracles gladly, rousing an ancient
story from among the great heights of his
excellence, 35 how, when the son of Zeus
suddenly came out of his mothers womb into the
brilliant light, escaping her birth-pangs, with
his twin brother, he did not escape the notice of
gold-throned Hera when he was placed in his
saffron swaddling-clothes. But the queen of the
gods, 40 stung in her heart, immediately sent
serpents.
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Sophocles, Philoctetes Heracles appears above
the stage. Know that your ears perceive the
voice of Heracles, and that you look upon his
face. For your sake I have left my divine seat
and come 1415 to reveal to you the purposes of
Zeus, and to halt the journey on which you are
departing. Hearken to my words. First I
would tell you of my own fortunes how, by
toiling through and enduring so many toils
(ponoi) to the end, I have won immortal aretê, as
you witness. . . . For the healing of your
sickness, I will send Asclepius to Troy, since it
is doomed to fall a second time 1440 before my
arrows. But of this be mindful, when you plunder
the land that you show reverence towards the
gods. Do this because Father Zeus regards all
else as of less account, and because Piety does
not die along with mortals. Whether they are
alive or dead, their piety does not perish.
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• Amphitryon, Eurystheus,
• Athloi, ponoi
• Nemean lion
• Lernaean Hydra
• Ceryneian hind
• Erymanthian boar
• Augean stables
• Stymphalian birds
• Cretan bull
• Horses of Diomedes
• Girdle of Hippolyta
• Cattle of Geryon
• Apples of the Hesperides
• Cerberus

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Metope
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Heracles I am performing a certain labor for
Eurystheus, king of Tiryns.Chorus-Leader
Where are you bound? What is the wandering you
are constrained to make?Heracles I go in
quest of the four-horse chariot of Thracian
Diomedes.Chorus-Leader How can you do that?
Do you not know what kind of host he is?Heracles
485 I do not. I have never yet been to
Bistonia.Chorus-Leader You cannot possess
those horses without a fight.Heracles But all
the same, I cannot decline these
labors.Chorus-Leader Then you will either
kill him and return or end your days there.
Like the others this labor you name befits my
destiny 500 (which is always hard and steep)
since I am fated to do battle with all the sons
of Ares first Lycaon, then Cycnus, and now this
is the third contest I enter, going off to fight
horses and master alike. 505 But no one shall
ever see Alcmene's son quake at the hand of an
enemy.
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Hesiod, TheogonyBut Chrysaor was joined in love
to Callirrhoe, the daughter of glorious Ocean,
and begot three-headed Geryoneus. Him mighty
Heracles slew 290 in sea-girt Erythea by his
shambling cattle on that day when he drove the
wide-browed oxen to holy Tiryns, and had crossed
the ford of Ocean and killed Orthus and Eurytion
the herdsman in the dim stead out beyond glorious
Ocean.Cf. 982.
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And again Echidna bore a third, the evil-minded
Hydra of Lerna, whom the goddess, white-armed
Hera nourished, 315 being angry beyond measure
with the mighty Heracles. And her Heracles, the
son of Zeus, of the house of Amphitryon, together
with warlike Iolaus, destroyed with the unpitying
sword through the plans of Athena the spoil
driver.
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Echidna was subject in love to Orthus and brought
forth the deadly Sphinx which destroyed the
Cadmeans, and the Nemean lion, which Hera, the
good wife of Zeus, brought up and made to haunt
the hills of Nemea, a plague to men. 330 There
he preyed upon the tribes of her own people and
had power over Tretus of Nemea and Apesas yet
the strength of stout Heracles overcame him.
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Stymphalian Birds
Cretan Bull
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Garden of the Hesperides
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360 My father rages with evil mind, cruel as
he is, ever difficult, a thwarter of my purposes
neither has he any memory of this, that often I
saved his son when he was defeated by reason of
Eurystheus' tasks. For he would make lament
toward heaven and from heaven would Zeus 365
send me forth to rescue him. Had I but known all
this in wisdom of my heart when Eurystheus sent
him forth to the house of Hades the Warder, to
bring from out of Erebus the hound of loathed
Hades, then had he not escaped the sheer-falling
waters of Styx.
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Pholus and the Centaurs
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Andromache and the Amazons
Apollo and the Tripod
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Bousiris
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The Centaur Nessus and Deianeira
Achelous the river god
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apotheosis
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• Aristotle, Poetics 8 A plot does not have unity,
  as some people think, simply because it deals
  with a single hero. Many and indeed innumerable
  things happen to an individual, some of which do
  not go to make up any unity, and similarly an
  individual is concerned in many actions which do
  not combine into a single piece of action. 20
  It seems therefore that all those poets are wrong
  who have written a Heracleid or Theseid or other
  such poems. They think that because Heracles was
  a single individual the plot must for that reason
  have unity.

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• Homer, Odyssey 11.(717) And after him I marked
  the mighty Heracles his phantom for he himself
  among the immortal gods takes his joy in the
  feast, and has to wife Hebe, of the fair ankles,
  daughter of great Zeus and of Here, of the golden
  sandals. 605 About him rose a clamor from the
  dead, as of birds flying everywhere in terror
  and he like dark night, with his bow bare and
  with arrow on the string, glared about him
  terribly, like one in act to shoot. Awful was the
  belt about his breast, 610 a baldric of gold,
  whereon wondrous things were fashioned, bears and
  wild boars, and lions with flashing eyes, and
  conflicts, and battles, and murders, and slayings
  of men. May he never have designed, or hereafter
  design such another, even he who stored up in his
  craft the device of that belt. 615 He in turn
  knew me when his eyes beheld me, and weeping
  spoke to me winged words

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• Son of Laertes, sprung from Zeus, Odysseus of
  many devices, ah, wretched man, do you, too, drag
  out an evil lot such as I once bore beneath the
  rays of the sun? 620 I was the son of Zeus, son
  of Cronos, but I had woe beyond measure for to a
  man far worse than I was I made subject, and he
  laid on me hard labours. He once sent me off to
  fetch the hound of Hades, for he could devise for
  me no other task mightier than this. 625 The
  hound I carried off and led forth from the house
  of Hades and Hermes was my guide, and
  flashing-eyed Athena.

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• Hesiod, Theogony And ready-witted Prometheus he
  bound with inextricable bonds, cruel chains, and
  drove a shaft through his middle, and set on him
  a long-winged eagle, which used to eat his
  immortal liver but by night the liver grew 525
  as much again everyway as the long-winged bird
  devoured in the whole day. That bird Heracles,
  the valiant son of shapely-ankled Alcmene, slew
  and delivered the son of Iapetus from the cruel
  plague, and released him from his affliction
  not without the will of Olympian Zeus who reigns
  on high, 530 that the glory of Heracles the
  Theban-born might be yet greater than it was
  before over the plenteous earth. This, then, he
  regarded, and honored his famous son though he
  was angry, he ceased from the wrath which he had
  before because Prometheus matched himself in wit
  with the almighty son of Cronos.

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• Aristotle, Politics 3 1284a This is why
  democratically governed states institute the
  system of ostracism, because of a reason of this
  nature for these are the states considered to
  pursue equality most of all things, 20 so that
  they used to ostracize men thought to be
  outstandingly powerful on account of wealth or
  popularity or some other form of political
  strength, and used to banish them out of the city
  for fixed periods of time. And there is a
  mythical story that the Argonauts left Heracles
  behind for a similar reason for the Argo
  refused to carry him with the others because he
  was so much heavier than the sailors.

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