Herakles/Hercules: PanHellenic Hero! Flashcards
What are Herakles’ origins?
What does Hera do to Hercules before birth? As a child?
Zeus’ oath: the next child born of his line would rule Argos
- Hera delays the labour of Alkmene, and bring on the labour of Sthenclus
- Still of his line as Perseus is her mother
- Eurstheus is born and becomes king of Argos
Hera sends 2 snakes into Herakles and Iphinkles nursery, but Herakles strangles them
Zeus wants to create a bond between Herakles and Hera so he makes Hera breast feed him
- Hera pushes the infant away and milk spills out creating the milky way
What was his education like?
Herakles is bad at music and kills his music teacher Linus when scolded
He is sent to the wilderness to be educated by (a wise centaur)
He becomes a skilled archer
What are his “heroic appetites”?
Sleeps with the 50 daughters of Thespius, they all give birth
Amazing capacity to eat and drink
What is the tragic event that occurs in his marriage? How must he atone?
Euripides’ Herakles: Tragic Marriage
First wife Megara and children who he kills (deluded into believing attackers are coming by Hera)
- He wants to kill himself but his father says consult the oracle at Delphi
Atonement
Oracle says he must atone by serving his cousin (king of Argos) Eurystheus
- Euryhstheus is weak and afraid of Herakles
- He sends him on 12 labours designed to kill him
Through is labours he wins glory (“Hera-kleos”)
What are his 12 labours? (only 8 covered in class)
Nemean lion
- Supernatural unbreakable skin
- Herakles wrestles the lion and skins it with its own claw
He makes it into a cloak
Hydra
- Cuts head off with sickle
- Friend cauterizes stump with fire to prevent regrowth
Cerynitian hind
- Sacred to Artemis, needed her permission to kill it (deer-like creature)
The Erymanthian boar
- Close to his home, heroic to kill them as they destroy crops
The Stymphalian birds
- Pooped a lot
- Feathers like knives
- Killed with a slingshot or bow
The Amazon Queen
- Tasked with bringing back her belt
- Women in battle armour
- This labour re-established patriarchy
Geryon
- Three headed monster
- Needed to obtain cattle guarded by it
Cerberus
- Tasked with bringing back Cerberus from the underworld, last of his tasks
Cured his miasma
What crime does Herakles commit? How does he pay?
Herakles uses deception to kill a rival
- He was fighting over horses
- Deception incurs miasma
He atones for the crime and cures his miasma by becoming a slave to Omphale, a foreign queen
- This is humiliating because foreigners & women had less status
What is Herakles’ second marriage like?
Sophocles’ Herakles: Second Marriage
Deianeira (“man destroyer”)
A centaur, Nessus, offers to carry her across a river but he attempts to assault her
- Killed by Herakles with an arrow dipped in Hydra blood
- Nessus’ trick: “take my blood as a love potion”
Later, Herakles sacks Oichalia because he falls in love with princess Iole but her father refused his offer
- To keep Herakles faithful, Deianeira dips the cloak she made him in the love potion
- When the blood comes in contact with the sun Herakles melts alive and is in so much pain that he requests to be burned alive
Deianeira kill herself
What is Apotheosis? How does Herakles achieve this?
Apotheosis: becoming immortal
Herakles is burned alive on a funeral pyre
- His mortal elements are burned away and he is granted immortality (only known hero to do this)
He ascends to Olympus, reconciles with Hera and is given Hebe (Youth) as his bride
- 3rd and final marriage
