Hercules

 

Origins of the Myth

Heracles is undoubtedly the most popular hero in all of Greek mythology. The Latins called him Hercules and it can be said that almost all the peoples of the Mediterranean area tried to appropriate his glory, stating that he had passed through their territory or identifying him with one of the indigenous heroes, as a local incarnation of the Greek Heracles.

Heracles is the son of Alcmene and Amphitryon, even if the real father is Zeus who, taking advantage of Amphitryon's absence, assumed his appearance, thus managing to deceive Alcmene and spent a night of love with her, the duration of which was, by order of Zeus, three days and three nights, during which conceived Heracles. Zeus's umpteenth betrayal angered Hera, Zeus' official wife, who persecuted Herakles for life. The name Heracles means: "glory of Hera", meaning with ironic connotations, given the relationship between the two, unless it is understood as "glory through Hera", since most of Heracles' heroic deeds were precisely due to the hardships he had to face due to the indefatigable Era.

Many writers of antiquity spoke of Heracles, and among them he could not be missing Diodorus Siculus who, being Sicilian by name and in fact (he was born in Agirio in 90 BC), more than the others told of the exploits of Heracles in Sicily[1]. What characterizes the story of Diodorus Siculus is the fact that the exploits of Heracles are told not only as the deeds of a Sicilian hero, but in many cases at the head of a real army.   

The legendary feats of this hero were many. Still in swaddling clothes, he strangled the two snakes sent by Hera to kill him, famous are those known as the "twelve labors of Heracles", and other companies that saw him at the head of armies, and many other secondary adventures, which occurred during the completion of the labors .

The twelve labors are the feats that Heracles performed by order of his cousin Eurystheus, to whom he had to submit, according to some versions of the legend, to atone for a crime committed in his youth, the killing of his teacher Lino. One of his teachers named Eumolpo, had the task of teaching him singing and the use of the lyre. Another teacher named Lino taught him letters but once he had to replace Eumolpus, so he also took care of giving him a lyre lesson. Heracles did not like his way of teaching and Lino slapped him, in response, Heracles, in an excess of anger, provoked by Hera, smashed the lyre on his head, killing him instantly.

Diodorus Siculus, relates the twelve labors of Heracles with the divine will of Zeus to submit to severe trials before offering him immortality[2]. In fact, Diodorus tells that Heracles, during a trip to Delphi, was warned by the Pythia (Apollo's priestess who recited the god's answers to those geese who had come to question the oracle of Delphi) that Zeus, his father, had ordered to submit to his cousin Eurystheus and perform the twelve labors and that, upon their completion, he would receive immortality as a reward[3].  

Heracles, who considered Eurystheus inferior to him, did not take it well and went through a period of mental instability and outbursts of anger. In one of these shots, he killed her children from Megara and tried to kill his nephew Iolao who was saved because he ran away. In the end, Heracles had to accept the will of his father Zeus, and presented himself at the court of Eurystheus.

Sala d'Ercole – Palazzo dei Normanni – Palermo, seat of the Regional Assembly (Photo by Ignazio Caloggero)

Here is a brief summary of the twelve labors of Heracles.

1. Slaying of the invulnerable Nemean lion

In his first feat Heracles, he faced and killed, suffocating with his bare hands, a lion that terrified the inhabitants of Nemea that could not be killed with weapons, having an invulnerable skin.

2. Killing of the Lernaean Hydra

In his second effort Heracles killed the Hydra, a monster half nymph and half serpent (according to some versions of the legend, half dragon and half serpent), which had nine heads, one of which was immortal and which lived in the territory of Argolis (Peloponnese, Greece ), near the marsh of Lerna. In this undertaking he was helped by the faithful Iolaus to whom he asked to burn the mortal heads of Hydra at the root, as he cut them, in order to create a cauterizing effect and block the blood that came out, preventing the heads from growing back. The last head, the immortal one, was completely crushed by Heracles with a huge boulder.

3. Capture of the Erymanthian boar

An immense wild boar that lived on Mount Erymanthus. Heracles captured the boar alive and brought it to Eurystheus who, at the sight of the boar, fearful hid behind a bronze vase.

4. Capture of the Cerinea doe

The deer with the golden horns that lived on Mount Cerinea and that no one could reach, such was its running speed. Heracles was forced to chase the doe for an entire year, until he caught it out of exhaustion.

5. Extermination of the birds of Lake Stymphalus

In his sixth effort, Heracles exterminated the birds of Lake Stymphalus that with their claws and bronze wings terrified the humans of Stymphalus in Arcadia.

6. Cleaning the Augean stables

Augeas, king of the Epei, had not cleaned the stables in which his oxen lived, over three thousand, for thirty years, he entrusted the task of cleaning them to Heracles, who used a stratagem, he diverted the course of the Alfeo river in the stables which he cleaned, with the perhaps of one's currents the stables from manure. Heracles was compensated for this effort by a tenth of the oxen.

7. Capture of the Cretan bull.

In the seventh labor Heracles captured the ferocious bull that Poseidon had sent to punish Minos for neglecting to make sacrifices in his honour. The bull is the same that we will see in the myth of Daedalus and Minos with whom Pasiphae fell in love.

8. Capture of Diomedes' horses.

In the eighth labor Heracles killed the ferocious Diomedes who had the amiable courtesy of feeding his horses with the flesh of the foreigners he met. Heracles returned the courtesy to Diomedes by having him devoured by his own horses. Once the horses were tamed, I took them to Eurystheus who consecrated them to Hera[4]. According to some versions of the myth, Eurystheus eventually preferred to let them go free.

9. Conquest of the belt of Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons.

Eurystheus commands Heracles to steal the belt of Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons to give it to his own daughter. Heracles faced the Amazons, and after having killed many of them, including the queen, took the belt to carry it to Admeta, the daughter of King Eurystheus.

10. Capture of the oxen of Geryon.

Among the twelve labors it is during the tenth that almost all the adventures attributed to him in the Western Mediterranean took place. Heracles, in this effort, had to conquer the oxen of Geryon, the giant with three heads and six arms, son of Poseidon. Geryon had a herd of oxen on the island of Erizia, located in the far west, and Eurystheus ordered Heracles to go to the island to get them. For this effort Heracles organized a large expedition and a large number of soldiers, sufficient for the enterprise, which he gathered in Crete, the starting point of the enterprise which took him to places very distant from each other, Libya, Egypt, the Ocean at Gadeira, where he erected the famous Pillars of Hercules. In Iberia he fought and won three armies led by the sons of Crisaoro, and gave as a gift, to a king of the natives, who excelled in religious devotion and sense of justice, part of his oxen. The local king, accepting the gift, decided that from then on it should be sacrificed to Heracles, the most beautiful bull of the herd. One wonders what relationship can be identified between this sacrifice and what still today sees bulls "sacrificed" during Spanish bullfights.

After Iberia, I pass into Celtic territory, into Gaul, where I found the city of Alesia[5], subsequently, descending from the Alps, he crossed Liguria, Tuscany, Lazio, Campania, where he fought and won the local Giants near Vesuvius. After Campania, he descended towards the south, through a coastal road he built, the Via Eraclea, until he reached Sicily and then went up again through Italy, through the Adriatic coast and back to the Peloponnese[6].

11. Capture of the dog Cerberus.

In the eleventh effort Heracles went to hell and with the permission of Hades, god of the underworld, took with him Cerberus, the three-headed dog who was guarding the entrance, to take him to Eurystheus who, however, forced him to bring him back to the hell.

12. Conquest of the golden apples of the garden of the Hesperides nymphs.

In the last effort Eurystheus ordered Heracles to bring back to Mycenae three golden apples (or apples) from the legendary Garden of the Hesperides, in Libya, the three Nymphs who guarded the sacred place. The golden apples were guarded by the dragon Ladon and the titan Atlas. Heracles killed the dragon and with a deception managed to "fool" Atlas by taking away the golden apples.

The labors were initially supposed to be ten but Eurystheus did not want to recognize two of them: the second, in relation to the killing of the Hydra, when he was helped by the faithful Iolaus and the fifth, on the occasion of the cleaning up of the Augean stables, as Heracles had received a fee. 

Between one effort and another Heracles found the time to carry out other acts of a certain importance, such as, for example, the killing of the Centaurs, which took place after the capture of the Erymanthian boar, or the institution of the Olympic Games, which took place after his seventh labour, the capture of the Cretan bull[7]. Heracles dedicated the games to his father Zeus and wanted the prize for the winners to consist only of a laurel wreath. Heracles himself participated in the first Olympics, winning all the competitions in all different disciplines such as the pancrazio (hand-to-hand fight) or the stadium, whose name derives from the fact that the competition consisted of a fast run of the stadium which measured six hundred feet (corresponding to approximately 192 meters).

Heracles received divine gifts (according to some versions of the myth, before the beginning of the twelve labors, according to Diodorus Siculus instead after the killing of the Centaurs): a cloak from Athena, a club and a breastplate from Hephaestus, a sword from Hermes, horses from Poseidon, and bow and arrows from Apollo. 

Among the other adventures that took place between one effort and another, we should also mention the fight with the Giants, known as the Gigantomachy, which we will deepen by talking about the Titans and the conquest of the Golden Fleece which will be treated by speaking of the Argonauts.  

In memory of the twelve labors of Heracles, the Ergazie were celebrated in Sparta, while in Athens the Ioleas, established in honor of him and of Iolaus, companion of his adventures.

Heracles, when he was still young, was invited by Thespis, king of Thespiae, to a sacrifice. After the sacrifice, the king, after holding Heracles amiably, thinking of doing more, sent him, one by one, all the fifty daughters that he had had from his many wives. Heracles lay down with all of them and got them pregnant, so that he became the father of fifty children (the Thespids). After completing the twelve labors, Heracles, on the oracle's orders, sent Iolaus and the Thespids to colonize Sardinia, who in the meantime had reached the mature age[8].

Heracles

After completing the twelve labors, Heracles, who somehow blames his wife Megara for the misfortune that happened to his children, decides to look for a new wife, he married his wife to Iolao and courted, without success, Iole, daughter of Eurito, king of Oechalia. From here begin further adventures narrated by Diodorus Siculus (Lib. IV 31-38) which will eventually lead him to where to make the maximum sacrifice, on Mount Eta, where, on the indication of the oracle, it was built by the faithful Iolao and his companions, a pyre on which he himself climbed giving orders for a torch to be brought to him to light the pyre. No one had the courage of a similar gesture, in the end, one of those present named Filotette was persuaded to make such a gesture, receiving from Heracles, in exchange for his courage, a bow and arrows. Once the fire was lit, the pyre was completely burned. Later, when Iolaus' companions approached to collect Heracles' bones, they found no traces of them, realizing that with that gesture Hercules had risen among the gods.

Upon his death, Heracles was welcomed among the gods of Olympus, where he finally made peace with Hera, who became his immortal mother, and where he married Hebe, the goddess of youth.

Heracles became immortal, thanks to his efforts, his valor and above all his ability to accept the sufferings that had been imposed on him.

Heracles in Sicily

In his tenth effort, once the oxen had been stolen from Geryon, Heracles set out on the way back which took him to Sicily, where he swam along with his herd. As soon as he arrived he had to collide with the voracity of Charybdis, daughter of the earth and of Poseidon, who stole some of Heracles' sacred oxen and devoured them. Zeus did not like Charybdis' gesture very much, who struck her with a thunderbolt causing her to fall into the sea in the guise of a monster that swallowed the ships that passed at that point.

Heracles decided to circumnavigate the island, then headed towards the region of Erice but, having arrived near Imera, he was welcomed by the nymphs, who caused sources of hot water to flow, so that he could refresh himself from the fatigue of the journey. After being the first guest of what became the baths of Termini Imerese, left for Erice, where he faced and won in combat Erice, the son of Aphrodite who had founded the city of the same name. Arrived in Syracuse, he took one of the most beautiful bulls, placed it in the font of Cyane and he sacrificed it in honor of Persephone, ordering the inhabitants to perform annual ceremonies and sacrifices in honor of Persephone and Cyane. After SIRACUSA, Heracles headed towards the interior of the island where he had to face in battle a group of Sican natives who opposed him. He defeated them by killing many of them, among them some important strategists who later received the honors attributed to heroes from the Sicans. It was also a Lentini and to Agira (called Agirio by Diodoro Siculo and Argira by Tommaso Fazello), where near the city, his oxen passing through a stony road, left footprints as if the road had been made of wax[9].

In Agira Heracles, together with Iolao his faithful comrade in arms, were worshiped as gods[10]. The hero, who until then had not accepted sacrifices in his honor, "since the divine will suggested that he was close to immortality", gave permission to celebrate in his honor[11]. As a sign of gratitude to the people of Agira, Heracles built a lake in front of the city ordering that it be called with a name derived from him, as well as he gave his name to the footprints left by his oxen in the rocky road mentioned above.

In Sicily the cult of the hero is related to that of MelKart, and in fact was also called Hercules Melkarte. Melkart was a Phoenician deity, identified with the god Baal of the Carthaginians and the Semitic deity Moloch, mentioned several times in the old testament for the human sacrifices, especially of children, which were offered to him. For this reason, it is hypothesized that the bull sacrifice that Heracles made in Syracuse in honor of Ciane e Persephone, was originally a human sacrifice dedicated to Melkart. 

Statuette of Hercules Mekart (XNUMXth century BC) found off the coast of Sciacca

In the story of Diodorus, however, no relations with the Phoenician Melkart are highlighted, on the contrary we can glimpse the hypothesis that Heracles was, in fact, the representative of that Doric lineage that, later, would colonize much of Sicily.

One could see in the myth of Heracles, an element of oriental origin, in the part where the fight between Erice and Heracles is mentioned. The Phoenicians, in fact, were the original lords of the land of the Elimi, and the close relationship between Elymian elements and Phoenician-Punic elements would suggest that the god Melkart (and therefore the Baal Punic) was venerated in the north-western part of Sicily, where the Elymian culture was predominant.

In any case, it is probable that the Phoenician-Punic religion influenced the cult of Heracles in the places where it was professed.

The oriental influence of his cult would be motivated by some analogies that exist between Heracles and an ancient Sumerian figure, Gilgamesh, whose origins are very ancient (this figure is mentioned as early as 2400 BC, and it is thought that the first versions are based on even older versions). Gilgamesh is accompanied by his friend Enkidu, Heracles from the trust Iolaus; both deal with sacred bulls; they sometimes have mental instabilities, Heracles with his crises of madness (caused by Hera), Gilgamesh haunted by the thought of death. All this leads us to think that the genesis of the cult of Heracles is oriental, with the exception that it was Greek literature that most popularized and characterized the cult of him.

What could have happened in Sicily would seem to be an attempt by the Punics to regain possession of a myth of which they kept an ancient memory.

The cult of Heracles was strongly felt in the western areas, of Elymian and Phoenician influence then, a Palermo, Mozia, Erice, Entella, Solunto, but it was also present to some extent in the eastern part of the island.

Note: The site of ancient Entella would have been identified in Monte Castellazzo, not far from Poggioreale, one of the centers of the Belice Valley destroyed by the 1968 earthquake.

Coins depicting Heracles indicate that the cult existed in the cities of Gela, Agrigento, Syracuse, Agirio, Imera, Messina, Alunzio, Camarina and Centuripe.

Camarina's tetradramma

 Temples were also erected in Agrigento, Messina and Syracuse, while in Selinunte the cult is confirmed by an inscription and a metope representing Heracles grappling with a bull.

There are many archaeological finds that indicate the presence of the cult of Heracles in Sicily. At the National Archaeological Museum of Palermo are kept the steles of Poggioreale with dedication to Heracles, always in the same museum are found, from Selinunte, some metopes depicting the labors of Heracles[12] and the famous "Large Selinunte table” where some gods are thanked, including Heracles considered one of the great divinities of Selinunte.

In Agrigento the so-called temple of Heracles which dates back to the XNUMXth century is famous. BC, one of the oldest in the city[13]. The attribution of the temple to Heracles is deduced from a story by Cicero, in which referring to the attempt by Glass to appropriate the bronze statue of Heracles which once stood in the temple dedicated to him "not far from the main square", he affirms that, while Verre was in Agrigento, during the night a group of armed slaves attacked the temple, after having defeated the keepers. Using poles for leverage and ropes, they tried to remove the statue but, recalled by the screams of the keepers, the entire population intervened and put the assailants to flight who, however, managed to appropriate two small statues[14].

Still the same Cicero narrates that Verres took away from a private chapel of a rich lord of Messina a bronze statue depicting Heracles, attributed to the fifth century statuary. BC Myron of Eleuthene (Boeotia)[15].

Temple of Hercules – Valley of the Temples – Agrigento (Photo by Ignazio Caloggero)

A Piazza Armerina, one of the mosaics of the late antique villa del Casale depicts the labors of Hercules and another, representing a circus race, reproduces three Sanctuaries one of which would be identified with that of Heracles which must actually have been nearby.

Giants killed by Hercules – Villa Romana del Casale (Photo by Ignazio Caloggero)

At the regional museum of Syracuse there is a head depicting Heracles of the second century. BC coming from Centuripe.

A sculpture representing the hero from the port of Catania can be found in the Ursino Castle Museum in Catania.

A Hellenistic head of Heracles is found in the Mandralisca Museum in Cefalù to indicate that this cult must have been known in this locality as well.

Traces of the cult of Heracles are also present in Himera where, in the so-called temple B, fragments of high reliefs with scenes from the labors of Heracles have been found.

 Religious syncretism

With the advent of Christianity, the syncretic phenomenon that caused the residues of the pagan world to flow into the cults of saints also affected the cult of Heracles. In Messina, with the arrival of Christianity, the cult of Heracles was superimposed on that of St. John Baptist; in fact, it is believed that an ancient statue depicting Heracles wearing a lion skin on his shoulders was adapted for the cult of St. John the Baptist.

The Myth in the IWB Register of the Sicily Region

The Region of Sicily has entered the Myth of Hercules in the LIM register (Places of identity and memory) – Places of minor gods and divinities.

Places indicated on the IWB:

• Erice (from Trapani)
• Sources of Hot Water of Imera (Termini Imerese-province of Palermo)
• Sources of Hot Water of Segesta (Calatafimi-province of Trapani)
• Houses of the biviere (Lentini-prov. Syracuse)
• Scilla and Cariddi (Messina Strait)

To view the places of the Myth on an Interactive Map, see the following web page: The places of Hercules

Extract from the Book "Myths of Ancient Sicily”   by Ignazio Caloggero ISBN:9788832060157 © 2022 Centro Studi Helios srl

[1] Diodorus Siculus lib IV

[2] In many religions hardships, also understood as sufferings, are seen as elements of a spiritual journey that leads to spiritual salvation

[3] Diodorus Siculus lib IV. 10

[4] Diodorus Siculus, Lib. IV. 15

[5] (Alise-Sainte-Reine, located in the Côte-d'Or department in the Burgundy-Franche-Comté region)

[6] Diodorus Siculus. free IV.17-25

[7] Diodorus Siculus. free IV.14

[8] Diodorus Siculus. free IV.29

[9] Diodorus Siculus lib IV.24

[10] Tommaso Fazello: The two decas of the History of Sicily - Prima Deca - Tenth book

[11] Diodorus Siculus lib IV.24

[12] Vincenzo Tusa and Ernesto De Miro: Western Sicily p. 32

[13] Vincenzo Tusa and Ernesto De Miro: Western Sicily p. 150

[14] Cicero, II.IV.94

[15] Cicero, II.IV.5

To view the places of the Myth on an Interactive Map, see the following web page: The places of Hercules

Extract from the Book "Myths of Ancient Sicily”   by Ignazio Caloggero ISBN:9788832060157 © 2022 Centro Studi Helios srl

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