Heracles (Ch23)

Etymology
"Glory of Hera": named to appease his implacable nemesis Hera.
"Master of Animals": numerous man vs. beast exploits

Geographical Associations
Peloponnesus (Mycenae, Tiryns, Argos) for Labours 1-6; transcends to panhellenic heroic status (Boeotia, Trachis, Thessaly, etc.) due to Labours 7-12 and Parergon (Par "side" + erga "work").

Origin: Born in Thebes. Hybrid Greek/Near East culture figure due to sheer abundance of myths. Zeus + Alcmena.

• Local: Prince of Tiryns, vassal of the Mycanean King Eurysthesus (always mighty, never the ruler ie. Ajax)
• Imported: Near East mythologic themes parallel the Gilgamesh Epic (ie. man vs. wild, man vs. manufacture). Imported "primitive" qualities: brute strength, use of outdated weapons (ie. club, bow), dons lionskin, prefers physical conquest over intellectual.

Claim to Fame: Greatest of all heroes in that he ascends Olympus and achieves immortal status among Gods. Completion of 12 "impossible" labours.
Literature: ?

Birth 

1. Miraculous Conception

• Alcmena (granddaughter of Perseus, wife of Amphitryon, King of Mycenae) + Zeus = 
• "Heterofraternal Superfecundation", different fathers for fraternal twins: Heracles (f. Zeus) and Iphicles (f Amphitryon, King of Mycenae). 
• Amphitryon is cuckolded on his wedding night while he is away at war, returns to find his wife is pregnant (ref. Plautus's Amphitruo, Roman comedic play on the situation)

2. Imminent Threat at Birth

•  Zeus's boast, that his child born that day will rule all men, angers Hera to force Elethuia to hasten the birth of Eurystheus, Heracles' cousin. 
• In an effort to appease her, Zeus offers Heracles to Hera to suckle, in which he bites off her nipple = creation of Galaktos ("milky way"). 
• Hera unleashes two deadly serpents upon the sleeping child, but Heracles throttles them while still in the crib.

3. Prophecy for Life

•  Seer Tiresias foretells that Heracles will gain numerous victories and rewards for humankind, attain a glorified death, and be the only hero to ascend Mt. Olympia and reside with the gods.

Midlife

Numerous mentors teach him charioteering, wrestling, archery and music (Linus, Mt. Citharon, is accidentally killed by his own lyre). Heracles is exiled to Boeotia, where he saves the town of Thespia from a lion and is given the Megara, Princess of Thebes, hand in marriage. Just as his family is growing happily, Hera strikes Heracles with a fit of madness, causing him to murder his own wife and children in his own home. He seeks the Oracle at Delphi to expiate his crimes, whereby the Pythia orders him to serve his cousin Eurystheus for 12 years and perform his labours.

The 12 Athloi ("Labours")

The 12 Athloi, "labours" or "contests with a prize at the end", depicted on the 12 Metopes of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia. They are completed mostly single-handedly, but are assisted by gods or mortals at times. Several incidental Parergon are completed in addition to attest to Heracles might.

Peloponnesian Labours (1-6): centrally located in Mycanea, feature mostly Man vs. Beast.

1. Nemean Lion:

- NW of Mycenae

- Required to fight lion [barehanded/club/bow] and return its [impenetrable] skin. Had to strangle it, since its skin is invulnerable, and then skin it with its own claws.

- Symbolism: iconography of club and lionskin has primitive artistic implications.

2. Lernaean Hydra:

- SE of Mycenae

- Required to defeat the Hydra ("water serpent"), which has 8 mortal heads and 1 immortal head (whereby for every head severed 2 replace it) as well as a giant crab sent by Hera. Iolaus (nephew) aids Heracles by cauterizing the severed stumps while Heracles pins the beast underneath a boulder.

- The defeated crab is preserved by Hera as the constellation Cancer; Heracles dips his arrows in poisonous Hydra blood (future implications).

- Symbolism: Hydra, a never-ending puzzle.

3. Cerynean Hind:

- Arcadia (C. Peloponnesus)

- Required to capture the sacred deer of Artemis, as characterized by its golden antlers, and return it unscathed to Eurystheus to prevent the wrath of the goddess. He tracks it for an entire year until it yields due to exhaustion.

- Hind is returned to Artemis and Heracles is forgiven.

- Symbolism: Pindarian Variation states that Heracles tracked the hind all the way to the land of the Hyperboreans (beyond the North Wind), a journey symbolic of a conquest over death.

4. Erymanthian Boar:

- Mt. Erymanthos (Arcadia)

- The boar is trapped with a net, presented to his cousin, then released.

- Parergon: meets Pholus (centaur) who entertains him with wine (symbol of mans conquest over nature), but the other centaurs attack them for this betrayal. Chiron (re: tutor of Oedipus) is wounded by one of Heracles' poison arrow, and then offers his immortality to Prometheus because he cannot bear to live with the pain.

5. Augean Stables:

- Elis (area of Mt. Olympia)

- Required to clean the filthy stables of King Augeas (son of Helius) who keeps vast herds of enormous cattle. If he succeeds, he is promised 1/10th of the wealth. With the help of Athena, Heracles diverts rivers Alpheus and Peneus to flow through the stables and completes the deed, but Augeaus renegs on the agreement, earning his own death by Heracles' wrath.

- Parergon: Said to have established the first Olympian games during his stay.

6. Stymphalian Birds:

- Lake Stymphalus (Arcadia)

- A flock of carnivorous predatory birds is flushed out by casanets donated by Athena, then shot with the [sling/bow] of Heracles.

Non-Peloponnessian Myths (7-9): Completed in outlying areas of Greece, which add to the claim of his imported origin. Most feats now tend to combine intellect with strength.

7. Cretian Bull:
- Crete (S of Greece)
- Required to catch the bull that King Minos failed to sacrifice to Poseidon. Once overpowering it, he rides it back to the Greek mainland, where it is presented and then released.
- The Bull escapes through an isthmus and resides in the fields of Marathon where it is eventually caught by Theseus.
8. Mares of Diomedes:
- Thrace (N of Greece)
- Required to capture the man-eating herds of King Diomedes (son of Ares). Heracles feeds their king to the horses, then returns to Eurystheus where they are released and dedicated to Hera.
- Parergon: Alcestes (wife of Admetus, King of Thrace) is mourned because she takes her own life for her husband (wish of Apollo granted), so Heracles wrestles Thanatos ("Death") to recover the Queen.
9. Girdle of Hippolyta:
- Amazon (E of Greece)
- Required to deliver the girdle Queen of the Amazons Hippolyta ("Hippo" horse + lyta "tamer"), which is surrendered willingly. Hera gets the Amazons up in arms to attack Heracles on the claim he has come to rape their Queen. Heracles kills the Queen and defeats the army.
- Parergon: rescues the damsel Hesione from the sea monster at Troy upon the request of wealth from King Laomedon. After another deal is reneged upon, he returns, sacks troy, and replaces the throne with King Priam.
- Symbolism: Girdle (chastity) is given as willingly as her life.

Western Labours of Death (10-12): Non-peloponnesian in nature, symbolically and/or literally represent Heracles triumph over death because they take place in the land that is both beyond the understanding of the Greeks. (Also, sun sets in the west, blood red skies, etc.)
10. Cattle of Geryon:
- Erythea ("red land", far west of Greece), is aided by Helius who transports him by Golden Cup.
- Required to capture the cattle of Geryon ("three bodied monster"; son of Callirhoe = Phorcys + Ceto and Chrysaor = Medusa + Poseidon) as supervised by the giant Eurytion and his two-headed watchdog Orth[r]us.  He defeats all three then drives the cattle home.
- Parergon: When he stops in the outcrops of Spain of Morrocco (strait where Med sea meets Atlantic), he sets up the Pillars of Heracles to symbolize the boundary of the known and the unknown world.
11. Apples of Hesperides:
- Far West
- Required to bring back the golden apples from the tree of life (wedding present of Zeus to Hera), as guarded by the three Hesperides ("daughters of evening") and the serpent Ladon.
- The sea monster Nereus is wrestled into submission by Heracles, and is forced to reveal where the location is. In Eurepides' version, Ladon is killed and Heracles returns the apples alone. In the version on the Metopes on the Temple of Zeus, Atlas trades places with Heracles, and is tricked back into upholding the heavens after he obtains the apples.
- Parergon: Busirus, King of Egypt, and his court is slaughtered after violating guest/host relations by sacrificing visiting strangers to Zeus; Antaeus (giant of Libya, son of Poseidon and Earth), is crushed in mid air to death by Heracles in a wrestling match, after it is determined that he gains strength when he touches the earth; Prometheus is freed from his chains, after Heracles kills Zeus' eagle.
12. Cerberus:
- Underworld
- Required to capture the hell-hound of the underworld and present to Eurystheus.
- Hermes and Athena assist Heracles's descent into Hades, where he encounters and frees the hero Theseus, and promises the marry Deianira ("man eater"), sister of Meleager.

Miscellaneous Labours

After receiving expiation for the sin of murdering his wife and family, Heracles encounters a number of "contests" later in life.
- Cercopes (pair of dwarves) are about to be killed for their attempt to rob Heracles, but their joking of his burned-buttocks earns a more humourous mood as well as their lives. Later turned into [apes/stones] by Zeus.
- Deianira (2nd wife) is won by wrestling the shape-shifting river god Acheolus and breaking off one of his magical horns, which is traded for the Cornucopia of Amalthea. On the way back, the centaur Nessus  offers to carry his wife across the flooding river Evenus, but he attempts to rape her, earning him a swift herculean poisoned arrow and a painful death. Before he expires, he tells Deianira to collect his blood on the claim it will prevent Heracles from loving any other women, without taking into consideration the mixing of poisoned Hydra blood with his own.
- Iole, a mortal on the island of Euboea, is refused from a smitten Heracles, who retaliates by throwing her brother off the acropolis. Once more, Heracles seeks expiation for his sins at the Delphic Oracle, who refuses to answer him. When he attempts to make off with her tripod and set up his own oracle, Apollo intervenes, and Zeus commands him that he must serve as a slave for one year to Omphale, Queen of Lydia (cross-dressing, weaving ensues)

Death of Heracles

After learning of her husbands infatuation with Iole, Deinira smears her husbands shirt with Nessus' blood and sents it to be worn at the sacrifice to Zeus. The flames from the offering fused the shirt to Heracles' flesh, burned off his mortal part, and the immortal part ascended Olympus in a chariot sent by Zeus. Only then is he reconciled with Hera, who gives him Hebe ("Youth") as a wife.
Deineria commits suicide on the funeral pyre on Mt. Oeta, lit by a flaming arrow shot by Poeus (Philoctetes Father) from Hercules' bow.
Odyssey, Book 11: Met by Odysseus in the Underworld, some debate of mortality.

Trojan Saga, pt. III (Ch 19)

Post-Iliad Events

Penthesilea, Queen of the Amazons, comes to fight for the Trojans but is defeated by Achilles and stripped of her armour. Upon realizing she is a woman, Achilles is smitten, and falls in love with her as he kills her. For this unrequited love, he is jibed by Thersites (Greek joker figure) as being "the ugliest man in Troy". After slaying the joker, a fellow soldier, he must withdraw to Lesbos for blood purification before returning to battle.

Achilles is finally slain by Paris's arrow, guided by Apollo, which punctures his moral heel. Achilles' corpse and armour is fought for by Ajax the Greater and is recovered back to the Achaean camp, where the ghost of Achilles demands the sacrifice of Priam's daughter Polyxena.

Odysseus and Ajax fight over armour, which is eventually arbitrated over by Athena and a Greek jury. Odysseus wins the arms due to cunning, as he blackmails a group of terrorized Trojan prisoners into testifying to his might. Ajax goes insane with incomprehension, and slaughters a flock of sheep under the disillusion they are the jury of Greek leaders. After realizing his "failure as a hero" he commits suicide by falling upon his own sword. The death of Ajax the Greater is a symbol of the end of the "old hero". The last of his kind, he represents a nation of heroes that relied on brute strength over cunning and wiles. From his blood, a hyacinth sprouts, honoring the passing of his spirit.
Odysseus concludes that "we who live are nothing more than ghosts and weightless shades", implying that no matter how great and mighty you are, you will inevitable be levelled by your mortality.

The three conditions foreseen by Helenus, the Trojan seer, are met by the Achaean army:

• Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles, is recovered. He brutally slaughters Priam at an altar.
• The Paladium, the wooden figure of Pallas, friend of Athena, is stolen by Odysseus disguised as a beggar.
• The Bow of Heracles is recovered from Philoctetes in Lemnos.

As such, Odysseus commands Epeus to build a giant wooden horse. While the Greeks feign retreat by sailing away behind the island of Tenedos, they leave behind Sinon, who pretends he's escaped from becoming a Greek human sacrifice. Sinon explains that the horse is an offering to Athena, and is built so large that the Trojans will not be able to fit it inside their walls, but the Trojans tear down their own gates in order to capture it.

The Trojans are warned twice: once by Cassandra, daughter of Prium suffering a curse from Apollo, and the other by Laocoon, who declares Sinon a liar and the horse a ruse. He hurls a spear into the side of the horse and hears the rattling of soldiers' armour, which is miraculously drowned out by the sudden appearance of two sea serpents that drag him and his two children into the sea.

With the city penetrated, the Achaeans mercilessly ransack Troy. Euripedes' Trojan Women, as well as other Greek literary works, depict the Post-Iliad as a powerful anti-war tragedy, as seen through the eyes of prisoner women (Hecuba, Cassandra, Andromache).

• Ajax the Lesser, son of Oileus, attempts to rape Cassandra at the temple of Athena, ensuring his death on the way home. Cassandra herself is taken as concubine to Agamemnon, as told in Aeschylus' Agamemnon.
• Odysseus hurls Hectors son Astyanax from the walls of Troy, before his mother's eyes, because "only a fool kills a father and allows his son to live. Andromache herself is taken as a concubine.

As told in Vergil's Aeneid, Aeneas (Aphrodite + Anchises) is visited upon by Hector's ghost, is told to escape far away, to a land where he is the eventual founder of Rome.