The Belvedere Torso is a 1.59-metre-tall (5.2 ft) fragmentary marble statue of a male nude, known to be in Rome from the 1430s, and signed prominently on the front of the base by "Apollonios, son of Nestor, Athenian", who is unmentioned in ancient literature. It is now in the Museo Pio-Clementino (Inv. 1192) of the Vatican Museums .
124-478: Once believed to be a 1st-century BC original, the statue is now thought to be a copy from the 1st century BC or AD of an older statue, probably to be dated to the early 2nd century BC. The muscular male figure is portrayed seated on an animal hide, and its precise identification remains open to debate. Though traditionally identified as a Heracles seated on the skin of the Nemean lion , recent studies have identified
248-466: A funeral pyre on Mount Oeta , which Poeas , father of Philoctetes , lights. As his body burns, only his immortal side is left. Through Zeus's apotheosis , Heracles rises to Olympus as he dies. No one but Heracles's friend Philoctetes ( Poeas in some versions) would light his funeral pyre (in an alternative version, it is Iolaus who lights the pyre). For this action, Philoctetes or Poeas received Heracles's bow and arrows, which were later needed by
372-470: A gadfly to bite the cattle, irritate them and scatter them. Hera then sent a flood which raised the water level of a river so much that Heracles could not ford the river with the cattle. He piled stones into the river to make the water shallower. When he finally reached the court of Eurystheus, the cattle were sacrificed to Hera. Eurystheus also wanted to sacrifice the Cretan Bull to Hera. She refused
496-743: A bride by Callimachus , as well as the matronly standing Hera. Hera was also worshipped as a virgin : there was a tradition in Stymphalia in Arcadia that there had been a triple shrine to Hera the Girl (Παις [Pais]), the Adult Woman (Τελεια [Teleia]), and the Separated (Χήρη [Chḗrē] 'Widowed' or 'Divorced'). In the region around Argos , the temple of Hera in Hermione near Argos was to Hera
620-465: A catalyst of the classical revival . Michelangelo's admiration of the Torso was widely known in his lifetime, to the extent that the Torso gained the sobriquet , "The School of Michelangelo". Legend has it that Pope Julius II requested that Michelangelo complete the statue fragment with arms, legs and a face. He respectfully declined, stating that it was too beautiful to be altered, and instead used it as
744-464: A cave. When he asked whether she knew anything about his horses, she answered, that they were in her own possession, but that she would not give them up, unless he would consent to stay with her for a time. Heracles accepted the request, and became by her the father of Agathyrsus , Gelonus , and Scythes . The last of them became king of the Scythians, according to his father's arrangement, because he
868-499: A chance, and thus the two had their first sexual intercourse. According to a version attributed to Plutarch , Hera had been reared by a nymph named Macris on the island of Euboea , but Zeus stole her away, where Mt. Cithaeron "afforded them a shady recess." When Macris came to look for her ward, the mountain-god Cithaeron drove her away, saying that Zeus was taking his pleasure there with Leto. According to Callimachus , their wedding feast lasted three hundred years. The Apples of
992-451: A chariot to lead the procession like a bride, and then ritually burned. According to Diodorus Siculus , Alcmene , the mother of Heracles, was the very last mortal woman Zeus ever slept with; following the birth of Heracles, he ceased to beget humans altogether. Hera is the stepmother and enemy of Heracles . The name Heracles means "Glory of Hera". In Homer's Iliad , when Alcmene was about to give birth to Heracles, Zeus announced to all
1116-433: A consequence of Heracles's refusal to live a simple life, as offered by Amphitryon . It was indicated that he preferred the extravagant violence of the heroic life and that its ghosts eventually manifested in his madness and that the hallucinatory visions defined Heracles's character. A major factor in the well-known tragedies surrounding Heracles is the hatred that the goddess Hera , wife of Zeus , had for him. Heracles
1240-449: A dignified, matronly figure, upright or enthroned, crowned with a polos or diadem , sometimes veiled as a married woman. She is the patron goddess of lawful marriage. She presides over weddings, blesses and legalises marital unions, and protects women from harm during childbirth. Her sacred animals include the cow , cuckoo , and peacock . She is sometimes shown holding a pomegranate as an emblem of immortality. Her Roman counterpart
1364-580: A fit of madness, induced by Hera, Heracles killed his children and Megara. After his madness had been cured with hellebore by Antikyreus, the founder of Antikyra , he realized what he had done and fled to the Oracle of Delphi . Unbeknownst to him, the Oracle was guided by Hera. He was directed to serve King Eurystheus for ten years and perform any task Eurystheus required of him. Eurystheus decided to give Heracles ten labours, but after completing them, Heracles
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#17327647945041488-487: A form of the "Mycenean goddess of the palace" and became the spouse of Zeus. Modern scholars suggest that Hera is not only the Olympian sky-goddess, but in some cults she may be identified with the earth-goddess. Her ancient connection with her sacred animal, the cow, still existed in historical times. She is probably related to Near-Eastern forms of cow-goddesses such as Hathor or Bat . The Greek earth-goddess Gaia
1612-466: A glimpse of powerful Heracles— His ghost I mean: the man himself delights in the grand feasts of the deathless gods on high ... Around him cries of the dead rang out like cries of birds scattering left and right in horror as on he came like night ... Ancient critics were aware of the problem of the aside that interrupts the vivid and complete description, in which Heracles recognizes Odysseus and hails him, and some modern critics deny that
1736-546: A god, and having finally reconciled with Hera, he got her daughter Hebe as his fourth and final wife. They had two sons together, Alexiares and Anicetus . When Typhon attacked Olympus, all gods transformed into animals and ran terrified to Egypt; Heracles became a fawn. In the Dialogues of the Gods , a satirical work by Lucian of Samosata , Heracles and another recently deified mortal, Asclepius , fight over which gets
1860-542: A god, the other only as a hero. Sacrifice was made to him as a hero and as a god within the same festival. This ambiguity helped create the Heracles cult especially when historians (e.g. Herodotus) and artists encouraged worship such as the painters during the time of the Peisistratos , who often presented Heracles entering Olympus in their works. Some sources explained that the cult of Heracles persisted because of
1984-411: A golden veil Hesione had made. Telamon took Hesione as a war prize and they had a son, Teucer . After Heracles had performed his Labours, gods told him that before he passed into the company of the gods, he should create a colony at Sardinia and make his sons, whom he had with the daughters of Thespius , the leaders of the settlement. When his sons became adults, he sent them together with Iolaus to
2108-468: A long time but Hylas had fallen in love with the nymphs and never showed up again. In other versions, he simply drowned. Either way, the Argo set sail without them. Hesiod 's Theogony and Aeschylus ' Prometheus Unbound both tell that Heracles shot and killed the eagle that tortured Prometheus (which was his punishment by Zeus for stealing fire from the gods and giving it to mortals). Heracles freed
2232-629: A monstrous version of Hephaestus , and whelped in a cave in Cilicia . She gave the creature to Python to raise. In the Temple of Hera, Olympia , Hera's seated cult figure was older than the warrior figure of Zeus that accompanied it. Homer expressed her relationship with Zeus delicately in the Iliad , in which she declares to Zeus, "I am Cronus ' eldest daughter, and am honourable not on this ground only, but also because I am your wife, and you are king of
2356-674: A pillar in Argos and as a plank in Samos." At Argos in a Greek myth the priestess of Hera Phoronis ties her mistress to an aniconic pillar. At Samos Hera's plank was tied on a willow tree to ensure fertility. Hera is the daughter of the Titans Cronus and Rhea , and the sibling of Hestia , Demeter , Hades , Poseidon , and Zeus . Cronus was fated to be overthrown by one of his children; to prevent this, he swallowed all of his newborn children whole until Rhea tricked him into swallowing
2480-605: A processional ceremony from ancient times. The myth of the premarital approach of Hera by Zeus is early mentioned by Homer . It is possible that the myth has its origins to an old custom of the European country population, the premarital intercourse of the engaged couple. According to Walter Burkert the "Mediterranean goddess of nature" becomes the bride of the Greek sky-god. He notices that "the disappearance and retrieval of Hera has parallels with other fertility cults" . Hera
2604-436: A reasonable explanation of the ritual and replicate its structural form. This is accurate for "aitia" related to initiation rituals from youth to maturity. Ancient accounts refer to the retirement of Hera after a quarell with Zeus. Hera's wrath may indicate the wrath and jealousy of the Greek wife. Other accounts refer to cultic trees or pillars. and rituals of the goddess of vegetation. Some accounts are related to rituals of
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#17327647945042728-535: A sea monster (Greek: kētŏs, Latin: cetus ) to attack Troy . The story is related in several digressions in the Iliad (7.451–53; 20.145–48; 21.442–57) and is found in pseudo-Apollodorus's Bibliotheke (2.5.9). This expedition became the theme of the Eastern pediment of the Temple of Aphaea . Laomedon planned on sacrificing his daughter Hesione to Poseidon in the hope of appeasing him. Heracles happened to arrive (along with Telamon and Oicles ) and agreed to kill
2852-474: A snake in each hand and strangled them. He was found by his nurse playing with them on his cot as if they were toys. Astonished, Amphitryon sent for the seer Tiresias , who prophesied an unusual future for the boy, saying he would vanquish numerous monsters. After killing his music tutor Linus with a lyre , he was sent to tend cattle on a mountain by his foster father Amphitryon. Here, according to an allegorical parable , " The Choice of Heracles ", invented by
2976-478: A stone instead of her youngest child, Zeus. Zeus grew up in secret and when he grew up he tricked his father into regurgitating his siblings, including Hera. Zeus then led the revolt against the Titans, banished them, and divided the dominion over the world with his brothers, Poseidon and Hades. Other traditions, however, appear to give Hera different upbringings. Pausanias states that she was nursed as an infant by
3100-750: A tree. Robert Graves interprets this as a representation of the new moon ( Hebe ), full moon (Hera), and old moon ( Hecate ), respectively personifying the Virgin (Spring), the Mother (Summer), and the destroying Crone (Autumn). The marriage of Zeus with Hera is the main theme in most Greek festivals celebrated in honour of the goddess. In the cults of Hera the dances and rites are performed by young married women. These choral dances reenacted early myth and ritual. Burkert notices that "the disappearing and retrieval of Hera in some cults has parallels with other fertility cults". The Greek aetiological myths ( aitia ) give
3224-407: Is Juno . The name Hera (Hēra or Hērē) has several possible and mutually exclusive etymologies. One possibility is to connect it with Greek ὥρα hōra , season, and to interpret it as ripe for marriage and according to Plato ἐρατή eratē , "beloved" as Zeus is said to have married her for love. According to Plutarch , Hera was an allegorical name and an anagram of aēr (ἀήρ, "air"). So begins
3348-604: Is always translated "cow-eyed". In this respect, Hera bears some resemblance to the Ancient Egyptian deity Hathor , a maternal goddess associated with cattle. Hera absorbed the cult of her heifer-priestess Io and may be related to the Vedic earth-goddess Prithvi . Scholar of Greek mythology Walter Burkert writes in Greek Religion , "Nevertheless, there are memories of an earlier aniconic representation, as
3472-482: Is attached/coupled' or (b) 'the female who attaches herself'... both socially and physically or emotionally." Many theophoric names such as Heracles , Heraclitus , Herodotus , Herodicus , derive from Hera. Hera bore several epithets in the mythological tradition and in literature. In the historical times the majority of the Greeks recognized Hera as the consort of Zeus. Hera is the protector of marriage and of
3596-571: Is attested by the large building projects undertaken in her honor. The temples of Hera in the two main centers of her cult , the Heraion of Samos and the Heraion of Argos in the Argolis , were the very earliest monumental Greek temples constructed, in the 8th century BCE. At Argos the Dorian "Heraion" was built on the hill of Prosymna near Mycenean hero-tombs. At Samos the cult activity near
3720-633: Is consonant with Hera's common epithet βοῶπις ( boōpis , "cow-eyed"). R. S. P. Beekes has suggested a Pre-Greek origin. Her name is attested in Mycenaean Greek written in the Linear B syllabic script as 𐀁𐀨 e-ra , appearing on tablets found in Pylos and Thebes , as well as in the Cypriotic dialect in the dative e-ra-i . The PIE ... could be originally either (a) 'the female who
3844-456: Is mainly the "Argeiē" (Ἀργείη), a name given by Homer which describes her not as Greek, but as an Argive goddess. She is the protectress of the citadel. In literature Argos is called "dōma Hēras" (the house of Hera) and the Argives are called her people by Pindar . Homer in Iliad uses the formula "boōpis potnia Hērē)" (cow-eyed, mistress Hera), which probably relates her to a form of
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3968-453: Is occasionally identified with Hera. Gaia may be related to the Vedic earth-goddess Prithvi , who was also associated with the cow. An inscription in Linear B on a tablet found at Pylos mentions offerings "to Zeus-Hera-Drimios".(Drimios is the son of Zeus) . Hera was the tutelary goddess of Argos and it is possible that she had Mycenean origin. Martin P. Nilsson suggested that Hera
4092-468: Is still in the water. Angry, Heracles shoots him with his arrows dipped in the poisonous blood of the Lernaean Hydra . Thinking of revenge, Nessus gives Deianira his blood-soaked tunic before he dies, telling her it will "excite the love of her husband". Several years later, rumor tells Deianira that she has a rival for the love of Heracles. Deianira, remembering Nessus's words, gives Heracles
4216-560: Is the Olympia , Queen , Anassa , the Queen of heaven. The royal quality of her was preserved by the monuments of Greek art. Hera may have been the first deity to whom the Greeks dedicated an enclosed roofed temple sanctuary, at Samos about 800 BCE. It was replaced later by the Heraion of Samos , one of the largest of all Greek temples (altars were in front of the temples under the open sky). There were many temples built on this site, so
4340-451: Is the consort of the sky-god Horus . In the Vedic tradition the earth-goddess Prithvi is the consort of the sky-god Dyaus and she is associated with the cow. Prithvi may be identified with the Greek goddess Gaia . Pherecydes of Syros in his cosmogony describes the mating of two divine principles: The marriage of Zas with Chthonie . Geoffrey Kirk notices that after the marriage "Cthonie" becomes Ge who probably takes charge of
4464-483: Is the goddess of marriage, women, and family, and the protector of women during childbirth. In Greek mythology , she is queen of the twelve Olympians and Mount Olympus , sister and wife of Zeus , and daughter of the Titans Cronus and Rhea . One of her defining characteristics in myth is her jealous and vengeful nature in dealing with any who offended her, especially Zeus's numerous adulterous lovers and illegitimate offspring. Her iconography usually presents her as
4588-471: Is threatening and violent to her. In the Iliad , Zeus implies their marriage was some sort of elopement, as they lay secretly from their parents. Pausanias records a tale of how they came to be married in which Zeus transformed into a cuckoo to woo Hera. She caught the bird and kept it as her pet; this is why the cuckoo is seated on her sceptre. According to a scholion on Theocritus ' Idylls , when Hera
4712-518: The Heracleia , which commemorated the death of Heracles, on the second day of the month of Metageitnion (which would fall in late July or early August). What is believed to be an Egyptian Temple of Heracles in the Bahariya Oasis dates to 21 BCE. A reassessment of Ptolemy 's descriptions of the island of Malta attempted to link the site at Ras ir-Raħeb with a temple to Heracles, but
4836-537: The Heraion of Samos , in the Greek mainland Hera was especially worshipped as "Argive Hera" ( Hera Argeia ) at her sanctuary that stood between the former Mycenaean city-states of Argos and Mycenae , where the festivals in her honor called Heraia were celebrated. "The three cities I love best," she declares in the Iliad , book iv, "are Argos, Sparta and Mycenae of the broad streets." There were also temples to Hera in Olympia , Corinth , Tiryns , Perachora and
4960-493: The Hesperides that Heracles was tasked by Eurystheus to take were a wedding gift by Gaia to the couple. After a quarrel with Zeus, Hera left him and retreated to Euboea, and no word from Zeus managed to sway her mind. Cithaeron, the local king, then advised Zeus to take a wooden statue of a woman, wrap it up, and pretend to marry it. Zeus did as told, claiming "she" was Plataea, Asopus 's daughter. Hera, once she heard
5084-463: The Lernaean Hydra , she sent a crab to bite at his feet in the hopes of distracting him. Later Hera stirred up the Amazons against him when he was on one of his quests. When Heracles took the cattle of Geryon , he shot Hera in the right breast with a triple-barbed arrow: the wound was incurable and left her in constant pain, as Dione tells Aphrodite in the Iliad , Book V. Afterwards, Hera sent
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5208-586: The Titan from his chains and his torments. Prometheus then made predictions regarding further deeds of Heracles. On his way back to Mycenae from Iberia , having obtained the Cattle of Geryon as his tenth labour , Heracles came to Liguria in North-Western Italy where he engaged in battle with two giants, Albion and Bergion or Dercynus, sons of Poseidon . The opponents were strong; Heracles
5332-534: The antiquarian epigrapher Ciriaco d'Ancona (or someone in his immediate circle) made note of its inscription. Around 1500 it was in the possession of the sculptor Andrea Bregno . It was still in the Palazzo Colonna during the sack of Rome in 1527 , when it suffered some mutilation. Between 1530 and 1536, the sculpture was acquired by the pope. How it entered the Vatican collections is uncertain, but by
5456-551: The club . These qualities did not prevent him from being regarded as a playful figure who used games to relax from his labors and played a great deal with children. By conquering dangerous archaic forces he is said to have "made the world safe for mankind" and to be its benefactor. Heracles was an extremely passionate and emotional individual, capable of doing both great deeds for his friends (such as wrestling with Thanatos on behalf of Prince Admetus , who had regaled Heracles with his hospitality, or restoring his friend Tyndareus to
5580-427: The deification of Heracles himself and of Asclepius there are comprised thirty-eight years, according to Apollodorus the chronicler: and from that point to the deification of Castor and Pollux fifty-three years: and somewhere about this time was the capture of Troy ." Readers with a literalist bent, following Clement's reasoning, have asserted from this remark that, since Heracles ruled over Tiryns in Argos at
5704-515: The Aegean goddesses were associated with "their" bird, was the cuckoo , which appears in mythic fragments concerning the first wooing of a virginal Hera by Zeus. Her archaic association was primarily with cattle, as a Cow Goddess, who was especially venerated in "cattle-rich" Euboea . On Cyprus , very early archaeological sites contain bull skulls that have been adapted for use as masks (see Bull (mythology) ). Her familiar Homeric epithet Boôpis ,
5828-631: The Bronze Age before the splitting of the "Mistress of the animals" into separate goddesses. In Hellenistic imagery, Hera's chariot was pulled by peacocks, birds not known to Greeks before the conquests of Alexander . Alexander's tutor, Aristotle , refers to it as "the Persian bird." The peacock motif was revived in the Renaissance iconography that unified Hera and Juno. A bird that had been associated with Hera on an archaic level, when most of
5952-512: The Dryopes "because they gave no heed to justice in their lives". After the death of their king, the Dryopes gave in and offered him Prince Hylas . He took the youth on as his weapons bearer. Years later, Heracles and Hylas joined the crew of the Argo . As Argonauts, they only participated in part of the journey. In Mysia , Hylas was kidnapped by the nymphs of a local spring. Heracles, searched for
6076-536: The Greeks to defeat Troy in the Trojan War. Philoctetes confronted Paris and shot a poisoned arrow at him. The Hydra poison subsequently led to the death of Paris. The Trojan War, however, continued until the Trojan Horse was used to defeat Troy . According to Herodotus , Heracles lived 900 years before Herodotus's own time (c. 1300 BCE). After his death in the pyre, Heracles ascended to Olympus as
6200-496: The Mediterranean goddess of nature is the bride of the Greek sky-god . In her fest Daedala Hera is related to the nymph Plataia (consort of Zeus ), an old forgotten form of the Greek earth-goddess. Plataia may be related to Gaia who is occasionally identified with Hera. According to Homeric Hymn II to Delian Apollo , Hera detained Eileithyia to prevent Leto from going into labor with Artemis and Apollo , since
6324-409: The Mediterranean goddess of nature. The epithet Qo-wi-ja ( boōpis) appears in a Linear B inscription. Walter Burkert notices that it is difficult to confirm that the epithet "bowpis" corresponds to a Greek belief. However it is possible that Hera was conceived as a cow in her archaic cults. Hera exists as a spouse of Zeus and their "sacred marriage" was celebrated in many Greek festivals in
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#17327647945046448-560: The Phoenician God Melqart Oitaeans worshiped Heracles and called him Cornopion (Κορνοπίων) because he helped them get rid of locusts (which they called cornopes ), while the citizens of Erythrae at Mima called him Ipoctonus (ἰποκτόνος) because he destroyed the vine-eating ips (ἀμπελοφάγων ἰπῶν), a kind of cynips wasp, there. Near the town of Bura in Achaea , there was a statue of Heracles on
6572-546: The River Buraicus and an oracle in a cave. People who consulted this oracle first prayed before the statue, then threw four dice from a mound that was always kept ready onto a table. These dice were marked with certain characters, the significance of which was elucidated by an artwork shown in the cave. Because of this town Heracles had the epithet Buraicus (Βουραϊκός). Extraordinary strength, courage , ingenuity, and sexual prowess with both males and females were among
6696-404: The Virgin. At the spring of Kanathos , close to Nauplia , Hera renewed her virginity annually, in rites that were not to be spoken of ( arrheton ). In her fire-festival Daedala at Plataia the puppet of the goddess was bathed in the river Asopos before the wedding ceremony. In the festival "Toneia" at Samos the image of the goddess was purified, bounted in willows and then probably hanged on
6820-453: The altar begun in late Mycenean period and a big altar was built in the 9th century BC. According to Walter Burkert , both Hera and Demeter have many characteristic attributes of Pre-Greek Great Goddesses . In the same vein, British scholar Charles Francis Keary suggests that Hera had some sort of " Earth Goddess " worship in ancient times, connected to her possible origin as a Pelasgian goddess (as mentioned by Herodotus). In Greece
6944-528: The ancient Kourotrophos figure is almost absent in Crete , and the nomination Mother Goddess was not the underlying principle in the Minoan religion. Hera was most known as the matron goddess, Hera Teleia , but she presided over weddings as well. In myth and cult, fragmentary references and archaic practices remain of the sacred marriage of Hera and Zeus. At Plataea , there was a sculpture of Hera seated as
7068-517: The arguments are not conclusive. Several ancient cities were named Heraclea in his honor. A very small island close to the island of Lemnos was called Neai (Νέαι), from νέω, which means "I dive/swim", because Heracles swam there. According to the Greek legends, the Herculaneum in Italy was founded by him. Several poleis provided two separate sanctuaries for Heracles, one recognizing him as
7192-515: The bloodstained shirt. Lichas, the herald, delivers the shirt to Heracles. However, it is still covered in the Hydra's blood from Heracles's arrows, and this poisons him, tearing his skin and exposing his bones. Before he dies, Heracles throws Lichas into the sea, thinking he was the one who poisoned him (according to several versions, Lichas turns to stone, becoming a rock standing in the sea, named for him). Heracles then uproots several trees and builds
7316-515: The bull was associated with religious practices. In the legend of the Minotaur the Queen of Knossos is hidden inside an artificial hollow cow and she is mating with a bull-form god in a sacred ceremony. The hieros gamos indicates a ritual of fertility magic, which was probably introduced from Near East in the Aegean region. The "hieros gamos" of Zeus with the earth goddess (finally named Hera)
7440-417: The characteristics commonly attributed to him. Heracles used his wits on several occasions when his strength did not suffice, such as when laboring for the king Augeas of Elis , wrestling the giant Antaeus , or tricking Atlas into taking the sky back onto his shoulders. Together with Hermes he was the patron and protector of gymnasia and palaestrae . His iconographic attributes are the lion skin and
7564-408: The conquests of Zeus is rendered as Hera's "jealousy", the main theme of literary anecdotes that undercut her ancient cult . However, it remains a controversial claim that an ancient matriarchy or a cultural focus on a monotheistic Great Goddess existed among the ancient Greeks or elsewhere. The claim is generally rejected by modern scholars as insufficiently evidenced. Walter Burkert notices that
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#17327647945047688-473: The engraving of it by Giovanni Antonio da Brescia , c. 1515. The Belvedere Torso remains one of the few ancient sculptures admired in the 17th and 18th centuries whose reputation has not suffered in modern times. Several small bronze reductions of it were made during the 16th century, often restoring it as a seated Hercules. The Belvedere Torso visited the British Museum for their 2015 exhibition on
7812-515: The evidence is somewhat confusing, and archaeological dates are uncertain. The temple created by the Rhoecus sculptors and architects was destroyed between 570 and 560 BCE. This was replaced by the Polycratean temple of 540–530 BCE. In one of these temples, we see a forest of 155 columns. There is also no evidence of tiles on this temple suggesting either the temple was never finished or that
7936-474: The father was Zeus . The other goddesses present at the birthing on Delos sent Iris to bring her. As she stepped upon the island, the divine birth began. In the myth of the birth of Heracles , it is Hera herself who sits at the door, delaying the birth of Heracles until her protégé, Eurystheus , had been born first. The Homeric Hymn to Pythian Apollo makes the monster Typhaon the offspring of archaic Hera in her ancient form, produced out of herself, like
8060-457: The formula "boōpis potnia Hērē)" (cow-eyed, mistress Hera), suggesting that they may have been syncretized. The worship of Hera was sparse in Thessaly , Attica , Phocis and Achaea . In Boeotia she is related to the fest Daedala . The main center of her cult was North-Eastern Peloponnese , especially Argolis . ( Argos , Tiryns , Corinth , Sicyon , Epidaurus and Hermione ). She
8184-421: The gods that on that day a child by Zeus himself, would be born and rule all those around him. Hera, after requesting Zeus to swear an oath to that effect, descended from Olympus to Argos and made the wife of Sthenelus (son of Perseus) give birth to Eurystheus after only seven months, while at the same time preventing Alcmene from delivering Heracles. This resulted in the fulfillment of Zeus's oath in that it
8308-512: The gods." There has been considerable scholarship, reaching back to Johann Jakob Bachofen in the mid-nineteenth century, about the possibility that Hera, whose early importance in Greek religion is firmly established, was originally the goddess of a matriarchal people, presumably inhabiting Greece before the Hellenes . In this view, her activity as goddess of marriage established the patriarchal bond of her own subordination: her resistance to
8432-405: The hero's ascent to heaven and his suffering, which became the basis for festivals, ritual, rites, and the organization of mysteries. There is the observation, for example, that sufferings ( pathea ) gave rise to the rituals of grief and mourning, which came before the joy in the mysteries in the sequence of cult rituals. Also, like the case of Apollo, the cult of Heracles had been sustained through
8556-457: The human body in ancient Greek art. Heracles Heracles ( / ˈ h ɛr ə k l iː z / HERR -ə-kleez ; ‹See Tfd› Greek : Ἡρακλῆς , lit. "glory/fame of Hera "), born Alcaeus ( Ἀλκαῖος , Alkaios ) or Alcides ( Ἀλκείδης , Alkeidēs ), was a divine hero in Greek mythology , the son of Zeus and Alcmene , and the foster son of Amphitryon . He
8680-465: The infant Heracles, but he was taken up and brought to Hera by his half-sister Athena , who played an important role as protectress of heroes. Hera did not recognize Heracles and nursed him out of pity . Heracles suckled so strongly that he caused Hera pain, and she pushed him away. Her milk sprayed across the heavens and there formed the Milky Way. Athena brought the infant back to his mother, and he
8804-707: The inspiration for several of the figures on the Sistine Chapel ceiling , including the Sibyls and Prophets along the borders, and both the risen Christ and St. Bartholomew in The Last Judgement . Early drawings of the Torso were made by Amico Aspertini , c. 1500–1503, by Martin van Heemskerck , c. 1532–1536, by Hendrick Goltzius , c. 1590; the Belvedere Torso entered the visual repertory of connoisseurs and artists unable to go to Rome through
8928-617: The island. This is described in Sophocles 's Trachiniae and in Ovid 's Metamorphoses Book IX. Having wrestled and defeated Achelous , god of the Acheloos river, Heracles takes Deianira as his wife. Travelling to Tiryns , a centaur , Nessus , offers to help Deianira across a fast flowing river while Heracles swims it. However, Nessus is true to the archetype of the mischievous centaur and tries to steal Deianira away while Heracles
9052-400: The king and his sons, except for one: Iole's brother Iphitus . Heracles killed the king and his sons—excluding Iphitus—and abducted Iole. Iphitus became Heracles's best friend. However, once again, Hera drove Heracles mad and he threw Iphitus over the city wall to his death. Once again, Heracles purified himself through three years of servitude—this time to Queen Omphale of Lydia . Omphale
9176-476: The kings of Sparta and Macedon . Yet another episode of his female affairs that stands out was when he carried away the oxen of Geryon , he also visited the country of the Scythians . Once there, while asleep, his horses suddenly disappeared. When he woke and wandered about in search of them, he came into the country of Hylaea . He then found the dracaena of Scythia (sometimes identified as Echidna ) in
9300-595: The labours: the cleansing of the Augean stables, because Heracles was going to accept pay for the labour; and the killing of the Lernaean Hydra, as Heracles's nephew, Iolaus , had helped him burn the stumps of the multiplying heads. Eurystheus set two more tasks, fetching the Golden Apples of Hesperides and capturing Cerberus . In the end, with ease, the hero successfully performed each added task, bringing
9424-614: The life of a real person or several people whose accomplishments became exaggerated with time. Heracles's role as a culture hero, whose death could be a subject of mythic telling (see below), was accepted into the Olympian Pantheon during Classical times. This created an awkwardness in the encounter with Odysseus in the episode of Odyssey XI, called the Nekuia , where Odysseus encounters Heracles in Hades : And next I caught
9548-641: The mid-16th century it was installed in the Cortile del Belvedere , where it joined the Apollo Belvedere and other famous Roman sculptures. "The Laocoön took two months from unearthing to Belvedere canonization," Leonard Barkan observed, "the Torso took a hundred years." The contorted pose and musculature of the torso were highly influential on Renaissance , Mannerist , and Baroque artists, including Michelangelo and Raphael , and it served as
9672-423: The monster if Laomedon would give him the horses received from Zeus as compensation for Zeus's kidnapping Ganymede . Laomedon agreed. Heracles killed the monster, but Laomedon went back on his word. Accordingly, in a later expedition, Heracles and his followers attacked Troy and sacked it. Then they slew all Laomedon's sons present there save Podarces , who was renamed Priam, who saved his own life by giving Heracles
9796-507: The most famous being The Twelve Labours of Heracles ; Alexandrian poets of the Hellenistic age drew his mythology into a high poetic and tragic atmosphere. His figure, which initially drew on Near Eastern motifs such as the lion-fight, was widely known. Heracles was the greatest of Hellenic chthonic heroes, but unlike other Greek heroes, no tomb was identified as his. Heracles was both hero and god, as Pindar says heros theos ; at
9920-416: The most prestigious seat on the table of the gods, each arguing that they are the one who deserve it. Zeus intervenes, and rules in favour of Asclepius, reasoning that the best seat should go to the one who became a god first. Heracles also appears to Philoctetes , stranded and abandoned by the other Greeks on Lemnos island, and through his deus ex machina intervention, Philoctetes is convinced to join
10044-426: The news, disrupted the wedding ceremony and tore away the dress from the figure only to discover it was but a lifeless statue, and not a rival in love. The queen and her king were reconciled, and to commemorate this the people there celebrated a festival called Daedala . During the festival, a re-enactment of the myth was celebrated, where a wooden statue of Hera was chosen, bathed in the river Asopus and then raised on
10168-599: 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
10292-582: The other Greeks at Troy , where he kills Paris with Heracles's arrows. In Christian circles, a Euhemerist reading of the widespread Heracles cult was attributed to a historical figure who had been offered cult status after his death. Thus Eusebius , Preparation of the Gospel (10.12), reported that Clement could offer historical dates for Heracles as a king in Argos: "from the reign of Heracles in Argos to
10416-482: The protection of marriage. Hera is occasionally identified with "Ge". In a fragment of Euripides the Aether of Zeus is the sky-god who is the father of men and gods, and the earth-goddess Ge is the mother of all life. It seems that Io the priestess of Hera at Argos and consort of Zeus, was another form of Hera. In a Greek myth "Io" is transformed into a cow . This seems to be correlated to how Homer in Iliad uses
10540-402: The reputation which this sanctuary of Hera enjoyed, and the large influx of pilgrims. Compared to this mighty goddess, who also possessed the earliest temple at Olympia and two of the great fifth and sixth-century temples of Paestum , the termagant of Homer and the myths is an "almost... comic figure," according to Burkert . Though the greatest and earliest free-standing temple to Hera was
10664-402: The rights of the married women. In some cults she has some functions of the earth goddess. She is occasionally related to warfare as tutelary goddess. In historical times, the majority of the Greeks recognized Hera as the consort of Zeus . Zeus was the protector of rights and mores, and his partner Hera became the protector of legal marriage and the rights of married women . Hera emerged from
10788-423: The sacred island of Delos . In Magna Graecia , two Doric temples to Hera were constructed at Paestum , about 550 BCE and about 450 BCE. One of them, long called the Temple of Poseidon was identified in the 1950s as a temple of Hera. The Daedala fire festival on Cithaeron near Plataea , included an account of Hera's quarrel with Zeus and their reconciliation. Hera's importance in the early archaic period
10912-578: The sacrifice because it reflected glory on Heracles. The bull was released and wandered to Marathon, becoming known as the Marathonian Bull . Some myths state that in the end, Heracles befriended Hera by saving her from Porphyrion , a giant who tried to rape her during the Gigantomachy , and that she even gave her daughter Hebe as his bride. Whatever myth-making served to account for an archaic representation of Heracles as "Hera's man", it
11036-493: The same festival sacrifice was made to him, first as a hero, with a chthonic libation , and then as a god, upon an altar: thus he embodies the closest Greek approach to a " demi-god ". The core of the story of Heracles has been identified by Walter Burkert as originating in Neolithic hunter culture and traditions of shamanistic crossings into the netherworld. It is possible that the myths surrounding Heracles were based on
11160-494: The same roof; one of them was his wife Deianeira . In the works of Euripides involving Heracles, his actions were partly driven by forces outside rational human control. By highlighting the divine causation of his madness, Euripides problematized Heracles's character and status within the civilized context. This aspect is also highlighted in Hercules Furens where Seneca linked the hero's madness to an illusion and
11284-465: The same time that Eurystheus ruled over Mycenae , and since at about this time Linus was Heracles's teacher, one can conclude, based on Jerome 's date—in his universal history , his Chronicon —given to Linus's notoriety in teaching Heracles in 1264 BCE, that Heracles's death and deification occurred 38 years later, in approximately 1226 BCE. During the course of his life, Heracles married four times. An episode of his female affairs that stands out
11408-408: 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
11532-481: The section on Hera in Walter Burkert 's Greek Religion . In a note, he records other scholars' arguments "for the meaning Mistress as a feminine to Heros , Master", with uncertain origin. John Chadwick , a decipherer of Linear B , remarks "her name may be connected with hērōs , ἥρως, 'hero', but that is no help since it too is etymologically obscure." A. J. van Windekens, offers "young cow, heifer", which
11656-597: The skin as that of a panther, occasioning other identifications (with possibilities including Polyphemus and Marsyas ). According to the Vatican Museum website, "the most favoured hypothesis identifies it with Ajax , the son of Telamon , in the act of contemplating his suicide". The statue is documented in the collection of Cardinal Prospero Colonna at his family's palazzo in Monte Cavallo, Rome from 1433, not because it elicited admiration, but because
11780-687: The smear across the sky that can be seen to this day. Her milk also created a white flower, the lily. Unlike any Greeks, the Etruscans instead pictured a full-grown bearded Heracles at Hera's breast, a reference to his adoption by her when he became an Immortal: he had previously wounded her severely in the breast. When Heracles reached adulthood, Hera drove him mad , which led him to murder his family and this later led to him undertaking his famous labours. Hera assigned Heracles to labour for King Eurystheus at Mycenae. She attempted to make almost all of Heracles's twelve labours more difficult. When he fought
11904-524: 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 . In
12028-414: The spread of his cult. There was the case of the royal house of Macedonia, which claimed lineal descent from the hero, primarily for purposes of divine protection and legitimator of actions. The earliest evidence that shows the worship of Heracles in popular cult was in 6th century BCE (121–122 and 160–165) via an ancient inscription from Phaleron. After the 4th century BCE, Heracles became identified with
12152-544: The temple was open to the sky. Earlier sanctuaries, whose dedication to Hera is less certain, were of the Mycenaean type called "house sanctuaries". Samos excavations have revealed votive offerings, many of them late 8th and 7th centuries BCE, which show that Hera at Samos was not merely a local Greek goddess of the Aegean . The museum there contains figures of gods and suppliants and other votive offerings from Armenia , Babylon , Iran , Assyria , and Egypt , testimony to
12276-512: The three daughters of the river Asterion : Euboia , Prosymna , and Akraia . Furthermore, in the Iliad , Hera states she was given by her mother to Tethys to be raised: "I go now to the ends of the generous earth on a visit to the Ocean , whence the gods have risen, and Tethys our mother who brought me up kindly in their own house, and cared for me and took me from Rheia, at that time when Zeus of
12400-463: The throne of Sparta after he was overthrown) and being a terrible enemy who would wreak horrible vengeance on those who crossed him, as Augeas, Neleus , and Laomedon all found out to their cost. There was also a coldness to his character, which was demonstrated by Sophocles's depiction of the hero in The Trachiniae . Heracles threatened his marriage with his desire to bring two women under
12524-456: The total number of labours up to twelve. Not all versions and writers give the labours in the same order. The Bibliotheca (2.5.1–2.5.12) gives the following order: After completing these tasks, Heracles fell in love with Princess Iole of Oechalia . King Eurytus of Oechalia promised his daughter, Iole , to whoever could beat his sons in an archery contest. Heracles won but Eurytus abandoned his promise. Heracles's advances were spurned by
12648-508: 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 Galanthis , Alcmene's servant, who lied to Ilithyia, saying that Alcmene had already delivered the baby. Upon hearing this, she jumped in surprise, loosing the knots and inadvertently allowing Alcmene to give birth to Heracles and Iphicles. Fear of Hera's revenge led Alcmene to expose
12772-462: The verse's beginning, in Fagles's translation His ghost I mean ... , was part of the original composition: "once people knew of Heracles' admission to Olympus, they would not tolerate his presence in the underworld", remarks Friedrich Solmsen , noting that the interpolated verses represent a compromise between conflicting representations of Heracles. The ancient Greeks celebrated the festival of
12896-418: The victim of Hera's jealousy, made her promise that, if Heracles executed twelve great works in the service of Eurystheus, he should become immortal. In the play Herakles by Euripides , Heracles is driven to madness by Hera and kills his children after his twelve labours. Despite the difficulty, Heracles accomplished these tasks, but Eurystheus in the end did not accept the success the hero had with two of
13020-427: The wide brows drove Kronos underneath the earth and the barren water." Hera is the goddess of marriage and childbirth rather than motherhood, and much of her mythology revolves around her marriage with her brother Zeus. She is charmed by him and she seduces him; he cheats on her and has many children with other goddesses and mortal women; she is intensely jealous and vindictive towards his children and their mothers; he
13144-407: The years by absorbing local cult figures such as those who share the same nature. He was also constantly invoked as a patron for men, especially the young ones. For example, he was considered the ideal in warfare so he presided over gymnasiums and the ephebes or those men undergoing military training. There were ancient towns and cities that also adopted Heracles as a patron deity, contributing to
13268-566: Was Eurystheus rather than Heracles. In Pausanias' recounting, Hera sent witches (as they were called by the Thebans) to hinder Alcmene's delivery of Heracles. The witches were successful in preventing the birth until Historis , daughter of Tiresias, thought of a trick to deceive the witches. Like Galanthis, Historis announced that Alcmene had delivered her child; having been deceived, the witches went away, allowing Alcmene to give birth. Hera's wrath against Zeus's son continued and while Heracles
13392-599: Was a descendant and half-brother (as they are both sired by the god Zeus ) of Perseus . He was the greatest of the Greek heroes, the ancestor of royal clans who claimed to be Heracleidae ( Ἡρακλεῖδαι ), and a champion of the Olympian order against chthonic monsters. In Rome and the modern West , he is known as Hercules , with whom the later Roman emperors , in particular Commodus and Maximian , often identified themselves. Details of his cult were adapted to Rome as well. Many popular stories were told of his life,
13516-540: Was a queen or princess of Lydia . As penalty for a murder, imposed by Xenoclea , the Delphic Oracle , Heracles was to serve as her slave for a year. He was forced to do women's work and to wear women's clothes, while she wore the skin of the Nemean Lion and carried his olive-wood club. After some time, Omphale freed Heracles and married him. Some sources mention a son born to them who is variously named. It
13640-473: Was at that time that the cercopes , mischievous wood spirits, stole Heracles's weapons. He punished them by tying them to a stick with their faces pointing downward. While walking through the wilderness, Heracles was set upon by the Dryopes . In Apollonius of Rhodes 's Argonautica , it is recalled that Heracles had mercilessly slain their king, Theiodamas , over one of the latter's bulls, and made war upon
13764-441: Was born first and then assisted with the birth of Apollo. Some versions say Artemis helped her mother give birth to Apollo for nine days. Another variation states that Artemis was born one day before Apollo, on the island of Ortygia and that she helped Leto cross the sea to Delos the next day to give birth to Apollo. Later, Tityos attempted to rape Leto at the behest of Hera. He was slain by Artemis and Apollo. This account of
13888-484: Was celebrated at Knossos in Crete . In Near East the solar-deity and the moon-goddess are often represented as a bull and a cow and Roscher proposed that Hera was a moon-goddess. The combination feminine divinity-cow-moon is not unusual in Crete and Near East . The relationship of Hera with the cow still existed in the historical times and this probably relates her to Near-Eastern forms of cow-goddesses like Hathor (or Bat ). The Egyptian sky-goddess Hathor
14012-502: Was cheated by Eurystheus when he added two more, resulting in the Twelve Labors of Heracles. If he succeeded, he would be purified of his sin and, as myth says, he would become a god, and be granted immortality. Other traditions place Heracles's madness at a later time and relate the circumstances differently. In some traditions, there was only a divine reason for Heracles's twelve labours: Zeus, in his desire not to leave Heracles
14136-450: Was heading toward Mount Thornax alone, Zeus created a terrible storm and transformed himself into a cuckoo who flew down and sat on her lap. Hera covered him with her cloak. Zeus then transformed back and took hold of her; because she was refusing to sleep with him due to their mother , he promised to marry her. In one account Hera refused to marry Zeus and hid in a cave to avoid him; an earthborn man named Achilles convinced her to give him
14260-496: Was his stay at the palace of Thespius , king of Thespiae , who wished him to kill the Lion of Cithaeron . As a reward, the king offered him the chance to perform sexual intercourse with all fifty of his daughters in one night. Heracles complied and they all became pregnant and all bore sons. This is sometimes referred to as his Thirteenth Labour. Many of the kings of ancient Greece traced their lines to one or another of these, notably
14384-614: Was in a difficult position so he prayed to his father Zeus for help. Under the aegis of Zeus, Heracles won the battle. It was this kneeling position of Heracles when he prayed to his father Zeus that gave the name Engonasin ( "Εγγόνασιν" , derived from "εν γόνασιν"), meaning "on his knees" or "the Kneeler", to the constellation known as Heracles's constellation . The story, among others, is described by Dionysius of Halicarnassus . Before Homer 's Trojan War, Heracles had made an expedition to Troy and sacked it. Previously, Poseidon had sent
14508-423: Was neither mainland nor a real island where Leto was able to give birth to her children. Afterwards, Zeus secured Delos to the bottom of the ocean. The island later became sacred to Apollo. Alternatively, Hera kidnapped Eileithyia , the goddess of childbirth, to prevent Leto from going into labor. The other gods bribed Hera with a beautiful necklace nobody could resist and she finally gave in. Either way, Artemis
14632-427: Was originally a goddess of fertility in her fest "Toneia" at Samos and at Knossos in Crete . At Samos the image of Hera was hidden bounted in willows and the participants tried to discover it. At Knossos Zeus is mating with the earth goddess (finally named Hera) in a very ancient ritual. In her festival Daedala at Plataia there is an account of Hera's quarrel with Zeus and their reconciliation. In Crete
14756-475: Was still an infant, Hera sent two serpents to kill him as he lay in his cot. Heracles throttled the snakes with his bare hands and was found by his nurse playing with their limp bodies as if they were a child's toys. One account of the origin of the Milky Way is that Zeus had tricked Hera into nursing the infant Heracles: discovering who he was, she pulled him from her breast and a spurt of her milk formed
14880-430: 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. He was renamed Heracles in an unsuccessful attempt to mollify Hera, with Heracles meaning Hera's "pride" or "glory". He and his twin were just eight months old when Hera sent two giant snakes into the children's chamber. Iphicles cried from fear, but his brother grabbed
15004-551: Was the only one among the three brothers that was able to manage the bow which Heracles had left behind and to use his father's girdle. Dionysius of Halicarnassus writes that Heracles and Lavinia, daughter of Evander , had a son named Pallas. Hera This is an accepted version of this page In ancient Greek religion , Hera ( / ˈ h ɛr ə , ˈ h ɪər ə / ; ‹See Tfd› Greek : Ἥρα , translit. Hḗrā ; Ἥρη , Hḗrē in Ionic and Homeric Greek )
15128-432: 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 made love to her after disguising himself as her husband, Amphitryon , home early from war (Amphitryon did return later the same night, and Alcmene became pregnant with his son at
15252-483: Was thought suitable for the builders of the Heraion at Paestum to depict the exploits of Heracles in bas-relief . When Hera discovered that Leto was pregnant and that Zeus was the father, she convinced the nature spirits to prevent Leto from giving birth on terra-firma , the mainland, any island at sea, or any place under the sun. Poseidon gave pity to Leto and guided her to the floating island of Delos , which
15376-491: Was worshipped at the Arcadian cities Mantineia , Megalopolis , Stymphalus and at Sparta . The oldest temple at Olympia belonged to Hera. In the islands she was worshipped at Samos , Paros , Delos , Amorgos , Thera , Kos , Rhodes and Crete . The island Euboea was considered her holy place. A month was named after Hera at Delphi ( Heraios ), Olous , Laconia , Tinos ( Heraiōn ), Pergamos ( Heraos ). Hera
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