Hercules , Heracles,or Herakles [both: her'uklçz"] , most popular
of all Greek heroes, famous for extraordinary strength and courage.
Alcmene, wife of Amphitryon, made love to both Zeus and her husband
on the same night and bore two sons, Hercules (son of Zeus) and
Iphicles (son of Amphitryon). Hercules incurred the everlasting
wrath of Hera because he was the child of her unfaithful husband. A
few months after his birth Hera set two serpents in his cradle, but
the prodigious infant promptly strangled them.
When he was a young man, Hercules defended Thebes from the armies
of a neighboring city, Orchomenus, and was rewarded with Megara,
daughter of King Creon. But Hera later drove Hercules insane, and
in his madness he killed his wife and children. After he had
recovered his sanity, he sought purification at the court of King
Eurystheus of Tiryns for 12 years. During those years Hercules
performed 12 arduous labors: he killed the Nemean lion and the
Hydra; caught the Erymanthian boar and the Cerynean hind; drove off
the Stymphalian birds; cleaned the stables of Augeas; captured the
Cretan bull and the horses of Diomed; made off with the girdle of
the Amazon queen Hippolyte; killed Geryon; captured Cerberus; and
finally took the golden apples of Hesperides.
After his labors were completed, Hercules was involved in many
other adventures and combats, including the Calydonian hunt and the
Argonaut expedition. He killed Iphitus, son of the king of
Oichalia, because the king would not give him his daughter Iole.
When Neleus, king of Pylos, refused him absolution for that crime,
Hercules sacked his kingdom and killed all his sons except Nestor.
For that outrage the Delphic oracle bade him serve Omphale, queen
of Lydia, who, in some legends, dressed him in women's clothes and
had him work with her maids spinning wool. He later was her lover,
but after he finished his servitude he returned to Oichalia and
carried off Iole.
When his second wife, Deianira, daughter of King Oeneus, was seized
by the centaur Nessus, Hercules killed Nessus with arrows dipped in
the poisonous blood of the Hydra. As he died, Nessus told Deianira
that blood from his wound would restore Hercules' love for her if
ever it were to wane. Later, when Deianira sought to win back her
husband's love, she contrived to have him don a robe smeared with
the blood. The robe stuck fast to Hercules' skin, burning him
unbearably. In agony, he built a huge pyre atop Mt. Oite and had it
set afire. His mortal parts burned away, but the rest rose to
heaven, where he was finally reconciled with Hera and married
Hebe.
Although worshiped as a god, Hercules was properly a hero,
frequently appealed to for protection from various evils. In art
Hercules was portrayed as a powerful, muscular man wearing a lion's
skin and armed with a huge club. Perhaps the most famous statue of
him is the Farnese Hercules in the National Museum in Naples. He is
the hero of plays by Sophocles, Euripides, and Seneca.