Lysimacheia in Thrace 309BC Ancient Greek Coin Young Hercules NIke i33978

Greek city of Lysimacheia in Thrace Bronze 17mm (3.26 grams) Struck 309-281 B.C. Head of young Hercules right, in lion's skin. ΛYΣΙΜΑ / XΕΩΝ either side of Nike standing facing, holding wreath and palm.

Founded by Lysimachos in 309 B.C., close to the site of Kardia which he had destroyed, this city became the principal residence and European mint of the King of Thrace.

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In Greek mythology , Nike was a goddess who personified victory , also known as the Winged Goddess of Victory. The Roman equivalent was Victoria . Depending upon the time of various myths, she was described as the daughter of Pallas (Titan) and Styx (Water) and the sister of Kratos (Strength), Bia (Force), and Zelus (Zeal). Nike and her siblings were close companions of Zeus , the dominant deity of the Greek pantheon . According to classical (later) myth, Styx brought them to Zeus when the god was assembling allies for the Titan War against the older deities. Nike assumed the role of the divine charioteer , a role in which she often is portrayed in Classical Greek art. Nike flew around battlefields rewarding the victors with glory and fame.

Nike is seen with wings in most statues and paintings. Most other winged deities in the Greek pantheon had shed their wings by Classical times. Nike is the goddess of strength, speed, and victory. Nike was a very close acquaintance of Athena , and is thought to have stood in Athena's outstretched hand in the statue of Athena located in the Parthenon. Nike is one of the most commonly portrayed figures on Greek coins.

Names stemming from Nike include amongst others: Nicholas , Nicola, Nick, Nikolai, Nils, Klaas, Nicole, Ike, Niki, Nikita, Nika, Niketas, and Nico.

Hercules   is the Roman name for the Greek  divine  hero  Heracles, who was the son of  Zeus  (Roman equivalent  Jupiter) and the mortal  Alcmene. In  classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures.

The Romans adapted the Greek hero's iconography and myths for their literature and art under the name  Hercules . In later  Western art  and literature and in  popular culture,  Hercules   is more commonly used than  Heracles   as the name of the hero. Hercules was a multifaceted figure with contradictory characteristics, which enabled later artists and writers to pick and choose how to represent him.  This article provides an introduction to representations of Hercules in the  later tradition.

Labours Hercules capturing theErymanthian Boar, by  J.M. Félix Magdalena  (b. 1941) Main article:  Labours of Hercules

Hercules is known for his many adventures, which took him to the far reaches of the  Greco-Roman world. One cycle of these adventures became  canonical  as the "Twelve Labours," but the list has variations. One traditional order of the labours is found in theBibliotheca   as follows:

1. Slay the  Nemean Lion.
2. Slay the nine-headed  Lernaean Hydra.
3. Capture the  Golden Hind of Artemis.
4. Capture the  Erymanthian Boar.
5. Clean the  Augean  stables in a single day.
6. Slay the  Stymphalian Birds.
7. Capture the  Cretan Bull.
8. Steal the  Mares of Diomedes.
9. Obtain the girdle of  Hippolyta, Queen of the  Amazons.
10. Obtain the cattle of the monster  Geryon.
11. Steal the apples of the  Hesperides.
12. Capture and bring back  Cerberus.

Side adventures

Hercules had a greater number of "deeds on the side"  (parerga)   that have been popular subjects for art, including:

• Killing a fire-breathingCacus  (Sebald Beham, 1545)

   

• Holding up the world forAtlas  (based on  Heinrich Aldegrever, 1550)

   

• Wrestling with  Achelous(16th-century plaque)

   

• Fighting the giant  Antaeus(Auguste Couder, 1819)

   

• Retrieving  Alcestis  from the underworld (Paul Cézanne, 1867)

   

• Freeing  Prometheus(Christian Griepenkerl, 1878)

Roman era Main article:  Hercules in ancient Rome

The  Latin  name  Hercules   was borrowed through  Etruscan, where it is represented variously as  Heracle, Hercle, and other forms. Hercules was a favorite subject for  Etruscan art, and appears often on  bronze mirrors. The Etruscan form  Herceler   derives from the Greek  Heracles   via  syncope. A mild oath invoking Hercules (Hercule!   or  Mehercle! ) was a common  interjection  in  Classical Latin.

Baby Hercules strangling asnake  sent to kill him in his  cradle(Roman marble, 2nd century CE)

Hercules had a number of  myths  that were distinctly Roman. One of these is Hercules' defeat of  Cacus, who was terrorizing the countryside of Rome. The hero was associated with the  Aventine Hill  through his son  Aventinus.  Mark Antony  considered him a personal patron god, as did the emperor  Commodus. Hercules received various forms of  religious veneration, including as a  deity concerned with children and childbirth, in part because of myths about his precocious infancy, and in part because he fathered countless children. Roman brides wore a special belt tied with the "knot of Hercules", which was supposed to be hard to untie.  The comic playwright  Plautus  presents the myth of Hercules' conception as a sex comedy in his play  Amphitryon ;  Senecawrote the tragedy  Hercules Furens   about his bout with madness. During the  Roman Imperial era, Hercules was worshipped locally from  Hispania  through  Gaul.

Germanic association

Tacitus  records a special affinity of the  Germanic peoples  for Hercules. In chapter 3 of his  Germania , Tacitus states:

... they say that Hercules, too, once visited them; and when going into battle, they sang of him first of all heroes. They have also those songs of theirs, by the recital of this   barditus  as they call it, they rouse their courage, while from the note they augur the result of the approaching conflict. For, as their line shouts, they inspire or feel alarm.

In the Roman era  Hercules' Club  amulets appear from the 2nd to 3rd century, distributed over the empire (including  Roman Britain, c.f. Cool 1986), mostly made of gold, shaped like wooden clubs. A specimen found in  Köln-Nippes  bears the inscription  "DEO HER [culi]", confirming the association with Hercules.

In the 5th to 7th centuries, during the  Migration Period, the amulet is theorized to have rapidly spread from the  Elbe Germanic  area across Europe. These Germanic "Donar's Clubs" were made from deer antler, bone or wood, more rarely also from bronze or precious metals.They are found exclusively in female graves, apparently worn either as a belt pendant, or as an ear pendant. The amulet type is replaced by the  Viking Age  Thor's hammer  pendants in the course of the  Christianization of Scandinavia  from the 8th to 9th century.

Medieval mythography Hercules and the  Nemean lionin the 15th-century  Histoires de Troyes

After the Roman Empire became  Christianized, mythological narratives were often reinterpreted as  allegory, influenced by the philosophy of  late antiquity. In the 4th century,  Servius  had described Hercules' return from the underworld as representing his ability to overcome earthly desires and vices, or the earth itself as a consumer of bodies.  In medieval mythography, Hercules was one of the heroes seen as a strong role model who demonstrated both valor and wisdom, with the monsters he battles as moral obstacles.  One  glossator  noted that when  Hercules became a constellation, he showed that strength was necessary to gain entrance to Heaven.

Medieval mythography was written almost entirely in Latin, and original Greek texts were little used as sources for Hercules' myths.

Renaissance mythography

The  Renaissance  and the invention of the  printing press  brought a renewed interest in and publication of Greek literature. Renaissance mythography drew more extensively on the Greek tradition of Heracles, typically under the Romanized name Hercules, or the alternate name  Alcides. In a chapter of his book  Mythologiae   (1567), the influential mythographer  Natale Conti  collected and summarized an extensive range of myths concerning the birth, adventures, and death of the hero under his Roman name Hercules. Conti begins his lengthy chapter on Hercules with an overview description that continues the moralizing impulse of the Middle Ages:

Hercules, who subdued and destroyed monsters, bandits, and criminals, was justly famous and renowned for his great courage. His great and glorious reputation was worldwide, and so firmly entrenched that he'll always be remembered. In fact the ancients honored him with his own temples, altars, ceremonies, and priests. But it was his wisdom and great soul that earned those honors; noble blood, physical strength, and political power just aren't good enough.

In art

In Roman works of art and in Renaissance and post-Renaissance art, Hercules can be identified by his attributes, the  lion skin  and the gnarled  club  (his favorite weapon); in  mosaic  he is shown tanned bronze, a virile aspect.

Roman era

• Hercules of the Forum Boarium   (Hellenistic, 2nd century BCE)

   

• Hercules and  Iolaus  (1st century CE mosaic from the Anzio Nymphaeum, Rome)

   

• Hercules (Hatra, Iraq,Parthian period, 1st-2nd century CE)

   

• Hercules bronze statuette, 2nd century CE (museum of  Alanya,  Turkey)

   

• Hercules and the  Nemean Lion  (detail),  silver  plate, 6th century (Cabinet des Médailles,  Paris)

Modern era

• The Giant Hercules   (1589) by  Hendrik Goltzius

   

• The Drunken Hercules (1612-1614) by  Rubens

   

• Hercules in the  Augean stable  (1842,  Honoré Daumier)

   

• Comic book  cover (c.1958)

   

• Hercules,  Deianira  and the Centaur Nessus , byBartholomäus Spranger, 1580 - 1582

   

• Henry IV of France, as Hercules vanquishing theLernaean Hydra  (i.e. theCatholic League), byToussaint Dubreuil, circa 1600.  Louvre Museum

In numismatics

Hercules was among the earliest figures on ancient Roman coinage, and has been the main motif of many collector coins and medals since. One example is the  20 euro Baroque Silver coin  issued on September 11, 2002. The obverse side of the coin shows the Grand Staircase in the town palace of  Prince Eugene of Savoy  in  Vienna, currently the Austrian Ministry of Finance. Gods and  demi-gods  hold its flights, while Hercules stands at the turn of the stairs.

• Juno, with Hercules fighting a  Centaur  on reverse (Roman, 215–15 BCE)

   

• Club over his shoulder on a Roman  denarius  (ca. 100 BCE)

   

• Maximinus II  and Hercules with club and lionskin (Roman, 313 CE)

   

• Commemorative  5-francpiece (1996), Hercules in center

 

Other cultural references

• Pillars of Hercules, representing the  Strait of Gibraltar  (19th-century conjecture of the  Tabula Peutingeriana )

   

• The Cudgel of Hercules , a tall  limestone  rock formation, with  Pieskowa Skała Castle  in the background

   

• Hercules as  heraldic supporters  in the  royal arms  of  Greece, in use 1863–1973. The phrase "Ηρακλείς του στέμματος" ("Defenders of the Crown") has pejorative connotations ("chief henchmen") in Greek.

In films For a list of films featuring Hercules, see  Hercules in popular culture#Filmography.

A series of nineteen Italian Hercules movies were made in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The actors who played Hercules in these films were  Steve Reeves,  Gordon Scott, Kirk Morris,  Mickey Hargitay, Mark Forest, Alan Steel,  Dan Vadis,  Brad Harris,  Reg Park,  Peter Lupus  (billed as  Rock Stevens) and Michael Lane. A number of English-dubbed Italian films that featured the name of Hercules in their title were not intended to be movies about Hercules.