Hercules

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hercules is the Roman name for the mythical Greek demigod Heracles, son of Zeus, the Roman Jupiter, and the mortal Alcmena. Early Roman sources suggest that the imported Greek hero supplanted a mythic Italic shepherd called "Recaranus" or "Garanus", famous for his strength, who dedicated the Ara Maxima that became associated with the earliest Roman cult of Hercules. While adopting much of the Greek Heracles' iconography and mythology as his own, Hercules adopted a number of myths and characteristics that were distinctly Roman. With the spread of Roman hegemony, Hercules was worshiped locally from Spain through Gaul to the Rhine.

Etymology

Hercules's Latin name is not directly borrowed from Greek Heracles but is a modification of the Etruscan name Hercle, which derives from the Greek name via syncope, Heracles translates to "The Glory of Hera". An oath invoking Hercules (Hercle! or Mehercle!) was a common interjection in Classical Latin.

Character

In Roman works of art and in Renaissance and post-Renaissance art that adapts Roman iconography, Hercules can be identified by his attributes, the lion skin and the club: in mosaic he is shown tanned bronze, a virile aspect. While he was a champion and a great warrior, he was not above cheating and using any unfair trick to his advantage. However, he was renowned as having "made the world safe for mankind" by destroying many dangerous monsters. His self-sacrifice obtained him the ascent to the Olympian realms and he was welcomed by the gods.

Myths of Hercules

The Romans adopted the myths of Heracles including his twelve labors, essentially unchanged, but added anecdotal detail of their own, some of it linking Hercules with the geography of the Western Mediterranean. In Roman mythology, Acca Larentia was Hercules's mistress. She was married to Tarutius, a wealthy merchant. When he died, she gave his money to charity. In another version, she was the wife of Faustulus. In Aeneid 8.195ff., Vergilius relates a myth about Hercules' defeating the monstrous Cacus, who lived in a cave under the Palatine Hill (one of the eventual Seven Hills of Rome).

Death of Hercules

Hercules was married to Deianeira. Long after their marriage, one day the centaur Nessus offered to ferry them across a wide river that they had to cross. Nessus set off with Deianeira first, but tried to abduct her. When Hercules realized the centaur's real intention, Hercules chased after him and shot him with a poisoned arrow. Before he died Nessus told Deianeira to take some of his blood and treasure it: if she ever thought Hercules was being unfaithful, the centaur told her, the blood would restore his love. Deianeira kept the phial of blood. Many years later after that incident she heard rumours that Hercules has fallen in love with another woman. She smeared some of the blood on his shirt and sent it to Hercules. When he put on the shirt, the blood still poisoned from the same arrow used by Hercules, burnt into his flesh and eventually he died in pain.

Parallel of this story in Indian literature:

If you think about relevance of this story of Hercules with Indian culture, you should correlate the story of Hercules with the story of Krishna. All the labors of Hercules are reflected in the story Krishna with modifications. The Hercules story got modified to Indian condition and all additions and deletions had been made to make it suitable to Indian environment. Resulting in a situation that the story is beyond recognition from the initial source, however a deeper study and observation will reveal that the foundation of the story is from story of Hercules.. First of all both are represented in black -color. There is some thing specific about black color given to gods. It looks like that the the black color indicated old gods of dark colored people and fair color represented the lighter color of later day Aryans.

Now, coming into the issue of similarity between the two, they did many wonders, physical achievements by Hercules and cunning calculated planning of Krishna in Mahabharata Story. In this aspect of cunning planning Krishna resembles more of Ulysses than Hercules. Hercules is more of brutal force than sophisticated plans.Now, let us go into some kind of similarities. The story of Hydra (of Greece) and Kalingarayan (of India), both are the same. Hercules didn't not kill hydra , he merely placed a huge stone over his head, similarly Krishna also did not kill Kalingarayan the snake. Krishna directs him to move away from the place used by Brindavan people in the Yamuna river and not to disturb the common people.

The remaining stories will be explained one by one in separate pages----

http://sites.google.com/site/greekinfluenceonindia/hercules/12-labors

http://sites.google.com/site/greekinfluenceonindia/hercules/hercules-and-birds

http://sites.google.com/site/greekinfluenceonindia/hercules/hercules-and-boar

http://sites.google.com/site/greekinfluenceonindia/hercules/hercules-and-hind

http://sites.google.com/site/greekinfluenceonindia/hercules/inner-meaning

http://sites.google.com/site/greekinfluenceonindia/hercules/killing-hydra

http://sites.google.com/site/greekinfluenceonindia/hercules/killing-lion

(To be continued)