The death of Hercules and his ascension to Olympus. Hercules (Heraclius, Alkid, Hercules), the greatest hero of Greek myths and legends, the son of Zeus

Hercules, in ancient Greek mythology, a hero, a demigod with great power.

Family and environment

Numerous myths about the further fate of Hercules, after being released from service, basically come down not to victories over monsters, but to campaigns, the capture of cities and the birth of numerous children, whose descendants reigned in the city-states of Greece.

Herodotus writes that when Hercules passed through Scythia, he met a half-maiden-half-snake and entered into a marriage relationship with her. The sons from this connection became the ancestors of the Scythians.

Hercules also participated in the campaign of the Argonauts along with Hylas. According to one version, he was not just a participant, but a leader.

Hercules was also placed in the sky as a constellation. There are different versions of which constellation represents Hercules. Or it is the Kneeling One, which displays the victory of the hero over the dragon at the Hesperides. Or Ophiuchus, since he strangled the snake near the river Sagaris in Lydia. Either he became the constellation Gemini along with Theseus or Apollo.

Name, epithets and character

At birth, Hercules was named Alcides. The very name "Hercules" most likely means "the glorified Hero" or "thanks to Hera." This etymology was already known to the ancient authors, who tried to reconcile the apparent contradiction between the meaning of the name Hercules and Hera's hostile attitude towards him. In different parts of Greece, Hercules was revered under different names. The Eritheans revered him as Ipokton, as he exterminated the worms that undermine the vine.

Cornopion is revered by the Eteans for delivering them from the locust, which they call "corn dog". In Iberia, his epithet is Pevkei, in Thebes, Promach.

Another epithet of Hercules is Melampig, which is also the name of the rock at Thermopylae. According to Hesychius, this epithet means "brave, daring".

A few more epithets found in different sources are Keraminth, Mekistei, Musaget and Palemon.

The Greeks identified Hercules with the Phoenician god-patron of navigation Melkart, the Celts revered him as the patron of writing and the art of the bards. They followed the tradition that Heracles was the Idean Dactyl, whom they called Ogmios.

The descendants of Hercules were called Heracleides. In Roman mythology, Hercules corresponds to Hercules.

Cult and symbolism

The cult of Hercules was widespread throughout the Greek world, and sacrifices were performed in some cases according to the ritual adopted for the gods, in others - according to the ritual customary for heroes. According to Diodorus, the cult of Hercules as a god first arose in Athens. Hercules was revered as the patron saint of gymnasiums, palestras and thermae, often as a healer and averter of all sorts of troubles. Sometimes he was revered along with Hermes, the patron of trade.

Hercules very early turned into a general Greek hero, and the details of the legends that connected him, probably originally with some particular locality or Greek tribe, were erased. However, all attempts to link the origin of the myths about Hercules to one particular place (either with Thebes or Argos) or to consider Hercules as a specifically Dorian hero are unconvincing. The exploits of Hercules quite clearly fall into three cultural and historical types: the curbing of monsters, the military exploits of the epic hero, and the fighting against God.

In Sikyon, Thebes and other cities, festivities were held in honor of Hercules - Heraclea. They were established to commemorate the death of a hero and were held on the second day of the month of metageitnion (approximately August-September).

In Phocis there was a sanctuary of Hercules the Misogynist, whose priest was not supposed to sleep with a woman for a year.

Ovid writes that Hercules' birthday was celebrated on the winter solstice, as were the birthdays of Zeus, Apollo, and other gods. According to Theocritus, Alcmene gave birth to Hercules on the day of the vernal equinox, when the Italians, Babylonians and other peoples celebrated the New Year. The fourth day of the month was dedicated to Hercules as the founder of the Olympic Games, he also belonged to every fourth year.

A temple dedicated to Hercules stood in Thespiae, its attendant was a virgin priestess. In Thebes, the sanctuary of Hercules the Binder of the Horses was established.

The veneration of Hercules was spread throughout Macedonia, whose kings were venerated by his descendants.

The indispensable attributes of Hercules were the skin of the Nemean lion, which served as his armor, and a club made of oak (or ash, or olive).

In culture and art

Euripides writes about Hercules in the tragedies Furious Hercules, Alcestis and Heraclides, Sophocles in the tragedy Trachinian, Pausanias in the Description of Hellas, Hesiod in The Shield of Hercules and many other authors. The 15th hymn of Homer and the 12th Orphic hymn are dedicated to him.

The variety of myths about this Hero and the presence of similar characters in the myths of other peoples prompted ancient philologists to think that Hercules is a collective image and several heroes bore this name. The Roman scholar Varro believes that there were 24 Hercules, and John Leads counts 7 of them.

Hercules was depicted as a child strangling snakes, a young man resting after a feat or performing a feat, a powerful bearded man armed with a club and dressed in the skin of the Nemean lion he had killed.

From ancient times to modern times, the myths about Hercules never cease to be of interest to writers, sculptors and artists.

Some of the most interesting works in painting are paintings by Paolo Veronese "The Choice of Hercules" (c. 1580), Reni Guido "Hercules and the Lernean Hydra" (1620), Annibale Carracci "Choice of Hercules" (c. 1596). Francisco de Zurban created a whole series of ten canvases dedicated to exploits, it is interesting that each of his paintings depicts a club, it either lies on the ground and is in the hands of the hero. The Symbolist Gustave Moreau illustrated Heracles' battles with the Lernaean Hydra and the Stymphalian Birds. The image of the hero was no less popular in the Rococo era, the most interesting is the work of Francois Boucher "Omphala and Hercules", where the latter appears as a hero-lover surrounded by cupids and a romantic interior. The popularity of stories about this hero in modern art is not a surprise, one of the strangest paintings is Salvador Dali's painting "Hercules raises the surface of the sea and asks Venus to wait to wake Cupid", written in 1963, what exactly the author wanted to say by this is completely unclear.

Of the works of sculpture, it is worth paying attention to Hercules by the Farnese sculptor Lysippus (an ancient Roman copy from the Greek original), Hercules from the Bull Forum and Hercules the Archer from the pediment of the temple of Athena in Aegina.

Of the famous sculptors of a later time, Antonio Pollaiolo "Hercules and Antaeus", "Hercules and Hydra" (1478), Giambologna "Hercules and Antaeus", "Hercules and Ness" and others, William Brodie "Hercules and Ness" and others, William Brodie "Hercules and firmament" (1850) and so on.

The myths about Hercules also inspired the composers Bach, Cavalli, Vivaldi and Saint-Saens.

In modern times

Not many people know that the name Hercule of the character of the famous detective Hercule Poirot of the writer Agatha Christie is the French version of the name "Hercules". And in 1947, she wrote the book "The Labors of Hercules", which is 12 short stories, titled in honor of a feat, where Poirot solves another riddle.

Hercules or Hercules is often found in modern cinema, as a character in a movie, TV series or cartoon. In 1997, Disney even shot a full-length cartoon "Hercules", and a little later, an animated series based on it.

Not bypassed the Hero and the industry of computer games. Here are some games where Hercules is found - Rise of the Argonauts, God of War III, Gods of the Arena and others.

In honor of Hercules, one of the largest asteroids of the main belt (532) Herculinus, discovered on April 20, 1904 by the German astronomer Max Wolf at the Heidenberg Observatory, was named.

A well-marked impact crater in the northern part of the visible side of the Moon is called "Hercules". The constellation of the northern hemisphere of the sky, visible throughout Russia, bears the same name, originally it was called "Kneeling", but in the 5th century. BC. The Greeks begin to call him "Hercules". If you connect the stars with dashes, then the constellation looks like a figure of a man, bending one knee and raising a club above his head.

"So I accomplished my last feat," thought Hercules, returning to Trakhina to his beloved wife and children. He did not know that the gods of Olympus would demand another feat from him. A race of giants, the sons of Gaia-Earth, rebelled against the immortal celestials. Some of them were like people, although of enormous size, while others had bodies ending in coils of snakes. There were mortal giants, but they were not afraid of the gods, because they knew that by the will of Providence only a mortal person could defeat them.

The day of the battle of gods and giants has come. Giants and gods met on the Phlegrian fields. The thunder of this battle resounded throughout the world. Not afraid of death at the hands of the gods, the giants crowded the inhabitants of Olympus. They threw burning trunks of centuries-old trees, huge rocks and even whole mountains into them, which, falling into the sea, turned into islands.

In the midst of the battle, Hercules came to the aid of the gods. He was called by the daughter of Zeus, Pallas Athena. She, the wisest of the Olympic gods, guessed that the hero who is able to exterminate the tribe of giants is Hercules.

The mortal Hercules stood in line with the immortals. The bowstring of his formidable bow rang, an arrow sparkled, drunk with the poison of the Lernean Hydra, and pierced into the chest of the most powerful of the giants, Alcyoneus. The second arrow hit the right eye of the giant Ephialtes. The giants trembled and fled. But to all of them, fleeing in panic from the battlefield, Hercules sent death with his arrows that did not miss.

"My gratitude knows no bounds," said Zeus to Hercules after the battle. "Your body is mortal, but from now on your name will be immortal."

And again the road. Again Hercules goes through the mountains, forests and roads of Hellas. He goes home to his wife Deianira, to his sons Gill, Glen, Ctesippus, Onitus, to the curly-haired daughter of Makaria ...

And Dejanira, accustomed to the constant absence of her husband, this time was very worried. She was about to send her eldest son Gill in search of her father, but a messenger from Hercules appeared and said that her husband was alive and well, returning home and sending home gifts: jewelry, gold dishes and a captive - a girl of extraordinary beauty.

"Who's that girl?" Dejanira asked. The messenger answered slyly: "Oh, this is not a simple captive, but the daughter of King Eurytus Iola, whom Hercules once wanted to take as his wife."

Deianira saw that Iola was younger than her and more beautiful, and thought: "It seems that Hercules has fallen out of love with me, and if he hasn't fallen out of love yet, he will certainly fall out of love soon."

It was then that Dejanira remembered the dying advice of the centaur Nessus: with his gore, she rubbed new, festive clothes, which she herself wove for her husband, and sent her with a messenger to meet Hercules.

Hercules accepted his wife's gift and wanted to immediately put it on. But as soon as the clothes touched the body, the poison of Nessus blood, mixed with the blood of the Lernaean hydra, penetrated the body of Hercules.

Like a hot flame engulfed Hercules. He began to tear his cursed clothes, but they adhered to the body and caused unbearable torment. Tears rolled down from the eyes of Hercules. He, who did not bow before the most formidable dangers, who fought with monsters and even with the gods, was now broken by the suffering that a weak loving woman brought on him.

But there was no escape...

When Dejanira found out that she had killed her husband with her own hands, she threw herself on the sword in the marital bed.

All his children from Dejanira came to the valley where Hercules was dying, the elderly mother of Alcmene came, friends came - Iolaus, Philoctetes ... Already with cold lips, Hercules told them: “I don’t want to die here, not in this damp valley. Take me to a high mountain so that you can see the sea from it. There, in the free space, lay down my funeral pyre. When I go to another world, you, my son Gill, take Iola as your wife, and may my descendants, the Heraclids, always live on earth. This is my last will."

On the heavenly Mount Etna, which rises above Thermopylae, in the reserved meadow of Zeus, a funeral pyre was laid for Hercules. A still living hero was placed on the skin of the Nemean lion.

The torment of Hercules did not stop, and the son of Zeus pleaded: "The dead have no suffering! Set fire to the fire as soon as possible! Save me from unbearable torment! Gill! My son! Be bolder! Bring the torch to the fire!"

The son of Hercules was horrified: "Have mercy, father, how can I become your killer !?"

"You will not be a killer, but a healer of my suffering," Hercules replied to Gil.

Then Philoctetes, an old friend and comrade of Hercules, went up to the funeral pyre and set fire to the resinous logs.

“Blessed be, Philoctetes, I give you my bow as a keepsake, take care of it,” the last words of Hercules were heard through the smoke rising to the sky.

Now the sun is setting behind the mountains of the west. When it rises over the eastern sea, the daughter of Hercules, Makaria, will approach the burned-out funeral pyre, collect white ash in an urn - the remains of her father.

And on the bright peak of Olympus golden tables shine. There are more of them than there were before: there will be a feast for the guests of the old and the new world. All the gods of Olympus are waiting for the great hero of Hellas on the threshold of their abode. A golden chariot appeared high in the sky. This is Athena rushing to the sacred mountain of the new god - Hercules, who was born mortal, but who deserved immortality with his life.

“Rejoice, persecuted by me, glorified by me, exalted by me!” Hera greets Hercules. “From now on, as the husband of my daughter, the goddess of Youth Hebe, you will also be my son.

Hera hugs Hercules, and Hebe pours a goblet of nectar for the groom - the drink of immortality.

We all know that Hercules is some ancient Greek hero who accomplished 12 labors. However, few people remember and know how difficult and contradictory his path really was.

How did Hercules, aka Alkid, aka Hercules, come into the world (in Italy)

Surely, many will now remember that the father of our hero was Zeus (the supreme god from Mount Olympus in Greek mythology), and his mother was a simple mortal woman, Alcmene.

The Greek gods have always been distinguished by their human and sometimes impartial essence.

Once Zeus imprisoned the titans in the underworld - the children of Uranus (the god of heaven) and Gaia (the goddess of the earth), who were deities personifying the natural destructive elements.

The offended Gaia persuaded the children to rebel against Zeus again and destroy not only Olympus, but all of humanity.

The giants began to throw stones and burning trees at the sky, they were so angry. Then the wife of Zeus Hera and the goddess of fate told the rest of the gods that the titans can only be defeated with the help of a mortal hero.

Then Zeus realized that he needed a demigod son who would help defeat the giants and win the war. The choice falls on Alcmene. The insidious Zeus stops time, takes the form of Alcmene's husband, and for three days the world is in a state of timelessness. Thus Hercules was conceived.

Time passed, and on the night of the birth of our hero, embittered by the betrayal of her husband, Hera forces Zeus to take an oath that the baby from the Perseus family born that night will become the supreme king.

Zeus is sure that Hercules will become him, but Hera turns out to be more cunning - she slows down the birth of Alcmene. That night, the first cousin of our hero, Eurystheus, is born. Then Zeus has to conclude a new agreement with the Hero.

Hercules will obey Eurystheus until he completes 10 (!) labors. After the demigod fulfills the terms of the contract, he will become both free and immortal. On this they agreed.

You can often find a myth about how, as a baby, Hercules killed two snakes. According to one version, they were sent by Hera to kill him. According to another, Alcmene's husband planted them in order to understand which of the children was still a demigod.

Hercules grew up, matured, married, but Hera still did not forgive her husband's betrayal. She sends madness to the hated son of her husband, in which he has all his family and brother's children. Waking up and realizing what he had done, Hercules goes to the oracle, who sends him to his brother - to redeem his deeds with feats.

In fact, our hero had only 10 feats, but the king did not accept 2 of them, so Hercules was forced to do 2 more, thus, 12 came out.

The sequence of his exploits varies in different sources, but among them was a completely unarmed fight with the Nemean lion, and a deft victory over the Lernaean Hydra, and the expulsion of Stymphalian birds with terrifying metal plumage.

The labors of Hercules also included:

1. Catching the Kerinean fallow deer.
2. baptism of the fierce Erymanthian boar.
3. Cleaning of manure from the stables of King Avgei.
4. Opposition to the Cretan bull, who was the father of the famous Minotaur.

And Hercules could:

• to subdue the cannibal mares of King Diodemus;
• steal the belt from the head Amazon Hippolyta;
• steal and bring to Mycenae the cows that he took from the three-headed giant Gerion;
• get golden apples from the garden of the Hesperides;
• to bring the chief guardian of the god Hades, the three-headed dog Cerberus, out of the kingdom of the dead and deliver him to Tiryns.

In fact, Hercules was famous not only for these feats, behind him there are many valiant deeds with which the legends and myths of Ancient Greece are full.

How did Hercules get to Olympus?

Once he, protecting his wife Dejanira from a centaur named Ness, killed him with a poisoned arrow. Nessus, dying, inspired the wife of Hercules that his blood had the properties of a love potion.

Dejanira, terribly jealous of her husband for another girl, saves herself some of the blood of the deceased, and later soaks her shirt and gives it to her husband.

The blood of the centaur causes Hercules unbearable torment, and he literally steps into the fire, from where Zeus takes him. So Hercules became a god.

Hercules is a forced hero, a demigod who was able to get to Olympus, a victim of politics, intrigues and Zeus's thirst to maintain power.

For many years, Hercules lived with Keik with his wife and children. He traveled a lot, saving people from death; finally he undertook another campaign, which was the last in his life.

He decided to come out with his army and punish the ungrateful king Eurytus, who had once expelled him from his home. He approached the city of Eurythus and easily defeated it and conquered the city. He killed King Eurytus and his three sons, destroyed the capital and captured his daughter, the beautiful Iola.

For a long time she waited for Hercules Dejanira and languished from the unknown, not receiving news from him.

Yearning for her husband, Dejanira told her eldest son Gill about her fears for his fate and asked him to go in search of his father.

When Gill was ready to go, the messenger of Hercules appeared and informed Dejanira that her husband was alive and would soon return home, crowned with victory.

He said that Hercules destroyed the city of Eurythus, destroyed the king and his children, and handed over to Deianira as a gift the captives taken during this war. Dejanira looked sadly at the captives, doomed to eternal slavery in a foreign country, and she liked one of them for her beauty.

She asked her where she came from, but Princess Iola, in tears, did not answer, and then Deianira ordered the maids to take her to the house and take care of her.

When the messenger of Hercules left, one of the captives appeared to Dejanira and said that the beautiful captive was the daughter of King Eurytus Iol, whom Hercules once wanted to marry, and that because of her he went to war against Eurytus and sent her here because he still loves her.

Then Dejanira remembered the advice of the centaur Ness and decided to get a magical blood clot in order to regain the love of Hercules, which she considered lost.

She took out a hidden talisman that she protected from daylight, smeared it on the new clothes prepared for Hercules, and instructed the messenger to give it to her husband as a gift. “Take these clothes to Hercules on the island of Euboea, this is my gift to him. I myself wove and sewed it, but let not a single ray of light or a reflection of fire touch it; I will hide it in a casket, and you will fulfill exactly my order.” The messenger promised to fulfill everything as Dejanira ordered him, and took the chest with clothes to Euboea.

And so Dejanira began to joyfully await the return of her husband. She sends her son Gill to urge his father to return home as soon as possible. But her joy soon gave way to great grief. Gill returned home alone.

Your gift has ruined your father, - the young man exclaimed, entering his mother, trembling with anger and horror. - When my father offered a sacrifice to the gods, at that time a messenger appeared in Euboea with your gift, deadly clothing. The father put it on himself, and suddenly his body was covered with bloody sweat, as if the poisonous Echidna had dug into his body, and he fell, exhausted from pain, to the ground. "Dejanira's gift burns my body!" - exclaimed the father, cursing you. Crying, he called me to him and said: "My son, do not leave me in grief, take me away from this country, do not let me die in a foreign land." And we carried him to the ship and sailed to the shores of Hellas. Soon he will arrive here, and you may see your father still alive. Mother, it was you who ruined him, because of you the best of the husbands of Hellas died!

Silently Dejanira listened to the words of her son. Struck by grief, she silently withdrew to her chambers and wandered for a long time, like a shadow, through the deserted house. Then she threw herself on the bed and pierced her chest with a sword - and when her son entered her bedchamber, he saw her lying on the floor and dying.

Shedding bitter tears, Gill rushed to his mother, reproaching himself that he had wrongly accused her of a terrible crime. Later, he learned about how the evil centaur deceived Dejanira and that she unwittingly caused the death of Hercules.

At this time, the dying Hercules was brought on a stretcher, and his terrible groans filled the house.

Ungrateful children of Hellas! Can't anyone help me? How much suffering I endured, how many feats I accomplished! Look at these hands with which I defeated the Nemean lion and the Lernean hydra, with which I fought the giants and Cerberus. It was not the spear of the enemy that struck me, but the hands of a woman killed me.

When Hercules learned that Dejanira had taken her own life because she had become his unwitting killer, following the advice of an insidious centaur, he remembered the prediction that only a dead man could kill him. Anticipating death, he betrothed his son Gill to the beautiful princess Iola, and then ordered to be carried to the top of Mount Eta.

They laid a huge fire on its top, and Hercules' friend Philoctetes approached him, lit a fire and received his deadly arrows, which did not know a miss, as a gift from Hercules. Here the fire caught fire, lightning struck it, a large light cloud descended from the sky and enveloped the body. Under the peals of thunder, the body of the hero was taken to the top of Mount Olympus. Pallas Athena met Hercules on Olympus and led him to her father Zeus and Hera, who pursued the hero on earth all her life, but now she has reconciled with him. Zeus and Hera gave him their daughter, the beautiful Hebe, the goddess of eternal youth, as his wife, and she gave birth to Hercules two sons - Anikt and Alexiar, that is, "Invincible" and "Apostle of troubles."

The glory of the mighty hero Hercules, who was not defeated by anyone on earth, who did a lot of good to people and accomplished many wonderful feats, lived for many centuries among the peoples of ancient Hellas.