CC 303 Intro to Classical Mythology - Fall 2009
Department of Classics, University of Texas at Austin, Prof. Lawrence Kim
Sophocles, Lichas, Trachis, Mt. Oeta, Centaurs
- Labors
- Atonement for murdering his family (taming the beast within)
- An ever widening circle of areas 'civilized' and wandered over
- Peloponnese, Four corners of the Earth, Paradise/Underworld
- Predominance of Beasts (Lions, Boars, Deer, Birds, Bulls, Horses), Monsters (Geryon), and Anti-social People (Diomedes, Antaeus, Augeus, Amazons)
- Women of Trachis: Deianira, Nessus, Iole, Omphale, and Death
- Hercules interested in Iole, princess of Oechalia; rejected by her dad
- Later goes crazy and kills Iole's brother Iphitus, his guest in Thebes
- Sold as slave to the Lydian Queen Omphale
for
3 years
- The two switch roles - he dresses as woman, she as a warrior
- Hercules battles the river-god Achelous for Deianira, an Aetolian princess
- Deianira and Nessus - the Evenus river crossing - the poisoned shirt
- H. and D. reside in Trachis, where H. is exiled after killing Iphitus
- H. attacks and conquers Oechalia; he sends Iole as a prisoner home to Trachis
- Deianira, jealous, sends the shirt to Heracles via the herald Lichas
- Heracles, poisoned, enraged, kills Lichas
- H. returns to Trachis; D. kills herself
- H. burns himself to death on pyre, on Mt. Oeta
- H. rises to Olympus and becomes immortal
- Hercules' Wild Side
- Lone Mountain Man; Gets into Trouble in Society
- Clothing and Accessories associated with Beasts and the Primitive
- Lion Skin, Club, Hairy, Sometimes Naked, Wrestling
- Characterized by excess
- Big Appetites: Food, Drink, Sex
- Daughters of Thespius, Pholos and Centaurs, Alcestis (see later lecture)
- Passions, Lack of Emotional Control: Murderous Rages
- Megara and Children; Linus; Iphitus; Lichas
- The Other Sides of Hercules
- The Civilizing and Culture-Hero
- Rids the world of monsters, outlaws, and sociopaths
- Uses cleverness and skill instead of brawn
- Frees Prometheus, the bringer of fire and civilization
- Uses the bow and arrow
- Object of ridicule
- Serves the coward Eurystheus and the woman Omphale
- Often portrayed as dimwitted, a brute, and a drunk
- Force of Nature and Larger than Life
- Greek Hero:
- Not someone you look up to, and try to emulate
- Pushes at the limits of humanity
- H. is a figure of excess; goes well beyond other Greek heroes
- H. is stronger, crazier, more accomplished, etc.
- H. eventually goes beyond humanity; he becomes a god
- Heracles Fighting Achelous. Attic Vase.
- Hercules and Omphale. François Lemoyne, 1724. Musée du Louvre, Paris.
- Hercules and Omphale. Bartholomäus Spranger, c. 1600. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.
- Heracles, Nessus, and Deianeira. Attic amphora, c. 570-550 BCE. Staatliche Antikensammlung, Munich.
- Deianeira Abducted by the Centaur Nessus. Guido Reni, 1621. Musée du Louvre, Paris.
- Heracles shooting Nessus. Engraving.
- Heracles and Deianeira. Attic Red-figure pelike from Nola, c. 420 BCE. British Museum, London.
- Hercules and Lichas. Antonio Canova, 1795-1825. Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Rome.
- Heracles on his pyre. Attic Red-figure psykter, c. 460 BCE. Private Collection, New York.
- Drunken Heracles. House of the Stags, Herculaneum.
