It may seem impossible to pinpoint the birth of a demi-god so precisely, but ancient Greek legends provide all the clues needed to create a timeline of mythological events. The Greeks did not place their legends in a time so far removed from their own that it was forgotten. Instead, they believed that heroes and gods had many of their adventures just a few hundred years before they were first written down.
Because kings and rulers traced their lineage back to these heroes, detailed genealogies were given that dated back to the Bronze Age. The connections to the gods may have been fictitious, but the lines of rules allowed historians to reconstruct a timeline of ancient events.
Modern archaeology has been able to confirm many of the estimated dates proposed by these ancient writers. In the case of Hercules , ties to Troy help to narrow down the window of time in which he could have been born.
While Hercules may not have been a historical Bronze Age figure, modern science has shown that the Greek estimation of his age fits the mythology better than ever thought possible! The Greeks also believed that the events of their myths were not very far removed from their own time. Rulers in the Greco-Roman world still claimed direct ancestry from the gods and members of the Argive genealogy, and believed their famous lineage went back only a few generations.
The early poet Homer believed when he wrote the Iliad and Odyssey that he was describing events that happened only a few hundred years before his own time. Homer lived in the 8th century BC and the events of the Trojan War were thought to have taken place about four hundred years earlier. This is important in estimating the lifetime of Hercules because Homer includes the hero in the legend. Before the events of the Iliad , Troy had also been sacked by Hercules.
The remaining son, Podarces, saved his own life by offering Hercules a gift. Podarces was later renamed Priam and was the king of Troy during the Trojan War. Linking royal genealogies of his own time, historical events, and descriptions in older texts, Herodotus settled on a date of roughly BC for the start of the Trojan War.
Later writers such as Apollodorus of Athens expanded on the work of Herodotus. Their chronology puts the Trojan War at about BC, the installation of Priam as king about forty years before, and the birth of Hercules roughly forty years prior to that. The ancient historians believed that Hercules was born around BC. Remarkably, modern archaeology and science have managed to corroborate some parts of their chronology.
Archaeologists have long been fascinated with the precision of Greek historians. While many of the events of mythology can be assumed to be invented, the wars and kings of the Age of Heroes are sometimes believed to have been based in some measure of fact. That meant Zeus could do anything he pleased, but it also meant that sometimes Zeus was not a very good husband to his wife, Hera, the queen of the gods.
When Alcmene's husband, Amphitryon, was away, Zeus made her pregnant. This made Hera so angry that she tried to prevent the baby from being born.
When Alcmene gave birth to the baby anyway, she named him Herakles. The Romans pronounced the name "Hercules," and so do we today. The name Herakles means "glorious gift of Hera" in Greek, and that got Hera angrier still. Then she tried to kill the baby by sending snakes into his crib. But little Hercules was one strong baby, and he strangled the snakes, one in each hand, before they could bite him. Louvre G , Attic red figure stamnos, c. The baby Hercules wrestles with the snakes Hera has sent to his crib.
How could she get even? Hera knew that she would lose in a fight, and that she wasn't powerful enough to prevent Zeus from having his way. Hera decided to pay Zeus back for his infidelity by making the rest of Hercules' life as miserable as she could.
Eurystheus and the 12 Labors When Hercules grew up and had become a great warrior, he married Megara. They had two children. Hercules and Megara were very happy, but life didn't turn out for them the way it does in the movie. Hera sent a fit of madness to Hercules that put him into so great a rage, he murdered Megara and the children.
When Hercules regained his senses and saw the horrible thing that he had done, he asked the god Apollo to rid him of this pollution. Apollo commanded the hero to do certain tasks as a punishment for his wrongs, so that the evil might be cleansed from his spirit. The god Apollo.
As Phoebus, he was the sun god, and every day he drove the chariot of the sun across the sky. He was the god of healing and music. Finally, Apollo was a god of prophecy: the Greeks believed that Apollo knew what would happen in the future, and that he could advise people how to act. Hercules hurried to the temple where Apollo gave such advice. It was in the town of Delphi and was called the Delphic oracle. Apollo said that in order to purify himself for the spilling of his family's blood, he had to perform 10 heroic labors this number would soon be increased to Delphi, view looking SE across the Temple of Apollo's terrace toward the valley below.
Here are his labours: The Lion — First, Hercules was sent to the hills of Nemea to kill a lion that was terrorizing the people. Hercules skinned the lion and wore the pelt as a cloak for the rest of his life.
The Hydra — Hercules traveled to the city of Lerna to slay the nine-headed poisonous, snake-like creature called Hydra who lived underwater, guarding the entrance to the Underworld. The Hind — Hercules had to capture the Cerynitian deer with the golden antlers who was sacred to the goddess Artemis.
The Board — Hercules was sent to Mount Erymanthus to capture a terrifying, man-eating wild boar. While this may sound simple, this was actually a huge and smelly task. The Birds — Hercules traveled to the town of Stymphalos and drove out the huge flock of carnivorous birds. The Bull -Hercules journeyed to Crete to capture a rampaging bull that had impregnated the wife of the king.
The Horses — Hercules was sent to capture the four man-eating horses of the Thracian king Diomedes. The Belt — Hercules was sent to steal an armored belt that belonged to the Amazon queen, Hippolyte. The Cattle — Hercules travelled nearly to Africa to steal the cattle of the three-headed, six-legged monster, Geryon. The Three-Headed Dog — The final challenge led Hercules to Hades, where he had to kidnap Cerberus, the vicious three-headed dog that guarded the gates to the underworld.
July 23, Accessed on June 9, The Infidelities of Zeus. September 2, The Life and Times of Hercules.
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