Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/414

400 de Pyth Orac. 20; Macrob. Saf. i. 12.) But temples and sanctuaries of Heracles existed in all parts of Greece, especially in those inhabited by the Dorians, The sacrifices offered to him con- sisted principally of bulls, boars, rams and lambs. (Diod. iv. 39 ; Pans. ii. 10. § 1.) Respecting the festivals celebrated in his honour, see Diet, of Ant. s. r. 'HpdKeia.

The worship of Hercules at Rome and in Italy requires a separate consideration. His worship there is connected by late, especially Roman writers, with the hero's expedition to fetch the oxen of Geryones ; and the principal points are, that Her- cules in the West abolished human sacrifices among the Sabines, established the worship of fire, and slew Cacus, a robber, who had stolen eight of his oxen. (Dionys. i. 14 ; Cacus.) The aborigines, and especially Evander, honoured the hero with divine worship. (Serv. ad Aen. viii. 51, 269.) Hercules, in return, feasted the people, and pre- sented the king with lands, requesting that sacrifices should be offered to him every year, according to Greek rites. Two distinguished families, the Potitii and Pinarii, were instructed in these Greek rites, and appointed hereditary managers of the festival. But Hercules made a distinction between these two families, which continued to exist for a long time after ; for, as Pinarius arrived too late at the repast, the god punished him by declaring that he and his descendants should be excluded for ever from the sacrificial feast. Thus the custom arose for the Pinarii to act the part of servants at the feast. (Diod. iv. 21 ; Dionys. i. 39, &c. ; Liv. i. 40, V. 34 ; Nepos, Hann. 3 ; Plut. Quaest. Horn. 18 ; Ov. Fast. i. 581.) The Fabia gens traced its origin to Hercules, and Fauna and Acca Laurentia are called mistresses of Hercules, In this manner the Romans connected their earliest legends with Hercules. (Macrob, Sat. i. 10 ; August, de Civ. Dei^ vi. 7.) It should be observed that in the Italian traditions the hero bore the name of Reca- ranus, and this Recaranas was afterwards identified with the Greek Heracles. He had two temples at Rome, one was a small round temple of Hercules Victor, or Hercules Triumphalis, between the river and the Circus Maximus, in the forum boarium, and contained a statue, which was dressed in the triumphal robes whenever a general celebrated a triumph. In front of this statue was the ara max- ima, on which, after a triumph, the tenth of the booty was deposited for distribution among the citizens. (Liv, x, 23 ; Plin, H. N. xxxiv, 7, 16 ; Macrob. Sat. iii, 6 ; Tacit. Ann. xii. 24 ; Serv, ad Aen. xii, 24 ; Athen. v. 65 ; comp, Dionys, i, 40.) The second temple stood near the porta trigemina, tjd contained a bronze statue and the altar on bet^h Hercules himself was believed to have once batanl.^ sacrifice. (Dionys, i. 39, 40 ; Plut. Quaest. lightning' Pli"* H. N. xxxiii. 12, 45.) Here the the oracle ;offered every year a young cow, which he would seil^y *^^ people within the sanctuary, wages and sur'/'^"^^^ ^^^ regarded as the giver of atonement for th'f ^^^- P- 92), and his priests 6. 8 1, 2 • Diod. iv.^*"^ name Cupenci. (Serv, ad xxi. 22, &c. ; Soph, ^oi^e he was further con- was sold' to Omphale, qwhence he is called Musa- of Tmolus. Late writers, with a lyre, of which poets, describe Heracles, duri. fhe identity of the phale, as indulging at times in^^ attested not only he span wool, it is said, and soniPS and the mode th« garments of a woman, while Omf ^"e Romans themselves. The Greek colonies had introduced his worship into Italy, and it was thence carried to Rome, into Gaul, Spain, and even Germany. (Tac. Germ. 2.) But it is, nevertheless, in the highest degree probable that the Greek mythus was engrafted upon, or supplied the place of that about the Italian Recaranus or Garanus. [Ga- RANUS.]

The works of art in which Heracles was repre- sented were extremely numerous, and of the greatest variety, for he was represented at all the various stages of his life, from the cradle to his death ; but whether he appears as a child, a youth, a struggling hero, or as the immortal inhabitant of Olympus, his character is always that of heroic strength and energy. Specimens of every kind are still extant. In the works of the archaic style he appeared as a man with heavy armour (Pans. iii. 15, § 7), but he is usually represented armed with a club, a Scythian bow, and a lion's skin. His head and eyes are small in proportion to the other parts of his body ; his hair is sliort, bristly, and curly, his neck short, fat, and resembling that of a bull ; the lower part of his forehead projects, and his expression is grave and serious ; his shoulders, anns, breast, and legs display the highest physical strength, and the strong muscles suggest the unceasing and extraor- dinary exertions by which his life is characterised. The representations of Heracles by Myron and Parrhasius approached nearest to the ideal which was at length produced by Lysippus. The so- called Farnesian Heracles, of which the torso still exists, is the work of Glycon, in imitation of one by Lysippus. It is the finest representation of the hero that has come down to us : he is resting, leaning on his right arm, while the left one is re- clining on his head, and the whole figure is a most exquisite combination of peculiar softness with the greatest strength. (MUUer, Handb. der Ar- ch'doL p. 640, &.C. 2d edit, ; E. A. Hagen, de Herculis Laboribus Comment. ArcJi., Regiomont. 1827.)

The mythus of Heracles, as it has come down to us, has unquestionably been developed on Grecian soil ; his name is Greek, and the substance of the fables also is of genuine Greek growth: the foreign additions which at a later age may have been incorporated with the Greek mythus can easily be recognised and separated from it. It is farther clear that real historical elements are interwoven with the fables. The best treatises on the mythus of Heracles are those of Buttmann {Myiholoyus, vol. i. p. 246, &c,), and C. 0. Miiller {Dorians, ii, cc, 11 and 12), both of whom regard the hero as a purely Greek character, though the former considers him as entirely a poetical creation, and the latter believes that the whole mythus arose from the proud consciousness of power which is innate in every man, by means of which he is able to raise himself to an equality with the im- mortal gods, notwithstanding all the obstacles that may be placed in his way.

Before we conclude, we must add a few re- marks respecting the Heracles of the East, and of the Celtic and Germanic nations. The an- cients themselves expressly mention several heroes of the name of Heracles, who occur among the principal nations of the ancient world. Dio- dorus, e.g, (iii. 73, comp. i. 24, v. 64, 76) speaks of three, the most ancient of whom was the Egyptian, a son of Zeus, the second a Cretan,* and