Herakles and Hercules: Exploring a Graeco-Roman Divinity

by Hugh Bowden (Editor), Louis Rawlings (Editor)

Overview

Herakles and Hercules: two names for a figure of pervasive appeal in Antiquity. He was a hero of myth and a god with cult associations. He was ancestor of Macedonian kings, patron of Carthaginian generals and of Roman emperors, and a role model for Stoic philosophers. As a performer of the famous labours, wanderer, liberator, madman and murderer of kin, Herakles-Hercules has retained his fascination down to the present. The eleven new studies in this volume explore why this figure appealed so widely in Antiquity. They examine his role in ancient myth and philosophy, drama and art, as well as in politics and propaganda, warfare and religion.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781905125050
Publisher:	Classical Press of Wales, The
Publication date:	12/30/2005
Series:	Greece, Rome, & Beyond
Pages:	270
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.17(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Louis Rawlings is Lecturer in Ancient History at Cardiff University. He has written numerous articles on ancient warfare and society, and is currently preparing a monograph, The Ancient Greeks at War (Manchester University Press). Hugh Bowden is Lecturer in Ancient History at King's College London. He is the author of Classical Athens and the Delphic Oracle: Divination and Democracy (Cambridge 2005) and General Editor of The Times Ancient Civilisations (Revised Edition, London 2005). He has also published numerous articles on Greek history and religion.

Table of Contents

Introduction - Hugh Bowden and Louis Rawlings Herakles, Herodotos and the Persian Wars - Hugh Bowden The family of Herakles in Attika - Michael Jameson Herakles and his 'girl': Athena, heroism and beyond - Susan Deacy Herakles re-dressed: gender, clothing and the construction of a Greek hero - Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones Vice or virtue? Herakles and the art of allegory - Emma Stafford The magic knot of Herakles, the propaganda of Alexander the Great and Tomb II at Vergina - Ann. M. Nicgorski Aspects of the cult of Hercules in central Italy - Guy Bradley Hannibal and Hercules - Louis Rawlings Hercules Furens and Nero: the didactic purpose of Senecan tragedy - Eleanor Regina Okell Propagating power: Hercules as an example for second-century emperors - Oliver Hekster The emperors' new names: Diocletian Jovius and Maximian Herculius - Roger Rees