However, I couldn't publish any of this last night because we didn't have wifi here at my daughters' new place here in Portland. We just moved my daughter in yesterday so I had to use an iphone hotspot through my USB cable from my Iphone to publish all this today.
However, so far it isn't burning that much I have only burned 211 megabytes cellular data so far and have been working now 1/2 hour to 1 hour publishing things here at my site. So, even if you don't have unlimited Cellular Data like my plan now gives me if you are careful and know what your limit is and watch carefully how much your are burning and check regularly you might be okay in a car or even while camping out somewhere if cellular data is available.
The other thing interesting to me is that I'm obviously not the only Soul Traveler who has gone into the center of the Galaxy where Zeus and Hera and the other "Creators of the Galaxy" live. Obviously, people in ancient times had soul travelers too. I didn't recognize this until around 1970 when I soul traveled into the Galactic Core and met the Creators species of this Galaxy then. But, then I recognized the Zeus, Hera, Hercules and the Odin, Thor type of similarity then. Obviously, the ancients did what I did and visited them there like I did in ancient times which is where the whole Zeus, Hera, Hercules format all came from which also turned into the Odin, Thor etc pantheon in Nordic regions.
Because the Creators of the Galaxy actually exist. However, when I talked to the Galactic Sentience who told me that he was my grandson and that I am one of millions of incarnations of his Grandfather in the past, present and future I had no idea at all what to do with that information at the time. However, now almost 50 years later I have had time to make some sense of it. However, it wasn't until 1998 and 1999 when I believed I was dying that I realized souls have no connection at all to time and space unless they are clothed in a physical body like humans are. So then I realized all lifetimes in the past, present and future that we live are actually lived simultaneously by the souls which reminded me of "Oversoul 7" the book and other related information I had read over the years.
All I can say at this point is: "Truth is much stranger than any fiction you or I could actually write!"
The reason for this is that souls (like those who create galaxies) are immortal in the first place and that we take incarnations when we as souls become millions and billions of years old as a way to stay alive and not just die of boredom.
What keeps us alive as souls? The stimulation of mortality. When you believe you are going to die it stimulates value of being alive for an immortal soul! This makes complete sense to me now but it is also why I don't fear death at all even though I am only a year from 70. Instead I find that life is more scary than death because only in life can you generate karma. So, learning to only create good karma is what is most interesting for me to do. So, the more I can help others and myself to a better life the more good karma I can generate to help all beings become enlightened happy and blissful in all their lifetimes. At this point I try to be a beneficial Grandfather (a billion year old Grandfather soul) to help all my grandchildren have better lives incarnating as human beings here on earth.
So, this is my explanation of why I am a very ancient Grandfather Dragon Soul. It is only through a lifetime of research through various means that I am able to know this about myself and the universe. I didn't discover all this by accident but just remember "Seek and ye shall find".
"Know the Truth and the Truth will set you Free!"
Each of us are doing something different and researching different aspects about our lives and the ones around us who are likely kindred souls. So, each of us must find our own paths to Enlightenment.
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Dragons in Greek mythology - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragons_in_Greek_mythology
Dragons in Greek mythology
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Contents
Origins
The word dragon derives from the Greek δράκων (drakōn) and its Latin cognate draco. Ancient Greeks applied the term to large, constricting snakes.[2]Daniel Ogden speaks of three ways to explain the origins of Greek dragon myths: as vertical evolution from (reconstructed) Proto-Indo-European mythology, as horizontal adaptation from Ancient Near Eastern mythology, or as sitting within "the cloud of international folktale". Regarding theories of vertical transmission, Ogden argues that they carry "an unspoken assumption that prior to such a transfer the Greeks' own myth-world was a tabula rasa", which he calls absurd; only Typhon's Near Eastern origins are, in his view, plausible.[3]
List of dragons
Typhon
Typhon was the most fearsome monster of Greek mythology. The last son of Gaia, Typhon was, with his mate Echidna, the father of many other monsters. He is usually envisioned as humanoid from the waist up, serpentine below.Ladon
Mosaic of the third century BC from Kaulon (Magna Graecia, southern Italy )
Lernaean Hydra
The Lernaean Hydra was a dragon-like water serpent with fatally venomous breath, blood and fangs, a daughter of Typhon and Echidna. The creature was said to have anywhere between five and 100 heads, although most sources put the number somewhere between seven and nine. For each head cut off, one or two more grew back in its place. It had an immortal head which would remain alive after it was cut off. Some accounts claim that the immortal head was made of gold. It lived in a swamp near Lerna and frequently terrorized the townsfolk until it was slain by Heracles, who cut the heads off, with the help of his nephew Iolaus, who then singed the oozing stump with a blazing firebrand to prevent any new heads from growing, as the second of his Twelve Labors. Hera sent a giant crab to distract Heracles, but he simply crushed it under his foot. Hera then placed it in the heavens as the constellation Cancer. After slaying the serpent, Heracles buried the immortal head under a rock and dipped his arrows in the creature's blood to make them fatal to his enemies. In one version, the poisoned arrows would eventually prove to be the undoing of his centaur tutor Chiron, who was placed in the heavens as the constellation Centaurus.Pytho or Python
In Greek mythology Python was the earth-dragon of Delphi, always represented in the vase-paintings and by sculptors as a serpent. Various myths represented Python as being either male or female (a drakaina). Python was the chthonic enemy of Apollo, who slew it and remade its former home his own oracle, the most famous in Greece.There are various versions of Python's birth and death at the hands of Apollo. In the earliest, the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, little detail is given about Apollo's combat with the serpent or its parentage. The version related by Hyginus[4] holds that when Zeus lay with the goddess Leto, and she was to deliver Artemis and Apollo, Hera sent Python to pursue her throughout the lands, so that she could not be delivered wherever the sun shone. Thus when the infant was grown he pursued the python, making his way straight for Mount Parnassus where the serpent dwelled, and chased it to the oracle of Gaia at Delphi, and dared to penetrate the sacred precinct and kill it with his arrows beside the rock cleft where the priestess sat on her tripod. The priestess of the oracle at Delphi became known as the Pythia, after the place-name Pytho, which was named after the rotting (πύθειν) of the serpent's corpse after it was slain.
The Colchian dragon
(Georgian: კოლხური დრაკონი) This immense serpent, a child of Typhon and Echidna, guarded the Golden Fleece at Colchis.[5] It was said to never sleep, rest, or lower its vigilance. According to Ovid's Metamorphoses, the monster had a crest and three tongues.[6] When Jason went to retrieve the Fleece, the witch Medea put the dragon to sleep with her magic and drugs, or perhaps Orpheus lulled it to sleep with his lyre. Afterwards, Medea herself had dragons pull her chariot.The Ismenian dragon
The Ismenian Serpent, of the spring of Ismene at Thebes, Greece, was slain by the hero Cadmus.[7] It was the offspring of Ares, who later turned the hero into a serpent.[8]Helios' dragons
Dragon-chariot of Medea, Lucanian red-figure krater C4th BC, Cleveland Museum of Art
See also
References
External links
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I realized I hadn't really shared that much about Hercules so here is what Wikipedia shares about Heracles (the ancient Greeks called him Heracles and the Romans afterwards called him Hercules).
About 1,320,000 results (0.68 seconds)
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Heracles - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heracles
Heracles
born Alcaeus (Ἀλκαῖος, Alkaios) or Alcides (Ἀλκείδης, Alkeidēs), was a
divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son
of ...
Children: Alexiares and Anicetus, Telephus, H...
Roman equivalent: Hercules
Herakles (Euripides) - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herakles_(Euripides)
Herakles is an Athenian tragedy by Euripides that was first performed c. 416 BCE
Characters: Amphitryon; Megara; Heracles' Ch...
Chorus: Old Men of Thebes
Hercules - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hercules
Hercules is the Roman adaptation of the Greek divine hero Heracles, who was the son of Zeus (Roman equivalent Jupiter) and the mortal Alcmene. In classical
People also ask
Heracles
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Heracles | |
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| Gatekeeper of Olympus God of strength, heroes, sports, athletes, health, agriculture, fertility, trade, oracles and divine protector of mankind |
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One of the most famous depictions of Heracles, originally by Lysippos (marble, Roman copy called Hercules Farnese, 216 CE)
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| Abode | Mount Olympus |
| Symbol | Club, Nemean Lion, bow and arrows |
| Personal Information | |
| Born | Thebes, Boeotia, Greece |
| Died | Mount Oeta, Phocis, Greece |
| Consort | Hebe and various others |
| Children | Alexiares and Anicetus, Telephus, Hyllus, Tlepolemus |
| Parents | Zeus and Alcmene |
| Siblings | Aeacus, Angelos, Aphrodite, Apollo, Ares, Artemis, Athena, Eileithyia, Enyo, Eris, Ersa, Hebe, Helen of Troy, Hephaestus, Hermes, Minos, Pandia, Persephone, Perseus, Rhadamanthus, the Graces, the Horae, the Litae, the Muses, the Moirai |
| Roman equivalent | Hercules |
| Greek mythology |
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| Related |
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Contents
Origin
Many popular stories were told of his life, the most famous being The Twelve Labours of Heracles; Alexandrian poets of the Hellenistic age drew his mythology into a high poetic and tragic atmosphere.[4] His figure, which initially drew on Near Eastern motifs such as the lion-fight, was widely known.Heracles was the greatest of Hellenic chthonic heroes, but unlike other Greek heroes, no tomb was identified as his. Heracles was both hero and god, as Pindar says heroes theos; at the same festival sacrifice was made to him, first as a hero, with a chthonic libation, and then as a god, upon an altar: thus he embodies the closest Greek approach to a "demi-god".[4] The core of the story of Heracles has been identified by Walter Burkert as originating in Neolithic hunter culture and traditions of shamanistic crossings into the netherworld.[5]
Hero or god
Heracles' role as a culture hero, whose death could be a subject of mythic telling (see below), was accepted into the Olympian Pantheon during Classical times. This created an awkwardness in the encounter with Odysseus in the episode of Odyssey XI, called the Nekuia, where Odysseus encounters Heracles in Hades:- And next I caught a glimpse of powerful Heracles—
- His ghost I mean: the man himself delights
- in the grand feasts of the deathless gods on high...
- Around him cries of the dead rang out like cries of birds
- scattering left and right in horror as on he came like night..."[6]
Christian chronology
In Christian circles a Euhemerist reading of the widespread Heracles cult was attributed to a historical figure who had been offered cult status after his death. Thus Eusebius, Preparation of the Gospel (10.12), reported that Clement could offer historical dates for Hercules as a king in Argos: "from the reign of Hercules in Argos to the deification of Hercules himself and of Asclepius there are comprised thirty-eight years, according to Apollodorus the chronicler: and from that point to the deification of Castor and Pollux fifty-three years: and somewhere about this time was the capture of Troy."
Temple to Heracles in Agrigento
Cult
The ancient Greeks celebrated the festival of the Heracleia, which commemorated the death of Heracles, on the second day of the month of Metageitnion (which would fall in late July or early August). What is believed to be an Egyptian Temple of Heracles in the Bahariya Oasis dates to 21 BCE. A reassessment of Ptolemy's descriptions of the island of Malta attempted to link the site at Ras ir-Raħeb with a temple to Heracles,[8] but the arguments are not conclusive.[9] Several ancient cities were named Heraclea in his honor.Character
Greek mythology influenced the Etruscans. This vase at Caere shows King Eurytus of Oechalia and Heracles in a symposium. Krater of corinthian columns called 'Krater of Eurytion', circa 600 B.C.
Mythology
Birth and childhood
Heracles strangling snakes (detail from an Attic red-figured stamnos, c. 480–470 BCE)
The Origin of the Milky Way by Jacopo Tintoretto
Heracles as a boy strangling a snake (marble, Roman artwork, 2nd century CE)
The child was originally given the name Alcides by his parents; it was only later that he became known as Heracles.[3] He was renamed Heracles in an unsuccessful attempt to mollify Hera. He and his twin were just eight months old when Hera sent two giant snakes into the children's chamber. Iphicles cried from fear, but his brother grabbed a snake in each hand and strangled them. He was found by his nurse playing with them on his cot as if they were toys. Astonished, Amphitryon sent for the seer Tiresias, who prophesied an unusual future for the boy, saying he would vanquish numerous monsters.
Youth
After killing his music tutor Linus with a lyre, he was sent to tend cattle on a mountain by his foster father Amphitryon. Here, according to an allegorical parable, "The Choice of Heracles", invented by the sophist Prodicus (c. 400 BCE) and reported in Xenophon's Memorabilia 2.1.21–34, he was visited by two allegorical figures—Vice and Virtue—who offered him a choice between a pleasant and easy life or a severe but glorious life: he chose the latter. This was part of a pattern of "ethicizing" Heracles over the 5th century BCE.[14]Later in Thebes, Heracles married King Creon's daughter, Megara. In a fit of madness, induced by Hera, Heracles killed his children by Megara. After his madness had been cured with hellebore by Antikyreus, the founder of Antikyra,[15] he realized what he had done and fled to the Oracle of Delphi. Unbeknownst to him, the Oracle was guided by Hera. He was directed to serve King Eurystheus for ten years and perform any task Eurystheus required of him. Eurystheus decided to give Heracles ten labours, but after completing them, Heracles was cheated by Eurystheus when he added two more, resulting in the Twelve Labors of Heracles.
Labours of Heracles
The fight of Heracles and the Nemean lion is one of his most famous feats. (Side B from a black-figure Attic amphora, c. 540 BCE)
His eleventh feat was to capture the apple of Hesperides (Gilded bronze, Roman artwork, 2nd century CE)
Not all writers gave the labours in the same order. The Bibliotheca (2.5.1–2.5.12) gives the following order:
- Slay the Nemean Lion.
- Slay the nine-headed Lernaean Hydra.
- Capture the Golden Hind of Artemis.
- Capture the Erymanthian Boar.
- Clean the Augean stables in a single day.
- Slay the Stymphalian Birds.
- Capture the Cretan Bull.
- Steal the Mares of Diomedes.
- Obtain the girdle of Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons.
- Obtain the cattle of the monster Geryon.
- Steal the apples of the Hesperides (he had the help of Atlas to pick them after Hercules had slain Ladon).
- Capture and bring back Cerberus.
Further adventures
After completing these tasks, Heracles joined the Argonauts in a search for the Golden Fleece. He also fell in love with Princess Iole of Oechalia. King Eurytus of Oechalia promised his daughter, Iole, to whoever could beat his sons in an archery contest. Heracles won but Eurytus abandoned his promise. Heracles' advances were spurned by the king and his sons, except for one: Iole's brother Iphitus. Heracles killed the king and his sons—excluding Iphitus—and abducted Iole. Iphitus became Heracles' best friend. However, once again, Hera drove Heracles mad and he threw Iphitus over the city wall to his death. Once again, Heracles purified himself through three years of servitude—this time to Queen Omphale of Lydia.Omphale
Omphale was a queen or princess of Lydia. As penalty for a murder, imposed by Xenoclea, the Delphic Oracle, Heracles was to serve as her slave for a year. He was forced to do women's work and to wear women's clothes, while she wore the skin of the Nemean Lion and carried his olive-wood club. After some time, Omphale freed Heracles and married him. Some sources mention a son born to them who is variously named. It was at that time that the cercopes, mischievous wood spirits, stole Heracles' weapons. He punished them by tying them to a stick with their faces pointing downward.Hylas
While walking through the wilderness, Heracles was set upon by the Dryopes. In Apollonius of Rhodes' Argonautica it is recalled that Heracles had mercilessly slain their king, Theiodamas, over one of the latter's bulls, and made war upon the Dryopes "because they gave no heed to justice in their lives".[16] After the death of their king, the Dryopes gave in and offered him Prince Hylas. He took the youth on as his weapons bearer and beloved. Years later, Heracles and Hylas joined the crew of the Argo. As Argonauts, they only participated in part of the journey. In Mysia, Hylas was kidnapped by the nymphs of a local spring. Heracles, heartbroken, searched for a long time but Hylas had fallen in love with the nymphs and never showed up again. In other versions, he simply drowned. Either way, the Argo set sail without them.Rescue of Prometheus
Hesiod's Theogony and Aeschylus' Prometheus Unbound both tell that Heracles shot and killed the eagle that tortured Prometheus (which was his punishment by Zeus for stealing fire from the gods and giving it to mortals). Heracles freed the Titan from his chains and his torments. Prometheus then made predictions regarding further deeds of Heracles.Heracles' constellation
On his way back to Mycenae from Iberia, having obtained the Cattle of Geryon as his tenth labour, Heracles came to Liguria in North-Western Italy where he engaged in battle with two giants, Albion and Bergion or Dercynus, sons of Poseidon. The opponents were strong; Hercules was in a difficult position so he prayed to his father Zeus for help. Under the aegis of Zeus, Heracles won the battle. It was this kneeling position of Heracles when he prayed to his father Zeus that gave the name Engonasin ("Εγγόνασιν", derived from "εν γόνασιν"), meaning "on his knees" or "the Kneeler", to the constellation known as Heracles' constellation. The story, among others, is described by Dionysius of Halicarnassus.[17]Heracles' sack of Troy
A fresco from Herculaneum depicting Heracles and Achelous from Greco-Roman mythology, 1st century AD
Other adventures
 |
This section is in a list format that may be better presented using prose. (August 2009) |
- Heracles defeated the Bebryces (ruled by King Mygdon) and gave their land to Prince Lycus of Mysia, son of Dascylus.
- He killed the robber Termerus.
- Heracles visited Evander with Antor, who then stayed in Italy.
- Heracles killed King Amyntor of the Dolopes for not allowing him into his kingdom. He also killed King Emathion of Arabia.
- Heracles killed Lityerses after beating him in a contest of harvesting.
- Heracles killed Periclymenus at Pylos.
- Heracles killed Syleus for forcing strangers to hoe a vineyard.
- Heracles rivaled with Lepreus and eventually killed him.
- Heracles founded the city Tarentum (modern Taranto in Italy).
- Heracles learned music from Linus (and Eumolpus), but killed him after Linus corrected his mistakes. He learned how to wrestle from Autolycus. He killed the famous boxer Eryx of Sicily in a match.
- Heracles was an Argonaut. He killed Alastor and his brothers.
Heracles killing the giant, Antaeus
- When Hippocoon overthrew his brother, Tyndareus, as King of Sparta, Heracles reinstated the rightful ruler and killed Hippocoon and his sons.
- Heracles killed Cycnus, the son of Ares. The expedition against Cycnus, in which Iolaus accompanied Heracles, is the ostensible theme of a short epic attributed to Hesiod, Shield of Heracles.
- Heracles killed the Giants Alcyoneus and Porphyrion.
- Heracles killed Antaeus the giant who was immortal while touching the earth, by picking him up and holding him in the air while strangling him.
- Heracles went to war with Augeias after he denied him a promised reward for clearing his stables. Augeias remained undefeated due to the skill of his two generals, the Molionides, and after Heracles fell ill, his army was badly beaten. Later, however, he was able to ambush and kill the Molionides, and thus march into Elis, sack it, and kill Augeias and his sons.
- Heracles visited the house of Admetus on the day Admetus' wife, Alcestis, had agreed to die in his place. By hiding beside the grave of Alcestis, Heracles was able to surprise Death when he came to collect her, and by squeezing him tight until he relented, was able to persuade Death to return Alcestis to her husband.
- Heracles challenged wine god Dionysus to a drinking contest and lost, resulting in his joining the Thiasus for a period.
- Heracles also appears in Aristophanes' The Frogs, in which Dionysus seeks out the hero to find a way to the underworld. Heracles is greatly amused by Dionysus' appearance and jokingly offers several ways to commit suicide before finally offering his knowledge of how to get to there.
- Heracles appears as the ancestral hero of Scythia in Herodotus' text. While Heracles is sleeping out in the wilderness, a half-woman, half-snake creature steals his horses. Heracles eventually finds the creature, but she refuses to return the horses until he has sex with her. After doing so, he takes back his horses, but before leaving, he hands over his belt and bow, and gives instructions as to which of their children should found a new nation in Scythia.
Death
Death of Hercules (painting by Francisco de Zurbarán, 1634, Museo del Prado)
Several years later, rumor tells Deianira that she has a rival for the love of Heracles. Deianira, remembering Nessus' words, gives Heracles the bloodstained shirt. Lichas, the herald, delivers the shirt to Heracles. However, it is still covered in the Hydra's blood from Heracles' arrows, and this poisons him, tearing his skin and exposing his bones. Before he dies, Heracles throws Lichas into the sea, thinking he was the one who poisoned him (according to several versions, Lichas turns to stone, becoming a rock standing in the sea, named for him). Heracles then uproots several trees and builds a funeral pyre on Mount Oeta, which Poeas, father of Philoctetes, lights. As his body burns, only his immortal side is left. Through Zeus' apotheosis, Heracles rises to Olympus as he dies.
No one but Heracles' friend Philoctetes (Poeas in some versions) would light his funeral pyre (in an alternate version, it is Iolaus who lights the pyre). For this action, Philoctetes or Poeas received Heracles' bow and arrows, which were later needed by the Greeks to defeat Troy in the Trojan War.
Philoctetes confronted Paris and shot a poisoned arrow at him. The Hydra poison subsequently led to the death of Paris. The Trojan War, however, continued until the Trojan Horse was used to defeat Troy.
According to Herodotus, Heracles lived 900 years before Herodotus' own time (c. 1300 BCE).[19]
Lovers
Women
Marriages
During the course of his life, Heracles married four times.- His first marriage was to Megara, whose children he murdered in a fit of madness. Pseudo-Apollodorus (Bibliotheke) recounts that Megara was unharmed and given in marriage to Iolaus, while in Euripides' version Heracles also killed Megara.
- His third marriage was to Deianira, for whom he had to fight the river god Achelous (upon Achelous' death, Heracles removed one of his horns and gave it to some nymphs who turned it into the cornucopia). Soon after they wed, Heracles and Deianira had to cross a river, and a centaur named Nessus offered to help Deianira across but then attempted to rape her. Enraged, Heracles shot the centaur from the opposite shore with a poisoned arrow (tipped with the Lernaean Hydra's blood) and killed him. As he lay dying, Nessus plotted revenge, told Deianira to gather up his blood and spilled semen and, if she ever wanted to prevent Heracles from having affairs with other women, she should apply them to his vestments. Nessus knew that his blood had become tainted by the poisonous blood of the Hydra, and would burn through the skin of anyone it touched. Later, when Deianira suspected that Heracles was fond of Iole, she soaked a shirt of his in the mixture, creating the poisoned shirt of Nessus. Heracles' servant, Lichas, brought him the shirt and he put it on. Instantly he was in agony, the cloth burning into him. As he tried to remove it, the flesh ripped from his bones. Heracles chose a voluntary death, asking that a pyre be built for him to end his suffering. After death, the gods transformed him into an immortal, or alternatively, the fire burned away the mortal part of the demigod, so that only the god remained. After his mortal parts had been incinerated, he could become a full god and join his father and the other Olympians on Mount Olympus.
- His fourth marriages was to Hebe, his last wife.
Affairs
An episode of his female affairs that stands out was his stay at the palace of Thespius, king of Thespiae, who wished him to kill the Lion of Cithaeron. As a reward, the king offered him the chance to perform sexual intercourse with all fifty of his daughters in one night. Heracles complied and they all became pregnant and all bore sons. This is sometimes referred to as his Thirteenth Labour. Many of the kings of ancient Greece traced their lines to one or another of these, notably the kings of Sparta and Macedon.Yet another episode of his female affairs that stands out was when he carried away the oxen of Geryon, he also visited the country of the Scythians. Once there, while asleep, his horses suddenly disappeared. When he woke and wandered about in search of them, he came into the country of Hylaea. He then found the dracaena of Scythia (sometimes identified as Echidna) in a cave. When he asked whether she knew anything about his horses, she answered, that they were in her own possession, but that she would not give them up, unless he would consent to stay with her for a time. Heracles accepted the request, and became by her the father of Agathyrsus, Gelonus, and Scythes. The last of them became king of the Scythians, according to his father's arrangement, because he was the only one among the three brothers that was able to manage the bow which Heracles had left behind and to use his father's girdle.[20]
Men
One of Heracles' male lovers, and one represented in ancient as well as modern art, is Hylas. Though it is of more recent vintage (dated to the 3rd century) than that with Iolaus, it had themes of mentoring in the ways of a warrior and help finding a wife in the end. However it should be noted that there is nothing whatever in Apollonius's account that suggests that Hylas was a sexual lover as opposed to a companion and servant.[23]
Another reputed male lover of Heracles is Elacatas, who was honored in Sparta with a sanctuary and yearly games, Elacatea. The myth of their love is an ancient one.[24]
Abdera's eponymous hero, Abderus, was another of Heracles' lovers. He was said to have been entrusted with—and slain by—the carnivorous mares of Thracian Diomedes. Heracles founded the city of Abdera in Thrace in his memory, where he was honored with athletic games.[25]
Another myth is that of Iphitus.[26]
Another story is the one of his love for Nireus, who was "the most beautiful man who came beneath Ilion" (Iliad, 673). But Ptolemy adds that certain authors made Nireus out to be a son of Heracles.[27]
Pausanias makes mention of Sostratus, a youth of Dyme, Achaea, as a lover of Heracles. Sostratus was said to have died young and to have been buried by Heracles outside the city. The tomb was still there in historical times, and the inhabitants of Dyme honored Sostratus as a hero.[28] The youth seems to have also been referred to as Polystratus.
There is also a series of lovers who are either later inventions or purely literary conceits. Among these are Admetus, who assisted in the hunt for the Calydonian Boar,[29] Adonis,[30] Corythus,[30] and Nestor who was said to have been loved for his wisdom. His role as lover was perhaps to explain why he was the only son of Neleus to be spared by the hero.[31]
A scholiast on Argonautica lists the following male lovers of Heracles: "Hylas, Philoctetes, Diomus, Perithoas, and Phrix, after whom a city in Libya was named".[32] Diomus is also mentioned by Stephanus of Byzantium as the eponym of the deme Diomeia of the Attic phyle Aegeis: Heracles is said to have fallen in love with Diomus when he was received as guest by Diomus' father Collytus.[33] Perithoas and Phrix are otherwise unknown, and so is the version that suggests a sexual relationship between Heracles and Philoctetes.
Children
Heracles and his child Telephus. (Marble, Roman copy of the 1st or 2nd century CE)
The children of Heracles by Megara are collectively well known because of their ill fate, but there is some disagreement among sources as to their number and individual names. Apollodorus lists three, Therimachus, Creontiades and Deicoon;[34] to these Hyginus[35] adds Ophitus and, probably by mistake, Archelaus, who is otherwise known to have belonged to the Heracleidae, but to have lived several generations later. A scholiast on Pindar' s odes provides a list of seven completely different names: Anicetus, Chersibius, Mecistophonus, Menebrontes, Patrocles, Polydorus, Toxocleitus.[36]
Other well-known children of Heracles include Telephus, king of Mysia (by Auge), and Tlepolemus, one of the Greek commanders in the Trojan War (by Astyoche).
There is also, in some versions, reference to an episode where Heracles met and impregnated a half-serpentine woman, known as Echidna; her children, known as the Dracontidae, were the ancestors of the House of Cadmus.
According to Herodotus, a line of 22 Kings of Lydia descended from Hercules and Omphale. The line was called Tylonids after his Lydian name.
The divine sons of Heracles and Hebe are Alexiares and Anicetus.
Consorts and children
- Megara
- Therimachus
- Creontiades
- Ophitus
- Deicoon
- Omphale
- Deianira
- Hebe
- Astydameia, daughter of Ormenius
- Ctesippus
- Astyoche, daughter of Phylas
- Auge
- Autonoe, daughter of Piraeus / Iphinoe, daughter of Antaeus
- Palaemon
- Baletia, daughter of Baletus
- Brettus[37]
- Barge
- Bargasus[38]
- Bolbe
- Celtine
- Celtus
- Chalciope
- Chania, nymph
- Gelon[39]
- The Scythian dracaena or Echidna
- Agathyrsus
- Gelonus
- Skythes
- Epicaste
- Thestalus
- Lavinia, daughter of Evander[40]
- Pallas
- Malis, a slave of Omphale
- Acelus[41]
- Meda
- Melite (heroine)
- Melite (naiad)
- Hyllus (possibly)
- Myrto
- Palantho of Hyperborea[42]
- Latinus[40]
- Parthenope, daughter of Stymphalus
- Everes
- Phialo
- Aechmagoras
- Psophis
- Pyrene
- none known
- Rhea, Italian priestess
- Thebe (daughter of Adramys)
- Tinge, wife of Antaeus
- 50 daughters of Thespius
- 50 sons, see Thespius#Daughters and grandchildren
- Unnamed Celtic woman
- Galates[45]
- Unnamed slave of Omphale
- Alcaeus / Cleodaeus
- Unnamed daughter of Syleus (Xenodoce?)[46]
- Unknown consorts
Hercules around the world
Rome
In Rome, Heracles was honored as Hercules, and had a number of distinctively Roman myths and practices associated with him under that name.Egypt
Herodotus connected Heracles to the Egyptian god Shu. Also he was associated with Khonsu, another Egyptian god who was in some ways similar to Shu. As Khonsu, Heracles was worshipped at the now sunken city of Heracleion, where a large temple was constructed.Most often the Egyptians identified Heracles with Heryshaf, transcribed in Greek as Arsaphes or Harsaphes (Ἁρσαφής). He was an ancient ram-god whose cult was centered in Herakleopolis Magna.
Other cultures
Hellenistic-era depiction of the Zoroastrian divinity Bahram as Hercules carved in 153 BCE at Kermanshah, Iran.
Herodotus also connected Heracles to Phoenician god Melqart.
Sallust mentions in his work on the Jugurthine War that the Africans believe Heracles to have died in Spain where, his multicultural army being left without a leader, the Medes, Persians, and Armenians who were once under his command split off and populated the Mediterranean coast of Africa.[55]
Temples dedicated to Heracles abounded all along the Mediterranean coastal countries. For example, the temple of Heracles Monoikos (i.e. the lone dweller), built far from any nearby town upon a promontory in what is now the Côte d'Azur, gave its name to the area's more recent name, Monaco.
The gateway to the Mediterranean Sea from the Atlantic Ocean, where the southernmost tip of Spain and the northernmost of Morocco face each other is, classically speaking, referred to as the Pillars of Hercules/Heracles, owing to the story that he set up two massive spires of stone to stabilise the area and ensure the safety of ships sailing between the two landmasses.
Uses of Heracles as a name
In various languages, variants of Hercules' name are used as a male given name, such as Hercule in French, Hércules in Spanish, Iraklis (Greek: Ηρακλής) in Modern Greek and Irakliy in Russian.Also, there are many teams around the world which have this name or have Heracles as their symbol. The most popular in Greece is G.S. Iraklis Thessaloniki.
Ancestry
- Source:[56]
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Sources
- Homer, Odyssey, 12.072 (7th century BCE)
- Theocritus, Idylls, 13 (350–310 BCE)
- Callimachus, Aetia (Causes), 24. Thiodamas the Dryopian, Fragments, 160. Hymn to Artemis (310–250? BCE)
- Apollonios Rhodios, Argonautika, I. 1175–1280 (c. 250 BCE)
- Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1.9.19, 2.7.7 (140 BCE)
- Sextus Propertius, Elegies, i.20.17ff (50–15 BCE)
- Ovid, Ibis, 488 (AD 8–18)
- Gaius Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica, I.110, III.535, 560, IV.1–57 (1st century)
- Hyginus, Fables, 14. Argonauts Assembled (1st century)
- Philostratus the Elder, Images, ii.24 Thiodamas (170–245)
- First Vatican Mythographer, 49. Hercules et Hylas
See also
Other figures in Greek mythology punished by the gods include:
Figures resembling Heracles in other mythological traditions:
Notes
- Morford, M. P. O.; Lenardon R. J. (2007). Classical Mythology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 865.
References
- Heracles at Theoi.com Classical literature and art
- Timeless Myths – Heracles The life and adventure of Heracles, including his twelve labours.
- Heracles, Greek Mythology Link
- Heracles (in French)
- Vollmer: Herkules (1836, in German)
- Burkert, Walter, (1977) 1985. Greek Religion (Harvard University Press).
- Kerenyi, Karl (1959). The Heroes of the Greeks. New York/London: Thames and Hudson.
Further reading
- Padilla, Mark W. (1998). "Herakles and Animals in the Origins of Comedy and Satyr Drama". In Le Bestiaire d'Héraclès: IIIe Rencontre héracléenne, edited by Corinne Bonnet, Colette Jourdain-Annequin, and Vinciane Pirenne-Delforge, 217–30. Kernos Suppl. 7. Liège: Centre International d'Etude de la Religion Grecque Antique.
- Padilla, Mark W. (1998). "The Myths of Herakles in Ancient Greece: Survey and Profile". Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America.
External links
Media related to Heracles at Wikimedia Commons- Heracles at Encyclopædia Britannica
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