HERAKLES
Turmoil and Triumph: Herakles, club in hand, locked in combat with the Nemean lion (left), and witnessing the final demise of his defeated opponent.
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Both
gods and heroes were worshipped in ancient Greece, each with their special
class of rituals and respect paid. It is in the case of Herakles, who straddled
- or perhaps bridged - the line between the two, that we find the key exception,
where worship has taken frequently on both forms. The body of legends on
him is vast, and of course, not always consistent; depending on which one
is consulted, Herakles' "level of divinity" may vary. Still,
given that many legendary figures were based on real personalities, one
might wonder if this may not apply to the great hero as well - and indeed
it is sometimes conjectured that he might have been a Bronze Age historical
figure, perhaps a king from Tiryns in the Peloponnesos. In any case, having
emerged beyond historical recognition in Homeric Archaic Greece, his veneration
spread throughout the Greek realm - from "his own" pillars
(i.e. Gibraltar) in the West, to the farthest reaches of Hellenistic India.
As mentioned, this cult took many forms - some of which we know regrettably
little about today, like the special games and festivals in his honor, known
as Herakleia. But his depictions on coins are plentiful yet subtly different enough, and in this
section we feature some of those issues that don't fall into the other, more specific
Heraklean themes presented here..
Alexander the Great of Macedon,
like his father and earlier dynasty members, claimed heritage from
Herakles (indeed, it was reputedly this lineage
that finally got his great-grandfather the passport from the fringes of the
Greek world to the prestigious Olympic Games). Through his life and deeds the great conqueror tried to present himself
as the historical Herakles hero. This
is readily reflected his coinage, where both silver and bronze issues feature
him prominently - according to some, with the actual features of Alexander
himself. Through Alexander's myth, as spread during the Roman times through
his biographies by Plutarch and Pseudo-Callisthenes, Herakles' exploits
indirecty entered the medieval European literary and moral heritage, as
a kind of "manual" on chivalry and courtly behavior for young
nobility. Over time, four different literary traditions of this
tale have developed, one of which was formed in medieval Serbia, and was
generally known as the "Serbian Alexander". It represented (along
with the Tale of Troy) one of the finest examples of secular literature,
and from there, in turn, it migrated further east to Russia. Here, closing
the full circle and getting back to coinage - one finds somewhat unexpected,
if crude, renditions of Alexander and Herakles himself on certain early Russian
feudal issues..
Like
many Greek gods and demi-gods, Herakles - now under the the more familiar
name of Hercules - continued to have his day in the lives of the Romans - and by extension,
on their coinage, too. Some Republican (generally, the B.C. era) issues, though usually more restricted
in thematics than Greek ones, feature him in different forms, and several emperors (e.g. Caracalla,
Macrinus, Septimius Severus) use him on their reverse types for both provincial
and imperial coinage. In some cases - like that of Maximianus and the
"Herculian dynasty" of the early 4th c. - this reflected the
patronage of the hero over the the whole imperial family, and in some others
- like that of the late 2nd c. ruler Commodus - it stemmed from an apparent megalomania that led
to the illusion of being a reincarnate Hercules, and produced such images
of him even on the obverses of some coins.X
The
first and most famous of the Twelve Labors, this is also the one whose
results are readily visible, as the iconography of Herakles typically includes
the skin, often as a head-dress, of the vanquished beast. It is rather
curious that the "king of the jungle" - today associated only
with sub-Saharan Africa - was chosen as the lead foe of the legendary Mediterranean
hero; indeed, lions generally appear quite often in antiquity - from depictions
on the the earliest known coinage from the 7th c. BC, through Persian mosaics to Roman gladiator
arenas. Yet, they once inhabited not only most of Africa, but parts of
Europe and Asia as well, and as such are interesting to compare to the
hippopotamus of the Nile, whose real appearance was unknown even to the
famous historian Herodotos of the 5th c. BC. But the Nemean lion is honored as
more than just a skin on some coinage, like that of Herakleia in southern
Italy, whose masterfully executed and dynamic scenes of Herakles' combat
rank among the finest Greek coin art.X
Herakles' third (sometimes considered fourth) labor, pitting the hero against the huge wild boar of Mount Erymanthos. A rare bloodless affair, it required some enticing into open space, chasing in the deep snow, and finally old-fashioned wrestling on Herakles' part. The very sight of the captured but angry beast prompted the wretched and cowardly king Eurystheus to seek last-minute refuge in his bronze jar. However, a large part of the tale of this labor is concerned with a side adventure during the journey to Mt. Erymanthos - the hero's encounter with centaurs in Pholos' cave.
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The
seventh of Herakles' labors involved the mad and marauding bull of Crete,
whom he had to capture alive and bring back to King Eurystheus of Mykenai
- his envious cousin who ordered the twelve seemingly impossible
tasks, and cowardly awaited in a pot Herakles' return from each - or better
yet, the news of his demise (which never came, of course). The mad bull
itself, laying waste to Crete, was a punishment by Poseidon to Cretan King
Minos for an earlier treachery. Yet, this is not the last we will here
of this bull, as he was set free in the mainland by Herakles, where he
started devastating the Marathon area, and was eventually placated for
good by another classical hero - Theseus of Athens. Renditions of this feat
of Herakles are, unfortunately, extremely rarely found on coinage.X
The
ninth labor involved the legendary Amazon warrior-women, the favorite subjects
of some other myths as well. In this case the task was to get the magic
girdle, supposedly given to the Amazon queen Hippolyte by war-god Ares
himself. While it appeared for a while that Herakles' diplomacy (and possibly
the accompaniment of other famous heroes in this case) would meet the good
will of Hippolyte and for once accomplish a labor with no bloodshed, the
conniving goddess Hera was then to step in, posing as an Amazon and instigating
Hippolyte's subjects against the visitors, with a savage battle ensuing
after all. The accounts of the queen's fate differ, but the prize was taken,
and this labor thus brought to a close. Artistic accounts of this epic
showdown, though common in other forms, are once more rare on Greek coinage (e.g.
certain colonial issues of Antoninus Pius);
however, portaits of individual Amazons may be more readily found, like those of Kyme,
the legendary founder of a city of that name in Aiolis, the Asian coastline
just south of Lesbos.X
Usually considered the penultimate labor, part of the last gasp of a desperate king Eurystheus who refused to recognize two of the original ten and so added two more. This labor somewhat differs from most of the others in that the difficulty mainly consisted in finding and then reaching the mythical land of the Hyperboreans ("Far North" - though its attributes often defy geography), where the famed garden with Gaia's sacred wedding gift to Hera and Zeus laid. The adventures that allowed Herakles to finally accomplish this are quite rich, and bring him in touch with numerous other mythological characters. The exact number and identity of the Hesperides - the daughters of the night that guarded the garden - varies by tradition, but they are often considered to include Arethusa, who, in a slightly different context, appears in some of the most celebrated coinage of all time - that of classical Sicily.X
The final and most trying labor, which took the hero straight to the heart of the underworld - a place to which no mortal was to descend, yet return. Indeed, its lack of practical value - a mere challenge to bring the fierce three- (or more) headed dog guarding the underworldly realm of Hades - reflect king Eurystheus' confidence of Herakles' failure. Needless to say, this didn't end up being the case, and our hero, guided by Athena and Hermes, wasted no time to perform nevertheless some good deeds (e.g. free Theseus, feed the dead souls) in the process. As usual, it is hard to find depictions of Herakles subduing the beast, but Kerberos himself - a mythological character with significance beyond just this story - does appear on occasion.X
Many
adventures of Herakles take place after his labors were completed. One
of the more remarkable ones is probably that involving his Lydian slavery,
as here we see the hero in an entirely unusual, almost comic role. Told
by the Delphic oracle that the road to vindication from an accidental manslaughter
he had committed was through three years of slavery, he goes to serve Omphale,
the queen of Lydia is eastern Asia Minor. There, the two often reversed
their roles, with her putting on his garb, dragging the club and playing
a hero, and Herakles dressing as a female and reportedly performing women's
chores (admittedly, more a housewife's than a queen's). There are many
twists to this story - sure enough, some of them casting the hero in more
manly functions - and ample Hellenistic and Roman artistic renditions of
this episode, though again, very few of them on coinage.Copyright: © 1998 RUDNIK Numismatics
All rights reserved.