Heracles

Heracles: Readings and Discussion for Aug. 31

Yet more Labors . . .

In case you missed class (I don't have my new roll yet and was too hoarse to call it . . .) we divided up the class into two groups.  One group is investigating the Nemean Lion and the Lernean Hydra; the other is investigating the Apples of the Hesperides and the Belt (or girdle) of Hippolyta (or whatever Amazon Heracles happens to be taking it from).  If you missed class, choose a group and start reading . . .

Your mission is to discover as many different versions, ancient or modern, of your Labor as you can.  There are many resources possible:

• Internet searches, either within a Classics-oriented search engine like Perseus, or a general Internet search engine

• Books on mythology and art; encyclopedia entries; reference books on myth; etc.

• Children's books, comic books, TV shows, movies, etc.

One thing, though -- you *do* need to look for the primary sources for the Labors!

Those elusive primary sources!

Start with the Herakles Project for this one.  He does have a pretty complete group of citations for the primary sources.  You will notice that some have online links, while others don't.  The online links are to Perseus.  BUT one big thing (which was probably the source of some of the confusion for the last assignment) is that he has bad links for ALL his Apollodorus citations, which is a big problem since Apollodorus is the most continuous, accessible source for most of the Labors!  To find the references in Apollodorus, follow the procedure for searching Perseus in the English version (this is what we did the first day, which went pretty well); then search for your particular Labor -- for example, search "Hercules" and "Amazon," or whatever.  Or -- gasp -- go to the library and look it up in the book . . .

Note the context of the primary sources.  For example, one of the Pausanias references for the Nemean lion  is the description of a series of sculptures, one of which shows that Labor.   Another is a poem by Pindar in which Heracles alludes to that adventure in another situation.  Many of the primary sources are not straightforward tellings of the story!  In fact, very few of them are.  Nobody said this was easy -- but hopefully you will find enough enjoyable stuff to make the hair-tearing endurable.

Also note -- you may find a ton of names and contexts that you are not at all familiar with.  That is OK -- I am not even familiar with all of them.  One of the things we are going to try to do with our page is help others bridge the gap between ancient and modern -- whatever resources you find toward that aim, including your own individual ways of dealing with it, will be helpful.

Differences?  Be prepared to discuss in class:

• What are the differences in your versions of the tale?

• Are they differences of detail, or are they fundamental?

• Can you attribute any of the differences to a specific time or place?

• Do some versions look as if they are based on others?

• Are some versions deliberately different from more "standard" versions (as far as you can tell?) (For example, children's stories watered down, TV or movie versions changed to appeal to a modern audience, etc.)

• Are some parts of this story more emphasized than others?

• What is the thematic significance of the differences you find?

• Are the tellings of your Labor essentially the same or essentially different?