Hera’s Glory : Herakles (+ Scylla/Minos, Daedalus/Icarus)

1. Hera’s Glory : Herakles(+ Scylla/Minos, Daedalus/Icarus) Greek & Roman Myth Tues 11-4-08

2. Nisus, Scylla, Minos • Ovid begins book 8 with story of Scylla and Minos • When Minos is warring on Greece, he attacks Megara where Nisus is king • Nisus rules by virtue of his magical purple lock of hair • Scylla falls in love with Minos, cuts off her father’s lock, betraying the city to Minos

3. Scylla cuts her father’s Nisus purple / crimson lock

4. Nisus, Scylla, Minos • Although she gives him the city, Minos rejects her • She curses at him as he leaves, then jumps from the walls into the sea, clings to his ship • Her father Nisus is turned into an osprey • She is turned into a sea-bird (her name Ciris from the Greek word “to cut”) • Different from Scylla the sea-monster, who will appear later in the Met.

5. Familiar story… • Father rules by powerful/magical possession • Hostile strangers come by sea • Daughter falls in love with dreamy stranger • Daughter betrays father for lover • In end, lover disappoints treacherous daughter • Aietes/Golden Fleece/Medea/Jason • Nisus/Purple Lock/Scylla/Minos • Minos/Minotaur/Ariadne/Theseus

6. Daedalus & Icarus • Daedalus the master craftsman of the labyrinth wants to escape Minos’ Crete • His only path of escape: the sky • He crafts two pairs of wings for himself and young son Icarus • Icarus doesn’t heed his father’s warnings and flies too high • The wax holding his wings together melts and he falls in the sea

7. Daedalus & Icarus • Falls near island of Icaria, nearby Samos • Icarian sea named after him http://icarus.cornell.edu/

8. Daedalus & IcarusLord Frederic Leighton1869

9. Fall of IcarusPeter Paul Rubens1636

10. The Fall of Icarus / Peter Brueghel 1558(Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels)

11. “They were spied by a fisherman dangling his catch on his quivering rod, / a shepherd at rest on his crook and a ploughman steering his ploughshare. / All watched in amazement, thinking, “They certainly must be gods / to fly through the air.” (Met. 8.216-19)

13. W.H. Auden Musée des Beaux Arts (1938) About suffering they were never wrong, The Old Masters; how well, they understood Its human position; how it takes place While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along; How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting For the miraculous birth, there always must be Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating On a pond at the edge of the wood: They never forgot That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.

14. W.H. Auden Musée des Beaux Arts (1938) In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry, But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky, had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.

15. According to Brueghelwhen Icarus fellit was spring a farmer was ploughinghis fieldthe whole pageantry of the year wasawake tinglingnear the edge of the seaconcernedwith itself sweating in the sunthat meltedthe wings' wax unsignificantlyoff the coastthere was a splash quite unnoticedthis wasIcarus drowning William Carlos Williams (1883-1963)Landscape with the Fall of Icarus

16. IRON MAIDEN Flight of Icarus 1983 (Smith/Dickinson)As the sun breaks, above the ground,An old man stands on the hill,As the ground warms, to the first rays of lightA birdsong shatters the still.His eyes are ablaze,See the madman in his gaze.Fly, on your way, like an eagle,Fly as high as the sun,On your way, like an eagle,Fly and touch the sun. Now the crowd breaks and a young boy appearsLooks the old man in the eyeAs he spreads his wings and shouts at the crowdIn the name of God my father I fly.His eyes seem so glazedAs he flies on the wings of a dream,Now he knows his father betrayedNow his wings turn to ashes to ashes his grave.Fly, on your way, like an eagle,Fly as high as the sun,On your way, like an eagle,Fly as high as the sun. Classic (Rock) Music Version

17. Iron Maiden Flight of Icarus Important rock history: “Flight Of Icarus was the first Iron Maiden single to be released in the United States…” “However, unlike the Greek myth where Icarus flew too close to the sun, this ill-fated Icarus has instead flown too close to a flamethrower-wielding Eddie.”

18. Daedalus’ exile and end • Daedalus had been exiled from Athens for killing his sister’s son Perdix (“Partridge”) • Perdix had been Daedalus’ apprentice, but he was so clever and inventive—making first compass and saw—that Daedalus was jealous • Threw him off the Acropolis: turns into bird • After Icarus dies, Daedalus goes to Sicily

19. Herakles : Greatest of Heroes

20. HERA KLES (Hera’s Glory)Latin: Hercules

21. Herakles, Who is he? Great-grandson of Perseus on mother’s side / A son of Zeus

22. Herakles’ genealogy • After his adventures, Perseus became king of Tiryns, east of Argos • Had children with Andromeda, including sons Alcaios and Electryon • Alcaios had son Amphitryon • Electryon, who ruled in Tiryns and/or Mycenae, had nine sons and daughter Alcmene

24. Birth of Herakles • Taphians/Teleboans (descendents of Perseus’ son Mestor) drive off Electryon’s cattle • Sons of Electryon pursue them, all die in battle (only Licymnius, still young boy, survives) • Electryon gives Amphitryon rule, asks him to protect his daughter, then goes to war against Teleboans • Upon his return Amphitryon kills him (either accidentally or on purpose)

25. Birth of Herakles • Sthenelus, another son of Perseus, throws Amphitryon out of Argos, takes rule of Mycenae and Tiryns • Amphitryon, Alcmene, and Licymnius go into exile in Thebes • Licymnius marries Creon’s sister Perimede • Alcmene says she’ll marry Amph. if he avenges her brothers • Amphitryon goes to war against Teleboans, with Creon’s help and other neighboring allies

26. Here we go again!... • Pterelaus king of Taphians ruled by virtue of a golden hair on his head • His daughter Comaetho falls in love with Amphitryon • She pulls out hair and gives it over to Amphitryon • Amphitryon takes the city and kills Comaetho

27. Birth of Herakles (finally!) • Before Amphitryon comes back, Zeus disguises himself as her husband and sleeps with Alcmene –causes sun not to rise for 3 days • Amphitryon returns, also sleeps with her, but learns from Teiresias that she has slept with Zeus • Alcmene has twins, by different fathers: Herakles is Zeus’ son, Iphikles is son of Amphitryon

28. Eurystheus, son of Sthenelus • Before Herakles was born Zeus told gods that the next descendent of Perseus to be born would be king of Mycenae • Hera, in jealousy, has Eileithyia stall Alcmene’s labor and has Sthenelus’ son Eurystheus born 2 months early • Eurystheus becomes king of Tiryns after Sthenelus

29. Herakles’ childhood • Hera put two snakes into bed of baby Herakles and Iphikles • Herakles strangles both the snakes • Variant: Amphitryon put the snakes in the bed to test which was his son, which was Zeus’

30. Serpents in crib of Herakles & Iphikles

31. Serpents in crib of Herakles & Iphikles

32. Baby Herakles

33. Baby HeraklesRoman wall fresco1st cent. BC

34. Roman mosaic, Antioch 2nd cent. A.D.

35. George Washington as Zeus of Olympia, Museum of American History, Washington D.C. Baby Herakles on side of throne

36. American Hercules baby?

37. Herakles’ education • Hero learns martial skills from various heroes • Taught kithara by Linos, but Herakles beat him to death with the kithara after being spanked • So he was sent out to tend the herds of Amphitryon on Mt. Cithaeron (recall, where Oedipus was exposed, Pentheus dismembered, etc.) • Grows to 7 feet tall, fiery eyes

38. Herakles and Linos the kithara-player

39. Cithaeron’s lion / Thespius’ daughters • On Cithaeron Herakles begins his long life of physical and sexual exploits • Slays lion ravaging herds, dons skin and wears skull on his head as helmet • Stays with Thespius, who has him sleep with all 50 of his daughters!

40. Herakles vs. Minyans/ 1st wife Megara • Minyans had beaten Thebes in a war and Thebes paid them tribute of cattle • Hercules defeats and kills Erginus king of Minyans in battle, Minyans have to pay tribute to Thebes • As reward Creon marries his oldest daughter Megara to Herakles: has 3 sons • Iphikles marries another daughter of Creon, has children

41. Herakles driven mad • Herakles receives weapons from gods: sword from Hermes, arrows from Apollo, breast-plate from Hephaestus, coat from Athena • Hera in jealous anger drives Herakles mad • He throws his and Megara’s sons, and two of Iphikles’ children, into fire • Goes into voluntary exile, seeks purification from his murder

42. Herakles driven mad • Goes to Delphi, asks where to settle • Gets name Herakles; previously Alceides “descendent of Alcaios” • Oracle tells him to go to Tiryns, serve Eurystheus for twelve years, complete ten labors • If/when accomplishes labors, he’ll become immortal

43. Labors of Herakles • The labors (athloi: contests for prize) of Herakles most famous and memorable sequence concerning the greatest of Greek heroes • There were to be ten, but two end up not counting because he is paid for them, so he has to do two more, making 12 • Relatively easy to recount and remember in outline, but in detail very complicated story sequence

44. Herakles on the web • Very best resource on web for Herakles is Eric Kondratieff’s “Heracles Project” • http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~ekondrat/heraklesrefs.html • Catalogs in story order and links to online texts

45. 10 (soon 12) Labors : Overview • 1) Nemean Lion • 2) Lernaian Hydra (didn’t count: done with help) • 3) Cerynitian Deer / Stag • 4) Erymanthian Boar • 5) Cattle-stalls of Augeias (didn’t count: done for pay) • 6) Stymphalian Birds • 7) Cretan Bull • 8) Mares of Diomedes • 9) War-Belt of Hippolyta (Hippolyte) • 10) Cattle of Geryon • 11) Apples of the Hesperides • 12) Cerberos (hound of Hades)

46. First six laborsSee also maps in ACM pp. xxxviii-xxxix

47. Patterns in the Labors • There are several discernible narrative patterns in the Hercules’ legends • Although heterogeneous, the stories do seem to pursue a unified kind of logic and focus on a discrete set of thematic elements • In these is it possible to detect the underlying cultural logic of a “Hercules tale”?

48. Patterns in the Labors • Animals : herd animals, taming of wild animals • Women : his exploits involve several women and his marriage / love-interests • Megara, daughters of Thespios, Iole, Deianeira • Centaurs • Labor for hire

49. Pairs of Labors • Invulnerable Beasts (1/2) • Nemean Lion (Typhon’s offspring) • Lernaian Hydra • Bring wild animals back alive (3/4) • Cerynitian Deer • Erymanthian Boar • Retrieve foreign (herd) animals • Cretan Bull • Mares of Diomedes

50. Otherworld Journeys • Cattle of Geryon : at western ends of the earth (“Pillars of Herakles”) • Orthos : 2-headed dog, offspring of Echidna & Typhon • Apples of Hesperides : at ends of earth (either west or east) • Hundred-headed serpent : offspring of Typhon & Echidna • Cerberos : in Hades • 3-headed dog