Chapter 13: Herakles
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♠ Hes fr 25.20-25 MW – Hesiod, Ehoiai (Catalogue of Women) – Fragmenta Hesiodea, pp. 15-16, ed. Merkelbach and M.L. West. Oxford 1967.
She bore and contrived dreadful deeds in the folly (?) of her mind, when anointing a chiton with a drug she gave it to the herald Lichas to convey. And he gave it to lord Herakles son of Amphitryon sacker of cities; and death came to him quickly after he received it. [25] And he died and went down into the <much-groaning> house of Hades. (Transl. T. Gantz and E. Bianchelli)
♠ Bak 16.13-35 – Bakchylides, Dithyrambs
Meanwhile we sing of how the son of Amphitryon, a bold-minded man, left Oechalia devoured by fire, [15] and arrived at the headland with waves all around it; there he was going to sacrifice from his booty nine loud-bellowing bulls for Cenaean Zeus, lord of the wide-spread clouds, and two for the god who rouses the sea and subdues the earth, [20] and a high-horned unyoked ox for the virgin Athena, whose eyes flash with might. Then a god, useless to fight against, wove for Deianeira, to her great sorrow, [25] a clever scheme, when she heard the bitter news that the son of Zeus, fearless in battle, was sending white-armed Iole to his splendid house to be his bride. [30] Poor woman, ill-fated, what a plan she devised! Widely powerful envy destroyed her, and the dark veil which covered what was to come, when on the rosy banks of the Lycormas [35] she received from Nessus the fateful, monstrous gift. Greek Text
♠ Aischylos, Herakleidai fr 73b R – Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta 3, pp. 190-91, ed. S. L. Radt. Göttingen 1985.
♦ New York, private collection of Malcolm H. Wiener: Attic red-figure psykter with Herakles on the pyre
“Herakles reclining on the pyre holding out his bow and quiver to Philoktetes who stands on the right wearing a pilos and a short chiton and holding two spears. On the right, Hermes and other figures.” (description from Maria Pipili, “Philoktetes,” Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae [LIMC] 7.1 (1994) p. 378 no. 4)
“Herakles reclines on his lionskin on the pyre holding out bow and quiver to a youth with two spears (Philoktetes). To right Hermes approaching, a warrior, a woman with spear, a man with sceptre, a youth, a man with sceptre on (in?) a rock (Oita?). A tree beyond the pyre.” (description from John Boardman, “Herakles,” Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae [LIMC] 5.1 (1990) p. 128 no. 2910)
Beazley Archive Pottery Database (no photos)
Digital LIMC and links to entries in printed LIMC (no photo; see above for descriptions)
♦ Rome, Villa Giulia 11688: fragments of Attic red-figure bell krater by Conca Painter with Nymphe (?) approaching from left with hydria with water to put out burning pyre; Athena in aigis looking left; Herakles in lionskin lying frontally on pyre, which is composed of logs; leaning against right side of pyre, Herakles’ club; youth (Philoktetes), in short chiton, chlamys and boots, holds Herakles’ bow while rushing to right; on far right, another Nymphe runs to right on the way to refilling her hydria
Beazley Archive Pottery Database (with photos of fragments)
Digital LIMC and links to entries in printed LIMC (with photo of some fragments)
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Tags:
Herakles, #Athena, #Philoktetes, #Nymphai
Artistic sources edited by R. Ross Holloway, Elisha Benjamin Andrews Professor Emeritus, Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World, Brown Univ., and Frances Van Keuren, Prof. Emerita, Lamar Dodd School of Art, Univ. of Georgia, August 2025
Literary sources edited by Elena Bianchelli, Retired Senior Lecturer of Classical Languages and Culture, Univ. of Georgia, December 2023.
