Heracles/Hercules

• Nemean Lion

  Heracles attacked with his sword and arrow

  soon he realised the lion skin was impregnable

  so he strangled it to death

  Athena told Hercules to skin the lion with its own claws
• Nemean lion metope

  clean shaven - shows he is early on in his labours

  looks tired - shows this battle took ages

  H shape fills the space well with athena and hermes

  hermes is present as heracles does a lot of travelling

  unusual image as he does not look triumphant

  
• Hydra

  the hydra had many heads with venom for blood - when one head was removed two more grew in its place

  heracles got help from his cousin Ioulas who would cauterize the hydras neck with a flaming torch

  Hera sent a crab which was crushed

  once all has had been removed heracles buried the body under a pile of rocks

  heracles used the poison to tip his arrows (sets up his death)
• Hydra metope

  fills the metope well. makes the hydra look scary. Heracles has a sickle and torch to cauterise the wound . easily recognisable. iolaus missing. has a bit more of a beard. seems more heroic

  
• Cerynitian hind

  • heracles shows perseverance
  • Heracles is tasked to capture Artemis' golden hind.
  • the golden hind was very fast
  • heracles had tracked it for a whole year before he eventually snared it
  • Apollo and Artemis confronted him and after being told he was forced unto it Artemis was willing to let him borrow.
• Cerynitian hind

  triangle shape draws eye up to where both of the characters heads are together.

  he has a beard as lots of time has passed.

  his knee is on the hind as he has defeated it

  he is holding the antlers which female deer dont have - recognizable - realism - maybe captured in the north reindeer

  
• Erymanthian boar

  • tasked to capture (NOT KILL) the erymanthian boar and bring it back alive. Was much larger than normal boars and was terrorising the countryside of Arcadia.
  • Heracles wore down the bull by chasing it through thick winter snow.
  • once tired Heracles carried it back to mycenae.
  • on arrival the king was so scared he hid in a sunken pithos jar
• Erymanthian boar

  • triangle draws eye up to heracles with the boar then to eurystheus who is shown as a coward.
  • pithos jar stored outside - chosen the most visual part of the story which is funny.
  • shows heracles as the hero rather than eurystheus

  
• Augean stable

  • Heracles tasked to clean out the stable of augeas. augeas had an enormous her of cattle that produced an extremely large amounts of dung so this task was thought as impossible
  • Heracles diverted the river alpheios and penios through the stables, cleaning it instantly.
  • Augeus promised payment however went back on this
  • Later Heracles returned killed him and started the olympic games
• Augean stables

  holding a shovel to redirect the river to muck out stables

  athena wearing helmet shows recognisable

  she's also present to to show that hercules used his brain

  
• Stymphalian Birds

  • hercales tasked to defeat the stymphalian birds as they had been ravaging the farm lands
  • heracles received help from athena as she gaqve him a rattle made by hephaestus.
  • once he shaked the rattle the birds flew into the sky and heracles shot them down
• Stymphalian Birds metopes

  • H or triangle as heads come together. athena present with her aegis.
  • not very obvious as can't really see birds.
  • dull, not visually exciting, does fill the space

  
• Cretan Bull

  • heracles tasked with capturing the cretan bull alive. the bull had been destroying cretan farmland. When heracles arrived king minos was happy to let him remove it.
  • heracles strangled the bull but released his grip before it passed out, he then rode it back to mycenae,
  • once again king eurystheus hid in a pithos jar
• Cretan bull metope

  • cross shows they are fighting, horns, tension in the middle of battle, fills the space well.
  • hole in bulls head suggests special horns
  • eye contact exciting

  
• Horses of Diomedes

  • Diomedes had man eating horses tethered with a bronze manger with iron chains. upon arriving heracles took the horses and returned home.
  • diomedes set out after him.
  • heracles was fighting him his friend abderos was eaten by the horses.
  • heracles fed diomedes to his own horses and they became calm
• Hippolytes Belt

  • hippolyte was queen of the amazons, originally willing to give her belt to heracles.
  • Hera not happy with this spread a rumour that heracles was there to kidnap the queen,
  • the amazons attacked him and he killed hippolyte
• Apples of Hesperides

  • the apples were grown in a mythical garden guarded by hesperides.
  • Heracles went to the edge of the world to get intel from Atlas
  • Atlas agrees to go get the apple if Heracles holds up the sky for him.
  • Atlas thinks he's tricked Hercules, but Heracles tricks him by asking atlas to hold up the sky while he gets a pillow and takes the apples
• Cerberus

  • Heracles tasked to bring cerberus from the underworld. In order to gain favour from persephone, Heracles initiated himself into the eleusinian mysteries.
  • upon arrival both hades and persephone, both agreed to let heracles borrow cerberus if he could capture cerberus with no weapons
  • heracles accepted and strangled cerberus

  he then brought cerberus to eurystheus and after returned him to the underworld