I've covered in detail the potential historical prototypes for the Greek demigod Heracles - from ancient Egypt to the Palaeolithic - but it's worth having a look at the impact of the legend on the classical world itself; in names, places and iconography.
The conquest of the Persian empire in the 330s BCE brought the cult of Heracles to central Asia and India, sticking around in various guises until the 2nd and 3rd century CE. One Heracles is seen in an relief from Gandhara as a guardian of Gautama Buddha. By way of the central Asian trade routes to the Far East, the iconographical features of Heracles and the Dioskouroi were imported to China and even Japan, where an echo of the demigod resurfaces as a macho pair of warrior monks guarding shrines, called Niō or Nioh.
The direct influence of Herakles-worship is illustrated by the Byzantine geographer Stephanus, writing in about the 6th century CE. He provides a list of 17 cities, either existing in his own time or anciently known, named after Herakles in some form. They include:
- Heraclea Perinthus (Thrace, from the 4th cent. CE)
- Heracleia (mouth of the Rhone, near St-Tropez),
- Heracleia (on the coast of northern Syria),
- Heraclieum (in the north-east of Crimea),
- Heracleus Tibus (near Apollonia in the southern Levant).
- Heracleum (between Scythia and India)
- Herakleia (an island in the Atlantic Ocean)
The latter two are of considerable interest. Between 'Scythia and India' would indicate a location within the borders of the former Graeco-Bactrian kingdom, possibly near Bactra or Alexandria Eschate, and its Romanized name-form could suggest that it was a name still in use during the later Roman period. The latter Herakleia might have been one of the Azores, as a 18th century account mentions a ruined equestrian statue on Corvo pointing west, or instead the 'Isle of Saturn' mentioned by Pliny, which is usually identified as the Berlengas archipelago. The identification of Heraklei with Corvo is supported by a report of a hoard of Carthaginian and Cyrenaican coins (dating to 320-340 BCE) within a black-figure vase. Cyrene, historically had a close association with seafaring and Heracles, being initially known as Hesperis, the evening star, which recalls his tenth Labour. The coins, furthermore were found within the foundation of a building, which was a common Greek practice. Equally, this might be another case of a place dedicated by the Carthaginians / Phoenicians to Melqart, which was then appropriated by later authors to mean Heracles.
The Romans, somehow, reached the Atlantic, perhaps following the steps of Herakles. This monument base from Terceia, one of the Azores, is inscribed with the name of a Roman called Opelio or Ophelius, who was born in Dacia. Image credit: Nuno Ribeiro et al 2016.
Other locations associated with the Twelve Labours show up across the classical world. The mystical land of Erythria, for instance, the home of Geryon the cattle-rustler, is found in settlement names in Arabia Palestina, and in Libya (the Erythrian Cape). Hesperis is found close to Berenike, the Ptolemaic naval port for Indian Ocean trade. The name Abdera is found in ancient foundations in southeast Spain, north Africa, Sicily and Thrace, and loosely means 'colony in the service of [Melqart]', and reflects an early association of Herarcles/Hercules with the Phoenician deity.
Then there is the Via Heraklea, a winding path in eastern Iberia which was the tradition north-south road for the Celts and Iberians before Augustus replaced it with a road in his own name, the Via Augusta. The route of the Via Heraklea was probably not, as Graham Robb argues (or more appropriately fantasises), some kind of cosmological, solstice-aligned pathway from one end of the inhabited world to the other, but probably a popular route along the coast first established in the Middle/Late Bronze Age, which would naturally be the way Herakles would walk on his way back from Geryon's kingdom of Erythria. It is possible that it had an ancient ritual purpose that Augustus was conscious of, and there were ideological points to be scored in renaming the road that Hannibal had taken to venture into Italy, after leaving offerings at the Great Temple of Melqart / Heracles in Agadir.
Pavement slabs of the Via Augusta near Gades, modern Cádiz or ancient Agadir, where the route began.
If Heracles had a wide following before the rise of Rome, his popularity only grew greater afterwards. The Romans freely adopted Heracles (as Hercules) as their own patron god, abandoning some archaic traits (such as his man-eating, feral, shamanistic personality), crediting him with inspiring the foundation of Rome itself by way of defeating the foul giant Cacus and founding the Altar of Hercules on what would become the Palatine Hill.
Naturally, Heracles was quite popular among the Roman military, who would have idealized his heroic deeds and daring travels during periods of political upheaval. The Ala Herculea cavalry unit was posted to northern Britain (to Olenacum, modern Ellenborough or Elslack) and to Tamuda, near Lixus, the purported location of the Garden of the Hesperides, although that might be related to the activities of Maximius Herculius, who campaigned against the Franks around the Strait of Gibralatar in the 280s. It is also found in Raetica, under the command of the Dux Raetae. One of the legiones comitatenses mentioned in the early 5th century Notary of Dignitaries is the Tertia Herculea, which is listed as serving in Illyricum, perhaps in the frontier province of Valeria. The Legio III Herculea was also originally a limitaneai, or border force. It is probably that some of these names were designated by the co-emperor Maximian, who was an avid worshipper of the hero and adopted the title Herculius for himself.
The theme that seems to be emergent here is that Heracles became essentially the patron deity of the frontier and the movements of armies, in a way that no other local deity or Roman god seems to have done. Mithras was similar in that soldiers and military officers predominately worshipped him, but Heracles had a broader appeal among Romans, Celts, Persians and Indians of all genders.
To the ancient world, he was something like the Caped Crusader is today, cleaning the streets and roads of monsters (rather than organised gangsters), although Batman, as far as I know, hasn't been deified yet.
References:
Billerbeck, B. M. (2014). Stephani Byzantii Ethnica. Volumen III: Κ–Ο.
Ribeiro, N., Joaquinito, A., & Pereira, A. S. (2013). “New Unknown Archaeological Data in Azores: The Hypogea of the Brazil Mount, Terceira Island (Portugal) and its Parallels with the Cultures of the Mediterranean”. In Proceedings of The 16th Annual Mediterranean Studies Congress, 29 May–1 June 2013, Azores (pp. 16-32).
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