Hercules - Vatican City State
Posted by: 
Metro2
N 41° 54.402 E 012° 27.213
33T E 288793 N 4642553
This sculpture is located in the Vatican Museum.
Waymark Code: WMJYFP
Location: Vatican City State
Date Posted: 01/16/2014
Views: 9
A placard at the Museum indicates that this sculpture of Hercules was found in 1802 at the baths of Stigliano and sold to the Vatican by Prince Altieri. The Roman work is dated to the 1st century "in which the artist has somewhat eclectically joined a body derived from the Doriforo of Polyclitus with a head inspired by a sculpture by Lysippus."
Wikipedia (
visit link) informs us:
"Hercules is the Roman name for the Greek divine hero Heracles, who was the son of Zeus (Roman equivalent Jupiter) and the mortal Alcmene. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures.
The Romans adapted the Greek hero's iconography and myths for their literature and art under the name Hercules. In later Western art and literature and in popular culture, Hercules is more commonly used than Heracles as the name of the hero. Hercules was a multifaceted figure with contradictory characteristics, which enabled later artists and writers to pick and choose how to represent him.[1] This article provides an introduction to representations of Hercules in the later tradition...
Hercules had a number of myths that were distinctly Roman. One of these is Hercules' defeat of Cacus, who was terrorizing the countryside of Rome. The hero was associated with the Aventine Hill through his son Aventinus. Mark Antony considered him a personal patron god, as did the emperor Commodus. Hercules received various forms of religious veneration, including as a deity concerned with children and childbirth, in part because of myths about his precocious infancy, and in part because he fathered countless children. Roman brides wore a special belt tied with the "knot of Hercules", which was supposed to be hard to untie.[4] The comic playwright Plautus presents the myth of Hercules' conception as a sex comedy in his play Amphitryon; Seneca wrote the tragedy Hercules Furens about his bout with madness. During the Roman Imperial era, Hercules was worshipped locally from Hispania through Gaul."