Hercules and Achelous - Paris, France
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Metro2
N 48° 51.666 E 002° 20.138
31U E 451271 N 5412227
This sculpture is located in the Louvre.
Waymark Code: WMKXJ0
Location: Île-de-France, France
Date Posted: 06/08/2014
Views: 8
This 1824 bronze work by Francois-Joseph Bosio is entitled "Hercules fighting Achelous transformed into a snake". It depicts a naked Hercules grasping a giant snakewith his left hand as he is about to bash the creature with a large rock in his right hand.
Wikipedia (
visit link) informs us:
"In Greek mythology, Achelous ... was the patron deity of the "silver-swirling" Achelous River, which is the largest river of Greece, and thus the chief of all river deities, every river having its own river spirit. His name is pre-Greek, its meaning unknown. The Greeks invented etymologies to associate it with Greek word roots (one such popular etymology translates the name as "he who washes away care"). However, these are etymologically unsound and of much later origin than the name itself."
and adds for Hercules (
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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. This article provides an introduction to representations of Hercules in the later tradition."