On August 12, the Romans
honoured Hercules at the Forum Boarium. Let us start by giving some general
background info on Hercules:
Hercules (Ancient Greek:
Hēraklês), was actually named Alcides (Ancient Greek: ΑΛΚΕΙΔΗΣ Alkeidēs, also: ΑΛΚΑΙΟΣ
Alkaios) at birth, but we will explain when and why His name was changed
further down. Alcides, as we shall call Him
for now, was the result of an extramarital affair of the King of the Gods
Iuppiter and a mortal woman called Alcumena (Ancient Greek: ΑΛΚΜΗΝΗ Alkmēnē).
Iuno, Iuppiter’s wife and Queen of the Gods, hated Alcides with a passion as He
reminded Her of Her husband’s infidelity.
Shortly after Alcides was
born, His stepmother Iuno sent serpents into His room to kill Him, but Alcides
took after His father in terms of strength and fearlessness so He made short
work of the slithering assassins. This fresco from the 1st
century CE, shows the infant Alcides casually strangling the venomous snakes
His stepmother sent to kill Him. Note how His father Iuppiter overlooks the
situation in the guise of an eagle. To the right, we can see His mother and stepfather,
evidently having trouble believing what their eyes are registering.
Another time later in His life
though, Iuno used Alcides’ enormous strength against Him. She sent Him a fit of
madness, and He ended up killing His own wife and children.
Once He came to His senses, He
was obviously devastated. Plagued by an unbearable feeling of guilt, He decided
to travel to Delphi to consult the oracle of the God Apollo.
In Delphi, the priestess of
Apollo renamed Alcides ΗΡΑΚΛΗΣ 【Hēraklēs】[I] (or Hercules to the Romans). ΗΡΑ 【Hera】 is Iuno’s Greek name and “kles” means something like
“glory”.
The priestess also told Him to
serve the king of Tiryns for 12 years and it was this king that ordered
Hercules to do what He is most famous for: The 12 Labours.
These labours were meant to be
unreasonably difficult, because the king actually wanted Hercules to fail, but
He completed them successfully one after the other.
In between the original Greek
labours, the Romans later added another “side labour” in order to establish a
link between Hercules and the city of Rome. The Roman addition goes something
like this:
After Hercules had stolen the cattle of the three- bodied giant
Geryones as one of His 12 Labours, Hercules drove His newly acquired cattle
through what would later become Rome. As it happened, a monster by the name of
Cacus lived there. The greedy creature had set his eyes on a few bulls and in
an attempt to outwit Hercules he pulled them away from His herd by their tails,
making them walk backwards so that Hercules would not be able to follow their
tracks. However, the cattle started mooing and alarmed Hercules, who was
resting nearby. As He saw what was happening, Hercules grabbed His trusty club
and made Cacus pay with his life for the crime he committed.
Hercules decided to celebrate
this happy ending by erecting an altar and sacrificing a bull to His divine
father Iuppiter, but all this action had made Him thirsty, so He started
looking for water. Before long, He was lured to a nearby grove by the sound of
a trickling spring. The grove was sacred to a mysterious Goddess (usually
believed to be Bona Dea) and only accessible through a gate. He asked an old
priestess for permission to go in take a handful of water from the stream, but
the priestess told Him to go look elsewhere, as only women were allowed on the
temple grounds. Hercules was not really used to not getting His way, so He
impatiently beat down the gate with His shoulder and went in to quench His
thirst anyway. Annoyed at the women from the Sacred Grove for not cooperating,
He decided that women would never be allowed to worship at the Great Altar He
was about to erect. [II] [III] [IV] Then, the hero called the
villagers to what would be known later as the Forum Boarium (“Cattle
Marketplace”). He sacrificed a bull to His divine father Iuppiter and set up
the Ara Maxima (“Great Altar”). Henceforth, the Urban praetor would offer a
heifer to Hercules here every year on August 12. [V] As per Hercules’ order, women
were not allowed and worshippers were required to worship in Greek style, that
is with uncovered head [VI] (In the Roman tradition, the head was usually
covered during worship.)
Shown on this photograph
is gilded statue of the young Hercules that was found at the Forum Boarium. It
was made in the 2nd century BCE and belonged to one of the temples that were
dedicated to Hercules. One of these temples, can still be seen today at the
Forum Boarium. Unfortunately, the Ara Maxima itself did not survive and
its exact appearance is unknown.
Sources:
[I] Apollodorus. Bibliothēkē:
2.4.12.
[II] Virgilius. Aeneis: 8. 195～.
[III] Ovidius. Fasti: 6.65～.
[IV] Propertius. Elegies: 4.9:1～74.
[V] Varro. De Lingua
Latina: 6.54.
[VI] Macrobius.
Saturnalia: 3.6.16-17.
