Heracles and the Olympic Games

The Universal Hero – Heracles/Hercules

In this course Professor Emma Stafford (University of Leeds) explores some of the myths associated with Heracles/Hercules. In the first module, we think about Heracles as founder of the Olympic Games. After that, we consider the Twelve Labours of Heracles as represented on the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, before turning in the third lecture to the Homeric Hymn to Heracles, which provides the reader with the complete story of Heracles’ life, death and afterlife in just nine lines. In the fourth lecture we think about the myth of Hercules and Cacus, as told in Virgil’s Aeneid (8.154-279) before turning in the fifth and final module to consider the myth of Hercules’ battles with Achelous and Nessus, and the death of Hercules, as depicted in Ovid’s Metamorphoses (9.1-272).

Note: Most figures in Greek and Roman myth will have Greek and Roman versions of their name. In the case of Heracles/Hercules, we use the name Heracles in a Greek context and Hercules in a Roman context, but they are in effect the same hero.

Heracles and the Olympic Games

In this lecture we think about Heracles as the founder of the Olympic Games, focusing in particular on: (i) the poetry of Pindar (c. 518-438 BC), our earliest source for Heracles as the founder of the Olympic Games; (ii) the idea of the Olympic Games as founded from the spoils taken in war (Pindar, Olympian 2.3-4); (iii) the importance of the prophetic clan of the Iamidae at Olympia (Pindar, Olympian 6.66-71); (iv) the figure of Heracles as athlete par excellence; and (v) the stories of real-life athletes being related to Heracles, e.g. Theagenes of Thasos (Pausanias 6.11.2-9).

Key sources:
– Pindar, Olympian 2 (Theron of Acragas, chariot-race, 476 BC)
– Pindar, Olympian 3 (Theron of Acragas, chariot-race, 476 BC)
– Pindar, Olympian 6 (Hagesias of Syracuse, mule-car race, 472 or 468 BC)
– Pindar, Olympian 10 (Hagesidamos of Western Lokroi, boys’ boxing, 476 BC)
– Pindar, Nemean 1 (Chromios of Aitna, chariot race, 476 or 472 BC)
– Figure N (Seer), East pediment, Temple of Zeus, Olympia, c. 460 BC
– Pausanias, Description of Greece 5.25.12 (statue of Heracles at Olympia), 6.11.2-9 (story of the athlete Theagenes, son of Timosthenes)
– Statue of a Victorious Youth, 300-100 BC (J. Paul Getty Museum, 77.AB.30)