709 



HERCULES. 



portions of the wall which contained them have been 

 cut out, and are preserved in the museum of Portici, 

 in sixteen apartments, under glass frames, and marked 

 P., E., or St., to indicate whether they were found 

 in Pompeii, Herculaneuin (called by the Italians 

 Ercolano), or Stabiae. The antiques discovered in 

 these buried cities are represented in the great work, 

 Le Antichita cT Ercolano (Naples, 1757), which, with 

 the not very critical Catalogo degli Antichi Monu- 

 menti cT Ercolano, by Bayardi (1755), comprises ten 

 folio volumes. These paintings, and some discovered 

 later, are represented in the first six volumes of this 

 costly work (Con qualche Spiegazioni di Pasquale 

 Carcani), of which there is also a cheaper edition, by 

 David, in France. 



During the reign of Murat, the excavations were 

 carried on with greater activity, and on a more sys- 

 tematic plan. Rossini, Scotti, and Pasetti, at Naples, 

 were engaged in unrolling and deciphering the Her- 

 culanean manuscripts, and some valuable literary 

 remains of Grecian and Roman antiquity were more 

 or less completely restored. The attempt of the 

 German, Sickler, at London, in 1818, to unroll the 

 manuscripts had not the expected success, the rolls 

 being too much injured. The attempts of Sir Hum- 

 phrey, in 1820, were also unsuccessful. The exca- 

 vations took place particularly in the ruins of Pom- 

 peii, and in the consular way leading from Pompeii 

 to Naples. A part of the beautiful ceilings and 

 floors of marble has been deposited in the galleries 

 of the museum, others in the saloons of the drawing 

 academy, for the study of the artists. The political 

 events of the year 1815 interrupted the excavations. 

 In February, 1816, king Ferdinand I. ordered a con- 

 tinuation of the labour. The ruins were subsequently 

 almost closed up.* 



HERCULES (called by the Greeks Heracles and 

 Alcides); the most celebrated hero of the mythologi- 

 cal age of Greece, in whom poetry has presented a 

 model of human perfection, according to the ideas of 

 the heroic age, the highest bodily vigour, united with 

 the finest qualities of mind and heart which entered 

 into the conceptions of that period, and all devoted 

 to the welfare of mankind. The hero is, indeed, a 

 man, but the godlike portion of his nature is of divine 

 origin. He is, therefore, the son of the king of the 

 gods, by a mortal mother. His nature strives per- 

 petually after divine excellence, but under the com- 

 mon conditions of humanity ; that is, amid a cease- 

 less succession of labours and sacrifices. His indomi- 

 table perseverance gives him the victory. This 

 victory shows us the triumph of the divine part of 

 man's nature over the earthly. His death secures 



Since the commencement of 1828, the government of 

 Naples have caused excavations to be made. They have 

 discovered the most splendid private house of the ancients 

 that has ever been seen by modern eyes. The house has a 

 suite of chambers, with a court in the centre. There is a 

 separate part of the mansion allotted to the females, a gar- 

 den, surrounded by arcades and columns, and also a grand 

 saloon, which probably served for the meeting of the whole 

 family. Another house, also discovered, was very remark- 

 able, from the quantity and nature of the provisions in it, 

 none of which have been disturbed for eighteen centuries, 

 for the doors remained fastened, in the same state as they 

 were at the period of the catastrophe which buried Hercu- 

 laneum. The family which occupied this mansion was, in 

 all likelihood, when the disaster took place, laying in provi. 

 ions for the winter. The provisions found in the store- 

 rooms consist of dates, chestnuts, large walnuts, dried fits, 

 almonds, prunes, corn, oil, pease, lentils, pies, and hams. 

 The internal arrangement of the house, the manner in 

 which it was ornamented, all, in fact, announced that it had 

 belonged to a very rich family, and to admirers of the arts 

 for there were discovered many pictures, representing Poly- 

 phemus and Galatea, Hercules, and the three Hesperides, 

 Cupid and a Bacchante, Mercury and lo, Perseus killing 



edusa. There were also in the same house vases, arti- 

 * in glass, bronze and terra cotta,** well n medallions 

 lo silver, representing in relief Apollo and Diana. 



him immortality, and a seat among the gods. Whs 

 story can be more interesting and instructive than 

 that of Hercules, throughout of a moral tendency, 

 under an allegorical veil, and presenting so clear a 

 picture of human life, its alternations of fortunes, its 

 struggles, its hopes, and its prospects ! No wonder, 

 therefore, that it has afforded a favourite subject 

 for poets and artists, and that his achievements have 

 been multiplied without number or consistency. 



The birth of Hercules was attended with many 

 miraculous and supernatural events. Hercules was 

 brought up at Tirynthus, or, according to Diodorus, 

 at Thebes ; and before he had completed his eighth 

 month, the jealousy of Juno, intent upon his de- 

 struction, sent two snakes to devour him. The child, 

 not terrified at the sight of the serpents, boldly seized 

 them in both his hands, and squeezed them to death, 

 while his brother, Iphiclus, alarmed the house with 

 his frightful shrieks. Jupiter sought to protect 

 his favourite in every manner, and to make him 

 worthy of immortality. Once, while Juno was slum- 

 bering, he laid the infant on her breast, that he 

 might suck the milk of the goddess. She awoke, 

 and cast from her the hated babe. Some drops of 

 milk that fell from her formed the milky way. Wit)' 

 the milk of the goddess, he imbibed immortality. 

 He was early instructed in the liberal arts, and Cas- 

 tor, the son of Tyndarus, taught him how to fight, 

 Eurytus how to shoot with a bow and arrows, Autoly- 

 cus to drive a chariot, Linus to play on the lyre, and 

 Eumolpus to sing. He, like the rest of his illustri- 

 ous contemporaries, soon after, became the pupil of 

 the Centaur Chiron, and under him he perfected 

 himself, and became the most valiant and accomplish- 

 ed hero of the age. When he had completed the 

 years of boyhood, he retired into a solitary district, 

 and stood at the meeting of two ways, reflecting on 

 his fate. Two lovely female figures approached, 

 and one (Pleasure) invited him to follow her flowery 

 path ; the other (Virtue) invited him to choose a 

 course full of labour and self-control, but crowned 

 with honour and immortality. The suit of Virtue 

 prevailed, and Hercules resolved to pursue her guid- 

 ance without shrinking. 



In the eighteenth year of his age, he resolved u> 

 deliver the neighbourhood of mount Cithasron from a 

 huge lion, which preyed on the flocks of Amphitry- 

 on, his supposed father, and which laid waste the ad- 

 jacent country. He went to the court of Thespius, 

 king of Thespis, who shared in the general calamity, 

 and was entertained there during fifty days. Tlie 

 fifty daughters of the king became mothers by Her- 

 cules, during his stay at Thespis. After he had de- 

 stroyed the lion of mount Cithasron, he delivered his 

 country from the annual tribute of a hundred oxen, 

 which it paid to Erginus. Such public services be- 

 came universally known, and Creon, who then sat 

 on the throne of Thebes, rewarded the patriotic deeds 

 of Hercules by giving him his daughter in marriage, 

 and intrusting him with the government of his king- 

 dom. As Hercules, by the will of Jupiter, was sub- 

 jected to the power of Eurystheus, and obliged to 

 obey him in every respect, Eurystheus, acquainted 

 with his successes and rising power, ordered him to 

 appear at Mycenae, and perform the labours which, by 

 priority of birth, he was empowered to impose upon 

 dim. Hercules refused, and Juno, to punish his dis- 

 obedience, rendered him so delirious that he killed his 

 own children by Megara, supposing them to be the 

 offspring of Eurystheus. (See Megara.) When h 

 recovered the use of his senses, he was so struck with 

 ;he misfortunes which had proceeded from his in- 

 sanity, that he concealed himself, and retired from 

 :he society of men for some time. He afterwards 

 consulted the oracle of Apollo, and was told that hj 



