DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT AN ANCIENT GREEK SCHOLAR. FOR THE FULL DISCLAIMER, READ HERE.
O city, mourn! Your flower
is cut down, the son of Zeus.
O Hellas, mourn! You have lost
your savior! He dances now
to the fatal pipes of madness!
(Chorus; 875-79)
Introduction
Heracles by Euripides tells a familiar story: Heracles’ moment of insanity, induced by the goddess Hera, that led him to murder his wife and sons. However, Euripides’ play ended up being overshadowed centuries later by Seneca’s famous play Hercules furens (The Mad Hercules).
Euripides’ version of this story is unique though. In the original legend, the purpose of the Twelve Labors that Heracles underwent was to make atonement for murdering his family (and earn the chance for godhood). In Euripides’ version, he commits the murders after the Labors. The remainder of the story then goes in a very different direction (if you’ve read The Women of Trachis by Sophocles, you’ll know what I mean).
I’m going to talk a lot about Heracles the man after the Summary, so I won’t say much more about his story here, but I figured it would be good to at least mention exactly what Heracles’ Twelve Labors were. These Labors were assigned by Eurystheus, the king of Argos, who despised him. Eurystheus even went as far as adding two more Labors to Heracles’ penance as originally Heracles was only to do ten. After Heracles’ death, Eurystheus went after Heracles’ children (as seen in The Heraclidae by Euripides). Here are the Labors:
The slaying of the Nemean Lion. A ferocious lion, an offspring of one of the gods, sent by Hera to terrorize Nemea. After Heracles slew it, he skinned the lion and wore the pelt from there on out.
The slaying of the Lernaean Hydra. A fire-breathing, multi-headed serpent, that lived in a swamp near Lerna. The hydra is well established in popular culture as the monster that grows more heads when one is cut off. Hera sent the hydra in the hopes of destroying Heracles’ home city. This is the first time Heracles got the help of his famous companion (and cousin) Iolaus. After the hydra was slain, Heracles dipped his arrows in the hydra’s venom, making his arrows far more deadly.
Capturing alive the golden deer sacred to Artemis.
Capturing alive the Erymanthian Boar that roamed the lands. Heracles had to chase it around and whittle down its stamina before capturing it.
Cleaning the Augean stable in one day. The stables were populated by thousands of cattle, gifts to Augeus by his father Helios (the sun), whose dung was poisonous. Heracles ended up diverting two rivers through the stables to clean it.
Killing the Stymphalian Birds, which were aggressive man-eaters with beaks of bronze and metallic feathers, that were terrorizing a forest near Lake Stymphalia. Heracles scared them out of the forest and shot them down with his hydra venom tipped arrows.
Capturing alive the Cretan Bull. The Cretan Bull was the father of the Minotaur and terrorized Crete as a part of Poseidon’s wrath against it.
Stealing the horses of Diomedes. No, not Diomedes, the war hero of the Trojan War. This Diomedes was a king of Thrace who raised his horses on human flesh. Heracles fed Diomedes to the horses then bound their mouths shut.
Getting the girdle of Hippolyta, the Queen of the Amazons.
Capturing the cattle of Geryon. Geryon was a monster with three bodies and one head and his cattle were guarded by a two-head dog named Orthrus. Heracles ended up killing those two and the herdsman Erytion.
Stealing the golden apples from the tree in the garden of the Hesperides. The Hesperides were the daughters of Atlas. The tree was guarded by a hundred-headed dragon that never slept. It was during this labor that Heracles freed Prometheus from his punishment (he was chained to a rock where a giant eagle ate his liver everyday) in order to get his help. Fun fact: it was a golden apple from this garden that the goddess of discord Eris used to start the chain of events that led to the Trojan War.
Capturing Cerberus, the three-headed guard dog of the Underworld.
All quotes from Heracles are from the William Arrowsmith translation. This translation is found in the Complete Greek Tragedies which was originally edited by David Grene and Richmond Lattimore. I will be using the Third Edition which was edited by Mark Griffith and Glenn W. Most.
Summary
Amphitryon the stepfather of Heracles, Megara the wife of Heracles, and Heracles’ sons, are huddled up by an altar of Zeus before the palace of Thebes where they have been for quite awhile. While Heracles has been away undertaking the last of his Twelve Labors, going down to Hades to drag up to the surface Cerberus, the three-headed guard dog of the Underworld, an outsider named Lycus has taken over Thebes. After Thebes’ civil war, the famous Seven Against Thebes, it had become weakened to the point where Lycus was able to murder and usurp King Creon and install his tyrannical regime. Since Megara is Creon’s daughter, Lycus is afraid her sons will grow up to avenge their uncle and so has decided that Megara and her family must be put to death. This is why Amphitryon, Megara, and Heracles’ sons are at the altar of Zeus—as suppliants.
Lycus shows up to the altar and tells Amphitryon to just give up. He has nowhere to go and is just prolonging the inevitable. Lycus then calls Heracles a coward for using the bow as his preferred weapon and downplays Heracles’ famous feats. Amphitryon can’t let this slander go and tells Lycus he’s the real coward for acting while Heracles is away and asks him exactly what amazing feats he has performed in his life. Lycus is angered by Amphitryon’s response and orders his servants to gather wood and pile it around the altar. If Heracles’ family doesn’t want to leave the altar willingly to face execution, then they can just burn to death.
The Chorus, a group of Old Theban Men who have been visiting the altar supporting Heracles’ family, refuse to let this outrage slide and stand up to Lycus. However, Megara tells them to stand down and thanks them for their loyalty. She then tells Amphitryon that she refuses to let her or her sons die being burned to death. She would rather they all face their death head on as the wife and sons of Heracles should. Amphitryon concedes and tells Lycus they are prepared to be executed—only please execute him and Megara first so they don’t have to hear Heracles’ sons’ cries as they’re killed. Megara also requests her and her son be allowed to clean up and wear appropriate clothes. Lycus grants their requests and they all leave for the palace.
As the Chorus recounts all of Heracles’ famous Labors, Megara, Amphitryon, and Heracles’ sons exit the palace dressed for their own burial. As Megara laments that her sons won’t grow up to have wives and inherit Heracles’ legacy, she spots Heracles approaching the palace. He sees everyone dressed for their funeral and wonders what in world in going on. When Megara explains the situation, Heracles is shocked and vows not only to kill Lycus, but all those in Thebes who refused to help his family. When Amphitryon asks him what took Heracles so long with his final Labor, he explains that while trying to get Cerberus, he found Theseus trapped in Hades and helped him escape. After taking Cerberus out of Hades, Heracles hid him in a grove and went immediately home first rather than report to Eurystheus.
Heracles takes his sons, wife, and father into the house. A short time later, Lycus appears wondering where everyone is. Amphitryon exits the palace and explains to Lycus that Megara and her sons are saying their final prayers at the hearth and requests that Lycus go and retrieve them. Lycus grudgingly agrees and goes into the palace with Amphitryon following behind. Inside, Heracles ambushes and slays Lycus.
As the Chorus celebrates the turn of fortunes, they are frightened by the appearance of Iris, the messenger of the gods, and Lyssa, the goddess of Madness. Iris tells Madness, on behalf of Hera, to drive Heracles insane and cause him to murder his wife and sons. Madness advises Iris to reconsider, but Iris reminds her that orders are orders. Madness calls upon the gods as witnesses that she is acting against her will and goes inside the palace.
Inside the palace, the Chorus hears Amphitryon crying out in horror and yelling for his grandsons to flee. Soon after, a Messenger exits the palace and tells the Chorus the horrifying news that Heracles has just murdered his wife and sons. Just as they had finished making offerings to Zeus, Heracles suddenly froze. His eyes began to bulge and his mouth began frothing. He determined that now was the time to kill Eurystheus for all the trouble he put him through with the Labors and hallucinated getting on a chariot and driving to Mycenae. He then chased his sons with bow and club, thinking he was going after Eurystheus’ sons, and murdered them. When Megara fled into a different room with the remaining son, he ripped off the door and shot both of them dead. Just as he was about to kill Amphitryon, the goddess Athena appeared and hurled a giant stone at him which knocked him out. Amphitryon and the household servants then tied Heracles up to a pillar.
After the Messenger tells the Chorus the news, he reenters the palace just as Amphitryon exits. The Chorus console him, but Amphitryon tells them to be quiet out of fear of waking up Heracles. However, Heracles awakens anyway and is confused by his situation. From his perspective, one moment he was finishing making offerings to Zeus and the next he is tied to a pillar with dead bodies around him. After Amphitryon confirms that Heracles has come back to his senses, he tells him the devastating news that he has murdered his wife and sons in a fit of madness. Heracles is filled with so much grief he becomes suicidal and hides his head inside his clothes in grief and shame.
Just then Theseus shows up with an army. He had heard that Lycus had taken over Thebes in Heracles’ absence and wanted to repay Heracles for freeing him from Hades. However, when he enters the palace, he sees the dead bodies wants to know what on earth happened. Amphitryon explains to him the situation and tells him Heracles hiding his head in his robes. Theseus tells Heracles to lift up his head and face him, then invites Heracles to come back to Athens with him where he will find refuge. When he dies, a monument will be erected in his honor. Heracles eventually accepts the invitation and requests his father bury his wife and sons since he is forbidden to by law (being their slayers). Heracles and his father share a tearful farewell and Heracles promises that when Amphitryon dies, he will send for his body and have him buried in Athens. Theseus then shoulders Heracles and the two leave while Amphitryon returns inside the place.
The Life of Heracles As a Warning?
Heracles is a very complicated character in ancient Greek mythology. On the one hand, he was a one-man army. He sacked cities, accomplished amazing feats of strength, and all the women wanted him. He left descendants all over the place which is why so many different houses, including the royal houses of Sparta, could claim to be descended from Heracles without having to definitively prove it. he accomplished amazing feats.
He also slew very dangerous monsters that were roaming about in the world. Heracles almost single-handedly made it safer for civilization to flourish. Euripides even says as much through the goddess Madness:
[Heracles] reclaimed the pathless land and raging sea,
and he alone held up the honors of the gods
when they wilted by the deeds of evil men.
Lines 851-53
Heracles was also devoted to the gods—even naively, blindly, fanatically so:
Ah, all this has no bearing on my grief;
but I do not believe the gods commit
adultery, or bind each other in chains.
I never did believe it; I never shall;
nor that one god is tyrant of the rest.
If god is truly god, he is perfect,
lacking nothing. Those are poets’ wretched lies.Lines 1340-46
A cursory look at the stories of the gods in Greek mythology destroys Heracles’ statement. His own existence is a refutation of his theology. Heracles existed because his father Zeus, who is married to Hera, slept with a woman who was another man’s wife. Zeus committed adultery against his own wife and forced a woman to betray her marriage vows to her husband (because who can resist the all powerful king of the gods?).
This is, of course, assuming that Heracles thinks that Zeus stepping out on his wife and sleeping with other women, married or not, is not considered adultery because he’s Zeus. That’s a whole other conversation.
Anyway, Heracles was also tormented by step-mother Hera for most of his life because she didn’t like that he was one of Zeus’ sons through another woman. His own mother Alcmene initially abandoned him to die of exposure after he was born because she was afraid of Hera’s wrath. Heracles only survived because he was rescued by Athena. Months later, Hera tried to kill him with a pair of venomous snakes—which the infant Heracles survived by strangling them to death. Heracles’ name was even an attempt to placate Hera a little (Heracles means something like “Hera’s glory”). However, as you saw in the summary of the play, it didn’t work, because she despised Heracles so much she forced the goddess Madness to drive Heracles insane and murder his wife and three sons.
Heracles’ end, on earth at least, was also tragic as well. Just as he finished his Labors, he is driven mad and murders his wife and sons, leaving him without direct heirs to all the lands he had conquered. If you look over Euripides’ creative retelling of Heracles’ story, like The Women of Trachis by Sophocles, Heracles is accidentally killed by his second wife Deianera after he had finished his Labors. Part of that was his fault, as he was cheating on her and he provoked her insecurity and jealousy, but having your life unceremoniously ended after you were expecting to live the rest of your days in peace still bites.
So, Heracles’ life was a life of heroism and tragedy. But, it was also a life of immorality and criminality. Heracles as a child killed his tutor, a famous musician and man of letters, in a fit of rage because he was frustrated with his studies. As an adult, Heracles raped and pillaged wherever he went. The woman he took for himself in The Women of Trachis, that led to his wife accidentally killing him, had been the princess of a city. Heracles had fallen in love with her, but her father and brother refused to give her to him. So, Heracles sacked their city, slew the father and brother, and took the princess for himself.
Because Heracles was so strong and powerful, he could essentially get whatever or whomever he wanted. And in a lot of cases, that’s exactly what he did. It was only due to his piety toward the gods, and his unwillingness to remain polluted by the murders of his wife and sons (even though it wasn’t his fault), that led him to undergo his Twelve Labors. Would Heracles have slain those terrible monsters or performed those amazing feats if he wasn’t obligated to? That’s a good question.
I look at the story of Heracles and I see a man who was given more power than any other human being on earth and was able to accomplish amazing feats with it. He was also the product of adultery. While his step-father was a decent man, his real father was largely absent from his life. Zeus could have at least kept Heracles from a lot of the suffering he endured, but instead he let his wife Hera torment Heracles over and over again. It was so bad that Heracles’ mother even abandoned him as an infant out of fear. And just when Heracles finally found a wife, built a family with her, and prepared an inheritance for his sons, his step-mother drove him to kill them with his own hands.
Is it any wonder Heracles turned out the way he did?
Heracles is what happens when a man, especially a capable one, is despised by the powers of the world and crushed under their selfishness.
The big difference today is that Heracles had a system that kept him in place when he murdered his family. That caused him to believe he needed to make penance—even if he committed the sin involuntarily.
We don’t have that system anymore. It was dismantled. And men all over are being crushed by the powers of the world to the point of making them apathetic. Even nihilistic. Because, who wants to contribute to a world that despises them? That demands all from them without giving anything back in return?
This should be terrifying because what happens when those men have had enough? Especially the capable ones? The ones who genuinely should have been successful, who would have been successful in any other era, but aren’t because the world chewed them up, spit them out, and then blamed those men for everything wrong in society.
We might be finding out that answer within our lifetimes.
That's all for Heracles by Euripides.
May your days be filled with grace.
-Andronikos Anodos
Click here for the reading list I am going through.
Thumbnail: Infant Heracles Strangling the Snakes, c. 480 BC