DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7416#0111
101
comprehending both symbols; and the ancient Phoenician Her-;
cules being merely the lion humanised. The knowledge of himV
appears to have come into Europe by the way of Thrace; he hav-
ing been worshipped in the island of Thasus, by the Phoenician co-
lony settled there, five generations before the birth of the Theban
hero ;* who was distinguished by the same title that he obtained in
Greece; and whose romantic adventures have been confounded
with the allegorical fables related of him. In the Homeric times,
he appears to have been utterly unknown to the Greeks, the Her-
cules of the Iliad and Odyssey being a mere man, pre-eminently
distinguished indeed for strength and valour, but exempt from
none of the laws of mortality.2 His original symbolical arms,
with which he appears on the most ancient medals of Thasus, were
the same as those of Apollo;3 and his Greek name, which, ac- I
cording to the most probable etymology, signifies the glorijier of
the earth, is peculiarly applicable to the Sun. The Romans held
him to be the same as Mars ;4 who was sometimes represented
under the same form, and considered as the same deity as Apollo ;s
and in some instances we find him destroying the vine instead of the
serpent,6 the deer, the centaur, or the bull; by all which the same
meaning, a little differently modified, is conveyed : but the more
common representation of him destroying the lion is not so easily
explained ; and it is probable that the traditional history of the
deified hero has, in this instance as well as some others, been
blended with the allegorical fables of the personified attribute : for
iii i i ... -
1 Herodot. lib. ii. c. 44.
- Iliads. 117. Odyss. A. 600. The three following lines, alluding to his
deification, have long been discovered to be interpolated.
3 Strabo, lib. xv. p. 688. Athenas, lib. xii. p. 512. The club was given
him by the Epic poets, who made the mixed fables of the Theban hero and
personified attribute the subjects of their poems. '
" Varro apud Macrob. Sat. J^cols. TP- ■ It' jfa-W
J Ek fiev Aijtovs 6 KttoT^oiv e/c 5e 'Upas 6 Apr]S ytyovc juio 5e ttrriv apipoTtpuv tj
!bw(ui.-ovkovv ti re 'Hpa itai 7) Atjtw Svo fiai fuas 0tov Trpoariyopm. Plu-
tarch, apud Euseb. Prap. Evang. lib. iii. c. 1.
6 Mus. Florent. in gemm. T. 1. pi. xcii. 9.
comprehending both symbols; and the ancient Phoenician Her-;
cules being merely the lion humanised. The knowledge of himV
appears to have come into Europe by the way of Thrace; he hav-
ing been worshipped in the island of Thasus, by the Phoenician co-
lony settled there, five generations before the birth of the Theban
hero ;* who was distinguished by the same title that he obtained in
Greece; and whose romantic adventures have been confounded
with the allegorical fables related of him. In the Homeric times,
he appears to have been utterly unknown to the Greeks, the Her-
cules of the Iliad and Odyssey being a mere man, pre-eminently
distinguished indeed for strength and valour, but exempt from
none of the laws of mortality.2 His original symbolical arms,
with which he appears on the most ancient medals of Thasus, were
the same as those of Apollo;3 and his Greek name, which, ac- I
cording to the most probable etymology, signifies the glorijier of
the earth, is peculiarly applicable to the Sun. The Romans held
him to be the same as Mars ;4 who was sometimes represented
under the same form, and considered as the same deity as Apollo ;s
and in some instances we find him destroying the vine instead of the
serpent,6 the deer, the centaur, or the bull; by all which the same
meaning, a little differently modified, is conveyed : but the more
common representation of him destroying the lion is not so easily
explained ; and it is probable that the traditional history of the
deified hero has, in this instance as well as some others, been
blended with the allegorical fables of the personified attribute : for
iii i i ... -
1 Herodot. lib. ii. c. 44.
- Iliads. 117. Odyss. A. 600. The three following lines, alluding to his
deification, have long been discovered to be interpolated.
3 Strabo, lib. xv. p. 688. Athenas, lib. xii. p. 512. The club was given
him by the Epic poets, who made the mixed fables of the Theban hero and
personified attribute the subjects of their poems. '
" Varro apud Macrob. Sat. J^cols. TP- ■ It' jfa-W
J Ek fiev Aijtovs 6 KttoT^oiv e/c 5e 'Upas 6 Apr]S ytyovc juio 5e ttrriv apipoTtpuv tj
!bw(ui.-ovkovv ti re 'Hpa itai 7) Atjtw Svo fiai fuas 0tov Trpoariyopm. Plu-
tarch, apud Euseb. Prap. Evang. lib. iii. c. 1.
6 Mus. Florent. in gemm. T. 1. pi. xcii. 9.