HUM-8 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Troy King, Eurystheus, Cretan Bull
Document Summary
Antiquity (ancient myth even in the ancient world): hunter (shows that he was super old, super-local (each place has a story about heracles when he was here he did this, there he did that) Some scholars believe heracles is a synchronization of many local hunter myths. No early source tells his full story. Must be pieced together from various stories and art (iconography) God/man ambivalence look at his family tree. Zeus imitates alcmena"s husband (amphitrion) and has sex with her. He was (uniquely) worshipped as a god and as a hero in the cult of the dead. Hero: a dead mortal whose tomb is given a cult. Usually you don"t build shrines to mortals, but you can build them to mortals that you don"t know this was in a religious practice called cult of the dead. These people who were worshiped were thought to be heros ( larger stronger) they were thought.
