Cogent Classics

The Coin

The figure depicted on the reverse of this ancient coin from Thasos shows a naked muscular figure with a lionskin slung over his left shoulder and carrying a studded club in his right hand. This would have been instantly recognisable to anyone in the ancient world as Hercules (or more properly Herakles). The inscription states: ΗΡΑΚΛΕΟΥΣ ΣΩΤΗΡΟΣ ΘΑΣΙΩΝ, translated as Herakles, Saviour (or Deliverer) of Thasos.

The Archaeology

There are archaeological remains of a grand sanctuary to Hercules in the north of Thasos. This site reveals the presence of an altar where sacrifices would have taken place. Banqueting halls are also present, indicating a site of feasting. The presence of a sanctuary on Thasos is also confirmed by written sources: both Pausanias (Description of Greece 5.25.12) and Herodotus (The Histories 2.44) mention the worship of Hercules here, with a Heracleia festival (commemorating his death) taking place every summer (Pausanias, Description of Greece 9.32.2)  (University of Warwick, 2017).

The Myth

Hercules was the son of Alcmene and Zeus. Alcmene’s chastity was famed and Zeus only managed to seduce her by pretending to be her husband Amphitryon. On hearing of the pregnancy, Hera, as goddess of childbirth, made her mortal rival’s pregnancy last much longer in order to frustrate a promise by Zeus that the first child to be born into the race of the Perseides would be the ruler of Argos. Zeus had intended for this to be Hercules, but due to Hera’s interference, Hercules’s cousin Eurystheus became ruler of Argos instead. Hera was therefore successful in preventing Hercules’s birthright, but was herself tricked into breastfeeding Hercules, thus making him immortal. Hera made a further attempt to harm Hercules when he was a few months old by placing two huge snakes in his room: Hercules was unperturbed and strangled both snakes.

After killing his tutor when he was older, Hercules was banished to the countryside, where he grew to the extraordinary height of four cubits and one foot (around 7 feet tall). When he was eighteen, he killed his first lion. Hercules married Megara, the daughter of Creon, as a reward for being successful in battle, and they had eight children together. Tragically, Hera induced an attack of madness in Hercules, which resulted in him murdering his wife and children. When he realised what he had done, Hercules wanted to commit suicide but was persuaded against this by Theseus and he exiled himself to Thebes. On wishing to return to his homeland, Hercules consulted the oracle at Delphi and was advised to follow the orders of the ruler Eurystheus (his cousin and usurper of his birthright). Eurystheus gave Heracles Twelve Labours to carry out before he was absolved of his crimes and allowed to return home. The most important weapon of Hercules was his self-made club but he also had some divine weapons: a sword from Hermes, a bow and arrow from Apollo, a breastplate from Hephaestus and horses from Poseidon. Hercules was successful in all these labours, such as killing the Nemean lion and the Lernaean hydra (a serpent-like water monster) and capturing the Erymanthian boar, as well as bringing back Cerberus the dog from the Underworld. He also had many other adventures and fought in several wars, each time greatly distinguishing himself. Hercules had a further episode of Hera- induced madness and killed his best friend: he had to atone for this by serving Queen Omphale of Lydia but they fell in love and married. Hercules therefore had at least two documented psychotic episodes, and possibly more which were not associated with any adverse events such as murders: this would place him in the unfortunate category of suffering from recurrent psychotic episodes, probably schizophrenia.

Love and Death

Hercules had many other love interests. On one occasion he asked the ruler of a town for his daughter, and when the king refused, he captured the town and abducted his daughter. Hercules latterly married Deianeira, who he won in a savage fight. Unfortunately, on hearing that Hercules had a new mistress, Deianeira was tricked into giving him poison which she thought was a love potion. Before Hercules died, he was transported to Olympus where he became one of the immortals. He was finally reconciled with Hera, and married Hebe, the goddess of Youth (Grimal, 1991).

The Cult of Hercules

As a mythological character, Hercules was an exceptional individual who was an adventurer and a warrior. Unusually, he could be worshipped as both hero and god. In addition, he was considered a role model for young men, particularly soldiers, and was the patron of gymnasia. We have seen that Hercules was worshipped in Thasos but he was immensely popular throughout the ancient world and his death was commemorated by Greeks in the festival of the Heracleia every summer. Many ancient towns adopted him as their patron deity and the town of Herculaneum in Italy was considered to have been founded by him. As we have previously discussed, Roman leaders continually sought to legitimise their right to rule by aligning themselves with previous ‘good’ emperors and even gods. Mark Antony is one who attempted to legitimise his right to rule by claiming that his family was descended from Hercules (Plutarch, Antony 4). Later in the imperial period, the emperor Commodus sought to affiliate himself with Hercules by identifying with his iconography (Fig. 4).

Discussion

Hercules was thus a much revered hero of the ancient world, which is perhaps why his periods of madness and murder are treated sympathetically. His madness was blamed on the actions of the gods, and he was able to absolve himself of these crimes by paying a penance in the mortal world. The character of Hercules was likely derived from an important warrior in pre-history, with his exploits being subject to later exaggeration and glorification. Did this pre-historic role model also have recurrent episodes of psychosis? Just as ancient societies sought to rationalise their world in terms of the gods- floods, earthquakes, famine and disease were all explained in terms of mortal man incurring the wrath of the gods- so it appears that madness was a similar affliction, with Hera being the common culprit. It is also noteworthy that the mythical figure Medea, who murdered her children when her husband Jason planned to take another wife, was not excused in the same way by mythographers: she was simply deigned to be evil. Is this another example of the inherent misogyny of the ancient world?

Conclusion

To summarise, the two figures on opposite sides of this second century BCE coin of Thasos were important deities on this island. Both were progeny of the god Zeus. However, Dionysus was a god from birth, whereas Hercules was a hero (possibly a demi-god) during his mortal life. Both were pursued by Hera, the jealous wife of Zeus, who visited the affliction of madness on them. An important difference between Dionysus and Hercules was their treatment of women: Dionysus treated the abandoned Ariadne respectfully by marrying her, whereas Hercules followed the usual heroic pattern of acquiring wives as rewards for heroic conduct or as spoils of war. The madness of Hercules was very much glossed over in the ancient world, with his ensuing exploits and bravery taking centre stage. It is a curious concept that, without the psychosis of Hercules and his subsequent homicides, he would not have become an exceptional hero, and would not have been such an iconic figure in the ancient world.

Bibliography

Primary sources

• Herodotus, The Histories, Robin Waterfield (trans.) (1998) Oxford, Oxford University Press.
• Pausanias, Description of Greece in Jones, W., Ormerod, H. (trans.) (1918), Perseus [Online]. Available at http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.+5.25.12&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160 (Accessed 12 February 2025).
• Plutarch, Life of Antony, in Perrin, B. (ed.) (1920), Perseus [Online]. Available at http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:2008.01.0007:chapter=4&highlight=heracles (Accessed 12 February 2025).

Secondary scholarship

• Grimal, P. (1991) Dictionary of Classical Mythology, London, Penguin.
• University of Warwick (2017) Sanctuary of Heracles, Thasos [Online]. Available at https://search.app/jTPHNMyGwwGVBT4G7 (Accessed 12 February 2025).