"The eyes, being in the highest part, have the office of sentinels" -- Cicero
 
Herakles is a hero and demigod described in the Greek and Roman myths as being the son of Zeus by Alcmene or Alcmena. Zeus as king of the gods was a randy guy and often went around impregnating human females siring children. His wife Hera was very jealous and did not like this sleeping around. Hera was goddess of marriage and had a vested interest in keeping her husband from straying.
In the case of Alcmene, Zeus assumed the form of her husband, Amphitryon who was away at war. When the real Amphitryon came to her bed she thought he had just been with her that same night. This made Amphitryon suspicious and he asked Tiresias who told him that Zeus had gotten the jump on him. In any case, as a result of this sexual escapade Alcmene bore twin sons, Herakles, son of Zeus and Iphikles, son of Amphitryon.
The boy was named Herakles which means "gift of Hera" and this did not sit too well with Hera as he was the result of an adulterous liaison by her husband. So in revenge she sent two serpents to kill the infant who was eight months old by this time. The young boy strangled the snakes with his bare hands and this was the first demonstration of his great strength. He was also known for his courage from a very young age. In the myths he is subject to extreme rages and often kills men unintentionally in anger. He is flawed in the way all men are.
He married Megara, a princess, and they had several children but to destroy his happiness Hera made him insane and he murdered his children. He went into exile and began the Twelve Labors of Herakles. After many adventures he at last married Deianira who doubting his fidelity soaked his tunic in poisoned blood (which she thought was a love charm) from a dying centaur whom Herakles slew because he tried to molest Deianira. In extreme pain Hercules ordered a funeral pyre erected and threw himself into the flames. He was received into Olympus and reconciling with Hera he married her daughter Hebe. There is a constellation in the sky named for him.
For many centuries the stories of Hercules (as the Romans called him) have charmed people around the world. My introduction to him was in high school Latin classes where we studied mythology and in the Italian films of the 1960's starring Steve Reeves and Gordon Scott as well as a lot of other bodybuilders. I was not athletic as a child and I greatly admired physical strength and prowess. But Hercules also looked very good in his rugged muscular frame and I envied that. I was self conscious about my body and would have liked to go around shirtless like Hercules did but could not.
Muscles are mainly for doing things e.g. working or fighting or other acts requiring strength but they are also for display. Having a muscular body is a way of showing strength and if you watch weight lifters they flex themselves more or less unconsciously all the time. I could not do that so I liked watching the Hercules of the movies. The fact that he was popular with both men and women added a further attraction to an insecure teenager.
The most famous image of Hercules is a marble statue known as the Farnese Hercules which is housed in the Villa Farnese in Italy. It was found in the Baths of Caracalla in Rome and is Roman copy of an earlier Greek bronze by Lysippos ca. 325 BCE. Hercules is shown at rest after his labors. He leans on his club, which is covered by the skin of the Nemean lion, and in his right hand he holds the Apples of the Hesperides. My copy is a plaster piece a little under two feet tall painted silver. I decided to use this statue as a prop in a series of photographs using live models and still life conventions. These photographs are made using a pinhole camera and cylindrically curved film. Thus the images are highly distorted. You can see them in the Pinhole Gallery below.
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