The Hercules Myth—beginnings and ends

The simple, good-hearted strong man is a character perennially popular, and at times has become almost a national ideal. We sophisticates of today do not so obviously deify our expression of the desirable qualities as did our forefathers; but we can at least appreciate the mixture of endearment and reverence with which the heroic demigod who appears as the Herakles or Hercules of classical myth was regarded. The combination of the rather likable human failings of an enormous appetite and a naif boastfulness with the godlike gifts of superhuman strength and fortitude in adversity produced an eminently credible deity, someone to whom alike the timorous maiden might pray for protection, the bluff soldier for understanding support in a punitive raid—in fact a combined apotheosis of Tarzan and of Bulldog Drummond. Such is the Hercules we see in the classical pantheon, Hercules at the height of his glory. But, as Mr De la Mare has said, it is the edges of things that are the most interesting. What of the edges of the Hercules myth? Where and when did it first crystallize out from the cloudy mixture of primitive man’s thoughts, and what forms did it take after Christianity had driven away the old gods to a holeand-comer existence in folklore and old wives’ tales ?