What is it about?
Despite of the constant presence of Heracles in every aspect of the Greek culture, the almost total disappearence of the hero from the Archaic and Classical epic poetry has normally produced in the scholarship about this subject-matter the effect of a progressive and massive focus on his sporadic 'appearances' on the Homeric poems or on his presence in the Hesiodic poetry. Such consideration of the extant evidence has had a consequence also on the interpretation of the better transmitted and preserved Hellenistic epic poem, i.e. the Argonautica of Apollonius Rhodius, as well as of the Theocritean Idylls, in which the Heraclean myth became crucial and not only a glimpse a broader frame. In a path which traces back to the few 'apparitions' of Heracles in the Theban and the Trojan epic cycle until the Ἡράκλεια composed by Panyassis, the paper offers a reassessment of a series of fragments and evidence with the aim of highlighting the local perspective as well as some traces of an aetiological function the use of the Heraclean myth had in the 'non-Homeric' Archaic and Classical epics. Moreover, the regional values of Heracles' exploits in the fragmentary epics appear to survive in the revival these motifs had in the Hellenistic epic production, where the links with the previous, not exclusively Homeric and Hesiodic, epic tradition can often be traceable through the many threads provided by the scholiasts, the commentators and the readers of the Hellenistic texts focused on Heracles, especially those of Apollonius and Theocritus.
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Why is it important?
This paper consideres the traces of the myth of Heracles in the fragmentary Greek epic production of the Archaic and Classical epic poetry and examines the possible reflexes of a similar epic treatment of the myth in the best preserved Hellenistic epic poetry. In this way, an almost lost chapter of the ancient Greek literature is reassessed and reconsidered, thus contributing to a broader perspective on the epic literary genre as a whole.
Perspectives
The paper is a part of a broader reflection that I am undertaking about the development of the Greek epic poetry with a historical theme and/or an epic poetry centred on a local and epicoric treatment of the mythical stories. It, thus, offers me the opportunity to shed light on a part of a more general literary question, namely the possible relevance of history, with its peculiar relationship to myth, in the Greek hexametric poetry.
Laura Lulli
Universita degli Studi dell'Aquila
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This page is a summary of: Traces of the Epics on Heracles in the Archaic and Classical Periods: Between Local Interests and Never-Ending Traditions, February 2024, Brill,
DOI: 10.1163/9789004696617_011.
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