Explore Statue of Hercules

Read About the Statue of Hercules

This impressive marble statue of Hercules (called Herakles by the Greeks) stands over six feet tall and weighs 850 pounds. It was discovered in 1790 in the ruins of an ancient villa outside Rome. The villa belonged to the Roman emperor Hadrian, who loved Greek culture. The sculpture may have stood in a garden or alongside a pool with other statues. Hadrian especially admired Greek art and had copies made of earlier Greek sculptures. This Hercules may be a copy of an earlier lost statue created in Greece around 300 BCE. The figure is nicknamed the “Lansdowne Herakles” because a British lord named Lansdowne once owned it. Since there are many statues of Hercules, this nickname helps identify this specific one.

Hercules has a smooth, expressionless, young-looking face. His body is toned and muscular. The hero stands in a contrapposto pose with one knee slightly bent, causing his hips and shoulders to shift in opposite directions. This pose makes him look more active and natural than if both legs were straight.

His identifying attributes—a club and lion skin—tell us who he is. The club rests on his left shoulder and the lion skin dangles from his right hand. Killing the lion was the first of his famous Twelve Labors, dangerous tasks the hero was forced to complete. The lion was terrorizing the Greek city of Nemea. Human weapons couldn’t pierce its skin, so no one could kill it. But Hercules was so strong that he strangled the animal. He skinned it with its own claw and wore the hide as a cloak.

Why is Hercules naked? Ancient Greeks exercised and competed in athletic competitions without clothing. Even the Greeks were not completely sure how this practice started. Perhaps it helped make everyone equal, so people were judged only by their natural abilities instead of wealth or style. In Greek art, nudity came to symbolize excellence of both body and mind. In the 6th and 5th centuries BCE, Greek artists developed an ideal image of the male body. They made figures look idealized by reducing individual differences and imperfections. Men and male gods were shown without clothing to display strong, well-built muscles. Their faces and features looked young and had no wrinkles. Because many figures looked similar, artists used special symbols such as what they wore or carried (like the lion skin) to help people recognize them.

Damage and Repair

Marble is a hard and strong material, but it can still break. Stone sculptors often added a tree trunk, animal, or object (like Hercules’s lion skin) next to a figure’s legs to help stabilize the sculpture, though this didn’t prevent all damage. At some point, this statue of Hercules fell forward, damaging his face, left side, right arm and leg, club, and more.

Hercules was originally carved from hard Athenian Pentelic marble. In the 1800s, repairs to the figure’s damaged areas were made with Italian Carrara marble. The two types of marble have worn differently over time, making it possible in some places to see which parts are original and which ones are newer. If you look closely, you can see that the Carrara marble has visible grains—like grains of sugar. Other repairs are difficult to notice unless you’re an expert. The hero’s head, face, and shoulders were re-carved to hide the damage. Hercules now has a somewhat smaller head and smaller ears, reworked eyes, and a new nose. Restoring missing parts or re-carving damaged statues used to be common practice. Buyers thought a complete statue was more attractive and valuable. Today, however, conservators generally don’t create replacement body parts or make permanent changes.

Questions

Write or discuss your responses.

• Emperor Hadrian loved Greek culture so much that he had copies made of Greek statues for his villa. Why do you think powerful people throughout history have collected art from other cultures? What does it say about how they saw those cultures?
• Hercules is shown naked because “in Greek art, nudity came to symbolize excellence of both body and mind.” The statue also shows him with a perfectly smooth, ageless face and toned muscles. Why do you think ancient artists created an “ideal” version of heroes instead of showing what real people actually looked like?
• The statue was repaired in the 1800s by adding new marble and re-carving damaged parts to make it look complete. Today, conservators don’t do this anymore. Why do you think attitudes about restoring damaged art have changed? Is it better to show the damage or hide it?
• Without symbols like the lion skin and club, it would be hard to tell which hero this statue represents because Greek artists made faces look so similar and “ideal.” Do you think this is a weakness in the art style, or does it serve a purpose?
• The text explains that Greeks “were not completely sure how” their tradition of exercising and competing naked started, but suggests “perhaps it helped make everyone equal so that people were judged only by their natural abilities.” What traditions do we follow today without really knowing why they started?

Did You Know?

One of the famous Twelve Labors does not sound very heroic! Hercules had to clean out an impossible amount of cattle manure in one day from the many stables of King Augeas. The hero was so strong that he diverted two rivers to do the dirty work for him.

Optional Activity

Listen to the audio clip to learn more about the statue.

A special object or symbol that helps you recognize a person or god in art (like Zeus holding a lightning bolt).

A professional responsible for preserving old or damaged objects and materials.

Pose of a standing figure with most of the weight resting on one leg and the other bent. This causes hips, shoulders, and head to tilt in order to balance the body.