Hercule
The gilt bronze statue of Hercules in the Capitoline Museum in Rome shows him whit the golden apple of the Hesperides in his left hand, a fruit that is also associate to Heracles in the Greek myth for his eleventh labors. Yes, yes… as in the 12 Labors of Hercules… the Greek and Roman mythologies are based on similar stories and sometimes it’s difficult to follow who is who, roman myths were often inspired by the Greek ones.
Probably due to the end of the Hellenistic world in 30 BC with the death of Cleopatra and the rise and domination of the Roman culture hover it until 476 whit the death of the last obscure Roman emperor, that our popular imagination today better remember the Roman Hercules, son of Jupiter instead of the Greek Heracles, son of Zeus… also the Hollywood film industry has his share of responsibility to have brought the Roman myths to us better than the Greek one.
What’s fascinating about this statue, it’s the clownish look of Hercules, he seems half disguised due to the wear out of the gold finish. Down this page, I placed a retouched picture where I removed the gold finish, and Hercules seems a bit more like the real man he suppose to be.
Hercule
Hercule
Hercule