Hercules

向娅宁

Hercules (赫尔克里斯), Heracles, or Herakles, is the most popular of all Greek heroes, famous for extraordinary strength and courage. Alcmene (阿尔克默涅), wife of Amphitryon (底比斯王), made love to both Zeus and her husband on the same night and bore two sons, Hercules (son of Zeus) and Iphicles (son of Amphitryon). Hercules incurred (招致) the everlasting wrath of Hera (宙斯妻子) because he was the child of her unfaithful husband. A few months after his birth Hera set two serpents (蛇) in his cradle, but the prodigious infant promptly strangled them.
When he was a young man, Hercules defended Thebes from the armies of a neighboring city, and was rewarded with Megara, daughter of King Creon. But Hera later drove Hercules insane, and in his madness he killed his wife and children. After he had recovered his sanity, he sought purification at the court of King Eurystheus of Tiryns for 12 years. During those years Hercules performed 12 arduous labors: he killed the Nemean lion (尼米亚猛狮) and the Hydra (九头怪兽); caught the Erymanthian boar（厄律曼托斯山上的野猪）and the Cerynean hind（克吕涅亚山的赤鹿）; drove off the Stymphalian birds(斯廷法罗斯湖怪鸟); cleaned the stables of Augeas (奥革阿斯的牛圈.意思是"最肮脏的地方;积累成堆难以解决的问题); captured the Cretan bull(捉克里特公牛) and the horses of Diomed(制服狄俄墨得斯的食肉马); made off with the girdle of the Amazon queen Hippolyte(夺取亚马孙女王希波吕忒的腰带); take back the cattle of Geryon(牵回巨人革律翁的牛群); captured Cerberus (冥府守门狗刻耳柏洛斯); and finally took the golden apples of Hesperides (摘取赫斯珀里得斯的金苹果).
After his labors were completed, Hercules was involved in many other adventures and combats, including the Calydonian (野猪) hunt and the Argonaut (去海外寻找金羊毛的英雄) expedition. He killed Iphitus(伊菲托斯), son of the king of Oichalia(俄卡利亚), because the king would not give him his daughter Iole(伊俄娜). When Neleus, king of Pylos, refused him absolution for that crime, Hercules sacked his kingdom and killed all his sons except Nestor (特洛伊战争中的希腊的贤明老者). For that outrage the Delphic oracle(由女祭师皮提亚传达阿波罗神的神谕)bade him serve Omphale(翁法勒), queen of Lydia(吕底亚:小亚细亚中西部一古国), who, in some legends, dressed him in women's clothes and had him work with her maids spinning wool. He later was her lover, but after he finished his servitude he returned to Oichalia and carried off Iole.
When his second wife, Deianira, daughter of King Oeneus, was seized by the centaur Nessus (半人半马怪物), Hercules killed Nessus with arrows dipped in the poisonous blood of the Hydra. As he died, Nessus told Deianira that blood from his wound would restore Hercules' love for her if ever it were to wane. Later, when Deianira sought to win back her husband's love, she contrived to have him don a robe smeared with the blood. The robe stuck fast to Hercules' skin, burning him unbearably. In agony, he built a huge pyre(柴) atop Mt. Oite (Oite山) and had it set afire. His mortal parts burned away, but the rest rose to heaven, where he was finally reconciled with Hera and married Hebe(青春女神赫柏).
Although worshiped as a god, Hercules was properly a hero, frequently appealed to for protection from various evils. In art Hercules was portrayed as a powerful, muscular man wearing a lion's skin and armed with a huge club. Perhaps the most famous statue of him is the Farnese Hercules in the National Museum in Naples.

[ 本帖最后由 向娅宁 于 2008-10-23 22:37 编辑 ]