Herakles and Helen Defined by Their Paternity, Liminality, and Relationship with Hera by KRISTEN FULTON (Under the Direction of Naomi Norman) ABSTRACT Herakles and Helen are comparable figures from Greek mythology. They are known for their great strength and great beauty, respectively, but are rarely examined in relation to each other. This thesis explores their commonalities in regards to their paternity, liminality and relation to Hera. They are both children of Zeus, and this (negatively) impacts them in various ways. They both hold liminal positions because of their semi-divinity as they exist between the world of the gods and that of men. This liminality is compounded for Helen because of her gender. Finally, Herakles and Helen must both interact with Zeus’ wife Hera. She is vengeful and destructive to Herakles, but kind and benevolent to Helen. These three factors shape the characters and how they are represented across the chronology of Greek literature. INDEX WORDS: Helen, Helen of Troy, Herakles, Hercules, Heracles, Zeus, Paternity, Liminal, Liminality, Semi-divine, Hera HERAKLES AND HELEN DEFINED BY THEIR PATERNITY, LIMINALITY, AND RELATIONSHIP WITH HERA by KRISTEN FULTON BA, Emory University, 2011 A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree MASTER OF ARTS ATHENS, GEORGIA 2014 © 2014 Kristen Fulton All Rights Reserved HERAKLES AND HELEN DEFINED BY THEIR PATERNITY, LIMINALITY AND RELATIONSHIP WITH HERA by KRISTEN FULTON Major Professor: Naomi Norman Committee: Charles Platter Benjamin Wolkow Electronic Version Approved: Julie Coffield Interim Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia December 2014 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................................1 CHAPTER 1 PATERNITY .....................................................................................................3 Herakles: The Popular Accounts .................................................................3 Helen: The Popular Accounts ....................................................................14 Variation on the Theme: Two Fathers and Two Mothers..........................22 Final Observations .....................................................................................24 2 LIMINALITY..................................................................................................26 Herakles’ Semi-Divinity ............................................................................26 Herakles at War .........................................................................................30 Herakles in Death.......................................................................................35 Helen’s Femininity ....................................................................................39 Helen’s Semi-Divinity ...............................................................................46 Final Observations .....................................................................................49 3 RELATIONSHIP WITH HERA .....................................................................51 Hera and Herakles......................................................................................52 Hera’s Relationship with Herakles Compared with that with Hephaistos and Dionysos .............................................................................................57 iv Hera and Herakles’ Twelve Labors ...........................................................61 Hera and Helen ..........................................................................................66 Final Observations .....................................................................................69 CONCLUSION..................................................................................................................71 REFERENCES ..................................................................................................................73 v INTRODUCTION Herakles and Helen are two characters from ancient Greek mythology who have captured the imaginations of audiences1 for millennia, even up to today. Their stories have been remade and renewed since their conception because of their exceptional and super-human natures. Of course, besides their resonance with modern audiences, they were important to the corpus of ancient Greek myth. Around each figure there exists an entire cycle of stories, which in turn provide the soil in which many other myths take root. Both figures are admirable, but each has fatal flaws. Herakles is a tragic figure whose faults are overlooked in favor of his brute strength and bravery in the face of danger. He has stood as an example of a “manly man” since his inception. Helen is also somewhat of a tragic figure, but it is her flaws and mistakes for which she is best known. She is a paragon of feminine beauty, while simultaneously serving as a cautionary figure. From even these basic facts, one can see that there is ground for a comparison of the two figures. By juxtaposing Herakles and Helen, one may more easily see the personality and attributes the Greeks gave to each as an individual. Before this thesis, Herakles and Helen have not been handled together in such a direct manner, but this sort of study will be valuable to the examination, and thus understanding, of both characters. 1 I take some liberties with my usage of the term audience throughout this thesis. Depending on the medium and chronology, the audience may be spectators of a play or readers of a text. 1 Beyond the sort of superficial comparison mentioned previously, the two share other characteristics which will be the main focus of this thesis. First, they are both the offspring of Zeus, but each was raised by a surrogate father. Their paternity constantly influenced their lives and impacted the ways they are represented in literature. Second, as a result of their paternity, they are both liminal figures. Herakles and Helen exist between the mortal and immortal worlds, and they must constantly find a balance between the two. Then, beyond the issue of her mortality, Helen must also figure out how to exist as a woman in the male-dominated world of her myth. Finally, also as a result of their paternity, they are both impacted by the presence of their stepmother, Hera. I shall explore all three of these aspects of the two figures through the lenses of the ancient writers. Because the works dealing with Herakles and Helen are so numerous, I will restrict my survey to the Greek sources.2 I will focus on the ones that are most germane to each topic across a chronology ranging from Homer to Pseudo-Eratosthenes. 2 As Padilla mentions, “the great multiplicity of religious and narrative associations” of Herakles (and the same can be said for Helen) presented problems even for the ancients. cf. The Myths of Herakles in Ancient Greece (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1998): 1. 2 CHAPTER 1 PATERNITY One characteristic that Helen and Herakles have in common is their dual paternity. Throughout myth, both of their mothers, Leda and Alkmene respectively, had intercourse with Zeus, which led to their births. After each birth, however, the child was raised not by Zeus but by the woman’s mortal husband. This chapter explores how Greek literature discusses the paternity - both immortal and mortal - of Herakles and Helen, focusing primarily on how their paternity is described at birth and secondarily on how their paternity is described at other times in their lives. The way the issue of paternity is handled reveals how the authors writing the myths conceived of these divine figures, which in turn should inform the modern readers’ view of them.3 Herakles: The Popular Accounts The earliest mentions of Herakles’ parentage are in Homer and Hesiod. The references to Herakles’ birth in these works are rather brief, but notable nonetheless for establishing a divine father for Herakles and, thereby, the reason for his great abilities. In the Iliad, Zeus lists all his previous sexual exploits to Hera, ultimately attempting to 3 There are a few foreseeable issues that will arise from such a study, which will be discussed after the previously mentioned information is laid out. First, preliminarily, each character has two fathers, but not two mothers. An explanation, or at least exploration, of this fact may serve to clarify our perception of each character. Second, the authors variously refer to Helen and Herakles as the child of either their mortal or immortal father. We shall examine under what circumstances an author may choose one lineage over the other. 3 prove that none of those other women were as arousing as Hera herself. He says, “[I was never so enamoured by]…Alkmene in Thebes, who bore a dauntless son, Herakles” (οὐδ᾽ Ἀλκµήνης ἐνὶ Θήβῃ, / ἥ ῥ᾽ Ἡρακλῆα κρατερόφρονα γείνατο παῖδα…, 14.323-24).4 Later, Agamemnon explains how Hera gets her revenge on Zeus for sleeping with other women. “On that day when Alkmene was about to bear Herakles in well-crowned Thebes…” (ἤµατι τῷ ὅτ᾽ ἔµελλε βίην Ἡρακληείην / Ἀλκµήνη τέξεσθαι ἐϋστεφάνῳ ἐνὶ Θήβῃ…, Il. 19.98-99) - Zeus makes an announcement that the child born that day, referring to Herakles, will rule over men. Hera seizes the moment to take advantage of Zeus’ vagueness, and she makes him swear that whatever child is born that day will be king, and then manipulates Eileithyia, the goddess of childbirth, so that Herakles’ birth is delayed,