HERCULES

In Mythology, one of the most celebrated personages of antiquity, believed to be the son of Jupiter and Alciiiama, the daughter of Electryon, king of Mycens. The history and wonderful exploits of this hero are so well known, that it would be superfluous to dwell upon them here. There is, perhaps, no subject connected with antiquity to the right comprehension of which such formidable difficulties are presented; and hence the numerous attempts that have been made to separate truth from fiction in the history of Hercules, by divesting it of the mythological traditions with which it had been encumbered by all the writers of antiquity. In some shape or another, all the profane nations of antiquity seem to have po e ed a divinity to whom they attributed an extraordinary degree of bodily strength, combined with indomitable perseverance and moral energy in prosecuting and overcoming difficult achievements. The reader will at once recognise, as belonging to this cla , the Baal of the Syrians, the Melkarth of Phoenicia, and the Rama of Hindostan; who, like the Grecian Hercules, outstripping in bodily and intellectual endowments the great ma of the people of the rude era in which they lived, achieved a multiplicity of deeds which were lo iked tip on as altogether miraculous, and which procured for their authors empire and dominion during their lives, and after death a place among the gods. (See Mutter's Dorians, and the authorities there referred to.) He'rcules. One of the old constellations in the northern hemisphere. [s. 570]