Short URL for this page:
bit.ly/VolubilisHerculesWPT
mail:
Bill Thayer |
Italiano |
Help |
Up |
Home |
When one day as a teenager forty-five years ago (1964) I was extravagant with my allowance and took a full roll of pictures on a day outing with the Société Archéologique de Tanger to Volubilis, some 150 km south of where I lived, I never thought I'd be putting them up on the Web: what's a "personal computer"?
So I'm left with a very incomplete record of the great Hercules Mosaic; a pity, because the association of Hercules with northern Morocco is not just a modern conceit, but was current in Antiquity, so that this large mosaic in Volubilis is a celebration of local identity, as is the Orpheus Mosaic showing all the wonderful African animals the Romans exterminated.
Anyway, I believe I remember a large color mosaic with vignettes of most of the Labors of Hercules, and only a few bits missing; but here is what I have:
When Hercules was still a baby in the cradle, according to legend, he strangled a pair of snakes with his bare hands. Now normal babies don't do this, but then few of them have snakes in their bedding either. The explanation was simple, though: Hercules' father was Jupiter, but his mother was Alcmena, not Jupiter's wife Juno; and Juno didn't like it.
The demigod was ordered to drive away or destroy the death-dealing metallic birds of Stymphalus.
King Eurystheus ordered him to capture the Minoan bull and bring it back to him from Crete; and here indeed we see him carrying the bull, and the king cowering in what looks like a large storage jar or dolium.
(You get what you ask for: watch out!)
One cannot fail to be reminded of another monster Hercules had to deal with, the many-headed Hydra, as in the famous aria from Verdi's Otello:
Come un' idra fosca, livida La gelosia strugge e divora. |
Why spoil a good story? Alas, a kind reader Aurélie wrote to let me know this last item does not belong to the Hercules Mosaic; my memory didn't span the 40 years I thought it did. (And since writing this page, I've found a photo online of the entire Hercules Mosaic
here, which confirms it.)
Images with borders lead to more information.
The thicker the border, the more information. (Details here.) |
||||||
UP TO: |
Volubilis |
Mauretania Tingitana |
Roman Gazetteer |
LacusCurtius |
Home |
|
SEE
ALSO: |
Children in the Roman World |
Roman Mosaics |
||||
A page or image on this site is in the public domain ONLY if its URL has a total of one *asterisk. If the URL has two **asterisks, the item is copyright someone else, and used by permission or fair use. If the URL has none the item is © Bill Thayer. See my copyright page for details and contact information. |
Page updated: 2 Mar 21