This was originally intended to be a two-part series on Hercules in Antalya. However, I recently visited the archaeological museum in Konya and that has caused me to revise it, due to a very splendid finds it exhibits. The museum in Konya is indeed more basic than other more modernized museums in Türkiye. This may be because it is understandably overshadowed by the main draw for visitors to the city – the sublime turquoise-domed tomb of Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi. Moreover, these days, to get to the archaeological museum, one has to pass through a dusty area undergoing renovation, and thus a visitor may be put off making the effort to do so. However, they should not, for there are numerous exhibits well worth seeing, including the one that is the focus of this piece – a huge Roman-era sarcophagus, dated to 250-260 C.E., decorated on the outside with the Twelve Labours of the hero-god Hercules.

Heroes of antiquity

Hercules and his Twelve Labours will be more comprehensible if the nature of a hero in antiquity is properly understood. This in turn opens a theological issue. For in monotheistic religions, the divide between the human and the divine is so vast as to be unbridgeable. For the gods of antiquity, this was not the case, however. Being lesser in power than the God of monotheism, they were closer to human beings, allowing for the middle rank of heroic human beings to bridge the gap. Hercules is such a hero, and he is one of the particularly significant ones that are eventually deified themselves.

The gods of antiquity could also be morally dubious. Indeed, the scandalous actions of at least some of the gods brought the whole of classical religion into disrepute amongst the moral-minded at least and helped pave the way for the eventual triumph of monotheism in the whole of the Mediterranean region. Zeus, for instance, even though king of the gods was a base philanderer and the stories of many classical myths begin with Zeus fathering a child on a mortal woman, often through deception or force.

Hercules – the backstory

This brings us to the story of Hercules, for he too is an offspring of Zeus and a mortal woman. Unsurprisingly, the extramarital activities of Zeus enrage his wife Hera, who takes out her jealous spite on Zeus’ lovers or victims and their offspring, such as Hercules, toward whom she bears hatred from the moment of his birth. She even sends two poisonous snakes to kill him in his crib. However, the super strength of Hercules is present from the start and he kills these two serpents with his bare baby hands. Later, Hercules manifests his heroism as a young man, and from one battle he is rewarded with a princess for his wife. They have a number of children before Hera drives Hercules temporarily insane and he slays his whole family. Afterward, in grief at what he had done, albeit literally unwittingly, Hercules seeks the advice of the famed oracle at Delphi as to what he should do next. The oracle tells him to go and serve the king of Tiryns, Eurystheus, for a period of 12 years, after which he will be granted immortality. In the service of Eurystheus, he is set seemingly impossible labors, which are known as the Twelve Labours of Hercules. It is these labors that decorate three sides of the Konyan sarcophagus and which will now be briefly outlined with attention paid to how each labor is depicted on this beautiful funerary object.

12 labors of Hercules

It is to be noted before proceeding, however, that the order of the labors on the sarcophagus is not the order in which the labors are generally known. In this piece, I will order the labors as they are on the sarcophagus, but I have also listed here their usual order. The labors set by Eurystheus for Hercules are as follows:

1. The Killing of the Nemean Lion; The Killing of the Nemean Lion

2. The Killing of the Lernean Hydra; The Killing of the Lernean Hydra

3. The Capture of the Erymanthian Boar; The Capture of the Ceryneian Hind

4. The Capture of the Ceryneian Hind; The Capture of the Erymanthian Boar

5. The Eradication of the Stymphalian Birds; The Cleansing of the Augean Stables

6. The Taking of the Girdle of Hippolyte; The Eradication of the Stymphalian Birds

7. The Cleansing of the Augean Stables; The Capture of the Cretan Bull

8. The Capture of the Cretan Bull; The Capture of the Mares of Diomedes

9. The Capture of the Mares of Diomedes; The Taking of the Girdle of Hippolyte

10. The Capture of the Oxen of Geryon; The Capture of the Oxen of Geryon

11. The Capture of Cerberus; The Taking of the Apples of the Hesperides

12. The Taking of the Apples of the Hesperides; The Capture of Cerberus

For his first labor, Hercules has to slay the Nemean Lion. Hercules, however, finds that its skin is impervious to weapons, so he casts his aside and grapples with it instead, managing to throttle it to death. Hercules later uses the lion’s own claws to skin it and from then on a key identifier of Hercules is the lion skin that he wears. On the sarcophagus, we can see Hercules with his hands around the lion's neck. Owing to the giant statue of Hercules, the lion only comes up to his chest. Here, the muscles of the hero are not overstrained and his gaze is not even at the lion, demonstrating how easy a task this is for him.

The Killing of the Learnean Hydra is probably one of the most famous, having appeared in art such as by Gustav Moreau. Hercules is charged with killing this terrible serpentine monster with nine heads, one of which is immortal. In his battle with the creature, Hercules soon finds that for each head he decapitates with his club, two grow back in the same place. However, on hand is his faithful friend Iolaus, who intervenes to cauterize the stumps of the newly severed heads, preventing any new outgrowths. This enables Hercules to eventually reach the immortal head which he violently removes and buries under an enormous rock. On the sarcophagus, the headless stumps of the writhing Hydra are the manifest result of the use of the mightily raised club over Hercules’ head.

This Erymanthian boar Hercules is tasked with bringing unharmed to Tiryns is first chased into the snow by the hero, which causes it to slow right down, enabling Hercules to cast his net around it. The depiction of the sarcophagus of the tensely muscular Hercules carrying a pole that passes through the tied feet of the boar slung upon it with a dangling submissive head is masterfully rendered.

As for the supremely fast Ceryneian hind, Hercules has to chase after it for a whole year, before he clips it with an arrow. On the sarcophagus, once again Hercules seems supremely composed. The poor hind, however, appears anything but. Hercules has such a grasp upon its right horn that is left prostrate, unable to raise itself to its feet. In its exhausted state, it has been utterly subdued by its conqueror.

Next, the Stymphalian birds, as befits creatures that Hercules is tasked to drive out of their habitat in Argos, have claws, wings and beaks that are made of brass and they can fire their feathers as arrows. They also feed on human beings. Hercules achieves his goal with the assistance of rattle, for these metallic birds do resemble normal birds in being startled by sounds. Hercules causes the birds to take off in panic and is then able to shoot them with his own arrows. On the sarcophagus, for some unknown reason, Hercules has longer hair here. He is intently looking skywards, where his lightly depicted prey is flying.

Hippolyte is queen of the Amazons, a women-only tribe who inhabit the shores of the Black Sea. She owns a precious girdle that Eurystheus charges Hercules with taking. Initially Hippolyte, with Anatolian hospitality is willing to gift her girdle to her guest but then Hera intervenes to stir up conflict between them. In this conflict between Hercules and Amazons, Hippolyte is slain and her girdle taken. On the sarcophagus, although Hippolyte is mounted securely upon her horse and attempting to gallop away, the hold that Hercules has upon her girdle is such that she will clearly be dragged off or lose her prized possession. Although she attempts to push him away with her outstretched right hand, his uptilted head with its look of confident menace as well as the raised club indicate clearly who will prevail here. Knowing that this will end in Hippolyte’s death makes this image a particularly poignant one, though it is to be appreciated that while Hippolyte’s physical strength is overwhelmed by that of Hercules, she does not appear subdued or cowed by him but maintains an imperious gaze, surely outraged by this barbarous behavior of the outsider.

The cleansing of the Augean Stables has to be the most unpleasant of the labors. Augeas owned 3,000 oxen but had not had his stables cleaned out for 30 years. Perhaps the reason is that anyone who made an attempt in that period was overcome by the horrific smell. Eurystheus tasks Hercules with this foul job and also imposes a seemingly impossible time limit of a single day in which to carry it out. Yet, Hercules is able to complete this mammoth task without literally even getting his hands dirty by redirecting two rivers to flow right through the stables. On the sarcophagus, we see Hercules exerting his greatest degree of strain, as he exerts his muscular strength to replot the course of the rivers though this is surely understandable considering this is the only labor in which he actually makes a geographical alteration to a landscape.

The bull that Hercules is sent to capture is integral to another myth cycle – the one involving the Minotaur, for this bull is one of the parents of that iconic half-human half-animal creature. While this hideous offspring feeds on human flesh, its sire, however, has gone insane and is wreaking destruction all over the island. Eurystheus tasks Hercules with capturing the bull alive and bringing it back to mainland Greece. On the sarcophagus, there is a pretty brutal image of Hercules, with his raised club, in the process of bludgeoning this bull. It is in this manner that he is able to subdue it.

The mares of Diomedes are yet another type of animal that feeds on human flesh. This myth brings us to the ancient region of Thrace, which today is divided between the modern states of Türkiye and Greece. Hercules is tasked with bringing these formidable creatures back to Tiryns. In attempting to do so, Hercules has to slay Diomedes, the ruler of Thrace and owner of the mares, whose fresh corpse he then feeds to them. The eating of their master apparently then cures the mares of their blood lust. On the sarcophagus, we see Hercules poised in a manner that exudes his formidable physical strength, holding his weighty club as if it were nothing, while a mare with prominent jaws rears up in the background.

The following labor sees Hercules sent to retrieve the oxen of Geryon. These, for a change, are regular animals. The issue of the labor is with their owner, Geryon, a being of superhuman strength, which is very literally manifested in his having three upper bodies and heads. Thus he has an advantage over Hercules of two extra pairs of hands. However, he never gets to make use of them, for a well-aimed arrow by Hercules pierces all three bodies at once, and having despatched Geryon, Hercules is free to collect up his cattle and take them away. On the sarcophagus, a somewhat surprised ox is peering around the side of a very muscular Hercules, presumably somewhat in shock at the turn of events.

The reason why the capture of Cerberus is generally put last, even if not on the sarcophagus, is surely because it is the greatest. It involves descending into the underworld, the realm of the dead, to bring back its guardian hellhound. This realm is ruled over by Hades, the brother of Zeus and thus Hercules’ uncle. Whether family considerations influence Hades at all, he does allow for Cerberus to be brought into the upper world provided that Hercules subdues him without weapons. Cerberus is a fearful beast, which is why a Mediterranean heatwave last year was named after it and is made more frightening by its three heads with its triple sets of snarling and slobbering jaws. However, on the sarcophagus, Cerberus does not look in the least formidable. Rather, he is depicted rather like a lady’s lapdog albeit a triple-headed one. Tightly grasping this submissive animal, but walking with a relaxed gait, Hercules looks as if this labor has cost him little expenditure of effort.

This labor is the one that most resembles a quest, though, of course, that cannot really be made clear in a single panel on a sarcophagus. To carry out this task, Hercules has to retrieve apples that are the property of Hera and kept on a remote secret island. They are under the protection of the giant Atlas, who is famed for holding up the dome of the heavens. Hercules finds Atlas who agrees to get him the apples while Hercules takes over his heaven-holding commission. Victim to the cynical adage that nobody does something for nothing, Hercules finds upon Atlas’ return that this giant has no intention of taking the heavens back. Hercules thus tricks Atlas in turn, agreeing to continue to hold up the heavens provided Atlas takes them for a moment while Hercules puts a pad on his head. Hercules then leaves for Tiryns with the apples. On the sarcophagus, what is perhaps more significant than the apple in his hand that represents this labor is that in this, his final representation, he is at rest and is depicted thoughtfully looking back at his other labors. It is from this point that I hope to continue my investigation of Hercules in Türkiye by looking at a single famed statue of the hero held in Antalya Museum in my next piece.