HERAKLES' APOTHEOSIS IN LOST GREEK LITERATURE AND ART
I. Introduction
One of the most popular stories about Herakles, the most popular of Greek heroes, concerned his final end ? After his labors, he was taken up to Olympos, where he became a god, was reconciled with his old enemy Hera, and married Hebe ("Youth"), the daughter of Zeus and Hera. There are a number of references to this story in Greek poetry from the later stages of the epic tradition down through the classical period 2. It was also an extremely popular subject for
1 The following collections of material and studies of the Herakles myth are especially important for this study and will be cited hereafter by author's name (and short title where necessary) : Thomas W Allen (ed.), Homeri opera, V (Oxford, 1912) ; Albertus Bernabé (ed.), Poetarum epicorum graecorum testimonia et fragmenta, I (Leipzig, 1987) ; Gregory W Dickerson, The Structure and of Sophocles' Trachiniae, Princeton dissertation, 1972 ; G. Karl Galinsky,
The Herakles Theme, Oxford, 1972 ; G. L. Huxley, Greek Epic Poetry from Eumelos to Panyassis, Cambridge, Mass., 1969 ; Felix Jacoby (ed.), Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker, Leiden, 1926-1958 ; Richard Kannicht and Bruno Snell (edd.), Tragicorum graecorum fragmenta, II, Fragmenta adespota (Göttingen, 1981) ; Godofredus Kinkel (ed.), Epicorum graecorum fragmenta, I (Leipzig, 1877) ; Victor J. Matthews (ed.), Panyassis of Halikarnassos, Leiden, 1974 ; Hans Joachim Mette (ed.), Die Fragmente der Tragödien des Aischylos, Berlin, 1959 and Der verlorene Aischylos, Berlin, 1963 ; Augustus Nauck (ed.), Tragicorum fragmenta2, Leipzig, 1889 ; Stefan Radt (ed.), Tragicorum graecorum III, Aeschylus (Göttingen, 1985) ; Franz Stoessl, Der Tod des Herakles, Zurich, 1945 ; Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Euripides Herakles2, I (Berlin, 1895) ; Susan Woodford, Exemplum Virtutis : A Study of Heracles in Athens in the Second Half of the Fifth Century B.C., Columbia dissertation, 1966. Nauck's numbers for the tragic fragments are conveniently followed by Kannicht, Snell, and Radt.
2 Od., XI, 601-604 ; Homeric Hymns, 15 Allen ; Hes., Th., 950-955, fr. 25, 26-33, and fr. 229 Merkelbach-West ; Pind., Nem., 1, 69-72 ; Nem., 10, 17-18 ; Isth., 4, 61-66 ; Eur., Held., 910-918 ; Soph., Phil., 727-729.
