Search for historical Hercules

by startingover 9 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  startingover

  Note how Herculean myth resembles Jesus in many areas.

  Hercules was born from a God (Zeus) and a mortal virgin mother (Alcmene). Similar to Herod who wanted to kill Jesus, Hera wanted to kill Hercules. Like Jesus, Hercules traveled the earth as a mortal helping mankind and performed miraculous deeds. Like Jesus who died and rose to heaven, Hercules died, rose to Mt. Olympus and became a god. Hercules was perhaps the most popular hero in Ancient Greece and Rome. They believed that he actually lived, told stories about him, worshiped him, and dedicated temples to him.
  
  Likewise the 'evidence' of Hercules closely parallels that of Jesus. We have historical people like Hesiod and Plato who mention Hercules. Similar to the way the gospels tell a narrative story of Jesus, we also have the epic stories of Homer who depict the life of Hercules. Aesop tells stories and quotes the words of Hercules. Just as we have mention of Jesus in Josephus' Antiquities, so Josephus mentions Hercules in his 'Antiquities' (see 1.15, 8.5.3, 10.11.1). Just as Tacitus mentions a Crestus, he also mentions Hercules many times in his Annals. And most importantly, just as we have no artifacts, writings or eyewitnesses about Hercules, we also have nothing about Jesus. All information about Hercules and Jesus comes from stories, beliefs, and hearsay. Should we then believe in a historical Hercules, simply because ancient historians mention him and that we have stories and beliefs about him?
  
  so what is your opinion? was there a historical Hercules or not? did he do any of his deeds or not? why or why not?

  (FYI, this was posted on another discussion board and not composed by myself, but I thought it was a thought provoking question I would like to see comments on)
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  gaiagirl

  Was there a historical Paul Bunyan? The answer to both questions is the same.
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  Satanus

  More info on the herculian movement would be interesting. Did he have 'followers'? How many? What did they do? Were they persecuted? Were they all of greek background? Why did rome choose jewish mythology instead of the greek?

  S
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  Frogleg

  I think that any similarity is anectdotal at best. However, I do believe that there is an historical connection between the Nephelim and the pantheon of gods throughout history, most notably, the Zeusian group. Hercules is the common carrot/hope story that gives us an example of what we can be if we're born with the right physical appearance and we work real hard and do just what we're told, i.e. we get to live forever with the gods! A more modern application of this is George Washington, who proved that if you are pure of heart, don't lie, throw money across rivers, you too can grow up to be president.

  Now, did Hercules actually exist as a single individual? Possibly, but you should watch "From Noon Till Three" with Charles Bronson and Jill Ireland, to get a perspective on what the original Hercules was like.
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  peacefulpete

  Yes the general story patterns were nearly universal. The motif elements were utilized both for mythic projections of human idealism and historized sacred king/savior stories. The Jesus stories in Mark (expanded by Luke and Matt) do not require an historical personage. They really do not even suggest one. An awarenesss of the role of myth in the Clasical Age has led many to ask why scholarship has always assumed some type of historical Jesus. The huge volume of work that seeks to extract some coherent "pre-gospel" character is likely fundementally flawed. The stories and sayings were drawn from a collective pool of knowledge spanning cultures and centuries. There was no need for direct borrowing from other written works as much as simple emmulation and use of common imagery teach a moral.

  Check out Thomas Thompson's new book: The Messiah Myth.
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  startingover

  http://www.christslove.com/Hercules/Hercules.htm
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  jgnat

  Tim Severin tests out Legends

  Here's an interesting example of how historical accounts might be tested today. Tim Severin builds craft and recreates recorded journeys. Some of these journeys have been debunked as impossible with the equipment available at the time. Tim asks, "was it really impossible"? I find his approach fascinating. It makes me wonder if there might be more truth in the Homeric legends and other extraordinary events that have filtered through our history than modern historians can even conceive.

  "Studying the eighth-century Latin text Navigatio Sancti Brendani Abbatis, which describes a precise if phantasmagoric voyage to the New World by Saint Brendan, a sixth-century Irish monk and missionary, Severin began to believe that such a journey may have actually taken place.
  
  The only way to prove it was to do it, so he did. He spent two years building a replica of the early Irish skin boat, then, using the Navigatio as a travel guide, sailed the craft 4,500 miles from Ireland to Newfoundland via the Hebrides, the Faroe Islands, and Iceland. Though he nearly died trying, Severin proved that seafaring Irish monks could have discovered North America in the sixth century, well ahead of the Vikings and almost a millennium before Columbus."
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  daystar

  Regarding Hercules v. Jesus, I always thought Jesus was a reincarnation of Horus, sort of like this guys does:
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  Leolaia

  jgnat....The problem with Tim Severin's approach is that he only shows that such voyages were possible (assuming that climate/metereological conditions are similar today as they were back then), not that they actually happened. The case of St. Brendan's voyage is a good case in point; the story furnishes no information whatsoever about North America, only reporting the fantastic events of Brendan's visit to a blessed land in the west. In fact, the medieval story of Saint Brendan is clearly not historical because it is based on the pseudepigraphal Story of Zosimus (also known as the History of the Rechabites), which relates essentially the same story but with a different protagonist and different land in the west and which was is existence by AD 850 when it was listed in a catalogue of apocryphal books. This story, in turn, is based on an earlier story called Abode of the Blessed, which itself is cognate to various rabbinic and pagan legends...
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  Nate Merit

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