106-112

Some corrections on a representation of Hercules labours : two coptic textiles

• Λαζαρίδης, Άρης

The paper deals with the representation of Hercules’ twelve labours on two identical, but not equally preserved, 4th c. A.D. Coptic textiles, one at the Ermitage (F i g. 1) the other at the Metropolitan Museum (PI. 2).Scholars who have previously published them proposed erroneous interpretations, even if slightly different ones; their major mistakes concern the labours in the sixth and eighth places (from the upper left corner and counter-clock-wise), which are thought to figure respectively that of Diomedes’ horses and the wrestle with either Cacus or Antaeus; both deverge from what is thought to have been the canonical selection.The former is, in the countrary, proposed here and namely (in the same order): Lion, Amazone, Keryneian Stag., Hydra, Stymphalian Birds, Hercules and the Geryon’s cows, Ker- berus, Hercules fighting with Diomedes himself, Bull, Augean stables, Boar and Hesperides’ tree. The author refers to other examples in ancient art which depict: a) the Geryon labour not by Hercules’ wrestle with the three-bodied or three-headed monster, but by Hercules with the cattle during his way back to Mycenae and b) the Diomedes labour by the fighting between the two heroes with not even a horse represented, which is the case too of the textiles considered.

• History and Archaeology

• Αρχαιολογία
• Mythology
• Λαογραφία

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