Skip to main content

Publications

The Hercules Project is publishing four volumes, each treating a particular period, medium or aspect of Herculean reception. Each volume includes a number of chapters  revised from papers presented at the 2013 or 2017 conferences, together with further chapters commissioned where required.  The volumes are appearing in the Brill series Metaforms: Studies in the Reception of Classical Antiquity over 2020-24.

  1. Herakles Inside and Outside the Church: from the first Christian Apologists to the end of the Quattrocento - "a great contribution for graduate students and scholars working on the change and transformation of Classical Antiquity in Late Antiquity" (BMCR 2021.01.21)
  2. The Exemplary Hercules: from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment and beyond
  3. The Modern Hercules: images of the hero from the nineteenth to the early twenty-first century
  4. Hercules Performed: the hero on stage from the Enlightenment to the early twenty-first century

1. Herakles Inside and Outside the Church: from the first Christian Apologists to the end of the Quattrocento

Editors: Drs Arlene Allan (Otago) and Eva Anagnostou-Laoutides (Macquarie) and Prof. Emma Stafford (Leeds).

This volume considers the Christian Herakles-Hercules – Herakles’ adoption inside and outside the early Church as an allegorical figure, effectively mediating between paganism and the new religion, and later Christian appropriations of this figure. A table of contents with links to abstracts is available here.  Publication date 6th February 2020.  See the BMCR review.

2.  The Exemplary Hercules: from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment and Beyond

Editors: Dr Valerie Mainz (Leeds) and Prof. Emma Stafford (Leeds).

This volume follows on both chronologically and thematically from the Christian Herakles volume, focusing on the exemplary Hercules from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment and beyond.  Individual chapters consider the hero as the incarnation of virtue in a wide range of literature and art, and in political as well as moralising contexts. A table of contents with links to abstracts is available here. Publication date 30th July 2020.

3.  The Modern Hercules: images of the hero from the nineteenth to the early twenty-first century

Editors: Profs Alastair Blanshard (Queensland) and Emma Stafford (Leeds).

This volume follows on chronologically from the ‘Exemplary’ volume, and is a companion to the ‘Performed’ volume, covering Hercules’ appearances in various media from the nineteenth century to the present day. It includes considerations of contemporary art, children’s literature, cartoons, film, video-games, political and commercial discourses. Publication date December 2020.

A table of contents with links to abstracts for Part 1 (the hero in literature, art and politics) is available here.

A table of contents with links to abstracts for Part 2 (from image to screen) is available here.

4.  Hercules Performed: the hero on stage from the Enlightenment to the early twenty-first century

Editor: Prof. Emma Stafford (Leeds).

This volume explores Hercules' development in works written for performance, encompassing new works as well as re-workings of ancient tragedy and comedy, opera as well as stage plays, and other media. A provisional table of contents with links to abstracts is available here. Provisional publication date late 2023/early 2024.