The Modern Hercules: part 1

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

This is the third of four volumes associated with the Hercules Project, all arising from the 2013 and 2017 conferences, with some additional commissioned chapters. These volumes are to appear in the Brill series Metaforms: Studies in the Reception of Classical Antiquity over 2020 and 2021.  The Modern Hercules 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. Part 1 includes consideration of literature, children’s literature and political discourses. Part 2 considers screen adaptations of Hercules' story.  The volume was published on 9th (e-copy) and 12th (hardback) November 2020.  It can be ordered via Brill's website.  See the review at BMCR 2022.06.06.

Cover image: Herakles discusses Boundary Issues with the Neighbours (lithograph 2007), courtesy of Marian Maguire.

Editors: Alastair J.L. Blanshard (The University of Queensland) Emma J. Stafford  (University of Leeds)

Overview of contents with links to abstracts

Emma Stafford, Foreword

Alastair J.L. Blanshard  and Emma J.Stafford, Hercules, the Modern Man: an introduction

PART 1: The Hero in Literature, Art and Politics

Nineteenth-century to Twenty-first-century Literature

Will D. Desmond, Hercules among the Germans: From Winckelmann to Hölderlin

Clemence Schultze, Hercules among the Victorians: typological reading in Isaac Williams’ The Christian Scholar

Charilaos N. Michalopoulos, ‘And maybe in your case there wouldn’t be a Herakles…’: Herakles in C.P. Cavalfy and Yiannis Ritsos 

Rachael White, 'The mirror of Greek myth': James McAuley’s 'The Hero and the Hydra'

Hugo Koning, ‎The egg-headed hero: Agatha Christie’s The Labours of Hercules

Eleanor OKell, Hercules as romantic hero in twenty-first-century historical fiction

A Hero for Children?

Owen Hodkinson, Hercules in children’s literature: a 'warts and all' model of masculinity?

Frances Foster, Demigod, god or monster? Rick Riordan's Hercules

Hugo Koning, ‎The Incredible Hercules: Prince of Power

Political Discourse

Paula James, Whose Hero? Hercules and his avatars in political discourse

Maria Xanthou and Kleoniki Kyrkopoulou, Reimagining Herakles: a supporter of the Greek revolution and a defender of the Greek crown

Andreas N. Michalopoulos, ‘Ο Ηρακλής πήρε το ρόπαλό του' ['Herakles took up his club’]: the reception of Herakles in the modern Greek press[ additional images for this paper are linked from this page

María Seijo-Richart, A Coruña, cidade herculina: Hercules as founder of cities

Emma Stafford, Exhibiting Maguire's Herakles: a dialogue between Old and New Worlds