Hercules - Mythology.

Hercules - Mythology. Roman A god, closely associated with the Greek hero Heracles. Ancient Romans also saw Hercules as the patron and guardian of merchants and soldiers. He was a helper to those in need and protected men at sea from danger and disease. A shrine to Hercules stood on the edge of the Palatine Hill in Rome. He was honored in the Roman festival calendar on August 12, when men held a great celebration that included slaughtering oxen. Women were not allowed at this festival. The cult of Hercules arrived early in Italy from Greece, about the second century b.c. and soon developed a very strong following. Greek colonists who settled in communities on the eastern shores of Italy brought the stories of this much-loved deity with them when they traveled across the Ionian Sea. Hercules' cult grew until he commanded a wide following throughout the Italian peninsula. Many of the stories of Hercules traveled across the seas with his religious celebrations, but Roman poets shared details their own people added to the mythology. Hercules and Cacus According to Livy, a Roman historian of the first century b.c., Hercules arrived at the Tiber River in central Italy on his way back to Greece after capturing the cattle of Geryon, which was the 10th labor he undertook for King Eurystheus. The hero stopped to rest by the river. As he slept, a strong, fierce local shepherd named Cacus (2) stole the finest cattle in the herd. Cacus tried to disguise his theft by dragging the cattle by their tails. He hid his treasure in a nearby cave. When Hercules awoke, he was confused at the disappearance of so many cattle. Unable to find the missing animals, he began to drive the remaining cattle on their journey. As these cows bellowed, the cows hidden in the caves began to moo in reply. Hercules, hearing this evidence, discovered the cave, killed Cacus with a club, and continued on his journey. Virgil, a Roman poet who lived at the same time as Livy, told a much more dramatic version of this story in the Aeneid. In astronomy, Hercules is a large constellation in the northern celestial hemisphere. It is also the name of a large crater on the Moon.