Till Credner, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Rising high in the night sky of Tenerife, the constellation of Hercules is a pretty sight to behold in the long hot summer months. When stargazing, its distinct squarish shape makes up the keystone of hercules which is the core of the constellation and is an easy feature to spot once you’ve located it a few times. Using the stars Phecda and Mizar in the asterism of the big dipper, one can draw an imaginary straight line to find Hercules in between Vega and Arcturus.
Some constellations are easily imaginable and resemble the forms they are supposed to depict such as Draco, Leo and Scorpio to name a few but others such as Hercules, need a bit more explanation and imagination to come to life. Depending on which story or app you choose to read, Hercules is depicted by either, wrangling 2 snakes or the more classic image of him on one knee with a club in one hand overhead. Both stretch the imagination but one would argue that the 2 snakes are a bit more difficult to draw out.
Hercules as he has been commonly known in the western world derives from the greatest of all Greek heroes, Heracles. Born to the mortal woman Alcmene and the Greek god Zeus, Heracles was a half-god of superhuman strength and violent passions who was the epitome of bravery and masculinity in the ancient world and the most notable champion of the Olympian order. Zeus was known to have any women he desired by any means he saw fit and so in this case, disguised himself as Alcmene’s husband Amphitryon, to lay with the fair maiden.
Fearful of Hera’s revenge, Alcmene exposed Heracles but the child was taken to Hera by Athena (the protector of heroes), and Hera not recognising him nursed him out of pity. With this divine milk from Hera, Heracles acquired supernatural powers and Athena returned him back to his parents who raised him and named him Alcides, and it was only later that he would become known as Heracles in an attempt to pacify Hera which did not work.
Heracles’ existence was proof of Zeus’ illicit affairs which enraged Hera to conspire against Heracles as revenge for her husband’s infidelities, making his life a living hell and plotting his demise. One of Hera’s first attempts to kill young Heracles was to send two giant snakes to his cot where, even at a young age, Heracles was able to grab and strangle the snakes into submission. Some artistic renditions show the great hero wrangling 2 snakes in the night sky which is most probably a depiction of this story.
The most famous story was The Twelve Labours of Heracles. It’s too long a story to cover in this post but for relevance purposes we will cover the labours that converted into constellations. In total there were 5 which were Leo, Draco, Cancer, Hydra and Taurus. A bit of background to the story of the labours is that Hera, the queen of the gods sent Heracles mad which made him kill his wife and children. To atone for this monumental sin, he consulted the oracle at Delphi and was told to become the servant of King Eurystheus who imposed upon Hercules the famous Labours. Of course Hera was in kahoots with King Eurystheus to make the tasks impossible and essentially kill Heracles.
The first and most significant labour was to slay the Nemean Lion. Heracles did this by trapping the Lion in a cave where he cornered the Lion and straggled it with his bare hands, as you do. When Heracles strolled into King Eurystheus palace with the Lion on his back, the king was astonished and terrified by Heracles’s strength and abilities.
Heracles’ second labour was to slay the Lernaean Hydra, a many-headed snake which Hera had raised with the sole purpose of slaying Heracles. Upon reaching the swamp near where the hydra dwelt, Heracles attacked the hydra’s several heads, but each time one of its heads was removed, a new head (or two) would grow back. Additionally, during the fight, a giant crab came to assist the Hydra by biting Heracles on the foot. This little side victory was cancer the crab which Heracles dealt with easily. Realising that he could not defeat the hydra alone, he called on his nephew Iolaus for help. Working in tandem, once Heracles had removed a head, Iolaus burned the stumps with fire, preventing them from growing back. In such a way Heracles was able to kill the hydra.
The seventh labour was to capture the Cretan bull, father of the Minotaur. Heracles sailed to Crete to ask King Minos for help, but the king told Heracles to capture the bull himself, which he did easily. After showing the bull to king Eurystheus, Heracles released the bull which ended up being the constellation of Taurus.
To finish off the constellations put in the night sky by the mighty Heracles we recount the story of Ladon the dragon. Ladon was the serpent-like monster that twined and twisted around the tree in the garden of the Hesperides which guarded the golden apples of immortality. In pursuit of his eleventh and second last labour Heracles killed Ladon with a bow and arrow and carried the apples away.
Even though his short temper and lack of composure did cause both him and quite a few innocent mortals undeserved trouble, the magnitude of his labours was of such an order that it earned him the prize of immortality. The only human to complete such a feat. The protagonist of hundreds of myths – Heracles is undoubtedly one of the most iconic figures in all of Greek mythology.
Two astronomical sights that our experienced guides can help you look out for in the constellation of Hercules are M13, the great Hercules globular cluster and not too far from the keystone is T corona borealis in the northern crown. The latter being a once in a lifetime Nova event which we eagerly look out for every evening we go up to show clients.
Written by Phil Cruz
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