HERACLES, BARCELONA
AND THE GAMES
By Ramon Balius Juli
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Recently, the IOC acquired a version of the famous work by
Emile-Antoine Bourdelle, “Heracles as Archer”, which will
doubtless take pride of place in the Olympic Museum alongside
Rodin’s “American Athlete”.Two myths link Heracles, whom the
Romans called Hercules, with the origin of the Olympic Games
and with the founding of Barcelona, host city of the Olympics in
July 1992.
ART AND SPORT
H
eracles is the most famous hero of
classical mythology.
He was the son of Alcmene and
Amphitryon, although his real father was
Zeus, the greatest of the Greek gods. Zeus,
taking advantage of the absence of Amphitryon who was away on a war expedition,
took on his form and appearance to
deceive Alcmene and sire Heracles. Hera,
wife of Zeus, who was jealous of Alcmene,
persecuted the hero mercilessly, even
before his birth. She persuaded Eileithya,
Greek goddess of childbirth, to delay the
birth of Heracles and bring forward that of
his cousin Eurystheus, who is presented as
a physically and morally imperfect being.
Heracles, who, in his childhood survived
various attempts by Hera to kill him, travelled to Delphi after involuntarily killing
his sons in an access of madness visited on
him by Hera. The oracle ordered him to
place himself in the service of Eurystheus
for twelve years so as to expiate his crime.
Eurystheus then imposed on him twelve
labours which, instead of causing his
doom, won the hero glory and popularity.
He ordered him to kill the Nemean lion
and the Lernean hydra, to capture the Erymanthian boar and the Kerytnian hind;
chase away the birds of lake Stymphalis:
cleanse the filthy stables of King Augeas;
capture the Cretan bull and the horses of
Diomedes; fetch the girdle from Hippolyte,
queen of the Amazons, the cattle of Geryones, the dog Cerberus and the golden
apples of the Hesperides. In addition to
these twelve labours, there are many
legends attached to Heracles, the last of
which is that of his death by fire. He deliberately threw himself on to a pyre and, by
the fire, he was able to rid himself of his
mortal part, which he had inherited from
his human mother Alcmene; he was purified and reconciled with Hera, who
became his immortal mother, whereby he
too became immortal.
The origin of the Olympic Games is to
be found in myth and legend. According to
these sources, the Games were instituted
by Pelops, son of Tantalus; since then, they
had fallen into disuse and are said to have
been revived by order of Heracles on his
return from the war with Augeas, King of
Elis. The latter had promised Heracles part
of his kingdom if he cleansed the filth out
of his immense stables. The hero achieved
the feat as one of his labours, but Augeas
did not keep his word and war was inevitable. Heracles defeated Augeas and his
two grandsons Eurytus and Chtheatos, who
were at the head of his troops.
According to Pindar (Greek poet,
Cynocephalus 522 or 518 BC - Argos 438
BC), Heracles founded the Olympic Games
after this war campaign. In his Olympic
Odes, there are many passages commemorating this foundation :
“Oh kings of the lyre, to what gods, to
what hero, to what man shall we sing our
anthems? Indeed, Pisa belongs to Zeus and
Heracles instituted the Olympic Games,...”
(Olympic Ode II, strophe 1); “...and at the
same time he had instituted the pure
judgement of the great games and the
quinquennial festival close to the divine
faces of Alphaeus...” (III, antistrophe 2); “...
and when Heracles, he of the exploits,
august scion of the line of Alcaeus, had
come and instituted in his father’s honour
the festival, which brings together many
mortals, and the supreme rules and regulations of the games...” (VI, strophe 4); “The
laws of Zeus have urged me to sing of the
extraordinary competition which Heracles
founded, around the ancient tomb of Pelops, erecting six altars after killing the irreproachable Chtheatos, son of Poseidon,...”
(X, strophe 2); ” and having killed Eurytus
to obtain from the insolent Augeas, by
argument or by force, payment for his services..:” (X, antistrophe 2); “Then Heracles,
valiant son of Zeus, brought together in
Pisa the whole of the army and its booty.
There, he marked out a sacred grove,
which he consecrated to his supreme
father...” (X, strophe 3); “...once the spoils
of war had been distributed, he offered the
first fruits and then he instituted the fiveyearly festival with the first Olympic Games
and with the prizes of victory..:” (X, epode
3).
Another legend referred to by Pausanias (2nd century AD) attributes the founding of the Olympic Games to another Heracles hailing from Crete, although he also
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ART AND SPORT
Heracles was the mythical
founder of Barcelona, Olympic
City.
acknowledges the intervention of Heracles,
son of Amphitryon, in their organization,
after his victory over Augeas. Nonetheless,
we are in the country of mythology here,
and for the purposes of our story it suits us
to accept Heracles the hero, whom, as I
pointed out above, the Romans knew as
Hercules, as the protagonist.
It is recounted that Geryones, the
three-headed and three-bodied giant, who
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lived with his herds of oxen on the island of
Erythia (close to Spain), overthrew Tubal,
king of Iberia. Pyrene, daughter of Tubal,
fleeing the giant, hid in the woods in the
north of the peninsula, but he, having found
her out, caused a fire in which the princess
was caught. Once Hercules learned of the
crime committed by Geryones, he came
running to Pyrene’s aid and dragged her
from the fire, but he could not prevent her
death. Hercules killed the giant with arrows
or hammer-blows (there is no agreement on
this point), whereafter he decided to construct a tomb equal to Pyrene’s rank. He
began to run from side to side, uprooting
mountains, and raised an enormous pile of
earth over the place where the princess’s
body lay, forming a veritable range which
took the name of the Pyrenees. The task
was very arduous and Hercules became
thirsty; in four strides, he descended to the
foot of Montjuic hill (situated close to Barcelona and the sea) to drink the sea-water. He
was captivated by the green plain which
stretched out before the mountain and
resolved to found there a city as a rest from
his many labours. Taking advantage of a
moment of leisure, he organized a party of
nine ships and set out towards the spot
which had so much impressed him. On the
high seas, a storm broke and dispersed the
ships, which, after a hard struggle, took
refuge on land close to Marseilles. However, one ship was missing and given up for
lost. Once the tempest was over, Hercules
sailed along the cost towards his chosen
place. To his delight and surprise, he discovered that a group of his people were
working hard to accomplish his desire and
had already started to build the city. The lost
ship had escaped the tempest and reached
its destination. To commemorate this
exploit, Hercules gave the new city the
name of “Barca nona”, ninth ship, which,
with the passage of time, became “Barcelona”.
Around this legend, there are a number of different interpretations as to the
origin of the nine ships, associating it with a
voyage by Hercules to the country of the
Amazons (Justinus, 2nd or 3rd century) or
suggesting that he sailed with them to the
aid of the city of Troy (Rodrigo Jimenez de
Rada, 13th century).
Over the years, Barcelona has kept its
Herculean tradition. Even today, you can
gaze on a fountain crowned by the figure
of Hercules, pass through a street in the old
town which bears the name of Hercules
and read on a stone engraved in 1550,
which stands against the walls of the City
Hall, “Barcino ab Hercule condita”.
The best sculptural representation of
Heracles is the “Heracles as Archer” by
Emile-Antoine Bourdelle (1861 - 1929). It is
the best known of the works of this
who,
extraordinary
French
sculptor,
although he worked with Rodin, had a personality of his own with a sure and sober
technique, and produced a large number
of sculptures and drawings. His atelier in
Paris has been converted into a fine
museum in which a large part of his work is
to be found.
Bourdelle moulded “Heracles as
Archer” in 1909 in the form of a very large
sculpture (250x240), whereafter he produced numerous versions and studies in
different sizes.The patinated bronze version
acquired by the IOC was cast in 1921 by
Alexis Rudier. With the pedestal, it is 71.5
cm high and 58 cm long.
“Heracles as Archer” is the perfect
image of an archer in the act of drawing
the bow, showing all the strength this
action requires, in which each of the body’s
anatomical structures participates. It is the
unmistakable image of the hero involved in
one of his legendary labours, but at the
same time it can be interpreted as the
image of an archer in an attitude of concentration participating in an important
sports competition. ln 1924, on the occasion of the Olympic Games in Paris, the
French Olympic Committee asked Bourdelle to design a poster to mark the event.
The artist, who must have been familiar
with the odes of Pindar and hence the role
of Heracles in the founding of the Games,
produced various drawings of “Heracles as
Archer” in various poses in his struggle with
the Stymphalian birds. This work was the
theme of an exhibition held in the Olympic
Museum in Lausanne in October 1991 (see
OR No. 283).
The cauldron in the Olympic Stadium in
Montjuic lit by means of an arrow shot by an
archer, is a richly symbolic act, given the fact
that a mythological archer, Heracles-Hercules, was at once founder of the Olympic
Games and of the city of Barcelona.
R.B.J.
The Heracles legend lives on : like
any other important figure, he
has a street named after him in
Barcelona.
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