When did Herakles live?

With this posting, I move a little closer to setting out the topic for my second set of autism and classical myth resources for the Our Mythical Childhood project. I also move a little closer to writing my abstract for the upcoming Our Mythical History conference in May of this year.

I said in the last posting that it's comments from children that have given rise to the topic for the second set of activities. These are the children from a local primary school's autism until who were taking part last autumn in a preliminary pilot study of the first set of resources. Now I shall finally share what it was that was said. When the class’s teacher introduced Hercules, what the children wanted to know included ‘when did he live?’ and ‘what historical period he was from?’ The second set of activities offers an answer to these questions. They were also very interested in his club - and I'm considering how to make more of this attribute in future activities.

As a mythological figure, Herakles is from no historical period. As a mythological figure, Herakles was reimagined at various points in history. Indeed, this mythological figure has a richer history in this regard than any other mythological personage. This is something that Emma Stafford was so struck by in writing the ‘Afterwards’ section for her book on Herakles in the Gods and Heroes of the Ancient World series that her work for this section grew into an ambitious project which includes a series of conferences, books and an oratorio. And, as Alastair Blanshard has shown, each age can have its own Herakles/Hercules.

I am going to focus for the second set of activities on a time when Herakles was especially significant at a particular point in history. I shall do this as a route into introducing ancient Greek history. On the one hand, Herakles makes sense against a backdrop of this particular period. On the other hand, the particular historical period can be introduced via a study of one of the figures who was reimagined at this time.

One way to introduce ancient history is through its gods, heroes and myths. With Herakles as a starting point, I aim to introduce an eventful time in ancient Greece – one where culture, society and politics were changing – and where myths were transformed in light of these various changes. This was the sixth century BCE – a time of ferment, change and revolution. Specifically, the time in question is the 560s and 550s, when Peisistratos came to dominance in one city, Athens. This dominance was expressed through various mythological figures, not least Herakles.

In a few days’ time (today is Tuesday – I’ll be doing this on Friday), I have a few hours to spend in the British Museum. I shall be spending this time looking at vases in several galleries to gather together some images of Herakles, of Athena and of chariots. It is this material that, as I plan to show, is especially pertinent to the historical events that will be the focus of the activities.