In the previous posting, I
said that what I am especially interested in is not the Labours of Hercules, but
an episode that is less well-known – less well known now that is. I’ll say what the episode is in the current posting.
It’s a story that is known
from several ancient sources, and it was maybe the story about Hercules in the Renaissance though to the
eighteenth century - when the key image I am focusing on was produced:
This is where Hercules comes
up against a task, and it is a task that is linked to the labours – possibly it
is the task that will be followed by the labours. But the Hercules who is
involved in this task is not the great man of action, at least not yet. It is
a Hercules who is caught between two possible options - between two paths, each
of which is represented by a woman or goddess.
One of these female figures
is Arete or ‘Virtue’. In the eighteenth century, she came to stand for Hard Work.
What she offers Hercules is a life of struggle – of hard work. There will be a
reward, but only after his years of toil. The other woman is Kakia,
‘Vice’ in ancient Greek sources though also, later on, when the story came to
be popular in eighteenth century Britain, the woman is Voluptas or Pleasure. What
she offers him is a life of pleasure of various kinds: all the food he can eat,
plenty of drink, plenty of lovers.
According to the earliest
account, account in the fourth century BCE Memorabilia
of Socrates by Xenophon, Hercules (my translations from the ancient Greek):
went out to a quiet place and sat not knowing which of the two roads to take (2.1.21)
Two “tall women” appeared. The one, Arete, was
attractive to look at and of free-born bearing.
In addition,
Her body was adorned with purity, her eyes with modesty, her figure with sobriety and she was wearing white clothes.
The other, Kakia, was
grown into plumpness and softness, with her face embellished so that it looked whiter and rosier than it actually was (2.1.22).
What does Hercules choose?
People I’ve discussed this with often assume, given what they know about Hercules, that, tempted though he is by what Pleasure offers, he picks Virtue or Hard Work.
But, does he? In the account in Xenophon, the teller, Socrates never says.
Socrates sates that he has heard the account from his fellow philosopher Prodikos.
Socrates doesn’t say how Prodikos concluded the story.
This lack of a clear outcome
might well be what made the story of this Choice between two extremes so
popular in the Renaissance and then into the eighteenth century when there was
a lot of concern over how to get the right kind of balance between of hard work
and diligence and enjoyment and pleasure (on this, more in a future posting). So, what Hercules experiences on the
one occasion is something that people in the eighteenth century were persistently
concerned with.
Why I have kept returning to
the eighteenth century is as follows. The version of the Choice that is at the heart
of the activities is this one, drawn in 2019 by Steve Simons:
This is Steve’s drawing of the eighteenth-century representation of the Choice illustrated earlier in this posting - a panel created by an eighteenth
century workshop of two generations of sculptors, the Carters, and situated in
the chimneypiece of a room in Grove House in Roehampton in South West London,
now on the campus of Roehampton University – where I work!
Look at Hercules. In a scene
where there is a lot going on, he is perhaps caught in indecision, perhaps in
panic. His face is turned one way, his body the other way. It is the women who
are making efforts – efforts to attract his attention. So this is not the hero
as he is elsewhere often shown: battling some foe, carrying out labours.
One reason I have spent all
this time introducing the story and then the Carter Workshop panel is to stress
that the activities are not solely going to focus on the Hercules who is most
known from classical sources and from recent ones. This isn’t the Hercules engaged
in carrying out labours. What is more, and this is something that is going to
be relevant to what I am going to do, Hercules isn’t, in fact, absolutely necessary to
the scene.
I am going to explain why Hercules isn't necessary in the next posting now. I need a bit of
time to collect together my thoughts! More asap...
Yes - Arete and Kakia are in everyone's life - or they are around as forces.
ReplyDeleteVoluptas - I know some people would not be able to resist that. And why the 18th century people may have been interested. It was beginning to be a time of mass literacy and newspapers.
I tend to think - based on the Funk and Wagnalls article from 1980 - that Hercules may well have chosen Pleasure. And the Perseus readings I made last week tend to reinforce that.
I like that you talked about this kind of embryonic/emerging Hercules in that 18th century picture.
"Look at Hercules. In a scene where there is a lot going on, he is perhaps caught in indecision, perhaps in panic. His face is turned one way, his body the other way. It is the women who are making efforts – efforts to attract his attention. So this is not the hero as he is elsewhere often shown: battling some foe, carrying out labours."
And those efforts may or may not necessarily be rewarded - not with ordinary thank yous anyway.
The wanting - the desire.
Have a feeling that most Greek women of that time were short or at least moderately heighted.
LunaRose made a post about eyes pointing and where they may or may not go according to desire or interest.
So he feels virtue in his face and pleasure in his body.
This is all "What am I thinking; what am I doing?"
Prodikos! I think that philosopher was very sensitive to moral ambiguity and that Socrates/Plato may have picked up on it like a game of Telephone.
And that moment at the end of Aladdin where Iago says "Made you look"!
I am thinking too that Hercules may not have been especially impressed by "attractive" and "freeborn" in a humanistic moral way.
"This lack of a clear outcome might well be what made the story of this Choice between two extremes so popular in the Renaissance and then into the eighteenth century when there was a lot of concern over how to get the right kind of balance between of hard work and diligence and enjoyment and pleasure (on this, more in a future posting). So, what Hercules experiences on the one occasion is something that people in the eighteenth century were persistently concerned with."
Some very Aristotelean concerns and also Buddhist concerns - the Middle Way; the Four Noble Truths; the Eight Rightfulnesses. [eg: Thought; Speech; Concentration].
Kakia seems to have had a lot of experience in her life - as you suggest with "grown into plumpness and softness". And by this time she knew something about how to "embellish her face". And probably in real life it was very sallow - to her own self.
The things Xenophon gets up to!
Right now and for the last week I have been looking at Roman art; architecture; sculpture; frescos from Pompeii - four styles of art from that region/town. It is quite volcanic!
"Purity; modesty; sobriety" - that was quite an eighteenth-century trifecta, wasn't it?
And I think to myself - Arete might not necessarily have been free-born. The bearing might have been too much to bear for her too.