Part 4 L’antiquité tardive

Hercules and king Diomedes

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Hercules and king Diomedes
Date de création
End of the 3rd century
Material
Saint-Béat marble (Haute-Garonne)
Dimensions
H. 38 (mare) 105 (Hercules) 31 (Diomedes) x l. 49 (mare) 54 (Hercules) 30 (Diomedes) x P. 13 (mare) 15 (Hercules) 16 (Diomedes) (cm)
Inventory number
Ra 28 i

The eighth of twelve Labours, the battle with king Diomedes, son of the warrior god Ares/Mars, takes Heracles/Hercules to Thrace. The sovereign owned four mares named Podargos (swift), Lampos (shining), Xanthos (yellow) and Deinos (terrible). Foreigners entering the kingdom of Diomedes were put to death by the autocrat, their bodies fed to the royal horses. Hercules, entrusted by Eurystheus to capture the string, killed the sovereign and fed his body to the carnivorous animals. Once their master had been devoured, the hero was able to put the bit between the four mares’ teeth Euripide, La folie d’Héraclès, 416 BC (circa), pp. 380-385. and lead the now docile horses to his cousin’s home in Mycenae.

In Greece, the iconography for this work dates back no further than the last quarter of the 6th century BC. It was hardly reproduced in the Roman world itself, apart from on 2nd and 3rd century sarcophagi that depicted the Twelve Labours, as well as a few provincial coin issues, as with a bronze from Thrace, the scene of which is reminiscent of that of Chiragan, except that the picture is reversed R. Vollkommer, « Herakles als Bezwinger von (Un)Tieren in der römischen Kunst, » C. Bonnet, C. Jourdain-Annequin, V. Pirenne-Delforge (eds.), Le Bestiaire d’Héraclès : IIIe Rencontre héracléenne (Kernos suppléments), Liège, 2013, pp. 87–93, 91 ; P.F.B. Jongste, The Twelve Labours of Hercules on Roman Sarcophagi (Studia Archaeologica), Rome, 1992, p. 19-20 et n° F3 ; R.P.C., , pp. IV.1, 10483..

Of the mares, originally represented on the relief of Chiragan, only one head remains. Despite the large amount of missing parts, the expressive power of the scene is undeniable. The hero’s attitude greatly determines the magnitude of the drama being played out. Seen from behind, his back in three quarter view, and his head turned to the left, Hercules grips Diomedes firmly by the hair. The king has grabbed his attacker by the thigh. The manner in which the lion’s pelt is depicted, covering the hero’s head and shoulders like a mane, is similar to that of the hair in the portrait of Emperor Maximian, discovered in the villa. This statue of the Tetrarch, obviously created at the same time by the same workshop, was surely displayed in a theatrical manner close to the Labours of the Son of Jupiter, a cycle that was to become a metaphor for imperial achievements.

P. Capus

Bibliography

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To cite this notice

Capus P., "Hercules and king Diomedes", in The sculptures of the roman villa of Chiragan, Toulouse, 2019, online <https://villachiragan.saintraymond.toulouse.fr/en/ark:/87276/a_ra_28_i>.