Herakles

Herakles stands with his legs slightly spread, left foot forward. He holds his left arm out, over which is draped a stylized, triangular version of his lion skin. His right arm, missing above the elbow, would have brandished a club behind his head (1). The figure is nude, although the stylized grooves on the back of the head may represent a lion skull, which is sometimes seen on Herakles statuettes, rather than hair. The musculature is slightly molded but rather flabby; the figure is rather undetailed with only nose and genitalia indicated. Statuettes showing Herakles in an attacking stance like this are very common in the ancient world (2). The god may have had a connection with cultivation in early Italy (3). NOTES: 1. See 1920.44.100 for a more complete version of this Herakles type. 2. See A.-M. Adam, Bronzes étrusques et italiques (Paris, 1984) 180-92, nos. 271-95; and A. Naso, I bronzi etruschi e italici del Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum, Kataloge vor- und frühgeschichtlicher Altertümer 33 (Mainz, 2003) 37-43, nos. 48-61, 63-64, and 66-67, pls. 21-24. 3. S. J. Schwarz, “Herakles/Hercle,” Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae 5.1: 196-253, esp. 197; F. van Wonterghem, “Le culte d’Hercule chez les Paeligni documents anciens et nouveaux,” L’Antiquité classique 42.1 (1973): 36-48; F. Jurgeit, Die etruskischen und italischen Bronzen sowie Gegenstände aus Eisen, Blei, und Leder im Badischen Landesmuseum Karlsruhe, Terra Italia 5 (Pisa, 1999) 56-69, nos. 61-89, pls. 21-28. Jane A. Scott and Lisa M. Anderson