Herakles

Herakles strides with his left foot forward. The left knee is slightly bent, while the left foot is flat on the ground. The right leg is straight except for a slight bend at the knee. The figure is nude except for a schematic lion skin tapering to a point and draped over the left arm, which is held out at waist level. There is no indication of fingers on the left hand, and the molded thumb is disproportionately large. The right arm is raised, brandishing a club behind his head. Fingers on the right hand are indicated by incised lines, and the thumb is disproportionately large. The club is plain. The anatomy of the figure is very schematic, and stylized musculature is modeled slightly in the pectorals, back, buttocks, navel, and legs. Nipples and navel are indicated by circular incisions. The face is long with a weak chin; the eyes are incised circles, the nose is very prominent, and the mouth is small and drawn back into an archaic smile. The head is uncovered; the hair is partially indicated by modeling and by incision but the majority is left plain. Statuettes showing Herakles in an attacking stance like this are very common in the ancient world (1). The god may have had a connection with cultivation in early Italy (2). NOTES: 1. 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. 2. 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. Lisa M. Anderson