Farnese Hercules

2nd–3rd century CE

Pentelic marble, 317 cm high · National Archaeological Museum, Naples

An enlarged Roman copy, signed by Glykon of Athens, of a 4th-century BCE bronze attributed to Lysippos. It was found in 1546 in the Baths of Caracalla in Rome, where it was probably displayed.

A colossal, heavily muscled hero leans on his club, small head bowed.
His right hand, behind his back, holds the golden apples of the Hesperides, his last labour.
It entered the Farnese collection and moved with it to Naples.
The photograph shown is by Giorgio Sommer, about the 1860s.

Heracles (Roman Hercules), son of Zeus, performed twelve labours to atone for killing his family in a madness sent by Hera.

Image: Wikimedia Commons · CC0