From Ovid and Virgil to the muscle beaches of Malibu, Hercules has made an indelible impression on Western culture. He is the original hero: half god, half man, handsome and virile, triumphant in his labors yet ultimately a victim of his tragic destiny. He was also a rapist, drunkard, and transvestite, whose excesses reveal some of the darkest recesses of human nature. He has been variously portrayed in sculpture, painting, and verse, and later on stage and screen. This unconventional biography of Hercules charts his life from his dramatic birth in Thebes to his agonizing death on a flaming pyre.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
Review
- 'An acute and often witty study of an enduring figure in European culture, and one that succeeds in raising fascinating questions about our notions of masculinity' Sunday Times
- 'You learn something on every page, while being entertained by the witty telling and the writer's lightly worn erudition' Independent
- 'Blanshard provides a fascinating commentary on how Hercules has been portrayed through thousands of years in art and literature, on stage and screen' Good Book Guide
- 'Hercules - unchained! Alastair Blanshard's brilliant exploration of this quintessential hero's life in myths is always quizzically engaging, and often uproariously entertaining' Paul Cartledge
About the Author
Alastair Blanshard is a Greek cultural historian who has taught classics at the universities of Oxford and Reading. In 2005 he took up a position at the University of Sydney. This is his first book.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
There are no customer reviews yet.
|
|||
|
Video reviews
|
Inside This Book
(learn more)
First Sentence:
Sometimes it is horrible to be right. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
next labour, twelve labours Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Farnese Hercules, House of the Vettii, Olympic Games, Alexander the Great, Trojan War, Disney's Hercules, New York, Mount Oeta New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Sometimes it is horrible to be right. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
next labour, twelve labours Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Farnese Hercules, House of the Vettii, Olympic Games, Alexander the Great, Trojan War, Disney's Hercules, New York, Mount Oeta New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 45
books:
See all 45 books this book cites
- Hercules Furens (Mnemosyne, Bibliotheca Classica Batava Supplementum) (Mnemosyne Supplements) (German Edition) by Lucius Annaeus Seneca on page 54, page 58, and Back Matter
- Art and Text in Ancient Greek Culture (Cambridge Studies in New Art History and Criticism) by Simon Goldhill in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Seven Against Thebes (Greek Tragedy in New Translations) by Aeschylus in Back Matter
- Visual Narratives: Storytelling in Etruscan and Roman Art by Richard Brilliant in Back Matter
- The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas on page 86
See all 45 books this book cites
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product).
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
