Conny Waters – AncientPages.com – This fragment of a fine marble statuette of Heracles, about half a meter high, that was discovered a few years ago at Horbat Tarbenet in the Jezreel Valley (also known as the Valley of Megiddo) in Israel, not far from Afula.

The venerated Greek cult figure Heracles is famed for his strength and his many far-ranging adventures.

Fragment of a fine marble, about half a meter high statuette of Heracles. Image credit: PH๏τo: Courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority 

Dr. Walid Atrash of the Israel Antiquities Authority says, “This rare find, uncovered in an archaeological excavation directed at the site by Abdallah Moqary for the Israel Antiquities Authority, probably originally adorned a niche in a pool of an ancient bathhouse.”

The ancient site of Horbat Tarbenet is located in the Jezreel Valley, about 4 kilometers northwest of Afula. In the third century CE, there was a Jewish village here, which is even mentioned in the Jerusalem Talmud.

Remains of residential buildings, a well and a large pool uncovered in the excavation were probably part of a Roman-style bathhouse that functioned in the Jewish settlement.

After the pool fell out of use, it filled up with a layer of debris composed of many pottery sherds, glᴀss fragments and white marble fragments of the Heracles statuette. Hercules is depicted in the round naked, standing on a plinth. His muscles are particularly prominent as he leans to the left on a club wrapped in the skin of the monstrous lion Nemea, who, according to Greek mythology, Heracles killed in his first mission.

According to Greek mythology, Heracles was considered the strongest man in Greece and to this day, he is considered a symbol of heroism, superhuman strength and power, and is ᴀssociated with healing. His adventures are accounted in some of the most famous stories in Greek mythology, and he stands out among the many legendary heroes in the myths of ancient Greece. He is known as a tireless warrior that battled the forces of the underworld.

The mythology accounts that Hera, the wife of Zeus, despises Heracles from the day he was born. When he was still a baby, Hera placed two poisonous snakes in his bed which he easily overcame. Later in life, she cursed him with madness that led him to kill his three sons and his wife Magara, who tried to protect one of them.
To cleanse himself of the terrible sin he committed, he turned to the Oracle of Delphi, who instructed him to accept orders given by Aristaeus, the Mycenaean king. He was then entasked with 12 superhuman tasks known as the “Labors of Heracles”.

The tasks are a common theme in ancient art, and the sculpture in the pH๏τo attached shows Heracles’ first task- the killing of the monstrous lion.

Written by Conny Waters – AncientPages.com Staff Writer