Hercle

Hercle is the Etruscans' Heracles, and no borrowed figure was taken up more enthusiastically: engravers returned again and again to the moment he is received into the company of the gods, and Mean sets the victor's wreath on his head. He is the son of Tinia by a mortal woman, Alchumena, which is the Etruscan form of the Greek formula. The Latin Hercules is generally held to have reached Rome through this Etruscan form rather than directly from Greek. He is recorded here as his own figure because that is this registry's practice for Etruscan counterparts — Tinia is not merged into Zeus, and an Oscan Hercle already stands separately as well.

Parentage

• Tinia

Domains

• strength
• protection

Relations

• ally: Mean

Sources

• Etruscan engraved bronze mirrors depicting Hercle, including his reception among the gods and his crowning by Mean.
• Reference discussion of Hercle as son of Tinia and Alchumena and as an adopted Etruscan favourite.