Definition of "Hercules"
Hercules
proper noun
plural Herculeses or Hercules or (obsolete) Herculesses or (obsolete) Hercules's
(Roman mythology) The Roman name for the Greek divine hero Heracles, who was the son of Jupiter and Alcmene, a celebrated hero who possessed exceptional strength. Most famous for his 12 labours performed to redeem himself after killing his family.
Quotations
THere were many Hercules’s, but (as Tully ſays, de Nat. Deor. lib. 3.) the famous Actions of them all are aſcrib’d to him who was the Son of Jupiter, by Alcmena, the Wife of Amphitryo King of Thebes.
1698, The Pantheon, Representing the Fabulous Histories of the Heathen Gods and Most Illustrious Heroes, in a Short, Plain and Familiar Method by Way of Dialogue, 2nd edition, London: […] Charles Harper, […], page 332
THere were many Hercules’s amongſt the Antients; Varro enumerates Forty four. The moſt famous were, Hercules Marguſanus, Hercules Ogmius, who was the Symbol of Eloquence amongſt the Gauls; Hercules Pollens, Hercules Thebanus, firſt called Alcides, Hercules Tyrius, or Egyptian; and there were two of them; the Elder called Melicarthus, or Eſau, the Founder of the City of Tyre; and the Younger, who Subdu’d Geryon, and was Worſhipped in Sidon in Spain.
1705, The Antient Religion of the Gentiles, and Causes of Their Errors Consider’d: […], London: […] John Nutt, […], page 166
Mr. Sympſon would read Theban, the Story of Omphale being, as he thinks, only applicable to him: But as there were many Hercules’s, and among the reſt a Libyan, the Son of Jupiter Ammon; if it is inaccurate, it ſeems the Inaccuracy of a Scholar, and not an Error of the Preſs.
1750, The Works of Mr. Francis Beaumont, and Mr. John Fletcher, volume the third, London: […] J. and R. Tonson and S. Draper […], page 70
There were so many Hercules in the Grecian mythology and history, that it was necessary to specify when the principal Hercules, the son of Jupiter and Alcmena, was meant.
1795, Paradise Regained, a Poem, in Four Books, by John Milton. A New Edition, with Notes of Various Authors, by Charles Dunster, M.A., London: […] T[homas] Cadell, Jun. and W[illiam] Davies, […], page 258
Thus he enumerates many Hercules’s, and many Mercury’s; but one part of the history of each is so much the same, that I know not how he could avoid perceiving that they were only two names of one person.
1838, L[eveson] Vernon Harcourt, The Doctrine of the Deluge; Vindicating the Scriptural Account from the Doubts Which Have Recently Been Cast upon It by Geological Speculations, volume I, London: […] Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longmans, […], page 453
[…]—Hercules—Was Nimrod, the grand-son of Noah, and the origin of all the fabled Herculesses of all the early nations—[…]
1843, [Josiah Priest], Slavery, as It Relates to the Negro, or African Race, Examined in the Light of Circumstances, History and the Holy Scriptures; […], Albany, N.Y.: C. Van Benthuysen and Co., page VII
Our great cities have become so many Augean stables, for the removal of whose filth as many Hercules are required.
1848, Richard B[oxall] Grantham, A Treatise on Public Slaughter-Houses, Considered in Connection with the Sanitary Question. […], London: […] J[ohn] Weale, […]; and […] Henry Renshaw, […], page 25
“[…] Diogenes turned Hercules into ridicule; and the Roman Cynic Varro introduces three hundred Joves without heads.” From the stage abuser the sarcastic African father selects, partly from his own former observation, those of Diana being flogged, the reading of Jupiter’s will after his decease, and the three half-starved Herculesses!
1884, Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, […], page 112
The two Hercules are positioned on the same convex, bulging frame of the lower stern gallery as David, but furthest to the port (No. 397) and to the starboard (No. 1279) respectively of the centre line.
1986, Hans Soop, The Power and the Glory: The Sculptures of the Warship Wasa, Almqvist & Wiksell, page 43
By this time, however, Maciste had lost his individuality and had become indistinguishable from the many Herculeses, Atlases, and other assorted neomythological strongmen, all played by a host of American bodybuilders.
2008, Gino Moliterno, Historical Dictionary of Italian Cinema (Historical Dictionaries of Literature and the Arts; 28), The Scarecrow Press, Inc., page 188