This impressive marble statue of Hercules (called Herakles by the Greeks) is over six feet high and weighs 850 pounds. It was found in 1790 in the ruins of an ancient villa outside Rome. The villa belonged to the Roman emperor Hadrian, who loved Greek culture. The hero may have stood in a garden or alongside a pool with other statues. Hadrian especially appreciated Greek art and he had copies made of earlier Greek sculptures. This Hercules may be a copy of an earlier lost statue made in Greece around 300 BCE. (The figure is nicknamed the “Lansdowne Herakles” because a British lord named Lansdowne once owned it. Since there are many statues of Hercules, this nickname helps identify this one.) 

Hercules has a smooth, expressionless face that doesn’t show signs of age. His body is toned and muscled. The hero stands in a contrapposto pose with one knee slightly bent, causing his hips and shoulders to shift direction. The pose makes him look more active and natural than if both legs were straight. His identifying attributes, a club and lion skin, tell us who he is. The club rests on his left shoulder and the lion skin dangles from his right hand. Killing the lion was the first of his famous Twelve Labors, dangerous tasks the hero was forced to carry out. The lion was terrorizing the city of Nemea. Human weapons could not pierce its skin, so no one could kill it. But Hercules was so strong that he strangled the animal. He skinned it with its own claw and wore the skin as a cloak.  

Why is Hercules naked? Greeks exercised and competed in athletic competitions naked. Even they were not totally sure how this practice started. Perhaps it made everyone equal aside from their natural abilities. In art, nudity came to symbolize excellence of body and mind. In the sixth and fifth centuries BCE, Greek artists developed a type of ideal male figure. Images of bodies and faces were standardized to reduce individual differences and flaws. Men and male gods were shown without clothes, displaying their highly toned muscles. Their faces and features were ageless and unwrinkled. Because it was hard to identify individuals, artists identified them by symbols they wore or carried (like the lion skin).