Читать книгу The Herodotus Encyclopedia - Группа авторов - Страница 269

CHRISTOPHER BARON

University of Notre Dame

Mythical, mother of HERACLES (2.145.4). In most traditions, ZEUS fathers Heracles on Alcmene by seduction or DECEPTION (Gantz, EGM 374–78), but Herodotus refers to Heracles only as the son of AMPHITRYON, Alcmene’s mortal husband and cousin. The couple’s grandfather PERSEUS, in Herodotus’ telling, was of Egyptian descent (2.91.5; 6.53). Herodotus uses this fact in his argument that the Greeks took the name of Heracles from the Egyptians, rather than vice versa (2.43.2). After her death, Zeus had Alcmene transported to the Islands of the Blessed where she married Rhadamanthys (see e.g., Pherecydes BNJ 3 F84). She may have received cult honors at Boeotian THEBES (Paus. 9.16.7).

SEE ALSO: Myth; Proof