Hercules Performed

Emma Stafford is Professor of Greek Culture at the University of Leeds and author of numerous works on Greek myth and religion, including Herakles (Routledge 2012). She is co-editor of three other Hercules volumes in Brill's Metaforms series (2020).Contributors are: Tim Benjamin, Neil W. Bernstein, Deborah Chatr Aryamontri, Lucia Degiovanni, Sofia Frade, Samuel D. Gartland, Sue Hamstead,Owen Hodkinson, Eleftheria Ioannidou, Adriana F. Nogueira, Eleanor OKell, Robyn M. Rocklein, George Rodosthenous, Henry Stead.

"In conclusion, Hercules Performed provides a comprehensive and compelling analysis of Hercules’ representation in theatrical performances and highlights his relevance in culture and academia. [...] It will undoubtedly be a valuable resource for those researching mythological characters in contemporary media and will provide a model for future work in reception studies." Hannah Jorsh in Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2025.05.38

• ContentsPrefaceAcknowledgementsList of Figures and TableNotes on ContributorsIntroduction: Embodying the Hero and His StoryEmma StaffordPart 1: Labours1 Sandow the Modern Hercules: or the Twelve Labours of the Class-Conscious Historian of British ClassicsHenry Stead2 Hercules and the Tragicomic in the Epic Theatre of DürrenmattDeborah Chatr Aryamontri3 ‘Breaking News: Hercules Is the Son of Zeus’: the Chorus in Helen Eastman’s HerculesSofia Frade4 ‘The Moral Madness of the Modern Herakles’: Collage and Fragments in Tony Harrison’s The Labourers of Herakles and the Harrison ArchiveOwen HodkinsonPart 2: Madness5 The Madness of Hercules from Euripides to the RenaissanceNeil W. Bernstein6 Herakles, Medea and the Reality of FilicideSue Hamstead7 Herakles in Orbit: the Role of Space in Modern Versions of Euripides’ HeraklesSamuel D. GartlandPart 3: Death and Apotheosis8 The Death and Apotheosis of Hercules at the Comédie-Italienne: from Senecan Tragedy to Commedia dell’ArteLucia Degiovanni9 The Sweet Vitality of Dancing Bodies: Classical Embodiment, Modernist Poetics, and Fascist Visions in Sophocles’ Trachiniae at Syracuse in 1933Eleftheria Ioannidou10 Herakles, Sex, Death, and Spin: Sophocles’ Women of Trachis and Its AdaptationsEleanor OKell11 Directing The Wife of Heracles (2010) for a Contemporary Audience: Footballers, Hairdressers and Dispensing the PoisonGeorge RodosthenousPart 4: Setting Hercules to Music12 Hercules and Opera at the Court of Louis XIV: Ercole amanteJon Solomon13 Shattered Female Virtue: Dejanira as Depicted in Handel’s HerculesRobyn M. Rocklein14 ‘I Shall Sing of Herakles’: Writing a Hercules Oratorio for the Twenty-First CenturyEmma Stafford and Tim Benjamin15 Herakles in Twenty-First Century MusicAdriana F. NogueiraEpilogueEmma StaffordIndex