| | Simone Wirthmann comments: | Hercules (gr. Heracles), (lit. "having | or showing the glory of Hera"; Hera, | wife of Zeus) Hercules, the son of | Zeus and of the mortal Alkmene was a | celebrated hero of Greek and Roman | mythology, who after death was ranked | among the gods and received divine | honours. He is represented as | possessed of prodigious strength, | whereby he was enabled to perform | twelve extraordinary tasks or | "labours" imposed upon him by Hera. | One of these tasks was to capture the | cattles of the three-headed giant | Geryoneus. It is said, that on this | journey Hercules set up the rocks | Calpé (now Gibraltar) and Abyla | (Ceuta) / THE PILLARS OF HERCULES on | either side of the Strait of | Gibraltar, as a sign for his longest | journey. THE PILLARS where seen by the | ancients to be the supports of the | western boundary of the world. | | Bacon uses the myth of Hercules and | Harmodius in a methaphorical way, to | elucidate the real contents of | knowledge by comparing the two | "heroes". Hercules impersonates | strength and justice, throughout his | life he tried to free people from | tyranny, fought against giants and | monsters without thinking of his own | benefit. Harmodius in comparison tried | to kill the tyrants Hippias and | Hipparchus in consequence of a private | quarrel and not primarily to free | people. | | This shows, that for Bacon knowledge | must be of general existence and not | only refer to some particular point. | | Nevertheless, in one of his later | works, DE SAPIENTIA VETERUM (1609), | Hercules is not the Baconian hero | anymore. The real hero is Orpheus, the | philosopher. His works are superior to | the works of Hercules as the "works of | wisdom" (opera sapientiae) are | superior to the "works of strength" | (opera fortitudinis) (VI, 729). | | Orpheus was a legendary poet, a famous | musician and singer of ancient Greece, | who had the power of charming all | animate and inanimate objects (he | could move rocks and trees) by the | sweet strains of his lyre. He | descended living into Hades, to bring | back to life his wife Eurydice, and | perished, torn to pieces by infuriated | Thracian maenads (see THE OXFORD | CLASSICAL DICTIONARY; THE CENTURY | DICTIONARY, VOL. 4)