Heracles and the Mastery of Geographical Space

Abstract

The myth of Heracles was modified through the ages and rewritten in accordance with the needs of each period. Given that Heracles was a liminal hero, every time the limits of the world were extended, the spaces Heracles was believed to have reached changed too. Heracles is not satisfied with merely knowing and observing the inhabited world, with controlling it through knowledge; rather, he is a transformer and an alterer of spaces. More than an explorer of the world’s geography, he is a creator of it, and a force of nature in this regard. He is a symbol of Hellenism but also a unifier of Greeks with other peoples, and indeed a unifier of the Mediterranean world in particular.