Classical Mythology

(^540) THE GREEK SAGAS: GREEK LOCAL LEGENDS
The Choice of Heracles. By Annibale Carracci (1560-1609); oil on canvas, 1596, 653 / 4 X 93V 4
in. Formerly the central painting in the ceiling of the camerino (private office) of the Far-
nese Palace, Carracci's painting is a lucid interpretation of Prodicius' parable. Heracles,
identified by his club and lionskin, ponders the choice between Pleasure (to the viewer's
right), whose attributes include an actor's mask and a musical instrument. On the other
side, Virtue, holding a sheathed sword, points to the rocky upward path, at the top of
which stands Pegasus. At the bottom left a poet sits ready to record the deeds of the hero,
whose eyes indicate that he has already made his choice of Virtue. In the central back-
ground is a palm tree, source of the future victor's wreath. (Naples, Galleria di Capodimonte.)
So diverse a character attracted a variety of interpretations and uses. Indeed,
as Aristotle pointed out in the Poetics (8), his very diversity made it impossible
for a unified epic or tragedy to be written about him. Only three extant Greek
tragedies deal with his legend—Sophocles' Trachiniae and Euripides' Heracles
and Alcestis (the latter almost incidentally). To the comic poets like Aristophanes,
he is good material for slapstick; in the Frogs, for example, he is largely moti-
vated by gluttony and lust.
More significant was the use made of his virtues by the moralists and
philosophers, to whom he became a model of unselfish fortitude, laboring for
the good of humankind and achieving immortality by his virtue. This process
is best typified by the famous parable told by Prodicus of Ceos:^21 As a young