Using the same methodology to prove the historical Jesus and, more importantly, lowering the bar of what/ who historical Jesus was, we can also say that there was a historical Hercules.
Like, for example, the case that Nancy Loewen makes in her book "Hercules":
![[Image: heracl.jpg]](https://i.postimg.cc/QNms1vQj/heracl.jpg)
Can you prove she is wrong?
But the question also is "Who was historical Hercules?" How many of these legends about him are true? Was he just some strong guy who was a strong soldier? Or was he some king? Or was he some very strong family guy, but he became so mentally ill and thus violent that he even killed his wife and kids?
Nancy doesn't go into details, but maybe we could analyze his myths and use the same criteria that Jesus's historicists use when they analyze gospels.
When he was a child, he couldn't yet control his strength (powers) so he got angry that he killed his music teacher. This is embarrassing. Why would anyone invent this? This must have happened.
As a young lad, Hercules lived in some rural mountains with his parents. Now this is too embarrassing if someone was just inventing a superhero god who was to inspire people (they would definitely put him in some nice distinguished city to live). Therefore this must have happened and was known, so they couldn't just sweep it under the rug.
He then got married to a princess (but she was probably something below princess, although probably not so low as a peasant), and then he killed her and their kids thinking they were snakes. Now, this is too embarrassing for someone to invent this, so this probably happened. It probably wasn't because of the curse that he killed them, but something more mundane, like he was drunk or schizophrenic or bipolar or something else - we may never know.
And then come his tasks. I won't spend much time on them, but I will say that some probably happened. The task where he meets Atlas and holds the sky for him is invented because we know how cosmology works. But the task where he had to was the stables of more than 3000 cows probably happened (although it was probably much fewer cows) because who would invent that a hero has to wash shit away? Or when he had to sail to some island to pick up cows, it also happened because it is unheroic, especially since he killed a giant with three bodies there which was probably added later to make this mundane and shameful task somewhat worthy of a hero.
After he finished those tasks, he had some other adventures which were probably all mythical because they were all very heroic, like joining the armies where he fought for good causes, punishing kings, and saving people from monsters. Especially when he becomes god later in life, meaning that people didn't consider him to be god, but only added it to him later. So he was maybe some strong and ingenious man who sometimes couldn't control his temper.
So, are you a Hercules mythicist or a Hercules historicist?
Like, for example, the case that Nancy Loewen makes in her book "Hercules":
Can you prove she is wrong?
But the question also is "Who was historical Hercules?" How many of these legends about him are true? Was he just some strong guy who was a strong soldier? Or was he some king? Or was he some very strong family guy, but he became so mentally ill and thus violent that he even killed his wife and kids?
Nancy doesn't go into details, but maybe we could analyze his myths and use the same criteria that Jesus's historicists use when they analyze gospels.
When he was a child, he couldn't yet control his strength (powers) so he got angry that he killed his music teacher. This is embarrassing. Why would anyone invent this? This must have happened.
As a young lad, Hercules lived in some rural mountains with his parents. Now this is too embarrassing if someone was just inventing a superhero god who was to inspire people (they would definitely put him in some nice distinguished city to live). Therefore this must have happened and was known, so they couldn't just sweep it under the rug.
He then got married to a princess (but she was probably something below princess, although probably not so low as a peasant), and then he killed her and their kids thinking they were snakes. Now, this is too embarrassing for someone to invent this, so this probably happened. It probably wasn't because of the curse that he killed them, but something more mundane, like he was drunk or schizophrenic or bipolar or something else - we may never know.
And then come his tasks. I won't spend much time on them, but I will say that some probably happened. The task where he meets Atlas and holds the sky for him is invented because we know how cosmology works. But the task where he had to was the stables of more than 3000 cows probably happened (although it was probably much fewer cows) because who would invent that a hero has to wash shit away? Or when he had to sail to some island to pick up cows, it also happened because it is unheroic, especially since he killed a giant with three bodies there which was probably added later to make this mundane and shameful task somewhat worthy of a hero.
After he finished those tasks, he had some other adventures which were probably all mythical because they were all very heroic, like joining the armies where he fought for good causes, punishing kings, and saving people from monsters. Especially when he becomes god later in life, meaning that people didn't consider him to be god, but only added it to him later. So he was maybe some strong and ingenious man who sometimes couldn't control his temper.
So, are you a Hercules mythicist or a Hercules historicist?
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
