Philip V King of Macedonia 221BC Greek Coin Bearded Hercules Flute i35662

Greek King: Philip V – King of Macedonia: 221-179 B.C.
Bronze 20mm (6.70 grams) Struck circa 221-179 B.C.
Reference: SNGCop 1262
Head of bearded Hercules right in lion’s skin.
 ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΦΙΛΙΠΠΟΥ above and below harpa (flute), ΔI above, all within oak 
wreath.

Son of Demetrios II, Philip V 
came to power in 221 B.C. on the death of Antigonos Doson. He was a vigorous 
ruler and maintained the power of the Macedonian kingdom in the earlier part of 
his reign. However, he made the mistake of arousing the enmity of the Romans, 
and in 197 B.C. his power was crushed at the battle of the Kynoskephalai by the 
Roman general T. Quinctius Flamininus. After this his power and territory were 
severely curtailed by Rome, and the days of the Macedonian kingdom were 
numbered.

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Hercules and the Hydra (ca. 
1475) byAntonio 
del Pollaiuolo the 
hero wears his characteristic lionskin and wields a club

Hercules is the Roman name for 
the Greek divine hero Heracles, 
who was the son of Zeus (Roman 
equivalent Jupiter) 
and the mortal Alcmene. 
In classical 
mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous 
far-ranging adventures.

The Romans adapted the Greek hero’s iconography and myths for their literature 
and art under the name Hercules. 
In later Western 
art and literature and in popular 
culture, Hercules is 
more commonly used than Heracles as 
the name of the hero. Hercules was a multifaceted figure with contradictory 
characteristics, which enabled later artists and writers to pick and choose how 
to represent him. This article 
provides an introduction to representations of Hercules in the later 
tradition.

The Latin name Hercules was 
borrowed through Etruscan, 
where it is represented variously as Heracle, 
Hercle, and other forms. Hercules was a favorite subject for Etruscan 
art, and appears often on bronze 
mirrors. The Etruscan form Herceler derives 
from the Greek Heracles via syncope. 
A mild oath invoking Hercules (Hercule! or Mehercle!) 
was a common interjection in Classical 
Latin.

Baby Hercules strangling asnake sent 
to kill him in his cradle(Roman 
marble, 2nd century CE)

Hercules had a number of myths that 
were distinctly Roman. One of these is Hercules’ defeat of Cacus, 
who was terrorizing the countryside of Rome. The hero was associated with the Aventine 
Hill through his son Aventinus. Mark 
Antony considered him a personal 
patron god, as did the emperor Commodus. 
Hercules received various forms of religious 
veneration, including as a deity 
concerned with children and childbirth, in part because of myths about his 
precocious infancy, and in part because he fathered countless children. Roman 
brides wore a special belt tied with the “knot 
of Hercules”, which was supposed to be hard to untie. The 
comic playwright Plautus presents 
the myth of Hercules’ conception as a sex comedy in his play Amphitryon; Senecawrote 
the tragedy Hercules Furens about 
his bout with madness. During the Roman 
Imperial era, Hercules was worshipped locally from Hispania through Gaul.

Germanic association

Tacitus records a special 
affinity of the Germanic 
peoples for Hercules. In chapter 
3 of his Germania, 
Tacitus states:

… they say that Hercules, too, once visited them; and when going into 
battle, they sang of him first of all heroes. They have also those songs of 
theirs, by the recital of this barditus as 
they call it, they rouse their courage, while from the note they augur the 
result of the approaching conflict. For, as their line shouts, they inspire 
or feel alarm.

In the Roman era Hercules’ 
Club amulets appear from the 2nd 
to 3rd century, distributed over the empire (including Roman 
Britain, c.f. Cool 1986), mostly made of gold, shaped like wooden clubs. A 
specimen found in Köln-Nippes bears 
the inscription “DEO HER[culi]”, 
confirming the association with Hercules.

In the 5th to 7th centuries, during the Migration 
Period, the amulet is theorized to have rapidly spread from the Elbe 
Germanic area across Europe. 
These Germanic “Donar’s 
Clubs” were made from deer antler, bone or wood, more rarely also from bronze or 
precious metals.They are found exclusively in female graves, apparently worn 
either as a belt pendant, or as an ear pendant. The amulet type is replaced by 
the Viking 
Age Thor’s 
hammer pendants in the course of 
the Christianization 
of Scandinavia from the 8th to 
9th century.

Medieval mythography

Hercules and the Nemean 
lionin the 15th-century Histoires 
de Troyes

After the Roman Empire became Christianized, 
mythological narratives were often reinterpreted as allegory, 
influenced by the philosophy of late 
antiquity. In the 4th century, Servius had 
described Hercules’ return from the underworld as representing his ability to 
overcome earthly desires and vices, or the earth itself as a consumer of bodies. In 
medieval mythography, Hercules was one of the heroes seen as a strong role model 
who demonstrated both valor and wisdom, with the monsters he battles as moral 
obstacles. One glossator noted 
that when Hercules 
became a constellation, he showed that strength was necessary to gain 
entrance to Heaven.

Medieval mythography was written almost entirely in Latin, and original Greek 
texts were little used as sources for Hercules’ myths.

Renaissance mythography

The Renaissance and 
the invention of the printing 
press brought a renewed interest 
in and publication of Greek literature. Renaissance mythography drew more 
extensively on the Greek tradition of Heracles, typically under the Romanized 
name Hercules, or the alternate name Alcides. 
In a chapter of his book Mythologiae (1567), 
the influential mythographer Natale 
Conti collected and summarized an 
extensive range of myths concerning the birth, adventures, and death of the hero 
under his Roman name Hercules. Conti begins his lengthy chapter on Hercules with 
an overview description that continues the moralizing impulse of the Middle 
Ages:

Hercules, who subdued and destroyed monsters, bandits, and criminals, was 
justly famous and renowned for his great courage. His great and glorious 
reputation was worldwide, and so firmly entrenched that he’ll always be 
remembered. In fact the ancients honored him with his own temples, altars, 
ceremonies, and priests. But it was his wisdom and great soul that earned 
those honors; noble blood, physical strength, and political power just 
aren’t good enough.

In art

In Roman works of art and in Renaissance and post-Renaissance art, Hercules can 
be identified by his attributes, the lion 
skin and the gnarled club (his 
favorite weapon); in mosaic he 
is shown tanned bronze, a virile aspect.

Roman era

• 

  
  Hercules of the Forum Boarium (Hellenistic, 
  2nd century BCE)

   

• 

  Hercules and Iolaus (1st 
  century CE mosaic from the Anzio Nymphaeum, Rome)

   

• 

  Hercules (Hatra, 
  Iraq,Parthian 
  period, 1st-2nd century CE)

   

• 

  Hercules bronze statuette, 2nd century CE (museum of Alanya, Turkey)

   

• 

  Hercules and the Nemean 
  Lion (detail), silver plate, 
  6th century (Cabinet 
  des Médailles, Paris)

Modern era

• 

  The Giant Hercules (1589) 
  by Hendrik 
  Goltzius

   

• 

  The Drunken Hercules(1612-1614) by Rubens

   

• 

  Hercules in the Augean 
  stable (1842, Honoré 
  Daumier)

   

• 

  Comic book cover 
  (c.1958)

   

• 

  Hercules, Deianira and 
  the Centaur Nessus, byBartholomäus 
  Spranger, 1580 – 1582

   

• 

  Henry IV of France, as Hercules vanquishing theLernaean 
  Hydra (i.e. theCatholic 
  League), byToussaint 
  Dubreuil, circa 1600. Louvre 
  Museum

In numismatics

Hercules was among the earliest figures on ancient Roman coinage, and has been 
the main motif of many collector coins and medals since. One example is the 20 
euro Baroque Silver coin issued 
on September 11, 2002. The obverse side of the coin shows the Grand Staircase in 
the town palace of Prince 
Eugene of Savoy in Vienna, 
currently the Austrian Ministry of Finance. Gods and demi-gods hold 
its flights, while Hercules stands at the turn of the stairs.

• 

  Juno, with Hercules fighting a Centaur on 
  reverse (Roman, 215-15 BCE)

   

• 

  Club over his shoulder on a Roman denarius (ca. 
  100 BCE)

   

• 

  Maximinus II and 
  Hercules with club and lionskin (Roman, 313 CE)

   

• 

  Commemorative 5-francpiece 
  (1996), Hercules in center

Other cultural 
references

• 

  Pillars of Hercules, representing the Strait 
  of Gibraltar (19th-century 
  conjecture of the Tabula 
  Peutingeriana)

   

• 

  
  The Cudgel of Hercules, a tall limestone rock 
  formation, with Pieskowa 
  Skała Castle in the 
  background

   

• 

  Hercules as heraldic 
  supporters in the royal 
  arms of Greece, 
  in use 1863-1973. The phrase “Ηρακλείς του στέμματος” (“Defenders of 
  the Crown”) has pejorative connotations (“chief henchmen”) in Greek.

In films

A series of nineteen Italian Hercules movies were made in the late 1950s and 
early 1960s. The actors who played Hercules in these films were Steve 
Reeves, Gordon 
Scott, Kirk Morris, Mickey 
Hargitay, Mark Forest, Alan Steel, Dan 
Vadis, Brad 
Harris, Reg 
Park, Peter 
Lupus (billed as Rock 
Stevens) and Michael Lane. A number of English-dubbed Italian films that 
featured the name of Hercules in their title were not intended to be movies 
about Hercules.

Philip V (Greek:
Φίλιππος Ε΄) (238 BC – 179 BC) was King of
Macedon from 221 BC to 179 BC. Philip’s reign 
was principally marked by an unsuccessful struggle with the emerging power of
Rome. Philip was attractive and charismatic as 
a young man. A dashing and courageous warrior, he was inevitably compared to
Alexander the Great and was nicknamed the 
darling of Hellas (Greek:
η αγάπη μου για Ελλάδα).

//

 Early 
life

The son of
Demetrius II and Chryseis, Philip was nine 
years old at his father’s death in 229 BC. He had an elder paternal half sister 
called 
Apame.  His cousin,
Antigonus Doson, administered the kingdom as 
regent until his death in 221 BC when Philip was seventeen years old.

On his ascent to the throne, Philip quickly showed that while he was young, 
this did not mean that Macedon was weak. In the first year of his rule, he 
pushed back the 
Dardani and other tribes in the north of the 
country.

 The 
Social War

In the Social War (220 
BC-217 
BC), the Hellenic League of Greek states was assembled at Philip V’s 
instigation in 
Corinth. He then led the Hellenic League in 
battles against 
Aetolia,
Sparta and
Elis. At the same time he was able to stamp on his own authority 
amongst his own ministers. His leadership during the Social War made him 
well-known and respected both within his own kingdom and abroad.

 First 
Macedonian War

After the Peace of Naupactus in 217 BC, Philip V tried to replace
Roman influence along the eastern shore of the
Adriatic, forming alliances or lending 
patronage to certain island and coastal provinces such as
Lato on Crete. He first tried to invade
Illyria from the sea, but with limited success. 
His first expedition in 216 BC had to be aborted, while he suffered the loss of 
his whole