person
Hercules
also: Heracles, Herculis
The greatest Greek hero, famed for his twelve labors. Lucretius lists the monsters he overcame only to argue that the inner monsters Epicurus subdued were far more dangerous.
Reading notes
- On the Nature of Things §5.2 Hercules
The great Greek hero. Lucretius names his monstrous foes—the Nemean lion, the Arcadian boar, the Stymphalian birds, the Cretan bull, the Lernaean Hydra, Geryon, the fire-breathing horses of Diomedes, and the serpent guarding the apples of the Hesperides—only to say that none could harm us now, whereas Epicurus slew the worse monsters of the mind.