Author Description

English summary: Alexandra Eppinger's monograph offers the first extensive treatment of the various representations of the god/hero Hercules from c. 250 to c. 600 CE. In its complexity, the figure of Hercules was a focal point of religious, social, political, and cultural developments within the period of Late Antiquity and is able to show, in unique ways, the interaction of pre-Christian traditions with the shifting religious contexts of the period, especially between non-Christian and early Christian cultures. This study covers the entire range of ancient sources including archeological remains as well as coins, inscriptions, papyri, and literary texts. This book presents an analysis of cultural interactions with the figure of Hercules both in the context of people's private lives as well as in the public spaces of late antique cities. In addition, this study highlights the views about the hero from the perspective of Christian and non-Christian writers. The unanimous judgment of the Church Fathers was that Hercules was a religiously neutral "exemplar of virtues" (exemplar virtutis), and served as a model for Christian emperors. The image of the late-antique Hercules is rounded-off with an examination of the later manifestations of his cult and a critical interpretation of the supposed intrumentalization as the "Son of Jupiter" in a polemical, anti-Christian sense in the later fourth century CE, as part of a "pagan reaction" against the Christian empire. German desription: Alexandra Eppingers Monografie bietet den ersten umfassenden Uberblick uber die vielfaltigen Erscheinungsformen des Heros/Gottes Hercules in den Jahren zwischen ca. 250 und 600 n.Chr. In ihrer Vielschichtigkeit ist die Herculesfigur ein Kristallisationspunkt religioser, sozialer, politischer und kulturgeschichtlicher Entwicklungen der Spatantike und eignet sich daher in besonderem Masse dazu, den Umgang mit der heidnischen Uberlieferung im Spannungsfeld von Heidentum und C