Farnese Hercules Rear

Farnese Hercules Rear

View of the back side of the 10.5 ft. tall statue of Hercules—often called Hercules at Rest.  This is because he holds in his right hand, behind his back, the apples of Hesperides— representing the last of his "twelve labors" (visible in photo).

He is resting on his club, over which skin of the Nemean Lion that he vanquished in his first labor is draped.

This marble statue is a copy created by Glykon, an Athenian copyist, in the second or third century A.D. of a bronze statue that was created by the famous Lysippos in the fourth century B.C.

The statue is now complete, except for his restored, in plaster, left forearm.

It was discovered in 1546 in the Baths of Caracalla in Rome, which were built in the early third century A.D.