Bronze Statuette of Heracles with Club and Lion Skin

The statuette, made of solid-cast bronze, depicts a male figure identifiable as Heracles by the presence of his typical attributes: the club and the lion skin (leonté). The hero is shown nude, in a semi-frontal stance. His head faces forward and is framed by short hair and a thick beard. The stocky body shows a rather schematic rendering of the musculature.

The right arm, extended forward, is almost fully outstretched, with the hand open; the left arm is bent, with the lion skin resting on the forearm, while the hand raises the club, whose upper part rests against the shoulder. The legs, slightly apart, are missing their lower portions below the knees.

Heracles—called Hercules by the Romans—is one of the most famous heroes of Greek mythology. The son of Zeus and the mortal Alcmene, he symbolizes strength, courage, and heroic virtue. To atone for a crime, he accomplished the famous Twelve Labors, confronting monsters and seemingly impossible challenges. In art he is typically depicted with the club and the skin of the Nemean lion. After his death, he was welcomed among the gods on Olympus, becoming a lasting example of heroism and the transcendence of human limits.

In this bronze statuette, the iconographic scheme follows that of Heracles Dexioumenos—that is, “the welcoming Heracles”—generally represented standing, holding the club in the left hand, with the right arm extended forward and the right hand raised in a gesture of greeting, welcome, or invitation.

The statuette was part of a group of six bronze figurines found in the domestic shrine (lararium) of one of the houses of Copiae.