The editors: Louis Rawlings is Lecturer in Ancient History at Cardiff University. He has written numerous articles on ancient warfare and society, and is currently preparing a monograph, The Ancient Greeks at War (Manchester University Press). Hugh Bowden is Lecturer in Ancient History at King's College London. He is the author of Classical Athens and the Delphic Oracle: Divination and Democracy (Cambridge 2005) and General Editor of The Times Ancient Civilisations (Revised Edition, London 2005). He has also published numerous articles on Greek history and religion.

Herakles and Hercules: two names for a figure of pervasive appeal in Antiquity. He was a hero of myth and a god with cult associations. He was ancestor of Macedonian kings, patron of Carthaginian generals and of Roman emperors, and a role model for Stoic philosophers. As a performer of the famous labours, wanderer, liberator, madman and murderer of kin, Herakles-Hercules has retained his fascination down to the present. The eleven new studies in this volume explore why this figure appealed so widely in Antiquity. They examine his role in ancient myth and philosophy, drama and art, as well as in politics and propaganda, warfare and religion,