RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
A1 Miller, Jaroslav
T1 The Hero with a Thousand Faces: Hercules in Literary and Iconographic Tradition and Propaganda of Early Modern European Protestantism
JF Historica Olomucensia
YR 2011
VO 39
IS 1
SP 31
OP 50
UL https://historica.upol.cz/artkey/hol-201101-0003.php
AB The symbolic message as encrypted in Greek and Roman mythology was used and misused abundantly in the context of early modern confessional and political propaganda. Based upon theory once formulated by the American religionist and anthropologist Joseph Campbell the study is concerned with the archetypal structure of Hercules myth as applied in Protestant propaganda on the eve of and during the Thirty Years War. At the same time, the article illustrates the shift in protestant literary tradition and iconography from Hercules as a symbol of war and heroic deeds to Hercules as an embodiment of Baroque piety and wise government.