head to head with the giant Ophiuchus, who is represented as holding a writhing serpent in his grasp. Hercules has been thought to represent the first Adam, beguiled by the serpent, and condemned to a life of toil, while Ophiuchus is supposed to be the second Adam, triumphant over the serpent.
The relations of mankind and serpentkind dwelt on in the Bible, and figuring so prominently in the sky figures, seems to indicate the antiquity of these constellations, and shows clearly that there was a deliberate plan carried out in designing them. The constellation Hercules is without doubt linked with the earliest records of the history of man.
In Phœnicia, the constellation Hercules is said to have represented the god Melkarth, and was an object of worship, Melkarth being regarded as a Saviour by the Phœnicians. It has also been identified with Ixion, Prometheus Bound, and Theseus.
Brown holds that the constellation is Euphratean in origin, and was known originally as "Lugal," or "Sarru," the King.
It is significant that we always find Hercules represented as kneeling, an incongruous position for a hero or god engaged in trampling on a great serpent. There appears no satisfactory explanation for this attitude. Blake says that there is a story related by Æschylus about the stones in the Champ des Cailloux, between Marseilles and the embouchure of the Rhone, to the effect that Hercules being amongst the Ligurians, found it necessary to fight with them, and looked about in vain for some missiles to hurl at his foes. Jupiter, touched by the danger of his son, sent a rain of round stones with which Hercules repulsed his enemies. The Engonasis is thus considered by some to represent the giant bending down to pick up the missiles.
In the modern representations of the figure, Hercules swings a club in one hand, and holds fast a branch, or the three-headed dog Cerberus, in the other, so that there does not seem much reason or opportunity for him to pick up
