Rare Hercules Statue Exposed

According to Dr. Walid Atrash, “This is a rare discovery. The statue, which probably stood in a niche, was part of the decoration of a bathhouse pool that was exposed during the course of the excavations. It is [about] 0.5 m. tall [19 in.], is made of smoothed white marble and is of exceptional artistic quality. Hercules…is leaning on a club to his left, on the upper part of which hangs the skin of the Nemean lion, which, according to Greek mythology, Hercules slew as the first of his twelve labors.”

The myth goes that Hercules had to perform these “labors” in atonement for having killed his family. The Nemean lion had golden fur impervious to attack and claws sharper than any man’s sword, but Hercules overcame him and skined it with one of the lion’s claws.

The statue was found in Horvat Tarbenet, located in the Jezreel Valley four kilometers (2.5 miles) northwest of Afula. Other remains included a well and an installation with a large pool, which was probably part of a Roman bathhouse. Benches were on two sides of the pool. The well (2.90 m. or 9.5 ft. in diameter and more than 4 m or 13 ft. deep) had a saqiye (or Persian wheel) above its opening that lifted the water from the well using animal power and pots strapped to a rope “necklace.” There was a drainage channel beside the well that carried the water to the pool.

After the pool was no longer being used, it was filled in with a layer of earth that contained numerous potsherds, an abundance of broken glass vessels, and the marble fragment of Hercules.