The Statue of Hercules in Behistun (or Statue of Heracles/Herakles in Bisotun, Persian: تندیس هرکول) is located on Mount Behistun, Iran. It was discovered in 1958,[1] and is the only extant rock sculpture from the period of Seleucid control over the Iranian Plateau, that lasted from c. 312 BC to c. 140/139 BC.[2]
The statue was sculpted in 148 BC, and dedicated in the name of "Herakles Kallinikos" (Ἡρακλῆν
Καλλίνικον, "Hercules glorious in victory") by a Seleucid governor.[1][3][4] The Seleucid governor carved it in honor of a satrap.[2]
Hercules is lying on a 2 m long platform and holds a bowl in his left hand. His right hand rests on his leg. The statue is 1.47 m long and is attached to the mountain.[5] Heracles's club is carved in relief "as if propped up behind him" according to Matthew P. Canepa.[2] The form of the stele bears similarities to Seleucid stelae that bore official inscriptions in the area, most notably the stele from Laodicia-in-Media (Nahavand), on which a local Seleucid official wrote down a copy of the dynastic cult inscription of Seleucid ruler Antiochus III the Great (r. 222–187 BC), which he had created for his wife Queen Laodice III.[2] The head of the statue was stolen twice, but was recovered in 1996. The current head is a replica. The original head is held by the Cultural Heritage, Handcrafts and Tourism Organization.
^ ab"Behistun, other monuments". Livius.org. Retrieved 10 October 2020.
^ abcdCanepa 2018, p. 61.
^Visscher, Marijn S. (2020). Beyond Alexandria: Literature and Empire in the Seleucid World. Oxford University Press. p. 75, note 26. ISBN 978-0-19-005908-8.
^Frye, Richard Nelson (1984). The History of Ancient Iran. C.H.Beck. p. 230. ISBN 978-3-406-09397-5.
^Kasinec, Wendy F.; Polushin, Michael A. (3 February 2024). Expanding Empires: Cultural Interaction and Exchange in World Societies from Ancient to Early Modern Times. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 52. ISBN 978-0-8420-2731-1.
and 13 Related for: Statue of Hercules in Behistun information
The StatueofHerculesinBehistun (or Statueof Heracles/Herakles in Bisotun, Persian: تندیس هرکول) is located on Mount Behistun, Iran. It was discovered...
large rock relief on a cliff at Mount Behistunin the Kermanshah Province of Iran, near the city of Kermanshah in western Iran, established by Darius the...
who was a lover of Shirin. Farhad Tarash at the base of Mount Behistun Farhad Tarash at the base of Mount Behistun Goudarz HerculesStatue Darius I the Great's...
the patron divinity of travelers is perhaps reflected by the life-size rock sculpture of the divinity on the main highway at Behistun. There Bahram reclines...
cliff at Behistun, as well as Darius's famous relief, has a Seleucid reclining Herculesof 148 BC with a Greek inscription. Also from the fringes of the Roman...
epigraphist. For example, the Behistun inscription is an official document of the Achaemenid Empire engraved on native rock at a location in Iran. Epigraphists are...
mention of Parthia is in the Behistun inscription of Darius I, where Parthia is listed (in the typical Iranian clockwise order) among the governorates in the...
son became the ruler of the Persian Empire, or that this key fact about Darius's father would not be mentioned in the Behistun Inscription. It is also...
ISBN 3-8053-0350-5, Nr. 163 Die Statue ist abgebildet in: Josef Wiesehöfer: Das antike Persien, Zürich 1998, ISBN 3-491-96151-3, Taf. XVIb, c "Behistun, other monuments...
stone altars of the matronae and Nehalennia show women in Germanic dress, but otherwise follow Roman models, while images of Mercury, Hercules, or Mars do...