Heracles ( ; ,
Herakles, from
Hera, "
Hera", and
kleos, "glory"), born
Alcaeus (,
Alkaios) or
Alcides (,
Alkeides), was a
divine hero in
Greek mythology, the son of
Zeus and
Alcmene, foster son of
Amphitryon and great-grandson/half-brother of
Perseus. He was the greatest of the Greek heroes, a paragon of masculinity, the ancestor of royal clans who claimed to be
Heracleidae and a champion of the
Olympian order against
chthonic monsters. In
Rome and the
modern West, he is known as
Hercules, with whom the later
Roman Emperors, in particular
Commodus and
Maximian, often identified themselves. The Romans adopted the Greek version of his life and works essentially unchanged, but added anecdotal detail of their own, some of it linking the hero with the geography of the Central Mediterranean. Details of his
cult were adapted to Rome as well.