Heracles (Hercules)

Roman sculpture following Hellenistic examples. 2nd century AD.
He is represented resting, with a lion skin hanging over his left arm.

Heracles was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon and great-grandson (and 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. Lots of popular stories were told of his life, the most famous being The Twelve Labours of Heracles.
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.

Correspondent: J.M.Criel, Antwerpen.
Sources: ‘Arkeoloji ve Sanat’ Dergisi n° 38 & Wikipedia.