0529HeraclesChoice_Handel

0529HeraclesChoice_Handel

wikipedia article (RTM)
Xenophon Memorabilia 2.1.21-34

George Frideric Handel, "The Choice of Hercules," HWV 69, oratorio, performed 1 Mar 1751 at Covent Garden. Libretto by Morell based on R. Lowth.

Music adapted from H's Alceste (never-performed opera).

E. Panofsky, Hercules am Scheideweg, und andere antike Bildstoffe in der neueren Kunst, Studien der Bibliothek Warburg, 18 (Leipzig 1930).

K. Galinsky, The Herakles Theme (Totowa, 1972)

W. Dean argued that Robert Lowth's poem "The Judgment of Hercules" (1743) is the source of the libretto. Indeed, Lowth's last couplet is also the concluding sentiment of Handel's chorus.

Portrait of George Frideric Handel, a bewigged man in 18th-century attire, gazing directly at the viewer

Handel's oratorio recounts Prodicus' Choice of Heracles, with Pleasure enticing the "blooming boy" but yielding ultimately to Virtue. Hercules' decision is rewarded immediately, as the Chorus concludes (chorus 24) "Virture will place thee in that blest abode, Crown'd with immortal youth, among gods a god."

Handel/Lowth's primary intervention into the myth is the character of the Attendant On Pleasure, a sort of witness who voices encouragement for the young hero to follow Pleasure (air 16) "Enjoy the sweet Elysian grove, seat of pleasure, seat of love, pleasure that can never cloy, love to source of endless joy."

Portrait of Handel by Balthasar Denner, National Portrait Gallery.

OGCMA slides are designed by Roger T. Macfarlane for use in Classical Civilization 241 courses at Brigham Young University.
The present resource contains information assembled for The Oxford Guide to Classical Mythology in the Arts, 1400 – 1990’s, edited by J. Davidson Reid (Oxford 1994), and it is used with express permission from Oxford University Press.
Address concerns or inquiries to macfarlane@byu.edu.