Volume III Book of the Gods A Splendid New Fantasy by the Author of Ariadne’s Web “One of the best writers in the business.”—Stephen R. Donaldson Fred Saberhagen, New York Times bestselling author of the Berzerker Series, continues to puts his own twist on Greek mythology, continuing the series that kicked off with The Face of Apollo and Ariadne’s Web with Book III, The Arms of Hercules. Hercules is the son of the nearly omnipotent Zeus, King of the Gods, and of a human mother whose beauty sparked lust in the great god. The arms of Hercules look no more muscular than those of many other men—but his father was the greatest god in the entire world. Hercules, the son of Zeus, has crushed monsters, giants and legendary warriors in combat. Until one challenge remains: The harrowing underworld, the one place where strength does not matter. Pitted against the greatest monsters that classical literature and Saberhagen’s vivid imagination could create, Hercules’s struggle comes to life in his fight to the death, against Death itself.

Hercules is a tragedy of great theatrical, poetic, and cultural value. Written probably at the intersection of the principates of Claudius and Nero, it addresses central issues of early imperial Rome, even as it speaks profoundly to our times. Among its concerns are violence and madness; imperatives of family and self; Rome, identity and place; the nature of virtue; the longing for immortality; the theatre of rage; and the empire of death. The play is dramatically innovative, spectacular, and arresting: from its fiery, monumental god-prologue (the only one in Senecan tragedy), through meditative soliloquies, impassioned speeches, trenchant dialogue, a failed wooing scene with an impressive after-life in Tudor drama, a stunning entrance for Hercules and his captured hellhound, Theseus' ecphrastic narrative of the hero's infernal 'labour', to a familicidal madness scene and an emotionally turbulent, non-violent finale, in which the instinct for self-punitive suicide is thwarted by the claims of kinship and the acceptance of intolerable suffering. The whole is bound together by some of Seneca's most affective choral lyrics, as intellectually engaging as they are emotionally potent. Hercules is A. J. Boyle's sixth, full-scale edition for OUP of a play by or attributed to Seneca. It offers a comprehensive introduction, newly edited Latin text, English verse translation designed for both performance and academic study, and a detailed exegetic, analytic, and interpretative commentary. The aim has been to elucidate the text dramatically as well as philologically, and to locate the play firmly in its contemporary historical and theatrical context and the ensuing literary and dramatic tradition. As such, its substantial influence on European drama from the sixteenth to the twenty-first centuries is given emphasis throughout; this and the accessibility of the commentary to Latinless readers make the edition particularly useful to scholars and students not only of classics, but also of comparative literature and drama, and to anyone interested in the cultural dynamics of literary reception and the interplay between theatre and history.

The Modern Hercules explores the reception of the ancient Greek hero Herakles – the Roman Hercules – in western culture from the nineteenth century to the present day, exploring the hero’s transformations of identity and significance in a wide range of media.

From the pen of Steve Moore (Dr. Who; Jonni Future) comes a tale of Hercules in his darkest hours. When the Thracian King summons the Greek hero and his six battle-worn companions to mold the Thracian army into a bloodthirsty, ruthless killing machine, the son of Zeus rushes to answer the call of war and gold. But within the nation of Thrace lies an epic tale of war, murder, deception and sacrifice that shows Hercules how far from grace he's fallen— and what he must accomplish for redemption.

Fun math puzzles based on the Twelve Labors of Hercules How might Hercules, the most famous of the Greek heroes, have used mathematics to complete his astonishing Twelve Labors? From conquering the Nemean Lion and cleaning out the Augean Stables, to capturing the Erymanthean Boar and entering the Underworld to defeat the three-headed dog Cerberus, Hercules and his legend are the inspiration for this book of fun and original math puzzles. While Hercules relied on superhuman strength to accomplish the Twelve Labors, Mythematics shows how math could have helped during his quest. How does Hercules defeat the Lernean Hydra and stop its heads from multiplying? Can Hercules clean the Augean Stables in a day? What is the probability that the Cretan Bull will attack the citizens of Marathon? How does Hercules deal with the terrifying Kraken? Michael Huber's inventive math problems are accompanied by short descriptions of the Twelve Labors, taken from the writings of Apollodorus, who chronicled the life of Hercules two thousand years ago. Tasks are approached from a mathematical modeling viewpoint, requiring varying levels of knowledge, from basic logic and geometry to differential and integral calculus. Mythematics provides helpful hints and complete solutions, and the appendixes include a brief history of the Hercules tale, a review of mathematics and equations, and a guide to the various disciplines of math used throughout the book. An engaging combination of ancient mythology and modern mathematics, Mythematics will enlighten and delight mathematics and classics enthusiasts alike.

Manuscript notes and newspaper clippings inserted.