Hercule Gaulois at The Louvre, Paris

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Hercules is the Roman name given to the Greek divine hero Heracles, who was born as the son of Zeus (equivalent to Jupiter) and the mortal woman Alcmene. In classical mythology, Hercules gains fame for his incredible strength and numerous adventures that took him far and wide. The Romans adopted the iconography and myths of the Greek hero under the name Hercules in their literature and art. Later, in Western art and literature, as well as popular culture, Hercules is often used more frequently than Heracles to refer to the hero. Hercules was a complex figure with many contrasting characteristics, allowing later artists and writers to pick and choose how they wanted to portray him. This sculpture, known as Heracles Gaulois, which dates back to 166 AD, was carved out of Carrara marble by Pierre Puget. It depicts Hercules reclining while holding the golden apples from the garden of Hesperides after his eleventh trial. After completing his first ten labors, Eurystheus assigned him two additional tasks, stating that neither the Hydra nor the Augean stables were counted as part of the original twelve because Heracles received help for one task and payment for another. The first of these two extra labors was to steal the apples from the garden of the Hesperides. To accomplish this, Heracles caught the Old Man of the Sea, a sea god with shape-shifting abilities, in order to learn where the Garden of the Hesperides was located. He sits cloaked in the skin of the Nemean lion that he killed during his first trial.