Hercules (Heracles) holding a club

myminifactory

This sculpture shows Hercules holding his legendary club. Different ancient Greek customs described how the club was made and what it was made from; one tradition said that Heracles created the club himself at Nemea by cutting down a tree, according to Pseudo-Apollodorus (2. 4. 11). "After learning archery from Eurytus, Hercules received a sword from Hermes, a bow and arrows from Apollo, a golden breastplate from Hephaestus, and a robe from Athena; he also cut a club at Nemea himself." Theocritus in his Idyll (25) on Heracles instead says that the hero pulled up an olive tree by its roots or stem to create the club, but only on Mount Helicon in Boeotia; this made the club in this tradition an entire tree rather than just a cut piece from it. Another ancient tradition claims that Hephaestus gave the club to Heracles and it was made of brass or bronze-tipped; Diodorus Siculus is the classical source for this.