Herakles from Hadrians villa in Tivoli Skopas. Greek, mid 4th century BC, Rome copy, Malibu, J.p. Getty Museum. The Royal Cast Collection (Copenhagen, Denmark). Made with Memento Beta (now ReMake) from AutoDesk. Heracles , born Alcaeus or Alcides, was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon and great-grandson and half-brother (as they are both sired by the god Zeus) of Perseus. He was the greatest of the Greek heroes, a paragon of masculinity, the ancestor of royal clans who claimed to be Heracleidae. In Rome and the modern West, he is known as Hercules. Many popular stories were told of his life, the most famous being The Twelve Labours of Heracles. For more updates, please follow @GeoffreyMarchal on Twitter.