Heracles Time God

Herakles, stout-hearted and mighty,
powerful Titan,
strong-handed, indomitable,
doer of valiant deeds,
shape-shifter,
O gentle and endless father of time,
ineffable, lord of all,
many pray to you,
all-conquering and mighty
archer and seer,
omnivorous begetter of all,
peak of all, helper to all,
for the sake of men
you subdued and tamed savage races.
Peace was your desire;
she brings dazzling honors and nurtures youths.
Self-grown, weariless,
bravest child of the earth,
O illustrious Paion,
your primordial scales gleam.
Round your head
dawn and dark night cling,
and your twelve deeds of valor
stretch from east to west.
Immortal, world-wise,
boundless and irrepressible,
come, O blessed one,
bringing all charms against disease,
with club in hand
drive evil bane away,
with your poisonous darts
do ward off cruel death.


- The Orphic Hymns, Hymn XII. To Herakles


("mighty, powerful Titan: Kronos is similarly addressed in the following hymn (OH 13.2). It is possible that “child of the earth” in line 9 (also used of Kronos at OH 13.6) is meant to reinforce Herakles’ connection with the Titans." - From the Notes section included with the translation)

("father of time: In the Orphic theogony attributed to Hieronymos, Herakles is sometimes another name for Time (Orphic fragment 76 and 79; note, too, the “primordial scales” in line 10, a characteristic of the Orphic Time). An obscure arithmological treatise that has come down to us among the writings of the Neoplatonist Iamblichus (mid-third / fourth century AD), The Theology of Arithmetic, lists the significance of the numbers one through ten. For the “tetrad” (number four), we find, “And again, they call the tetrad ‘Heracles’ with regard to the same notion of the year, as giving rise to duration, since eternity, time, critical time and passing time are four, as moreover are year, month, night and day, and morning, midday, evening and night” (translation by Waterfield 1988, p. 62). Sun is also called “father of time” (OH 8.13), and there are other parallels connecting both figures, e.g., both are addressed as Titan, both are “self-born” and “untiring” (OH 8.3), and both are invoked by alternate forms of a name usually associated with Apollon (Paian and Paion). In the Dionysiaca of Nonnus, a hymn to Sun begins “star-cloaked Herakles, lord of fire, marshal of the universe” (40.369). At lines 11–12 in our hymn, dawn and dusk are worn on Herakles’ head, and the twelve labors are said to “stretch from east to west,” the same path Sun takes on his daily journey. Sun is connected with Herakles in myth as well, as the former lent the latter his cup, in which he rides on the river Okeanos (which flows counterclockwise) during his return journey from west to east (see Stesikhoros PMGF S17; Boardman 1975, pl. 300). Herakles had gone west to retrieve the cattle of Geryon, and the suggestion of a cycle in Herakles’ wanderings (east-west-east) might have facilitated a connection with the sun’s circuit in antiquity. The twelve labors of Herakles could also be seen as representing the twelve months of the year (see Morand 2001, p. 84). Thus in these two lines, the idea of four time periods, as mentioned in the Theology of Arithemetic (“year, month, night and day”), might be intended; see also OH O.18n." - From the Notes section included with the translation)