Macbeth and Hercules

ABSTRACT

This paper draws upon an iconographical topos and a political debate for its historical appreciation of Macbeth. It shows that Shakespeare sets up two opposing heroic ideals in this tragedy; the chivalric warrior hero and the humanist intellectual paragon of reason and virtue. Both are personified by two contrasting Renaissance adaptations of the mythical Hercules: the model of physical strength and victor of all battles, and the Hercules whose heroism resides in his superior intellectual strength and will power. At the crossroads of life he chooses the path of virtue and rejects vice and pleasure. At the beginning of the tragedy Macbeth is identified with Hercules, the invincible fighter. He fails, however, the test of Hercules in bivio, when he meets the weird sisters. His tragedy implies a radical critique of the heroic ideal of manliness and the conviction that fortitude and valour are the best way to assure justice and peace. Macbeth takes sides in the controversy between King James and a faction at Prince Henry's Court, which contested the King's policy of conciliation and peace and glorified the chivalrous ideal of martial strength.