This essay traces some of the contexts and media in which “Heracles-Hercules” – as a hero between virtue and hubris – was visible in European societies from the end of the middle ages onwards. It discusses whether this example of the reception, appropriation and transformation of classical myths in the early modern period can be understood as a European “lieu de mémoire”, and to what extent the concept of “lieux de mémoire” (or sites of memory) can foster our understanding of a particular object of study (here the Heracles/Hercules myth). Against this backdrop, we conclude with some general questions about the more ambitious project* of a comprehensive register of European “lieux de mémoire”.
* * Published as: Boer, Pim den / Duchhardt, Heinz / Kreis, Georg / Schmale, Wolfgang (eds.): Europäische Erinnerungsorte, 3 vols., Munich 2011–2012