Heracles/Hercules is a particularly striking example of how European societies have received, appropriated and reshaped classical heroic myths into the early 21st century. Is the ancient hero thus also a European site of memory? It will be shown that it was a specific aspect of the myth that was evoked particularly frequently and became a topos by a distinct community of memory – the European princely courts – during a particular period, from the Renaissance to late Baroque. This topos functioned as a reference point for certain concepts of value that were historically framed – as a topos of memory.