Choice of Heracles.
     When Heracles (Hercules) was a young man, he was sent to tend the cattle of his father, Amphitryon, on Mount Cithaeron. On the way, Heracles was met at a crossroads by two women, Pleasure (Vice) and Virtue. The youth chose Virtue, with her accompanying trials, service, and renown.
     This allegory, told as a parable by the sophist Prodicus of Ceos in the fifth century BCE, became widespread. In the postclassical tradition the subject is most frequently known as “Hercules (or Alcides) at the Crossroads.” Aphrodite (Venus) and Athena (Minerva) often represent pleasure and virtue.

Further References:

     Panofsky, Erwin. 1930. Hercules am Scheidewege, und andere antike Bildstoffe in der neueren Kunst, Studien der Bibliothek Warburg, 18. Leipzig and Berlin: Teubner.

      Galinsky, G. Karl. 1972. The Herakles Theme: The Adaptations of the Hero in Literature from Homer to the Twentieth Century. Totowa, N.J., Rowman & Littlefield.


Listings for Heracles are arranged under the following headings:
; Birth of Heracles; Infant Heracles and the Serpents; Choice of Heracles; Madness of Heracles; Pillars of Heracles; Heracles and Cacus; Heracles and Antaeus; Heracles and Deianeira; Heracles and Iole; Heracles and Omphale; Death of Heracles; Apotheosis

See also Heracles, Labors of; Alcestis; Jason, and the Argonauts; Laomedon; Odysseus, in Hades; Pirithous, Wedding; Prometheus, Freed; Theseus, and the Amazons; Titans and Giants