A god in the gutter - the Hercules of Bordeaux, circa end of the 2nd - beginning of the 3rd century

 

Cast in a copper alloy, the figure in its present state is roughly five feet tall and weighs nearly two hundred pounds. 

The so-called Hercules of Bordeaux was discovered in 1832 in a sewer of a house at the entrance of the impasse Saint-Pierre. As found, it was broken into about twenty pieces. Restored and reassembled for the first time in 1865, and again in 1878, it was only in 1963 that it underwent its definitive restoration. It is preserved in the collection of the Musée d'Aquitaine, and is one of the very few large Roman bronzes preserved in France.

Mythology's great strong man is easily identified by the fragment of lion skin wrapped around his left forearm, the skin of the the Lion of Nemea, which he slew as the first of his "Twelve Labors." It's assumed that he held his club - his signature accoutrement - in his left hand, while he probably lifted a cup of ambrosia, the symbol of his immortality, in the other hand. 

The discernable pose and the figure's modeling show the influence of earlier Greek classical sculpture, particularly the aesthetic principles of the great Lysippos. Additionally, a comparison with certain portraits of Septimius Severus styled as Hercules have led some to consider this as a possible symbolic representation of the Roman emperor.