Myth Library · Divine Marriage

Heracles Weds Hebe on Olympus

4 source witnesses · 4 source-scoped variants · reviewed 2026-08-30

After his mortal labors, Heracles enters immortal life with Hebe, while different witnesses emphasize agelessness, a divided underworld presence, praise, or reconciliation with Hera.

Canonical narrative

Heracles reaches Olympus only after the long violence and pain of his mortal career. Hesiod places the marriage at the end of the labors. The mighty son of Alcmene takes Hebe, daughter of Zeus and gold-sandalled Hera, as his wife on the snowy mountain. The reward is not another conquest. He lives among the immortals without trouble and without age.

The Odyssey makes the boundary stranger. Odysseus sees the phantom of Heracles among the dead, bow ready, while the poem insists that Heracles himself is elsewhere among the immortal gods, rejoicing in the feast with fair-ankled Hebe. The heroic dead man and divine husband occupy different planes in the same passage. Homeric Hymn 15 compresses the change into praise: after wandering and suffering, Heracles dwells happily with Hebe.

Later mythography adds a political repair within the divine family. Heracles becomes immortal, Hera’s hostility turns to reconciliation, and he marries her daughter. Hebe then bears Alexiares and Anicetus. The witnesses agree on the Olympian marriage, but each gives it a different weight: release from labor, the puzzle of death and divinity, hymnic blessedness, or peace after Hera’s persecution.

Episodes in this myth

Episode 1

Labor ends in ageless life

Heracles completes his mortal ordeals and enters an immortal marriage with Hebe on Olympus.

Episode 2

A phantom below and a husband above

Odysseus encounters Heracles’ phantom while the hero himself lives with Hebe among the immortals.

Episode 3

Hera and Heracles are reconciled

The mythographer places reconciliation with Hera immediately before Heracles marries Hebe.

Participants and roles

Hebe

becomes the wife of Heracles on Olympus and, in later mythography, mother of Alexiares and Anicetus

Heracles

completes his mortal labors, enters the company of the immortals, and lives with Hebe as her husband

Hera

is named as Hebe’s mother and, in the mythographic telling, becomes reconciled with Heracles before the marriage

Zeus

is named as father of Hebe and Heracles in the poetic witnesses

Alcmene

is named as the mortal mother of Heracles in the genealogical witness that leads into his Olympian marriage

Alexiares

is named by Pseudo-Apollodorus as a son born to Hebe and Heracles after their marriage

Anicetus

is named by Pseudo-Apollodorus as a son born to Hebe and Heracles after their marriage

Source-scoped variants

Ageless life after labor

Heracles marries Hebe after completing his ordeals.

What differs: Hesiod closes with the hero living untroubled and ageless, without narrating reconciliation or naming children.

Greek Archaic · Ancient Greece

Phantom below, husband above

Heracles’ phantom is in Hades while he feasts with Hebe among the gods.

What differs: The Odyssey preserves a split between the underworld image Odysseus sees and the immortal Heracles who lives with Hebe.

Greek Archaic · Ancient Greece

Brief hymnic happiness

The hymn praises Heracles dwelling happily with Hebe.

What differs: The nine-line hymn concentrates mortal ordeals and divine marriage into a compact act of praise.