The Knot of Herakles

Tying Strength to Symbol in Greco-Roman Antiquity

Figure 1.  Gold armband with Herakles knot, inlaid with garnets, emeralds, and enamel. Greek (Hellenistic) 3rd-2nd cen. BCE. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Purchase, Mr. and Mrs. Christos G. Bastis Gift, 1999

Left over right, right over left. With this simple method, two strands of rope form a knot strong enough to tie the rigging on a ship, affix a bandage on a wound, or secure a girdle on the body. It is one of the oldest knots in use, and it is not only practical, but also aesthetically pleasing: the rounded loops and intersecting strands between them offer a visual symmetry and balance that is reflected in the integrity of the knot's strength. These useful and visual pleasing properties work to explain, perhaps, the enduring presence of what is known as the “Herakles knot” in jewelry from Greco-Roman antiquity (Figure 1).

Herakles was a Greek hero born from the sky-God Zeus and the mortal woman Alcmene.  The name of the knot could stem from the hero’s physical prowess, due to its strength when tied correctly. Tales of Herakles's strength were told in Greek mythological tales that begin with his miraculous birth and culminate in his Twelve Labors. In his infancy, Herakles was set upon by twin snakes sent by his wrathful stepmother, the goddess Hera, which he defeated by strangling one in each hand. A gold ring from the first century CE with two intertwined snakes framing a Herakles knot, perahps making a subtle reference to this myth (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Gold ring with two snakes intertwining to frame central band with Herakles knot. 1–100 CE. Greece or Italy, Rome (?). Courtesy of The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Wade, 1916.133.

Another possible inspiration for the knot’s association with Herakles comes from his Twelve Labors. For his first task, Herakles wrestled and killed the Nemean Lion, known for its impenetrable hide. Upon slaying the lion, Herakles skinned it and wore its hide. The lion’s hide is a key part of Herakles’ iconography in Greco-Roman art. He is often depicted wearing the head of the lion over his own, like a hood, while the front paws of the skin are tied around his neck. An archaic amphora from Greece depicts him with the skin, and the paws are tied in what looks to be the eponymous square knot (Figure 3). It has been suggested that the protective powers once associated with the lion skin itself transferred over time to the knot (Nicgorski 1995; 2022).

Figure 3. Detail of Herakles with lion-skin tied in the “Herakles knot.” Bilingual amphora by the Andokides Painter and Lysippides Painter. Greece (Archaic) c. 525-520 BCE. Museum of Fine Art, Boston. Henry Lillie Pierce Fund.

Before Herakles: The Tjes Knot

While the knot has long been associated with Herakles, it appears long before documentation of this hero in the historical record. The same square knot appears as early as the second millennium BCE in temple and tomb contexts.  One deposit from the Temple of Hatshepsut in Deir el-Bahri included a wooden amulet gilded with gold leaf in the shape of a square knot (Figure 4). In Egyptian contexts like this one, it is referred to as a “tjes” knot. The square knot was associated with Egyptian deities - especially the goddess Isis - and was therefore considered sacred.

Figure 4. Model Knot from the Foundation Deposit for Tomb of Hatshepsut (KV 20). Upper Egypt, Thebes, Valley of the Kings, c. 1479-1458 BCE. Davis/Carter excavations, 1903–04. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Theodore M. Davis Collection, Bequest of Theodore M. Davis, 1915

Alexander the Great: Descendant of Herakles

Many of the most elaborate gold pieces with the Herakles knot are Greek and date to the Hellenistic period. Their popularity could be the consequence of the influence of Alexander the Great (c. 356 - 323 BCE), who claimed to be a descendant of the divine hero. Furthermore, according to Greek legend, Alexander had a “labor” of his own that involved a knot. Plutarch tells the story in his Parallel Lives, “Life of Alexander,” of the famous Gordian knot in Phrygia. The Phrygian knot was nearly impossible to untie, and came with the foretelling that whoever conquered the knot would rule all of Asia. When Alexander confronted the knot, he did, indeed, conquer it- not by untying the knot, but by cutting through it with his sword. Alexander’s subsequent conquests reached as far as the Indus and Oxus river valleys, thus fulfilling the prophecy. The trade routes created from the Alexander’s military campaigns possibly allowed the knot’s popularity to spread along with the fame of the Macedonian king.

Magical and Symbolic Properties

From the Greek Hellenistic through the Roman Imperial period (ca. 323BCE - 3rd century CE), documentation of the Herakles knot provides a diverse array of magical and symbolic properties. In Book 28, Chapter 18, of his Natural History, Pliny the Elder describes how the knot was used to tie off wounds and supposedly helped them heal faster than when other knots were used.  Another Roman writer, Sextus Pompeius Festus, writes in his De verborum signifacatione that Roman brides used the knot to tie their girdle on their wedding night. Untying the knot on the wedding night was thought to help the couple produce children through its magical properties (Nicgorski 2022). 

Figure 5. Gold fillet with Herakles knot. Greek (Hellenistic) late 4^th-3rd century BCE. Gift of Christos The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. G. Bastis, in honor of Philippe de Montebello, 1995

It is likely that jewelry with the Herakles knot often worked as an amulet for the wearer (Figures 5 & 6). The prevalence of the knot on elaborate gold bracelets, rings, necklaces, and headbands suggests that it was widely worn by women, possibly to encourage good health and fertility. (After all, Herakles was known to have fathered over one hundred children, known as the Heracleidae.)

Figure 6. Gold Bracelet with Herakles knot at the bezel and twisted, spiraled strands. Egypt (Roman Period) 2nd century CE. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Rogers Fund, 1918.

Untying Origins and Meaning

Ultimately, the Herakles knot endures in Greco-Roman material culture because it binds together what ancient viewers did not separate: function, beauty, and belief. As a simple square knot, it promised security in the most literal sense, while its balanced loops offered a pleasing visual order that translated naturally into goldwork and gemstone inlay. Yet the knot’s appeal was amplified by myths of Herakles and the legends of Alexander the Great, imbuing them with cultural significance and symbolic meaning. At the same time, the knot’s deep history complicates any single origin: long before Greek myth crystallized, the tjes knot in Egyptian sacred contexts already framed the square knot as a sign of divine power. By the Roman period, wearing—and untying—the knot could signal healing, fertility, and general safeguarding of the body. In tying the knot, ancient wearers tied themselves to a web of practice, myth, and meaning.

References

Festus, Sextus Pompeius. Sexti Pompei Festi De Verborum Significatu Quae Supersunt Cum Pauli Epitome. Lipsiae: in aedibus B.G. Teubneri, 1913.

Nicgorski, Ann M. The iconography of the Herakles knot and the Herakles-knot hairstyle of Apollo and Aphrodite. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1995.

Nicgorski, Ann M. "A Reexamination of the Minoan" Sacral Knot" Motif." Kleronomia: Legacy and Inheritance: Studies on the Aegean Bronze Age in Honor of Jeffrey S (Morrison, J.E. and Murphy, J.M.A. Eds.). Soles 61 (2022): 115-123

Plutarch. Lives: Demosthenes and Cicero, Alexander and Caesar. Vol. 7. Loeb Classical Library, Perrin, Bernadotte (trans). 1919.

Pliny the Elder, The Natural History. John Bostock and H. T. Riley (Eds.). 1855.