Circa 19th Century AD. This cameo brooch is beautifully crafted depicting the profile portrait of the divine hero Herakles. He wears a tunic which is finely carved and the Nemean lion coat above depicted on his head. Heracles was the most divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of mighty Zeus and Alcmene, he was the foster son of Amphitryon and great-grandson (and half-brother) of Perseus, another legendary hero of ancient Greek mythology. Herakles greatest of the Greek heroes, a paragon of masculinity, the ancestor of royal clans who claimed to be Heracleidae and a champion of the Olympian order against chthonic monsters. In ancient Rome and the modern West, he is reffered to as Hercules, with whom the later Roman Emperors, in particular Commodus and Maximian, associated themselves.Size: D: 17.97mm / US: 7 3/4 / UK: P 1/2; 5.96gProvenance: Central London private collection of Ancient Art and jewellery; acquired from an East Coast, US estate collection formed before 1979.