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Symbols in a Story: What's What
A symbol is anything that stands for, or represents, something else. In a story, a character, an action, an object, or an animal can be symbolic. Often these symbols stand for something abstract, like a force of nature, a condition of the world, or an idea. For a quick game about symbols, check out Symbols in Art.

This mural is Missouri artist Thomas Hart Benton’s retelling of the ancient myth of Achelous and Hercules. He moved the setting from ancient Greece to the American Midwest and gave new meanings to the story’s symbols.


First read the myth by selecting “The Story.” Jot down anything that you think might be symbolic of something else. What do you think these things represent? For help, select “Meanings and Second Meanings.”

Then select areas on the mural to learn more about the painting. Did the artist show all of the details that you thought were symbolic? Did he change them? How? Did he include other details that might be symbols?


Note: This is a synchronistic painting. That means that the artist shows, in one scene, events that happen at different times in a story.

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Achelous & Hercules: Who's Who
Achelous was the god of the most powerfully flowing river in Greece, and so was the chief of all the river gods. The land along the river was ruled by the king of the nearby city of Calydon. The king had a beautiful daughter named Dejanira. When it came time for Dejanira to marry, her father announced a contest: the strongest of her suitors would win her hand.

Achelous, the river god, was by far the strongest in the region. But Dejanira’s beauty was known everywhere, so it wasn’t long before Hercules came to Calydon to try his luck.

Hercules was the strongest mortal in the world, but Achelous, being a god, had some advantages over him. He could change his shape at will. He could become a snake that curved like the winding river. He could become a bull that roared like the roaring river. And when he was a bull he could tear the very earth with his massive horns, just as the river carved away the land when it overflowed its banks.

When Hercules came to town, all other suitors withdrew. He alone would wrestle Achelous for the hand of Dejanira.

“Here is Hercules,” Achelous said to the king. “He is a stranger, from distant Thebes. Do you want a stranger for a son-in-law? You and I are neighbors. You know me well. So often has my river flooded your fields and crops, fields and crops that are Dejanira’s too. Her land and my flooding river have already joined. I feel as if you and I are already family!”

Hercules, in contrast, was a man of very few words. He listened patiently and politely and then gave his answer: he grabbed the river god, threw him, and pinned him to the ground. As Achelous would later say, “It was as if a mountain had fallen on me. Hercules was a mountain of a man.”

The god saw he could not beat Hercules in a regulation wrestling match. It was then that he took the form of a snake that slithered out of the strong man’s arms. He coiled himself and gave a hiss. Hercules laughed and spoke for the first time.

“A snake!” he said. “Is that the best you can do? I’ve been killing snakes since I was a babe in the crib.”

What might have seemed a wild boast was entirely true, and Achelous knew it. Hercules’s famous first feat in life was strangling two snakes that had crawled into his crib.

Achelous the snake decided to become Achelous the furious bull. He lowered his broad head to point his sharp horns at Hercules. He scratched at the dirt and then he charged. The crowd let out a gasp.

But to a man like Hercules, the horns of a bull were just two convenient handles. He seized Achelous by both of them and flipped him to the ground. He then gave a mighty jerk to one of the horns. It snapped off.

Hercules won the match and won Dejanira’s hand in marriage. And the people of Calydon won as well. The goddess named Plenty ordered that the bull’s broken horn be filled with all the fruits and vegetables of the harvest. It became the Cornucopia, or Horn of Plenty. With one horn missing, Achelous lost much of his power to flood the kingdom.

If you are ever in Greece, you might go to see his river. It is in the rainiest part of a fairly dry country. It is still called the Achelous. You would find a quiet stream that flows along fertile fields—fields that are safe for farming.

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Meanings & Second Meanings
Symbolism appears in both art and writing. Simile and metaphor appear only in writing. All of these devices are ways to convey meaning.

A simile compares one thing to another. (A simile usually has the word like or as in it.)

A metaphor calls one thing by the name of something else—something that is similar to the first thing in some way.

For example:

If you say to your friend, “You eat like a pig!” you’re using a simile.

If you say to him or her, “You’re a real pig!” you’re using a metaphor.

Similes and metaphors are figures of speech: they are descriptive ways of saying something—in this case, that your friend eats sloppily. Everyone knows that a person is not really a farm animal.

If you write a story about a pig—a pig that could also be understood as your friend—that could also be understood as a story about your friend—you have written a symbolic story. The pig stands for your friend. Those who know your friend might recognize him or her, even with floppy ears and a curly tail. Others might simply enjoy your story as the thrilling adventures of a pig.

In a story like that, the reader is meant to discover the second meaning. A good example is Animal Farm by George Orwell. On one level, it is a story about animals on a farm. But it is also a story of life under an oppressive government.

As you look for symbols in the story of Achelous and Hercules, see if you can find a few similes and metaphors too. Jot them down.

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Achelous

Achelous

The river god Achelous, in the form of a bull, stands for his roaring, raging river. Thomas Hart Benton thought that the bull’s two horns “symbolized his tendency as a flooded river to cut new channels. . . . You never knew which horn was going to send your land and crops down new river beds.” Benton lived most of his life in Missouri, where this painting is set. The mighty Missouri River can destroy crops, homes, and lives when it floods.

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Hercules

Hercules

This is Hercules. Thomas Hart Benton said that Hercules “had a reputation for doing what he thought was right.” Whenever he conquered a foe, other people benefited from his labor. When he took on the Nemean lion, for example, he saved the people of Nemea from a ferocious, unkillable beast.

To Benton, the Hercules who beat the river god symbolized engineers who were planning to build dams that would stop flooding on the Missouri River—and the workers who would actually do the building.

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DEJANIRA

Dejanira

This is Dejanira. To Thomas Hart Benton, she symbolized the land. He wrote: “Dejanira was very beautiful and desirable. Her land was beautiful and desirable also... When Achelous wooed Dejanira he meant to possess her land.”

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Nike

Nike

This is the goddess Nike, symbol of victory. Since ancient times, artists have shown her holding a wreath over the head of the winner of a contest. According to Thomas Hart Benton, “Hercules’s victory over Achelous symbolized victory over the river by the building of embankments, canals, etc., and the overcoming of the yearly terrors of flood.”

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Scarf of Nike

Scarf of Nike

This scarf belongs to the goddess Nike, symbol of victory. In Greek myth, Nike had wings and could fly. Thomas Hart Benton symbolizes Nike’s power to fly with the flying scarf. Here the sculptor Paul Manship does something similar to represent the speed of Atalanta, the fastest girl in ancient Greece.

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Cornucopia

Cornucopia

This is the Cornucopia. Since ancient times, it has been a symbol of plenty—plenteous crops, plenty to eat. According to Thomas Hart Benton, “The conquering of the river bull is a symbol of the redemption of river land and the turning of it, by labor, to Plenty.”

Here is the Cornucopia in a 1978 painting by Sondra Freckelton. Do you know The Hunger Games? Do you see the Cornucopia in that story as a symbol as well?

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Hat of Hercules

Hat of Hercules?

This might be Hercules’s hat. He might have taken it off to wrestle Achelous. Usually in art, Hercules is identified by a special hat—he wears the head of the Nemean lion on his own head. That hat is a symbol of Hercules.

Is this hat a symbol of something? Probably not. Sometimes a hat is just a hat.

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Horse Rider

Horse Rider

Thomas Hart Benton called Hercules a “tamer of wild and unruly people and things.” Benton might have included this rider to symbolize the taming of wild things of all kinds. In the ancient Greek city of Corinth, the flying horse Pegasus was a symbol of horse taming—a skill very important to the Corinthians. All of the coins of Corinth had Pegasus on one side. Elsewhere, Pegasus was a symbol of poetry and its “flights of the imagination.”

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Horn of Plenty

Horn of Plenty

Thomas Hart Benton doubles the symbol of the Horn of Plenty by giving this boy a toy horn. You might say it’s a symbol of a symbol!

Benton’s fellow “regionalist” painter, Grant Wood of Iowa, was a master of this kind of witty doubling. In Grant Wood’s American Gothic, notice how the pattern on the man’s overalls doubles the shape of the pitchfork.

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WHO IS THIS GUY?

Who Is This Guy?

Is he a character from the story? Is he symbolic of something? Move to the left side of the mural and click on the guy climbing over the fence.

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WHO IS THIS GUY?

Who Is This Guy?

Is he a character from the story? Is he symbolic of something? Move to the left side of the mural and click on the guy climbing over the fence.

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Another Hercules

Another Hercules?

Thomas Hart Benton wrote that this story “fits our Missouri River, which yet needs the attention of a Hercules.” Benton had in mind the need to control the flooding of the Missouri. But he knew that no single “Hercules” could do that.

Compare this ancient Greek drinking cup to Benton’s painting. Both show spectators at the wrestling match between Hercules and Achelous, but there are differences. Do Benton’s spectators, like this man, seem more active? Could Hercules symbolize not one hero, but many?

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flowers

Flowers

Painters through the centuries have used flowers as symbols. In the 1800s, there was a fad for “the language of flowers”—every flower in the garden had a symbolic meaning.

These flowers seem to be morning glories. In the “language of flowers,” morning glories meant “love in vain.” Did Thomas Hart Benton have this symbol in mind? Probably not, but you never know. He wrote of Achelous: “As a river he wound through Dejanira’s land. As a god he loved her and wanted to marry her.” If Achelous really loved her, he must have seen that his love was “in vain”—as soon as Hercules threw him to the ground!

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corn

Corn

This is a shock of corn. Move to the other side of the mural and see if you can find a shock of wheat.

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wheat

Wheat

This shock of wheat, like the shock of corn on the other side of the mural, is a realistic detail of a Missouri farm scene. But it is also a symbol of abundance. The ancients, too, used wheat as a symbol. In this ancient Roman sculpture, notice the wheat in the hair of Ceres (Demeter to the Greeks). She was the goddess of crops, especially grain. Our word cereal comes from her name.

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Missouri River

Missouri River

The mural is a synchronistic painting. That means that the artist shows, in one scene, events that happened at different times in the story. Hercules is fighting Achelous, but he has also already won the match and has already tamed the river. This steamboat might be seen as a symbol of the tamed river.

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Corn

Corn

This farmer is carrying a bushel of corn. See if you can find a shock of corn in the mural.

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Wheat

Wheat

These are sheaves of wheat. See if you can find a shock of wheat in the mural

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pumpkin

Pumpkin

In America, the pumpkin is a symbol of autumn and everything that goes with it: Halloween, Thanksgiving, harvest time. It’s interesting to know that the ancient Greeks didn’t recognize autumn as a season. In the myth of Persephone, daughter of Demeter (Ceres), she spends one-third of the year in Hades—winter. For the other two seasons, spring and summer, she returns to earth, and the crops return too.

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axe

Axe

Why did Thomas Hart Benton put chopped wood and an ax in the picture? Hercules tamed the river by defeating Achelous, but there is no reason why the story should symbolize only the taming of rivers. It might stand for all of the ways that people have tamed nature.

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apples

Apples

Apples show up a lot in Greek mythology—usually golden ones. In another adventure, Hercules finds the golden apples of the Hesperides. In another story altogether, the fastest girl in ancient Greece, Atalanta, loses a foot race when she stops to pick up three golden apples.

These apples, like all the other fruits and vegetables, might simply be symbols of plenty.

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overallGraphic herc2 wheat herc achelous dejanira nike nike2 corno herc_hat horse horn guy flowers corn river corn2 wheat2 pumpkin axe apples guy2