Her″cu‐les (?), n. 1. (Gr. Myth.) A hero, fabled to have been the son of Jupiter and Alcmena, and celebrated for great strength, esp. for the accomplishment of his twelve great tasks or “labors.”
2. (Astron.) A constellation in the northern hemisphere, near Lyra.
Hercules' beetle(Zoöl.), any species of Dynastes, an American genus of very large lamellicorn beetles, esp. D. hercules of South America, which grows to a length of six inches. — Hercules' club. (Bot.) (a) An ornamental tree of the West Indies (Zanthoxylum Clava-Herculis), of the same genus with the prickly ash. (b) A variety of the common gourd (Lagenaria vulgaris). Its fruit sometimes exceeds five feet in length. (c) The Angelica tree. See under Angelica. — Hercules powder, an explosive containing nitroglycerin; — used for blasting.