FOUNDING OF BARCELONA IN GREEK MYTHOLOGY

There might not seem an immediate link between the Spanish city of Barcelona and Greek mythology, but a founding myth for the Catalonian city does indeed link in with the Greek hero Heracles. 

Barcelona in Greek Mythology

​It has to be said that the link between Heracles and Barcelona is not one established in antiquity, but was first written about in the 13th century, and is normally attributed to the bishop and historian Rodrigo Jimenez de Rada.
 
Many cities around the Mediterranean have founding myths linking back to Heracles, or heroes of the Trojan War, and for Barcelona, it was a more poetic story than potentially being established as a settlement for retired Roman soldiers. 

The FOunding of Barcelona

In the 13th Century the myth was that linked to Heracles’ Labour of Geryon’s Cattle. Heracles came to the land that would become Andalusia with a small fleet of ships, a fleet that originally consisted of nine ships, but only eight arrived at Erytheia (Cadiz)
 
Geryon, and his army, was successfully defeated by Heracles and the cattle gathered together; and having taken time out to found the city of Seville (Hispasia), Heracles then set out to locate the missing ship.
 
Heracles would locate the wreckage of his missing ship off of the Catalonian coastline, the crew though had survived, and so Heracles and his men built a new city on the overlooking hill, the Montjuïc hill, and named it Barca Nona, the Ninth Ship. (Although the name Barcelona  is thought to come from the Iberian word Barkeno)
 
Later writers would alter the story slightly, to link it in with events linked to the city of Troy, and so instead of occurring during the Labour of the Cattle of Geryon, the fleet of ships was gathered to take Troy, when Heracles demanded retribution upon ​King Laomedon.  

Heracles and the Pyrenees

At the same time as founding Barcelona, Heracles was also credited with founding the municipality of Vic, and also the Pyrenees.

The Pyrenees were said to have been named after Pyrene, the daughter of King Bebrycius. Pyrene was said to have become a lover of Heracles in Barcelona, but the child born to Pyrene turned out to be a serpent, and in fear Pyrene fled into the nearby woods, where she was eaten by wild animals. Heracles decided to create a magnificent tomb for Pyrene, piling rock upon rock, until the Pyrenees were formed. 

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