Thomas Hobbes, the Wars of Religion and the Myth of Gallic Hercules

In Leviathan Thomas Hobbes cites indirectly the Gallic Hercules. This reference to Lucian's myth has been analysed in relation to both the emblematic context of the 16th century and the propagandistic literature published to support Henry IV of France. Otherwise, little attention has been devoted to those authors who were probably familiar to Hobbes. This study aims to focus attention on the works that emerged in the context of the historiography in France from the 16th to the 17th century, in particular, the texts of Jean de Serres and Jacques-Auguste de Thou. These works present a connotation of the figure of the Gallic Hercules that is very similar to that developed later in Leviathan. They thus help us to understand the presence of Lucian's myth in the work of Hobbes.