As an archetype Barbarians are amusing, because everything about them (even the Conan flicks) are basically a rehash on the Labors of Hercules.

That's where the wearing of the skins and the animal stuff comes from for that iconography. So Herakles has to deal with the Hind, the Lion, the Boar, the Bull, the Birds, the Hydra, the Mare, the 3 headed hound, Hippolyta's girdle etc. and a bunch of plants for that apple to appease Hera.

It's coming staight out of the Greek there, via Roman proxy, which makes the choice of the word "Barbarian" a bit of an inside joke right?

For the berzerk visualization that's mostly on Frazetta and Kaluta and Jones, or was for me. It's a nice mashup though heheh

Ps. For this one I think it's better not to dig too terribly deep, because if we seek a source in the Greek that's just another mashup construct too. Since it was a later invention anyway, for a catch-all. Ancient Greeks didn't call themselves Greeks, they were Hellenes (or any of the random catalog riffs like we get in Homer... Argives and such.) So the previously civilized civilization becomes the outsiders' outskirt when the script gets flipped. Even a first gen Argonaut like Herakles was an import initially. Bacchus did the same thing right, with those lion skins, just like Richard Burton at the end of Cleopatra? Almost bringing down the studio and whole house of cards there. But not quite! Cause we get new cards, like the Frazetta ones! "Hercules Barbarian" could probably be a sub-class of the Barbarian cross-class Warrior/Rogue archetype. Keep the big ball of chaos and confusion rolling along! I don't think anyone's stopping it now hehe

[Linked Image from i.ibb.co]

Last edited by Black_Elk; 05/10/23 12:38 AM.