In the 19th century Hercules lost his position as a favourite hero of cultural and anthropological foundation myths; in this role was displaced by Prometheus and Odysseus. However, a close look at Cyprian Kamil Norwid’s poems from his lyrics to ‘The Album’ reveals that despite his far-reaching transformation of the mythic history, its fundamental, received senses remain intact. In Norwid’s philosophy of history and anthropology Hercules is both a wanderer who epitomizes the values of the Mediterranean world and the at the same time a character afflicted by modern (ie. 19th-century) anxieties and frustrations.