Herakles, above, was sculpted from automobile bumpers by Jason Seley '40, a long-time professor of fine arts. Many of Seley's abstract sculptures, now part of the Johnson Museum's collections, decorate the campus.

In 2000, the statue got a makeover from Williamstown Art Conservation Center conservators who repaired a hole in one foot and polished the metal.

Heavy foot traffic near the statue makes Herakles a familiar sight to most Cornellians. Many seniors attend the hotel school's Introduction to Wines in the Statler's auditorium, and the shortest path from the ILR complex to the Campus Store runs past Herakles.