Chapter XII: Part III: The Heroes (2)

_3. Prœtus and his Daughters._—Acrisius and Prœtus were twin sons of Abas, the son of Lynceus and Hypermnestra. Between these two brothers an implacable hostility existed, which was said by the poets to have commenced even in their mother’s womb. Prœtus received, as his share of the patrimony, the kingdom of Tiryns; but he was subsequently expelled by his brother, and took refuge at the court of Iobates, king of Lycia. Iobates gave him his daughter Antea, or Sthenebœa, in marriage, and afterwards restored him to his kingdom of Tiryns. Prœtus, with the aid of the Lycian workmen whom he had brought with him (Cyclopes), built a strong fortress, which enabled him not only to maintain peaceable possession of Tiryns, but also to extend his dominion as far as Corinth. The legend then passes to the history of his three daughters, the Prœtides, whose pride was so excited by their father’s greatness and their own beauty that they began to think themselves superior to the gods. Their arrogance, however, was soon punished, for they were visited with a foul disease and driven mad. They now fled the society of mankind, and wandered about among the mountains and woods of Argos and Arcadia. At length Prœtus succeeded in procuring the services of the celebrated soothsayer and purifier Melampus, who undertook the purification and cure of his daughters. It was reported of Melampus that serpents had licked his ears whilst asleep, and that he acquired, in consequence, a knowledge of the language of birds. He successfully accomplished the cure of the Prœtides, and received, as a reward, the hand of the princess Iphianassa, in addition to which both he and his brother Bias received a share in the sovereignty of Tiryns. Thus it was that the race of the Amythaonidæ, who all inherited the gift of seeing into futurity, and from whom the celebrated soothsayer Amphiaraüs himself was descended, came to Argos.

_4. Perseus._—Acrisius, the brother of Prœtus, had a daughter called Danaë, whose fortune it was to gain the love of the great ruler of Olympus. Her father, Acrisius, was induced by an oracle, which foretold that he should be killed by his own grandson, to immure Danaë in a subterraneous chamber. Zeus, however, in his love for her, changed himself into a shower of golden rain, and thus introduced himself through the roof of her prison. Thus was the god-like hero Perseus born. There can be no doubt that this myth, too, is founded on the idea of the bridal union of heaven and earth; this is one of the pictures of nature which the mind most readily forms. Danaë represents the country of Argos; her prison is the heaven, enveloped, during the gloomy months of winter, with thick clouds. Her offspring by Zeus represents the light of the sun, which returns in the spring-time and begins, like a veritable hero, its contest with the powers of death and darkness. The Gorgon Medusa has the same significance in the history of Perseus that the hideous Python has in that of Apollo.

The legend then proceeds to relate that Acrisius, having heard of the birth of his grandson, to avert the fate threatened by the oracle, ordered mother and child to be confined in a chest and cast into the sea. But human wisdom avails nought against the inevitable decrees of heaven. The chest was cast by the waves on the rocky island of Seriphus, where it was found by the fisherman Dictys; and Danaë and her child were hospitably received and cared for by Dictys and his brother Polydectes, the ruler of the island. The latter, however, subsequently wished to marry Danaë, and on her rejecting his advances made her a slave. Fearing the vengeance of Perseus, he despatched him, as soon as he was grown up, on a most perilous adventure. This was no other than to bring him the head of the Gorgon Medusa—a terrible winged woman, who dwelt with her two sisters, the daughters of Phorcys and Ceto, on the farthest western shore of the earth, on the border of Oceanus. Perseus set out, though he was in the greatest perplexity how to accomplish so perilous a task. Hermes, however, at this juncture came to his aid; and Athene, the special patroness of heroes, inspired him with courage. These deities first showed him how to procure the necessary means for accomplishing his undertaking, which consisted of an invisible helmet, a magic wallet, and a pair of winged sandals. All these were in the hands of the Nymphs, by whom probably the water-nymphs are meant. The way to their abode he could only learn from the Grææ. These creatures, who were likewise the daughters of Phorcys and Ceto, were reported to have come into the world as old women; their very appearance was appalling, and they had but one eye and one tooth between them, of which they made use in turn. They, too, dwelt on the outskirts of the gloomy region inhabited by the Gorgons, whence they are called by Æschylus their sentinels. Under the guidance of Apollo and Athene, Perseus came to the Grææ. He then robbed them of their one eye and one tooth, and thus forced them to tell him the way to the habitations of the Nymphs. From the latter he at once obtained the objects he sought; and having donned his winged sandals, he hastened to the abode of the Gorgons, whom he fortunately discovered asleep. Athene then pointed out to him Medusa—the other two sisters, Stheno and Euryale, being immortal—and enjoined him to approach them carefully backwards, as the sight of their faces would infallibly turn any mortal into stone. With the help of her mirror-like shield and the sickle of Hermes, Perseus succeeded in cutting off the head of Medusa without looking round; and having placed the head in his wallet, he hastened away. His helmet, which rendered him invisible, enabled him to escape the pursuit of the other Gorgons, who had meanwhile awaked. From the trunk of Medusa sprang the winged horse Pegasus, and Chrysaor, the father of Geryones. On his return to Seriphus, Perseus turned the unrighteous Polydectes into stone by means of the Gorgon’s head, which he then presented to Athene; and after making his benefactor, Dictys, king of the island, he turned his steps towards his native place, Argos. Such are the essential features of the myth—concerning which, in spite of its antiquity, we have no earlier sources of information—such is the original framework on which was afterwards built up the history of the further adventures of the hero. The most celebrated of these was the rescue of Andromeda, which formed the subject of a drama of Euripides, and was also highly popular among artists and poets. The following is a brief account of this exploit:—Cassiopea, the wife of Cepheus, king of Æthiopia, ventured to extol her own beauty above that of the Nereids, who thereupon besought Poseidon to avenge them. He granted their request, and not only overwhelmed the land with disastrous floods, but sent also a terrible sea-monster, which devoured both man and beast. The oracle of Ammon declared that the land could only be saved by the sacrifice of the king’s daughter, Andromeda, to the monster. Cepheus, after some time, yielded to the entreaties of his people, and Andromeda was chained to a rock close to the sea. In this situation she was found by Perseus, on his return from his adventure with the Gorgons. He forthwith attacked and slew the sea-monster, and released the trembling maiden, who soon after married her preserver. Later writers, not satisfied with this adventure, added that Perseus was also obliged to vanquish a rival in Phineus, the king’s brother, to whom Andromeda had been already promised. Phineus, together with his warriors, was changed into stone by means of the Gorgon’s head.

The legend concludes with the return of the hero to Argos, where he was reconciled to his grandfather Acrisius, who had at first fled in terror to Larissa. On the occasion, however, of some games which the people of Larissa had instituted in his honour, Perseus was unfortunate enough to kill Acrisius with his discus, thus involuntarily fulfilling the prophecy of the oracle. In this feature of the story we recognise an unmistakeable reference to the symbolic meaning of Perseus; for the discus here represents, as in the story of the death of Hyacinthus, the face of the sun. Perseus, unwilling to enter on the inheritance of the grandfather he had slain, exchanged the kingdom of Argos for that of Tiryns, which was handed over to him by its king, Megapenthes, the son of Prœtus. He here founded the cities of Midea and Mycenæ, and became, through his children by Andromeda, the ancestor of many heroes, and, among others, of Heracles. His son Electryon became the father of Alcmene, whilst Amphitryon was descended from another of his sons. According to Pausanias, heroic honours were paid to Perseus, not only throughout Argos, but also in Athens and the island of Seriphus.

Perseus occupies a prominent position in Greek art. His common
attributes are the winged sandals, the sickle which he made use of
to slay Medusa, and the helmet of Hades. In bodily form, as well as
in costume, he appears very like Hermes.

Among the art monuments which relate to his adventures is a marble
relief from the Villa Pamfili, now in the Capitoline Museum at Rome,
depicting the rescue of Andromeda. The sea-monster lies dead at the
feet of Perseus, who is assisting the joyful Andromeda to descend
from the rock. The attitude and expression of both figures are very
striking: on the one side, maidenly modesty; on the other, proud
self-reliance. It is worth remarking that Perseus, in addition to
his winged shoes, has also wings on his head. The same conception is
perceptible, with a few minor points of difference, in several
Pompeian paintings, and on a marble relief of the Naples Museum
(Fig. 56). Representations of Medusa are mostly confined to masks,
which are often found on coats of mail, shields, leaves of folding
doors, and instruments of all kinds. There are two types,
representing an earlier and a later conception of Medusa. Earlier
art set itself to depict the horrible only in the head of Medusa;
and artists, therefore, strove to impart to the face as strong an
expression of rage and ferocity as was possible, representing her
with tongue lolling forth, and boar-like tusks. It is worthy of
remark that, in the earlier examples of these masks—which are
frequently met with on coins, gems, and pottery—the hair generally
falls stiff and straight over the forehead, serving to render the
horrible breadth of the face still more striking, while the snakes
appear to be fastened round the neck like a necklace. Very different
is the conception adopted by the later and more sensuous school.
This laboured principally to give expression to the gradual ebbing
away of life in the countenance of the dying Gorgon, an effect which
was rendered still more striking by transforming the hideous Gorgon
face of earlier times into an ideal of the most perfect beauty. The
most splendid example of this later conception, which had been
creeping in since the age of Praxiteles, is to be found in the
Medusa Rondanini of the Munich collection—a marble mask of most
beautiful workmanship, which was brought from the Rondanini Palace
at Rome (Fig. 57). This Medusa, like many others of the later type,
has wings on the head.

=5. The Dioscuri.=—On passing to Laconia and Messenia, the southern districts of the Peloponnesus, we come in contact with the legend of the Dioscuri. Tyndareüs and his brother Icarius were said to have founded the most ancient sovereignty in Lacedæmon. They were driven thence, however, by their half-brother Hippocoön, and were kindly received by Thestius, the ruler of the ancient city of Pleuron in Ætolia, who gave Tyndareüs his daughter Leda in marriage. Icarius received the hand of Polycaste, who bore him Penelope—afterwards the wife of Odysseus; while Leda was the mother of the Dioscuri, Castor and Polydeuces (Pollux). Tyndareüs was afterwards reinstated in his Lacedæmonian kingdom at Amyclæ by Heracles. Besides these two sons, Leda had also two daughters, Clytæmnestra and Helene (Helen), who are celebrated in connection with the Trojan war. An ancient legend also existed to the effect that Leda had been beloved by Zeus, who had approached her under the guise of a swan. The greatest incongruity prevails as to which of the children could claim a divine origin. In Homer, Helen alone is represented as the daughter of Zeus; while Clytæmnestra, together with Castor and Polydeuces, appear as the children of Tyndareüs. At a subsequent period, the name of “Dioscuri” (sons of Zeus) and a belief in their divine origin arose simultaneously. Later still, Castor was represented as a mortal, and the son of Tyndareüs; and Polydeuces as immortal, and the son of Zeus. After Castor, however, had fallen in the contest with the sons of Aphareus, his brother Polydeuces, unwilling to part from him, prevailed on Zeus to allow them to remain together, on condition of their spending one day in Olympus and the next in Hades. They thus led a life divided between mortality and immortality. The following is an account of their heroic deeds:—On attaining manhood, Castor distinguished himself by his skill in the management of horses; whilst Polydeuces became renowned as a skilful boxer, though he too had skill in riding. They first made war on Theseus, who had carried off their sister Helen, then ten years old, and set her free by the conquest of Aphidnæ. They next took part in the expedition of the Argonauts, in which Polydeuces gained still further renown by his victory with the cestus over the celebrated boxer Amycus. They were also present at the Calydonian boar hunt. Their last undertaking was the rape of the daughters of Leucippus, king of Messenia. This was the cause of their combat with their cousins Idas and Lynceus, the sons of Aphareus, to whom the damsels had been betrothed. According to others, however, it sprang from a quarrel as to the division of some booty that they had carried off together. Castor was slain by Idas, whereupon Polydeuces in his wrath slew Lynceus, while Idas himself was overwhelmed by a thunderbolt from Zeus.

The interpretation of this myth is by no means void of difficulty. It is commonly supposed that they were ancient Peloponnesian divinities of light, who, after the Dorian invasion, were degraded to the rank of heroes. They are often interpreted as personifications of the morning and evening star, or of the twilight (dawn and dusk). This view died out after the second deification that they underwent. They were venerated, not only in their native Sparta, but throughout the whole of Greece, as kindly, beneficent deities, whose aid might be invoked either in battle or in the dangers of shipwreck. In this latter character they are lauded by an Homeric hymn, in which they are represented as darting through the air on their golden wings, in order to calm the storm at the prayer of the terror-stricken mariner. It has often been remarked, and with a great appearance of truth, that these Dioscuri flitting about on their golden wings are probably nothing more than what is commonly called St. Elmo’s fire—an electric flame which, is often seen playing round the tops of the masts during a storm, and which is regarded by the sailors as a sign of its speedy abatement; indeed the name Elmo has been supposed a corruption of Helene. In Sparta, the Dioscuri were regarded as the tutelary deities of the state, as well as an example of warlike valour for the youth of the country. Their shrines here were very numerous. Their ancient symbol, which the Spartans always took with them on a campaign, consisted of two parallel beams joined by cross-bars. They had other festivals and temples besides those of Sparta; in Mantinea, for instance, where an eternal fire was kept burning in their honour; also in Athens, where they were venerated under the appellation of Anaces. Their festival was here celebrated with horse-racing. The Olympic games also stood under their special protection, and their images were set up in all the palæstra. They were, in fact, everywhere regarded as extremely benevolent and sociable deities, who foster all that is noble and beautiful among men.

The Dioscuri were believed to have assisted the Romans against the Latins at the Lake Regillus; and the dictator, A. Postumius, vowed a temple to them, which was erected in the Forum, opposite the temple of Vesta. In commemoration of this aid, the Equites made a solemn procession from the temple of Honos, past the temple of the Dioscuri, to the Capitol every year on the Ides of July.

In art the Dioscuri are represented as heroic youths of noble mien
and slim but powerful forms. Their characteristic marks are conical
caps, the points of which are adorned with a star. They generally
appear nude, or clothed only with a light chlamys, and nearly always
in connection with their horses, either riding, standing by and
holding them, or leading them by the bridle. The most celebrated
representation of the Dioscuri that has come down to us from
antiquity consists of the marble statues called the Colossi of Monte
Cavallo, in Rome. These are eighteen feet in height, and the
proportions of the figures, together with those of the horses, are
exquisite. They are set up on the Quirinal, which has received from
them the name of Monte Cavallo. They are not, indeed, original
works, but are probably imitations of bronzes of the most
flourishing period of Greek art, executed in the time of Augustus.

=6. Heracles (Hercules).=—Of all the myths of the countries originally inhabited by the Æolians the myth of Heracles is the most glorious. This hero, though his fame was chiefly disseminated by means of the Dorians, was yet by birth the common property of the Æolian race—their national hero, in fact, just as he afterwards became the national hero of the whole of Greece. No other Greek myth has received so many subsequent additions—not only from native, but also from foreign sources—as this; which is, in consequence, the most extensive and complicated of all Greek myths. We shall, therefore, have to confine ourselves to the consideration of its most characteristic features, and those which are the most important in the history of art.

In Homer, who is here again our most ancient authority, the leading features of the myth are traced—the enmity of Hera towards the hero; his period of subjection to Eurystheus, and the labours by which he emancipated himself (though special mention is made only of his seizure of Cerberus); his expeditions against Pylus, Ephyra, Œchalia, and Troy. The verses in the _Odyssey_ (xi. 602–4), which refer to his deification and subsequent marriage with Hebe, are probably a later insertion. In the _Iliad_, Heracles is spoken of as a great hero of olden time, “whom the Fates and the grievous wrath of Hera subdued.” In Homer, too, he appears as a purely Grecian hero, his warlike undertakings having never yet led him beyond Troy, and his armour differing in no respect from that of other heroes. The description of him in Hesiod’s _Theogony_ and in the _Shield of Heracles_ is somewhat more minute, but is otherwise essentially the same. From what source the deification of Heracles sprang—whether it was due to Phœnician influences or not—has hitherto remained an undetermined question; we only know that it appears as an accomplished fact about 700 B.C.

I. THE BIRTH AND YOUTH OF HERACLES.—This portion of the legend found its chief development in Bœotia. Amphitryon, a son of Alcæus and grandson of Perseus, was compelled to flee from Tiryns with his betrothed Alcmene—likewise a descendant of Perseus by her father Electryon—on account of a murder, and found an asylum at the court of Creon, king of Thebes. From this place he undertook an expedition against the robber tribes of the Teleboæ (Taphians), in consequence of a promise made to Alcmene, whose brother they had slain. After the successful termination of this expedition, the marriage was to have been celebrated at Thebes. But, in the meanwhile, the great ruler of Olympus himself had been smitten with the charms of Alcmene, and, taking the form of the absent Amphitryon, had left her pregnant with Heracles, to whom she afterwards gave birth at the same time with Iphicles, the son of Amphitryon. The sovereignty over all the descendants of Perseus, which Zeus had destined for Heracles, was snatched from him by the crafty jealousy of Hera, who prolonged the pains of Alcmene and hastened the delivery of the wife of Sthenelus, the uncle of Amphitryon, by two months. Not content with having subjected the hero to the will of the weak and cowardly Eurystheus, Hera, according to a subsequent account of the poets, sent two serpents to kill the child when he was about eight months old. Heracles, however, gave the first proof of his divine origin by strangling the serpents with his hands. An account of this scene has descended to us in a beautiful poem of Pindar. In Thebes, the boy grew up and was put under the care of the best preceptors. But, though he excelled in every feat of strength and valour, he made no progress in musical arts, and even slew his master Linus on account of a somewhat harsh reproof which his inaptitude entailed on him. As a punishment, Amphitryon sent him to Mount Cithæron to mind the flocks, a mode of life which Heracles continued until he had completed his eighteenth year. It was to this period that the sophist Prodicus, a contemporary of Socrates, referred his beautiful allegory of the _Choice of Heracles_. After attaining his full growth (according to Apollodorus he was four cubits in height) and strength, the young hero performed his first great feat by killing the lion of Cithæron. Whether it was this skin or that of the Nemean lion which he afterwards used as a garment is not certain. His next act was to free the Thebans from the ignominious tribute which they were compelled to pay to Erginus, king of Orchomenus, by a successful expedition, in which Amphitryon, however, lost his life. Creon, the king of Thebes, in gratitude gave the hero his daughter Megara in marriage, while Iphicles married her sister.

II. HERACLES IN THE SERVICE OF EURYSTHEUS—THE TWELVE LABOURS.—We now come to the second epoch in the life of the hero, in which he performed various labours at the bidding of Eurystheus, king of Mycenæ or Tiryns. The number of these was first fixed at twelve in the Alexandrian age, when Heracles was identified with the Phœnician sun-god, Baal; probably from the analogy afforded in the course of the sun through the twelve signs of the Zodiac. The subjection of Heracles to his unmanly cousin Eurystheus is generally represented as a consequence of the stratagem by which Hera obtained for the latter the sovereignty over all the descendants of Perseus. At a later period Heracles was said to have become insane, in consequence of the summons of Eurystheus to do his bidding. The following is an account of the labours of Heracles:—

_1. The Fight with the Nemean Lion._—The district of Nemea and Cleonæ was inhabited by a monstrous lion, the offspring of Typhon and Echidna, whose skin bade defiance to every weapon. Heracles, after using his arrows and club against the animal in vain, at last drove it into a cave, and there strangled it with his hands. He afterwards used the head of the lion as a helmet, and the impenetrable skin as a defence.

_2. The Lernæan Hydra._—This was a great water-serpent, likewise the offspring of Typhon and Echidna. The number of its heads varies in the accounts of poets, though ancient gems usually represent it with seven. It ravaged the country of Lerna in Argolis, destroying both men and beasts. In this adventure Heracles was accompanied by Iolaüs, the son of his brother Iphicles, who, on this as on other occasions, appears as his faithful companion. After driving the monster from its lair by means of his arrows, he advanced fearlessly, and, seizing it in his hands, began to strike off its heads with his sword. To his amazement, in the place of each head he struck off two sprang up. He then ordered Iolaüs to set on fire a neighbouring wood, and with the firebrands seared the throats of the serpent, until he at length succeeded in slaying it. He then dipped his arrows in its gall, thus rendering the wounds inflicted by them incurable.

_3. The Erymanthian Boar._—This animal inhabited the mountain district of Erymanthus in Arcadia, from which place it wasted the corn-fields of Psophis. Heracles drove the boar up to the snow-covered summit of the mountain, and then caught it alive, as Eurystheus had commanded him. When he arrived at Mycenæ with the terrible beast on his back, Eurystheus was so terrified that he hid himself in a vessel. This comic scene is frequently depicted on vases. It was on this occasion that Heracles destroyed the Centaurs. On the road the hero, hungry and thirsty, was hospitably received by the friendly Centaur Pholus, who holds the same place among the Arcadian Centaurs as Chiron does among those of Thessaly. Pholus broached, in honour of his guest, a cask of wine lying in his cave, which was the common property of all the Centaurs. The fragrance of the wine attracted the other Centaurs living on Mount Pholoë, and they immediately attacked the tippling hero with pieces of rock and trunks of trees. Heracles, however, drove them back with arrows and firebrands, and completely vanquished them after a terrible fight. On returning to the cave of Pholus, he found his friend dead. He had drawn an arrow out of a dead body to examine it, but accidentally let it fall on his foot, from the wound of which he died.

_4. The Hind of Cerynea._—This animal, which was sacred to the Arcadian Artemis, had golden horns and brazen hoofs, the latter being a symbol of its untiring fleetness. Heracles was commanded to bring it alive to Mycenæ, and for a whole year he continued to pursue it over hill and dale with untiring energy. At length it returned to Arcadia, where he succeeded in capturing it on the banks of the Ladon, and bore it in triumph to Mycenæ.

_5. The Stymphalian Birds._—These voracious birds, which fed on human flesh, had brazen claws, wings, and beaks, and were able to shoot out their feathers like arrows. They inhabited the district round Lake Stymphalis in Arcadia. Heracles slew some, and so terrified the rest by means of his brazen rattle that they never returned. This latter circumstance is apparently an addition of later times, to explain their reappearance in the history of the Argonauts.

_6. Cleansing of the Stables of Augeas._—The sixth task of Heracles was to cleanse in one day the stables of Augeas, king of Elis, whose wealth in cattle had become proverbial. Heracles repaired to Elis, where he offered to cleanse the stables, in which were three thousand oxen, if the king would consent to give him a tenth part of the cattle. Augeas agreed to do so; Heracles then turned the course of the Peneus or the Alpheus, or, according to some, of both rivers, through the stalls, and thus carried off the filth. Augeas, however, on learning that Heracles had undertaken the labour at the command of Eurystheus, refused to give him the stipulated reward, a breach of faith for which Heracles, later, took terrible vengeance on the king.

_7. The Cretan Bull._—In the history of Minos, king of Crete, we find that Poseidon once sent up a bull out of the sea for Minos to sacrifice, but that Minos was induced by the beauty of the animal to place it among his own herds, and sacrificed another in its stead; whereupon Poseidon drove the bull mad. The seventh labour of Heracles consisted in capturing this bull and bringing it to Mycenæ. It was afterwards set free by Eurystheus, and appears later, in the story of Theseus, as the bull of Marathon.

_8. The Mares of Diomedes._—Diomedes was king of the Bistones, a warlike tribe of Thrace. He inhumanly caused all strangers cast upon his coasts to be given to his wild mares, who fed on human flesh. To bind these horses and bring them alive to Mycenæ was the next task of Heracles. This, too, he successfully accomplished, after inflicting on Diomedes the same fate to which he had condemned so many others.

_9. The Girdle of Hippolyte._—Admete, the daughter of Eurystheus, was anxious to obtain the girdle which the queen of the Amazons had received from Ares; and Heracles was accordingly despatched to fetch it. After various adventures he landed in Themiscyra, and was at first kindly received by Hippolyte, who was willing to give him the girdle. But Hera, in the guise of an Amazon, spread a report that Heracles was about to carry off the queen, upon which the Amazons attacked Heracles and his followers. In the battle which ensued Hippolyte was killed, and the hero, after securing the girdle, departed. On his journey homewards occurred his celebrated adventure with Hesione, the daughter of Laomedon, king of Troy. This king had refused Poseidon and Apollo the rewards he had promised them for their assistance in building the walls of Troy. In consequence of his perfidy, Apollo visited the country with a pestilence, and Poseidon sent a sea-monster, which devastated the land far and wide. By the advice of the oracle, Hesione, the king’s daughter, was exposed to be devoured by the animal. Heracles offered to destroy the monster, if Laomedon would give him the horses which his father Tros had received as a compensation for the loss of Ganymedes. Laomedon agreed, and Heracles then slew the monster. Laomedon, however, again proved false to his word, and Heracles, with a threat of future vengeance, departed.

_10. The Oxen of Geryones._—The next task of Heracles was to fetch the cattle of the three-headed winged giant Geryones, or Geryoneus (Geryon). This monster was the offspring of Chrysaor (red slayer) and Callirrhoë (fair-flowing), an Oceanid, and inhabited the island of Erythia, in the far West, in the region of the setting sun, where he had a herd of the finest and fattest cattle. It was only natural that Heracles, in the course of his long journey to Erythia and back, should meet with numerous adventures; and this expedition has, accordingly, been more richly embellished than any other by the imagination of the poets. He is generally supposed to have passed through Libya, and to have sailed thence to Erythia in a golden boat, which he forced Helios (the sun) to lend him by shooting at him with his arrows. Having arrived in Erythia, he first slew the herdsman who was minding the oxen, together with his dog. He was then proceeding to drive off the cattle, when he was overtaken by Geryon. A violent contest ensued, in which the three-headed monster was at length vanquished by the arrows of the mighty hero. Heracles is then supposed to have recrossed the ocean in the boat of the sun, and, starting from Tartessus, to have journeyed on foot through Iberia, Gaul, and Italy. We pass over his contests with the Celts and Ligurians, and only notice briefly his victory over the giant Cacus, mentioned by Livy, which took place in the district where Rome was afterwards built, because Roman legend connected with this the introduction of the worship of Hercules into Italy. At length, after many adventures, he arrived at Mycenæ, where Eurystheus sacrificed the oxen to the Argive goddess Hera.

Heracles has now completed ten of his labours, but Eurystheus, as Apollodorus relates, refused to admit the destruction of the Lernæan Hydra, because on that occasion Heracles had availed himself of the help of Iolaüs, or the cleansing of the stables of Augeas, because of the reward for which he had stipulated; so that the hero was compelled to undertake two more. This account does not, however, harmonise with the tradition of the response of the oracle, in deference to which Heracles surrendered himself to servitude, and which offered the prospect of twelve labours from the first.

_11. The Apples of the Hesperides._—This adventure has been even more embellished with later and foreign additions than the last. The golden apples, which were under the guardianship of the Hesperides, or nymphs of the west, constituted the marriage present which Hera had received from Gæa on the occasion of her marriage with Zeus. They were closely guarded by the terrible dragon Ladon, who, like all monsters, was the offspring of Typhon and Echidna. This, however, was far less embarrassing to the hero than his total ignorance of the site of the garden of the Hesperides, which led him to make several fruitless efforts before he succeeded in reaching the desired spot.

His first object was to gain information as to the situation of the garden, and for this purpose he journeyed through Illyria to the Eridanus (Po), in order to inquire the way of the nymphs who dwelt on this river. By them he was referred to the treacherous sage Nereus, whom he managed to seize whilst asleep, and refused to release until he had obtained the desired information. Heracles then proceeded by way of Tartessus to Libya, where he was challenged to a wrestling match by the giant Antæus, a powerful son of Earth, who was, according to Libyan tradition, of a monstrous height (some say sixty cubits). He was attacked by Heracles, but, as he received new strength from his mother Earth as often as he touched the ground, the hero lifted him up in the air and squeezed him to death in his arms.

From Libya Heracles passed into Egypt, where the cruel king Busiris was in the habit of seizing all strangers who entered the country and sacrificing them to Zeus. Heracles would have suffered a similar fate, had he not broken the chains laid upon him, and slain the king and his son. His indulgence at the richly-furnished table of the king was a feature in the story which afforded no small amusement to the comic writers, who were especially fond of jesting on the subject of the healthy and heroic appetite of Heracles. From Egypt the hero made his way into Æthiopia, where he slew Emathion, the son of Tithonus and Eos, for his cruelty to strangers. He next crossed the sea to India, and thence came to the Caucasus, where he set Prometheus free and destroyed the vulture that preyed on his liver. After Prometheus had described to him the long road to the Hesperides, he passed through Scythia, and came at length to the land of the Hyperboreans, where Atlas bore the pillars of heaven on his shoulders. This was the end of his journey, for Atlas, at his request, fetched the apples, whilst Heracles supported the heavens. Here again the comic poets introduced an amusing scene. Atlas, having once tasted the delights of freedom, betrayed no anxiety to relieve his substitute, but offered, instead, to bear the apples himself to Eurystheus. Heracles, however, proved even more cunning than he, for, apparently agreeing to the proposition, he asked Atlas just to relieve him until he had arranged more comfortably a cushion for his back. When Atlas good-humouredly consented, Heracles of course left him in his former position, and made off with the apples. Another account states that he descended himself into the garden and slew the hundred-headed dragon who kept guard over the trees.

_12. Cerberus._—The most daring of all the feats of Heracles, and that which bears the palm from all the others, and is in consequence, always put at the end of his labours, was the bringing of Cerberus from the lower world. In this undertaking, which is mentioned even by Homer, he was accompanied by Hermes and Athene, though he had hitherto been able to dispense with divine aid. He is commonly reported to have made his descent into the lower world at Cape Tænarum in Laconia. Close to the gates of Hades he found the adventurous heroes Theseus and Pirithoüs, who had gone down to carry off Persephone, fastened to a rock. He succeeded in setting Theseus free, but Pirithoüs he was obliged to leave behind him, because of the violent earthquake which occurred when he attempted to touch him. After several further adventures, he entered the presence of the lord of the lower world. Hades consented to his taking Cerberus, on condition that he should master him without using any weapons. Heracles seized the furious beast, and, having chained him, he brought him to Eurystheus, and afterwards carried him back to his place in the lower world. The completion of this task released Heracles from his servitude to Eurystheus.

III. DEEDS OF HERACLES AFTER HIS SERVICE.—_1. The Murder of Iphitus and Contest with Apollo._—The hero, after his release from servitude, returned to Thebes, where he gave his wife Megara in marriage to Iolaüs. He then proceeded to the court of Eurytus, king of Œchalia, who had promised his beautiful daughter Iole in marriage to the man who should vanquish himself and his sons in shooting with the bow. The situation of Œchalia is variously given; sometimes it is placed in Thessaly, sometimes in the Peloponnesus, on the borders of Arcadia and Messenia, and sometimes in the island of Eubœa, close to Eretria. Heracles gained a most complete victory; but Eurytus, nevertheless, refused to give him his daughter, reproaching him with the murder of his children by Megara, and with his ignominious bondage to Eurystheus. Heracles, with many threats of future vengeance, withdrew, and when, not long afterwards, Iphitus, the son of Eurytus, fell into his hands, he cast him from the highest tower of his citadel in Tiryns. This somewhat treacherous action being at variance with the general character of the hero, the story subsequently arose that Iphitus was a friend of Heracles, and had advocated his cause with Eurytus, and that Heracles only treated him thus in a fit of insanity. The bloody deed was fraught with the gravest consequences. After seeking purification and absolution in vain among men, Heracles came to Delphi, in order to seek the aid and consolation of the oracle. But Apollo, with whom the royal family of Œchalia stood in high favour, rejected him; whereupon Heracles forced his way into the temple, and was already in the act of bearing away the holy tripod, in order to erect an oracle of his own, when he was confronted by the angry deity. A fearful combat would doubtless have ensued, if the father of gods and men himself had not interfered to prevent this unnatural strife between his favourite sons by separating the combatants with his lightning. Heracles was now commanded by the Pythian priestess to allow himself to be sold by Hermes into slavery for three years, to expiate the murder of Iphitus.

_2. Heracles in the Service of Omphale._—This portion of the story is of Lydian origin, but was cleverly interwoven with the Greek legend. The Lydians, in fact, honoured a sun-hero called Sandon, who resembled Heracles in many respects, as the ancestor of their kings. The oriental character of the Lydian Heracles at once manifests itself in the fact that he here appears as entirely devoted to sensual pleasures, becoming effeminate in the society of women, and allowing himself to be clothed in female attire, whilst his mistress Omphale donned his lion-skin and club, and flaunted up and down before him. He did not always linger in such inactivity, however; sometimes the old desire for action urged him forth to gallant deeds. Thus he vanquished and chastised the Cercopes, a race of goblins who used to trick and waylay travellers. He also slew Syleus, who compelled all passing travellers to dig in his vineyard; which formed the subject of a satyric drama of Euripides.

_3. His Expedition against Troy._—After performing several other feats in the service of Omphale, Heracles again became free. He now appears to have undertaken an expedition against the faithless Laomedon, king of Troy, in company with other Greek heroes, such as Peleus, Telamon, and Oïcles, whose number increased as time went on. The city was taken by storm: Oïcles, indeed, was slain, but, on the other hand, Laomedon and all his sons except Podarces fell before the arrows of Heracles. Hesione, the daughter of the king, was given by Heracles to his friend Telamon, and became by him the mother of Teucer. She received permission from Heracles to release one of the prisoners, and chose her brother Podarces, who afterwards bore the name of Priamus (the redeemed), and continued the race of Dardanus in Ilium.

_4. The Peloponnesian Expeditions of Heracles._—The legend relates that the hero now undertook his long-deferred expedition against Augeas, which was the means of kindling a Messenian and Lacedæmonian war. After assembling an army in Arcadia, which was joined by many gallant Greek heroes, he advanced against Elis. Heracles, however, fell sick; and in his absence his army was attacked and driven back with great loss by the brave Actoridæ or Molionidæ, the nephews of Augeas. It was only after Heracles had slain these heroes in an ambuscade at Cleonæ, as they were on their way to the Isthmian games, that he succeeded in penetrating into Elis. He then slew Augeas, and gave the kingdom to his son Phyleus, with whom he was on friendly terms. It was on this occasion that he instituted the Olympic games. He then marched against Pylus, either because its king, Neleus, had given assistance to the Molionidæ, or else because Neleus had refused to purify him from the murder of Iphitus. This expedition against Pylus was subsequently greatly embellished by the poets, who made it into a great battle of the gods, one part of whom fought for Neleus, and the other part for Heracles. The chief feature was the combat between Heracles and Periclymenus, the bravest of the sons of Neleus, who had received from Poseidon, the tutelary deity of the Pylians, the power of transforming himself into any kind of animal. The result of the combat was of course a complete victory for Heracles. Neleus, with his eleven gallant sons, was slain, and only the youngest, Nestor, remained to perpetuate the celebrated race. The Lacedæmonian expedition of Heracles, which follows close on that against Pylus, was undertaken against Hippocoön, the half-brother of Tyndareüs, whom he had expelled. Hippocoön was defeated and slain by Heracles, who gave his kingdom to Tyndareüs. On this occasion Heracles was assisted by Cepheus, king of Tegea, with his twenty sons, a circumstance which is only mentioned on account of a remarkable legend connected with his stay in Tegea. Heracles is here said to have left Auge, the beautiful sister of Cepheus, and priestess of Athene, pregnant with Telephus, whose wondrous adventures have occupied artists and poets alike. Auge concealed her child in the grove of Athene, whereupon the angry goddess visited the land with a famine. Aleüs, the father of Auge, on discovering the fact, caused the child to be exposed, and sold the mother beyond the sea. Auge thus came into Mysia, where the king Teuthras made her his wife. Telephus was suckled by a hind. He grew up, and ultimately, after some wonderful adventures, succeeded in finding his mother. He succeeded Teuthras, and, later, became embroiled with the Greeks when they landed on their expedition against Troy, on which occasion he was wounded by Achilles. Telephus, among all the sons of Heracles, is said to have borne the greatest resemblance to his father.

_5. Acheloüs, Nessus, Cycnus._—The next episode in the history of the hero is his wooing of Deïanira, the daughter of Œneus, king of Ætolia. Œneus is celebrated as the first cultivator of the vine in that country, and as the father of the Ætolian heroes, Meleager and Tydeus. The river-god Acheloüs was also a suitor for the hand of Deïanira, and as neither he nor Heracles would relinquish their claim, it was decided by the combat between the rivals[8] so often described by the poets. The power of assuming various forms was of little use to Acheloüs, for, having finally transformed himself into a bull, he was deprived of a horn by Heracles, and compelled to declare himself vanquished. Heracles restored him his horn, and received in exchange that of the goat Amalthea. After his marriage with Deïanira, Heracles lived for some time happily at the court of his father-in-law, where his son Hyllus was born. In consequence of an accidental murder, he was obliged to leave Ætolia and retire to the court of his friend Ceÿx, king of Trachis, at the foot of Mount Œta. On the road occurred his celebrated adventure with the Centaur Nessus. On coming to the river Evenus, Heracles entrusted Deïanira to Nessus to carry across, whilst he himself waded through the swollen stream. The Centaur, induced by the beauty of his burden, attempted to carry off Deïanira, but was pierced by an arrow of Heracles, and expiated his attempt with his life. He avenged himself by giving Deïanira some of his blood to make a magic salve, with which he assured her she could always secure the love of her husband.

Footnote 8:

The most beautiful description exists in a chorus in the _Trachiniæ_
of Sophocles, and in Ovid’s _Metamorphoses_.

On reaching Trachis they were hospitably received by Ceÿx. Heracles first defeated the Dryopes, and assisted the Dorian king Ægimius in his contest with the Lapithæ. He next engaged in his celebrated combat with Cycnus, the son of Ares, which took place at Iton, in the neighbourhood of the Gulf of Pagasæ. Heracles not only slew his opponent, but even wounded the god of war himself, who had come to the assistance of his son. This contest is the subject of the celebrated poem called the _Shield of Hercules_, which goes under the name of Hesiod.

IV. DEATH AND APOTHEOSIS.—The death of Heracles, of which we learn most from the masterly description of Sophocles in the _Trachiniæ_, is generally supposed to have been connected with his expedition against Eurytus. The hero, who could not forget the ignominious treatment he had received at the hands of Eurytus, now marched with an army from Trachis against Œchalia. The town and citadel were taken by storm, and Eurytus and his sons slain; whilst the beautiful Iole, who was still unmarried, fell into the hands of the conqueror. Heracles now withdrew with great booty, but halted on the promontory of Cenæum, opposite the Locrian coast, to raise an altar and offer a solemn sacrifice of thanksgiving to his father Zeus. Deïanira, who was tormented with jealous misgivings concerning Iole, thought it was now high time to make use of the charm of Nessus. She accordingly sent her husband a white sacrificial garment, which she anointed with the ointment prepared from the blood of the Centaur. Heracles donned the garment without suspicion, but scarcely had the flames from the altar heated the poison than it penetrated the body of the unhappy hero. In the most fearful agony he strove to tear off the garment, but in vain, for it stuck like a plaster to his skin; and where he succeeded in rending it away by force, it tore out great pieces of his flesh at the same time. In his frenzy he seized the herald Lichas, the bearer of the unfortunate present, and violently dashed him in pieces against a rock of the sea. In this state Heracles was brought to Trachis, where he found that Deïanira, full of sorrow and despair on learning the consequences of her act, had put an end to her own life. Convinced that cure was hopeless, the dying hero proceeded from Trachis to Œta, and there erected a funeral pile on which to end his torments. None of those around him, however, would consent to set the pile on fire, until Pœas, the father of Philoctetes, happened to pass by, and rendered him the service, in return for which Heracles presented him with his bow and arrows. As the flames rose high, a cloud descended from heaven, and, amid furious peals of thunder, a chariot with four horses, driven by Athene, appeared and bore the illustrious hero to Olympus, where he was joyfully received by the gods. He here became reconciled to Hera, who gave him the hand of her beauteous daughter Hebe in marriage.

V. HERACLES AS GOD.—We have already laid before our readers the most characteristic features of the myth. To interpret it and trace it back in all its details to the original sources would be, amid the mass of provincial and foreign legends with which it is amalgamated, almost impossible. Thus much is certain, however, that, apart from the conceptions which were engrafted on the story from Tyrian and Egyptian sources, even in the case of the Greek Heracles, myths based on natural phenomena are mixed up with historical and allegorical myths. The historic element, for instance, is apparent in the wars of Heracles against the Dryopes—against Augeas, Neleus, and Hippocoön. Here the exploits of the whole Dorian race are personified in the actions of the hero. On the other hand, in most of his single combats a symbolic meaning, derived from natural phenomena, is unmistakeable. Heracles, in fact, appears to have been, originally, a symbol of the power of the sun triumphing over the dark powers in nature. Driven from Argos by the worship of the Argive Hera, he first sank to the level of a hero, but was, subsequently, again raised to the dignity of a god. This occurred at a time when the gods of Greece had altogether cast aside their physical meaning; so that he was now regarded principally from an ethical point of view. He appears as a symbol of that lofty force of character which triumphs over all difficulties and obstacles. Poets and philosophers alike vied with each other in presenting him to the youth of their country in this character, pointing to his career as a brilliant example of what a man might accomplish, in spite of a thousand obstacles, by mere determination and force of will. The well-known allegory of the sophist Prodicus,[9] called “The Choice of Hercules,” is an instance of the mode in which the history of the hero was used to inculcate moral precepts.

Footnote 9:

Prodicus, a native of the island of Ceos, was an elder contemporary of
Socrates. Like the latter, he taught in Athens, and met with a similar
fate, having been condemned to death as an enemy of the popular
religion and a corruptor of the Athenian youth.

In the religious system of the Greeks, Heracles was specially honoured as the patron of the gymnasia; the gymnasium of Cynosarges in Athens being solely dedicated to him. After his deification, Heracles was also regarded in the character of a saviour and benefactor of his nation; as one who had not only merited the lasting gratitude of mankind by his deeds throughout an active and laborious life—in having rid the world of giants and noxious beasts, in having extinguished destructive forces of nature, and abolished human sacrifices and other barbarous institutions of antiquity—but also as a kindly and beneficent deity, ever ready to afford help and protection to mankind in the hour of need. In this character he was known by the names of Soter (Saviour) and Alexicacus (averter of evil). He had temples and festivals in various parts of Greece. In Marathon, which boasted of being the first seat of his worship, games were celebrated in his honour every four years, at which silver cups were given as prizes. The fourth day of every month was held sacred to him, this day being regarded as his birthday.

We have already mentioned the legendary introduction of his worship into Rome.[10] Hercules, as he was called in Italy, was identified with the Italian hero Recaranus. He had an altar in the _Forum Boarium_, established, according to tradition, by Evander. The Roman poets, of course, devoted especial attention to the stories of his journey through Italy, and his fight with Cacus.

Footnote 10:

There seems ground for thinking that the Italian Hercules was properly
a rural deity confounded with Heracles on account of the similarity of
their names; while Recaranus properly corresponded with the great
Heracles in meaning.