I
HERACLES was
the son of Zeus, but he was born into the family of a mortal king.
When he was still a youth, being overwhelmed by a madness sent upon
him by one of the goddesses, he slew the children of his brother
Iphicles. Then, coming to know what he had done, sleep and rest
went from him: he went to Delphi, to the shrine of Apollo, to be
purified of his crime.
At Delphi, at
the shrine of Apollo, the priestess purified him, [pg 224] and when she had purified
him she uttered this prophecy: “From this
day forth thy name shall be, not Alcides, but Heracles. Thou shalt
go to Eurystheus, thy cousin, in Mycenæ, and serve him in all
things. When the labors he shall lay upon thee are accomplished,
and when the rest of thy life is lived out, thou shalt become one
of the immortals.” Heracles, on hearing these words, set out
for Mycenæ.
He stood before
his cousin who hated him; he, a towering man, stood before a king
who sat there weak and trembling. And Heracles said, “I have come to take up the labors that you will lay
upon me; speak now, Eurystheus, and tell me what you would have me
do.”
Eurystheus,
that weak king, looking on the young man who stood as tall and as
firm as one of the immortals, had a heart that was filled with
hatred. He lifted up his head and he said with a frown:
“There is a lion in Nemea that is stronger and more
fierce than any lion known before. Kill that lion, and bring the
lion’s skin to me that I may know that you have truly performed
your task.” So Eurystheus said, and Heracles, with neither
shield nor arms, went forth from the king’s palace to seek and to
combat the dread lion of Nemea.
He went on
until he came into a country where the fences were overthrown and
the fields wasted and the houses empty and fallen. He went on until
he came to the waste around that land: there he came on the trail
of the lion; it led up the side [pg 225] of a mountain, and Heracles, without
shield or arms, followed the trail.
He heard the
roar of the lion. Looking up he saw the beast standing at the mouth
of a cavern, huge and dark against the sunset. The lion roared
three times, and then it went within the cavern.
Around the
mouth were strewn the bones of creatures it had killed and carried
there. Heracles looked upon them when he came to the cavern. He
went within. Far into the cavern he went, and then he came to where
he saw the lion. It was sleeping.
Heracles viewed
the terrible bulk of the lion, and then he looked upon his own
knotted hands and arms. He remembered that it was told of him that,
while still a child of eight months, he had strangled a great
serpent that had come to his cradle to devour him. He had grown and
his strength had grown too.
So he stood,
measuring his strength and the size of the lion. The breath from
its mouth and nostrils came heavily to him as the beast slept,
gorged with its prey. Then the lion yawned. Heracles sprang on it
and put his great hands upon its throat. No growl came out of its
mouth, but the great eyes blazed while the terrible paws tore at
Heracles. Against the rock Heracles held the beast; strongly he
held it, choking it through the skin that was almost impenetrable.
Terribly the lion struggled; but the strong hands of the hero held
around its throat until it struggled no more. [pg 226]
Then Heracles
stripped off that impenetrable skin from the lion’s body; he put it
upon himself for a cloak. Then, as he went through the forest, he
pulled up a young oak tree and trimmed it and made a club for
himself. With the lion’s skin over him—that skin that no spear or
arrow could pierce—and carrying the club in his hand he journeyed
on until he came to the palace of King Eurystheus.
The king,
seeing coming toward him a towering man all covered with the hide
of a monstrous lion, ran and hid himself in a great jar. He lifted
the lid up to ask the servants what was the meaning of this
terrible appearance. And the servants told him that it was Heracles
come back with the skin of the lion of Nemea. On hearing this
Eurystheus hid himself again.
He would not
speak with Heracles nor have him come near him, so fearful was he.
But Heracles was content to be left alone. He sat down in the
palace and feasted himself.
The servants
came to the king; Eurystheus lifted the lid of the jar and they
told him how Heracles was feasting and devouring all the goods in
the palace. The king flew into a rage, but still he was fearful of
having the hero before him. He issued commands through his heralds
ordering Heracles to go forth at once and perform the second of his
tasks.
It was to slay
the great water snake that made its lair in the swamps of Lerna.
Heracles stayed to feast another day, and then, with the lion’s
skin across his shoulders and the great [pg 227] club in his hands, he started off. But
this time he did not go alone; the boy Iolaus went with him.
Heracles and
Iolaus went on until they came to the vast swamp of Lerna. Right in
the middle of the swamp was the water snake that was called the
Hydra. Nine heads it had, and it raised them up out of the water as
the hero and his companion came near. They could not cross the
swamp to come to the monster, for man or beast would sink and be
lost in it.
The Hydra
remained in the middle of the swamp belching mud at the hero and
his companion. Then Heracles took up his bow and he shot flaming
arrows at its heads. It grew into such a rage that it came through
the swamp to attack him. Heracles swung his club. As the Hydra came
near he knocked head after head off its body.
But for every
head knocked off two grew upon the Hydra. And as he struggled with
the monster a huge crab came out of the swamp, and gripping
Heracles by the foot tried to draw him in. Then Heracles cried out.
The boy Iolaus came; he killed the crab that had come to the
Hydra’s aid.
Then Heracles
laid hands upon the Hydra and drew it out of the swamp. With his
club he knocked off a head and he had Iolaus put fire to where it
had been, so that two heads might not grow in that place. The life
of the Hydra was in its middle head; that head he had not been able
to knock off with his club. Now, with his hands he tore it off, and
he placed [pg 228]
this head under a great stone so that it could not rise into life
again. The Hydra’s life was now destroyed. Heracles dipped his
arrows into the gall of the monster, making his arrows deadly; no
thing that was struck by these arrows afterward could keep its
life.
Again he came
to Eurystheus’s palace, and Eurystheus, seeing him, ran again and
hid himself in the jar. Heracles ordered the servants to tell the
king that he had returned and that the second labor was
accomplished.
Eurystheus,
hearing from the servants that Heracles was mild in his ways, came
out of the jar. Insolently he spoke. “Twelve labors you have to accomplish for me,”
said he to Heracles, “and eleven yet remain
to be accomplished.”
“How?” said Heracles. “Have I not performed two of the labors? Have I not
slain the lion of Nemea and the great water snake of
Lerna?”
“In the killing of the water snake you were helped by
Iolaus,” said the king, snapping out his words and looking
at Heracles with shifting eyes. “That labor
cannot be allowed you.”
Heracles would
have struck him to the ground. But then he remembered that the
crime that he had committed in his madness would have to be
expiated by labors performed at the order of this man. He looked
full upon Eurystheus and he said, “Tell me
of the other labors, and I will go forth from Mycenæ and accomplish
them.”
Then Eurystheus
bade him go and make clean the stables of [pg 229] King Augeias. Heracles came into that
king’s country. The smell from the stables was felt for miles
around. Countless herds of cattle and goats had been in the stables
for years, and because of the uncleanness and the smell that came
from it the crops were withered all around. Heracles told the king
that he would clean the stables if he were given one tenth of the
cattle and the goats for a reward.
The king agreed
to this reward. Then Heracles drove the cattle and the goats out of
the stables; he broke through the foundations and he made channels
for the two rivers Alpheus and Peneius. The waters flowed through
the stables, and in a day all the uncleanness was washed away. Then
Heracles turned the rivers back into their own courses.
He was not
given the reward he had bargained for, however.
He went back to
Mycenæ with the tale of how he had cleaned the stables.
“Ten labors remain for me to do
now,” he said.
“Eleven,” said Eurystheus. “How can I allow the cleaning of King Augeias’s stables
to you when you bargained for a reward for doing it?”
Then while
Heracles stood still, holding himself back from striking him,
Eurystheus ran away and hid himself in the jar. Through his heralds
he sent word to Heracles, telling him what the other labors would
be.
He was to clear
the marshes of Stymphalus of the man-eating birds that gathered
there; he was to capture and bring [pg 230] to the king the golden-horned deer of
Coryneia; he was also to capture and bring alive to Mycenæ the boar
of Erymanthus.
Heracles came
to the marshes of Stymphalus. The growth of jungle was so dense
that he could not cut his way through to where the man-eating birds
were; they sat upon low bushes within the jungle, gorging
themselves upon the flesh they had carried there.
For days
Heracles tried to hack his way through. He could not get to where
the birds were. Then, thinking he might not be able to accomplish
this labor, he sat upon the ground in despair.
It was then
that one of the immortals appeared to him; for the first and only
time he was given help from the gods.
It was Athena
who came to him. She stood apart from Heracles, holding in her
hands brazen cymbals. These she clashed together. At the sound of
this clashing the Stymphalean birds rose up from the low bushes
behind the jungle. Heracles shot at them with those unerring arrows
of his. The man-eating birds fell, one after the other, into the
marsh.
Then Heracles
went north to where the Coryneian deer took her pasture. So swift
of foot was she that no hound nor hunter had ever been able to
overtake her. For the whole of a year Heracles kept Golden Horns in
chase, and at last, on the side of the Mountain Artemision, he
caught her. Artemis, the goddess of the wild things, would have
punished Heracles for capturing the deer, but the hero pleaded with
her, and she relented and agreed to let him bring the deer to
Mycenæ and show her [pg
231] to King Eurystheus. And Artemis took charge of Golden
Horns while Heracles went off to capture the Erymanthean boar.
He came to the
city of Psophis, the inhabitants of which were in deadly fear
because of the ravages of the boar. Heracles made his way up the
mountain to hunt it. Now on this mountain a band of centaurs lived,
and they, knowing him since the time he had been fostered by
Chiron, welcomed Heracles. One of them, Pholus, took Heracles to
the great house where the centaurs had their wine stored.
Seldom did the
centaurs drink wine; a draft of it made them wild, and so they
stored it away, leaving it in the charge of one of their band.
Heracles begged Pholus to give him a draft of wine; after he had
begged again and again the centaur opened one of his great
jars.
Heracles drank
wine and spilled it. Then the centaurs that were without smelt the
wine and came hammering at the door, demanding the drafts that
would make them wild. Heracles came forth to drive them away. They
attacked him. Then he shot at them with his unerring arrows and he
drove them away. Up the mountain and away to far rivers the
centaurs raced, pursued by Heracles with his bow.
One was slain,
Pholus, the centaur who had entertained him. By accident Heracles
dropped a poisoned arrow on his foot. He took the body of Pholus up
to the top of the mountain and buried the centaur there. Afterward,
on the snows of Erymanthus, he set a snare for the boar and caught
him there. [pg
232]
Upon his
shoulders he carried the boar to Mycenæ and he led the deer by her
golden horns. When Eurystheus had looked upon them the boar was
slain, but the deer was loosed and she fled back to the Mountain
Artemision.
King Eurystheus
sat hidden in the great jar, and he thought of more terrible labors
he would make Heracles engage in. Now he would send him oversea and
make him strive with fierce tribes and more dread monsters. When he
had it all thought out he had Heracles brought before him and he
told him of these other labors.
He was to go to
savage Thrace and there destroy the man-eating horses of King
Diomedes; afterward he was to go amongst the dread women, the
Amazons, daughters of Ares, the god of war, and take from their
queen, Hippolyte, the girdle that Ares had given her; then he was
to go to Crete and take from the keeping of King Minos the
beautiful bull that Poseidon had given him; afterward he was to go
to the Island of Erytheia and take away from Geryoneus, the monster
that had three bodies instead of one, the herd of red cattle that
the two-headed hound Orthus kept guard over; then he was to go to
the Garden of the Hesperides, and from that garden he was to take
the golden apples that Zeus had given to Hera for a marriage
gift—where the Garden of the Hesperides was no mortal knew.
So Heracles set
out on a long and perilous quest. First he went to Thrace, that
savage land that was ruled over by Diomedes, son of Ares, the war
god. Heracles broke into the [pg 233] stable where the horses were; he caught
three of them by their heads, and although they kicked and bit and
trampled he forced them out of the stable and down to the seashore,
where his companion, Abderus, waited for him. The screams of the
fierce horses were heard by the men of Thrace, and they, with their
king, came after Heracles. He left the horses in charge of Abderus
while he fought the Thracians and their savage king. Heracles shot
his deadly arrows amongst them, and then he fought with their king.
He drove them from the seashore, and then he came back to where he
had left Abderus with the fierce horses.
They had thrown
Abderus upon the ground, and they were trampling upon him. Heracles
drew his bow and he shot the horses with the unerring arrows that
were dipped with the gall of the Hydra he had slain. Screaming, the
horses of King Diomedes raced toward the sea, but one fell and
another fell, and then, as it came to the line of the foam, the
third of the fierce horses fell. They were all slain with the
unerring arrows.
Then Heracles
took up the body of his companion and he buried it with proper
rights, and over it he raised a column. Afterward, around that
column a city that bore the name of Heracles’s friend was
built.
Then toward the
Euxine Sea he went. There, where the River Themiscyra flows into
the sea he saw the abodes of the Amazons. And upon the rocks and
the steep place he saw the warrior women standing with drawn bows
in their hands. Most dangerous [pg 234] did they seem to Heracles. He did not
know how to approach them; he might shoot at them with his unerring
arrows, but when his arrows were all shot away, the Amazons, from
their steep places, might be able to kill him with the arrows from
their bows.
While he stood
at a distance, wondering what he might do, a horn was sounded and
an Amazon mounted upon a white stallion rode toward him. When the
warrior-woman came near she cried out, “Heracles, the Queen Hippolyte permits you to come
amongst the Amazons. Enter her tent and declare to the queen what
has brought you amongst the never-conquered Amazons.”
Heracles came
to the tent of the queen. There stood tall Hippolyte with an iron
crown upon her head and with a beautiful girdle of bronze and
iridescent glass around her waist. Proud and fierce as a mountain
eagle looked the queen of the Amazons: Heracles did not know in
what way he might conquer her. Outside the tent the Amazons stood;
they struck their shields with their spears, keeping up a
continuous savage din.
“For what has Heracles come to the country of the
Amazons?” Queen Hippolyte asked.
“For the girdle you wear,” said Heracles, and he
held his hands ready for the struggle.
“Is it for the girdle given me by Ares, the god of war,
that you have come, braving the Amazons, Heracles?” asked
the queen. [pg
235]
“For that,” said Heracles.
“I would not have you enter into strife with the
Amazons,” said Queen Hippolyte. And so saying she drew off
the girdle of bronze and iridescent glass, and she gave it into his
hands.
Heracles took
the beautiful girdle into his hands. Fearful he was that some piece
of guile was being played upon him, but then he looked into the
open eyes of the queen and he saw that she meant no guile. He took
the girdle and he put it around his great brows; then he thanked
Hippolyte and he went from the tent. He saw the Amazons standing on
the rocks and the steep places with bows bent; unchallenged he went
on, and he came to his ship and he sailed away from that country
with one more labor accomplished.
The labor that
followed was not dangerous. He sailed over sea and he came to
Crete, to the land that King Minos ruled over. And there he found,
grazing in a special pasture, the bull that Poseidon had given King
Minos. He laid his hands upon the bull’s horns and he struggled
with him and he overthrew him. Then he drove the bull down to the
seashore.
His next labor
was to take away the herd of red cattle that was owned by the
monster Geryoneus. In the Island of Erytheia, in the middle of the
Stream of Ocean, lived the monster, his herd guarded by the
two-headed hound Orthus—that hound was the brother of Cerberus, the
three-headed hound that kept guard in the Underworld.
Mounted upon
the bull given Minos by Poseidon, Heracles [pg 236] fared across the sea. He came even to
the straits that divide Europe from Africa, and there he set up two
pillars as a memorial of his journey—the Pillars of Heracles that
stand to this day. He and the bull rested there. Beyond him
stretched the Stream of Ocean; the Island of Erytheia was there,
but Heracles thought that the bull would not be able to bear him so
far.
And there the
sun beat upon him, and drew all strength away from him, and he was
dazed and dazzled by the rays of the sun. He shouted out against
the sun, and in his anger he wanted to strive against the sun. Then
he drew his bow and shot arrows upward. Far, far out of sight the
arrows of Heracles went. And the sun god, Helios, was filled with
admiration for Heracles, the man who would attempt the impossible
by shooting arrows at him; then did Helios fling down to Heracles
his great golden cup.
Down, and into
the Stream of Ocean fell the great golden cup of Helios. It floated
there wide enough to hold all the men who might be in a ship.
Heracles put the bull of Minos into the cup of Helios, and the cup
bore them away, toward the west, and across the Stream of
Ocean.
Thus Heracles
came to the Island of Erytheia. All over the island straggled the
red cattle of Geryoneus, grazing upon the rich pastures. Heracles,
leaving the bull of Minos in the cup, went upon the island; he made
a club for himself out of a tree and he went toward the cattle.
The hound
Orthus bayed and ran toward him; the two-headed [pg 237] hound that was the
brother of Cerberus sprang at Heracles with poisonous foam upon his
jaws. Heracles swung his club and struck the two heads off the
hound. And where the foam of the hound’s jaws dropped down a
poisonous plant sprang up. Heracles took up the body of the hound,
and swung it around and flung it far out into the Ocean.
Then the
monster Geryoneus came upon him. Three bodies he had instead of
one; he attacked Heracles by hurling great stones at him. Heracles
was hurt by the stones. And then the monster beheld the cup of
Helios, and he began to hurl stones at the golden thing, and it
seemed that he might sink it in the sea, and leave Heracles without
a way of getting from the island. Heracles took up his bow and he
shot arrow after arrow at the monster, and he left him dead in the
deep grass of the pastures.
Then he rounded
up the red cattle, the bulls and the cows, and he drove them down
to the shore and into the golden cup of Helios where the bull of
Minos stayed. Then back across the Stream of Ocean the cup floated,
and the bull of Crete and the cattle of Geryoneus were brought past
Sicily and through the straits called the Hellespont. To Thrace,
that savage land, they came. Then Heracles took the cattle out, and
the cup of Helios sank in the sea. Through the wild lands of Thrace
he drove the herd of Geryoneus and the bull of Minos, and he came
into Mycenæ once more.
But he did not
stay to speak with Eurystheus. He started off to find the Garden of
the Hesperides, the Daughters of the [pg 238] Evening Land. Long did he search, but he
found no one who could tell him where the garden was. And at last
he went to Chiron on the Mountain Pelion, and Chiron told Heracles
what journey he would have to make to come to the Hesperides, the
Daughters of the Evening Land.
Far did
Heracles journey; weary he was when he came to where Atlas stood,
bearing the sky upon his weary shoulders. As he came near he felt
an undreamt-of perfume being wafted toward him. So weary was he
with his journey and all his toils that he would fain sink down and
dream away in that evening land. But he roused himself, and he
journeyed on toward where the perfume came from. Over that place a
star seemed always about to rise.
He came to
where a silver lattice fenced a garden that was full of the quiet
of evening. Golden bees hummed through the air, and there was the
sound of quiet waters. How wild and laborious was the world he had
come from, Heracles thought! He felt that it would be hard for him
to return to that world.
He saw three
maidens. They stood with wreaths upon their heads and blossoming
branches in their hands. When the maidens saw him they came toward
him crying out: “O man who has come into
the Garden of the Hesperides, go not near the tree that the
sleepless dragon guards!” Then they went and stood by a tree
as if to keep guard over it. All around were trees that bore
flowers and fruit, but this tree had golden apples amongst its
bright green leaves. [pg
239]
Then he saw the
guardian of the tree. Beside its trunk a dragon lay, and as
Heracles came near the dragon showed its glittering scales and its
deadly claws.
The apples were
within reach, but the dragon, with its glittering scales and claws,
stood in the way. Heracles shot an arrow; then a tremor went
through Ladon, the sleepless dragon; it screamed and then lay
stark. The maidens cried in their grief; Heracles went to the tree,
and he plucked the golden apples and he put them into the pouch he
carried. Down on the ground sank the Hesperides, the Daughters of
the Evening Land, and he heard their laments as he went from the
enchanted garden they had guarded.
Back from the
ends of the earth came Heracles, back from the place where Atlas
stood holding the sky upon his weary shoulders. He went back
through Asia and Libya and Egypt, and he came again to Mycenæ and
to the palace of Eurystheus.
He brought to
the king the herd of Geryoneus; he brought to the king the bull of
Minos; he brought to the king the girdle of Hippolyte; he brought
to the king the golden apples of the Hesperides. And King
Eurystheus, with his thin white face, sat upon his royal throne and
he looked over all the wonderful things that the hero had brought
him. Not pleased was Eurystheus; rather was he angry that one he
hated could win such wonderful things.
He took into
his hands the golden apples of the Hesperides. But this fruit was
not for such as he. An eagle snatched the [pg 240] branch from his hand, and the eagle
flew and flew until it came to where the Daughters of the Evening
Land wept in their garden. There the eagle let fall the branch with
the golden apples, and the maidens set it back upon the tree, and
behold! it grew as it had been growing before Heracles plucked
it.
The next day
the heralds of Eurystheus came to Heracles and they told him of the
last labor that he would have to set out to accomplish—this time he
would have to go down into the Underworld, and bring up from King
Aidoneus’s realm Cerberus, the three-headed hound.
Heracles put
upon him the impenetrable lion’s skin and set forth once more. This
might indeed be the last of his life’s labors: Cerberus was not an
earthly monster, and he who would struggle with Cerberus in the
Underworld would have the gods of the dead against him.
But Heracles
went on. He journeyed to the cave Tainaron, which was an entrance
to the Underworld. Far into that dismal cave he went, and then
down, down, until he came to Acheron, that dim river that has
beyond it only the people of the dead. Cerberus bayed at him from
the place where the dead cross the river. Knowing that he was no
shade, the hound sprang at Heracles, but he could neither bite nor
tear through that impenetrable lion’s skin. Heracles held him by
the neck of his middle head so that Cerberus was neither able to
bite nor tear nor bellow.
Then to the
brink of Acheron came Persephone, queen of the [pg 241] Underworld. She declared
to Heracles that the gods of the dead would not strive against him
if he promised to bring Cerberus back to the Underworld, carrying
the hound downward again as he carried him upward.
This Heracles
promised. He turned around and he carried Cerberus, his hands
around the monster’s neck while foam dripped from his jaws. He
carried him on and upward toward the world of men. Out through a
cave that was in the land of Trœzen Heracles came, still carrying
Cerberus by the neck of his middle head.
From Trœzen to
Mycenæ the hero went and men fled before him at the sight of the
monster that he carried. On he went toward the king’s palace.
Eurystheus was seated outside his palace that day, looking at the
great jar that he had often hidden in, and thinking to himself that
Heracles would never appear to affright him again. Then Heracles
appeared. He called to Eurystheus, and when the king looked up he
held the hound toward him. The three heads grinned at Eurystheus;
he gave a cry and scrambled into the jar. But before his feet
touched the bottom of it Eurystheus was dead of fear. The jar
rolled over, and Heracles looked upon the body that was all twisted
with fright. Then he turned around and made his way back to the
Underworld. On the brink of Acheron he loosed Cerberus, and the
bellow of the three-headed hound was heard again.
II
It was then
that Heracles was given arms by the gods—the sword of Hermes, the
bow of Apollo, the shield made by Hephæstus; it was then that
Heracles joined the Argonauts and journeyed with them to the edge
of the Caucasus, where, slaying the vulture that preyed upon
Prometheus’s liver, he, at the will of Zeus, liberated the Titan.
Thereafter Zeus and Prometheus were reconciled, and Zeus, that
neither might forget how much the enmity between them had cost gods
and men, had a ring made for Prometheus to wear; that ring was made
out of the fetter that had been upon him, and in it was set a
fragment of the rock that the Titan had been bound to.
The Argonauts
had now won back to Greece. But before he saw any of them he had
been in Oichalia, and had seen the maiden Iole.
The king of
Oichalia had offered his daughter Iole in marriage to the hero who
could excel himself and his sons in shooting with arrows. Heracles
saw Iole, the blue-eyed and childlike maiden, and he longed to take
her with him to some place near the Garden of the Hesperides. And
Iole looked on him, and he knew that she wondered to see him so
tall and so strongly knit even as he wondered to see her so
childlike and delicate.
Then the
contest began. The king and his sons shot wonderfully well, and
none of the heroes who stood before Heracles had a chance of
winning. Then Heracles shot his arrows. [pg 243] No matter how far away they moved the
mark, Heracles struck it and struck the very center of it. The
people wondered who this great archer might be. And then a name was
guessed at and went around—Heracles!
When the king
heard the name of Heracles he would not let him strive in the
contest any more. For the maiden Iole would not be given as a prize
to one who had been mad and whose madness might afflict him again.
So the king said, speaking in judgment in the market place.
Rage came on
Heracles when he heard this judgment given. He would not let his
rage master him lest the madness that was spoken of should come
with his rage. So he left the city of Oichalia declaring to the
king and the people that he would return.
It was then
that, wandering down to Crete, he heard of the Argonauts being
near. And afterward he heard of them being in Calydon, hunting the
boar that ravaged Œneus’s country. To Calydon Heracles went. The
heroes had departed when he came into the country, and all the city
was in grief for the deaths of Prince Meleagrus and his two
uncles.
On the steps of
the temple where Meleagrus and his uncles had been brought Heracles
saw Deianira, Meleagrus’s sister. She was pale with her grief, this
tall woman of the mountains; she looked like a priestess, but also
like a woman who could cheer camps of men with her counsel, her
bravery, and her good companionship; her hair was very dark and she
had dark eyes. [pg
244]
Straightway she
became friends with Heracles; and when they saw each other for a
while they loved each other. And Heracles forgot Iole, the
childlike maiden whom he had seen in Oichalia.
He made himself
a suitor for Deianira, and those who protected her were glad of
Heracles’s suit, and they told him they would give him the maiden
to marry as soon as the mourning for Prince Meleagrus and his
uncles was over. Heracles stayed in Calydon, happy with Deianira,
who had so much beauty, wisdom, and bravery.
But then a
dreadful thing happened in Calydon; by an accident, while using his
strength unthinkingly, Heracles killed a lad who was related to
Deianira. He might not marry her now until he had taken punishment
for slaying one who was close to her in blood.
As a punishment
for the slaying it was judged that Heracles should be sold into
slavery for three years. At the end of his three years’ slavery he
could come back to Calydon and wed Deianira.
And so Heracles
and Deianira were parted. He was sold as a slave in Lydia; the one
who bought him was a woman, a widow named Omphale. To her house
Heracles went, carrying his armor and wearing his lion’s skin. And
Omphale laughed to see this tall man dressed in a lion’s skin
coming to her house to do a servant’s tasks for her.
She and all in
her house kept up fun with Heracles. They [pg 245] would set him to do housework, to
carry water, and set vessels on the tables, and clear the vessels
away. Omphale set him to spin with a spindle as the women did. And
often she would put on Heracles’s lion skin and go about dragging
his club, while he, dressed in woman’s garb, washed dishes and
emptied pots.
But he would
lose patience with these servant’s tasks, and then Omphale would
let him go away and perform some great exploit. Often he went on
long journeys and stayed away for long times. It was while he was
in slavery to Omphale that he liberated Theseus from the dungeon in
which he was held with Peirithous, and it was while he still was in
slavery that he made his journey to Troy.
At Troy he
helped to repair for King Laomedon the great walls that years
before Apollo and Poseidon had built around the city. As a reward
for this labor he was offered the Princess Hesione in marriage; she
was the daughter of King Laomedon, and the sister of Priam, who was
then called, not Priam but Podarces. He helped to repair the wall,
and two of the Argonauts were there to aid him: one was Peleus and
the other was Telamon. Peleus did not stay for long: Telamon
stayed, and to reward Telamon Heracles withdrew his own claim for
the hand of the Princess Hesione. It was not hard on Heracles to do
this, for his thoughts were ever upon Deianira.
But Telamon
rejoiced, for he loved Hesione greatly. On the day they married
Heracles showed the two an eagle in the sky. [pg 246] He said it was sent as an
omen to them—an omen for their marriage. And in memory of that omen
Telamon named his son “Aias”; that
is, “Eagle.”
Then the walls
of Troy were repaired and Heracles turned toward Lydia, Omphale’s
home. Not long would he have to serve Omphale now, for his three
years’ slavery was nearly over. Soon he would go back to Calydon
and wed Deianira.
As he went
along the road to Lydia he thought of all the pleasantries that had
been made in Omphale’s house and he laughed at the memory of them.
Lydia was a friendly country, and even though he had been in
slavery Heracles had had his good times there.
He was tired
with the journey and made sleepy with the heat of the sun, and when
he came within sight of Omphale’s house he lay down by the side of
the road, first taking off his armor, and laying aside his bow, his
quiver, and his shield. He wakened up to see two men looking down
upon him; he knew that these were the Cercopes, robbers who waylaid
travelers upon this road. They were laughing as they looked down on
him, and Heracles saw that they held his arms and his armor in
their hands.
They thought
that this man, for all his tallness, would yield to them when he
saw that they had his arms and his armor. But Heracles sprang up,
and he caught one by the waist and the other by the neck, and he
turned them upside down and tied them together by the heels. Now he
held them securely [pg
247] and he would take them to the town and give them over
to those whom they had waylaid and robbed. He hung them by their
heels across his shoulders and marched on.
But the
robbers, as they were being bumped along, began to relate
pleasantries and mirthful tales to each other, and Heracles,
listening, had to laugh. And one said to the other, “O my brother, we are in the position of the frogs when
the mice fell upon them with such fury.” And the other said,
“Indeed nothing can save us if Zeus does
not send an ally to us as he sent an ally to the frogs.” And
the first robber said, “Who began that
conflict, the frogs or the mice?” And thereupon the second
robber, his head reaching down to Heracles’s waist, began:
