"Even here, in this region of wonders, I find
That light-footed Fancy leaves Truth far behind,
Or at least, like Hippomenes, turns her astray
By the golden illusions he flings in her way."
Chapter XIX: Hercules - Hebe And Ganymede
Hercules.
Hercules was the son of Jupiter and Alcmena. As Juno was always hostile to the
offspring of her husband by mortal mothers, she declared war against Hercules from
his birth. She sent two serpents to destroy him as he lay in his cradle, but the
precocious infant strangled them with his own hands. He was however by the arts of
Juno rendered subject to Eurystheus and compelled to perform all his commands.
Eurystheus enjoined upon him a succession of desperate adventures, which are called
the twelve "Labors of Hercules." The first was the fight with the Nemean lion. The
valley of Nemea was infested by a terrible lion. Eurystheus ordered Hercules to bring
him the skin of this monster. After using in vain his club and arrows against the lion,
Hercules strangled the animal with his hands. He returned carrying the dead lion on
his shoulders; but Eurystheus was so frightened at the sight of it and at this proof of
the prodigious strength of the hero, that he ordered him to deliver the account of his
exploits in future outside the town.
His next labor was the slaughter of the Hydra. This monster ravaged the country
of Argos, and dwelt in a swamp near the well of Amymone. This well had been
discovered by Amymone when the country was suffering from drought, and the story
was, that Neptune, who loved her, had permitted her to touch the rock with his trident,
and a spring of three outlets burst forth. Here the Hydra took up his position, and
Hercules was sent to destroy him. The Hydra had nine heads, of which the middle one
was immortal. Hercules struck off its heads with his club, but in the place of the head
knocked off, two new ones grew forth each time. At length with the assistance of his
faithful servant Iolaus, he burned away the heads of the Hydra, and buried the ninth or
immortal one under a huge rock.
Another labor was the cleaning of the Augean stables. Augeas, king of Elis, had
a herd of three thousand oxen, whose stalls had not been cleansed for thirty years.
Hercules brought the rivers Alpheus and Peneus through them, and cleansed them
thoroughly in one day.
His next labor was of a more delicate kind. Admeta, the daughter of Eurystheus,
longed to obtain the girdle of the queen of the Amazons, and Eurystheus ordered
Hercules to go and get it. The Amazons were a nation of women. They were very
warlike and held several flourishing cities. It was their custom to bring up only the
female children; the boys were either sent away to the neighboring nations or put to
death. Hercules was accompanied by a number of volunteers, and after various
adventures at last reached the country of the Amazons. Hippolyta, the queen,
received him kindly, and consented to yield him her girdle, but Juno, taking the form of
an Amazon, went and persuaded the rest that the strangers were carrying off their
queen. They instantly armed and came in great numbers down to the ship. Hercules,
thinking that Hippolyta had acted treacherously, slew her, and taking her girdle made
sail homewards.
Another task enjoined him was to bring to Eurystheus the oxen of Geryon, a
monster with three bodies, who dwelt in the island Erytheia, (the red,) so called
because it lay at the west, under the rays of the setting sun. This description is
thought to apply to Spain, of which Geryon was king. After traversing various
countries, Hercules reached at length the frontiers of Libya and Europe, where he
raised the two mountains of Calpe and Abyla, as monuments of his progress, or
according to another account rent one mountain into two and left half on each side,
forming the Straits of Gibraltar, the two mountains being called the Pillars of Hercules.
The oxen were guarded by the giant Eurytion and his two-headed dog, but Hercules
killed the giant and his dog and brought away the oxen in safety to Eurystheus.
The most difficult labor of all was getting the golden apples of the Hesperides, for
Hercules did not know where to find them. These were the apples which Juno had
received at her wedding from the goddess of the Earth, and which she had intrusted to
the keeping of the daughters of Hesperides, assisted by a watchful dragon. After
various adventures Hercules arrived at Mount Atlas in Africa. Atlas was one of the
Titans who had warred against the gods, and after they were subdued, Atlas was
condemned to bear on his shoulders the weight of the heavens. He was the father of
the Hesperides, and Hercules thought, might, if any one could, find the apples and
bring them to him. But how to send Atlas away from his post, or bear up the heavens
while he was gone? Hercules took the burden on his own shoulders, and sent Atlas to
seek the apples. He returned with them, and though somewhat reluctantly, took his
burden upon his shoulders again, and let Hercules return with the apples to
Eurystheus.
Milton in his Comus makes the Hesperides the daughters of Hesperus, and
nieces of Atlas: -
" - amidst the gardens fair
Of Hesperus and his daughters three,
That sing about the golden tree.
The poets, led by the analogy of the lovely appearance of the western sky at
sunset, viewed the west as a region of brightness and glory. Hence they placed in it the
Isles of the blest, the ruddy isle Erytheia, on which the bright oxen of Geryon were
pastured, and the isle of the Hesperides. The apples are supposed by some to be the
oranges of Spain, of which the Greeks had heard some obscure accounts.
A celebrated exploit of Hercules was his victory over Antaeus. Antaeus, the son
of Terra, the Earth, was a mighty giant and wrestler, whose strength was invincible so
long as he remained in contact with his mother Earth. He compelled all strangers who
came to his country to wrestle with him, on condition that if conquered (as they all were)
they should be put to death. Hercules encountered him, and finding that it was of no
avail to throw him, for he always rose with renewed strength from every fall, he lifted him
up from the earth and strangled him in the air.
Cacus was a huge giant, who inhabited a cave on Mount Aventine, and
plundered the surrounding country. When Hercules was driving home the oxen of
Geryon, Cacus stole part of the cattle, while the hero slept. That their foot-prints might
not serve to show where they had been driven, he dragged them backward by their tails
to his cave; so their tracks all seemed to show that they had gone in the opposite
direction. Hercules was deceived by this stratagem, and would have failed to find his
oxen, if it had not happened that in driving the remainder of the herd past the cave
where the stolen ones were concealed those within began to low, and were thus
discovered. Cacus was slain by Hercules.
The last exploit we shall record was bringing Cerberus from the lower world.
Hercules descended into Hades, accompanied by Mercury and Minerva. He obtained
permission from Pluto to carry Cerberus to the upper air provided he could do
it without
the use of weapons; and in spite of the monster's struggling, he seized him, held him
fast, and carried him to Eurystheus, and afterwards brought him back again. When he
was in Hades he obtained the liberty of Theseus, his admirer and imitator, who had been
detained a prisoner there for an unsuccessful attempt to marry off Proserpine.
Hercules in a fit of madness killed his friend Iphitus and was condemned for this
offence to become the slave of Queen Omphale for three years. While in this service
the hero's nature seemed changed. He lived effeminately wearing at times the dress of
a woman, and spinning wool with the hand- maidens of Omphale, while the queen wore
his lion's skin. When this service was ended he married Dejanira and lived in peace with
her three years. On one occasion as he was travelling with his wife, they came to a
river, across which the Centaur Nessus carried travellers for a stated fee. Hercules
himself forded the river, but gave Dejanira to Nessus to be carried across. Nessus
attempted to run away with her, but Hercules heard her cries, and shot an arrow into the
heart of Nessus. The dying Centaur told Dejanira to take a portion of his blood and keep
it, as might be used as a charm to preserve the love of her husband.
Dejanira did so, and before long fancied she had occasion to use it. Hercules in
one of his conquests had taken prisoner a fair maiden, named Iole, of whom he seemed
more fond than Dejanira approved. When Hercules was about to offer sacrifices to the
gods in honor of his victory he sent to his wife for a white robe to use on the occasion.
Dejanira, thinking it a good opportunity to try her lovespell, steeped the garment in the
blood of Nessus. We are to suppose she took care to wash out all traces of it, but the
magic power remained, and as soon as the garment became warm on the body of
Hercules, the poison penetrated into all his limbs and caused him the most intense
agony. In his frenzy he seized Lichas, who had brought him the fatal robe, and hurled
him into the sea. He wrenched off the garment, but it stuck to his flesh, and with it he
tore away whole pieces of his body. In this state he embarked on board a ship and was
conveyed home. Dejanira on seeing what she had unwittingly done, hung herself.
Hercules, prepared to die, ascended Mount Ceta, where he built a funeral pile of trees,
gave his bow and arrows to Philoctetes, and laid himself down on the pile, his head
resting on his club, and his lion's skin spread over him. With a countenance as serene
as if he were taking his place at a festal board, he commanded Philoctetes to apply the
torch. The flames spread apace and soon invested the whole mass.
Milton thus alludes to the frenzy of Hercules: -
"As when Alcides, ^* from Cechalia crowned
With conquest, felt the envenomed robe, and tore,
Through pain, up by the roots Thessalian pines
And Lichas from the top of Ceta threw
Into the Euboic Sea."
[Footnote *: Alcides, a name of Hercules.]
The gods themselves felt troubled at seeing the champion of the earth so brought
to his end. But Jupiter with cheerful countenance thus addressed them: "I am pleased to
see your concern, my princes, and am gratified to perceive that I am the ruler of a loyal
people, and that my son enjoys your favor. For although your interest your interest in
him arises from his noble deeds, yet it is not the less gratifying to me. But now I say to
you, Fear not. He who conquered all else is not to be conquered by those flames which
you see blazing on Mount CEta. Only his mother's share in him can perish; what he
derived from me is immortal. I shall take him, dead to earth, to the heavenly shores, and
I require of you all to receive him kindly. If any of you feel grieved at his attaining this
honor, yet no one can deny that he has deserved it." The gods all gave their assent;
Juno only heard the closing words with some displeasure that she should be so
particularly pointed at, yet not enough to make her regret the determination of her
husband. So when the flames had consumed the mother's share of Hercules, the
diviner part, instead of being injured thereby, seemed to start forth with new vigor, to
assume a more lofty port and a more awful dignity. Jupiter enveloped him in a cloud,
and took him up in a four-horse chariot to dwell among the stars. As he took his place in
heaven, Atlas felt the added weight.
Juno, now reconciled to him, gave him her daughter Hebe in marriage.
The poet Schiller, in one of his pieces called the Ideal and Life, illustrates the
contrast between the practical and the imaginative in some beautiful stanzas, of which
the last two may be thus translated: -
"Deep degraded to a coward's slave,
Endless contests bore Alcides brave,
Through the thorny path of suffering led;
Slew the Hydra, crushed the lion's might,
Threw himself, to bring his friend to light,
Living, in the skiff that bears the dead.
All the torments, every toil of earth
Juno's hatred on him could impose,
Well he bore them, from his fated birth
To life's grandly mournful close.
"Till the god, the earthly part forsaken,
From the man in flames asunder taken,
Drank the heavenly ether's purer breath.
Joyous in the new unwonted lightness,
Soared he upwards to celestial brightness,
Earth's dark heavy burden lost in death.
High Olympus gives harmonious greeting
To the hall where reigns his sire adored;
Youth's bright goddess, with a blush at meeting,
Gives the nectar to her lord." S. G. B.
Hebe And Ganymede.
Hebe, the daughter of Juno, and goddess of youth, was cup-bearer to the gods.
The usual story is, that she resigned her office on becoming the wife of Hercules. But
there is another statement which our countryman Crawford, the sculptor, has adopted in
his group of Hebe and Ganymede, now in the Athenaeum gallery. According to this,
Hebe was dismissed from her office in consequence of a fall which she met with one day
when in attendance on the gods. Her successor was Ganymede, a Trojan boy whom
Jupiter, in the disguise of an eagle, seized and carried off from the midst of his
playfellows on Mount Ida, bore up to heaven, and installed in the vacant place.
Tennyson, in his Palace of Art, describes among the decorations on the walls, a
picture representing this legend: -
"There, too, flushed Ganymede, his rosy thigh
Half buried in the eagle's down,
Sole as a flying star shot through the sky
Above the pillared town."
And in Shelley's Prometheus, Jupiter calls to his cupbearer thus: -
"Pour forth heaven's wine, Idaean Ganymede,
And let it fill the Daedal cups like fire."
The beautiful legend of the Choice of Hercules may be found in the Tatler, No.
97.
Chapter XX: Theseus - Daedalus - Castor And Pollux
Theseus.
Theseus was the son of Aegeus, king of Athens, and of Aethra, daughter of the
king of Troezen. He was brought up at Troezen, and when arrived at manhood, was to
proceed to Athens and present himself to his father. Aegeus, on parting from Aethra,
before the
birth of his son, placed his sword and shoes under a large stone, and
directed her to send his son to him when he became strong enough to roll away the
stone and take them from under it. When she thought the time had come, his mother
led Theseus to the stone, and he removed it with ease, and took the sword and shoes.
As the roads were infested with robbers, his grandfather pressed him earnestly to take
the shorter and safer way to his father's country, by sea; but the youth, feeling in
himself the spirit and the soul of a hero, and eager to signalize himself like Hercules,
with whose fame all Greece then rang, by destroying the evildoers and monsters that
oppressed the country, determined on the more perilous and adventurous journey by
land.
His first day's journey brought him to Epidaurus, where dwelt a man named
Periphetes, a son of Vulcan. This ferocious savage always went armed with a club of
iron, and all travellers stood in terror of his violence. When he saw Theseus approach,
he assailed him, but speedily fell beneath the blows of the young hero, who took
possession of his club, and bore it ever afterwards as a memorial of his first victory.
Several similar contests with the petty tyrants and marauders of the country
followed, in all of which Theseus was victorious. One of these evil-doers was called
Procrustes, or the Stretcher. He had an iron bedstead, on which he used to tie all
travellers who fell into his hands. If they were shorter than the bed, he stretched their
limbs to make them fit it; if they were longer than the bed, he lopped off a portion.
Theseus served him as he had served others.
Having overcome all the perils of the road, Theseus at length reached Athens,
where new dangers awaited him. Medea, the sorceress, who had fled from Corinth
after her separation from Jason, had become the wife of Aegeus, the father of
Age of Fable or Beauties of Mythology Page 19