Treasury of Greek Mythology

by Donna Jo Napoli

  Heracles engaged in a fight with the centaur Nessus

  On his way home, Heracles came across heralds from King Erginus of the Minyans. They were going to Thebes to collect an annual tribute of a hundred cattle as settlement for a past dispute. The men made the mistake of disparaging Thebes, Heracles’ birthplace. In a rage, Heracles cut off their ears, noses, and hands. When Erginus responded with war on Thebes, Heracles led the Theban army to victory.

  By now word had gotten around not to make the mistake of crossing Heracles. But bloodshed still lay ahead. The king of Thebes wed his daughter Megara to Heracles. They had three sons. Hera’s jealousy boiled again. She afflicted Heracles with a sudden madness. He threw his sons and two nephews into a fire. When the madness passed, Heracles was horrified; self-loathing filled him. In self-imposed exile, he fled to the temple at Delphi.

  The Delphic oracle told him to go to Tiryns, one of three Mycenaean cities, where the king would give him a list of ten labors. Once he had done these, his sins would be forgiven and he would be immortal. What Heracles didn’t know was that King Eurystheus was guided by Hera.

  Heracles’ first labor was to kill the Nemean lion that terrorized the countryside. Heracles’ arrows bounced off the beast. So Heracles chased it with raised club into a cave, where he strangled it. Then he carried the pelt back to Mycenae. Eurystheus gaped at this proof of the incomparable strength and fearlessness of Heracles. After that he wouldn’t allow Heracles into the city but gave all orders from afar.

  The second labor was to kill the Lernaean Hydra, a swamp monster with nine heads, of which the center one was immortal. Heracles wrestled the Hydra to the ground. Each time he struck a head off with his club, two new heads sprouted. Worse, the Hydra called a colossal crab to come bite Heracles’ foot. Heracles crushed the crab and called upon his nephew Iolaos for help. Iolaos brought a burning firebrand. Now when Heracles cut off a head, he quickly seared the neck so nothing could grow from it. Finally, he cut off the last head and buried it under a boulder. Then he dipped his arrows into the bitter bile inside the Hydra’s liver to make them poisonous. King Eurystheus shook his head at the news. Because Heracles had been aided by his nephew this labor didn’t count. He’d have to do an eleventh!

  Heracles’ second labor on his road to purification was to slay the Hydra, whose nine heads came at him simultaneously. Each time he sliced off a head, another two grew.

  The third labor was to capture the Cerynitian hind, an elegant doe with golden horns loved by the goddess Artemis. Heracles chased the hind for a year before he wounded it lightly as it crossed a stream, then carried it to Mycenae alive. The fourth labor was to capture the Erymanthian boar, which Heracles did by chasing it into deep snow and noosing it. The fifth labor was to clean out the dung from the stables of the cattle of Augeias in one day. Heracles did it, but demanded pay from Augeias. King Eurystheus again refused to count this labor since it had been done for pay. So now Heracles had to do a twelfth! The sixth labor was to drive away the Stymphalian birds, which people feared would attract wolves. Heracles frightened the flock with castanets, then shot them with arrows as they flew away. The seventh labor was to fetch the famous wild bull of Crete, which he promptly did. The eighth labor was to bring back the man-eating mares of King Diomedes in Thrace. Heracles had to fight Diomedes’ army and kill the king first, but he succeeded.

  The ninth labor was to fetch the belt of Hippolyte, the queen of the Amazons, the tenth to fetch the cattle of Geryon from Erytheia, the eleventh to fetch golden apples from the tree guarded by the Hesperides nymphs, and the twelfth to fetch the dog Cerberus from Hades. To Heracles each labor of fetching seemed more difficult than the last, and in fact, it was, because the goddess Hera put obstacles in his way. Heracles had to fight centaurs—unruly creatures, man from the chest up, but horses below—kill a sea monster about to devour a young woman, kill robbers, wrestle with all manner of other challengers. But he never lagged.

  Heracles’ labors made him battle strange, vicious creatures. Perhaps the most terrifying was Cerberus, the three-headed hound who guarded the entrance to the Underworld and kept those imprisoned there from escaping.

  Finally, Heracles’ spirit was pure, but only for a short time. Heracles passed his life getting caught up in situations where his anger made him violent and then repenting at length.

  He married again—Deianeira, daughter of the king of Calydon. They traveled to a dangerous river. Heracles crossed on his own. But he paid the centaur Nessus to ferry his wife across. Nessus hated Heracles, for he had been among the centaurs that Heracles fought during his years of labor. The centaur threw himself upon Deianeira. Heracles shot Nessus with one of his arrows dipped in poisonous Hydra blood. As the centaur was dying, he told Deianeira that if she ever needed a love potion to use on Heracles, his blood would work. Deianeira believed him—who knows why—and kept the centaur’s poisoned blood in a vial. It would prove to be Heracles’ doom.

  But Heracles wasn’t only doom and gloom. He ate and drank as much as a dozen men, and he enjoyed parties. And, most of all, he had a sense of humor. Once two rowdy fellows stole his bow, and Heracles hung them from a yoke across his neck. As they dangled there, they noticed he had a hairy bottom and poked fun. Their joking was infectious; Heracles laughed and set them free.

  And Heracles had moments of true heroism. Once he arrived at the home of King Admetos in Thessaly. The king set him to eat alone, but Heracles realized that the household was crying. The king’s wife, Alcestis, had just died. It was a terrible story, because the goddess Artemis had demanded that Admetos die for an earlier offense, but he could live if another died willingly in his place. Admetos’ parents refused. But his wife Alcestis sacrificed herself, kissing their children goodbye. Heracles went to Tartarus and fought the god Hades and brought back Alcestis to Admetos, thus setting right a tale that was otherwise so wrong.

  Still, Heracles’ ending was insanely painful. His wife Deianeira worried that his love for her was waning. So she gave him a cloak soaked with the centaur’s blood—blood tainted with the venomous Hydra’s blood. Heracles put on the cloak and writhed and screamed as the poison ate into him. It hurt so horribly that he built a pyre for himself and climbed on. Then he gave his bow and arrows to a young follower, Philoctetes, and convinced him to set the pyre aflame. Heracles burned up.

  Ravaged by the pain of poison, Heracles built a pyre and immolated himself. But first, and fatefully (as we shall see), he gave his friend Philoctetes his bow and arrows.

  The cloud of his body rose to the heavens, where he was accepted as one of the immortals. And, in one of the strangest turns of the heart, his nemesis Hera not only received him with grace, but gave him one of her daughters in marriage. Perhaps that was Heracles’ fate from the start, since his name meant “glory of Hera.”

  An oracle told King Pelias of Iolcus to beware of a man wearing one sandal. The king had reason to worry at this oracle. He had seized the throne from his half brother Aeson and killed all of Aeson’s children. Any man who had done such a thing certainly couldn’t relax. After all, a dishonorable soul always expects the worst.

  In fact, Aeson’s wife, Alcimede, was with child when King Pelias killed the rest of her family. She pretended that the new baby was stillborn and secretly sent the boy, Jason, away to be raised safely and educated well by the only decent centaur, Chiron. Chiron did his job admirably; he trained Jason in the hunt, the arts, and nature.

  When Jason was grown and ready to claim the throne that was rightfully his, he set out to return to his birthplace. With each step, his heart beat harder. He hurried so much that he lost a sandal as he crossed a river. On the day of his arrival, King Pelias was holding games on the seashore. He saw a young man come running toward him with one bare foot. No! This youth was the concrete realization of the oracle. When Jason told King Pelias who he was, Pelias was prepared. He said that Jason must perform a difficult task, and if he did, King Pelias would abdicate the throne to him. The tas
k was complex. A winged ram with Golden Fleece had been sacrificed to Zeus, and its pelt had been saved. King Pelias demanded that Jason bring him that Golden Fleece.

  The Golden Fleece was in the far land of Colchis. It hung from an oak tree and was guarded by a dragon who never slept.

  What an adventure! Eager to start, Jason had a ship built with 50 oars. He named it the Argo after its builder Argos. The 50 men who sailed it were the Argonauts, the finest sailors in Greece; they included sons of gods and kings. Heracles was among them.

  The Argo carried Jason and a crew of 50 on the quest for the Golden Fleece. An arduous journey full of danger and intrigue, it ended in betrayal and atrocity.

  Their first stop was the island of Lemnos. The women there had killed off their men, but they welcomed the Argonauts as fathers for future children. Jason took the leader as his wife and fathered twins.

  Next they stopped in the land of the Doliones, where they were welcomed. But when they left, stormy winds confused them, and in the night they landed once more among the Doliones, who took them for an enemy that often attacked at night. In the dark the Argonauts killed many, including the king. When daylight came, they lamented their mistake and gave the king a luxurious burial.

  The third port was Mysia. One of the men, Hylas, went to draw fresh water. A nymph, excited by his beauty, stole him away. Another man, Polyphemus, heard his cry and thought he’d been robbed. He called Heracles to help him find the youth. Heracles forgot all else and plunged deep into the forest. Finally, the rest of the Argonauts could wait no more; they set sail without them. Hylas was never heard from again. Polyphemus founded the city Cius and became its king. And Heracles went back to his labors, which had been interrupted by this quest.

  The fourth port was in the land of the Bebryces. The king there forced strangers to box with him and killed them that way. The Argonaut Polydeuces was a master boxer, however, and he killed the king. The astonished Bebryces attacked. The Argonauts slew many of them as they fled.

  The fifth port was Salmydessus, in Thrace. There the Argonauts met the old soothsayer, King Phineas, who had been blinded by the gods for a past offense. The man was tormented by the harpies, two birds with the heads of women. Every time Phineas sat down to eat, the harpies devoured his food and left behind a stench. He begged Jason for help. When food was served and the harpies came, two Argonauts chased them away, never to return again. Then the old man feasted with his guests and gave them advice on how to pass through the Symplegades.

  EPIC Voyages

  This long voyage, with so many obstacles along the way, is part of a tradition throughout the myths and the epic poems of ancient Greece. We already saw this type of voyage in Heracles’ 12 labors. It is carried to the extreme in Homer’s tale of Odysseus. It takes Odysseus ten years to return home from the Trojan War; he fights Cyclopes, descends into the Underworld, is tossed by storms, trapped, bewitched. Later the Roman poet Virgil tells a similar tale of Aeneas.

  A scene from Homer’s tale of Odysseus

  The Symplegades were enormous rocks in the sea that the winds would make crash together. Thick mists cloaked them, and no ship had ever successfully passed between them. But the Argonauts had no choice; Colchis lay on the other side. When the Argo was near the Symplegades, Jason let loose a dove, as Phineas had advised. The dove flew through, losing only a single tail feather. So the Argo dared to sail forth. The rocks came smashing through, but they caught only the very rear of the ship. Ever after, the rocks were fixed in place, since once a ship had passed through them they were fated to be motionless.

  Finally, the Argo moored in Colchis. Jason went to King Aietes and explained that he needed the Golden Fleece, just like that, as though now everything would fall into place. The king said he would turn it over if Jason yoked the Chalcotaurus bulls without assistance and plowed a field with them, sowing dragon’s teeth. These two huge wild bulls had bronze hooves, and they breathed fire. Jason had no idea how to begin.

  But Medea did. She was the daughter of the king and a sorceress, and she had fallen in love with this daring stranger. When he pledged his eternal love, she gave him instructions. First, he rubbed himself with a potion that protected him from the bulls’ fire. When they charged him, he managed to yoke them and sow the dragon’s teeth. Men in armor sprang up from the sown teeth, ready to attack. Jason threw stones in their midst, as Medea had advised, and the soldiers turned upon each other. While they fought, he killed them.

  When King Aietes saw that the tasks had been done, he knew Jason couldn’t have managed alone. He flew into a rage and threatened to kill the Argonauts. But Medea snuck off with Jason to the oak tree, where they put the dragon to sleep with another magic potion. They took the Golden Fleece back to the Argo and the men set off for home, bringing Medea’s brother Apsyrtus with them.

  Jason grabs the Golden Fleece as Medea watches. Without Medea, Jason could not have finished his quest. Her magic let him yoke the ferocious bulls, sow the dragon teeth, drug the dragon guard.

  King Aietes followed. But Medea chopped her brother up and threw his pieces into the sea. The king stopped to gather the limbs of his slain son, and that delay gave the Argo time to get away. But Zeus was furious at what Medea had done to her innocent brother. So he told Jason the Argo had to visit the nymph Circe on the island Aeaea, and she would purify them. They did, and she did, and they continued homeward.

  But their troubles were not over. The journey brought them past the three islands of the Sirens. No one had ever seen the Sirens and lived to tell of them. It was rumored that they were mermaids of dazzling beauty and cruel appetites. They sang with voices that bewitched; all who heard naturally turned toward them. Ships then crashed on their islands and the sailors were never heard from again. Jason ordered the Argonaut Orpheus to play his lyre as they drew near, for Orpheus’ skill at this instrument rivaled Apollo’s. He played loudly and drowned out the Sirens’ songs.

  The Argo went by the Sirens, who enchanted sailors with their songs and lured them away so they were never seen again. So Orpheus played the lyre loudly, and the Argonauts passed in safety.

  The Argo managed to skirt past danger after danger, and the quest for the Golden Fleece wound up taking four months.

  But King Pelias had no intention of turning over his throne. So Medea called together Pelias’ daughters for a demonstration of magic. She cut up an old sheep and threw it into a cauldron with special herbs. The sheep leapt out as a newborn lamb. The daughters were convinced that if they cut up their aging father and boiled him, he’d leap out as a young man again. Instead, of course, Medea didn’t add the magical herbs this time, and the girls wound up slaughtering their own father.

  Medea and Jason were banished from the country for this deed. They went to Corinth for ten years. Then the king of Corinth offered his daughter Glauce in marriage to Jason, and Jason set aside Medea. How Jason could have thought Medea was a person one could cross is hard to fathom. Medea sent Glauce a robe soaked in poison. When the girl put it on, she was consumed in fire. Then Medea killed the sons she’d had with Jason and fled to Athens where she married King Aegeus.

  Many years later, Jason reclaimed the throne of Iolcus, and a later son of his became king there. His own life ended quietly, however. He was asleep under the beached Argo when the stern of the old ship broke and fell on him. Some said it was a just ending, since he had broken his promise of eternal love to Medea.

  King Aegeus of Athens was saddened by the fact that he was childless. While traveling through the south of Greece, he stopped in Troezen and met the king’s daughter, Aethra, and fell in love. In the morning, he placed a sword and a pair of sandals in a small cavelike hollow, then blocked the entrance with a marble boulder. He told Aethra that if she should have a male child, when the boy was strong enough to move the boulder and fetch the goods beneath it, she should send him to Athens to claim his father.

  The child, Theseus, grew faster and stronger than other children, and soon moved
the boulder. His grandfather had a ship waiting to take him to Athens. But Theseus chose the more dangerous land route. He loved the tales of the great hero Heracles, who was actually a cousin, and he wanted to prove his own strength and become just as famous a hero.

  He did it. The robber Periphetes, who bashed people to death with his club—Theseus smashed his head with that same club and took it for his own. The robber Sinis, who tied people to two pine trees bent to the ground and then released the trees so they flew apart, each taking a section of the poor person tied to them—he was ripped asunder the same way. The robber Sciron, who made his victims kneel to wash his feet and then kicked them into the sea to be eaten by a giant turtle—well, Theseus threw him over a cliff onto the rocks and waves below. The robber Cercyon, who made others wrestle to the death with him—he wrestled to his own death with Theseus. The robber Procrustes, who had two iron beds that he made his victims fit, putting short ones on the long bed and stretching them and putting tall ones on the short bed and cutting off parts—he was likewise fitted to one of his own beds. Each was served with his own crime. This was Theseus’ idea of justice—an eye for an eye—and it rang true to the people. They loved him for making the roads safe against robbers. Plus this strapping young fellow had killed a savage sow, as well. What could be better? His reputation preceded him to Athens.

  GREAT Thinkers

  Theseus, like Heracles, was a famous hero, but of a very different type. Brave and strong, he was also a thinker. He solved problems via intellect and compassion. Theseus ruled Athens, the birthplace of democracy and some of the world’s greatest thinkers. Socrates is known for ethics. Plato is known for logic and mathematics. Aeschylus and Sophocles wrote tragic plays. Euripides’ plays gave voice to the intelligence of women, slaves, and powerless people. Modern thought owes much to ancient Athens.