The Library of Greek Mythology (Oxford World's Classics)

by Apollodorus

  of Amymone: see p. 61.

  Iolaos: the son of Heracles’ half-brother Iphicles, p. 72; he accompanied Heracles on several of his adventures, acting as his charioteer.

  sacred to Artemis: when Zeus wanted to rape Taygete, daughter of Atlas, Artemis rescued her by turning her into a deer; on returning to human form she dedicated the present deer to Artemis, and attached an inscription to it stating this (Pind. ol. 3. 29 f., with sc. to 53).

  struck it with an arrow: to bring it down without harming it. According to other accounts he used nets to trap it, or overpowered it when it was asleep or exhausted (DS 4. 13. 1).

  the common property of the Centaurs: according to another tradition, Dionysos left the jar with Pholos to be opened when Heracles arrived four generations later, and the local Centaurs were driven into a frenzy by the scent of the wine (DS 4. 12. 3 f.).

  Cheiron . . . by the Lapiths: he was driven out of Thessaly with the other Centaurs by this Thessalian people under the command of their king, Peirithoos (see also p. 142). Malea was a promontory at the south-east corner of the Peloponnese, far to the south of Pholoe in Arcadia.

  Only when Prometheus. . . able to die: see p. 83 with note.

  killing him instantly: it will be remembered that Heracles dipped his arrows in the hydra’s gall; the virulence of the poison explains both their effect on the Centaurs and why Cheiron’s wound is incurable.

  he refused to pay the reward: thus far he had some justification, as he could reasonably claim that he had been deceived when he was asked to pay for a task that Heracles had to perform anyhow as an unpaid service to Eurystheus.

  Phyleus. . . testified against his father: cf. P. 5. 1. 10, where Phyleus is exiled for admonishing his father (and there is no mention of the arbitration). Homer remarks that Phyleus went into exile in anger at his father, but gives no details (Il. 2. 628 ff.).

  shoot them down: Heracles was not ordered to kill them, and in some accounts he merely scares them off (P. 8. 22. 4, referring to Peisandros, DS 4. 13. 2). It would seem that the birds were a problem only because of their numbers (DS is more explicit on this); Pausanias’ suggestion (P. 8. 22. 4 ff.) that they may have been man-eaters is based on a later tradition in which they were identified with a fabulous race of Arabian birds.

  Acousilaos. . . bull that had carried Europa: the earliest author known to have referred to this labour, but the identification he offered for the bull cannot be reconciled with the usual tradition that Europa’s bull was Zeus himself in animal form (p. 96, cf. Hes. fr. 140).

  sent up from the sea by Poseidon: see also p. 97; the identification favoured by DS (4. 13. 4) and Pausanias (1. 27. 9).

  arrived at Marathon: where it is conveniently available for Theseus to kill, p. 139; Theseus’ exploits as a killer of beasts and malefactors were modelled on those of Heracles.

  man-eating mares: cf. Eur. Alcestis 481 ff.; in DS 4. 15. 3 f. he captures the mares after he has satisfied their hunger by feeding them on Diomedes himself.

  by the River Thermodon: in north-eastern Asia Minor.

  pressed down: exethlibon: suggesting compression rather than removal. According to the Hippocratic treatise Airs, Waters, Places, 17, an Amazon mother would apply a hot iron to her daughter’s breast while she was still a child to prevent it from growing; similarly DS 2. 45. 3 (who cites the common etymology that they are called Amazons because they are ‘without a breast’, a-mazos).

  the belt of Ares: this zoster—which came from the god of war— would be a heavy warrior’s belt, not a woman’s girdle (zone), although it sometimes seems to have been taken as such in the later tradition (as Admete’s desire to possess it may imply). In AR 2. 966 ff. Heracles captures Melanippe, the queen’s sister, in an ambush and obtains the belt as a ransom; or he captures Melanippe, their commander, after killing many Amazons in battle, and then ransoms her for the belt, DS 4. 16. 1 ff.

  Lycos, and when Lycos: added to fill a short gap in the text; his kingdom lay in the north-western corner of Asia Minor, and the land of his enemies the Bebryces (later Bithynia) to the north-west of that. On Amycos, see also p. 51.

  undertaken to fortify Pergamon: see Il. 7. 452 ff. and 21. 441 ff. (in the latter Apollo serves as a herdsman). They were acting on the bidding of Zeus, 21. 444, apparently as a punishment for their attempted revolt against Zeus (see Il. 1. 398 ff., where Apollo is not mentioned; cf. sc. Il. 21. 444). In Il. 21. 453 ff, not only does Laomedon refuse to pay, but he threatens to tie them up, sell them into slavery, and cut off their ears.

  to Tros: added for clarity, cf. Il. 5. 265 ff; he was Laomedon’s grandfather. On Ganymede see p. 123.

  at some future time: for his attack on Troy, see p. 86.

  three men joined into one: in Theog. 287 he is merely three-headed; but in Aesch. Agamemnon 870 he is three-bodied, and in Stesichorus (mid-sixth century, as reported by sc. Theog. 287) he is six-handed and six-footed (and winged).

  killed many savage beasts: the killing of wild beasts, and of foreigners who are hostile to strangers, is an important part of Heracles’ activity as a furtherer of civilization (or as a hero who made the world safe for Greek colonization). Diodorus is much more informative on this aspect of Heracles (see DS 4. 17. 3 ff. for the taming of Crete and Libya).

  two pillars: these marked the boundaries of the inhabited world, oikoumene, to the west, as did those of Dionysos, p. 102, to the east; commonly identified with Gibraltar and Ceuta on either side of the entry to the Mediterranean.

  a golden cup: the Sun passed from east to west across the sky, from sunrise to sunset, in a fiery chariot, and sailed back again in this golden cup by way of the Ocean (which encircles the earth). We are to imagine that Erytheia, the Red Isle, lies in the Ocean beyond Spain. Hdt. 4. 8 placed it near Cadiz, and it was later identified with Cadiz (Gadeira) as Ap. remarks above.

  Rhegion: or Rhegium, now Reggio, at the toe of Italy, was a Greek colony, although its name was not of Greek origin. Here it is said to owe its name to the fact that the bull aporrhegnusi, breaks free there (from amongst Geryon’s cattle). DS 4. 21–4 includes a mass of Italian and Sicilian material which Ap. characteristically ignores.

  called the bull italus: Heracles asked the local people if they had seen the calf anywhere, and when he heard them talking about it in their own language, he gave the name Italy to the country that it had passed through, after vitulus, the Latin for a calf (Dionysius of Halicarnassus Ant. Rom. 1. 35, following Hellanicos).

  unless Heracles defeated him: or they fought on the terms that if Heracles was victorious, he would take the land, but if Eryx was, he would take all the cattle of Geryon (DS 4. 23. 2, P. 3. 16. 4 f.). In the early fifth century, Dorieus, a member of the Spartan royal family which was supposedly descended from Heracles, went to Sicily and laid claim to the land on these grounds (P. 3. 16. 4, cf. Hdt. 5. 41 ff.).

  the gulf: the Adriatic.

  golden apples from the Hesperides: according to Pherecydes, Ge gave apple trees bearing golden fruit to Hera as a wedding present, and Hera ordered that they should be planted in the garden of the gods near Mount Atlas (sc. AR 4. 1396, Hyg. PA 3). In Theog. (213 ff.) the Hesperides, the nymphs of the evening who helped guard the fruit, were daughters of Night (but subsequent accounts vary).

  in the land of the Hyperboreans: a mythical people who lived in the far north. Although Ap. rejects the tradition that the Hesperides lay in the west, that was certainly their original location; their name alone is sufficient to associate them with the evening, and thus the sunset and the west, and Atlas too was commonly associated with the western end of North Africa. In the present version (cf. DS 4. 26. 2 ff.) Heracles’ journey takes him to all points of the compass; he passes through Italy to Libya and the west, then east again to Egypt, and south to Arabia, and finally north on the eastern Ocean to the Caucasus and beyond.

  to avenge him . . . engaged him in single combat: interpreting the phrase Areos de touton ekdikountos kai sunistantos monomachia in a different sense, Frazer tr
anslates, ‘Ares championed the cause of Cycnos and marshalled the combat,’ which would allow us to assume that the text is complete, but in the present translation I have followed the example of Carriere, who argues that there is a short gap beforehand and that Ap.’s account originally accorded with that in Hyg. 31; there Heracles kills Cycnos in single combat, but when Ares is about to attack him to avenge the death of his son, Zeus hurls a thunderbolt to separate Heracles and Ares. Frazer’s version raises serious problems; in all other accounts of the story (including Ap.’s second version of it on p. 90), Heracles kills Cycnos (cf. Hes. Shield 416 ff. and Stesichorus in sc. Pind. ol. 10. 19), and the story seems altogether pointless if he does not. And it is hard to see why Zeus should intervene to protect Cycnos. (A discussion of the points of language can be found in Carriere’s note.) It should be mentioned, however, that there is some evidence from sixth-century vase-paintings that there may have been a tradition in which Zeus restrained the combatants.

  Nereus. . . transformed himself: for Nereus, see p. 29; sea-gods, as inhabitants of a formless medium, are naturally shape-shifters. Nereus appears in no other mythical narrative; the present story was probably suggested by Homer’s account of Menelaos’ encounter with Proteus, another old man of the sea (Od. 4. 382 ff).

  Antaios: he roofed Poseidon’s temple with travellers’ skulls, Pind. Isth. 4. 54. His peculiar relationship with the Earth is first recorded in Roman sources (Ov. Met. 9. 183 f., Lucan 4. 593 ff.), but the motif is surely of earlier origin.

  a drover: in other versions, a ploughman (e.g. Conon 11). For a similar incident see p. 89 and note.

  he killed Emathion: for his birth, see p. 124 and Theog. 984 f. The only indication of the reason for the killing is the remark in DS 4. 27. 3 that after Heracles had sailed up the Nile Emathion attacked him without provocation in Ethiopia. Perhaps the significance of the episode lay in the fact that it marked the southernmost stage of his journey.

  through Libya: this may be an error; but it is unlikely that Ap. had a clear conception of the geographical connections here.

  He then . . . in Prometheus’ place: for the cause of Prometheus’ punishment, see p. 36. There was an ancient tradition that crowns and garlands are symbolic of the shackles worn by Prometheus as a result of his services to the human race (Athenaeus 672e ff.); so presumably Heracles dons an olive crown as a symbolic substitute for Prometheus’ fetters. (The wild olive was especially associated with Heracles, and he is said to have brought it to Greece from the land of the Hyperboreans, P. 5. 7. 7.) The meaning of Cheiron’s exchange has been much disputed, and only a tentative suggestion can be offered here. We know that Cheiron wants to die because he is suffering from a painful and incurable wound, p. 75. Since Prometheus is immortal by nature, there can be no question of Cheiron simply exchanging his immortality for the mortality of Prometheus and thus becoming able to die (as might be inferred from the phrase on p. 75). It would seem, on the contrary, that this is another symbolic exchange; by passing below, Cheiron assumes the sufferings of Prometheus. The fact that Heracles presents him to Zeus suggests that by giving himself up to die, Cheiron is fulfilling a prior condition set by Zeus. A passage in [Aesch.] PV 1026 ff. may be relevant here, in which Hermes tells Prometheus that there will be no end to his sufferings unless a god shows himself ready to succeed to them and offers to descend to Hades. This would be a dire fate for an immortal being; but because of Cheiron’s special circumstances, the seemingly impossible condition mentioned in PV could be fulfilled.

  he said that. . . the sky back until: a passage from sc. AR 4. 1396 is inserted to fill a gap in the text; it is based on Pherecydes, Ap.’s main source here.

  It is said. . . guardian snake: cf. Soph. Trachiniae 1099 f., and Eur. Hercules Furens, 394 ff.

  unholy: these apples and the trees that bore them belonged to Hera or Zeus (see p. 81 and note), and it is thus unholy for them to be removed permanently from their appointed home.

  to fetch Cerberos: Homer knew of this feat, Il. 8. 367 f., Od. 11. 623 ff.; see also Bacch. 5. 56 ff.

  with a view to being initiated: into the Eleusinian Mysteries, which ensured a better fate for initiates in the Underworld after their death, and could thus prepare Heracles for his premature journey to Hades.

  purified by Eumolpos: the legendary founder of the Mysteries, see also p. 135 and note. There was another tradition that Demeter founded the Lesser Mysteries (the preparatory rites at Agrai, near Athens) to purify Heracles (DS 4. 14. 3). In historical times, all who spoke Greek could be initiated, with the exception of murderers.

  the souls. . . Meleager. . . Medusa: the souls are the shades of the dead. For the encounter with Meleager, see Bacch. 5. 71 ff. Medusa, the only mortal Gorgon, was killed by Perseus, p. 66; the present encounter was doubtless suggested by Od. 11. 633 ff, where Odysseus hurries from the world of the dead in a panic, afraid that Persephone may send some monstrous apparition like the Gorgon’s head.

  Theseus there, and Peirithoos: see p. 143.

  stone of Ascalaphos: see p. 33.

  to procure blood for the souls: the souls are flimsy and witless; a drink of blood increases their materiality and raises their level of consciousness, making it possible for them to communicate with outsiders, see Od. 11. 23 ff.

  gates of Acheron: Acheron was strictly a river in the Underworld, but its name was also used by later authors for Hades itself; these are the gates of Hades mentioned above, symbolizing the boundary between the lands of the living and the dead. This frontier was guarded by Cerberos, who fawned on those who entered the realm of Hades, but attacked anyone who tried to escape through its gates, Theog. 770 ff.

  into an owl: as a screech-owl (which is moreover a bird of ill omen) he will still be confined to the dark; Demeter will not permit him to escape punishment for his betrayal of her daughter. For another version of this transformation, see Ov. Met. 5. 538 ff.

  gave Megara to lolaos: after his madness and murder of their children, p. 72, there is no future in Heracles’ marriage with Megara; for the gods are clearly against it. So he gives her to his nephew lolaos as a reward for his help in the labours (here in overcoming the hydra, p. 74, but in other sources he is said to have assisted in the labours of the lion, boar, and cattle of Geryoneus also).

  at archery: Eurytos was Heracles’ own teacher in the art, p. 71. Eurytos died when he challenged Apollo himself to an archery contest, Od. 8. 226 ff.; the bow that Odysseus used to kill the suitors originally belonged to him, Od. 21. 13 ff.

  cattle were stolen: in all other sources, mares, cf. Od. 21. 22 ff.

  in a fresh fit of madness: other accounts are less favourable to Heracles. In the Odyssey, ibid., he treacherously killed Iphitos after entertaining him as his guest, and then took the mares; in Pherecydes (sc. Od. 21. 22) he killed Iphitos in anger at having been denied Iole; in DS 4. 31. 2 f., Heracles himself stole the mares for revenge, and when Iphitos came to Tiryns to seek for them, Heracles took him to the battlements and asked him if he could see them—and when he could not, Heracles claimed to have been falsely accused, and hurled him down.

  Neleus rejected him: this is the reason for his later attack on Pylos, p. 87.

  refused ... a response: because he was denied by the murder, see further P. 10. 13. 4.

  the Cercopes: two brothers who robbed passers-by; for details we have to rely on late sources. According to Zenobius 5. 10, they had been warned by their mother to beware of the ‘Black-Bottomed One’ (Melampygos). When they tried to rob Heracles, he hung them by their feet from either end of a pole, and they saw too late that his bottom, where it was not covered by the lion’s skin, was black because of the thickness of the hair. They laughed, and when Heracles asked why and he learned the reason, he was amused and released them.

  in his vineyard: added for clarity, cf. DS 4. 31. 7; he killed Syleus with his own mattock.

  the body of Icaros: see pp. 140 f.

  the voyage to Colchis: the voyage of the Argonauts; for the tradition
on Heracles’ involvement, see p. 51 and note.