by Apollodorus
the hunt. . . from Troezen: since Meleager was killed after the hunt, p. 41, this is irreconcilable with the tradition that Heracles met him in Hades during his final labour, p. 84; and likewise, if Heracles brought Theseus up from Hades, Theseus could hardly have performed his earliest feat (of clearing the Isthmus of malefactors, see pp. 138 f.) at this later period.
he sailed against Ilion: known to Homer, Il. 5. 640 ff. (where he remarks on the small size of the expedition, with only six ships; although it is three times larger here, it is still far smaller than the later expedition, cf. p. 148). For the reason for Heracles’ attack, see p. 79.
to Heracles the Noble Victor: Kallinikos, thus explaining a cultic title of Heracles as a hero who could overcome and avert evil.
Priam: according to this etymology, the name of the king of Troy during the great Trojan War was derived from priamai, to buy.
Hera sent violent storms: see Il. 14. 249 ff. and 15. 24 ff.
suspended her from Olympos: with two anvils hanging from her feet, and her hands tied with a golden band, Il. 15. 18–20. See also p. 31 and note.
mar against the Giants: see pp. 34 f.
against Augeias: who had refused to pay the agreed fee when Heracles cleared his stables, p. 76. Heracles now embarks on a series of campaigns in the Peloponnese, before his final campaigns in northern Greece.
Eurytos and Cteatos: at Il. 2. 621, Homer gives their names, and calls them the Actoriones after their father, but at 11. 709, the two Moliones, apparently after their mother. At Il. 23. 641 they are said to be twins, but there is no indication that they are joined together. See also Pind. ol. 10. 26 ff. (where they are separate). Their depiction as ‘Siamese’ twins may have its origin in Hes. Cat. (see fr. 18).
set an ambush: a highly dubious action because they were protected by a religious truce at such a time (cf. P. 5. 2. If, where we are told that the Eleans demanded satisfaction, and when none was offered, boycotted the Isthmian Games ever afterwards).
recalled Phyleus: the son of Augeias who had been exiled for supporting Heracles, p. 76.
an altar of Pelops: this seems inappropriate, because Pelops was a hero rather than a god; in P. 5. 13. 1 ff., the sanctuary of Pelops is said to have contained not an altar but a pit, into which annual sacrifices of a black ram were made, in the rite befitting the heroized dead.
marched against Pylos: on sandy Pylos and Periclymenos, see p. 45 and notes; for the cause of the war, p. 85 and note. The story explains why Nestor alone represented the sons of Neleus at Troy, cf. Il. 11. 690 ff.
Hades, who came to the aid of the Pylians: but see Il. 5. 395–7, Heracles struck him ‘amongst the dead’; he was thus collecting the dead, cf. Pind. ol. 9. 33 ff., rather than fighting in the battle. Ap.’s account reflects a later misunderstanding. Heracles is said to have wounded Hera also (Il. 5. 392; and Ares in Hes. Shield 357 ff).
the son of Licymnios: Oionos (P. 3. 15. 4f.), said to have been the first Olympic victor in the foot-race (Pind. ol. 10. 64 ff). Licymnios, who went into exile with Amphitryon, p. 69, was the half-brother of Heracles’ mother, so Heracles was bound to avenge the murder of his son. This campaign is important dynastically because it caused Tyndareus to be restored to the Spartan throne. According to Pausanias, Heracles attacked at once in a fury, but was wounded and withdrew (3. 15. 5), and returned later with an army after he had been cured by Asclepios (3. 19. 7).
raped Auge . . . the daughter o/Aleos: Aleos was king of Tegea, and founder of the temple of Athene Alea (P. 8. 4. 8). The tradition is complex and contradictory; Ap. follows the Tegean temple legend, in which Heracles raped Auge by a fountain north of the temple, P. 8. 47. 4, as against the tradition in which he fathered the child in Asia Minor on the way to Troy (e.g. Hes. Cat. fr. 165). In another version of the Tegean story, the birth of Telephos resulted from a love affair (P. 8. 4. 8 f., after Hecataeus) rather than a rape.
by a plague: because of Auge’s sacrilegious use of the sacred precinct. When Ap. refers to this episode again on p. 116, he says that the sacrilege caused the land to become barren; Wagner’s suggestion that the original reading here was limoi, by a famine, rather than loimoi, by a plague, is quite plausible.
Telephos: the name is explained as a combination of thele (teat) and elaphos (deer).
Deianeira, the daughter of Oineus: see also p. 40; she was the sister of Meleager, who is said to have suggested the marriage to Heracles when they met in Hades (Bacch. 5. 165 ff., cf. sc. Il. 21. 194).
wrestled with Acheloos: strictly a river (the largest in Greece, flowing along the Acarnanian frontier of Aetolia for part of its course, and thus no great distance from Calydon), but river gods were thought to manifest themselves in the form of a bull. See also p. 113 and note.
that of Amaltheia: the cornucopia. Here Amaltheia is the nymph who fed the infant Zeus on milk from her goat (as against the goat itself on p. 28, cf. Hyg. PA 13 for both versions). According to Zenobius, 2. 48, Zeus turned the goat into a constellation in gratitude, but gave one of its horns to the nymphs who had cared for him, endowing it with the power to produce whatever they wished; in that case, Amaltheia’s horn would not be a bull’s horn as stated here. DS 4. 35. 4 offers a rationalized account identifying it with the horn broken from Acheloos.
Ephyra: in Epirus, on the mainland in the north-west, not the Ephyra identified with Corinth.
Tlepolemos: see p. 93. For this episode, cf. DS 4. 36. 1,
of his sons: by the fifty daughters of Thespios, see p. 71; he made Iolaos the leader of the forty who colonized Sardinia (see further DS 4. 29. 3 ff. with P. 7. 2. 2 and 9. 23. 1).
killed Eunomos: he hit him harder than he had intended, cf. DS 4. 36. 2; according to P. 2. 13. 8, he was angry because the boy, there named Cyathos, had used water from the foot-bath.
Nessos had settled there: for how he came to be there, see p. 75.
if she wanted a love-potion: in reality it would be a dangerous poison because the blood from his wound was tainted by the hydra’s poison from Heracles’ arrows, see p. 90.
Theiodamas: compare the story on p. 82. In the present case, Theiodamas is not a simple herdsman (as might be inferred), but the king of the Dryopes (cf. AR 1. 1213 ff. with the sc. on 1212, reporting Pherecydes). AR remarks that Heracles took the ox to provoke a war with the Dryopes; and according to Pherecydes, he returned to his city after Heracles took his ox, and mounted an expedition against him, but he was eventually killed by Heracles, who captured his son Hylas (see p. 51) and transferred the Dryopes from the north to the frontiers of Phocis. See also DS 4. 37. 1 f., where the king is named Phylas.
Ceux: a son of one of Amphitryon’s brothers, and thus a relative of Heracles (sc. Soph. Track. 40; not the son of Heosphoros on p. 38, etc.); he later sheltered the sons of Heracles, p. 92. Heracles appeared in the Marriage of Ceux, a lost epic that the ancients attributed to Hesiod.
as an ally of Aigimios, king of the Dorians: during Heracles’ lifetime, the Dorians were still in their early home north of the Corinthian Gulf (see p. 37 and note), but the Heraclids (his sons and descendants) would maintain this alliance with the Dorians, and lead them in an invasion of the Peloponnese, to displace the last Pelopid and become rulers in the main centres (pp. 92 ff.). As Perseids they had a legitimate claim to Argos (and possibly to Laconia and Messenia also, as Heracles had settled the succession there during his campaigns). It was in fact the case that the Dorian inhabitants of the Peloponnese had entered it from the north at a relatively late period; and it was believed that their supposed involvement with the Heraclids gave legitimacy to their occupation of the land. For the present war with the Lapiths, another Thessalian people, see also DS 4. 37. 3.
Cycnos: see the battle with Cycnos, son of Ares, on p. 82, and note. Although different names are given for Cycnos’ mother, it can be assumed that both accounts refer to the same event.
killed Amyntor: in DS 4. 37. 4 Heracles attacks and kills the king (there called Ormenios) because he refuses to surrender his
daughter, Astydameia (and afterwards fathers Ctesippos by her, who is mentioned as his son by the daughter of Amyntor on p. 92).
vengeance on Eurytos: for refusing to give him Iole after he had won the contest for her hand, p. 84. This episode was treated in an early epic, the Sack of Oichalia. There was disagreement on the location of Oichalia (cf. P. 4. 2. 3), but Euboea was the most favoured locality, which is consistent with the indications here (notably the remark on p. 85 that Eurytos’ cattle were stolen from Euboea).
how matters stood with regard to Iole: DS 4. 38. 1 states explicitly that she learned from Lichas that Heracles loved Iole; we are probably meant to assume that here. For the tunic, see p. 89.
into the Euhoean Sea: following Ov. Met. 9. 218 (cf. Ibis 492, and VM 1. 58 and 2. 165), to replace ‘from Boeotia’ in the manuscripts, which is evidently corrupt because he was at Cenaion, the northwestern promontory of Euboea.
Poias: the Argonaut, p. 50, and father of Philoctetes, p. 121. Although it was more commonly said that Philoctetes lit the pyre and was given Heracles’ bow in return (e.g. Soph. Philoctetes 801 ff., DS 4. 38. 4), this may well be the earlier tradition.
raised him up to heaven: the apotheosis of Heracles is a relatively late element in the tradition. He is clearly regarded as mortal in Il. 18. 117 ff; in the Odyssey, Odysseus meets Heracles in Hades, 11. 601–27 (although there is an awkward interpolation after the first line, stating that the Heracles in Hades was only a phantom, eidolon, and the real Heracles was in heaven with Hebe, 602–4; a similar passage in Theog., 950 ff, that refers to his marriage in Olympos is also regarded as a later interpolation). The evidence from the visual arts suggests that the story of his apotheosis originated at the end of the seventh century. Before this promotion he was worshipped solely as a hero.
married. . . Hebe: there is no myth associated with Heracles as a god beyond this marriage to Hebe, the personification of youth (cf. Pind. Nem. 1. 69 ff. and 10. 17 f., Isth. 4. 55 ff.). The names for their children, otherwise unattested, are derived from Heracles’ cultic titles as Alexikakos (Averter of Evil) and Kallinikos (the Noble Victor, see p. 86).
the daughters of Thespios: see p. 91.
the altar of Pity: or Mercy, in the marketplace, see P. 1. 17. 1; an unusual cult in Greece.
the Athenians. . . in a war with Eurystheus: under Theseus (P. 1. 32. 5) or Demophon, son of Theseus (AL 33, following Pherecydes, cf. Eur. Heraclidae 111 ff.).
Hyllos. . . killed him: or Iolaos did, Pind. Pyth. 9. 79 ff, P. 1. 44. 14.
their return: a return, kathodos, because the Heraclids were Perseids from Argos, and were claiming their legitimate rights. After the death of Eurystheus, it was the will of the gods that the Pelopids should rule the main Peloponnesian centres, in Mycenae (see p. 145 and note) and Sparta (see pp. 122 and 146 and note), and that they should not be displaced until after the Trojan War (fifty years after, it was usually said, when Tisamenos was killed, see p. 94 with p. 164 and note; this was regarded as the last episode in mythological history).
Tlepolemos. . . killed Licymnios: cf. Il. 2. 653 ff, Pind. ol. 7. 27 ff., where the killing is not accidental as here; and see Strabo 14. 8. 6 ff. for the place of Tlepolemos in Rhodian mythology. On Licymnios, Alcmene’s brother, see p. 69; the incident took place at Argos, where his grave was shown (P. 2. 22. 8).
with his army: the narrative is now interrupted by a gap in the text. Hyllos must certainly have been defeated and killed. It was generally accepted that he challenged the Peloponnesians to settle the matter by single combat; and that when Echemos, king of Tegea, took up the challenge and killed Hyllos, the Heraclids withdrew in accordance with the agreed terms (Hdt. 9. 26. cf. DS 4. 58. 2–4, and P. 8. 5. 1; but we cannot be sure that Ap. told the story in this way, because he talks of a ‘further battle’ in the next invasion). And then, according to Eusebius (Prep. Evang. 5. 20), Aristomachos, the son of Cleodaios and grandson of Hyllos, consulted the oracle about how they should invade the Peloponnese, and was told that they would be victorious if they travelled by the narrow route. So he invaded by the Isthmus of Corinth, only to be defeated and killed (as Ap. reports when the text resumes). This oracle, so disastrously misinterpreted by Aristomachos, must have been mentioned in the missing passage because it is referred to without explanation shortly below.
Tisamenos. . . was king of the Peloponnesians: as the last Pelopid, ruling both Argos and Lacedaimon, Tisamenos was the most important king in the Peloponnese, but by no means the only king (cf. P. 2. 18. 7).
Aristomachos: in the manuscripts, Cleolaos, a mistake for Cleodaios, the son of Hyllos and father of Aristomachos, but Cleodaios was killed during Hyllos’ invasion and Aristomachos during the next, so the final return will be led by the sons of Aristomachos, Temenos and Cresphontes (Aristodemos, his other son, being killed beforehand), as we will see below. There must surely have been an account of the Heraclid line from Hyllos onwards in the missing passage just above.
by the narrows, the broad-bellied sea: this is not as perverse as it sounds. They had thought that the oracle meant a narrow stretch of land, the Isthmus of Corinth, but it really meant the Gulf of Corinth (which is to the right of the Isthmus from the perspective of Delphi, to the north of it), which stretches a great distance from east to west (and is in that sense broad-bellied) but is very narrow if one is crossing from its northern shore to the Peloponnese at the south.
Naupactos: the name is said to be derived from naus epexato (cf. P. 10. 38. 5). Naupactos lies in western Locris, where the Corinthian Gulf is at its narrowest before it widens again at the entrance.
Aristodemos: one of the three sons of Aristomachos; for another account of his death, see P. 3. 1. 6. According to the Lacedaimonian tradition he survived to lead the conquest of Sparta (Hdt. 6. 52, Xenophon Agesilaos 8. 7).
because of the diviner: these disasters were caused by the anger of Apollo, who had inspired the seer (named by Pausanias as Carnos, an Acarnanian) with his gift of prophecy (P. 3. 13. 4).
Oxylos: compare P. 5. 3. 5 ff, where he is said to have been the son of Haimon, son of Thoas, son of Andraimon; he had accidentally killed his brother Thermios (or a certain Alcidocos, son of Scopios) when throwing a discus.
Pamphylos and Dymas, the sons of Aigimios: see pp. 89–90. The Heraclids were leading a Dorian army together with the descendants of their king Aigimios (himself the son of Doros, eponym of the Dorians). These sons of Aigimios (now allies of the great-great-grandsons of Heracles!) were the eponymous ancestors of the Pamphyloi and Dymanes, two of the three tribes into which the Dorians were divided in most of their communities, the third, the Hylleis, being named after Hyllos (regarded as an adopted son of Aigimios).
a clod of earth: cf. P. 4. 3. 4 f, essentially the same story, although the stratagem is slightly different. There was rich agricultural land in Messenia (which was conquered in the eighth to seventh centuries by the Spartans, who reduced its inhabitants to serfdom).
Temenos spurned. . . Deiphontes: see P. 2. 19. 1 and 2. 28. 3 ff.
some men from Titana: reading Titanious for titanas; Titana lay near Sicyon. Or perhaps simply tinas, ‘some men’.
Cresphontes. . . was assassinated: presumably Polyphontes is responsible, as in Hyg. 137; but in P. 4. 3. 7, where there is no mention of Polyphontes, he is killed by the men of property because he has been ruling in the interest of the common people, and Aipytos, the son of Cresphontes who escaped, is placed on the throne by the Arcadians and other Dorian kings when he grows up.
As we have said: see p. 60.
It is said by some: including Homer, Il. 14. 321 f. There was much disagreement on these genealogies.
whose breath smelled of roses: reading rhodou apopneon (apopleon in the manuscripts). This may seem strange, but Hes. Cat. fr. 140 refers to an odour of saffron coming from the bull’s mouth. Carriere points to. Eustathius on Il. 14. 321, where it is further stated that Europa came to love the bull because it smelt of roses.
according to Homer: see Il. 6. 198 f
; but Homer’s Sarpedon lived at a much later period, for he commanded the Lycians during the Trojan War. Ap. claims below that the present Sarpedon was granted an exceptionally long life by Zeus, while according to DS (5. 78. 3), the Sarpedon at Troy was a separate figure, the grandson of the present Sarpedon (who will settle in Lycia, see below); such were the alternative ways in which the mythographers resolved chronological problems of this kind.