by Emily Hauser
The story of Hercules’ labours, and the jealousy of Hera after Zeus’ affair with the mortal Alcmene, is one of the best-known legends of ancient Greece and hardly needs introduction. Hercules, son of a god and destined for immortality, stood in the ancient world for everything that was masculine, larger-than-life, heroic – and so it was his lesser-known relationship with Admete that intrigued me, hinted at in Apollodorus’ and Tzetzes’ story of her voyage with him to the Amazons, bringing out as it does a different side to Hercules’ character and his relationship with the king of Tiryns who set his labours. Moreover, the question of how – and why – a woman in Bronze Age Greece would have been allowed to give one of the tasks to the archetypal male hero, let alone accompany him, was, I felt, one that needed to be addressed, and provides a fascinating new perspective on the possible roles of women in the Bronze Age Aegean. My description of Admete’s journey with Hercules to the Amazons is based almost entirely on Apollodorus’ description of Hercules’ labour in his Bibliotheca, although some of the scenes – for example, the battle with the Bebryces – are adapted from another similar voyage, the journey of Jason and the Argonauts as given in Apollonius’ Argonautica. The tradition of Hercules receiving an oracle at Delphi, telling him that he would be granted immortality if he completed his labours, comes from Apollodorus and Diodorus Siculus.
There is little evidence for the practice of medicine and healing in the Bronze Age Aegean, so in order to describe Admete’s work as a healer I drew on both recent pathological evidence from excavations in Greece, the evidence of Linear B tablets, votive prophylactic offerings left at the sanctuaries of the gods, later classical works such as Theophrastus’ Enquiry into Plants (the earliest known and most important systematic botanical work to have survived from classical antiquity) and the Hippocratic corpus, and a cross-referencing of herbal cures (using Andrew Chevallier’s comprehensive Encyclopedia of Herbal Medicine) with plants native to Greece. Some of the more interesting examples include yarrow, whose Latin name Achillea millefolium reveals its (supposed) use by Achilles in the Trojan War; saffron (ko-ro-ki-no), which is listed on a Linear B tablet from Knossos, Crete; and elecampane or Inula helenium, which was said to be the plant Helen of Sparta held in her hand as she left with Paris for Troy.
If you are interested in finding out more about the world of Admete, Hercules and the Amazons, take a look at the suggestions for further reading, and visit my website, www.emilyhauser.com.
Suggestions for Further Reading
Arnott, Robert. 1996. ‘Healing and medicine in the Aegean Bronze Age.’ Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine 89: 265–70.
Ascherson, Neal. 1995. Black Sea. London: Jonathan Cape.
Cope, Tim. 2013. On the Trail of Genghis Khan: An Epic Journey through the Land of the Nomads. London: Bloomsbury.
Davies, Malcolm. 2016. The Aethiopis: Neo-Neoanalysis Reanalyzed. Hellenic Studies, 71. Washington, DC: Center for Hellenic Studies.
Diker, Selahi. 1999. ‘Scythians and their Language.’ In And the Whole Earth was of One Language: Decipherment of Lost Languages including Etruscan, Scythian, Phrygian, Lycian, Hittite, Hurrian, Urartian, Sumerian, Achaemenid Aramaic & Elamite, Parthian. 2nd ed. Izmir: S. Diker, 155–88.
Graziosi, Barbara. 2002. Inventing Homer: The Early Reception of Epic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Grmek, M. D. 1994. ‘Malaria in the eastern Mediterranean in prehistory and antiquity.’ Parasitologia 36 (1–2): 1–6.
Hall, Edith. 2004. Inventing the Barbarian: Greek Self-Definition through Tragedy. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Hartog, François. 1988. The Mirror of Herodotus: The Representation of the Other in the Writing of History. Transl. Janet Lloyd. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press.
Hughes, Bettany. 2005. Helen of Troy: Goddess, Princess, Whore. London: Jonathan Cape.
Jensen, Minna Skafte. 2011. Writing Homer: A Study Based on Results from Modern Fieldwork. Copenhagen: The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters.
Lord, Albert. 2000. The Singer of Tales. Edited by Stephen Mitchell and Gregory Nagy. 2nd ed. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Man, John. 2017. Amazons: The Real Warrior Women of the Ancient World. London: Transworld.
Mayor, Adrienne. 2014. The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women across the Ancient World. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
——— 2016. ‘Warrior Women: The Archaeology of the Amazons.’ In S. L. Budin and J. M. Turfa (eds.), Women in Antiquity: Real Women across the Ancient World, 969–85. London: Routledge.
Minns, E. H. 1913. Scythians and Greeks. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Nagy, Gregory. 1996. Poetry as Performance: Homer and Beyond. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Rolle, Renate. 1989. The World of the Scythians. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Romm, J. 1992. The Edges of the Earth in Ancient Thought: Geography, Exploration and Fiction. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Rostovtzeff, Michael. 1922. Iranians and Greeks in South Russia. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Sallares, R., A. Bouwman, and C. Anderung. 2004. ‘The Spread of Malaria to Southern Europe in Antiquity: New Approaches to Old Problems.’ Medical History 48(3): 311–328.
Simpson, S.J., and S. Pankova, eds. 2017. Scythians: Warriors of Ancient Siberia. London: Thames and Hudson.
Skjaervo, P. Oktor. 2002. An Introduction to Old Persian. 2nd ed. Online resource http://sites.fas.harvard.edu/~iranian/OldPersion/opcomplete.pdf.
Smith, William. 1854. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. London: Walton and Maberly.
Talbert, R. J. (ed.) 2000. The Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Warren, C. P. W. 1970. ‘Some aspects of medicine in the Greek Bronze Age.’ Medical History 14 (4): 364–77.
West, M. L. 2011. The Making of the Iliad: Disquisition and Analytical Commentary. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
West, Stephanie. 2002. ‘Scythians.’ In E. J. Bakker, I. Jong and H. Wees (eds.), Brill’s Companion to Herodotus. Leiden: Brill, 437–56.
Willekes, Carolyn. 2016. The Horse in the Ancient World: From Bucephalus to the Hippodrome. Library of Classical Studies, 10. London: I. B. Tauris.
Bronze Age Calendar
The evidence from ancient Mycenaean Greek tablets for the calendar is fragmentary and difficult to piece together, but various different words have been found that seem to apply to months of the year. Thus we have wodewijo – the ‘month of roses’; emesijo – the ‘month of wheat’; metuwo newo – the ‘month of new wine’; ploistos – the ‘sailing month’; and so on. Although we have no further clues as to which months these referred to, by matching them to the farming calendar in Hesiod’s Works and Days, as well as the seasonal growth of plants and crops in Greece, I have amassed the following Bronze Age calendar, which is followed throughout the text:
As for the Scythians, no evidence survives regarding their calendar, although Herodotus’ description of the Scythians’ certainty that no more or less than a thousand years had passed from the reign of their first king to the arrival of Darius in 513 BC (Histories 4.7.1) suggests that they did have a means of measuring and dating the passage of years. According to the seasonal movements of Scythian nomads described in Adrienne Mayor’s The Amazons (2014: 130), I have accordingly split the calendar year into three seasons – spring, summer and winter – and attributed to each a presiding Scythian god: Apia, goddess of earth, for the fertile season of spring; Tabiti, goddess of fire, for the hot seasons of summer and autumn; and Tar, god of sky and weather, for the cold and stormy winter months. Within each season, I have placed a mid-winter/mid-summer/mid-spring festival at the midway point of the season (see below), each named ‘The Day of Earth’ (spring), ‘The Day of Fire’ (summer), and ‘The Day of Storms’ (winter) after their respective gods. Dates are then counted either towards or away from the mid-point of the seas
on.
Glossary of Characters
Most of the characters in this book come from the real myths, legends and literature of the ancient Greeks; names of the Amazons are either from classical sources (mostly Greek) or are attested Scythian names. Mortals are indicated in bold, and immortals in bold italics. Characters I have invented for the purposes of this story are marked with a star (*).
Achilles – The son of Thetis and Peleus, Achilles is the greatest warrior to fight on the Greek side against Troy in the Trojan War. His mother, Thetis, fearing his death in the war, attempted to hide him when he was young on the island of Skyros, but he was discovered by Odysseus and went to Troy.
Admete – Daughter of Eurystheus, king of Tiryns, and Antimache. The name means ‘unwedded, unbroken’ in Greek.
Aella – One of Hippolyta’s band of fighters. Attested Amazon name (in Greek); means ‘whirlwind’.
Agamemnon – King of the Greeks and ruler of Mycenae, Agamemnon leads the expedition against Troy with his brother Menelaus.
*Agar – Amazon councillor. Attested Scythian name.
Aigle – The eldest of the Hesperides, guardians of the golden apples. The name means ‘light, radiance’.
Ajax – One of the Greek warriors and lord of Salamis.
Alcides – The name of Hercules before he was granted the title for completing his labours; it is a patronymic (derived from his father’s name), in this case from his grandfather Alcaeus, through his stepfather Amphitryon.
Alcmene – Wife of Amphitryon of Thebes and mother of Hercules by Zeus, who appeared to her in the guise of her husband.
Alexander – Son and heir of Eurystheus, king of Tiryns, and eldest brother of Admete; the names of Eurystheus’ sons are attested in Apollodorus.
Amphitryon – Step-father of Hercules and husband of Alcmene, Hercules’ mother.
Amycus – King of the Bebryces and adversary of Lycus, king of the Mariandyni.
Andromache – Princess of Thebe and daughter of King Eëtion, later wife of Hector. After the fall of Troy, she is taken prisoner by the Greeks and becomes a concubine of Achilles’ son, Neoptolemus.
Antandre – One of the band of twelve Amazons to accompany Hippolyta to Troy. Attested Amazon name (in Greek); means ‘instead of/against men’.
Antibrote – One of the band of twelve Amazons to accompany Hippolyta to Troy. Attested Amazon name (in Greek); means ‘instead of/against men’.
Antimache – Wife of King Eurystheus of Tiryns and mother of Admete; her name is given in Apollodorus.
Aphrodite – Goddess of love and sex, and winner of the golden apple in the Judgment of Paris.
Apia – Scythian goddess of Earth (equivalent to Greek Gaia), given in Herodotus.
Apollo – God of archery, medicine and healing, the sun, prophecy and poetry. Paeon was an epithet given to Apollo to describe him in his role as god of healing.
Ares – The god of war.
*Arga – Daughter of Iphito. Attested Scythian name.
Artemis – Goddess of hunting, the moon, childbirth and virginity; twin sister of Apollo.
Asteria – One of Hippolyta’s band of fighters. Attested Amazon name (in Greek); means ‘star’.
Athena – Goddess of wisdom and war; founder and patron goddess of Athens.
Atlas – Leader of the Titan gods, who bore the sky on his shoulders; father of the Hesperides.
Budini, the – An ancient Scythian tribe located by Herodotus north and east of the Tanais river (Scyth. Silis, modern Don), said to be a powerful nation characterized by their red hair and blue eyes.
Calliope – Muse of epic.
Cassandra – Daughter of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy.
Cayster – Son of Hippolyta and Achilles; traditionally the son of Penthesilea.
Clio – Muse of history.
Clonie – One of the band of twelve Amazons to accompany Hippolyta to Troy. Attested Amazon name (in Greek).
Deianeira – One of Hippolyta’s band of fighters. Attested Amazon name (in Greek); means ‘man-destroyer’.
Deiphobus – The second of King Priam’s sons, and husband of Helen after Paris dies.
Derinoe – One of the band of twelve Amazons to accompany Hippolyta to Troy. Attested Amazon name (in Greek).
Diomedes – One of the Greek heroes and lord of Argos.
*Elais – Greek priest-healer. Attested Greek name.
Erato – Muse of love poetry.
Euneos – Brother of Solois and Thoas of Athens. Companion of Hercules on the voyage for the war-belt of Hippolyta.
Eurybius – Son of Eurystheus, king of Tiryns, and brother of Admete; the names of Eurystheus’ sons are attested in Apollodorus.
Eurystheus – King of Tiryns and father of Admete; sets the twelve labours for Hercules.
Euterpe – Muse of song and lyric poetry.
Evandre – One of the band of twelve Amazons to accompany Hippolyta to Troy. Attested Amazon name (in Greek); means ‘brave, prosperous’.
Fates, the – Three goddesses whose task was to spin the thread of human life.
Harmothoe – One of the band of twelve Amazons to accompany Hippolyta to Troy. Attested Amazon name (in Greek).
Hector – Eldest son of King Priam of Troy and husband of Andromache.
Hecuba – Wife of King Priam of Troy and mother of Hector, Deiphobus, Aeneas, Paris, Troilus and Cassandra.
Helen – Daughter of Zeus and Leda; her step-father is Tyndareus of Sparta. Originally Helen of Sparta, she becomes Helen of Troy after she departs for Troy with Paris, prince of Troy, thus setting in motion the events of the Trojan War.
Hephaestus – The lame craftsman god and husband of Aphrodite.
Hera – Queen of the gods and wife of Zeus, Hera is angered with Hercules as Zeus’ son by the mortal woman Alcmene. Goddess of marriage and childbirth.
Hercules – Son of Zeus and Alcmene, and hero of the twelve labours; his step-father is Amphitryon of Thebes. The name (Heracles) means ‘glory of Hera’ in Greek.
Hermes – The son of Zeus and Maia, Hermes is the messenger god and god of tricks and thievery.
Hesperides, the – Daughters of Atlas and Evening (Hesperis), these three nymphs dwell in their garden at the edge of the world tending the mythical golden apples.
Hialeans, the – see Glossary of Places s.v. Hylaea
Hippolyta – Queen of the Amazons, daughter of Marpesia and sister of Orithyia and Melanippe. The name means ‘horse-releaser’ in Greek.
Hippothoe – One of the band of twelve Amazons to accompany Hippolyta to Troy. Attested Amazon name (in Greek); means ‘swift horse’.
Idaeus – Trojan herald of Priam.
*Ioxeia – Amazon healer and councillor. Attested Amazon name (in Greek).
Iphimedon – Son of Eurystheus, king of Tiryns, and brother of Admete; the names of Eurystheus’ sons are attested in Apollodorus.
*Iphito – Amazon councillor. Attested Scythian name.
Iris – Messenger goddess for Hera and goddess of the rainbow; daughter of the sea god Thaumas and the nymph Electra.
*Laodamas – Greek priest-healer. Attested Greek name.
Lycus – King of Mysia, at whose court (according to Apollodorus) Hercules stopped on his way to the war-belt of Hippolyta.
*Lysippe – Daughter of Admete and Proetus. Attested Amazon name (in Greek); it means ‘horse-releaser’, the same as ‘Hippolyta’.
Machaon – Healer of the Greeks in the Trojan War.
Marpesia – Mother of Hippolyta, Melanippe and Orithyia. The name is taken from one of the early Amazon queens, given in Justin; her daughters are traditionally Orithyia and Antiope.
Melanchlaeni – see Glossary of Places s.v. Melanchlaeni, Land of the
Melanippe – Sister of Hippolyta. The name means ‘black horse’ in Greek.
Melpomene – Muse of tragedy.
Menelaus – Lord of Sparta and brother of King Agamemnon of Mycenae. Menelaus was originally married to Helen before s
he left for Troy with Paris, and sails back to Sparta with Helen after the capture of Troy.
Mentor – Son of Eurystheus, king of Tiryns, and brother of Admete; the names of Eurystheus’ sons are attested in Apollodorus.
Muses, the – The nine goddesses of poetry and song, daughters of Zeus and the goddess Memory.
Nestor – A Greek noble and lord of Pylos.
Odysseus – Lord of Ithaca and husband of Penelope, known for his cunning. He discovers Achilles hiding on the island of Skyros and persuades him to fight in the Trojan War.
Orithyia – Sister of Hippolyta.
Panasagoras – Son of Sagylus and leader of the Saka tribes in alliance with Melanippe; the name is given in Diodorus and Justin.
Paris – A son of King Priam and Queen Hecuba, Paris was chosen by Zeus to judge the beauty contest over the golden apple. He was sent soon after on the embassy to Lord Menelaus of Sparta, along with his elder brother, Hector, where he stole Menelaus’ wife Helen and took her back to Troy with him.
Perimedes – Son of Eurystheus, king of Tiryns, and brother of Admete; the names of Eurystheus’ sons are attested in Apollodorus.
*Perses – Brother of Sthenelus of Paros. Companion of Hercules on the voyage for the war-belt of Hippolyta. Although Perses is not listed among the companions of Hercules, he was reputedly (according to Herodotus and Apollodorus) the founder of the Persians.
Podalirius – Healer of the Greeks in the Trojan War.
Polemusa – Daughter of Toxis; one of the band of twelve Amazons to accompany Hippolyta to Troy. Attested Amazon name (in Greek); means ‘warlike’.