HISTORY OF GREECE. 



sent two serpents to destroy him in his cradle, 

 but the infant hero strangled them with his hands. 

 As he grew up, he was sent to tend Amphitryon's 

 cattle ; a huge lion made great havoc among 

 them, and Hercules, slaying him, wore the skin 

 ever afterwards as his ordinary garment, and the 

 mouth and head as his helmet. The gods made 

 him presents of arms, and he usually carried an 

 immense club. After various adventures, he was 

 instructed by the oracle of Delphi to live at 

 Tiryns, and serve Eurystheus for twelve years, 

 after which he should become immortal. Hence 

 the twelve labours, performed at the bidding of 

 Eurystheus. 



In these are realised the great objects of all 

 ancient heroism the destruction of monstrous evils, 

 and the acquisition of wealth and power. Such was 

 the overthrow of the Nemean lion and the Lernean 

 hydra; the seizure of the girdle of Mars from 

 Hippolyte, queen of the Amazons ; and the bear- 

 ing away of the golden apples of the Hesperides, 

 guarded by a hundred-headed dragon. But in the 

 case of Hercules, we perceive human faults which 

 demanded expiation. Having slain his friend 

 Iphitus, he was smitten with sickness, from which 

 he obtained deliverance only on condition of 

 another servitude ; in which he became the slave 

 of Omphale, queen of Lydia, and spun wool with 

 a distaff. The time of this servitude having 

 expired, he undertook various warlike adventures, 

 and married Deianira, whose jealousy became the 

 cause of his death. Fearing that she might be 

 superseded in his affection by lole, a maiden 

 whom he had captured, Deianira steeped a tunic 

 in a liquid which she believed would secure his 

 regards to herself. This was, however, a deadly 

 poison ; and no sooner had the hero put it on, 

 than he was seized with excruciating pains. In 

 vain he strove to wrench it off; it stuck to his 

 flesh, which tore away with it. Willing to hasten 

 his end, Hercules ascended Mount CEta, raised a 

 pile of wood, placed himself on it, and directed it 

 to be set on fire. While it was burning, a cloud 

 came from heaven, and carried him to Olympus, 

 where he was made immortal, was reconciled to 

 Juno, and received her daughter Hebe in mar- 

 riage. He was consequently worshipped through- 

 out Greece both as a god and a hero. 



After the death and apotheosis of Hercules, his 

 children were persecuted by Eurystheus ; the 

 Athenians offered them shelter, and Eurystheus 

 invaded Attica, but perished in the enterprise. 

 His sons fell with him, so that the Heracleids were 

 now the only representatives of Perseus. They 

 made an effort to recover their rightful posses- 

 sions, but were met at the isthmus by the combined 

 forces of the lonians, Achasans, and Arcadians, 

 then inhabiting Peloponnesus. Hyllus, the eldest 

 of the sons of Hercules, proposed to determine the 

 contest by single combat, the condition being, 

 that if he were victorious, the Heracleids should 

 be restored ; but if vanquished, they should forego 

 their claim for a hundred years. Echemus, the 

 hero of Tegea, accepted the challenge, and Hyllus 

 was slain, in consequence of which the Heracleids 

 retired, and resided with the Dorians, under the 

 protection of ^Cgimius, the son of Dorus, till the 

 stipulated period of time had expired. 



The great Attic hero was Theseus, a contem- 

 porary and relative of Hercules, whose exploits he 

 imitated. The Amazons a race of female war- 



riorshad scarcely recovered from the aggressions 

 of Hercules, when Theseus attacked and defeated 

 them, carrying off their queen, Antiope, which 

 injury they avenged by invading Attica. They 

 crossed the Cimmerian Bosporus on the winter 

 ice, and penetrated even into Athens, where, after 

 a desperate struggle, they were finally overcome 

 by Theseus. The sepulchral edifice called the 

 Amazonian, the tomb or pillar of Antiope, and 

 the sacrifices which were offered to the Amazons 

 at the periodical festival of the Theseia, were all 

 so many religious mementoes of the victory. 



Another famous adventure of Theseus was con- 

 nected with the Minotaur. Minos, the ruler of 

 Cnossus, in Crete, and his brother Rhadamanthus, 

 were sons of Jupiter by Europa, daughter of the 

 Phoenix. Androgeos, the son of Minos, having 

 vanquished all competitors at an Athenian festival, 

 was induced to contend with the bull of Marathon, 

 and perished. Minos made war upon Athens, to 

 avenge his death, and Jupiter sent pestilence and 

 famine into the city. The Athenians were at 

 length obliged to accept peace on any terms ; 

 and Minos required that seven youths and seven 

 maidens should be sent to Crete every ninth year, 

 to be devoured by a monster, half-bull, half-man, 

 in a labyrinth, out of which no one could find a 

 passage. The third period for despatching victims 

 had arrived, and Theseus, craving the aid of Nep- 

 tune, and receiving assurance that Venus would 

 extricate him, offered himself as one of the four- 

 teen. On his arrival at Cnossus, he at once capti- 

 vated the affections of Ariadne, the daughter of 

 Minos, who furnished him with a sword, with 

 which he killed the Minotaur, and a clue of thread, 

 by which he retraced his way out of the labyrinth. 

 This done, he set sail from Crete with his com- 

 panions, carrying off Ariadne also. On his way 

 home, he stopped at Delos, to offer a grateful 

 sacrifice to Apollo for his escape. It had been 

 agreed between him and his father, that if he 

 returned in safety, he should hoist white sails, 

 instead of the black ones usually carried on this 

 mournful embassy ; but Theseus forgot to make 

 the change ; and his father watching the returning 

 ship, and concluding that his son had perished, 

 threw himself into the sea. The ship was care- 

 fully preserved by the Athenians, being constantly 

 repaired with new timbers down to the time of 

 Phalereus Demetrius ; and every year she was 

 sent to Delos with special envoys and a solemn 

 sacrifice. During her absence, the city was held 

 to abstain from all acts of public impurity, so that 

 no one might be put to death even under judicial 

 sentence till its return. 



Besides the legends of individual heroism, there 

 were a number of collective exploits and expedi- 

 tions, of which we can afford to notice only two 

 the Argonautic Expedition, and most famous of 

 all, the siege and capture of Troy. 



THE ARGONAUTIC EXPEDITION. 



During the age of Hercules, Jason, a prince of 

 Thessaly, undertook an enterprise, afterwards cele- 

 brated as the Argonautic Expedition. jEson, his 

 uncle, had usurped his throne, and consented to 

 restore it only on condition that Jason should 

 bring from /Ea. (Colchis), a region on the east of 

 the Black Sea, a golden fleece, which was then 

 hanging on a tree in the grove of Mars, guarded 



