HERCULES 



2780 



HERCULES 



When his education was completed he went 

 forth into the world, and in the course of time 

 was happily married to Megara, daughter of 

 Creon, king of Thebes. While he was enjoy- 

 ing a peaceful and prosperous life, Hera, still 

 his bitter enemy, caused him to be seized with 

 madness, and in this condition he killed his 

 wife and three children. When he regained 

 his reason he suffered untold agony and re- 

 morse for his terrible deed, to atone for which 

 he offered his services to his cousin Eurystheus, 

 king of Argus. Twelve mighty labors were 

 imposed by his royal master as deeds of atone- 

 ment. Says Theocritus: 



Unto this thy son it shall be given 

 With his broad heart to win his way to heaver ; 

 Twelve labors shall he work ; and all accurst 

 And brutal things o'erthrow, brute men the worst. 



The Twelve Labors. (1) The first labor was 

 the destruction of a bloodthirsty lion which had 

 made its lair in the Nemean Forest. Boldly en- 

 tering the den of the monster, he grasped it by 

 the throat and strangled it to death, after which 

 he made for himself a coat of its shaggy skin. 



(2) For his second task he slew the Hydra, a 

 seven-headed serpent that was ravaging the 

 marshes of Lerna (see HYDRA). 



' (3) The third labor imposed by Eurystheus 

 was the capture of the golden-horned stag of 

 Cerynea, Whose brazen feet carried him along so 

 swiftly they seemed, scarcely to touch the ground. 

 Hercules overtook this fleet animal after a long, 

 weary chase, but succeeded in capturing him only 

 by driving him into a far northern snowdrift from 

 which he could not make his escape. 



(4) The capture of the wild boar of Eryman- 

 thus, in Arcadia, was his fourth desperate adven- 

 ture. In the midst of this labor he was attacked 

 by the centaurs, whom he vanquished by turning 

 upon them his death-bringing arrows. 



(5) Hercules was next commanded to cleanse 

 the stables of Augeas, king of Elis, to accomplish 

 which he used, the rushing torrent of the River 

 Alpheus. 



(6) For his sixth task he was sent forth to 

 slay the brazen-clawed birds that hovered over 

 the waters of Lake Stymphalus, and that ate of 

 human flesh. With his poisoned arrows he de- 

 stroyed the entire flock of these savage birds. 



(7) His seventh labor was the capture of a 

 mad bull given by Neptune to Minos, king of 

 Crete, which in its frenzy was laying waste the 

 entire island. 



(8) He next journeyed to Thrace, whose king, 

 Diomedes, owned a number of beautiful horses 

 that fed on human flesh. As his eighth labor 

 Hercules delivered these fearful steeds to Eurys- 

 theus. 



( 9 ) On his ninth adventure he visited the coun- 

 try of the Amazons (which see), to obtain for 

 the daughter of Eurystheus the girdle worn by 

 the Amazon queen, Hippolyta. This prize he bore 

 away only after he had fought and defeated the 

 warlike race of women, who were misled by Hera 

 into believing that the hero had come to kidnap 

 their queen. 



(10) His tenth task was the capture of the 

 oxen of Geryon, a creature with three bodies who 

 made his home in the island of Erythea. This 

 island lay far to the west, bathed in the light 

 of the setting sun, and to reach it Hercules had 

 to pass through many different countries. When 

 he came to the frontiers of Libya and Europe, he 

 raised as memorials of his journey the two moun- 

 tains of Abyla and Calpe, the famous Pillars of 

 Hercules (see GIBRALTAR ; HERCULES, PILLARS OF). 

 On reaching Erythea, he slew the warders of 

 the oxen, the giant Eurytion and his two-headed 

 dog, and bore his trophies back in triumph to 

 Eurystheus. 



(11) Even more difficult than this was the 

 eleventh labor, the seizure of the golden apples of 

 the Hesperides (which see). To secure these he 

 must needs ask the help of Atlas, father of the 

 Hesperides, who 



With head inclined and ever-during arms, 



Sustains the spacious heavens. 

 Hercules himself bore on his shoulders the 

 mighty burden while Atlas plucked the glittering 

 fruit from the gardens ( see ATLAS ) . 



(12) His final task was the most difficult of all, 

 the descent into the realm of Pluto, the god of the 

 lower world, to bring up the dog Cerberus, grim 

 guardian of Hades (see CERBERUS). When he laid 

 the ferocious monster at the feet of Eurystheus, 

 that king fled in terror and hid himself in a huge 

 jar. 



After His Atonement. When all his labors 

 were completed the hero wandered forth to 

 enjoy the happiness of long-desired freedom. 

 Too soon, however, was he forced to return 

 to bondage, for, having slain his friend Iphitus 

 in a fit of anger, he was condemned to serve 

 Omphale, queen of Lydia, for a period of three 

 years. Omphale clad herself in his lion's skin 

 and made her hero-slave dress in a woman's 

 garb, while with awkward hands he worked at 

 spinning. 



After he had been released from the Lydian 

 queen, he married Deianira, who accompanied 

 him in his wanderings. One day they came to 

 a rapidly-flowing stream, across which Deianira 

 was carried by the centaur, Nessus. The cen- 

 taur, on reaching the opposite shore, started 

 to run away with his fair burden, and Hercules, 

 hearing her cries, shot her captor with one of 

 his poisoned arrows. Nessus, with his dying 

 breath, bade Deianira dip in his blood a robe 

 of Hercules, which he said would bring back 

 her husband's love if ever it wandered from 

 her. 



When, some time later, she became jealous 

 of lole, a captive maiden, she unwittingly sent 

 to Hercules the robe, poisoned with the blood 

 of Nessus. The hero at once put it on, and 

 as the poison penetrated his body, in a frenzy 

 of pain he tried to wrench away the garment, 

 but only tore off great pieces of his own flesh. 



