GRECIAN MYTHOLOGY. 139 
deed, of which we briefly mention his combat with Echidna, who had 
stolen his horses whilst he was asleep, his war with the giants, and his 
contest with Apollo for the tripod, which he wanted in order to establish 
an oracle of his own. At length Zeus succeeded in appeasing the wrath 
of Hera. No longer instigated to activity by the dangers she had thrown 
in his way, he grew weary of life, and erected a huge pyre on Mount Attna 
on which he placed himself and ordered his friends to light it; but they 
refused, and he then bribed the shepherd Pozas to do it by giving him 
his arrows. Scarcely had the flame enveloped the pyre when a cloud 
descended from heaven, which caught up the hero and bore him to Olym- 
pos, where he was received into the circle of the gods and was married to 
Hera’s daughter Hebe. 
The whole myth of Hercules is obviously the symbolical account of the 
progress of civilization through the energy, strength, and virtue of man, for 
he prepares the land for cultivation by destroying the wild beasts which 
infest it; he shows the way to navigation by crossing and re-crossing the 
ocean and by his intercourse with many different races ; and he directs the 
mind of man to the divine being, as the source of all success, by erecting 
altars and arranging worship. 
At a time when lasciviousness and effeminacy had polluted the minds 
of Grecian poets, a number of degrading adventures were connected with 
the name of Heracles, which, however, are so foreign to the fundamental 
idea of this mythological figure, that we merely allude to the fact without 
giving room to the accounts in our pages. 
The artistical representations of Heracles are always of colossal propor- 
tions, expressive of the greatest imaginable degree of human strength. 
His features are usually serious, but calm and mild withal, as it behoves 
a stern, awe-inspiring, but worthy and great character, who is above the 
common meanness of man. His attributes are the club and the lion’s skin, 
which constitutes his only clothing. We have copied (pl. 15, jig. 24) the 
statue of the Tyrrhenian Heracles. Other representations of this hero will 
be found in the division of our plates devoted to Sculpture, as he was 
at all times a favorite subject for plastic representation. 
6. CEpreous (CEdipus) was the son of Lazos, King of Thebes, and was 
celebrated not less for his misfortunes than for his exploits. An oracle had 
informed his father that the son of his wife /ocaste would slay him; and to 
avert such a fate he had him exposed soon after his birth on Mount 
Citheron. Before sending him away he had his ankles pierced and a 
leathern thong inserted in the wounds, whence his name (swollen foot). 
A neatherd found him and presented him to the childless Polybos, King 
of Corinth, who adopted him as his heir. When he grew up and learned 
that he was not the king’s son, he inquired who were his parents, but 
failing to receive satisfaction he repaired to the oracle at Delphi. The 
response was: “ Avoid thy home, if thou wouldst not murder thy father 
and marry thy mother!” To escape such a calamity he resolved to 
abandon Corinth, which he regarded as his native place, and make Thebes 
his home. His father Laios happened to be on the way to consult the 
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