§01 
HERC1 
others, by (lightly wounding it, and tefiening its fwift- 
nefs. As he returned vidtorious, Diana (hatched the 
doe from him, and fever el y reprimanded him for mo- 
lerting an animal which was facred to her. Hercules 
pleaded necefiity, and, by Teprefenting the commands of 
Euryftheus/ he appeafed the goddefs, and obtained the 
head.—For his fifth labour he was ordered to kill the 
■carnivorous birds which ravaged the country near the 
lake Stymphalis in Arcadia.—In his fixth labour Her. 
icules was ordered to cleanfe the- (tables of Atigeus, 
where 3000 oxen had been confined for many years.— 
In his feventh labour he brought alive into Pelopon- 
mefus a prodigious wild bull, which laid wafte the ifland 
.of Crete.—In his eighth labour he was employed in 
Seizing the mares of Diomedes, which fed upon human 
flerti. He killed Diomedes, and gave him to be eaten 
by his mares, which he brought to Euryltheus. They 
were Cent to mount Olympus by the king of Mycenae, 
where they were devoured by the wild beads ; or, ac¬ 
cording to others, they were confecrated to Jupiter, and 
their breed (till exifted in the age of Alexander the 
Great.—-For his ninth labour he was commanded to go 
on-board the Argo in queft of the golden fleece, and 
bring home the girdle of thexjueen of the Amazons.— 
In his tenth labour he killed the monrter Geryon, king 
of Gades, and brought to Argos his numerous flocks 
which fed upon human flefli.—The eleventh labour 
was to conquer the three-headed dog Cerberus.—The 
twelfth labour was to obtaimapples from the garden of 
the Hefperides, which was guarded by a dragon.—Be- 
lides thefe arduous labours, which the jealoufy of Eu- 
ryrtheus had impofedupon him, he alfo achieved others 
of his own accord, equally great and celebrated. jHe 
accompanied the Argonauts to Colchisj before he deli¬ 
vered himfelf up to the king of Mycenae. He aflifled 
the gods in their wars againft the giants ; and i^ was 
through him alone that Jupiter obtained a viftory, He 
conquered Laomedon, and pillaged Troy. 
When Iole, the daughter of Eurytus, king of (Echa- 
lia, of whom he was deeply enamoured, was refufed to 
his entreaties, he became the prey of a fecond fit of 
infanity, and he murdered Iphitus, the only one of the 
fons of Eurytus who favoured his addreffes to his fifter. 
He was fome time after purified of the murder, and his 
infanity ceafed; but the gods perfecuted him the more, 
and he was vifited by a diforder which obliged him to 
apply to the oracle of Delphi for relief. The coldnefs 
with which the Pythia anfwered his enquiries, irritated 
him ; and he refolved to plunder Apollo’s temple, and 
carry away the (acred tripod. Apollo oppofed him, 
and a fevere conflict was begun, which nothing but the 
interference of Jupiter with his thunderbolts could have 
prevented. He was upon this told by the oracle, that 
he mult be fold as a (lave, and remain three years in the 
moft abjedt fervitude, to recover from his diforder. He 
complied, and Mercury, by order of Jupiter, conducted 
him to Omphale, queen of Lydia, to whom he was fold 
as a flave. Here he cleared all the country from rob¬ 
bers, and Omphale, who was aftoni(hed at the greatnefs 
ef his exploits, reftored him to liberty, and married 
him. Hercules had Agelaus, and Lamon according to 
others, by Omphale, from whom Crcefus, king of Lydia, 
was defcended. He became alfo enamoured of one of 
Omphale’s female Servants, by whom he.had Alceus. 
After he had completed the years of his flavery, he re¬ 
turned to Peloponnefus, where he re-eftabli(hed on the 
throne of Sparta Tyndarus, who had been expelled by 
Hippocoon. He became one of Dejanira’s fuitors, and 
married her, after he had overcome all his rivals. He 
was obliged to leave Calydon, his father-in-law’s king¬ 
dom, becaufe he had inadvertently killed a man with a 
blow of his fill; and it was on account of this expulfion 
that he was not prefent at the hunting of the Calydo- 
nian boar. From Calydon he retired to the court of 
Ceyx, king of Tracbinia. In his way he was flopped 
U L E & 
by the fwollen dreams of the Everuts, where the centaur 
NefTus attempted to offer violence to DHanir-a, under 
the perfidious pretence of conveying her over the river. 
Hercules perceived the diftvefs of Dejanira, and killed 
the centaur, who as he expired -gave her a tunic, which, 
as he obferved, had the power of recalling a hufband 
from unlawful love. Ceyx, kingof Trachinia, received 
him and his wife with great marks of friend (hip, and 
purified him of the murder which he had committed at 
Calydon. Hercules was (fill mindful that he had once 
been refufed the hand 'of Iole ; he therefore made war 
againft.her father Eurytus, and killed him, with three' 
of his fons. Iole fell into the hands of her father’s 
murderer, and found that fire was loved by Hercules as 
much as before. She accompanied him to mount CSta, 
where he was goiftg to raife an altar, and ofter a folemn 
facrifice to Jupiter. As he had not then the tunic in 
which he arrayed himfelf to offer a facr'ifice, he fent 
Lichas to Dejanira, in order to provide himfelf a proper 
drefs. Dejanira, informed of her hufband’s tender at¬ 
tachment to Iole, fent him the tunic which fhe had re¬ 
ceived from NefTus; and Hercules, as foon as he had' 
put it on, fell into a defperate diftefhper, and found the 
poifon of the Lernaean hydra penetrate through his bones.. 
He attempted to pull off the fatal drefs, but it was too 1 
late, and in the midft of his pains and tortures lie in¬ 
veighed in the mod bitter imprecations againrt the credu¬ 
lous Dejanira, the cruelty of Euryftheus, and the jealoufy 
and hatred of Juno. As the diftemper was incurable, he 
itnplored the proteftion of Jupiter, and gave his bow 
and arrows to Philodietes, and eredted a large burning 
pile on the top of mount (Eta. He fpread on the pile 
the (kin of the Nemaean lion, and laid himfelf down 
upon it as on a bed, leaning his.head on his club. Phi- 
lodletes, or, according to others, Paean or Hyllus. was 
ordered to fet fire to the pile, and the hero law himfelf 
on a fudden furrounded with the flames,, without be¬ 
traying any marks of fear or aftonifliment. Jupiter faw 
it from heaven, and told to the-furrounding gods that 
he would raife to the (kies the immortal parts of a hero 
who had cleared the earth from fo many monfters and 
tyrants. The gods applauded Jupiter’s refolution, the 
burning pile was fuddenly furrounded with a dark fmoke, 
and after the mortal parts of Hercules were coni'umed, 
he was carried up to heaven in a chariot drawn by four 
horfes. Some loud claps of thunder accompanied his 
elevation, and his friends, unable to find either his bones 
or a(hes, (howed their gratitude to his memory by railing; 
an altar where, the burning pile had flood. Mencetius, 
the fon of Aftor, offered him a (acrifice of a bull, a 
wild boar, and a goat, and enjoined the people of Opus 
yearly to obferve the fame religious ceremonies. His 
worlhip foon became as univerfal as his fame; and Junes,, 
who had once perfecuted him withfuch inveterate fury, 
forgot her refentment, and gave him her daughter Hebe 
in marriage. 
Hercules, thus immortalized, received many furnames 
and epithets, either from the places where his worflnp 
was eftablirtied, or from the labours which he achievtd. 
His temples were numerous and magnificent, and his 
divinity revered. Ntrdogs or flies ever entered his tem¬ 
ple, at Rome; and that of Gades, according to Strabo, 
was always forbidden to women and pigs. The Phoeni¬ 
cians offered quails on his altars; and, as it was fuppofed 
that he prelided over dreams, the fick and infirm were 
(ent to Sleep in his temples, that they might receive in 
their dreams the agreeable preiages of their approach¬ 
ing recovery. The white poplar was particularly dedi¬ 
cated to his (ervice. Hercules is generally represented: 
-naked, with ftrong and well-proportioned limbs; he is 
lometimes covered with the -Ikin of the Neir.asan lion, 
and holds a knotted club in his hand, on which he oiten 
leans. Sometimes he appears crowned with the leaves 
of the poplar, and holding the horn of plenty under his 
arm. At other titles lie is represented (landing with- 
Cupid,, 
