HERACLES.

1. _The War with the Teleboae._

Perseus had been dead a long time, and his son Electryon who succeeded him as king was already an old man, when a dispute arose between him and a nephew of his named Pterelaus. Pterelaus was king of the Teleboae, who lived on several islands, and he maintained that he had a better right to the cities of Mycenae and Tiryns than Electryon, because he was descended from the eldest son of Perseus; and one day he sent his sons, and many of the Teleboae with them, in ships to Mycenae, and told them to say to Electryon that he must be prepared to give up the kingdom to him. Electryon was very angry, and sent the Teleboae away without paying any attention to their message. They left the city, but on their way back to their ships they came upon the king's droves of cattle which were tended by his sons and servants, and they began to fight with them, and the fight did not stop till all the sons of Electryon were killed but one, and also all the sons of Pterelaus except one, who had remained behind with the ships and had taken no part in the fight. The Teleboae had however got rather the best {105} of it, and those of them who were left drove the cattle to their ships and sailed away. Some time afterwards it happened that Electryon got back his cattle, for the Teleboae had given them as a present to a king who paid them to him for ransom; but the cattle could not make up for the loss of his sons for whom he grieved bitterly, and he determined to be revenged on Pterelaus and told his servants to prepare to start with him for the islands of the Teleboae.

There was at that time at Mycenae a young hero named Amphitryon, who had come to ask for the hand of Electryon's daughter Alcmene in marriage, and it was arranged that he should have charge of the kingdom during the absence of Electryon. But one day, just before the king was to start on his expedition, it happened that he was overlooking his flocks with Amphitryon, when the young hero threw his stick at a cow that was leaving the herd, and the stick bounded back by accident from the cow's horns and hit the aged Electryon on the head, so that he was killed instantly. Amphitryon was obliged to leave the kingdom on account of this unintentional murder, and he went to Thebes, where King Creon purged him from the stain of blood by means of numerous sacrifices. During his absence, however, a brother of Electryon, named Sthenelus, contrived to gain possession of the kingdom for himself, and to banish the two children of Electryon,--his daughter Alcmene, and the one son who had not been killed by the Teleboae. They were obliged to give way to Sthenelus, who was stronger than they, and came to live in Thebes where Amphitryon was, but Alcmene said that though she loved him she would never marry {106} him till he had avenged the murder of her brothers. Amphitryon accordingly prepared to march against the Teleboae, and sought to find brave heroes who would consent to go with him.

He first of all asked King Creon for his help, but Creon was just then in great trouble at home, for a fox had for some time taken up his abode in the fortress Cadmea, and had devoured numbers of people; he was under the protection of the gods, and it had been decreed by the Fates that he should never be caught. So the Thebans, finding that they could not get rid of him, had made a truce with him by which they agreed to give him a boy every month to devour, and on this condition he spared the rest of the people. Creon therefore promised to go with Amphitryon if he would first help him to deliver the country from the terrible fox. Now Amphitryon had heard that there was a wonderful dog in Athens which was also under the protection of the gods, and that it had been decreed that nothing that he pursued would ever escape him; so he went to the hero who owned the dog, and promised him a share of the spoil which he hoped to bring back from the islands of the Teleboae if he would lend him the dog for a time, and the hero agreed to do so. Amphitryon took the dog back to Thebes and set out with him in pursuit of the fox, and the dog ran after him as fast as lightning. The Thebans thought that now one or other of the prophecies must prove false; either the fox who was never to be caught would be overtaken, or the dog who was never to pursue in vain would be battled. But when the dog had got so close to the fox that he was on the point of snapping at him, they both {107} remained motionless, and the Thebans saw that they had been turned to stone.

Then Creon said that he was quite willing to accompany Amphitryon, and the hero of Athens agreed to go also, and many other heroes, and they all embarked for the islands of the Teleboae, but they could not conquer King Pterelaus, for he had many soldiers and knew well the art of war. The daughter of Pterelaus, however, had seen Amphitryon from the city walls and had conceived a great love for him which made her secretly sorry when the Teleboae conquered, and glad when one day they were the losers; and she resolved to betray her father and her fellow-citizens into the hands of Amphitryon, because she thought that if she helped him to gain the victory, he would feel grateful to her and would make her his wife. Now Pterelaus was immortal through the good-will of Poseidon, who had given him a golden hair which he kept carefully hidden away under his grey locks, for it had the power of keeping him alive. But one day while he was asleep, his daughter came in on tiptoe, sought for the golden hair and pulled it out,--and immediately his breath stopped short, and Pterelaus was dead.

The Teleboae could no longer resist their enemies now that they were deprived of the advice of their wise king, and in a short time Amphitryon had gained possession of the chief town and of all the islands, and had avenged upon the Teleboae the slaughter of the sons of Electryon. The daughter of Pterelaus thought that she would now be the wife of Amphitryon, but things turned out very differently from her expectations, for as soon as Amphitryon saw her, he drew his sword and {108} stabbed her; he knew that she had killed her father, but he did not know why she had done so. Then the heroes carried the booty to their ships and sailed away home.

2. _The Birth and Youth of Heracles._

Alcmene was so very beautiful that Zeus, the king of the gods, loved her, and when Amphitryon was far away with the other heroes, Zeus took his form and went to Alcmene. He acted and spoke just like Amphitryon, and told her all about the battles and how they had won the victory, and he even showed her the helmets and shields of the Teleboae, for he had made Hermes, the messenger of the gods, steal them from the booty of Amphitryon. Alcmene had no suspicion that it was any other than her lover who had come back after fulfilling her wishes with regard to the Teleboae, and she promised to marry him that very day; and Zeus kissed her and became her husband. Some time after this, Amphitryon returned to Thebes and was very much astonished when Alcmene told him that she had already been married to him. They could not understand it, and asked the seer Tiresias what it meant. He told them that it was Zeus in the form of Amphitryon who had been with Alcmene, and the Theban women thought it was a great honour for her to have been married for a time to the king of the gods. The wedding was now celebrated over again, and all the heroes who had been to the war with the Teleboae feasted with Amphitryon and Alcmene till far into the night. Some time afterwards, Alcmene had two children whom she named Heracles and Iphicles; {109} one was the son of Zeus, and the other the son of Amphitryon. There was no difficulty in knowing which was the child of the god, for Heracles was far bigger than such young children usually are. Gods and men took pleasure in the fine strong child, all but the goddess Hera, who hated him, and even before his birth began to do all she could to injure him. Zeus had decreed that the next child born of the race of Perseus should rule over the cities of Mycenae and Tiryns, thinking that this would be Heracles, for Alcmene was the granddaughter of Perseus; but Hera persuaded the goddesses who arranged about the birth of children to let a son of Sthenelus, Alcmene's uncle, be born first. His father named him Eurystheus, and as he had been born before Heracles, he became king of the two cities of Mycenae and Tiryns after the death of Sthenelus.

Heracles was about eight months old, when one morning, just as it was beginning to grow light, Hera sent two great snakes into the room where he was sleeping, near the bed of Alcmene, in one of the shields which Amphitryon had brought back from the country of the Teleboae as part of the spoil. The snakes crept into the shield and began to twine themselves round the child. Just then Alcmene woke, and she jumped up and ran to call the people of the house to kill the snakes, though she was afraid it was even then too late, and that the child must have already been crushed to death by them. But when she came back with the others, she saw Heracles sitting up in the shield and holding one of the snakes in each hand; he had seized them each by the neck, and was squeezing them so tight that their tongues were hanging out, and very {110} soon they were dead. Then he threw them away and went to sleep again; and the Thebans knew that a mighty hero had been born in their city.

When Heracles grew older, he learned all the things that heroes need to know,--how to guide the war-chariot, how to use the spear and bow, and how to fight with the fist and the sword. He was taught all this by the noblest heroes, and also by a Centaur named Chiron, who, like all the Centaurs, had a curious form--half of their body was that of a man, and the other half that of a horse. Chiron had been specially gifted with immortality, and he was very wise, and taught Heracles many things, especially how to know the stars, and how to heal wounds, and he told him stories of the gods and of the old heroes.

Heracles could easily be distinguished from all other men, for when he was eighteen years old he measured eight feet in height, and he had marvellous strength, and his eyes glittered like coals of fire. He had moreover a generous nature, and was always ready to help all true and good men. Amphitryon made him keeper of his flocks which pastured on Mount Cithaeron, and never before had such a lordly herdsman been seen. It happened once that a lion took up his abode on the mountain, and broke in among the flocks, and Heracles thought to himself, 'If I were to kill the lion, my flocks would not only be able to feed in safety, but I should also get a handsome skin to dress myself in.' So he set out for the mountain-passes where the lion had his lair, armed with nothing but a strong stick and a knife. When he came to the lion's cave, the huge beast sprang out upon him, but Heracles gave him a {111} good blow on the nose which made him stagger back, and when he had nearly beaten him to death with his stick, he finally gave him a mortal blow with the knife. Then he sat down quietly, and cut open the body of the lion and took off the skin, which he put on as a cloak as soon as it was dry. The jaws covered his head like a helmet, while the rest of the skin fell from his shoulders to his knees, and he twisted the fore-feet into a knot over his chest in order to prevent the wind from blowing it off. In this fashion he came down from the mountain, and anyone who had seen him from behind would have thought that a lion had grown out of his shoulders. It never occurred to him, however, that he had done anything out of the way in killing the lion.

Some time afterwards, there came along the road some men who had been sent by Erginus, the king of the powerful Minyae, to demand tribute from the Thebans. Ten years before this a Theban had thrown a stone at the father of Erginus and hit him on the head, so that he was carried home dying. Before he expired he charged his son to avenge his blood, and Erginus made war upon the Thebans and killed a number of them. He had also made them give him a hundred cows every year for the last nine years, and the messengers were now on their way to fetch the tribute for the tenth time. Heracles asked them who they were and where they were going, and when he heard that they were the messengers of the Minyae, his blood boiled so that he grew quite red in the face, for it angered him to think that the city of Thebes, to which he himself belonged, should pay tribute to a foreign {112} king. He told the messengers to return and never come again, and when they refused to obey, he threw them on the ground, notwithstanding their numbers, and tied their hands behind their backs; then he cut off their ears and noses, and told them to take these to the king for tribute. Thus outraged, the messengers returned and entreated the king to avenge them, and Erginus swore that he would not leave a man alive in Thebes, nor one stone upon another. But Heracles went to Thebes and called the citizens to arms, saying that he would be their leader. The gods equipped him right gloriously for the fight: Hermes gave him a sword, Apollo a bow and arrows, Hephaestus trappings of pure gold, and Athene a coat of mail. But a sword was too light and delicate a weapon for the powerful hand of Heracles, so he went out into the forest and tore up a stout young oaktree, which he trimmed and used as a club. When the battle began, Heracles looked, in comparison with the Minyae, like a lion among a flock of sheep. He killed King Erginus and put his army to flight, and obliged the Minyae to give the Thebans two hundred cows every year tor the future. King Creon had a beautiful daughter named Megara, and he gave her to Heracles for a wife out of gratitude to him for having conquered the Minyae.

3. _The Madness of Heracles, and his First Six Labours._

Heracles loved his wife very dearly, and the gods sent them three beautiful children, all of whom were sons. They lived a peaceful and happy life together, Heracles went out hunting and killed wild beasts, and when he {113} came home he played with his children. But Hera still hated him, and she one day afflicted him with such terrible madness that in his delusion he seized his children and threw them into the fire, so that they perished miserably. When the madness left him he could hardly endure life, so distressed was he at what he had done, and he could not bear to remain in the place where such a misfortune had happened to him. He left Thebes and went, first of all, to a man who knew how to purge him from the stain of blood; then he betook himself to Delphi and asked the Pythia where he must live in the future. The Pythia answered, 'Go to Mycenae and serve King Eurystheus for twelve years; allow him to impose upon you twelve hard Labours, and accomplish these to the best of your power.' Heracles was well pleased with this sentence, and was quite willing to perform the most difficult tasks, even such as would be set him by a deadly enemy like Eurystheus who hated and feared Heracles, thinking that he would some day take away the kingdom from him because it had belonged to his own grandfather Electryon. Heracles went to Mycenae and said to Eurystheus that he would serve him for the space of twelve years, and that during that time he would accomplish any twelve tasks that Eurystheus might choose to set him. The king was very glad to hear this, and he at once commanded Heracles to bring him the skin of the Nemean lion, hoping that he would perish in trying to secure it.

The Nemean lion had his lair near the town of Nemea, and his fame had spread far and wide. He had never bled from a wound, for his skin was so thick that no steel could pierce it. Heracles set out in pursuit of {114} the lion, and when he had found him, he shot at him with his bow and arrows, but they bounded off as if from the hardest stone. Finding that the arrows were of no use, Heracles then attacked him with his club, but the lion did not care to fight with him and ran away into the thickest part of the forest. Heracles ran after him, and chased him from morning till night. At last he came to a great cave and ran in there. Heracles noticed that the cave had another mouth, and he thought to himself, 'If I were to go in after him, he would still be able to escape.' So he first of all brought stones and blocked up one of the entrances, while the lion, who had never run so far before in one day, lay quietly in the dark inside, tired and frightened, and then he went into the cave and wrestled with him. The roaring of the lion echoed horribly from the walls of the cave, but Heracles was not frightened, and he wound his arm round the neck of the beast and pressed him with all his might against his own body until he died. Heracles could not take off his skin for he had brought no knife with him, so he hoisted the whole lion on to his shoulders, and went back to Mycenae. When he threw the huge beast on to the ground before Eurystheus, the king turned pale for his bad conscience made him afraid, and he thought, 'If he can strangle a lion like this, he would certainly not find it difficult to make an end of me.' So he at once sent him off to perform his second Labour, which was to destroy the Lernean Hydra, and during his absence he had an iron room built under the earth that looked like a cage for wild beasts, for it had a grating of iron bars. This was for {115} Eurystheus to get into when Heracles came back, in order that he might speak to him through the grating, so terribly afraid was he of the strong man.

Heracles set out in a war chariot, taking with him his young cousin Iolaus as his charioteer, and they soon came to the marshy district near the town of Lerne, where the Hydra lived. The Hydra was a huge snake with one body and nine heads, the centre one of which was immortal. She devoured any men or beasts that came near her, and destroyed the fields of corn. She had her den in a cavern close by a clear running stream, and when Heracles and Iolaus arrived at the place, she was lying stretched out on the ground, for she had just swallowed a few cows. She looked at the heroes with all her staring eyes, but did not move, because she was not hungry. However Heracles did not care to wait, so he threw burning javelins at her, which scorched her skin and made her furious with pain. She crept out of the cavern and glided up a tall oak tree, and all her nine heads shot down venom at Heracles from above him. But Heracles was on the alert; he held his club in his right hand, and twined his left arm round the Hydra just at the place where the ninefold neck grew out of her body, and when she lashed her tail about, he pressed her still more tightly against himself, so that she would have been only too glad to run away if she could. Now the Hydra had formed a friendship with a great lobster, and he, seeing that his friend was in danger, crept up to Heracles and scratched his foot with his claws. But he got decidedly the worst of it, for Heracles smote his shell with his club and broke it into a thousand pieces, so that the {116} poor lobster died. Then Heracles heaved a mighty blow on one of the Hydra's nine heads and struck it off, but two new heads immediately sprang from the bleeding neck, and every time he smote off a head, two more sprang up to replace it. Heracles now saw that he must set to work in a different manner, so he told Iolaus to set the forest on fire, and to pass a piece of burning wood over each neck as soon as he had cut off the head. In this way all the roots from which the heads grew were burnt away, and Heracles was thus able to kill all the heads that were mortal. The last was immortal, but he hewed it off also, and buried it, and rolled a huge stone on to the top of it. After this, there came a rain which extinguished the burning forest. The gall of the Hydra was the worst poison in the world, so Heracles cut open the Hydra's body and dipped his arrows into the gall, which made them absolutely deadly: if a man were only scratched even, by an arrow poisoned in this way, he must die.

Eurystheus was in his cage when Heracles came back from his conflict with the Hydra, and he commanded him to catch the Ceryneian hind, and bring her alive to Mycenae. This hind was under the protection of Artemis the goddess of the chase, and was very beautiful: her coat was milk-white, and her horns were of the purest gold. She could run so fast that the wind was quite out of breath when he tried to race with her, and, after having run the whole day long, she would skip about quite merrily without being in the least tired. At the command of Eurystheus, Heracles gave chase to her, and they took neither rest nor food, nor did they need rain or sunshine, but ran on day and {117} night without stopping for a whole year. At last they came to a river, and while the hind was hesitating whether she should jump into it, Heracles quickly took an unpoisoned arrow and shot at her. The purple-red blood flowed out over her little white coat, and she groaned with pain. She forgot to run away, and Heracles was able to seize her. He had only wounded her slightly with the arrow because he did not want to do her any harm, and now he laid cooling herbs upon the wound, and placing the hind on his shoulder, he carried her to Mycenae, and as soon as Eurystheus had seen her, he set her free again and let her run back into the forest.

That was the third Labour of Heracles. For the fourth, Eurystheus commanded him to catch the Erymanthian boar alive. This boar lived on Mount Erymanthus, and no huntsman who had tried to kill him had ever come back alive, for the boar had always ripped open his body with his tusks.

On his way to Mount Erymanthus, Heracles came to the country of the Centaurs. They were a savage, unfriendly race, who had no regard for the duties of hospitality; but one of them, named Pholus, was better than the others, and he gave Heracles shelter in his cave. He made a fire and roasted a calf for his guest, but he himself ate raw meat as he was accustomed to do. Heracles enjoyed his meal very much for the long journey had made him hungry, and as he was also thirsty, he asked the Centaur for a draught of wine. Pholus said, 'It is true that I have a great cask of wine in my cave, but it belongs to all the Centaurs in common, and if they knew that you had drunk any of it, they {118} might kill you.' But Heracles said he was not afraid, so Pholus rolled out the cask and drew some wine from it. But the wine had such a strong odour that the Centaurs smelt it, and they all came to the cavern with clubs and spears to kill Heracles. At first he defended himself with firebrands only, as he did not wish to do more than drive them away, but finding that they would not leave him alone, he seized his bow and shot at them with the poisoned arrows, and everyone who was hit fell down dead. When the others saw that, they took to flight, but Heracles had by this time grown furious, and vowing that he would not leave one of them alive, he pursued them, and they could not escape from his arrows. In their distress they ran to the wise Centaur Chiron who had been the teacher of Heracles, and embraced his knees, entreating him to ask Heracles to have mercy on them. But Heracles would not stop shooting, and only took care not to hit Chiron, and his eye was so true that he could be sure of hitting nothing that he did not aim at. But an arrow went right through the arm of one of the Centaurs who had embraced Chiron's knees, and its point grazed his skin. Heracles was very much distressed, he threw his bow down on the ground, and ran to get herbs that heal poisonous wounds. But no herb had any power to heal the Hydra's poison, and Chiron suffered horrible torture, so that his immortality was a burden to him. Then he prayed to Zeus to take away his immortality, and Zeus heard him and allowed him to die. But Heracles did not stay with him till his death, for he was now more angry with the Centaurs than ever, and he ran after them and overtook them. They would all {119} have perished if Poseidon had not had pity on them and caused a wall of granite to spring up suddenly out of the earth round the Centaurs to protect them from him. Then Heracles was obliged to leave them, and he turned back and went on his way with a heavy heart, full of sad thoughts about Chiron. As soon as he was out of sight, the wall sank back into the earth, and the Centaurs were able to go home in peace.

When Heracles reached the foot of Mount Erymanthus he prepared a noose in which to catch the wild boar, and soon afterwards he saw him sharpening his tusks against an oak tree. Heracles raised a cry which made the whole forest echo, and the strong boar took to flight. It was winter, and the upper part of the mountain was covered with deep snow. Heracles chased the boar up the mountain till he had driven him into a snow-field, through which the wild beast plodded panting, till he was quite tired out and could go no further, and then Heracles slipped the noose over his neck and secured him. Then he tied his feet together and threw him, feet uppermost, over his left shoulder, putting his arm round his neck to prevent him from using his tusks, and in this manner he journeyed back to Mycenae. Most men would not have thought it very cheerful work to travel with such a companion, but Heracles was not at all concerned; on the contrary, it was the boar who was trembling. Heracles showed the boar to Eurystheus through the grating, and then killed him.

Heracles now set out to perform his fifth Labour, and this time his task was to cleanse the stables of Augeas in a single day. Augeas was a rich king of {120} Elis, who had three thousand cattle. At night the cattle always stood in a great court surrounded with walls, close to the king's palace, and as it was quite ten years since the servants had cleaned it out, there was enough refuse in the court to build up a high mountain. Heracles went to Augeas and asked if he would give him the tenth part of his flocks if he thoroughly cleansed his stables in a single day. The king looked upon this as such an absolutely impossible feat that he would not have minded promising his kingdom as a reward for it, so he laughed and said, 'Set to work, we shall not quarrel about the wages,' and he further promised distinctly to give Heracles what he asked, and this he did in the presence of Phyleus, his eldest son, who happened to be there. The next morning Heracles set to work, but even his strong arms would have failed to accomplish the task if they had not been aided by his mother-wit. He compelled a mighty torrent to work for him, but you would hardly guess how he did it. First he opened great gates on two opposite sides of the court, and then he went to the stream, and when he had blocked up its regular course with great stones, he conducted it to the court that required to be cleansed, so that the water streamed in at one end and streamed out at the other, carrying away all the dirt with it. Before evening the stream had done its work and was restored to its usual course.

But when Heracles demanded his reward, Augeas denied that he had promised it. However he said that he would summon a court of justice and would abide by its decision, for he thought to himself, 'The only one who heard me make the promise is my son, and he {121} will not witness against me.' A number of wise old men were accordingly summoned to the palace to be judges, and Phyleus was called upon to witness. But Phyleus cared more for justice than for his father's advantage, and he said that Augeas had promised the tenth part of his flocks to Heracles as a reward for cleansing the stables. Then Augeas grew furious, and would not allow the judges to pronounce the sentence, but banished both Heracles and Phyleus from the country, threatening that if ever they were caught in his kingdom they would forfeit their lives. Heracles went away without his reward, but he promised himself that when the twelve Labours were accomplished, he would come back and punish the king for his faithlessness.

Again Heracles set out at the command of Eurystheus, and this time he had to drive away the Stymphalian birds,--this was his sixth Labour. Near the city of Stymphalus, in the land of Arcadia, there was a great lake, whose shores were covered with very dense forests where countless birds had built their nests. These birds were as large as cranes, and very thievish, and there was such a number of them that if they had all flown out at once and assembled above the water, it would have been pitch-dark all over the great lake. Heracles went to the edge of the lake and listened to the noise that the birds made, but he could not get at them, for they kept themselves hidden among the thick boughs where no arrow could reach them. Heracles could not think of any means of chasing them from among the trees, and was almost in despair, when the goddess Athene, who loved all good and brave men, {122} came to his assistance. She gave him a great iron rattle that Hephaestus had made, and when Heracles shook it, it made such a fearful noise that all the birds flew out screaming. Then Heracles shot arrow after arrow among them; a great many of them fell dead into the lake, and the rest were so much frightened that they flew far away and never came back again.

4. _The Last Six Labours._

The seventh Labour that Eurystheus imposed upon Heracles was to bring the Cretan bull to Mycenae. In the island of Crete lived King Minos, who was very wise, and who was allowed to hold intercourse with the gods. One day, when the Cretans were on the seashore offering sacrifices to Poseidon, the king prayed that Poseidon would send him a bull out of the sea for sacrifice, for he wanted to show the Cretans what great regard the gods had for him. Immediately there came, borne to the shore upon the swelling waves, a most beautiful bull, and Minos was so fascinated by its beauty that he did not keep his word, but sacrificed another bull and put the one that came out of the sea among his flocks. Poseidon punished him by making the bull mad; he killed the herdsmen and escaped into the forest, and did so much damage that the king repented of having broken his word. When Heracles came to him and said that he wanted to catch the bull, Minos gladly supplied him with ropes and spears, for he would not have minded paying a heavy price in order to get the plague removed from the country. Heracles went into the forest and soon found his way to the bull, {123} for he was guided to him by the bellowing he made. When he came near, he threw a spear at him in order to irritate him. The bull ran at him furiously, lowering his horns to toss him into the air, but Heracles waited quietly till he came up, and then he seized his horns and held them fast, so that the bull could not raise his head again. They went on for some time pulling at each other, and the bull dragged Heracles about from place to place, bellowing horribly all the time. He was a huge powerful animal, but he could not get his horns free, and only tired himself to no purpose. At last he was quite exhausted, and Heracles made a halter out of the rope he had brought with him and wound it round his neck, and the bull followed him quite quietly. The Cretans ran together to look at the strong man leading the fierce bull, and were astonished to see the bull walking so quietly by his side. Heracles got into his ship and sailed back to Mycenae with the bull, and when he had led him through the city, he let him go free. You will hear more of him again by-and-by.[1]

The eighth Labour of Heracles was that of procuring the horses of Diomedes. Diomedes was a king of Thrace, a savage and cruel man, who cared for nothing in the world but his fierce horses which he fed upon human flesh; and every stranger that came into his country was thrown to the horses. Heracles knew that he would not be able to obtain the horses unless he first conquered the king and his people, and he therefore took with him a number of brave heroes who were glad to accompany him on this expedition. As soon as the ship landed in Thrace, the heroes went to the stables, killed {124} the keeper, and brought away the horses; one of them was going to bite, but Heracles gave him such a sound blow that he had something else to think of. They had almost reached the shore, when they looked back and saw King Diomedes coming after them followed by a number of soldiers, so they tied up the horses and turned round again. Then a fierce battle took place, for the Thracians were a warlike people, but at last they were all killed, and their king made prisoner. Heracles said that he should die by the same death that he had inflicted on others, and he loosed the horses of Diomedes and gave him to them to devour. The king cried out in an agony to his horses, 'Have I not been kind to you and taken care of you?' But they had become so fierce through eating human flesh that they did not spare even their own master. One tore off his arm, another bit him in the chest, and a third in the thigh, and they soon tore him to pieces, so that he perished miserably. Heracles then caught the horses again and took them home, and when he had shown them to Eurystheus, he drove them to the foot of Mount Olympus where they were devoured by wild beasts.

King Eurystheus had a daughter, who was continually begging him to procure for her the girdle of the Queen of the Amazons. This beautiful girdle was world-famed; it had been given to the queen by Ares, the god of war, and she wore it as a mark of royalty. Eurystheus knew that to secure the queen's girdle would be a task of great danger and difficulty, and therefore he told Heracles that this was to be his ninth Labour. So Heracles again set sail with his companions, and they journeyed for many days till they came to the {125} country of the Amazons, who lived in Asia, near the river Thermodon. There were no men amongst them, but they were all women, and very remarkable women, too. They liked war better than anything else, and were so well skilled in riding and in shooting with the bow that no army was feared so much as the army of the Amazons. When Heracles reached their country, they happened to be in a meadow near the sea practising with their weapons of war,--all but the queen, who was sitting on the shore looking out over the sea, with her girdle glittering in the sunshine. When she saw the ship coming, she wondered who could be the strangers that ventured into her country, and most of all she marvelled at the sight of Heracles who was standing in the fore-part of the ship, dressed in his lion's skin and grasping his club. She asked him who he was and what he wanted, and he answered, 'I am Heracles, the son of Zeus, and I am performing hard labours in the service of Eurystheus; he has sent me here to fetch your girdle and take it back to Mycenae.' When the queen heard that it was Heracles, whose deeds were spoken of all over the world, she said that she would make him a present of the girdle, and came towards the ship to greet him, holding out her hand. But Hera would not allow Heracles to carry off the girdle without a struggle, and taking the form of an Amazon, she went to the meadow where the others were, and called out to them, 'A stranger is going to rob our queen.' They all rushed down to the shore and began to shoot at the strangers, killing many a brave man; but when Heracles saw that they treated him and his followers as enemies, he thought that the queen had meant to act treacherously, {126} and he slew her, and shot at the Amazons with his arrows, and killed so many of them that they were soon obliged to fly. He took the girdle from off the dead queen and laid her corpse on the shore, and after the ship had sailed away, the Amazons came and buried her.

Some days after this, the heroes landed at the city of Troy, where they found all the people very sorrowful because an innocent maiden was to suffer death on account of the crime of her father Laomedon, the king of Troy. The gods Poseidon and Apollo, in order to try Laomedon, had entered into an engagement with him, by which they undertook to build a wall round the city that could never be destroyed. The wall was soon finished, but Laomedon, who was very miserly and who did not know that he had to deal with gods instead of men, refused to give the reward that had been agreed upon. Both the gods punished him for this. Apollo sent a pestilence into the land which destroyed both men and cattle, and Poseidon created a monster who came up every day out of the sea, and laid waste the fields devouring every living thing that he met with. Even after the pestilence had ceased, the monster still came every day, and took his fill of blood. The Trojans asked the Oracle how they could get rid of him, and the Oracle answered that the king's young daughter Hesione must be given him to eat. The Trojans were very fond of the beautiful maiden, but as they were all in danger of perishing, they demanded of Laomedon that he should give up his daughter as a victim. The king shed many tears, but at last he consented, and when the heroes landed, Hesione had just been brought to the {127} shore, and chained to a rock at the spot where the monster was accustomed to leave the sea. Heracles heard from the Trojans how it had all happened, and he went to the king and said that if he would give him the two horses he had received from Zeus, he would slay the monster. These horses had been given to Laomedon by Zeus to make up for the loss of his son Ganymede, a most beautiful boy, whom Zeus had caused his sacred eagle to steal away and carry off to Mount Olympus, where Ganymede lived from that time with the gods, gifted with immortality and eternal youth. When Heracles demanded these horses as his reward for rescuing Hesione, Laomedon did not hesitate to promise them, though they were the most beautiful horses in all the world, for he felt willing to part with anything he possessed in order to save his daughter. Then Heracles placed himself by the side of Hesione with a naked sword in his hand, and when the horrible monster came out of the sea, opening his huge jaws to devour the maiden, Heracles jumped down his throat and wriggled himself down into his body, and then he cut away all his entrails, so that the monster rolled about on the ground in pain, howling horribly. When Heracles thought he was dead, he crept up again out of the body and washed himself clean in the sea. The king was very glad that his daughter was saved, but avarice again took possession of him and prevented him from keeping his promise to Heracles. He tried to deceive him with fair speeches, but Heracles understood perfectly well that he was a faithless man, and he told him that he would return and punish him.

Heracles sailed back to Mycenae, and gave the girdle {128} of the Queen of the Amazons to Eurystheus. The king gave it to his daughter who was very much pleased with it, and at the same time he told Heracles that for his tenth Labour he was to fetch the cattle of Geryon. Wonderful stories had been brought by sailors of an island in the stream Oceanus, near the setting sun, where there lived a king named Geryon who possessed the strength of three men, for he had three bodies, six arms, and six legs. The sailors also told of the king's wonderful reddish-brown cattle which formed the chief part of his riches, and how no one dared to rob his flocks, because they were guarded day and night by a dog with two heads, who barked until he had roused a strong herdsman by whom the robber was killed without much loss of time.

Heracles set out to look for the island, and went on and on towards the West till he came to countries where the people were quite savage and barbarous. By-and-by he reached the extreme end of Europe where Africa is only separated from it by a narrow channel, and as he wished to leave some token to show how far he had journeyed, he broke off two huge rocks and set them up in the sea, and ever since that time, the sailors who pass through these two mountains of rock look up at them and say, 'Those are the Pillars of Heracles.' At last he came to the end of the land, and as he stood on the shore wondering how he should manage to reach the island of Geryon, the sun, which is much hotter in those parts than it is here, smote upon his head. This annoyed him very much, and as he was in the habit of paying back anyone who did him an injury, he now took his bow and arrows and shot at the sun-god. But {129} instead of being angry with him, Helios the sun-god admired him for his boldness in being so ready to fight even with gods, and he came down and gave him the golden shell in which he travels from West to East in the evening after sunset. It was an exceedingly large shell, and Heracles sailed over the sea in it till he came to the island of Geryon. The beautiful herd was in a meadow where the grass stood so high that it reached far above their knees. When Heracles came to the herd, the great dog started up, barking out of his two heads, but Heracles quickly put an end to that, for he gave him such a blow with his club that his backbone was broken through. The herdsman had however already awoke, and he came running down, intending to kill the robber as he had killed many a one before, but this time he himself met with his death by a blow from the fist of Heracles, who then drove off the cattle towards the sea. But someone told King Geryon that his cattle were being stolen, and he ran after the robber in a great rage, throwing big stones at him and screaming with all his might. Heracles waited till he came up, and then they wrestled together. Geryon wound his six arms round him hoping to throw him, but they both fell at the same time, and Geryon was the undermost. Heracles set one knee on his body, but as he leaned over to reach a stone to kill him with, Geryon managed to spring up and tried to run away. Heracles, however, shot three arrows through his three hearts, and he fell down dead.

Then Heracles went off with the herd, and when he had brought them safely to the mainland he returned the shell to the sun-god, thanking him heartily for his {130} help. He had to take the cattle through many lands before they finally arrived in Greece, and on his way he came to the part of Italy where Rome was afterwards built. It happened to be the hot noontide, and Heracles lay down under the shade of a tree and let the herd graze. Now it chanced that in a cave under the Mount Aventinus there lived the giant Cacus, who was very hideous to look at, and who could cook his food in his own mouth, for fire and flames spouted out of it whenever he liked. Cacus was a great robber, and when he saw the beautiful cattle he set his mind on having some of them, but Heracles looked so strong that he did not dare to take them by force, so he waited till he was asleep, and then he came out of his cave and pulled several of the cows backwards into it by their tails, so that the footprints in the sand looked like those of cows that had been driven out of the cave to pasture. When it became cooler, Heracles awoke and counted his cattle; there were too few of them, but he could not find any traces of the direction in which they had gone, and was obliged to pass on without them. But just as they were going over Mount Aventinus one of the bulls chanced to bellow, and those in the cave of Cacus answered, because they wanted to go on with the others. Heracles immediately knew what had become of his cattle, and hastened down to the cave. The giant had shoved a huge fragment of rock in front of the entrance, but Heracles in his anger was even stronger than usual, and he threw down the rock with a noise that made the whole mountain tremble. Cacus was afraid of him, and sat cowering in a corner of the cave, spouting out smoke and {131} flames to prevent him from coming near. But Heracles did not mind the flames, and he seized Cacus by the neck and strangled him; then he dragged him out to the light, and wondered to see how ugly he was. The stolen cattle came out of the cave of their own accord and joined the others, and Heracles drove them on further.

Some time after this, when he had nearly reached Mycenae and was travelling along the sea-shore, Hera sent a great gnat that flew about among the cattle humming and buzzing and stinging first one and then another, till they became quite unmanageable and ran away in different directions. Several jumped into the sea, and Heracles jumped in after them and brought back all that he could reach, pulling in some by their horns and driving others in front of him, but the greater number of them swam out into the open sea and perished. Then he set to work to collect those that had escaped into the forest, and tired himself till nightfall with running after them, which gave Hera great pleasure. All that he could recover he brought to Mycenae, and Eurystheus sacrificed them to Hera.

Heracles had now only two more Labours to accomplish, and Eurystheus pondered night and day as to what would be the most difficult and dangerous task he could set him. At last he told him that for his eleventh Labour he was to fetch three apples from the Garden of the Hesperides, although no mortal knew where the Garden was. When Zeus and Hera were married, the Earth had caused an apple tree to spring up, which she gave them as her present, and which was covered with apples of pure gold. Hera planted the tree {132} on an island in Oceanus which had never been trodden by the foot of any mortal, and in course of time a whole garden grew from it, in which all the trees bore golden apples. The garden was tended by three nymphs called the Singing Hesperides, and it was guarded by a dragon. Heracles never allowed himself to be discouraged, however hard his task might be, but always set about it in good spirits, confident of success, and he now went about asking everyone where the Hesperides lived. One day he came to a river, and some nymphs who were sitting on the bank asked him where he was going. He said, 'King Eurystheus has sent me to fetch him three apples from the Garden of the Hesperides, but I do not know where the Garden is.' One of the nymphs said, 'We do not know either, but Nereus, the old sea-god, can tell you, for he knows everything, both in earth and heaven.' Then they told Heracles where to find Nereus, and what to do in order to oblige him to answer his questions. Nereus lived in the sea, but about mid-day he came up on to the land and lay down in a grotto to sleep. When he was asleep, Heracles came and seized him by the arms, and Nereus, waking up, found himself a prisoner. He changed himself first into a wolf, and then into a lion, and lastly into a dragon, hoping that Heracles would be frightened and let go, but the nymphs had prepared him for these tricks, and instead of loosening his hold on the sea-god, he on the contrary held him tighter and tighter, till at last Nereus had to give in, and ask him what he wanted. When he heard what it was, he gave Heracles an exact description of where the Hesperides lived, and how to get there; it was a very long {133} way off, even further than to the island of King Geryon, but Heracles would not be disheartened, and at once began his journey.

On the way he came to Libya, where there reigned a king named Antaeus who would not allow any stranger to pass through his land without wrestling with him; and hitherto he had overcome and killed them all, for he was a son of the Earth, and his mother gave him new strength every time he touched her. Heracles wrestled with Antaeus and threw him on to the ground three times, but each time the king sprang up again stronger than before. Then Heracles perceived that the Earth gave him strength, and he raised him up in the air so that he did not touch the earth at all, and squeezed him against his own body till he died.

After this he continued his journey till he came to Egypt, where King Busiris lived, who every year sacrificed a stranger to the gods. Some time before this, the land had been unfruitful for nine years, so that many people died of hunger, and a soothsayer in a distant island who heard of this and hoped to earn a good reward without much trouble, went to Egypt and told the king that he knew by his art that the only way in which he could be reconciled to the gods was by sacrificing a stranger to them every year. But instead of giving him the reward he looked for, the king offered him up as the first sacrifice, and after this he seized a stranger every year for the same purpose. When Heracles entered the country, the king's servants happened to be on the look-out for a stranger, for the time of the yearly sacrifice had come round, and finding Heracles asleep by the wayside, they bound him with {134} many strong cords and brought him before the king. Heracles acted as if he had no choice but to submit to this treatment, but when the priest came with the sacrificial knife in his hand to give him the death-blow, he burst asunder the cords, and snatching the knife from the priest, stabbed the king whom nobody interfered to save, for he was a cruel man and greatly dreaded by his subjects. After this, the Egyptians offered no more human sacrifices, and yet their land remained fruitful, for the soothsayer who had commanded the sacrifice was a false prophet.

Heracles passed on through other lands till he came to the extreme end of the world where the giant Atlas lived, who had had an irksome task imposed upon him by the gods. He had to support the vault of heaven with his head and hands, and if he had neglected his duty even for a moment, the heaven would have fallen and crushed the earth to atoms. Heracles told Atlas of the errand on which he had been sent, and Atlas, who was only too glad to have an opportunity of resting his shoulders and stretching his legs, said that he would go and fetch the apples, if Heracles would meanwhile take his place in supporting the heaven. So Atlas went to the Garden, and the nymphs gave him the apples because he was their uncle, so that it was not long before he returned with them. But he found freedom so much more agreeable than the fulfilment of his task, that when he came back he said to Heracles, 'I have supported the heaven quite long enough, and now you must take your turn. Heracles thought to himself, 'If my wits fail me now, there will be no help for me,' so he pretended to agree. {135} and said, 'Very well, but just let me first put my lion's skin over my head to keep the heaven from pressing so heavily upon it.' Then Atlas laid down the apples upon the ground and took up his burden again, thinking it was just for a minute, but Heracles took up the golden apples and went away and left him, and Atlas has ever since been obliged to support the heaven because he let himself be duped in this way. Heracles returned to Mycenae and showed Eurystheus the golden apples, which glittered so brightly that when the sun shone one could hardly bear to look at them; then he gave them to the goddess Athene, who took them back to the Garden of the Hesperides, for Hera would have been angry if she had kept them.

Eurystheus decreed that the twelfth and last Labour of Heracles should be to fetch the hideous dog Cerberus from the Lower World. There was a chain of bare, rugged mountains, in the centre of which was a yawning chasm stretching down far below the earth, and anyone who had the courage to go down it, came at last to the Lower World, where the shades of the dead go when they leave the earth. The gate of the Land of Shades was guarded by the great dog Cerberus, who stood there as watchman, and let everyone go in, but no one pass out again. His appearance was truly frightful, for he had three heads glistening all over with serpents which grew there instead of hair, and his tail was also an angry serpent with sharp teeth. As Heracles went down the chasm, he made up his mind that he would not try and steal the dog, but would tell Pluto that Eurystheus had commanded him to fetch him, and beg that he might be allowed to take him away. At {136} last he reached the Land of Shades, where there is neither day nor night, but always grey twilight, and he saw many thousand shades flitting about like moths in the dusk. They slipped away as soon as he came near them, but their flight could not be heard but only seen, for their forms were without substance. They were also without any power of thinking, but Heracles knew that they could gain both speech and consciousness by drinking blood, and as the flock of Pluto was grazing near, he seized a cow with the intention of killing it; but before he could do so, the herdsman ran after him in a rage and struck him. Heracles let go the cow, and turning to the herdsman, he rained blows upon him with his fists until he screamed with all his might for help. Queen Persephone heard his cries, and coming out of her palace, she begged Heracles to leave off beating the herdsman, which he did for her sake. Then she asked him why he had come into the Lower World, and when he told her, she took him to her husband, King Pluto, who said he would allow him to take the dog to the Upper World on condition that he captured him without the help of any weapons. Heracles put on a shield that Pluto gave him and went back to the gate, where Cerberus greeted him with a growl, showing all his great teeth. However Heracles did not mind that, but grasping the part of his neck which belonged to the middle head, he pinched it tightly with his powerful fingers. The serpents bit him in the arm and the leg, causing him great pain, but instead of letting go the head he only pinched it the harder, so that at last the dog was forced to give in, and he led him up the path without any further difficulty. When they came {137} to the daylight however, Cerberus moaned, and would not have gone any farther if Heracles had not compelled him, being the stronger of the two, for the light of the sun struck him just between the eyes, and hurt him so much that foam dropped from his mouth; and wherever a drop of it fell on the ground, there sprang up a plant called Nightshade, which still grows, and is a deadly poison. When Heracles had taken the dog to Mycenae and shown him to Eurystheus, he brought him to the mouth of the chasm, and released him. Then Cerberus rushed back with great bounds into his beloved darkness, and Heracles heard him barking joyfully, long after he was out of sight.

[1] For the rest of the story of the Cretan bull, see p. 184.

5. _The Murder of Iphitus, and the Vengeances of Heracles._

Heracles had now served Eurystheus for twelve years, and had performed twelve great Labours for him, the hardest that have ever been accomplished by any man. During this time Megara had died, and Heracles now washed to take another wife. He heard that in Oechalia there was a beautiful maiden named Iole, the daughter of Eurytus, the king of the island of Eubcea, but that Eurytus had proclaimed that no one should marry her who could not shoot with the bow better than himself and his sons. They were the best archers in the whole country, and although many suitors came to Oechalia, yet when they saw how well Eurytus could shoot, they all thought it was useless even to string their bows, and went away home again in despair. Heracles resolved that he also would go {138} and sue for Iole, and he went out into the open field with Eurytus and his sons, in order to contend with them for the prize. All showed marvellous skill in shooting, but the arrow of Heracles pierced the breast of a wild dove so far off that the others could scarcely see it till it was brought down, and they were obliged to confess that he had beaten them. But Eurytus taunted him and said, 'Would you have me give you my daughter for your wife? When the gods send you children you throw them into the fire.' Heracles was enraged with Eurytus for mocking at his misfortune, and he went away vowing that he would one day be revenged upon him.

Some time after this, a robber stole twelve of the finest cattle that Eurytus possessed, and he sent his son Iphitus to look for them. Iphitus went to several places in search of them, and finally came to Tiryns where Heracles was. When Heracles saw Iphitus he was reminded of the way in which his father had insulted him, and it made him so angry that he struck the boy dead, though afterwards when he became calmer he would gladly have recalled the deed. He went to Neleus, the king of Pylos, and begged him to purge him from the stain of blood, but Neleus, who was a friend of Eurytus, refused to do so, but on the contrary banished him from the country, blaming him for what he had done. Heracles found another wise man who consented to purify him, but the gods were, notwithstanding this, still angry with him on account of the murder of Iphitus, and as a punishment, they visited him with a sore sickness, of which he could neither get well nor die, and which {139} caused him terrible suffering. Heracles went to the Oracle at Delphi and asked the Pythia what he could do to have the sickness taken away from him, but Apollo, who inspired the Pythia as to what she should say, would not give any answer. Then Heracles got into a great rage, and he tore up from the ground the sacred Tripod on which the priestess sat, and carried it away on his back. Apollo saw the theft, and he came down from heaven and demanded the Tripod back again. No other would have dared to meet his angry look, but Heracles was not in the least afraid, and he refused to give it up. They were just going to fight about it, and had already taken their places for the struggle, when a thunderbolt fell upon the ground between them. They knew that this was a warning from their father Zeus, and they agreed to lay aside their ill-feeling and make peace; Heracles gave back the Tripod, and Apollo pronounced the Oracle. It was that Heracles must serve as a slave for the space of three years and give the money for which he was sold to Eurytus, and that then his illness would be at an end.

So Heracles allowed himself to be sold as a slave by Hermes, the messenger of the gods, and he was bought by the beautiful Omphale, queen of Lydia. Eurytus refused to take the money, but the gods decided that it was the same as if he had done so, and Heracles was freed from his sickness. Omphale made use of her strong slave for all kinds of service, both in freeing the land from wild beasts, and in punishing wicked robbers, so that the Lydians lived in peace and safety; and Heracles loved the beautiful Omphale with all his heart, ani was ready to do anything in the world in order to {140} please her. She was very proud of being able to command the mighty hero as if he were a little child, and in order to show the people how obedient he was to her, she made him sit among her maidens in women's clothes spinning at the distaff, whilst she dressed herself up in the lion's skin, as if she were the man and he the woman, and Heracles allowed her to do just as she would with him because of the great love he bore her.

When the three years were ended, Heracles left the palace of Omphale, and went through the cities of Greece asking if any heroes would set out with him for Troy, for he meant to carry out his threat of punishing King Laomedon for his faithlessness. So many heroes came that they filled six large ships, and they sailed to Troy and besieged the city. They set up ladders with which to climb over the walls, and pressed on notwithstanding the stones and javelins that the Trojans threw down upon them, but they would never have succeeded in entering the city without the help of Heracles. When the city was taken, Heracles passed a sentence of death upon the king and his sons, and shot them all together, only sparing the youngest whose name was Podarces, because he was too young to have had any part in the treachery of his father. Heracles gave the beautiful Hesione to the hero Telamon who had been the first to scale the wall, and as she wept very much at leaving Troy, he told her that she might take one of the prisoners with her. She did not take long to consider who it should be, but immediately held out her hand to her little brother Podarces. Then Heracles said that she must buy him, so she took off her veil, which was the only one she had, {141} and threw it down fur the purchase-money; and from that time her brother was called Priam, which means Bought. He came to Greece with his sister Hesione, but when he grew up to be a man he returned to Troy and became king of the country.

When Augeas and the others who had wronged Heracles heard of the punishment that had overtaken Laomedon, they were afraid, and assembled all their warriors to protect them, for Heracles had announced his intention of marching against them as soon as he returned to Greece. But Hera, who still hated him, tried to destroy him on his way home. She commanded the god of Slumber to send Zeus into a deep sleep, and while he lay unconscious, she raised a tremendous storm on the sea through which Heracles was sailing. All his companions were very much frightened, but Heracles was not in the least disturbed, and before the waves could make a wreck of the ship, Zeus awoke, and seeing his son in danger, calmed the sea so that it became quite smooth and the fishes came up again from the bottom to play. Zeus knew that it was Hera who had raised the storm, and he punished her for it. He tied her hands together with a golden chain, and attached a heavy weight to each of her feet, and then he suspended her in the clouds, where she was obliged to hang all day long in great pain, with the winds and storms for her only companions.

Heracles was none the worse for the storm, and as soon as he had landed in Greece with the other heroes, he led them against Elis, the city of King Augeas, and conquered it. Augeas would now have gladly parted with his whole herd if that would have saved his life, {142} but Heracles killed him and all his sons except Phyleus, the one who had refused to bear false witness against him and had been banished by his father in consequence. He gave the country into the hands of Phyleus, and then he led his followers from Elis to Pylos, where he punished King Neleus for having refused to purge him from the stain of blood. Of the whole race of the king, the only one who remained alive after the visit of Heracles was a little boy named Nestor, whom his father Neleus had sent to be brought up in a neighbouring country, and who grew up to be a brave and wise hero.

6. _The Marriage of Heracles with Deianira, and his Death._

There was still one man left whom Heracles desired to punish, and this was Eurytus. But he deferred his revenge for a time, in order to undertake a pleasanter expedition to the court of King Oeneus, of Calydon, whose beautiful daughter Deianira he wished to marry. Deianira was a maiden who delighted in driving horses that had never been broken in, and who knew how to use the lance and the bow. She had another distinguished lover, the river-god Acheloüs, and as neither he nor Heracles would give way to the other, they determined to fight it out, and agreed that whichever conquered should have the bride. Acheloüs came out of his stream in the form of a bull, and Heracles had a hard struggle with him, for his opponent had the strength of a bull, and at the same time the wisdom of a god. Acheloüs ran at him intending to gore him with his horns, and if Heracles had not been on his guard, he would have {143} been pierced through. For a long time the struggle lasted, each trying to overpower the other by strength or by craft, and when the river-god laid his fore-feet upon the shoulders of Heracles who was clothed in his lion's skin, and pressed his strong chest against him in the hope of throwing him, it looked as if a lion and a bull had embraced each other. But at last Heracles laid hold of one of the horns of Acheloüs and tore at it with all his might till he succeeded in breaking it off, and then the bull bellowed horribly, and ran back, bleeding, into the river.

So Heracles remained the victor, and Oeneus gave him Deianira to be his wife, and she was glad to have such a noble hero for her husband. Heracles wanted to keep the horn as a trophy, but Acheloüs gave him instead of it the wonderful horn of the goat Amalthea who had been the nurse of Zeus.[1] This horn had been blessed by Zeus, and anyone who held it in his hand might wish for anything he liked to eat or drink, and immediately it was there. For this reason it was called the Horn of Plenty, because it produced all kinds of food in abundance.

Heracles lived many years in Calydon with Deianira, not spending his time slothfully, but fighting against all the robbers and wicked men in the neighbourhood. But one day it happened that the boy who held the washing-basin and poured water over his hands before meals, was careless and showered the water all over him. Heracles gave him what he intended to be a little box on the ears, but a blow from him came with such violence that the boy immediately fell down dead. {144} Heracles was very much grieved, and he determined to leave the city of Calydon, and set out with Deianira for Trachis where an old friend of his lived. On the way they came to a broad river over which there was no bridge, but the Centaur Nessus used to carry travellers across on his horse's back for a trifling payment. Heracles entrusted Deianira to him, and said that he himself would follow without help. The Centaur, however, was so greatly charmed with the beauty of Deianira, that as he swam with her across the stream he made up his mind that he would carry her off. So when he had reached the other side, instead of letting her jump off his back, he held her fast and ran away with her. Deianira stretched out her arms to Heracles who was still on the farther bank, and screamed for help. Then Heracles took his bow and shot a poisoned arrow into the shoulder of the Centaur, and he fell down and was obliged to let go his hold of Deianira. Nessus felt that the poison would soon kill him, and he longed to revenge himself on Heracles by doing him some injury. So he said to Deianira, 'Take a cloth and dip it in my blood, and do not let Heracles see it; but if ever you are afraid that he loves another woman better than you, sprinkle the blood over his clothing, and he will be unable to leave you. You must take care, however, not to touch it yourself.' The blood had been poisoned by the arrow of Heracles, and anyone whose skin was even touched by it must die, but Deianira did not know this; she thought the Centaur was speaking in good faith and determined to follow his advice, for she loved Heracles with all her heart, and desired above all things that he should always love her as much in return.

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Nessus died soon after he had spoken to Deianira, and Heracles continued his journey with her. When they came to Trachis which is not far from Euboea, he remembered the vengeance that he had purposed to execute upon Eurytus, and assembling all his companions, he set sail for his island. Eurytus armed his sons and all his men of war, and met him outside the walls of Oechalia. Then a battle was fought in which many wounds were given and received, and Heracles slew Eurytus and his sons, which, when the others saw, they gave up all hope and betook themselves to flight. Heracles entered the city with his companions and gave them leave to take any plunder they chose, for all the people surrendered themselves and their possessions to him, only asking that their lives might be spared.

Heracles now desired to offer a solemn sacrifice to Zeus as a token of his gratitude for the victory, and he sent the herald Lichas to procure from Deianira a festal robe suitable for the occasion. Deianira was greatly afraid that Heracles might forsake her for the beautiful Iole whom he had formerly wished to marry, and remembering what the Centaur had told her to do if ever she had any special reason for desiring that Heracles should be true to her, she took the cloth which had been soaked in his blood, and smeared all the inner side of the robe with it. Lichas took the robe to Heracles, and he put it on. But when the blood had become warmed by the heat of his body, it burst out into flames and burnt Heracles so terribly that in his agony he seized Lichas by the feet and flung him three times against the rocks, till his face was so battered that none of the features could be {146} distinguished. Then he tried to tear off the dress, but it clung so closely to his skin that pieces of his flesh came off with it. He suffered unspeakable tortures, which made him cry out with the pain and roll on the ground in agony, and then he moaned so piteously that the very stones might have felt for him, but no one dared to go near him. For a short time the pain made him quite mad; then he controlled himself with a mighty effort and resolved what he would do. He got into a ship that was going to Greece, and when he arrived there he ascended Mount Oeta, accompanied by some of his friends; the poison still caused him terrible suffering, but he was able to bear it in silence now. On the top of Mount Oeta he built a huge funeral pile and mounted to the top of it; then he asked his friends to set fire to it, but none of them would do so,--they only stood round weeping. Presently however a herdsman came along the road, and Heracles called out to him, and said that he would give him his bow and arrows if he would set fire to the funeral pile. The herdsman consented to do so for the sake of the beautiful bow, and he brought a burning torch with which he set the wood alight. The wind fanned the flames and they mounted higher and higher, but before they reached Heracles himself, a sound of thunder and lightning was heard, and a cloud came down which covered the funeral pile and in which he was carried up to the top of Mount Olympus. The gods gifted him with immortality as a recompense for his noble deeds, and they said that he should henceforth be as one of themselves. Even Hera did not grudge him this reward, for her hatred had at last been conquered by his grand {147} and godlike Labours, and when Heracles appeared among the Immortals in the form of a god, she led her daughter, the goddess Hebe, towards him, and said that he should have her for his wife. Poor Deianira was already in the Lower World, for when she heard of the evil that had been wrought by the robe, she went into her bed-chamber and hanged herself.

Heracles was honoured on the earth as a god, and men built temples to him, and kept his great deeds in constant remembrance.

[1] See page 3.

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