with. When the damsels had informed him, he thanked them for all their
kindness; most of all for telling him the right way; and immediately
set forth upon his journey.
But, before he was out of hearing, one of the maidens called after
him.
"Keep fast hold of the Old One when you catch him!" cried she,
smiling, and lifting her finger to make the caution more impressive.
"Do not be astonished at anything that may happen. Only hold him fast,
and he will tell you what you wish to know."
Hercules again thanked her, and pursued his way, while the maidens
resumed their pleasant labor of making flower-wreaths. They talked
about the hero long after he was gone.
"We will crown him with the loveliest of our garlands," said they,
"when he returns hither with the three golden apples, after slaying
the dragon with a hundred heads."
Meanwhile Hercules traveled constantly onward, over hill and dale, and
through the solitary woods.
Hastening forward, without ever pausing or looking behind, he by and
by heard the sea roaring at a distance. At this sound he increased his
speed, and soon came to a beach, where the great surf-waves tumbled
themselves upon the hard sand, in a long line of snowy foam. At one
end of the beach, however, there was a pleasant spot, where some green
shrubbery clambered up a cliff, making its rocky face look soft and
beautiful. A carpet of verdant grass, largely intermixed with
sweet-smelling clover, covered the narrow space between the bottom of
the cliff and the sea. And what should Hercules espy there but an old
man, fast asleep!
But was it really and truly an old man? Certainly, at first sight, it
looked very like one; but on closer inspection it rather seemed to be
some kind of a creature that lived in the sea. For on his legs and
arms there were scales such as fishes have; he was web-footed and
web-fingered, after the fashion of a duck; and his long beard, being
of a greenish tinge, had more the appearance of a tuft of seaweed than
of an ordinary beard. Have you never seen a stick of timber that has
long been tossed about by the waves, and has got all overgrown with
barnacles, and at last, drifting ashore, seems to have been thrown up
from the very deepest bottom of the sea? Well, the old man would have
put you in mind of just such a wave-tossed spar! But Hercules, the
instant he set his eyes on this strange figure, was convinced that it
could be no other than the Old One, who was to direct him on his way.
Yes; it was the self-same Old Man of the Sea whom the hospitable
maidens had talked to him about. Thanking his stars for the lucky
accident of finding the old fellow asleep, Hercules stole on tiptoe
towards him and caught him by the arm and leg.
"Tell me," cried he, before the Old One was well awake, "which is the
way to the garden of the Hesperides?"
As you may imagine, the Old Man of the Sea awoke in a fright. But his
astonishment could hardly have been greater than was that of Hercules
the next moment. For, all of a sudden, the Old One seemed to disappear
out of his grasp, and he found himself holding a stag by the fore and
hind leg! But still he kept fast hold. Then the stag disappeared, and
in its stead there was a sea-bird, fluttering and screaming, while
Hercules clutched it by the wing and claw! But the bird could not get
away. Immediately afterwards, there was an ugly three-headed dog,
which growled and barked at Hercules, and snapped fiercely at the
hands by which he held him! But Hercules would not let him go. In
another minute, instead of the three-headed dog, what should appear
but Geryon, the six-legged man-monster, kicking at Hercules with five
of his legs in order to get the remaining one at liberty! But Hercules
held on. By and by no Geryon was there, but a huge snake, like one of
those which Hercules had strangled in his babyhood, only a hundred
times as big; and it twisted and twined about the hero's neck and
body, and threw its tail high in the air, and opened its deadly jaws
as if to devour him outright; but Hercules was no whit disheartened,
and squeezed the great snake so tightly that he soon began to hiss
with pain.
But, as Hercules held on so stubbornly and only squeezed the Old One
so much the tighter at every change of shape, and really put him to no
small torture, he finally thought it best to reappear in his own
figure. So there he was again, a fishy, scaly, web-footed sort of
personage, with something like a tuft of seaweed at his chin.
"Pray, what do you want with me?" cried the Old One, as soon as he
could take his breath; for it was quite a tiresome affair to go
through so many false shapes. "Why do you squeeze me so hard? Let me
go this moment, or I shall begin to consider you an extremely uncivil
person!"
"My name is Hercules!" roared the mighty stranger. "And you will never
get out of my clutch until you tell me the nearest way to the garden
of the Hesperides!"
When the old fellow heard who it was that had caught him, he saw with
half an eye that it would be necessary to tell him everything that he
wanted to know. He had often heard of the fame of Hercules, and of the
wonderful things that he was constantly performing in various parts of
the earth, and how determined he always was to accomplish whatever he
undertook. He therefore made no more attempts to escape, but told the
hero how to find the garden of the Hesperides, and likewise warned him
of many difficulties which must be overcome before he could arrive
thither.
"You must go on, thus and thus," said the Old Man of the Sea, after
taking the points of the compass, "till you come in sight of a very
tall giant, who holds the sky on his shoulders. And the giant, if he
happens to be in the humor, will tell you exactly where the garden of
the Hesperides lies."
"And if the giant happens not to be in the humor," remarked Hercules,
balancing his club on the tip of his finger, "perhaps I shall find
means to persuade him!"
HERCULES AND THE GOLDEN APPLES
PART II. HERCULES AND ATLAS
BY NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
Thanking the Old Man of the Sea, and begging his pardon for having
squeezed him so roughly, the hero resumed his journey.
Nothing was before him save the foaming, dashing, measureless ocean.
But suddenly, as he looked towards the horizon, he saw something, a
great way off, which he had not seen the moment before. It gleamed
very brightly, almost as you may have beheld the round, golden disk of
the sun when it rises or sets over the edge of the world. It evidently
drew nearer; for at every instant this wonderful object became larger
and more lustrous. At length it had come so nigh that Hercules
discovered it to be an immense cup or bowl, made either of gold or
burnished brass. How it had got afloat upon the sea is more than I can
tell you. There it was, at all events, rolling on the tumultuous
billows, which tossed it up and down and heaved their foamy tops
against its sides, but without ever throwing their spray over the
brim.
"I have seen many giants in my time," thought Hercules, "but never one
that would need to drink his wine out of a cup like this!"
And, true enough, what a cup it must have been! It was as large--as
large--but, in short, I am afraid to say how immeasurably large it
was. To speak within bounds, it was ten times larger than a great
mill-wheel; and, all of metal as it was, it floated over the heaving
surges more lightly than an acorn-cup adown the brook. The waves
tumbled it onward until it grazed against the shore within a short
distance of the spot where Hercules was standing.
As soon as this happened, he knew what was to be done; for he had not
gone through so many remarkable adventures without learning pretty
well how to conduct himself whenever anything came to pass a little
out of the common rule. It was just as clear as daylight that this
marvelous cup had been set adrift by some unseen power, and guided
hitherward, in order to carry Hercules across the sea on his way to
the garden of the Hesperides. Accordingly, without a moment's delay,
he clambered over the brim and slid down on the inside, where,
spreading out his lion's skin, he proceeded to take a little repose.
He had scarcely rested until now, since he bade farewell to the
damsels on the margin of the river. The waves dashed there with a
pleasant and ringing sound against the sides of the hollow cup; it
rocked lightly to and fro, and the motion was so soothing that it
speedily rocked Hercules into an agreeable slumber.
His nap had probably lasted a good while, when the cup chanced to
graze against a rock, and resounded and reverberated through its metal
substance a hundred times as loudly as ever you heard a church-bell.
The noise awoke Hercules, who instantly started up and gazed around
him, wondering whereabouts he was. He was not long in discovering that
the cup had floated across a great part of the sea, and was
approaching the shore of what seemed to be an island. And on that
island, what do you think he saw? It was a giant!
But such an intolerably big giant! A giant as tall as a mountain; so
vast a giant, that the clouds rested about his midst like a girdle,
and hung like a hoary beard from his chin, and flitted before his huge
eyes, so that he could neither see Hercules nor the golden cup in
which he was voyaging. And, most wonderful of all, the giant held up
his great hands and appeared to support the sky, which, so far as
Hercules could discern through the clouds, was resting upon his head!
Meanwhile the bright cup continued to float onward, and finally
touched the strand. Just then a breeze wafted away the clouds from
before the giant's visage, and Hercules beheld it, with all its
enormous features: eyes, each of them as big as yonder lake, a nose a
mile long, and a mouth of the same width.
Poor fellow! He had evidently stood there a long while. An ancient
forest had been growing and decaying round his feet; and oak trees, of
six or seven centuries old, had sprung from the acorn, and forced
themselves between his toes.
The giant now looked down from the far height of his great eyes, and
perceiving Hercules, roared out in a voice that resembled thunder
proceeding out of the cloud that had just flitted away from his face:
"Who are you down at my feet there? And whence do you come in that
little cup?"
"I am Hercules!" thundered back the hero, in a voice pretty nearly or
quite as loud as the giant's own. "And I am seeking the garden of the
Hesperides!"
"Ho! ho! ho!" roared the giant, in a fit of immense laughter. "That is
a wise adventure, truly!"
"And why not?" cried Hercules, getting a little angry at the giant's
mirth. "Do you think I am afraid of the dragon with a hundred heads!"
Just at this time, while they talking together, some black clouds
gathered about the giant's middle and burst into a tremendous storm of
thunder and lightning, causing such a pother that Hercules found it
impossible to distinguish a word. Only the giant's immeasurable legs
were to be seen, standing up into the obscurity of the tempest; and
now and then a momentary glimpse of his whole figure mantled in a
volume of mist. He seemed to be speaking most of the time; but his
big, deep, rough voice chimed in with the reverberations of the
thunder-claps, and rolled away over the hills, like them.
At last the storm swept over as suddenly as it had come. And there
again was the clear sky, and the weary giant holding it up, and the
pleasant sunshine beaming over his vast height, and illuminating it
against the background of the sullen thunder-clouds. So far above the
shower had been his head, that not a hair of it was moistened by the
raindrops!
When the giant could see Hercules still standing on the sea-shore, he
roared out to him anew.
"I am Atlas, the mightiest giant in the world! And I hold up the sky
upon my head!"
"So I see," answered Hercules. "But can you show me the way to the
garden of the Hesperides?"
"What do you want there?" asked the giant.
"I want three of the golden apples," shouted Hercules, "for my cousin,
the king."
"There is nobody but myself," quoth the giant, "that can go to the
garden of the Hesperides and gather the golden apples. If it were not
for this little business of holding up the sky, I would make half a
dozen steps across the sea and get them for you."
"You are very kind," replied Hercules. "And cannot you rest the sky
upon a mountain?"
"None of them are quite high enough," said Atlas, shaking his head,
"But if you were to take your stand on the summit of that nearest me,
your head would be pretty nearly on a level with mine. You seem to be
a fellow of some strength. What if you should take my burden on your
shoulders while I do your errand for you?"
Hercules, as you must be careful to remember, was a remarkably strong
man; and though it certainly requires a great deal of muscular power
to uphold the sky, yet, if any mortal could be supposed capable of
such an exploit, he was the one. Nevertheless, it seemed so difficult
an undertaking that, for the first time in his life, he hesitated.
"Is the sky very heavy?" he inquired.
"Why, not particularly so, at first," answered the giant, shrugging
his shoulders. "But it gets to be a little burthensome after a
thousand years!"
"And how long a time," asked the hero, "will it take you to get the
golden apples?"
"Oh, that will be done in a few moments," cried Atlas. "I shall take
ten or fifteen miles at a stride, and be at the garden and back again
before your shoulders begin to ache."
"Well, then," answered Hercules, "I will climb the mountain behind you
there and relieve you of your burden."
The truth is, Hercules had a kind heart of his own, and considered
that he should be doing the giant a favor by allowing him this
opportunity for a ramble. And besides, he thought that it would be
still more for his own glory, if he could boast of upholding the sky,
than merely to do so ordinary a thing as to conquer a dragon with a
hundred heads. Accordingly, without more words, the sky was shifted
from the shoulders of Atlas and placed upon those of Hercules.
When this was safely accomplished, the first thing that the giant did
was to stretch himself; and you may imagine what a prodigious
spectacle he was then. Next, he slowly lifted one of his feet out of
the forest that had grown up around it; then the other. Then, all at
once he began to caper, and leap, and dance for joy at his freedom;
flinging himself nobody knows how high into the air, and floundering
down again with a shock that made the earth tremble. Then he
laughed--Ho! ho! ho!--with a thunderous roar that was echoed from the
mountains, far and near, as if they and the giant had been so many
rejoicing brothers. When his joy had a little subsided, he stepped
into the sea; ten miles at the first stride, which brought him mid-leg
deep; and ten miles at the second, when the water came just above his
knees; and ten miles more at the third, by which he was immersed
nearly to his waist. This was the greatest depth of the sea.
Hercules watched the giant, as he still went onward; for it was really
a wonderful sight, this immense human form, more than thirty miles
off, half hidden in the ocean, but with his upper half as tall, and
misty, and blue, as a distant mountain. At last the gigantic shape
faded entirely out of view. And now Hercules began to consider what he
should do, in case Atlas should be drowned in the sea, or if he were
to be stung to death by the dragon with the hundred heads which
guarded the golden apples of the Hesperides. If any such misfortune
were to happen, how could he ever get rid of the sky? And, by the by,
its weight began already to be a little irksome to his head and
shoulders.
"I really pity the poor giant," thought Hercules. "If it wearies me so
much in ten minutes, how must it have wearied him in a thousand
years?"
I know not how long it was before, to his unspeakable joy, he beheld
the huge shape of the giant, like a cloud, on the far-off edge of the
sea. At his nearer approach, Atlas held up his hand, in which Hercules
could perceive three magnificent golden apples, as big as pumpkins,
all hanging from one branch.
"I am glad to see you again," shouted Hercules, when the giant was
within hearing. "So you have got the golden apples?"
"Certainly, certainly," answered Atlas; "and very fair apples they
are. I took the finest that grew on the tree, I assure you. Ah! it is
a beautiful spot, that garden of the Hesperides. Yes; and the dragon
with a hundred heads is a sight worth any man's seeing. After all, you
had better have gone for the apples yourself."
"No matter," replied Hercules. "You have had a pleasant ramble, and
have done the business as well as I could. I heartily thank you for
your trouble. And now, as I have a long way to go and am rather in
haste--and as the king, my cousin, is anxious to receive the golden
apples--will you be kind enough to take the sky off my shoulders
again?"
"Why, as to that," said the giant, chucking the golden apples into the
air twenty miles high, or thereabouts, and catching them as they came
down--"as to that, my good friend, I consider you a little
unreasonable. Cannot I carry the golden apples to the king, your
cousin, much quicker than you could? As his majesty is in such a hurry
to get them, I promise you to take my longest strides. And besides, I
have no fancy for burdening myself with the sky just now."
Here Hercules grew impatient, and gave a great shrug of his shoulders.
It being now twilight, you might have seen two or three stars tumble
out of their places. Everybody on earth looked upward in affright,
thinking that the sky might be going to fall next.
"Oh, that will never do!" cried Giant Atlas, with a great roar of
laughter. "I have not let fall so many stars within the last five
centuries. By the time you have stood there as long as I did, you will
begin to learn patience!"
"What!" shouted Hercules very wrathfully, "do you intend to make me
bear this burden for ever?"
"We will see about that, one of these days," answered the giant. "At
all events, you ought not to complain, if you have to bear it the next
hundred years, or perhaps the next thousand. I bore it a good while
longer, in spite of the back-ache. Well, then, after a thousand years,
if I happen to feel in the mood, we may possibly shift about again.
You are certainly a very strong man, and can never have a better
opportunity to prove it. Posterity will talk of you, I warrant it!"
"Pish! a fig for its talk!" cried Hercules, with another hitch of his
shoulders. "Just take the sky upon your head one instant, will you? I
want to make a cushion of my lion's skin for the weight to rest upon.
It really chafes me, and will cause unnecessary inconvenience in so
many centuries as I am to stand here."
"That's no more than fair, and I'll do it!" quoth the giant; for he
had no unkind feeling toward Hercules, and was merely acting with a
too selfish consideration of his own ease. "For just five minutes,
then, I'll take back the sky. Only for five minutes, recollect! I have
no idea of spending another thousand years as I spent the last.
Variety is the spice of life, say I."
Ah, the thick-witted old rogue of a giant! He threw down the golden
apples, and received back the sky from the head and shoulders of
Hercules upon his own, where it rightly belonged. And Hercules picked
up the three golden apples, that were as big or bigger than pumpkins,
and straightway set out on his journey homeward, without paying the
slightest heed to the thundering tones of the giant, who bellowed
after him to come back. Another forest sprang up around his feet, and
grew ancient there; and again might be seen oak trees of six or seven
centuries old, that had waxed thus aged betwixt his enormous toes.
And there stands the giant to this day; or, at any rate, there stands
a mountain as tall as he, and which bears his name; and when the
thunder rumbles about its summit, we may imagine it to be the voice of
Giant Atlas bellowing after Hercules!
HERCULES AND NESSUS
BY H. P. MASKELL
Fairest among the maidens of Ætolia was Deianira, daughter of Oeneus,
King of Calydon. From far and wide came suitors seeking her hand in
marriage, but her father promised to give her only to him who could
prove his strength and courage above all others. What lover, however
ardent his desire, dare venture to try his skill against Hercules? And
when the hero came to court only Achelous the river-god would enter
the lists against him.
Long and fierce was the battle between these two as they rushed
together, grasping each other foot to foot, fingers pressed upon
fingers, and forehead to forehead. For some time they seemed equal in
strength, but Hercules pressed harder, and seizing his enemy by the
shoulders threw him to the earth. In vain Achelous changed himself
into a serpent; his throat was grasped with a grip that would strangle
him in spite of all his lithe, winding folds, and the hissing as he
darted forth his forked tongue. In vain, too, he sought to change the
issue of the fight in the form of a wild bull. The hero took him by
the horns, and held him to the ground. One of the horns he tore off by
main force. The Naiads took this horn, filled it with fruit and
flowers, and offered it to the goddess of Plenty.
So Hercules was victor in the lists of love, and won for prize the
king's fair daughter. Many years the happy pair abode in Calydon, and
children were born to them. Deianira was a happy wife, and her only
grief was that her lord was so often absent from home, for Hercules
would never rest from his toils. On one of these adventures he had
been persuaded by his wife to take her with him, and on their way home
they came to a broad and rapid river. The stream was swollen with
winter rains, and the eddies were deep and dangerous. Nessus the
Centaur, who lived in a cavern close by, offered to carry Deianira
over on his back. He knew the fords, and his strength was as the
strength of ten. So Hercules trusted his wife to the Centaur, although
she was almost as much afraid of Nessus as she was of the dark roaring
torrent. He himself threw his club and crooked bow across, and plunged
boldly into the stream.
Just as he reached the farther bank and was taking up his bow he heard
a scream. Nessus had betrayed his trust, and was about to carry off
Deianira in the very sight of her husband. Swiftly flew an arrow from
the bow, which pierced the traitor's back. It was tinged with poison
from the hydra, and the wound was mortal. Nessus, as he drew the
barbed steel from his body, muttered to himself, "I will not die
unavenged." Then handing his blood-stained tunic to Deianira, he
cried, "I have sinned, and am justly punished. Pardon a dying man, and
in token of forgiveness accept from me a dying gift. Keep this tunic
as a talisman. If ever thy lord's love should wax cold, or he should
look upon another woman to love her more than thee, give him this
charmed tunic to wear, and it will rekindle his old passion."
[Illustration: HERCULES AND NESSUS]
Time passed by, and the feats of the mighty Hercules were known all
over the world. Returning victorious from battle he was preparing a
sacrifice vowed to Jupiter on Mount Oeta, when he found he lacked the
proper dress, and sent a messenger to Deianira for a robe. Meanwhile
rumor had been busy, and a tale had reached the ears of Deianira that
Hercules was in love with Iole, daughter of Eurytus, whom he had
lately vanquished and slain. As she loved him, she believed it, and
alarmed with the story burst into a torrent of grief. But soon she
took comfort. "Why these tears? They will only flatter my rival. I
must seek some means to keep my husband for myself." And then she
bethought herself of the tunic that Nessus had given her. What if she
gave this tunic to the messenger, so that Hercules should wear it, and
so by its virtue her husband be restored to her again?
The fatal gift was sent. Hercules, not knowing whose it had been, put
it on as he went to sacrifice. As he was pouring wine on the altars
the venom from the garment began to work. He tried to tear the tunic
from him, but it clung to him like a coat of pitch. He rolled in agony
on the ground, he tore away his very flesh, he roared in agony like a
wounded bull, and the hollows of Oeta reverberated his groans. At last
he fell exhausted, and his comrades bore him on a litter to the ships.
Then Hercules knew that his end was come, and, preparing himself to
die as a hero should, he gave his last injunctions to his son.