Eurystheus was getting to his wits' end for work which should keep his
cousin employed. He sent him to kill the man-eating birds of Lake
Stymphalus; to catch, and bring to Mycenæ alive, a wild bull which was
devastating Crete; to obtain for Eurystheus the famous mares which fed
on human flesh, and belonged to the Thracian King Diomedes, who used
to throw men and women alive into their manger. In three years' time
Hercules destroyed all the birds, and brought to Mycenæ both the bull
and the mares, to whom he had given the body of their master.
These were the sixth, seventh, and eighth labors, which had taken
eight years. The ninth was of a different kind. There lived in the
country of Cappadocia, which is in Asia, a nation of women, without
any men among them. They were called the Amazons, and were famous for
their skill in hunting, and for their fierceness and courage in war,
conquering the neighboring nations far and wide. Their queen at this
time was Hippolyta; and Eurystheus bade Hercules bring him Queen
Hippolyta's girdle. Perhaps he thought that a strong man would be
ashamed to put out his strength against a woman. If so, however, he
reckoned wrongly. Hercules had to do his work, whether man or woman
stood in the way; and he won the queen's girdle in fair fight, without
harming the queen.
"I must send Hercules to the very end of the earth," thought poor
Eurystheus, who grew more and more frightened by every new success of
his cousin. So he inquired diligently of every traveler who came to
Mycenæ, and in time had the good luck to hear of a suitable monster
named Geryon, who lived in a cave at Gades, now called Cadiz, on the
coast of Spain, very near indeed to what the Greeks then thought to be
the end of the world. Geryon, so the travelers reported, had three
bodies and three heads, and kept large and valuable flocks and herds.
"That will be just the thing for Hercules!" thought Eurystheus. So he
called from his brazen pot--
"Go to Gades, and get me the cattle and the sheep of Geryon."
So Hercules set off for Spain by way of Egypt and that great Libyan
desert through which Perseus had passed on his adventure against the
Gorgons. It was an unfortunate way to take, for there reigned over
Egypt at that time King Busiris, who had made a law that every
foreigner entering the country should be sacrificed to Jupiter.
Hercules, knowing nothing of this law, was taken by surprise as soon
as he landed, overpowered by numbers, bound in iron chains, and laid
upon the altar to be slain. But scarcely had the sacrificing priest
raised his knife when Hercules burst the chains, and, being no longer
taken at disadvantage, made a sacrifice of Busiris and his ministers,
thus freeing the land of Egypt from a foolish and cruel law.
Thence he passed into the great desert, and traveled on until one day
he reached a pile of human skulls, nearly as big as a mountain. While
wondering at the sight, a shadow fell over him, and a big voice said--
"Yes, you may well look at that! I have nearly enough now."
It was a giant, nearly as high as the heap of skulls. "And who are
you?" asked Hercules; "and what are these?"
"I am Antæus," answered the giant; "and the Sea is my father and the
Earth is my mother. I am collecting skulls in order to build a temple
with them upon my mother the Earth to my father the Sea."
"And how," asked Hercules, "have you managed to get so many?"
"By killing everybody I see, and adding his skull to the heap--as I am
going to add yours."
So saying, he seized Hercules to make an end of him. And amazed enough
the giant was when he himself was dashed to the ground with force
enough to break any ordinary bones.
Antæus, however, though astonished, was not in the least hurt; so that
it was the turn of Hercules to be surprised. Again they closed, and
again Hercules threw him, with still greater strength; and they closed
again.
And again and again Hercules threw him, but every time with greater
difficulty. The more he was thrown, the stronger the giant became; he
rose from every fall fresher than before. Plainly, if this went on,
Antæus would be beaten until he became stronger than Hercules, and
would end by winning.
It seemed very strange that the more a man was dashed to the ground
the fresher and stronger he should grow. But--
"I see!" thought Hercules to himself. "This giant is the son of the
Earth; so whenever he falls, it is upon the bosom of his own mother,
who strengthens and refreshes her son. So I must take another way."
So thinking, he put out all his strength, and again lifted Antæus in
his arms. But this time he did not dash him to the Earth; he held him
in the air, and crushed him to death between his hands.
After this he traveled on, without further adventure, until he reached
the far western end of the Mediterranean Sea, which was thought to be
the end of the world. If you happen to look at a map you will easily
find the exact place--it is where the south of Spain very nearly
touches Africa. When Hercules arrived there, Spain quite touched
Africa, so that one might walk from one into the other. It is said
that Hercules himself opened out the narrow passage which lets the
Mediterranean Sea out into the great ocean, so that ships could
afterwards sail to Britain and all over the world. That passage is now
called the Strait of Gibraltar. But the rock of Gibraltar in Spain,
and the opposite rock in Africa, between which the Strait flows, are
still often called the "Pillars of Hercules."
To get from there to Gades was no great distance; and to kill the
monstrous ogre Geryon and to seize his flocks and herds for Eurystheus
was no great feat after what he had already done. But to drive such a
number of sheep and cattle all the way from Gades in Spain to Mycenæ
in Greece was not an easy matter. There was only one way of doing so
without being stopped somewhere by the sea, and this, as a map will
show at once, is by crossing those two great mountain-ranges, the
Pyrenees and the Alps--and for one man to drive thousands of sheep and
thousands of horned cattle over such mountains as those was the most
tiresome and troublesome labor that Hercules had ever undergone.
He got as far as Italy without the loss of a single sheep or cow, and
was thinking that he saw the end of his trouble. One morning, however,
having counted the cattle as usual, and having gone some miles upon
his day's journey, he became aware that there was something wrong. The
sheep began to bleat and the cattle to bellow in an odd and excited
way. And frequently, from behind him, he heard an answering sound
which at first he took for an echo. But no, it could not be that, for
an echo would have repeated the bleating as well as the bellowing, and
what he heard behind him was the sound of bellowing only--precisely
like that of Geryon's cows. He counted the herd over again, and,
though he was convinced that it was all right at starting, he found a
full dozen missing.
Now a dozen was not much to lose out of thousands. But he had been
ordered to bring back the whole herd, and he would have felt that he
would not have done his duty if he, by any neglect or laziness of his
own, lost even one lamb by the way. So, following the distant sound,
he, with infinite labor, drove his cattle back across the hills,
league after league, till he reached a huge black cavern, the mouth of
which was strewn and heaped with human bones. His cattle became more
excited and more restive, for the sound he was following evidently
came from within the cave.
He was about to enter and search when a three-headed ogre issued,
whose three mouths, when he opened them to speak, breathed smoke and
flames.
"This is my cave," said he, with all three mouths at once; "and no
man shall enter it but I."
"I only want my cattle," said Hercules. "Bring them out to me."
"Cattle?" asked the ogre. "There are no cattle here. I swear it by the
head of my mother."
"And who was she," asked Hercules, "that her head is an oath to swear
by?"
"I am Cacus, the son of the Gorgon Medusa," answered the ogre, "and I
swear----"
But before he could finish his oath, there came such a bellowing from
within the cave that the very cattle seemed as if they could not
endure such falsehood, and were proclaiming that Cacus lied.
"I am sorry," said Hercules. "I am weary of traveling, and of
monsters, and of giants, and of ogres, and of liars, and of thieves. I
really do not want to kill any more. You are not one of my labors, and
I have had enough trouble. Still, if you had as many heads as the
Hydra and as many arms as Briareus, I should have to fight you rather
than lose one of the cattle I was bidden to bring."
Cacus laughed. "Do you see those bones?" he asked. "They are all that
is left of people who have looked for what they have lost in my cave."
"Then," said Hercules, "either you shall add mine to the heap, or I
will add yours."
And presently the bones of Cacus the Robber were added to the heap,
and Hercules, having got his cattle back, at last reached Mycenæ.
* * * * *
Eurystheus almost forgot to be frightened in his joy at becoming the
owner of such flocks and herds. He listened with interest to the story
of his cousin's travels, and, having heard it to an end, said--
"So you crossed the great Libyan desert until you reached the ocean
which surrounds the world? Why, then, you must have found the way to
the gardens of the Hesperides--the gardens of golden fruit which the
great sleepless dragon guards, and which our forefather Perseus saw
when he turned Atlas into stone. Did you also see those gardens?"
"No," said Hercules.
"Then," said Eurystheus, "go and see them at once. Go and bring me
some of the Golden Apples--as many as you can."