away from him, and as Perseus also wished very much to see his
grandfather, they determined to pay him a visit, and they sailed with
Andromeda to Argos in the ship that Cepheus had given them. But when
the old Acrisius heard that his daughter and her son were coming, he
was afraid, for he remembered what the Oracle had said, and he left
the country, telling no one where he was going; so that when the ship
reached Argos, Acrisius was not there. And as it happened that a
rich king had lately died, and that games were to be celebrated in
his honour, Perseus thought he would go and take part in these games,
for anyone could go that liked, and those who did best would receive
prizes by which their names would become known and honoured
throughout Greece. Acrisius also went to the games, for he wanted to
see what was going on, and he thought that there he would surely be
safe from his grandson. No one knew who Perseus was, but he excelled
all others and won the best prizes. One of the things they did was
to try who could throw farthest a plate of stone called a discus.
Perseus was just going to take his turn at throwing the discus, when
it slipped out of his hand, and flying sideways, hit the old Acrisius
on the head and killed him. Thus it happened that Acrisius was
running to meet his fate at the very moment when he thought he was
escaping from it. Perseus was very sorrowful when he heard that it
was his grandfather, the king of Argos, whom he had killed
accidentally, and he had the corpse brought to Argos and buried with
great magnificence. The kingdom of Argos was now his, but he could
never {103} forget that he had killed his grandfather, and this made
the country so distasteful to him that he was glad to exchange with
another king who ruled over the cities of Mycenae and Tiryns.
Perseus gave the three precious things by means of which he had
obtained the head of Medusa, to Hermes, to be returned to the nymphs,
and the Gorgon's head he presented to the goddess Athene, who
fastened it to her shield. He lived honoured and esteemed to the end
of his days, and his wife Andromeda bore him many beautiful children.
{104}
XXVI.
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.