§ 1. Legends respecting Hercules in the earliest settlements of
the Dorians. § 2. Servitude of Hercules. § 3. Legends respecting
Hercules in the second settlements of the Dorians. § 4. Legends
respecting Tlepolemus, Antiphus, and Phidippus. § 5. Legend of
Geryoneus. § 6. Legends respecting Hercules in the neighbourhood
of Thermopylæ. § 7, 8, and 9. Bœotian legends respecting Hercules.
§ 10. Attic legends respecting Hercules.
1. In the following attempt to unravel the complicated mythology of
Hercules, we will begin with those fables in which this hero appears
evidently as the progenitor of the Doric Heraclidæ,(1722) as
representative of the heroes of the Hyllean tribe, the highest order in
the Doric nation.
We will first direct our attention to the locality described in the
beginning of the first book, the ancient country of the Dorians in the
most mountainous part of Thessaly, where this nation was continually at
enmity with its immediate neighbours, the Lapithæ. In this war Hercules
appears as the hero of the Hyllean tribe, according to the epic poem
Ægimius, and gained for them a third part of the conquered territory. With
this contest is, as it appears, also connected the celebrated conquest of
Œchalia, the subject of an epic poem called Οἰχαλίας ἅλωσις, which was
ascribed to Homer or Creophylus.(1723) In this poem it was related how
Eurytus of Œchalia, the skilful archer, who was said to have surpassed
Hercules himself in this mode of fighting, and who dared to engage with
Apollo,(1724) promised his daughter Iole as a prize to the person who
should excel himself and his sons in archery; but Hercules having accepted
the challenge, Eurytus refused to perform his engagement: upon which
Hercules collected an army, conquered Œchalia, killed Eurytus and his
sons, carried away Iole prisoner, and gave her in marriage to his son
Hyllus.(1725)
The situation of this “well-fortified”(1726) Œchalia is an ancient subject
of controversy. There were three places of this name; one on the banks of
the Peneus in Thessaly, in the ancient country of the Lapithæ, between
Pelinna to the east and Tricca to the west, not far from Ithome:(1727)
another in the island of Eubœa, in the district of Eretria.(1728) The
third was a town in Messenia, which in latter times was called Carnasium,
upon the boundary of Arcadia;(1729) in which region there was also a town
named Ithome; and, as it is stated, another named Tricca; so that we must
suppose that there was some early connexion between the inhabitants of
this district and the tribes near the Peneus. Now it may be presumed that
each of these Œchalias was considered by the respective inhabitants as the
celebrated town of the great Eurytus; whence among the early poets there
was a difference of statement on the subject. For the Messenian Œchalia is
called the city of Eurytus in the Homeric catalogue,(1730) and in the
Odyssey,(1731) which statement was followed by Pherecydes;(1732) the
Eubœan city was selected by the writer of the poem called the Taking of
Œchalia;(1733) as also probably in the Ægimius,(1734) and afterwards by
Hecatæus of Miletus;(1735) the Thessalian, in another passage in the
catalogue of the ships, apparently of considerable antiquity.(1736) Since,
then, this question cannot be settled by authority, we can only infer (but
with great probability) from the connexion of the traditions that the
last-mentioned Œchalia was the city of the original fable. The contest for
this city is evidently closely connected with the war with the Lapithæ;
Eurytus, as well as the Lapithæ, was hated by Apollo. If Œchalia is placed
on the banks of the Peneus, the conquest of it naturally falls in with the
other tradition; if not, it stands isolated and unconnected. Again;
Hercules, according to all traditions, conquers Iole for his son Hyllus;
now Hyllus never occurs in mythology except in connexion with the Dorians;
consequently the place of the battle must be looked for in the vicinity of
the Doric territory.
Even before the time of this war (according to the common narration)
Hercules had embroiled himself with the Œchalians by killing Iphitus, the
son of Eurytus, who demanded of him the restitution of some plundered
cattle or horses. In the common version of this story, Peloponnesus was
the scene of the encounter; for Hercules is said to have hurled him from
the walls of Tiryns.(1737) But to expiate this murder, and the violation
of the rights of hospitality, Hercules became a slave; and, in order to
release himself from the guilt, he was compelled to pay to the father of
Iphitus his own ransom.
2. The meaning of this servitude cannot be rightly explained without
observing the remarkable coincidence between some parts of the mythology
of Hercules and Apollo, which we will here shortly elucidate. As Eurytus
is represented sometimes as killed by Apollo, sometimes by Hercules, so in
the poem of the Shield of Hercules(1738) this hero punishes Cycnus for
profaning the Pagasæan temple; thus, in another tradition, he slays Phylas
and Laogoras, princes of the Dryopes, for violating the shrine of Delphi
and other temples;(1739) and consecrates the whole nation to the Pythian
Apollo.(1740) Nor do I believe that Euripides invented the fable of the
restoration of Alcestis, and the contest between Hercules and death.(1741)
It is also perhaps fair to infer, from the legends of epic poets, in which
Hercules is represented as a hero in brazen armour, who defended the
sacred roads with his sword, and overthrew the violent sons of Ares that
waylaid the sacrificial processions in the narrow passes and defiles, that
in ancient fables he was considered not only as the defender of the Doric
race, but also of the Doric worship.
We may now proceed to consider the sale and servitude of Hercules; a point
of primary importance in the various forms which the legends concerning
this hero assume. In the present instance this degradation originated from
the killing of Iphitus. Here also the parallel with the servitude of
Apollo at Pheræ cannot fail to strike every one. The god and the hero were
chosen, as examples, to impress the people in early times with a strong
sense of the sacred character, and necessity of expiation for
homicide.(1742) By whom Hercules was supposed to have been purchased in
the original legend of northern Thessaly we know not; at a later period
Omphale was called his mistress, who (according to Pherecydes)(1743)
bought him for three talents.
3. We will now proceed to the second settlements of the Dorians, which
comprehend the towns between the ridges of Œta and Parnassus; viz.,
Erineus, Cytinium, Bœum, and Pindus.(1744)
The neighbours of the Dorians in these settlements were, as has been
already stated, the Dryopes, the Melians of Trachis, and the Ætolians. The
first were hostile to the Dorians; the other two were for the most part
friendly to them. These facts again are expressed with much clearness in
the mythology of Hercules. Of the relation between the Dorians and
Dryopians, and the manner in which it is expressed in the fables of
Hercules, we have already given an account.(1745) Ceyx, the Trachinian,
was a faithful friend of Hercules, and of his descendants; in one account,
indeed, he is called the nephew of Hercules,(1746) who is said to have
founded for him his town of Trachis.(1747) In this place was shown a grave
of Deianira,(1748) the daughter of Œneus, whose marriage with Hercules is
evidently a mythological expression for the league which existed between
the Ætolian and Dorian nations before the invasion of Peloponnesus.(1749)
For Deianira was an inhabitant of Calydon;(1750) and the Calydonians had
the principal share in this expedition. To this marriage is annexed a
series of connected Ætolian fables concerning Hercules. For the
peculiarity of this part of the heroic mythology is, that they readily
passed from one nation to another; and wherever they obtained a firm
ground, formed a large mass of traditions. Among these is the conquest of
the bull Achelous,(1751) and the adventure at the ford of the
Euenus,(1752) which afterwards occasioned the death of Hercules. It is
also probable that the residence of Hercules at Olenus, in the house of
Dexamenus, was connected with the Ætolian adventures; although even Hesiod
does not in this legend mention the ancient Ætolian town Olenus in the
neighbourhood of Calydon, but the Achæan city of the same name on the
banks of the Pirus.(1753) Now Dexamenus is frequently placed in connexion
with the Calydonian family of Œneus;(1754) the wife of Œneus came from
Olenus, and was of the same family. The ancient legend represented him as
a hospitable hero: which quality is also expressed in his name (Δεξαμενὸς,
from δεξάμενος); in return for which, Hercules released him from his
brutal guests, the Centaurs;(1755) to which fable the ancient battle of
the Centaurs in the mythology of Hercules probably annexed itself. Lastly,
Hercules is said to have led the Ætolians against the Thesprotians of
Ephyra. This expedition was perhaps as much celebrated in ancient lays as
the taking of Œchalia. Ephyra, which is here spoken of, is an ancient city
of Thesprotia,(1756) situated on the spot where the Acherusian lake flows
into the sea through the river Selleeis (Acheron). In later times the name
of this city was Cichyrus; but even at the present day remains of the
original Cyclopian style of building, not unlike those of Tiryns, are
extant.(1757) The whole district is celebrated in fables as the
dwelling-place of Aidoneus: as the seat of an oracle where departed
spirits were questioned, it was always regarded by the inhabitants with an
awe, which was further increased by a belief that the natives were very
skilful in the preparation of poison.(1758) This city Hercules is said to
have attacked as an ally of the Ætolians; whence it appears probable that
this circumstance gave occasion for introducing his contest with Hades,
and his adventures in the infernal regions, such as the carrying away of
Cerberus, the liberation of other heroes,(1759) &c. It must not, however,
be thought, that in the style of Euhemerus, I suppose a king Aidoneus to
have really once reigned in this district, who had a dog, or rather a
general, named Cerberus, whom Hercules overcame in a battle, &c. The
following appears to be a more probable method of accounting for the
origin of this fable. The gloomy religious rites on the banks of the
Acheron, which had always deterred the neighbouring nations from a
participation in them, were at an early period contrasted with the free
and active habits of the heroic tribes; the awe inspired by the presence
of the unearthly spectres with the proud spirit and bold thoughts of a
military life. If now the people themselves came into collision with each
other, their gods necessarily did the same; the result of which was
traditions of contest and war between themselves. On the other hand, it
must not be thought that the fable has a purely symbolical meaning; and
that Hercules was worshipped, together with Hades, merely as an enemy of
Death, as a deity alleviating and removing the terrors of the infernal
regions.
4. The rest of this fable, however, entirely loses its symbolical
character; viz., the manner in which the birth of several Doric heroes is
connected with the taking of Ephyra; who, though out of the confines of
history, are nevertheless to be considered as real individuals. In the
first place, Hercules is stated to have begotten Tlepolemus on Astyocheia,
whom, according to Homer, he carried away from Ephyra, on the river
Sellecis, after having destroyed many cities;(1760) Antiphus and
Pheidippus also were said to have come from Ephyra in Thesprotia, the sons
of Thessalus, and grandsons of Hercules, to whom the noblest families of
Thessaly, as well as the Heraclidæ of Cos, referred their origin;(1761)
the latter, however, according to another and later tradition, sprang from
the union of Hercules and the daughter of Eurypylus in Cos itself.(1762)
The origin of this intricate fable appears to be as follows: There were in
the ancient country of the Dorians some noble families which referred
their origin to the conquest of Ephyra; and these were designated by the
names of Tlepolemus, Antiphus, and Pheidippus; those families went with
the other Dorians to Peloponnesus, and passed through Argos and Epidaurus
to Rhodes and Cos, where they partly new-modelled their original family
legends. Now it was always admitted that the Thessalian people came also
from Ephyra and Thesprotia; and when it settled among the Greeks, and
sought to participate in their traditions, it was natural that Hercules,
the conqueror of Ephyra, should be placed at the head of its genealogies.
5. To the combat of Hercules and Pluto at Ephyra we will now annex the
legend of Geryoneus. The cattle of Geryoneus and Pluto grazed together in
the island of Erytheia;(1763) but they were supposed to belong to the
Sun,(1764) and therefore were of a bright red colour. Now Erytheia was
anciently believed to be near the kingdom of Hades. For the statement of
Hecatæus, that Erytheia and Geryoneus belonged to Epirus and the region of
Ambracia,(1765) could not have been owing to an attempt to give to
mythology an appearance of reality: but he seems to have availed himself
of some real tradition. This is certain, from the datum of Scylax, who
would never have laid down Erytheia in his Periplus(1766) on the authority
of a logographer. According to this writer it is situated between the
territory of the Atintanes and the Ceraunian mountains, north of Epirus,
on the borders of Greece, at no great distance from the earliest seats of
the Dorians. Now it is a remarkable fact, that, even in historical times,
there were in the same country, viz., near the Aous, a river running from
mount Lacmon, herds sacred to the Sun, which were guarded in the daytime
on the banks of that river, and in the night in a cave of the mountain, by
men whom the inhabitants of the Greek city of Apollonia intrusted with
this office as a particular honour.(1767) It is not probable that the
Corinthians, who founded Apollonia, should have been the first to
introduce this usage, although there are traces of an ancient worship of
the Sun in the territory of Corinth;(1768) but we may fairly assume that
the colonists merely retained a native custom. This hypothesis clears away
all difficulty. The empire of Hades on this earth was conterminous with a
district in which the worship of the Sun prevailed, and which contained
innumerable herds of cattle, under the protection of the god; but the
Greek hero, little caring for their sanctity, had driven them away, and
devoted them to _his own_ gods. Epirus was always distinguished for its
excellent breed of cattle, which were said to have sprung from the herds
of Geryoneus, which Hercules offered to the Dodonæan Zeus.(1769)
6. We were led to these considerations by the Ætolian legends respecting
Hercules, from which we will now return to the Dorians, who possessed the
mountainous tract along mount Œta towards Thermopylæ. There was perhaps no
region in the whole of Greece which abounded more in local fables of
Hercules. It was in the pass of Thermopylæ that he caught those strange
monsters the Cercopes;(1770) here it was that Athene caused a hot spring
to issue for him from the ground;(1771) on the top of mount Œta, on the
Phrygian rock,(1772) was raised the fatal pile, which the brook of Dyras
in vain strove to extinguish;(1773) and many adjacent cities claimed a
connexion with his exploits:(1774) even the Ænianes (who at a later period
settled in this district) attempted to appropriate to themselves these
traditions;(1775) and Heraclea Trachinia, not founded till the
Peloponnesian war, and the neighbouring Cylicrani, were referred to the
mythology of Hercules.(1776) It is certain that local traditions of this
kind must have originated with the inhabitants of this district. Is it at
least probable that the natives of Argos would have placed the death of
their deified hero in a foreign region, if they had been the original
inventors of this fiction? The career of the Doric hero doubtless closed
on the funeral pile of Œta; and this adventure ended a series of fables,
of which there are now extant only some fragments. In this point of view
we may perceive a connexion between many of the legends detailed above.
The general tendency and spirit of these legends may be described in the
following proposition: The national hero is represented as everywhere
preparing the way for his people and their worship; and as protecting them
from other races. Thus he opens a communication between Tempe and Delphi,
between the fabulous worshippers of Apollo, the Hyperboreans, and the
worshippers of his own age. At the same time his own person is an outward
symbol of the national worship; he complies with its rites of expiation
for homicide, being himself both the victim and the sacrificer.
7. We will next consider the Theban legends of Hercules; and will, for the
sake of clearness, first state the propositions which the following
discussion is intended to establish.
Hercules at Thebes is not to be considered as a Cadmean; and has no
connexion with the ancient gods, and traditions of the Cadmeans; but his
mythology was introduced into Bœotia partly by the Doric Heraclidæ, and
partly from Delphi, together with the worship of Apollo.
To prove that Hercules has no connexion with the Cadmean gods, temples,
and princes, it is only necessary to refer to a genealogical table of the
Theban mythology, and a plan of Thebes sketched after Pausanias. From the
former we perceive that Hercules (whose father is represented as having
arrived as a fugitive from Mycenæ) is not made the relation either by
blood or marriage of the Cadmeans, Creon (κρέων, the ruler), his supposed
father-in-law, being only a fictitious personage, invented to fill up a
chasm in the pedigree;(1777) from the latter, that the temples of Hercules
were not only not in the citadel (like those of Cadmus, Harmonia, and
Semele), or within the walls of the city, but were all without the gates.
This fact is of great importance as to the antiquity of any worship in a
city. The ancient and original deities, which enjoyed the honours of
founders, possessed the citadel as their birthright; while all gods
afterwards introduced enjoyed a less honourable abode in the suburbs of
the town. Now it is known that the house of Amphitryon and the Gymnasium
of Hercules stood in front of the gate of Electra, opposite the
Ismenium;(1778) and to this we may add the account of Pherecydes(1779)
respecting a village near that same gate, which the Heraclidæ had founded
before their invasion of Peloponnesus, and where there was a statue of
Hercules in the market-place. What can be clearer than that these
Heraclidæ established the worship of their hero at Thebes? Near this place
(it should be observed) was the Ismenian sanctuary of Apollo. Opposite to
this temple Hercules was said to have been educated; and at a festival of
Apollo to have carried the laurel before the chorus of virgins; and
afterwards to have consecrated a tripod in the temple, as was the general
custom in later times. This tripod is represented on the famous relief of
the Argive apotheosis of Hercules, with the inscription Ἀμφιτρύων ὑπὲρ
Ἀλκαίου τριπόδ Ἀπόλλωνι.(1780)
With this is evidently connected the story of the robbery of the Delphian
tripod, of which the common version is as follows: Hercules was visited
with a severe illness, as a punishment for the murder of Iphitus; and, in
consequence, he had recourse for relief to Delphi; but as the Pythian
priestess refused to answer the questions of one guilty of homicide, he
threatened to plunder the temple, and carry off the tripod. Apollo
accordingly pursued him, till Zeus separated the combat of his two sons by
lightning.(1781) The fable went on to say that a new consecration of the
Delphian tripod took place, and a reconciliation of the god and hero: of
this part we are only informed by works of art, these being indeed of
tolerable antiquity.(1782) But it is manifest that this is not the
genuine, ancient, and sacred tradition. How could this hero, who in other
respects was entirely dependent on the mandates of the oracle, and who in
so many ways protected and promoted the worship of Apollo,(1783) suddenly
become a sacrilegious violator of his most holy and ancient temple? This
carrying away of the tripod appears from other traditions to signify
nothing else than a propagation of the worship of Apollo.(1784) Whither,
then, is this tripod stated to have been first moved? By the Arcadians
Hercules was said to have brought it to Pheneus, but was compelled again
to restore it to Apollo.(1785) The hero, on his journey to Elis, is said
to have built a temple to the Pythian Apollo;(1786) which, however, can
scarcely be more ancient than the Doric migration. The foundation of this
temple, as dependent on the Delphic oracle, was therefore by the tradition
expressed under this image of the transportation of the tripod, the bearer
of it being Hercules. But it is more important to our present purpose
that, according to the Bœotian account,(1787) Hercules was supposed to
have brought the tripod to Thebes, that is probably to the Ismenium. This
fable therefore shows the connexion between the Ismenium and the great
sanctuary of Apollo; and represents Hercules as the intermediate link
between these two temples.
8. Several other traditions current in Bœotia are connected with the above
explanation of this tradition. The Cretan colony, which, setting out from
Cirrha, established the Tilphosian temple at Ocalea in Bœotia, was
represented under the person of Rhadamanthus.(1788) Rhadamanthus is said
to have there dwelt with Alcmene, and to have instructed the youthful hero
in the Cretan art of archery.(1789) For this reason also Zeus raised
Alcmene from the dead, and conducted her to the islands of the blest as
the wife of Rhadamanthus. A stone remained in her tomb, which was set up
in her sacred grove at Thebes.(1790)
9. The Theban traditions of Hercules are not all equally significant; but
some, such as those just mentioned, had a religious, some a
political(1791) import, and others only express the bodily strength of
that hero. The education of Hercules is confided to certain fabulous
personages, most of whom were supposed to reside in Bœotia.(1792) His most
remarkable instructor is the minstrel Linus, whom (probably in execution
of the will of Apollo) he put to death,(1793) justifying himself by the
law of Rhadamanthus. The destruction of the lion of Cithæron is an
imitation of the legend of Nemea, of which we shall speak hereafter.(1794)
After this adventure he went to Thespiæ, to the house of Thestius, where
he deflowers in one or in fifty-seven nights the fifty daughters of his
host, a fable which has perhaps an astronomical reference.(1795)
With respect to the singular legend of Hercules murdering his children by
Megara by throwing them into the fire,(1796) it cannot be denied that this
had some symbolical meaning, derived from an ancient elementary religion.
In general, however, this temporary fury is merely an exaggerated picture
of that heroic mind whose courage and endurance had carried Hercules
through so many dangers and difficulties for the good of mankind.(1797)
According to the Bœotian version, it was a melancholy madness, in which
Hercules, regardless even of all that was most dear to him, murdered his
children, and was even on the point of slaying his father.(1798) Upon this
the hero, oppressed with a deep melancholy, turned for relief to the
atoning Apollo; and either to the god of the Ismenium(1799) or of
Pytho.(1800) The oracle commands him to serve as a slave, in the same
manner as Apollo himself had served after the destruction of the Python.
In the broken narrative of Apollodorus a remarkable trace has been
preserved as to the time during which, according to the Bœotian tradition,
the slavery of Hercules lasted, viz., eight years and one month.(1801)
This cannot be considered as an accidental number; but it is probable that
the Ennaëteris is signified, which was a period of eight years and three
intercalary months; of which only the last month is here mentioned,
because the two inserted in the middle were less conspicuous. Hercules,
therefore, like Apollo at Pheræ, was supposed to have served for an ἀΐδιος
ἐνιαυτὸς, for the octennial period of mythology and ancient
astronomy.(1802)
10. We will here add some observations on the Attic worship of Hercules,
which was celebrated chiefly at Marathon in the Tetrapolis,(1803) in the
three villages of Melite, Diomea, and Collytus,(1804) which lay close to
one another in the vicinity of Athens; at Cynosarges(1805) in particular,
which belonged to the demus of Diomea; at Acharnæ(1806) and
Hephæstia,(1807) and in the city itself; and likewise near the sea in the
Tetracomæ, or “Four Hamlets.”(1808) The circumstance that those temples
which were not situated in the vicinity of the city were all in the
northern part of Attica, seems to prove that the worship was derived from
the northern frontiers; and it was attributed to the presence of the
Heraclidæ in Attica, though the fable of the great assistance which Athens
lent to the Heraclidæ was peculiar to the Athenians.(1809) It is probable,
however, that at some early period a division of the Doric people passed
through Attica, and there founded that worship which, by the supremacy of
the Dorians and their various connexions with other nations, increased in
character and importance. If the Lacedæmonians really spared the
Tetrapolis in the Peloponnesian war,(1810) their forbearance must be
attributed to the respect which they showed to their national hero. There
is a tradition worthy of notice, that Theseus consecrated to Hercules all
the temples which had been dedicated to himself;(1811) whence it may be
inferred that the worship of the former demigod was thus transferred at
some early period; only not, it should be observed, at the time of Theseus
himself. That the worship of Hercules was only half-nationalized may (as
it appears) be inferred from the custom of the Parasiti of that hero at
Cynosarges being always Athenians, of whose parents one only was a
citizen; a symbolical allusion to the half-foreign origin of their
worship.
Of the same description are the traditions which were peculiar to the
villages of Aphidna, Decelea, and Titacidæ (likewise situated in the north
of Attica), respecting the expedition of the Tyndaridæ; who were said to
have conquered Aphidna with the aid of Decelus and Titacus.(1812) From
this plunder, according to a Spartan legend, the very ancient temple of
Pallas Chalciœcus at Sparta was built. In this instance, likewise, the
tradition was recognised as real history; for the Lacedæmonians always
kept up a friendly intercourse with Decelea; nor was it, we may be
assured, without some particular reason that in the Messenian war at the
command of the oracle they called to their aid Tyrtæus, the man of
Aphidna. But as the Tyndaridæ, _i.e._, their images (as was mentioned
above),(1813) accompanied every Spartan army on its marches, it is
probable that these stories originated in some Doric expedition into the
northern parts of Attica, which left behind it these permanent traces and
recollections.