HELICO′NIDES. A name of the Muses, from Mount Helicon.
HELIOP′OLIS, in Elysium, was the city of the sun.
HE′LIOS. The Grecian sun-god, who went home every evening in a golden
boat which had wings.
HEL′IOTROPE. Clytie was turned into this flower by Apollo. See Clytie.
HEL′LE was drowned in the sea, into which she fell from off the back
of the golden ram, on which she and Phryxus were escaping from the
oppression of their stepmother Ino. The episode gave the name of the
Hellespont to the part of the sea where Helle was drowned, and it is
now called the Dardanelles.
HELLESPONTIA′CUS. A title of Priapus.
HEMPH′TA. The Egyptian god Jupiter.
HEPHÆS′TOS. The Greek Vulcan.
HE′RA. The Greek name of Juno.
HER′ACLES, is the same as Hercules.
HER′CULES was the son of Jupiter and Alcmena. The goddess Juno hated
him from his birth, and sent two serpents to kill him, but though only
eight months old he strangled the snakes. As he got older he was set
by his master Eurystheus what were thought to be twelve impossible
tasks, which have long been known as the “Twelve Labours of Hercules.”
They were:--
_First_, To slay the Nemean Lion.
_Second_, To destroy the Hydra which infested the marshes of Lerna.
_Third_, To bring to Eurystheus the Arcadian Stag with the golden
horns and brazen hoofs.
_Fourth_, To bring to his master the Boar of Erymanthus.
_Fifth_, To cleanse the stable of King Augeas, in which 3000 oxen had
been kept for thirty years, but had never been cleaned out.
_Sixth_, To destroy the Stymphalides, terrible carnivorous birds.
_Seventh_, To capture the Bull which was desolating Crete.
_Eighth_, To capture the mares of Diomedes, which breathed fire from
their nostrils, and ate human flesh.
_Ninth_, To procure the girdle of Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons.
_Tenth_, To bring to Eurystheus the flesh-eating oxen of Geryon, the
monster king of Gades.
_Eleventh_, To bring away some of the golden apples from the garden of
the Hesperides.
_Twelfth_, To bring up from Hades the three-headed dog, Cerberus.
All these tasks he successfully accomplished, and, besides, he assisted
the gods in their wars with the giants. Several other wonderful feats
are mentioned under other headings, as Antæus, Cacus, etc. His death
was brought about through his endeavours to preserve Deianira from the
attacks of Nessus, the centaur, whom he killed. The centaur, before
he expired, gave his mystic tunic to Deianira, who in turn gave it to
Hercules, and he put it on, but his doing so brought on an illness of
which he could not be cured. In a fit of desperation he cast himself
into a funeral pile on Mount Æta; but Jupiter had him taken to heaven
in a four-horse chariot, and only the mortal part of Hercules was
consumed.
“Let Hercules himself do what he may,
The cat will mew, and dog will have his day.”