He has received many surnames and epithets, either from the place where his
worship was established, or from the labours which he had achieved; his
temples were numerous and magnificent. The Phoenicians offered Quails on
his altars, and as it was supposed that he presided over dreams, the sick
and infirm were sent to sleep in his temples, that they might receive in
their visions the agreeable presages of their approaching recovery.
The children of Hercules are as numerous as the labours and difficulties
which he underwent, and became so powerful after his death, that they alone
had the bravery to invade the Peloponnessus. {188}
"'Take hence this hateful life, with tortures torn,
Inured to trouble, and to labours born.
Death is the gift most welcome to my woe,
And such a gift a stepdame may bestow.
Was it for this Busiris was subdued,
Whose barbarous temples reeked with stranger's blood?
Pressed in these arms his fate Antaeus found,
Nor gained recruited vigour from the ground.
Did I not triple-formed Geryon fell?
Or, did I fear the triple dog of hell?
Did not these hands the bull's armed forehead hold?
Are not our mighty toils in Elis told?
Did not Stymphalian lakes proclaim my fame?
And fair Parthenian woods resound my name?
Who seized the golden belt of Thermodon?
And who the dragon-guarded apples won?
Could the fair Centaur's strength my force withstand?
Or the fell boar that spoiled the Arcadian land?
Did not these arms the Hydra's rage subdue,
Who from his wounds to double fury grew.
What if the Thracian horses, fat with gore,
Who human bodies in their manger tore,
I saw, and with their barbarous lord, o'erthrew?
What if these hands Nemaea's lion slew?
Did not this neck the heavenly globe sustain?
The female partner of the Thunderer's reign,
Fatigued at length, suspends her harsh commands,
Yet no fatigue has slacked these valiant hands;
But now, new plagues consume me; neither force,
Nor arms, nor darts can stop their raging course,
Devouring flame through my racked entrails strays,
And on my lungs and shrivelled muscles preys.'"