Chapter XXVI: Heracles (2)

Heracles had now only two more Labours to accomplish, and Eurystheus pondered night and day as to what would be the most difficult and dangerous task he could set him. At last he told him that for his eleventh Labour he was to fetch three apples from the Garden of the Hesperides, although no mortal knew where the Garden was. When Zeus and Hera were married, the Earth had caused an apple tree to spring up, which she gave them as her present, and which was covered with apples of pure gold. Hera planted the tree {132} on an island in Oceanus which had never been trodden by the foot of any mortal, and in course of time a whole garden grew from it, in which all the trees bore golden apples. The garden was tended by three nymphs called the Singing Hesperides, and it was guarded by a dragon. Heracles never allowed himself to be discouraged, however hard his task might be, but always set about it in good spirits, confident of success, and he now went about asking everyone where the Hesperides lived. One day he came to a river, and some nymphs who were sitting on the bank asked him where he was going. He said, 'King Eurystheus has sent me to fetch him three apples from the Garden of the Hesperides, but I do not know where the Garden is.' One of the nymphs said, 'We do not know either, but Nereus, the old sea-god, can tell you, for he knows everything, both in earth and heaven.' Then they told Heracles where to find Nereus, and what to do in order to oblige him to answer his questions. Nereus lived in the sea, but about mid-day he came up on to the land and lay down in a grotto to sleep. When he was asleep, Heracles came and seized him by the arms, and Nereus, waking up, found himself a prisoner. He changed himself first into a wolf, and then into a lion, and lastly into a dragon, hoping that Heracles would be frightened and let go, but the nymphs had prepared him for these tricks, and instead of loosening his hold on the sea-god, he on the contrary held him tighter and tighter, till at last Nereus had to give in, and ask him what he wanted. When he heard what it was, he gave Heracles an exact description of where the Hesperides lived, and how to get there; it was a very long {133} way off, even further than to the island of King Geryon, but Heracles would not be disheartened, and at once began his journey.

On the way he came to Libya, where there reigned a king named Antaeus who would not allow any stranger to pass through his land without wrestling with him; and hitherto he had overcome and killed them all, for he was a son of the Earth, and his mother gave him new strength every time he touched her. Heracles wrestled with Antaeus and threw him on to the ground three times, but each time the king sprang up again stronger than before. Then Heracles perceived that the Earth gave him strength, and he raised him up in the air so that he did not touch the earth at all, and squeezed him against his own body till he died.

After this he continued his journey till he came to Egypt, where King Busiris lived, who every year sacrificed a stranger to the gods. Some time before this, the land had been unfruitful for nine years, so that many people died of hunger, and a soothsayer in a distant island who heard of this and hoped to earn a good reward without much trouble, went to Egypt and told the king that he knew by his art that the only way in which he could be reconciled to the gods was by sacrificing a stranger to them every year. But instead of giving him the reward he looked for, the king offered him up as the first sacrifice, and after this he seized a stranger every year for the same purpose. When Heracles entered the country, the king's servants happened to be on the look-out for a stranger, for the time of the yearly sacrifice had come round, and finding Heracles asleep by the wayside, they bound him with {134} many strong cords and brought him before the king. Heracles acted as if he had no choice but to submit to this treatment, but when the priest came with the sacrificial knife in his hand to give him the death-blow, he burst asunder the cords, and snatching the knife from the priest, stabbed the king whom nobody interfered to save, for he was a cruel man and greatly dreaded by his subjects. After this, the Egyptians offered no more human sacrifices, and yet their land remained fruitful, for the soothsayer who had commanded the sacrifice was a false prophet.

Heracles passed on through other lands till he came to the extreme end of the world where the giant Atlas lived, who had had an irksome task imposed upon him by the gods. He had to support the vault of heaven with his head and hands, and if he had neglected his duty even for a moment, the heaven would have fallen and crushed the earth to atoms. Heracles told Atlas of the errand on which he had been sent, and Atlas, who was only too glad to have an opportunity of resting his shoulders and stretching his legs, said that he would go and fetch the apples, if Heracles would meanwhile take his place in supporting the heaven. So Atlas went to the Garden, and the nymphs gave him the apples because he was their uncle, so that it was not long before he returned with them. But he found freedom so much more agreeable than the fulfilment of his task, that when he came back he said to Heracles, 'I have supported the heaven quite long enough, and now you must take your turn. Heracles thought to himself, 'If my wits fail me now, there will be no help for me,' so he pretended to agree. {135} and said, 'Very well, but just let me first put my lion's skin over my head to keep the heaven from pressing so heavily upon it.' Then Atlas laid down the apples upon the ground and took up his burden again, thinking it was just for a minute, but Heracles took up the golden apples and went away and left him, and Atlas has ever since been obliged to support the heaven because he let himself be duped in this way. Heracles returned to Mycenae and showed Eurystheus the golden apples, which glittered so brightly that when the sun shone one could hardly bear to look at them; then he gave them to the goddess Athene, who took them back to the Garden of the Hesperides, for Hera would have been angry if she had kept them.

Eurystheus decreed that the twelfth and last Labour of Heracles should be to fetch the hideous dog Cerberus from the Lower World. There was a chain of bare, rugged mountains, in the centre of which was a yawning chasm stretching down far below the earth, and anyone who had the courage to go down it, came at last to the Lower World, where the shades of the dead go when they leave the earth. The gate of the Land of Shades was guarded by the great dog Cerberus, who stood there as watchman, and let everyone go in, but no one pass out again. His appearance was truly frightful, for he had three heads glistening all over with serpents which grew there instead of hair, and his tail was also an angry serpent with sharp teeth. As Heracles went down the chasm, he made up his mind that he would not try and steal the dog, but would tell Pluto that Eurystheus had commanded him to fetch him, and beg that he might be allowed to take him away. At {136} last he reached the Land of Shades, where there is neither day nor night, but always grey twilight, and he saw many thousand shades flitting about like moths in the dusk. They slipped away as soon as he came near them, but their flight could not be heard but only seen, for their forms were without substance. They were also without any power of thinking, but Heracles knew that they could gain both speech and consciousness by drinking blood, and as the flock of Pluto was grazing near, he seized a cow with the intention of killing it; but before he could do so, the herdsman ran after him in a rage and struck him. Heracles let go the cow, and turning to the herdsman, he rained blows upon him with his fists until he screamed with all his might for help. Queen Persephone heard his cries, and coming out of her palace, she begged Heracles to leave off beating the herdsman, which he did for her sake. Then she asked him why he had come into the Lower World, and when he told her, she took him to her husband, King Pluto, who said he would allow him to take the dog to the Upper World on condition that he captured him without the help of any weapons. Heracles put on a shield that Pluto gave him and went back to the gate, where Cerberus greeted him with a growl, showing all his great teeth. However Heracles did not mind that, but grasping the part of his neck which belonged to the middle head, he pinched it tightly with his powerful fingers. The serpents bit him in the arm and the leg, causing him great pain, but instead of letting go the head he only pinched it the harder, so that at last the dog was forced to give in, and he led him up the path without any further difficulty. When they came {137} to the daylight however, Cerberus moaned, and would not have gone any farther if Heracles had not compelled him, being the stronger of the two, for the light of the sun struck him just between the eyes, and hurt him so much that foam dropped from his mouth; and wherever a drop of it fell on the ground, there sprang up a plant called Nightshade, which still grows, and is a deadly poison. When Heracles had taken the dog to Mycenae and shown him to Eurystheus, he brought him to the mouth of the chasm, and released him. Then Cerberus rushed back with great bounds into his beloved darkness, and Heracles heard him barking joyfully, long after he was out of sight.

[1] For the rest of the story of the Cretan bull, see p. 184.

5. _The Murder of Iphitus, and the Vengeances of Heracles._

Heracles had now served Eurystheus for twelve years, and had performed twelve great Labours for him, the hardest that have ever been accomplished by any man. During this time Megara had died, and Heracles now washed to take another wife. He heard that in Oechalia there was a beautiful maiden named Iole, the daughter of Eurytus, the king of the island of Eubcea, but that Eurytus had proclaimed that no one should marry her who could not shoot with the bow better than himself and his sons. They were the best archers in the whole country, and although many suitors came to Oechalia, yet when they saw how well Eurytus could shoot, they all thought it was useless even to string their bows, and went away home again in despair. Heracles resolved that he also would go {138} and sue for Iole, and he went out into the open field with Eurytus and his sons, in order to contend with them for the prize. All showed marvellous skill in shooting, but the arrow of Heracles pierced the breast of a wild dove so far off that the others could scarcely see it till it was brought down, and they were obliged to confess that he had beaten them. But Eurytus taunted him and said, 'Would you have me give you my daughter for your wife? When the gods send you children you throw them into the fire.' Heracles was enraged with Eurytus for mocking at his misfortune, and he went away vowing that he would one day be revenged upon him.

Some time after this, a robber stole twelve of the finest cattle that Eurytus possessed, and he sent his son Iphitus to look for them. Iphitus went to several places in search of them, and finally came to Tiryns where Heracles was. When Heracles saw Iphitus he was reminded of the way in which his father had insulted him, and it made him so angry that he struck the boy dead, though afterwards when he became calmer he would gladly have recalled the deed. He went to Neleus, the king of Pylos, and begged him to purge him from the stain of blood, but Neleus, who was a friend of Eurytus, refused to do so, but on the contrary banished him from the country, blaming him for what he had done. Heracles found another wise man who consented to purify him, but the gods were, notwithstanding this, still angry with him on account of the murder of Iphitus, and as a punishment, they visited him with a sore sickness, of which he could neither get well nor die, and which {139} caused him terrible suffering. Heracles went to the Oracle at Delphi and asked the Pythia what he could do to have the sickness taken away from him, but Apollo, who inspired the Pythia as to what she should say, would not give any answer. Then Heracles got into a great rage, and he tore up from the ground the sacred Tripod on which the priestess sat, and carried it away on his back. Apollo saw the theft, and he came down from heaven and demanded the Tripod back again. No other would have dared to meet his angry look, but Heracles was not in the least afraid, and he refused to give it up. They were just going to fight about it, and had already taken their places for the struggle, when a thunderbolt fell upon the ground between them. They knew that this was a warning from their father Zeus, and they agreed to lay aside their ill-feeling and make peace; Heracles gave back the Tripod, and Apollo pronounced the Oracle. It was that Heracles must serve as a slave for the space of three years and give the money for which he was sold to Eurytus, and that then his illness would be at an end.

So Heracles allowed himself to be sold as a slave by Hermes, the messenger of the gods, and he was bought by the beautiful Omphale, queen of Lydia. Eurytus refused to take the money, but the gods decided that it was the same as if he had done so, and Heracles was freed from his sickness. Omphale made use of her strong slave for all kinds of service, both in freeing the land from wild beasts, and in punishing wicked robbers, so that the Lydians lived in peace and safety; and Heracles loved the beautiful Omphale with all his heart, ani was ready to do anything in the world in order to {140} please her. She was very proud of being able to command the mighty hero as if he were a little child, and in order to show the people how obedient he was to her, she made him sit among her maidens in women's clothes spinning at the distaff, whilst she dressed herself up in the lion's skin, as if she were the man and he the woman, and Heracles allowed her to do just as she would with him because of the great love he bore her.

When the three years were ended, Heracles left the palace of Omphale, and went through the cities of Greece asking if any heroes would set out with him for Troy, for he meant to carry out his threat of punishing King Laomedon for his faithlessness. So many heroes came that they filled six large ships, and they sailed to Troy and besieged the city. They set up ladders with which to climb over the walls, and pressed on notwithstanding the stones and javelins that the Trojans threw down upon them, but they would never have succeeded in entering the city without the help of Heracles. When the city was taken, Heracles passed a sentence of death upon the king and his sons, and shot them all together, only sparing the youngest whose name was Podarces, because he was too young to have had any part in the treachery of his father. Heracles gave the beautiful Hesione to the hero Telamon who had been the first to scale the wall, and as she wept very much at leaving Troy, he told her that she might take one of the prisoners with her. She did not take long to consider who it should be, but immediately held out her hand to her little brother Podarces. Then Heracles said that she must buy him, so she took off her veil, which was the only one she had, {141} and threw it down fur the purchase-money; and from that time her brother was called Priam, which means Bought. He came to Greece with his sister Hesione, but when he grew up to be a man he returned to Troy and became king of the country.

When Augeas and the others who had wronged Heracles heard of the punishment that had overtaken Laomedon, they were afraid, and assembled all their warriors to protect them, for Heracles had announced his intention of marching against them as soon as he returned to Greece. But Hera, who still hated him, tried to destroy him on his way home. She commanded the god of Slumber to send Zeus into a deep sleep, and while he lay unconscious, she raised a tremendous storm on the sea through which Heracles was sailing. All his companions were very much frightened, but Heracles was not in the least disturbed, and before the waves could make a wreck of the ship, Zeus awoke, and seeing his son in danger, calmed the sea so that it became quite smooth and the fishes came up again from the bottom to play. Zeus knew that it was Hera who had raised the storm, and he punished her for it. He tied her hands together with a golden chain, and attached a heavy weight to each of her feet, and then he suspended her in the clouds, where she was obliged to hang all day long in great pain, with the winds and storms for her only companions.

Heracles was none the worse for the storm, and as soon as he had landed in Greece with the other heroes, he led them against Elis, the city of King Augeas, and conquered it. Augeas would now have gladly parted with his whole herd if that would have saved his life, {142} but Heracles killed him and all his sons except Phyleus, the one who had refused to bear false witness against him and had been banished by his father in consequence. He gave the country into the hands of Phyleus, and then he led his followers from Elis to Pylos, where he punished King Neleus for having refused to purge him from the stain of blood. Of the whole race of the king, the only one who remained alive after the visit of Heracles was a little boy named Nestor, whom his father Neleus had sent to be brought up in a neighbouring country, and who grew up to be a brave and wise hero.

6. _The Marriage of Heracles with Deianira, and his Death._

There was still one man left whom Heracles desired to punish, and this was Eurytus. But he deferred his revenge for a time, in order to undertake a pleasanter expedition to the court of King Oeneus, of Calydon, whose beautiful daughter Deianira he wished to marry. Deianira was a maiden who delighted in driving horses that had never been broken in, and who knew how to use the lance and the bow. She had another distinguished lover, the river-god Acheloüs, and as neither he nor Heracles would give way to the other, they determined to fight it out, and agreed that whichever conquered should have the bride. Acheloüs came out of his stream in the form of a bull, and Heracles had a hard struggle with him, for his opponent had the strength of a bull, and at the same time the wisdom of a god. Acheloüs ran at him intending to gore him with his horns, and if Heracles had not been on his guard, he would have {143} been pierced through. For a long time the struggle lasted, each trying to overpower the other by strength or by craft, and when the river-god laid his fore-feet upon the shoulders of Heracles who was clothed in his lion's skin, and pressed his strong chest against him in the hope of throwing him, it looked as if a lion and a bull had embraced each other. But at last Heracles laid hold of one of the horns of Acheloüs and tore at it with all his might till he succeeded in breaking it off, and then the bull bellowed horribly, and ran back, bleeding, into the river.

So Heracles remained the victor, and Oeneus gave him Deianira to be his wife, and she was glad to have such a noble hero for her husband. Heracles wanted to keep the horn as a trophy, but Acheloüs gave him instead of it the wonderful horn of the goat Amalthea who had been the nurse of Zeus.[1] This horn had been blessed by Zeus, and anyone who held it in his hand might wish for anything he liked to eat or drink, and immediately it was there. For this reason it was called the Horn of Plenty, because it produced all kinds of food in abundance.

Heracles lived many years in Calydon with Deianira, not spending his time slothfully, but fighting against all the robbers and wicked men in the neighbourhood. But one day it happened that the boy who held the washing-basin and poured water over his hands before meals, was careless and showered the water all over him. Heracles gave him what he intended to be a little box on the ears, but a blow from him came with such violence that the boy immediately fell down dead. {144} Heracles was very much grieved, and he determined to leave the city of Calydon, and set out with Deianira for Trachis where an old friend of his lived. On the way they came to a broad river over which there was no bridge, but the Centaur Nessus used to carry travellers across on his horse's back for a trifling payment. Heracles entrusted Deianira to him, and said that he himself would follow without help. The Centaur, however, was so greatly charmed with the beauty of Deianira, that as he swam with her across the stream he made up his mind that he would carry her off. So when he had reached the other side, instead of letting her jump off his back, he held her fast and ran away with her. Deianira stretched out her arms to Heracles who was still on the farther bank, and screamed for help. Then Heracles took his bow and shot a poisoned arrow into the shoulder of the Centaur, and he fell down and was obliged to let go his hold of Deianira. Nessus felt that the poison would soon kill him, and he longed to revenge himself on Heracles by doing him some injury. So he said to Deianira, 'Take a cloth and dip it in my blood, and do not let Heracles see it; but if ever you are afraid that he loves another woman better than you, sprinkle the blood over his clothing, and he will be unable to leave you. You must take care, however, not to touch it yourself.' The blood had been poisoned by the arrow of Heracles, and anyone whose skin was even touched by it must die, but Deianira did not know this; she thought the Centaur was speaking in good faith and determined to follow his advice, for she loved Heracles with all her heart, and desired above all things that he should always love her as much in return.

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Nessus died soon after he had spoken to Deianira, and Heracles continued his journey with her. When they came to Trachis which is not far from Euboea, he remembered the vengeance that he had purposed to execute upon Eurytus, and assembling all his companions, he set sail for his island. Eurytus armed his sons and all his men of war, and met him outside the walls of Oechalia. Then a battle was fought in which many wounds were given and received, and Heracles slew Eurytus and his sons, which, when the others saw, they gave up all hope and betook themselves to flight. Heracles entered the city with his companions and gave them leave to take any plunder they chose, for all the people surrendered themselves and their possessions to him, only asking that their lives might be spared.

Heracles now desired to offer a solemn sacrifice to Zeus as a token of his gratitude for the victory, and he sent the herald Lichas to procure from Deianira a festal robe suitable for the occasion. Deianira was greatly afraid that Heracles might forsake her for the beautiful Iole whom he had formerly wished to marry, and remembering what the Centaur had told her to do if ever she had any special reason for desiring that Heracles should be true to her, she took the cloth which had been soaked in his blood, and smeared all the inner side of the robe with it. Lichas took the robe to Heracles, and he put it on. But when the blood had become warmed by the heat of his body, it burst out into flames and burnt Heracles so terribly that in his agony he seized Lichas by the feet and flung him three times against the rocks, till his face was so battered that none of the features could be {146} distinguished. Then he tried to tear off the dress, but it clung so closely to his skin that pieces of his flesh came off with it. He suffered unspeakable tortures, which made him cry out with the pain and roll on the ground in agony, and then he moaned so piteously that the very stones might have felt for him, but no one dared to go near him. For a short time the pain made him quite mad; then he controlled himself with a mighty effort and resolved what he would do. He got into a ship that was going to Greece, and when he arrived there he ascended Mount Oeta, accompanied by some of his friends; the poison still caused him terrible suffering, but he was able to bear it in silence now. On the top of Mount Oeta he built a huge funeral pile and mounted to the top of it; then he asked his friends to set fire to it, but none of them would do so,--they only stood round weeping. Presently however a herdsman came along the road, and Heracles called out to him, and said that he would give him his bow and arrows if he would set fire to the funeral pile. The herdsman consented to do so for the sake of the beautiful bow, and he brought a burning torch with which he set the wood alight. The wind fanned the flames and they mounted higher and higher, but before they reached Heracles himself, a sound of thunder and lightning was heard, and a cloud came down which covered the funeral pile and in which he was carried up to the top of Mount Olympus. The gods gifted him with immortality as a recompense for his noble deeds, and they said that he should henceforth be as one of themselves. Even Hera did not grudge him this reward, for her hatred had at last been conquered by his grand {147} and godlike Labours, and when Heracles appeared among the Immortals in the form of a god, she led her daughter, the goddess Hebe, towards him, and said that he should have her for his wife. Poor Deianira was already in the Lower World, for when she heard of the evil that had been wrought by the robe, she went into her bed-chamber and hanged herself.

Heracles was honoured on the earth as a god, and men built temples to him, and kept his great deeds in constant remembrance.

[1] See page 3.

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