Legendary Passages #0053 - The Thirteenth Labor -
The Life & Labors of Heracles, from Tzetzes' Chiliades.
Last time we reviewed the Augean Stables, and Heracles' later attack on the kingdom. This time we hear the first half of a sort of ancient encyclopedia entry on Heracles, covering his early adventures and labors.
First, the origin of Heracles' mother Alcmene, and her encounter with Zeus. When she was about to give birth, Zeus decreed that the next born descendant of Perseus would rule as king, but that turned out to be Eurystheus instead.
Heracles grew up to be a strong young man, but when he killed his music teacher, he was sent away into the countryside. In defense of his cows, he kills the Cithaeronian Lion and wears its skin. Meanwhile, he accomplishes what some authors call his thirteenth labor, and sleeps with the fifty daughters of Thespeus.
Heracles returns to Thebes, kills King Erginus, ends the tribute to the Minyans, and marries Princess Megara. But he goes mad and kills their children, and agrees to serve King Erystheus to absolve him of this crime.
He accomplishes many labors: The Nemean Lion, The Learnean Hydra, The Ceryneian Hind, The Erymanthian Boar, The Augean Stables, The Stymphalian Birds, The Cretan Bull, The Mares of Diomedes, and retrieving The Girdle of Hippolyta from the Amazons. The passage continues, but must wait for a future episode.
Next time we review the labors of The Birds and the Boar.
http://www.theoi.com/Text/TzetzesChiliades2.html#4
The Thirteenth Labor,
a Legendary Passage,
from Tzetzes' Chiliades,
translated by Gary Berkowitz.
Book 2 [157] - [320]
2.4 CONCERNING HERACLES (STORY 36)
Heracles, the son of Alcmene, belonged to Amphitryon.
By one account, he was called Amphitryon's son,
But in truth, he was the son of Zeus, a lord, and astrologer.
With regard to how they used to call
all kings Zeuses, I spoke.
This Zeus, having mingled, even, with women that met him,
Women who they also call mortals, made offspring from them.
That they used to call the women that met him mortals,
And queens goddesses, even Ptolemy writes
In his Tetrabiblos, writing to Syrus:
"As many men as have an Aphrodite belonging to their family,
Are mingling with such divine and eminent destinies."
And so that magic astrologer king
Had, from different women, countless children.
When, because of Zeus,
both Alcmene was at the time of parturition,
And about to bear a son Heracles to Zeus then,
And Archippe was pregnant then to Zeus
Except that the child, Eurystheus,
was going to be the result of an incomplete seven-month birth,
That king Zeus, the great astrologer,
Then alone had been deceived.
For seeing the stars
All being well, and in kingly places,
And knowing that Alcmene was pregnant for nine months,
And that it was then the time for the baby's birth,
Not having considered beforehand
whether even then the baby was born,
Or Alcmene kept in the one, but the other was born incomplete,
Looking away to only the stars belonging to his family,
Gods wise and ruling,
this thing (Zeus says) I am speaking forth:
"The son who today was born mortal from my wife,
My queen, is going to take the scepter,
And rule all those born to me and to my mortal women."
In this way he spoke, thinking that Heracles was born.
But when this great-bodied son was being born,
And was surrounding all of the air of his mother,
Which they even said was the power of Hera
that belonged to his family,
Rather, since even Iphicles
was being brought forth with Heracles,
Alcmene, in sore travail after some days
Gave birth in the tenth month.
But Archippe then
Gave birth to a seven month baby in the time of kingly stars.
His name was Eurystheus,
and for the rest of the time he was a lord over Heracles.
But in this way I allegorized rather learnedly;
And now I will speak more ethically in the manner of orators.
There was a Zeus, a king, childless because of custom,
But having mistresses, in Alcmene and Archippe,
who were pregnant.
Alcmene was to birth a nine-month baby,
but the other woman would give birth within the seventh month.
Held down by much love for Alcmene,
And knowing that in that time then,
Alcmene was going to give birth,
But that Archippe was hopeless with regard to giving birth,
Zeus wrote in dispositions under oath and namelessly:
"Whatever son that is born to me today, from whatever woman,
Must have the royal scepter and power."
And thusly, as I said before, when the births happened,
Eurystheus, who outran the months, held the scepter,
And drew Heracles into mighty slavery,
Leading, by destiny, the man who was entirely the strongest.
Pontic Herodorus says in writing that Heracles
Had a height of four fore-arms and one foot.
I think, however,
that everyone shouts out the strength attributes of the man.
For having killed someone with his lyre
while still being a boy,
He is sent,
by the hands of Amphitryon the father, to cowherds.
And while herding in Cithaeron at the age of eighteen,
He killed a lion that was devouring cows and dons the hide.
I, however, accept that wild lions are in no wise
In Thebes and Nemea and such places,
Unless, perhaps, driven mad out of some other places
as a sort of miracle they streamed in to what sort of places they speak.
And Thestius, knowing that he killed the lion,
entertains him as a guest.
Having fifty daughters from Megamede,
He made Heracles drunk
and had all of his daughters lay in bed with him
For as long as fifty nights, one daughter for each night,
In order that they might conceive with him,
and even bear children.
And after doing these things, Heracles even kills Erginus
Who had made war upon Thebes;
Heracles exacts tribute from Erginus' Minyans,
In return for which he received Megara from Creon.
Maddened and having burned Megara's children with fire,
Heracles heeded the oracular responses and went to Mycenae,
the city of Eurystheus,
Whom he serves, eventually accomplishing the twelve labors.
-
First, having shot the Nemean Lion with his bow,
he strangles it with his hands,
And brings its hide to Mycenae for Eurystheus.
Terrified at Heracles' irresistible power,
Eurystheus forbade his entrance into the city;
Instead, he bid Heracles to display all of his labors before the gates.
-
Secondly, Heracles kills the nine-headed Hydra of Lerna,
Which consisted of nine brothers
who were army-leaders and of one soul,
For whom even Crab was general, being an ally and a friend.
These men Heracles destroyed with toil and strength.
For when one was destroyed from this army,
Two others would peep out from the fortresses.
For these reasons,
most vexatiously Heracles scarcely took them,
While from another part lolaus burned the city;
Wherefore Eurystheus did not receive this labor favorably.
There is also a more true very ancient hydra,
Existing seven generations before the time of Heracles,
The fifty-headed one, and settler of Lerna.
When its head was cut off, two would appear instead.
Heracles, though not being present, destroyed it even then.
This hydra, though, is the heads of the children of Aegyptus,
Which the Danaids threw into the water of Lerna,
One after another, each woman bearing the head of another man.
They destroyed these men because of the deliberations of their father.
Later, since Lynceus alone escaped with his life
And struck together justice,
all of the women— through just reason
(Lynceus and Heracles, I say,
also obtained the glory of the land)
Had received the punishment befitting them.
Even the fifty-headed hydra is some sort of badness,
Accomplishing, many times, many occasions for deceits,
A hydra which Heracles, in the sense of reasoning,
kills with the help of lolaus,
A just man gladdening well thinking people.
But whereas these two hydras were inconvenient to Heracles,
The former was attached to the offspring of Alcmene.
-
Thirdly,
Heracles held down with his feet the hind of golden horns,
Which Taygete consecrated as a sacred hind of Artemis,
After adorning its horns with gold and epigrams.
-
Then, Heracles goes to the Erymanthian Boar.
He performed secondary work in killing all of the centaurs together.
For Pholus the centaur entertains Heracles,
Having opened up the common jar of the wine of the Centaurs.
And they, upon arriving, were grievously pressing upon Pholus,
Whence Heracles killed them with his bow.
The affairs of the Centaurs, though,
I will allegorize subtly when it is necessary.
But the boar was ruining Phocis in every way.
Having pursued it out of the thicket
to a place of excessive snow,
Heracles bound it with slip-knots
and brought it, living, to Mycenae.
-
Fifth,
Heracles was carrying out the dung of the three thousand cows
That belonged to the lord of the Eleans, Augeas, Phorbas' son
(Or the son of Poseidon, or of Helios according to others).
In any event, having been promised
that he could take a tenth of these cows alive,
and having turned the river Alpheus towards the cattle-fold,
Heracles cleaned out the dung in the shortest amount of time.
But when Augeas did not give what was promised to Heracles,
Phyleus, having dared to speak against him:
"how unjust you are, O father,"
Settled in Dulichium as he was ostracized in Augea;
But Heracles, as he was tricked, laid waste to Elis.
But later, and not in the time immediately after,
Eurystheus did not accept the cleansing of the dung,
Saying that it was for a tenth of the cows
and therefore a wage.
-
For the sixth labor,
both with a bronze rattle and his bow, Heracles kills birds,
Having shot them with feathered arrows in the marshy Stymphalian Lake.
-
For the seventh labor, after overpowering the Cretan Bull,
Heracles carries it away while it was still alive,
Whether it was the bull that carried Europa across to Crete,
Or the one Poseidon brought out from the sea,
Which grew extraordinarily wild and was damaging Crete,
And which Eurystheus sent away free.
Going through Marathon,
the bull was a thing of damage to the people of Attica.
-
The eighth labor,
involving the man-slaying horses of Diomedes,
king of the Bistonians and son of Cyrene and Ares,
led Heracles by the sea.
And the armed soldiers running together,
all of those belonging to Diomedes,
Heracles killed, including that man.
But Abderus, the son of Erinus and a friend of Heracles,
Was rent in pieces by the horses,
who ate him with their teeth.
Abderus was from Locrian Opus, and a keeper of these horses;
Heracles, after he placed the city Abdera
over the body of Abderus,
Later conveyed the horses to Eurystheus;
But dwelling in Olympus,
the horses supplied food by beasts of prey.
-
For the ninth labor,
Heracles runs after the girdle of Hippolyta
Since Admete, the daughter of Eurystheus, wanted it.
With one ship, Heracles was carried across to the Amazons,
And in the coasting voyage,
after destroying all of Bebrycia together,
Heracles gives the land to Mysian Lycus, the son of Deipylus,
But only after Heracles defeated the brothers Amycus and Mygdon.
Lycus calls the city of these people Heraclea,
Honoring Heracles, the one who cheerfully gave the place.
But Heracles, having sailed to Themiscyra itself,
Defeated the Amazons and took the girdle.
In passing, he rescues Hesione from the sea monster.
Then, the guest-slaying sons of Proteus,
Tmolus and Telegonus, Heracles kills after he wrestled them down.
http://www.theoi.com/Text/TzetzesChiliades2.html#4
Greek and Roman mythology from the original sources, from Atlantis to Hercules to the Trojan War. Email: LegendaryPassages@gmail.com
Tuesday, August 9, 2016
Sunday, August 7, 2016
LP0052 - The Kingdom of Elis - Herculean vengeance, from Pausanias' Description of Greece
Legendary Passages #0052 - The Kingdom of Elis -
Herculean vengeance, from Pausanias' Description of Greece.
Last time we reviewed some of Heracles' deeds after his labors. This time we focus on the Kingdom of Elis, where he was refused payment for cleansing the stables, and later launched a war of retribution.
Firstly, the text reviews the origins of the people of Elis, known as the Eleans. Their first king was Aethilius, followed by his son Endymion, and then his son Epeius. Aetolus, his brother, ruled next, followed by Eleius, son of their sister Eurycyda and Poseidon, and then his son Augeas, and his son was Phyleus.
After banishing Phyleus and Heracles to avoid payment, Augeas made many friends and alliances. Moline and her husband Actor were the parents of conjoined twins Eurytus and Cteatus, accomplished warriors, but killed by Heracles. For this, their mother Moline cursed the Argives, Heracles' countrymen. After a long aside about sports, eventually Heracles sacked Elis and put Phyleus on the throne.
Next time, an overview of the deeds of Heracles, and his Thirteenth Labor.
http://www.theoi.com/Text/Pausanias5A.html
The Kingdom of Elis,
a Legendary Passage,
from Pausanias' Description of Greece,
translated by W. H. S. Jones.
[5.1.1] - [5.3.4]
ELIS, MYTHICAL HISTORY
The Greeks who say that the Peloponnesus has five, and only five, divisions must agree that Arcadia contains both Arcadians and Eleans, that the second division belongs to the Achaeans, and the remaining three to the Dorians. Of the races dwelling in Peloponnesus the Arcadians and Achaeans are aborigines. When the Achaeans were driven from their land by the Dorians, they did not retire from Peloponnesus, but they cast out the Ionians and occupied the land called of old Aegialus, but now called Achaea from these Achaeans. The Arcadians, on the other hand, have from the beginning to to the present time continued in possession of their own country.
The rest of Peloponnesus belongs to immigrants. The modern Corinthians are the latest inhabitants of Peloponnesus, and from my time to the time when they received their land from the Roman Emperor is two hundred and seventeen years. The Dryopians reached the Peloponnesus from Parnassus, the Dorians from Oeta.
The Eleans we know crossed over from Calydon and Aetolia generally. Their earlier history I found to be as follows. The first to rule in this land, they say, was Aethlius, who was the son of Zeus and of Protogeneia, the daughter of Deucalion, and the father of Endymion.
The Moon, they say, fell in love with this Endymion and bore him fifty daughters. Others with greater probability say that Endymion took a wife Asterodia – others say she was Cromia, the daughter of Itonus, the son of Amphictyon; others again, Hyperippe, the daughter of Arcas – but all agree that Endymion begat Paeon, Epeius, Aetolus, and also a daughter Eurycyda. Endymion set his sons to run a race at Olympia for the throne; Epeius won, and obtained the kingdom, and his subjects were then named Epeans for the first time.
Of his brothers they say that Aetolus remained at home, while Paeon, vexed at his defeat, went into the farthest exile possible, and that the region beyond the river Axius was named after him Paeonia. As to the death of Endymion, the people of Heracleia near Miletus do not agree with the Eleans for while the Eleans show a tomb of Endymion, the folk of Heracleia say that he retired to Mount Latmus and give him honor, there being a shrine of Endymion on Latmus.
Epeius married Anaxiroe, the daughter of Coronus, and begat a daughter Hyrmina, but no male issue. In the reign of Epeius the following events also occurred. Oenomaus was the son of Alxion (though poets proclaimed his father to be Ares, and the common report agrees with them), but while lord of the land of Pisa he was put down by Pelops the Lydian, who crossed over from Asia.
On the death of Oenomaus, Pelops took possession of the land of Pisa and its bordering country Olympia, separating it from the land of Epeius. The Eleans said that Pelops was the first to found a temple of Hermes in Peloponnesus and to sacrifice to the god, his purpose being to avert the wrath of the god for the death of Myrtilus.
Aetolus, who came to the throne after Epeius, was made to flee from Peloponnesus, because the children of Apis tried and convicted him of unintentional homicide. For Apis, the son of Jason, from Pallantium in Arcadia, was run over and killed by the chariot of Aetolus at the games held in honor of Azan. Aetolus, son of Endymion, gave to the dwellers around the Achelous their name, when he fled to this part of the mainland. But the kingdom of the Epeans fell to Eleius, the son of Eurycyda, daughter of Endymion and, believe the tale who will, of Poseidon. It was Eleius who gave the inhabitants their present name of Eleans in place of Epeans.
-
Eleius had a son Augeas. Those who exaggerate his glory give a turn to the name Eleius and make Helius to be the father of Augeas. This Augeas had so many cattle and flocks of goats that actually most of his land remained untilled because of the dung of the animals. Now he persuaded Heracles to cleanse for him the land from dung, either in return for a part of Elis or possibly for some other reward.
Heracles accomplished this feat too, turning aside the stream of the Menius into the dung. But, because Heracles had accomplished his task by cunning, without toil, Augeas refused to give him his reward, and banished Phyleus, the elder of his two sons, for objecting that he was wronging a man who had been his benefactor. He made preparations himself to resist Heracles, should he attack Elis; more particularly he made friends with the sons of Actor and with Amarynceus. Amarynceus, besides being a good soldier, had a father, Pyttius, of Thessalian descent, who came from Thessaly to Elis. To Amarynceus, therefore, Augeas also gave a share in the government of Elis; Actor and his sons had a share in the kingdom and were natives of the country. For the father of Actor was Phorbas, son of Lapithus, and his mother was Hyrmina, daughter of Epeius. Actor named after her the city of Hyrmina, which he founded in Elis.
Heracles accomplished no brilliant feat in the war with Augeas. For the sons of Actor were in the prime of courageous manhood, and always put to flight the allies under Heracles, until the Corinthians proclaimed the Isthmian truce, and the sons of Actor came as envoys to the meeting. Heracles set an ambush for then, at Cleonae and murdered them. As the murderer was unknown, Moline, more than any of the other children, devoted herself to detecting him.
When she discovered him, the Eleans demanded satisfaction for the crime from the Argives, for at the time Heracles had his home at Tiryns. When the Argives refused them satisfaction, the Eleans as an alternative pressed the Corinthians entirely to exclude the Argive people from the Isthmian games. When they failed in this also, Moline is said to have laid curses on her countrymen, should they refuse to boycott the Isthmian festival. The curses of Moline are respected right down to the present day, and no athlete of Elis is wont to compete in the Isthmian games.
-
There are two other accounts, differing from the one that I have given. According to one of them Cypselus, the tyrant of Corinth, dedicated to Zeus a golden image at Olympia. As Cypselus died before inscribing his own name on the offering, the Corinthians asked of the Eleans leave to inscribe the name of Corinth on it, but were refused. Wroth with the Eleans, they proclaimed that they must keep away from the Isthmian games. But how could the Corinthians themselves take part in the Olympic games if the Eleans against their will were shut out by the Corinthians from the Isthmian games?
The other account is this. Prolaus, a distinguished Elean, had two sons, Philanthus and Lampus, by his wife Lysippe. These two came to the Isthmian games to compete in the boys' pancratium, and one of them intended to wrestle. Before they entered the ring they were strangled or done to death in some other way by their fellow competitors. Hence the curses of Lysippe on the Eleans, should they not voluntarily keep away from the Isthmian games. But this story too proves on examination to be silly.
For Timon, a man of Elis, won victories in the pentathlum at the Greek games, and at Olympia there is even a statue of him, with an elegiac inscription giving the crowns he won and also the reason why he secured no Isthmian victory. The inscription sets forth the reason thus:–
But from going to the land of Sisyphus
he was hindered by a quarrel
About the baleful death of the Molionids.
If the proposed emendation be adopted the meaning will be:
“one to compete in the boys' pancratium,
the other in wrestling.”
-
Enough of my discussion of this question. Heracles afterwards took Elis and sacked it, with an army he had raised of Argives, Thebans and Arcadians. The Eleans were aided by the men of Pisa and of Pylus in Elis. The men of Pylus were punished by Heracles, but his expedition against Pisa was stopped by an oracle from Delphi to this effect:
My father cares for Pisa, but to me in the hollows of Pytho.
This oracle proved the salvation of Pisa.
To Phyleus Heracles gave up the land of Elis and all the rest, more out of respect for Phyleus than because he wanted to do so: he allowed him to keep the prisoners, and Augeas to escape punishment.
The women of Elis, it is said, seeing that their land had been deprived of its vigorous manhood, prayed to Athena that they might conceive at their first union with their husbands. Their prayer was answered, and they set up a sanctuary of Athena surnamed Mother. Both wives and husbands were so delighted at their union that they named the place itself, where they first met, Bady (sweet), and the river that runs thereby Bady Water, this being a word of their native dialect.
When Phyleus had returned to Dulichium after organizing the affairs of Elis, Augeas died at an advanced age, and the kingdom of Elis devolved on Agasthenes, the son of Augeas, and on Amphimachus and Thalpius. For the sons of Actor married twin sisters, the daughters of Dexamenus who was king at Olenus; Amphimachus was born to one son and Theronice, Thalpius to her sister Theraephone and Eurytus.
However, neither Amarynceus himself nor his son Diores remained common people. Incidentally this is shown by Homer in his list of the Eleans; he makes their whole fleet to consist of forty ships, half of them under the command of Amphimachus and Thalpius, and of the remaining twenty he puts ten under Diores, the son of Amarynceus, and ten under Polyxenus, the son of Agasthenes. Polyxenus came back safe from Troy and begat a son, Amphimachus. This name I think Polyxenus gave his son because of his friendship with Amphimachus, the son of Cteatus, who died at Troy.
http://www.theoi.com/Text/Pausanias5A.html
Herculean vengeance, from Pausanias' Description of Greece.
Last time we reviewed some of Heracles' deeds after his labors. This time we focus on the Kingdom of Elis, where he was refused payment for cleansing the stables, and later launched a war of retribution.
Firstly, the text reviews the origins of the people of Elis, known as the Eleans. Their first king was Aethilius, followed by his son Endymion, and then his son Epeius. Aetolus, his brother, ruled next, followed by Eleius, son of their sister Eurycyda and Poseidon, and then his son Augeas, and his son was Phyleus.
After banishing Phyleus and Heracles to avoid payment, Augeas made many friends and alliances. Moline and her husband Actor were the parents of conjoined twins Eurytus and Cteatus, accomplished warriors, but killed by Heracles. For this, their mother Moline cursed the Argives, Heracles' countrymen. After a long aside about sports, eventually Heracles sacked Elis and put Phyleus on the throne.
Next time, an overview of the deeds of Heracles, and his Thirteenth Labor.
http://www.theoi.com/Text/Pausanias5A.html
The Kingdom of Elis,
a Legendary Passage,
from Pausanias' Description of Greece,
translated by W. H. S. Jones.
[5.1.1] - [5.3.4]
ELIS, MYTHICAL HISTORY
The Greeks who say that the Peloponnesus has five, and only five, divisions must agree that Arcadia contains both Arcadians and Eleans, that the second division belongs to the Achaeans, and the remaining three to the Dorians. Of the races dwelling in Peloponnesus the Arcadians and Achaeans are aborigines. When the Achaeans were driven from their land by the Dorians, they did not retire from Peloponnesus, but they cast out the Ionians and occupied the land called of old Aegialus, but now called Achaea from these Achaeans. The Arcadians, on the other hand, have from the beginning to to the present time continued in possession of their own country.
The rest of Peloponnesus belongs to immigrants. The modern Corinthians are the latest inhabitants of Peloponnesus, and from my time to the time when they received their land from the Roman Emperor is two hundred and seventeen years. The Dryopians reached the Peloponnesus from Parnassus, the Dorians from Oeta.
The Eleans we know crossed over from Calydon and Aetolia generally. Their earlier history I found to be as follows. The first to rule in this land, they say, was Aethlius, who was the son of Zeus and of Protogeneia, the daughter of Deucalion, and the father of Endymion.
The Moon, they say, fell in love with this Endymion and bore him fifty daughters. Others with greater probability say that Endymion took a wife Asterodia – others say she was Cromia, the daughter of Itonus, the son of Amphictyon; others again, Hyperippe, the daughter of Arcas – but all agree that Endymion begat Paeon, Epeius, Aetolus, and also a daughter Eurycyda. Endymion set his sons to run a race at Olympia for the throne; Epeius won, and obtained the kingdom, and his subjects were then named Epeans for the first time.
Of his brothers they say that Aetolus remained at home, while Paeon, vexed at his defeat, went into the farthest exile possible, and that the region beyond the river Axius was named after him Paeonia. As to the death of Endymion, the people of Heracleia near Miletus do not agree with the Eleans for while the Eleans show a tomb of Endymion, the folk of Heracleia say that he retired to Mount Latmus and give him honor, there being a shrine of Endymion on Latmus.
Epeius married Anaxiroe, the daughter of Coronus, and begat a daughter Hyrmina, but no male issue. In the reign of Epeius the following events also occurred. Oenomaus was the son of Alxion (though poets proclaimed his father to be Ares, and the common report agrees with them), but while lord of the land of Pisa he was put down by Pelops the Lydian, who crossed over from Asia.
On the death of Oenomaus, Pelops took possession of the land of Pisa and its bordering country Olympia, separating it from the land of Epeius. The Eleans said that Pelops was the first to found a temple of Hermes in Peloponnesus and to sacrifice to the god, his purpose being to avert the wrath of the god for the death of Myrtilus.
Aetolus, who came to the throne after Epeius, was made to flee from Peloponnesus, because the children of Apis tried and convicted him of unintentional homicide. For Apis, the son of Jason, from Pallantium in Arcadia, was run over and killed by the chariot of Aetolus at the games held in honor of Azan. Aetolus, son of Endymion, gave to the dwellers around the Achelous their name, when he fled to this part of the mainland. But the kingdom of the Epeans fell to Eleius, the son of Eurycyda, daughter of Endymion and, believe the tale who will, of Poseidon. It was Eleius who gave the inhabitants their present name of Eleans in place of Epeans.
-
Eleius had a son Augeas. Those who exaggerate his glory give a turn to the name Eleius and make Helius to be the father of Augeas. This Augeas had so many cattle and flocks of goats that actually most of his land remained untilled because of the dung of the animals. Now he persuaded Heracles to cleanse for him the land from dung, either in return for a part of Elis or possibly for some other reward.
Heracles accomplished this feat too, turning aside the stream of the Menius into the dung. But, because Heracles had accomplished his task by cunning, without toil, Augeas refused to give him his reward, and banished Phyleus, the elder of his two sons, for objecting that he was wronging a man who had been his benefactor. He made preparations himself to resist Heracles, should he attack Elis; more particularly he made friends with the sons of Actor and with Amarynceus. Amarynceus, besides being a good soldier, had a father, Pyttius, of Thessalian descent, who came from Thessaly to Elis. To Amarynceus, therefore, Augeas also gave a share in the government of Elis; Actor and his sons had a share in the kingdom and were natives of the country. For the father of Actor was Phorbas, son of Lapithus, and his mother was Hyrmina, daughter of Epeius. Actor named after her the city of Hyrmina, which he founded in Elis.
Heracles accomplished no brilliant feat in the war with Augeas. For the sons of Actor were in the prime of courageous manhood, and always put to flight the allies under Heracles, until the Corinthians proclaimed the Isthmian truce, and the sons of Actor came as envoys to the meeting. Heracles set an ambush for then, at Cleonae and murdered them. As the murderer was unknown, Moline, more than any of the other children, devoted herself to detecting him.
When she discovered him, the Eleans demanded satisfaction for the crime from the Argives, for at the time Heracles had his home at Tiryns. When the Argives refused them satisfaction, the Eleans as an alternative pressed the Corinthians entirely to exclude the Argive people from the Isthmian games. When they failed in this also, Moline is said to have laid curses on her countrymen, should they refuse to boycott the Isthmian festival. The curses of Moline are respected right down to the present day, and no athlete of Elis is wont to compete in the Isthmian games.
-
There are two other accounts, differing from the one that I have given. According to one of them Cypselus, the tyrant of Corinth, dedicated to Zeus a golden image at Olympia. As Cypselus died before inscribing his own name on the offering, the Corinthians asked of the Eleans leave to inscribe the name of Corinth on it, but were refused. Wroth with the Eleans, they proclaimed that they must keep away from the Isthmian games. But how could the Corinthians themselves take part in the Olympic games if the Eleans against their will were shut out by the Corinthians from the Isthmian games?
The other account is this. Prolaus, a distinguished Elean, had two sons, Philanthus and Lampus, by his wife Lysippe. These two came to the Isthmian games to compete in the boys' pancratium, and one of them intended to wrestle. Before they entered the ring they were strangled or done to death in some other way by their fellow competitors. Hence the curses of Lysippe on the Eleans, should they not voluntarily keep away from the Isthmian games. But this story too proves on examination to be silly.
For Timon, a man of Elis, won victories in the pentathlum at the Greek games, and at Olympia there is even a statue of him, with an elegiac inscription giving the crowns he won and also the reason why he secured no Isthmian victory. The inscription sets forth the reason thus:–
But from going to the land of Sisyphus
he was hindered by a quarrel
About the baleful death of the Molionids.
If the proposed emendation be adopted the meaning will be:
“one to compete in the boys' pancratium,
the other in wrestling.”
-
Enough of my discussion of this question. Heracles afterwards took Elis and sacked it, with an army he had raised of Argives, Thebans and Arcadians. The Eleans were aided by the men of Pisa and of Pylus in Elis. The men of Pylus were punished by Heracles, but his expedition against Pisa was stopped by an oracle from Delphi to this effect:
My father cares for Pisa, but to me in the hollows of Pytho.
This oracle proved the salvation of Pisa.
To Phyleus Heracles gave up the land of Elis and all the rest, more out of respect for Phyleus than because he wanted to do so: he allowed him to keep the prisoners, and Augeas to escape punishment.
The women of Elis, it is said, seeing that their land had been deprived of its vigorous manhood, prayed to Athena that they might conceive at their first union with their husbands. Their prayer was answered, and they set up a sanctuary of Athena surnamed Mother. Both wives and husbands were so delighted at their union that they named the place itself, where they first met, Bady (sweet), and the river that runs thereby Bady Water, this being a word of their native dialect.
When Phyleus had returned to Dulichium after organizing the affairs of Elis, Augeas died at an advanced age, and the kingdom of Elis devolved on Agasthenes, the son of Augeas, and on Amphimachus and Thalpius. For the sons of Actor married twin sisters, the daughters of Dexamenus who was king at Olenus; Amphimachus was born to one son and Theronice, Thalpius to her sister Theraephone and Eurytus.
However, neither Amarynceus himself nor his son Diores remained common people. Incidentally this is shown by Homer in his list of the Eleans; he makes their whole fleet to consist of forty ships, half of them under the command of Amphimachus and Thalpius, and of the remaining twenty he puts ten under Diores, the son of Amarynceus, and ten under Polyxenus, the son of Agasthenes. Polyxenus came back safe from Troy and begat a son, Amphimachus. This name I think Polyxenus gave his son because of his friendship with Amphimachus, the son of Cteatus, who died at Troy.
http://www.theoi.com/Text/Pausanias5A.html
LP0051 - Labors Legacy - Herculean adventures, from the Library of Apollodorus
Legendary Passages #0051 - Labors Legacy -
Herculean adventures, from the Library of Apollodorus.
For the next six episodes, we will revisit the legends of Hercules and the legacy of his labors.
First, his final labor was to journey into Hades and bring back three-headed dog Cerberus. While there he rescued Theseus, but his friend Pirithous could not be saved, because he had sought to kidnap the goddess Persephone.
His labors now at an end, Hercules gave his wife Megara to his nephew Iolaus. Hercules then persued Iole, daughter of Eurytus, was refused, went mad, and killed Iphitus, son of Eurytus.
Hercules wished to be absolved again of murder, but all refused him. Eventually an oracle told him to sell himself into slavery for three years, and give the money to Eurytus.
He was purchased by Omphale, Queen of Lydia, and cleansed her lands of monsters and bandits. He witnessed the fall of Icarus and buried him; Daedalus even made a statue of Hercules, but it was so lifelike that he attacked it. Once his service had ended, Hercules decided to get revenge on those who wronged him during his labors.
First, he started a Trojan War. His strongest ally was Telamon, son of Aeacus, husband of Periobea, and father of Ajax. Unfortunately, Telamon breached the walls of Troy first, but he quickly built an altar to Hercules in order to appease him. Telamon won princess Laomedon, and they became parents to Teucer. Hercules put Podarces on the throne, now called Priam.
After slaying King Eurpylus of the Coans, and fighting the Gigantomachy in Phlegra, Hercules next attacked King Augeas in Elis. Augeas recruited Siamese twins Eurytus and Cteatus to fight for him, but Hercules slew them both at Cleonae. After Killing Augeas, he put the king's son Phyleus on the throne and then created the Olympic Games.
Next time we expand on Hercules' war against the Kingdom of Elis.
http://www.theoi.com/Text/Apollodorus2.html#6
Labors Legacy,
a Legendary Passage,
from the Library of Apollodorus,
translated by J. G. Frazer.
BOOK 2 [2.5.12] - [2.7.2]
A twelfth labour imposed on Hercules was to bring Cerberus from Hades. Now this Cerberus had three heads of dogs, the tail of a dragon, and on his back the heads of all sorts of snakes. When Hercules was about to depart to fetch him, he went to Eumolpus at Eleusis, wishing to be initiated. However it was not then lawful for foreigners to be initiated: since he proposed to be initiated as the adoptive son of Pylius. But not being able to see the mysteries because he had not been cleansed of the slaughter of the centaurs, he was cleansed by Eumolpus and then initiated.
And having come to Taenarum in Laconia, where is the mouth of the descent to Hades, he descended through it. But when the souls saw him, they fled, save Meleager and the Gorgon Medusa. And Hercules drew his sword against the Gorgon, as if she were alive, but he learned from Hermes that she was an empty phantom.
And being come near to the gates of Hades he found Theseus and Pirithous, him who wooed Persephone in wedlock and was therefore bound fast. And when they beheld Hercules, they stretched out their hands as if they should be raised from the dead by his might. And Theseus, indeed, he took by the hand and raised up, but when he would have brought up Pirithous, the earth quaked and he let go.
And he rolled away also the stone of Ascalaphus. And wishing to provide the souls with blood, he slaughtered one of the kine of Hades. But Menoetes, son of Ceuthonymus, who tended the king, challenged Hercules to wrestle, and, being seized round the middle, had his ribs broken; howbeit, he was let off at the request of Persephone.
When Hercules asked Pluto for Cerberus, Pluto ordered him to take the animal provided he mastered him without the use of the weapons which he carried. Hercules found him at the gates of Acheron, and, cased in his cuirass and covered by the lion's skin, he flung his arms round the head of the brute, and though the dragon in its tail bit him, he never relaxed his grip and pressure till it yielded. So he carried it off and ascended through Troezen. But Demeter turned Ascalaphus into a short-eared owl, and Hercules, after showing Cerberus to Eurystheus, carried him back to Hades.
-
After his labours Hercules went to Thebes and gave Megara to Iolaus, and, wishing himself to wed, he ascertained that Eurytus, prince of Oechalia, had proposed the hand of his daughter Iole as a prize to him who should vanquish himself and his sons in archery. So he came to Oechalia, and though he proved himself better than them at archery, yet he did not get the bride; for while Iphitus, the elder of Eurytus's sons, said that Iole should be given to Hercules, Eurytus and the others refused, and said they feared that, if he got children, he would again kill his offspring.
Not long after, some cattle were stolen from Euboea by Autolycus, and Eurytus supposed that it was done by Hercules; but Iphitus did not believe it and went to Hercules. And meeting him, as he came from Pherae after saving the dead Alcestis for Admetus, he invited him to seek the kine with him. Hercules promised to do so and entertained him; but going mad again he threw him from the walls of Tiryns.
Wishing to be purified of the murder he repaired to Neleus, who was prince of the Pylians. And when Neleus rejected his request on the score of his friendship with Eurytus, he went to Amyclae and was purified by Deiphobus, son of Hippolytus.
But being afflicted with a dire disease on account of the murder of Iphitus he went to Delphi and inquired how he might be rid of the disease. As the Pythian priestess answered him not by oracles, he was fain to plunder the temple, and, carrying off the tripod, to institute an oracle of his own. But Apollo fought him, and Zeus threw a thunderbolt between them. When they had thus been parted, Hercules received an oracle, which declared that the remedy for his disease was for him to be sold, and to serve for three years, and to pay compensation for the murder to Eurytus.
-
After the delivery of the oracle, Hermes sold Hercules, and he was bought by Omphale, daughter of Iardanes, queen of Lydia, to whom at his death her husband Tmolus had bequeathed the government. Eurytus did not accept the compensation when it was presented to him, but Hercules served Omphale as a slave, and in the course of his servitude he seized and bound the Cercopes at Ephesus; and as for Syleus in Aulis, who compelled passing strangers to dig, Hercules killed him with his daughter Xenodoce, after burning the vines with the roots.
And having put in to the island of Doliche, he saw the body of Icarus washed ashore and buried it, and he called the island Icaria instead of Doliche. In return Daedalus made a portrait statue of Hercules at Pisa, which Hercules mistook at night for living and threw a stone and hit it.
And during the time of his servitude with Omphale it is said that the voyage to Colchis and the hunt of the Calydonian boar took place, and that Theseus on his way from Troezen cleared the Isthmus of malefactors.
-
After his servitude, being rid of his disease he mustered an army of noble volunteers and sailed for Ilium with eighteen ships of fifty oars each. And having come to port at Ilium, he left the guard of the ships to Oicles and himself with the rest of the champions set out to attack the city. Howbeit Laomedon marched against the ships with the multitude and slew Oicles in battle, but being repulsed by the troops of Hercules, he was besieged.
The siege once laid, Telamon was the first to breach the wall and enter the city, and after him Hercules. But when he saw that Telamon had entered it first, he drew his sword and rushed at him, loath that anybody should be reputed a better man than himself. Perceiving that, Telamon collected stones that lay to hand, and when Hercules asked him what he did, he said he was building an altar to Hercules the Glorious Victor. Hercules thanked him, and when he had taken the city and shot down Laomedon and his sons, except Podarces, he assigned Laomedon's daughter Hesione as a prize to Telamon and allowed her to take with her whomsoever of the captives she would. When she chose her brother Podarces, Hercules said that he must first be a slave and then be ransomed by her. So when he was being sold she took the veil from her head and gave it as a ransom; hence Podarces was called Priam.
-
When Hercules was sailing from Troy, Hera sent grievous storms, which so vexed Zeus that he hung her from Olympus. Hercules sailed to Cos, and the Coans, thinking he was leading a piratical squadron, endeavored to prevent his approach by a shower of stones. But he forced his way in and took the city by night, and slew the king, Eurypylus, son of Poseidon by Astypalaea. And Hercules was wounded in the battle by Chalcedon; but Zeus snatched him away, so that he took no harm. And having laid waste Cos, he came through Athena's agency to Phlegra, and sided with the gods in their victorious war on the giants.
Not long afterwards he collected an Arcadian army, and being joined by volunteers from the first men in Greece he marched against Augeas. But Augeas, hearing of the war that Hercules was levying, appointed Eurytus and Cteatus generals of the Eleans. They were two men joined in one, who surpassed all of that generation in strength and were sons of Actor by Molione, though their father was said to be Poseidon; now Actor was a brother of Augeas. But it came to pass that on the expedition Hercules fell sick; hence he concluded a truce with the Molionides. But afterwards, being apprized of his illness, they attacked the army and slew many.
On that occasion, therefore, Hercules beat a retreat; but afterwards at the celebration of the third Isthmian festival, when the Eleans sent the Molionides to take part in the sacrifices, Hercules waylaid and killed them at Cleonae, and marching on Elis took the city. And having killed Augeas and his sons, he restored Phyleus and bestowed on him the kingdom.
He also celebrated the Olympian games and founded an altar of Pelops, and built six altars of the twelve gods.
http://www.theoi.com/Text/Apollodorus2.html#6
Herculean adventures, from the Library of Apollodorus.
For the next six episodes, we will revisit the legends of Hercules and the legacy of his labors.
First, his final labor was to journey into Hades and bring back three-headed dog Cerberus. While there he rescued Theseus, but his friend Pirithous could not be saved, because he had sought to kidnap the goddess Persephone.
His labors now at an end, Hercules gave his wife Megara to his nephew Iolaus. Hercules then persued Iole, daughter of Eurytus, was refused, went mad, and killed Iphitus, son of Eurytus.
Hercules wished to be absolved again of murder, but all refused him. Eventually an oracle told him to sell himself into slavery for three years, and give the money to Eurytus.
He was purchased by Omphale, Queen of Lydia, and cleansed her lands of monsters and bandits. He witnessed the fall of Icarus and buried him; Daedalus even made a statue of Hercules, but it was so lifelike that he attacked it. Once his service had ended, Hercules decided to get revenge on those who wronged him during his labors.
First, he started a Trojan War. His strongest ally was Telamon, son of Aeacus, husband of Periobea, and father of Ajax. Unfortunately, Telamon breached the walls of Troy first, but he quickly built an altar to Hercules in order to appease him. Telamon won princess Laomedon, and they became parents to Teucer. Hercules put Podarces on the throne, now called Priam.
After slaying King Eurpylus of the Coans, and fighting the Gigantomachy in Phlegra, Hercules next attacked King Augeas in Elis. Augeas recruited Siamese twins Eurytus and Cteatus to fight for him, but Hercules slew them both at Cleonae. After Killing Augeas, he put the king's son Phyleus on the throne and then created the Olympic Games.
Next time we expand on Hercules' war against the Kingdom of Elis.
http://www.theoi.com/Text/Apollodorus2.html#6
Labors Legacy,
a Legendary Passage,
from the Library of Apollodorus,
translated by J. G. Frazer.
BOOK 2 [2.5.12] - [2.7.2]
A twelfth labour imposed on Hercules was to bring Cerberus from Hades. Now this Cerberus had three heads of dogs, the tail of a dragon, and on his back the heads of all sorts of snakes. When Hercules was about to depart to fetch him, he went to Eumolpus at Eleusis, wishing to be initiated. However it was not then lawful for foreigners to be initiated: since he proposed to be initiated as the adoptive son of Pylius. But not being able to see the mysteries because he had not been cleansed of the slaughter of the centaurs, he was cleansed by Eumolpus and then initiated.
And having come to Taenarum in Laconia, where is the mouth of the descent to Hades, he descended through it. But when the souls saw him, they fled, save Meleager and the Gorgon Medusa. And Hercules drew his sword against the Gorgon, as if she were alive, but he learned from Hermes that she was an empty phantom.
And being come near to the gates of Hades he found Theseus and Pirithous, him who wooed Persephone in wedlock and was therefore bound fast. And when they beheld Hercules, they stretched out their hands as if they should be raised from the dead by his might. And Theseus, indeed, he took by the hand and raised up, but when he would have brought up Pirithous, the earth quaked and he let go.
And he rolled away also the stone of Ascalaphus. And wishing to provide the souls with blood, he slaughtered one of the kine of Hades. But Menoetes, son of Ceuthonymus, who tended the king, challenged Hercules to wrestle, and, being seized round the middle, had his ribs broken; howbeit, he was let off at the request of Persephone.
When Hercules asked Pluto for Cerberus, Pluto ordered him to take the animal provided he mastered him without the use of the weapons which he carried. Hercules found him at the gates of Acheron, and, cased in his cuirass and covered by the lion's skin, he flung his arms round the head of the brute, and though the dragon in its tail bit him, he never relaxed his grip and pressure till it yielded. So he carried it off and ascended through Troezen. But Demeter turned Ascalaphus into a short-eared owl, and Hercules, after showing Cerberus to Eurystheus, carried him back to Hades.
-
After his labours Hercules went to Thebes and gave Megara to Iolaus, and, wishing himself to wed, he ascertained that Eurytus, prince of Oechalia, had proposed the hand of his daughter Iole as a prize to him who should vanquish himself and his sons in archery. So he came to Oechalia, and though he proved himself better than them at archery, yet he did not get the bride; for while Iphitus, the elder of Eurytus's sons, said that Iole should be given to Hercules, Eurytus and the others refused, and said they feared that, if he got children, he would again kill his offspring.
Not long after, some cattle were stolen from Euboea by Autolycus, and Eurytus supposed that it was done by Hercules; but Iphitus did not believe it and went to Hercules. And meeting him, as he came from Pherae after saving the dead Alcestis for Admetus, he invited him to seek the kine with him. Hercules promised to do so and entertained him; but going mad again he threw him from the walls of Tiryns.
Wishing to be purified of the murder he repaired to Neleus, who was prince of the Pylians. And when Neleus rejected his request on the score of his friendship with Eurytus, he went to Amyclae and was purified by Deiphobus, son of Hippolytus.
But being afflicted with a dire disease on account of the murder of Iphitus he went to Delphi and inquired how he might be rid of the disease. As the Pythian priestess answered him not by oracles, he was fain to plunder the temple, and, carrying off the tripod, to institute an oracle of his own. But Apollo fought him, and Zeus threw a thunderbolt between them. When they had thus been parted, Hercules received an oracle, which declared that the remedy for his disease was for him to be sold, and to serve for three years, and to pay compensation for the murder to Eurytus.
-
After the delivery of the oracle, Hermes sold Hercules, and he was bought by Omphale, daughter of Iardanes, queen of Lydia, to whom at his death her husband Tmolus had bequeathed the government. Eurytus did not accept the compensation when it was presented to him, but Hercules served Omphale as a slave, and in the course of his servitude he seized and bound the Cercopes at Ephesus; and as for Syleus in Aulis, who compelled passing strangers to dig, Hercules killed him with his daughter Xenodoce, after burning the vines with the roots.
And having put in to the island of Doliche, he saw the body of Icarus washed ashore and buried it, and he called the island Icaria instead of Doliche. In return Daedalus made a portrait statue of Hercules at Pisa, which Hercules mistook at night for living and threw a stone and hit it.
And during the time of his servitude with Omphale it is said that the voyage to Colchis and the hunt of the Calydonian boar took place, and that Theseus on his way from Troezen cleared the Isthmus of malefactors.
-
After his servitude, being rid of his disease he mustered an army of noble volunteers and sailed for Ilium with eighteen ships of fifty oars each. And having come to port at Ilium, he left the guard of the ships to Oicles and himself with the rest of the champions set out to attack the city. Howbeit Laomedon marched against the ships with the multitude and slew Oicles in battle, but being repulsed by the troops of Hercules, he was besieged.
The siege once laid, Telamon was the first to breach the wall and enter the city, and after him Hercules. But when he saw that Telamon had entered it first, he drew his sword and rushed at him, loath that anybody should be reputed a better man than himself. Perceiving that, Telamon collected stones that lay to hand, and when Hercules asked him what he did, he said he was building an altar to Hercules the Glorious Victor. Hercules thanked him, and when he had taken the city and shot down Laomedon and his sons, except Podarces, he assigned Laomedon's daughter Hesione as a prize to Telamon and allowed her to take with her whomsoever of the captives she would. When she chose her brother Podarces, Hercules said that he must first be a slave and then be ransomed by her. So when he was being sold she took the veil from her head and gave it as a ransom; hence Podarces was called Priam.
-
When Hercules was sailing from Troy, Hera sent grievous storms, which so vexed Zeus that he hung her from Olympus. Hercules sailed to Cos, and the Coans, thinking he was leading a piratical squadron, endeavored to prevent his approach by a shower of stones. But he forced his way in and took the city by night, and slew the king, Eurypylus, son of Poseidon by Astypalaea. And Hercules was wounded in the battle by Chalcedon; but Zeus snatched him away, so that he took no harm. And having laid waste Cos, he came through Athena's agency to Phlegra, and sided with the gods in their victorious war on the giants.
Not long afterwards he collected an Arcadian army, and being joined by volunteers from the first men in Greece he marched against Augeas. But Augeas, hearing of the war that Hercules was levying, appointed Eurytus and Cteatus generals of the Eleans. They were two men joined in one, who surpassed all of that generation in strength and were sons of Actor by Molione, though their father was said to be Poseidon; now Actor was a brother of Augeas. But it came to pass that on the expedition Hercules fell sick; hence he concluded a truce with the Molionides. But afterwards, being apprized of his illness, they attacked the army and slew many.
On that occasion, therefore, Hercules beat a retreat; but afterwards at the celebration of the third Isthmian festival, when the Eleans sent the Molionides to take part in the sacrifices, Hercules waylaid and killed them at Cleonae, and marching on Elis took the city. And having killed Augeas and his sons, he restored Phyleus and bestowed on him the kingdom.
He also celebrated the Olympian games and founded an altar of Pelops, and built six altars of the twelve gods.
http://www.theoi.com/Text/Apollodorus2.html#6
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