Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/408

394 up at Thehes, but the detail of his infant life is again related with various modifications in the different traditions. It is said that Alcmene, from fear of Hera, exposed her son in a field near Thebes, hence called the field of Heracles; here he was found by Hera and Athena, and the former was prevailed upon by the latter to put him to her breast, and she then carried him back to his mother. (Diod. iv. 9; Paus. ix. 25. § 2.) Others said that Hermes carried the newly-born child to Olympus, and put him to the breast of Hera while she was asleep, but as she awoke, she pushed him away, and the milk thus spilled produced the Milky Way. (Eratosth. Catast. 44; Hygin. Poet. Astr. ii. in fin.) As the hero grew up, he was instructed by Amphitryon in riding in a chariot, by Autolycus in wrestling, by Eurytus in archery, by Castor in fighting with heavy armour, and by Linus in singing and playing the lyre. (See the different statements in Theocrit. xxiv. 114, 103, 108; Schol. ad Theocrit. xiii. 9, 56; Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 49.) Linus was killed by his pupil with the lyre, because he had censured him. (Apollod. ii. 4. § 9; Diod. iii. 66; Aelian, V. H. iii. 32.) Being charged with murder, Heracles exculpated himself by saying that the deed was done in self-defence; and Amphitryon, in order to prevent similar occurrences, sent him to attend to his cattle. In this manner he spent his life till his eighteenth year. His height was four cubits, fire beamed from his eyes, and he never wearied in practising shooting and hurling his javelin. To this period of his life belongs the beautiful fable about Heracles before two roads, invented by the sophist Prodicus, which may be read in Xenoph. Mem. ii. 1, and Cic. de Off. i. 32. Pindar (Isth. iv. 53) calls him small of stature, but of indomitable courage. His first great adventure, which happened while he was still watching the oxen of his father, is his fight against and victory over the lion of Cythaeron. This animal made great havoc among the flocks of Amphitryon and Thespius (or Thestius), king of Thespiae, and Heracles promised to deliver the country of the monster. Thespius, who had fifty daughters, rewarded Heracles by making him his guest so long as the chase lasted, and gave up his daughters to him, each for one night. (Apollod. ii. 4. § 10; comp. Hygin. Fab. 162; Diod. iv. 29; Athen. xiii. p. 556.) Heracles slew the lion, and henceforth wore its skin as his ordinary garment, and its mouth and head as his helmet; others related that the lion's skin of Heracles was taken from the Nemean lion. On his return to Thebes, he met the envoys of king Erginus ot Orchomenos, who were going to fetch the annual tribute of one hundred oxen, which they had compelled the Thebans to pay. Heracles, in his patriotic indignation, cut off the noses and ears of the envoys, and thus sent them back to Erginus. The latter thereupon marched against Thebes; but Heracles, who received a suit of armour from Athena, defeated and killed the enemy, and compelled the Orchomenians to pay double the tribute which they had formerly received from the Thebans. In this battle against Erginus Heracles lost his father Amphitryon, though the tragedians make him survive the campaign. (Apollod. ii. 4. § 11; Diod. iv. 10, &c.; Paus. ix. 37. § 2; Theocrit. xvi. 105; Eurip. Herc. Fur. 41.) According to some accounts, Erginus did not fall in the battle, but concluded peace with Heracles. But the glorious manner in which Heracles had delivered his country procured him immortal fame among the Thebans, and Creon rewarded him with the hand of his eldest daughter, Megara, by whom he became the father of several children, the number and names of whom are stated differently by the different writers. (Apollod. ii. 4. § 11. 7. § 8; Hygin. Fab. 32; Eurip. Herc. Fur. 995; Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 38; Schol. ad Pind. Isthm. iii. 104.) The gods, on the other hand, made him presents of arms: Hermes gave him a sword, Apollo a bow and arrows, Hephaestus a golden coat of mail, and Athena a peplus, and he cut for himself a club in the neighbourhood of Nemea, while, according to others, the club was of brass, and the gift of Hephaestus. (Apollon. Rhod. i. 1196; Diod. iv. 14.) After the battle with the Minyans, Hera visited Heracles with madness, in which he killed his own children by Megara and two of Iphicles. In his grief he sentenced himself to exile, and went to Thestius, who purified him. (Apollod. ii. 4. § 12.) Other traditions place this madness at a later time, and relate the circumstances differently. (Eurip. Herc. Fur. 1000, &c.; Paus. ix. 11. § 1; Hygin. Fab. 32; Schol. ad Pind. Isthm. iii. 104.) He then consulted the oracle of Delphi as to where he should settle. The Pythia first called him by the name of Heracles—for hitherto his name had been Alcides or Alcaeus,—and ordered him to live at Tiryns, to serve Eurystheus for the space of twelve years, after which he should become immortal. Heracles accordingly went to Tiryns, and did as he was bid by Eurystheus.

The accounts of the twelve labours of Heracles are found only in the later writers, for Homer and Hesiod do not mention them. Homer only knows that Heracles during his life on earth was exposed to infinite dangers and sufferings through the hatred of Hera, that he was subject to Eurystheus, who imposed upon him many and difficult tasks, but Homer mentions only one, viz. that he was ordered to bring Cerberus from the lower world. (Il. viii. 363, &c. xv. 639, &c., Od. xi. 617, &c.) The Iliad further alludes to his fight with a sea-monster, and his expedition to Troy, to fetch the horses which Laomedon had refused him. (v. 638, &c., xx. 145, &c.) On his return from Troy, he was cast, through the influence of Hera, on the coast of Cos, but Zeus punished Hera, and carried Heracles safely to Argos. (xiv. 249, &c., xv. 18, &c.) Afterwards Heracles made war against the Pylians, and destroyed the whole family of their king Neleus, with the exception of Nestor. He destroyed many towns, and carried off Astyoche from Ephyra, by whom he became the father of Tlepolemus. (v. 395, &c., ii. 657, &c.; comp. Od. xxi. 14, &c.; Soph. Trach. 239, &c.) Hesiod mentions several of the feats of Heracles distinctly, but knows nothing of their number twelve. The selection of these twelve from the great number of feats ascribed to Heracles is probably the work of the Alexandrines. They are enumerated in Euripides (Herc. Fur.), Apollodorus, Diodorus Siculus, and the Greek Anthology (ii. 651), though none of them can be considered to have arranged them in any thing like a chronological order.

1. The fight with the Nemean lion. The mountain valley of Nemea, between Cleonae and Phlius, was inhabited by a lion, the offspring of Typhon (or Orthrus) and Echidna. (Hes. Theog. 327; Apollod. ii. 5. § 1; comp. Aelian, H. A. xii. 7,