Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/410

396 victory, Heracles tiiaiked out the sacred ground on which the Olympian games were to be celebrated, built altars, and instituted the Olympian festival and games. (Apollod, ii. 7. § 2; Paus. v. 1, § 7. 3. § 1, &c., 4. § 1; viii. 15. § 2; Find. 01. xi. 25, &c., corap. V. 5, iii. 13, &c.)

6. The Stymphallayi birds. They were an innu- merable swarm of voracious birds, the daughters of Stymphalus and Ornis. They had brazen claws, wings, and beaks, used their feathers as arrows, and ate human flesh. They had been brought up by Ares, and were so numerous, that with their secretions and feathers they killed men and beasts, and covered whole fields and meadows. From fear of the wolves, these birds had taken refuge in a lake near Stymphalus, from which Heracles was ordered by Eurystheus to expel them. When He- racles undertook the task, Athena provided him with a brazen rattle, by the noise of which he startled the birds, and, as they attempted to fly away, he killed them with his arrows. According to some accounts, he did not kill the birds, but only drove them away, and afterwards they appeared again in the island of Aretias, whither they had fled, and where they were found b}' the Argonauts. (Apollod. ii. 5. %Q; Hygin. Fah. 30; Pans. viii. 22. § 4, &c.; Serv. ad Aen. viii. 300; Apollon. Rhod. ii. 1037, with the Schol.)

7. The Cretan hull. According to Acusilaus, this bull was the same as the one which had carried Europa across the sea; according to others, he had been sent out of the sea by Poseidon, that Minos might sacrifice him to the god of the sea. But Minos was so charmed with the beauty of the animal, that he kept it, and sacrificed another in its stead. Poseidon punished Minos, by making the fine bull mad, and causing it to make great havoc in the island. Heracles was ordered by Eurystheus to catch the bull, and Minos, of course, willingly allowed him to do so. Heracles accom- plished the task, and brought the bull home on his shoulders, but he then set the animal free again. The bull now roamed about through Greece, and at last came to Marathon, where we meet it again in the stories of Theseus. (Apollod. ii. 5. § 7; Paus. i. 27. § 9, V. 10. $ 2; Hygin. Fab. 30; Diod. iv. 13, &c.; Serv. ad Aen. viii. 294.)

8. The mares of tJie Thradan Diomedes. This Diomedes, king of the Bistones in Thrace, fed his horses with human flesh, and Eurystheus now or- dered Heracles to fetch those animals to Mycenae. For this purpose, the hero took with him some conijianions. He made an unexpected attack on those who guarded the horses in their stables, took the animals, and conducted them to the sea coast. But here he was overtaken by the Bistones, and during the ensuing fight he entrusted the mares to his friend Abderus, a son of Hermes of Opus, who was eaten up by them; but Heracles defeated the Bistones, killed Diomedes, whose body he threw before the mares, built the town of Abdera, in ho- nour of his unfortunate friend, and then returned to Mycenae, with the horses which had become tame after eating the flesh of their master. The horses were afterwards set free, and destroyed on Mount Olympus by wild beasts. (Apollod. ii. 5. § 8; Diod. iv. 15; Hygin. Fah. 30; Jlurip. AL- ccMt 483, 493, Here. Fur. 380, &c.; GeU. iii. 9; Ptolem. Heph. 5.)

9. The girdle of the queen of the Amazons. Hip- polyte, the queen of the Amazons (Diodorus calls the queen Melanippe, and her sister Hippolyte), possessed a girdle, which she had received from Ares, and Admete, the daughter of Eurystheus, wished to have it. Heracles was therefore sent to fetch it, and, accompanied by a number of vo- lunteers, he sailed out in one vessel. He first landed in Paros, where he became involved in a quarrel with the sons of Minos. Having killed two of them, he sailed to Mysia, where his aid was solicited by Lycus, king of the Mariandynians, against the Bebryces. Heracles assisted Lycus, took a district of land from the enemy, which was given to Lycus, who called it Heracleia. When Heracles at length arrived in the port of Themis- cyra (Thermodon), after having given to the sea he had crossed the name of Euxeinus, he was at first kindly received by Hippolyte, who promised him her girdle. But Hera, in the disguise of an Amazon, spread the report that the queen of the Amazons was robbed by a stranger. They immediately rose to her assistance, and Heracles, believing that the queen had plotted against him, killed her, took her girdle, and carried it with him. This expedition, which led the hero into distant countries, afforded a favourable opportunity to poets and mytho- graphers for intruducing various embellishments and minor adventures, such as the murder of the Bore- ades, Calais and Zetes, and his amour with Echidna, in the country of the Hyperboreans, by whom he became the father of three sons. On his return he landed in Troas, where he rescued Hesione from the monster sent against her by Poseidon, in return for which her father Laomedon promised him the horses he had received from Zeus as a compensation for Ganymedes. But, as Laomedon did not keep his word, Heracles on leaving threatened to make war against Troy. He therefore landed in Thrace, where he slew Sarpedon, and at length he returned through Macedonia to Peloponnesus. (Apollod. ii. B.%Q Diod. iv. 16; Herod, iv. 9, 10, 82; Eurip. Here. Fur. 413, /ow. 1 143; Plut. Tim. 26; Horn. IL V. 649, &c.)

10. The oxen of Geryones in Eryiluiia. The fetching of these oxen was a subject which, like the preceding one, was capable of great poetical embellishments, owing to the distant regions into which it carried the hero. The adventure is men- tioned by Hesiod, but it is further developed in the later writers, and more especially by the Roman poets, who took a more direct interest in it, as it led the hero to the western parts of the world. The story runs as follows: — Geryones, the monster with three bodies, lived in the fabulous island of Erytheia (the reddish), so called because it lay under the rays of the setting sun in the west. It was originally conceived to be situated off the coast of Epeirus, but afterwards it was identified either with Gades or the Balearian islands, and was at ak times believed to be in the distant west. Geryones kept a herd of red oxen, which fed together with those of Hades, and were guarded by the giant Eu- rytion and the two-headed dog Orthrus. Heracles was commanded by Eurystheus to fetch those oxen of Geryones. He traversed Europe, and, having passed through the countries of several savage na- tions, he at length arrived in Libya. Diodorus mak^s Heracles collect, a large fleet in Crete, to sail against Chrysaor, the wealthy king of Iberia, and his three sons. On liis way he is further said to have killed Antaeus and Busiris, and to have founded Hecatompolis. On the frontiers of Libva