Page:Greek and Roman Mythology.djvu/129

 THE GREEK HEROES 115 one of the gods. According to a passage in the Iliad there existed in some places the belief that Hercules, in obedience to a decree of fate, and in consequence of the wrath of Hera, actually died and was staying in the lower world. The same view really prevails in the Odyssey also ; but in the latter poem the idea of a later elaborator, who was striving to reconcile the myths, caused only the ghost of Hercules to appear. 148. Taking him all in all, Hercules in the later period was the ideal type of a valiant, noble Dorian man ; and in many parts of these legends he may be the exact representative of the Dorian race (which reverenced him especially) in its migrations and battles. Yet since many other features of his mythical history cause him to be recognized as an old sun god, we may perhaps assume that, like the gods of the Iliad, he first appeared in battle fighting for his worshipers, and then gradually became, from the protecting deity, the representative of the race, and at the same time the type of the Dorian warrior. 149. The oldest image with the form of which we are well acquainted connected with the worship of Hercules is that of Erythrae, where he, like other heroes, acted as a god of healing by means of oracular dreams. Accord- ing to coins upon which this image is imitated, Her- cules was there represented as standing upon a boat, without the lion's skin, a club in his right hand, which was raised ; in his left, a spear (or stick ?). In other very old representations also he is nude; later he appears wearing complete armor and a short tight-fitting cloak. At length, somewhere about 600 B.C., the type with the lion's skin, beginning in Cyprus and Rhodes, came to predominate, probably under the influence of Phoenician