Page:The Music of the Spheres.djvu/122

 after all, was the monster that was wound around that wondrous apple tree.

There is also a possibility that the sixth Labor of Hercules has been memorialized in the sky although the weight of evidence is against it. In his sixth Labor, Hercules destroyed the cruel carnivorous birds with the arrows he had dipped in the blood of the poisonous hydra. These birds, which had brazen wings, beaks and claws, hovered over the stagnant waters of Lake Stymphalus, in Arcadia, and ravaged all the surrounding country. This praiseworthy deed may have been represented in the sky by the "bird" constellations, Cygnus, Lyra and Aquila, which hover near the stream of the Milky Way, and in the little arrow Sagitta, which lies not far away, but it is more than likely, according to the majority of the myths, that these constellations were named in honor of other things rather than to commemorate the deeds of Hercules.

Among other exploits which illustrate the unrivaled prowess of this hero, are his battles with giants, monsters and centaurs; catching Diana's brazen-footed stag by driving it deep into a snowdrift in the distant northland; obtaining the girdle of Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, in the land of women; capturing boars, bulls, mares and even bringing from the infernal regions the three-headed dog Cerberus.

The greatest demonstration of his strength, aside from the time that he upheld the heavens for Atlas, is reported by the historian Pliny. According to the myth which Pliny relates, Hercules had rent asunder the rocks which had previously divided the Mediterranean from the ocean; although another legend takes the opposite view and asserts that he had narrowed the strait in order to exclude the sea-monsters which had hitherto forced their way in from the ocean. This gateway, known as the "Pillars of Hercules," consists of two promontories which bounded the