Page:The Mythology of the Aryan Nations.djvu/321

Rh the myth. Like Phoibos, Hermes, Dionysos, and others, he is a son of Zeus, born, as some said, in brilHant Argos, or as others related, in the Boiotian Thebes. With him is born his twin brother Iphikles, the son — so the tale went — of Amphilryon; and thus the child of the mortal father stands to the son of the undying king of Olympos in the relation of Phaethon to Helios, of Patroklos to Achilleus, or of Telemachos to the chieftain of Ithaka. The subjection of the hero to his kinsman was brought about by the folly of Zeus, who, on the day of his birth, boasted himself as the father of one who was to rule over all the house of Perseus. Here thereupon, urged on by Ate, the spirit of mischief, made him swear that the child that day to be born of his lineage should be this ruler, and summoning the Eileithyiai bade them see that Eurystheus came into the world before Hera- kles. So wroth was Zeus when Here told him that the good man Eurystheus must, according to his oath, be king of Argos, that he seized Ate by the hair of her head, and swearing that she should never again darken the courts of heaven, hurled her from Olympos. Thus the weaker came to be tyrant over the stronger ; but when the mythographers had systematised his labours, they related that Zeus made a compact by which Herakles should become immortal when he had brought his twelve tasks to a successful issue. The story of his birth tells us not only of the child in his cradle strangling the horrid snakes of darkness which seek to destroy their enemy, but of an infancy as troubled as that of Telephos or Oidipous. Like them, Alkmene, favouring the jealousy of Here, exposed the babe on the plain which thence received the name of Herakles ; and it is picked up, of course, by the dawn goddess Athene, who beseeclies Here, the queen of the blue heaven, to nourish it. The child bites hard, and Here flings it back to Athene, who carries it to her mother.^ The boy grows up the model of human strength and power ; and his teachers point to the cloudland to which he himself belongs. Auto- lykos and Eurytos, by whom he is taught to wrestle and to shoot with the bow, denote the light and splendour of morning ; Kastor, who shows him how to fight in heavy armour, is the twin brother of Poly- deukes, these twins answering to the Vedic Asvins or horsemen ; and Linos, who teaches him music, is akin to Hermes, Pan, Orpheus, and Amphion. The harper is slain by his pupil, and Amphitryon, fearing that his son might use his strength in a like way again, sends him to tend cattle, and in this task, which in other myths is performed by Sarama or the daughters of Neiara, he lives until he has reached the full strength of youth. Thus far we have a time answering to the

' Diod. iv. q.