Heathen mythology Part 31

_Theseus._ This is the language of a vulgar spirit.

_Hercules._ Thou from misfortune free, canst counsel me;

_Theseus._ Doth the much suffering Hercules say this?

_Hercules._ He had not suffered this, had ills a mean.

_Theseus._ The brave protector, the kind friend of men.

_Hercules._ They nought avail me.

_Theseus._ Greece will not suffer thee to die thus rashly.

_Hercules._ Now hear me whilst my arguments refute All thy monitions. Whilst I yet Hung on the breast, two hideous serpents came, Sent by Juno to destroy me, rolled their spires Within my cradle. When my age advanced To youth's fresh bloom, why should I say what toils I then sustained? What lions--what dire forms Of Triple Typhons, or what giants, what Of monsters banded in the Centaur war, Did I not quell? The Hydra, raged around, With heads still spouting from the sword I slew.

These and a thousand other toils endured, To the dark regions of the dead I went, To drag the triple headed dog to light, That guards the gate of Pluto;--the command Of stern Eurystheus. This last b.l.o.o.d.y deed, (Wretch that I am!) the murder of my sons Have I achieved, to crown my house with ills.

I am reduced to this unhappiness, At my loved Thebes I cannot dwell, for here What temple, what a.s.sembly of my friends Can I approach? Pollutions rank as mine, Allow no converse. Should I go to Argos?

How, since I fly my country, should I seek Refuge in other states, malignant eyes Would scowl on me when known, and bitter tongues Goad me with these reproaches:--Is not this The son of Jove, who slew his sons and wife?

Then bid me thence with curses on my head.

{179} And to the man, whose former days were pa.s.sed In happier fortune, mournful is the change; But him, that in distresses hath been trained, Naught grieves, as though lie were allied to ills.

And to this misery shall I come, I ween.

The earth will cry aloud, forbidding me To touch her soil, to pa.s.s its waves, the sea, And every fountain whence the rivers flow.

Thus like Ixions, on the whirling wheel In chains, will be my stake: and this were best, That never Grecian might behold me more, With whom in better days I have been happy.

Why therefore should I live? What blessing were it To gain a useless and unhallowed life?"

After his recovery he consulted the oracle of Apollo, and was told that he must act in compliance with the will of Jupiter, and be subservient to the commands of Eurystheus for twelve years, and that after he had been successful in the labours to be imposed upon him, he would be admitted amongst the G.o.ds. This answer determined him to bear with fort.i.tude whatever G.o.ds or men might command, and Eurystheus, seeing so perfect a hero subjected to him, ordered him to perform the most terrible and dangerous deeds he could imagine, which are now generally known as the twelve labours of Hercules.

The favors of the G.o.ds had completely armed him when he undertook his labours. He had received a coat of arms and helmet from Minerva, a sword from Mercury, a horse from Apollo, and from Vulcan a golden cuira.s.s and brazen buskin, with a celebrated club of bra.s.s, according to the opinion of some writers, but more generally supposed to be of wood, and cut by the hero himself in the forest of Nemaea. The first labour imposed upon Hercules by Eurystheus, was to kill the lion of Nemaea, which ravaged the country near Mycenae. The hero, unable to destroy him with his arrow, boldly attacked him with his club, pursued him to his den, and after a close and sharp engagement, he choked him to death. He carried the dead beast on his shoulders to Mycenae, and ever after clothed himself with the skin.

Eurystheus was so astonished at the sight of the beast, and at the courage of Hercules, that he ordered him never to enter the gates of the city when he returned from his expeditions, but to wait for his orders without the walls. He even made himself a hiding place into which he retired whenever Hercules returned. The second labour of Hercules was to destroy the Lernaean hydra, which had seven heads. This celebrated {180} monster he attacked with his arrows, and soon after he came to a close engagement, and by means of his heavy club, destroyed the heads of his enemy. But this was productive of no advantage, for as soon as one head was beaten to pieces by the club, immediately two sprang up, and the labour of Hercules would have remained unfinished, had he not commanded his friend Iolas, who accompanied him, to burn, with a hot iron, the root of the head which he had crushed to pieces. This succeeded, and Hercules became victorious, opened the belly of the monster, and dipped his arrow in the gall, to render the wounds which he gave, fatal and incurable. He was ordered in his third labour to bring alive and unhurt, into the presence of Eurystheus, a stag, famous for its incredible swiftness, its golden horns, and brazen feet. This celebrated animal frequented the neighbourhood of Oenoe, and Hercules was employed for a whole year in continually pursuing it; at last, he caught it in a trap, or when tired, or according to others by slightly wounding it, and lessening its swiftness. As he returned victorious, Diana s.n.a.t.c.hed the stag from him, and severely reprimanded him for molesting an animal which was sacred to her. Hercules pleaded necessity, and by representing the commands of Eurystheus, he appeased the G.o.ddess and obtained the beast. The [Ill.u.s.tration] fourth labour was to bring alive to Eurystheus a wild boar which ravaged the neighbourhood of Erymanthus. In this expedition he {181} destroyed the Centaurs, and caught the boar by closely pursuing him through the deep snow. Eurystheus was so frightened at the sight of the boar, that, according to Diodorus, he hid himself in a brazen vessel for some days. In his fifth labour Hercules was ordered to clean the stables of Augias, where three thousand oxen had been confined for many years. For the sixth, he was ordered to kill the carnivorous birds which ravaged the country near the lake Stymphalis, in Arcadia. In his seventh, he brought alive into Peloponnesus a prodigious wild bull, which laid waste the island of Crete.

In his eighth, he was employed in obtaining the mares of Diomedes, which fed upon human flesh. He killed Diomedes, and gave him to be eaten by his mares, which he brought to Eurystheus. They were sent to Mount Olympus by the King of Mycenae, where they were devoured by the wild beasts; or, according to others, consecrated to Jupiter, and their breed still existed in the age of Alexander the Great. For his ninth labour, he was commanded to obtain the girdle of the Queen of the Amazons. In his tenth, he killed the monster Geryon, King of Gades, and brought to Argos his numerous flocks which fed upon human flesh. The eleventh labour was to obtain apples from the garden of Hesperides, three celebrated daughters of Hesperus, who were appointed to guard some golden apples, given by Jupiter to Juno on the day of their marriage.

Ignorant of the precise situation of the beautiful garden containing them, Hercules applied to the nymphs in the neighbourhood of the Po for information, and was told that Nereus, if properly managed, would direct him in his pursuits. The hero seized Nereus while he slept, and the sea G.o.d, unable to escape from his grasp, answered all the questions he proposed, which led him to Atlas, in Africa, and of him, he demanded three of the golden apples. Atlas placed the burden of the heavens on the shoulders of Hercules, and went in quest of the apples. At his return, Hercules expressed a wish to ease his load by putting something on his head, and when Atlas a.s.sisted him to remove the inconvenience, he artfully left the burden, and seized the apples which Atlas had thrown on the ground. According to other accounts, Hercules gathered them without the a.s.sistance of Atlas, after killing a dragon which guarded the tree. {182}

The twelfth and last, and most dangerous of his labours, was to bring upon earth the three-headed dog Cerberus. This was cheerfully undertaken by Hercules, and he descended into h.e.l.l by a cave on Mount Taenarus. He was permitted by Pluto to carry away his friends Theseus and Pirithous, who were condemned to punishment in h.e.l.l; and Cerberus also was granted to his prayers, provided he made use of no arms, but only force to drag him away.

Hercules, as some report, carried him back to h.e.l.l, after he had brought him before Eurystheus. Besides these arduous labours, which the jealousy of Eurystheus imposed upon him, he also achieved others of his own accord, equally great and celebrated.

He delivered Hesione, a daughter of Laomedon, King of Troy, from a sea monster, to whom the Trojans yearly presented a marriageable maiden; and when the hero had fulfilled his task, Laomedon refused to give him the tribute of six beautiful horses, which he had promised to him. Hercules, incensed at his treachery, besieged Troy, and put the king and his family to the sword.

"First, two dread snakes, at Juno's vengeful nod, Climbed round the cradle of the sleeping G.o.d; Waked by the shrilling hiss, and rustling sound, And shrieks of fair attendants trembling round, Their gasping throats with clenching hands he holds; Till death entwists their convoluted folds.

And in red torrents from her seven gold heads Fell Hydra's blood in Lerna's lake he sheds; Grasps Achelous with resistless force, And drags the roaring river to his course: Binds with loud bellowing and with hideous yell The monster bull, and three-fold dog of h.e.l.l."

"Then, where Nemea's howling forests wave, He drives the Lion to his dusky cave; Seized by the throat the howling fiend disarms, And tears his gaping jaws with sinewy arms; Lifts proud Anteus from his mother-plains, And with strong grasp, the struggling giant strains; Back falls his fainting head, and clammy hair, Writhe his weak limbs, and flits his life in air;-- By steps reverted o'er the blood-dropped fen He tracks huge Ceacus to his forest den!

Where breathing flames through brazen lips, he fled, And shakes the rock-roofed cavern o'er his head!

Last, with wide arms the solid earth he tears, Piles rock on rock, on mountain, mountain rears; Heaves up huge Abyla in Afric's sand, Crowns with huge Calpe Europe's salient strand, Crests with opposing towers the splendid scene, And pours from urns immense, the sea between.

Loud o'er her whirling flood Charybdis roars Affrighted Scylla bellows round her sh.o.r.es, Vesuvius groans through all his echoing caves, And Etna thunders o'er the insurgent waves."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Hercules delivering Hesione.]

{183}

When these were performed, he became deeply enamoured of Iole, daughter of Eurystheus, but she, being refused to his entreaties, he became insane a second time, and murdered Iphitus, the only one of the sisters of Iole who was willing to a.s.sist him in obtaining her.

After some time had pa.s.sed, he was purified from this murder, and his insanity was at an end. However, the G.o.ds were not satisfied, but persecuted him still further, for he was smitten with an indisposition which compelled him once more to consult the oracle of Delphi.

Not being pleased with the manner in which his application was received, he resolved, in the heat of pa.s.sion, to desecrate the sacred temple by plundering it, and carrying away the holy tripod. Apollo opposed him, and a fierce conflict ensued, to put an end to which, however, Jupiter interfered with his Thunderbolts.

Indignant at the insult offered to the sacred edifice, the oracle declared that it could only be wiped away by the hero becoming a slave, and remaining in the most abject servitude for three years.

In compliance with the decree, Mercury, by the order of Jupiter, sold him to Omphale, Queen of Lydia, as a slave. But his services to this queen so astonished her, that she freed him from his servitude and married him. When the term for which he had been sold expired, Hercules left her, and returned to Peloponnessus, where he re-established Tyndaris on the throne of Sparta.

After this, he became one of the numerous suitors of Dejanira, who had been promised by her father in marriage to that one who should prove the strongest of all his compet.i.tors. The most dangerous foe to Hercules was Achelous, a river G.o.d, who, finding himself inferior in strength, changed himself into a serpent, and afterwards into an ox. Serpent strangling was, however, nothing new to Hercules, and he had but little trouble with his enemy as an ox, until at last Achelous retired in disgrace to his bed of waters.

After his marriage with Dejanira, he was compelled to leave his father-in-law's kingdom, from having accidentally slain one of the citizens. {184}

On his way to Ceyx, accompanied by Dejanira, he was stopped by a swollen stream, and Nessus, the Centaur, offered to convey her safely on his back to the opposite side of the river. As the hero's only anxiety was for her, he accepted the offer with thanks, and when he saw them through the worst part of the water in safety, prepared to follow, but no sooner had the Centaur landed with Dejanira, than he attempted to offer violence to his beautiful burthen, and to carry her away in the very sight of her husband.

The extraordinary efforts of the enraged Hercules, brought him up in time to let fly a poisoned arrow at the ravisher, which mortally wounded him. In his anguish, and burning for vengeance on his slayer, he gave Dejanira his tunic, which was covered with his blood.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

"Take this," he said, feigning a repentance, "if ever your husband prove unfaithful, it will recall him to your arms;" and with this he expired.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Death of Nessus.]

{185}

"For now his bridal charge employed his cares.

The strong limbed Nessus thus officious cried, For he the shallows of the stream had tried, 'Swim thou, Alcides, all thy strength prepare, On yonder bank I'll lodge thy nuptial care.'

Th' Aonian chief to Nessus trusts his wife.

All pale, and trembling for her hero's life: Clothed as he stood in the fierce lion's hide, The laden quiver o'er his shoulder tied.

Far cross the stream his bow and club were cast, Swift he plunged in, 'these billows shall be past,'

He said, nor sought where smoother waters glide But stemmed the rapid dangers of the tide.

The bank he reached, again the bow he bears, When, hark! his bride's known voice alarms his ears, 'Nessus, to thee I call,' aloud he cries,-- 'Vain is thy trust in flight, be timely wise; Thou monster double shaped, my right set free, If thou no reverence owe my fame and me, Yet kindred should thy lawless l.u.s.t deny, Think not perfidious wretch, from me to fly; Tho' winged with horse's speed, wounds shall pursue,'

Swift as his words the fatal arrow flew, The Centaur's back admits the feathered wood, And thro' his breast the barbed arrow stood, Which when in anguish, thro' the flesh he tore From both the wounds gushed forth the spumy gore, Mixed with the Lernaean venom, this he took, Nor dire revenge his dying breast forsook, His garment, in the reeking purple dyed To rouse love's pa.s.sion, he presents the bride."

OVID.

Ceyx received them both with great favour, but Hercules could not forget that he had been refused the hand of Iole, although in possession of the heart of Dejanira, and therefore made war against her father, killing him, with three of his sons, while his former lover, Iole, fell into his hands, and found that she still held no slight possession of his affections.

She accompanied him to Oeta, where he was going to raise an altar, and offer a sacrifice to Jupiter. Dejanira, aware of his purpose, and of the affection he had manifested for her rival, sent to him the tunic given her by the Centaur, Nessus, but no sooner had he put it on, than the poison with which it was saturated, penetrated through his bones, and attaching itself to the flesh, eat into it like fire.

"She now resolves to send the fatal vest, Dyed with Lernaean gore, whose power might move His soul anew, and rouse declining love, Nor knew she what her sudden rage bestows, When she to Lychas trusts her future woes; With soft endearment she the boy commands, To bear the garment to her husband's hands.

Th' unwilling hero takes the gift in haste, And o'er his shoulders Lerna's poison cast, At first the fire with frankincense he strews, And utters to the G.o.ds his holy vows; And on the marble altar's polished frame Pours forth the grapy stream; the rising flame Sudden dissolves the subtle poisoning juice Which taints his blood, and all his nerves bedews.

{186} With wonted fort.i.tude he bore the smart, And not a groan confessed his burning heart, At length his patience was subdued by pain Oetes wide forests echo with his cries; Now to rip off the deathful robe he tries.

Where'er he plucks the vest, the skin he tears The mangled muscles and huge bones he bares.

(A ghastly sight!) or raging with his pain, To rend the sick'ning plague, he tugs in vain.

As the red iron hisses in the flood, So boils the venom in his curdling blood.

Now with the greedy flame his entrails glow, And livid sweats down all his body flow.

The cracking nerves, burnt up, are burst in twain, The lurking venom melts his swimming brain."