Tales of the Greek Heroes

by Unknown

  They allowed no men in their wild land on the south coast of the Black Sea; and they kept their husbands in the next country, visiting them only for one month in every year.

  To reach this land Heracles had to go by sea. So he gathered together a band of adventurers, and set sail for Troy and the Hellespont.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  THE WANDERINGS OF HERACLES

  … Now he goes

  With no less presence, but with much more love,

  Than young Alcides when he did redeem

  The virgin tribute paid by howling Troy

  To the sea monster… Go, Hercules!

  Live thou, I live: – with much, much more dismay

  I view the fight than thou that makest the fray!

  SHAKESPEARE

  The Merchant of Venice

  12

  Heracles sailed from Nauplia in Argolis with nine companions, amongst whom were two young heroes named Peleus and Telamon, who were both to win great fame in days to come.

  After several adventures on the way, they came into the Black Sea and arrived in the land of the Amazons. They prepared for war, but to their surprise Queen Hippolyta came down to the harbour to visit them in a friendly manner, and even offered to give Heracles the belt as soon as he explained why he had come.

  But Hera, who had an eye on what Heracles was doing, felt that this was far too easy a victory for him. So she disguised herself as an Amazon warrior and went hastening to the fortified citadel:

  ‘Amazons, come swiftly!’ she cried. ‘There is a ship in the harbour filled with men, vile pirates, who have captured our queen and will carry her off to sell as a slave in Greece or Troy!’

  The Amazons needed no second summons. Out they came like bees when their hive is disturbed, and with fierce cries rushed down to the shore and attacked Heracles and his companions.

  Terrible was the battle that followed: great were the deeds done that day by Peleus and Telamon; but it was Heracles with his unerring arrows who slew the leaders of the Amazons, and at length captured Melanippe the Queen’s favourite sister. When he threatened to kill her unless they gave him the girdle and let him sail away in safety, they obeyed Hippolyta and marched back to their city in great sorrow, while Heracles set sail for Greece in triumph.

  On the return journey, as they sailed down the coast of Troy, a strange adventure befell them. As they passed near a pleasant inlet of the sea the sound of weeping came to their ears. Following the voice, and rowing gently, they found a lovely girl chained to a rock by the side of the water – just as Perseus had found Andromeda many years before.

  Halting the ship close by, Heracles spoke to her:

  ‘Maiden,’ said he, ‘who are you, and why are you chained here?’

  ‘Alas,’ she sobbed, ‘I hang here, waiting a terrible fate, through no fault of my own. I am called Hesione, and my father is Laomedon the King of Troy. It is said that the great Immortals Poseidon and Apollo came to him, by the will of Zeus, as workmen, and with their own hands built the walls of Troy city, which is called Ilion after Ilus his father, the son of Tros, Dardanus’s grandson. King Laomedon swore to pay them well; but when the work was done, he broke his oath, refusing to pay anything and threatening to sell his two workmen as slaves, after cutting off their ears, if they did not immediately depart from Troy. Then the two Immortals revealed themselves, and in their anger Apollo sent a pestilence which has devastated the country, and Poseidon sent a sea-serpent which comes at high tide to prey upon the people. So Laomedon has bound me here as an offering, for he hopes that my life will buy Poseidon’s forgiveness.

  ‘Noble sir, you seem a mighty man, skilled in arms: I beg you to save me from the serpent. For very soon he will come!’

  Then Heracles beached his ship, and on the shore King Laomedon met him.

  ‘What will you give me,’ asked Heracles, ‘If I kill this monster and save your daughter and your land?’

  ‘If you save my daughter, you may have her as your wife,’ answered Laomedon, ‘and if you kill the monster, I will give you the magic horses which Zeus gave to my grandfather when he took Ganymede to Olympus.’

  Now Ganymede was a handsome young prince of Troy whom Zeus had chosen to be cup-bearer to the Immortals and assist his daughter Hebe in waiting on them as they feasted in golden Olympus. So he sent a great eagle to carry Ganymede up to heaven; and he gave Tros in exchange two magic white horses which could run over the sea or the standing corn as lightly and as swiftly as the wind.

  Heracles agreed to this, and when the Trojans had built him a low wall by the sea-shore, he crouched down behind it to lie in wait for the monster.

  Scarcely was he ready, when far out to sea he saw a line of white foam, and heard a strange roaring which drew nearer and nearer. Then he saw the monster itself, its eyes flashing and flickering beneath the blue-grey film of its eyelids, and its three rows of mighty teeth gleaming in its huge mouth. It came with head and neck raised high above the water and the long coils of its scaly body curling and rippling in great arches.

  Heracles lay behind his wall until the great Sea Serpent reared up its head over the shore, roaring and hissing with rage. Then Hesione shrieked with terror and, as the Serpent turned to seize her, Heracles leapt up on the wall, uttering a fierce war cry, and began loosing swift arrows at the creature’s head and neck.

  The Serpent minded them no more than a mountain minds the raindrops which beat on its rocky sides; but when Heracles, seeing how useless the arrows were, dropped his bow and began pelting the monster with great rocks and boulders, it turned away from the screaming maiden and came towards him, roaring with rage, its great mouth wide open.

  Then Heracles cried to Zeus for help and, drawing his sword, leapt straight into the Serpent’s mouth, just avoiding the three rows of razor-sharp teeth, and charged down its throat, hacking and hewing with his sword.

  The Serpent screamed horribly and, while all the watching Trojans cried aloud with terror and pity, it closed its jaws and plunged down under the waves. But they saw that its great coils were twisting and writhing beneath the water, and before long it lay dead on the sand. Then the water was suddenly red with blood, and it bubbled above the corpse, and Heracles rose to the surface, gasping for breath, having cut his way out through the Serpent’s side.

  Telamon and Peleus cheered loudly, and guided the ship quickly towards him. He clambered on board, and they rowed to the rock where Hesione was still tied, and cut her bonds.

  Then they brought her to the shore, and King Laomedon met them, already planning treachery in his evil heart.

  ‘Come to my city,’ he said, ‘so that we may feast after this mighty exploit. Then you may rest safely, and sail away tomorrow carrying my daughter and the magic horses.’ But he intended to murder them all that night as they slept.

  Heracles, though he suspected nothing, replied:

  ‘I cannot stay now, King Laomedon, for my Labours must be accomplished. But I will return to claim my reward, never fear. So keep the horses safely for me, and keep my bride-to-be also.’

  Then he set sail, and after several more adventures arrived safely at Tiryns where Eurystheus received the Belt of the Amazon Queen for his daughter, and sent Heracles straight out again – this time to fetch back, without either asking or paying for them, the cattle of Geryon, who was said to be the strongest man in the world. This ogre had been born with three heads and six arms and hands, but only one body from the waist downwards. He lived on the mysterious island of Erythia in the Atlantic Ocean beyond the Straits of Gibraltar.

  Heracles set out on this expedition alone, and journeyed overland through Italy, France, and Spain, slaying many wild beasts and other monsters on the way, until he came to the straits separating Europe from Africa.

  Here he set up two great stone pillars, one at Gibraltar and the other at Ceuta: and the Straits were called the Pillars of Hercules by the Romans in consequence.

  As he laboured to raise the pillar on the African c
oast, the heat was terrific and Heracles, half crazed by the sun’s tropical glare, set an arrow to his bow and loosed it with all his strength in the direction of the Sun-chariot which the Titan Helios was at that moment bringing down towards the western ocean.

  Helios was so tickled by the audacity of this struggling mortal that he not only veiled his beams immediately, but lent Heracles his magic goblet of pure gold, shaped like a gigantic water-lily.

  In this Heracles crossed to the island of Erythia, using his lion-skin as a sail. On reaching the shore his first care was to moor his strange boat in a concealed inlet: then he climbed a hill in the centre of the island to spy out the land. He had scarcely reached the summit, when a great dog came rushing at him open-mouthed, only to meet his end from a single blow of the deadly club.

  As he descended in the direction of the pastures where he could see the beautiful red cattle grazing, Heracles was attacked by the herdsman, whom he killed also, but only after a fierce fight. Heracles then drove the cattle towards the shore, but before he reached it the ogre Geryon came rushing towards him, brandishing various weapons in his six huge hands, and shouting threats of terrible vengeance.

  Heracles knew that he was no match for so powerful a monster if they came to hand-grips; so, quick as thought, he discharged three arrows one after another, one through each of the ogre’s three throats: and that was the end of him. Then he drove the cattle into the magic goblet, sailed back to Spain, and having returned his strange vessel to Helios with many thanks, began the weary task of driving the herd overland all the way back to Greece.

  On the way many adventures befell him. Once in the south of France near where Marseille now stands, he was attacked by a large army of warlike natives. He fought and fought until all his arrows were spent, and then it seemed that his end had come, for the ground was soft with not a stone in sight. In despair, Heracles prayed to Zeus, who took pity on him and rained down stones from above, thus supplying him with ample ammunition. That great plain covered with smooth round stones may be seen to this very day.

  On another occasion Heracles camped for the night in a valley among seven low hills where now stands the city of Rome. He did not know that a fire-breathing troll called Cacus lived in a huge cave under mount Aventine, nor did he realize in the morning that this creature had come down during the night and stolen several of the cattle. For Cacus had carefully blotted out all the foot-marks, and the mouth of his cave was hidden by a great door of solid rock which slid down in grooves.

  But just as Heracles was setting out in the morning, he heard a cow lowing somewhere in the hillside: for Cacus had very foolishly taken one of the cows who had a calf, and left the calf with the herd.

  Heracles at once counted the cattle, found that some were missing, and set out to deal with the thief. Before long he found the door of the cavern, but Cacus, realizing that he was discovered, hastily broke the chains and balances which should have raised it, and even Heracles could not lift the enormous block of stone and slide it up its grooves.

  Three times Heracles strove to stir it, and three times drew back, gnashing his teeth with rage. But after the third attempt, as Cacus laughed triumphantly within, Heracles saw that there was a crack in the hillside above the cave. He climbed up to it, set his heels in it and his back against the hill itself, and pushed with all his might. The crack slowly widened, and then with a sudden roar the whole side of the hill slid away and a great mass of rock went crashing down into the river at the foot.

  But Heracles landed on the floor of the cavern, which was now open to the light of day for the first time, and rushed to attack Cacus. The troll immediately filled the hollow with smoke which he belched out of his mouth; but Heracles plunged valiantly into the thick of it, guided by the flames which Cacus was breathing, and caught him by the throat. Very soon the fight was over, and Heracles, singed and choking from the smoke, dragged the troll’s body out into the open. Then he gathered the missing cattle and continued on his way.

  One more strange adventure befell him as he drew near to the north of Greece, for Hera sent a giant gadfly which stung the cattle and scattered them far and wide. Heracles pursued them relentlessly, and at length, having retrieved nearly all of them, he lay down to rest in a cave somewhere in the hills of the country now called Bulgaria, on the west coast of the Black Sea.

  It was cold and stormy, and Heracles slept long and heavily after his laborious search for the cattle. But in the morning he found that the horses which drew his chariot had mysteriously disappeared.

  In a great fury he wandered far and wide until at length he came to another cave, in which he found a mysterious creature. She was like a woman from the waist upward, but below that was a scaly snake. He looked at her in wonder, but asked nevertheless:

  ‘Strange maiden, have you seen my horses?’

  ‘Yes,’ she replied, ‘it was I who took them in when they strayed this way. But I will never give them up to you, unless you wed me, according to the custom of this country. Here we are married when we have kissed thrice; and the marriage lasts only for as long as we both wish it.’

  There was no help for it, so Heracles kissed the snake-maiden three times, and lodged in her cave for three days.

  At the end of that time she gave him back his horses, and before leaving he strung the spare bow which he carried with him and gave it to her, saying:

  ‘Lady, I prophesy that you will have three sons: let the one who can draw this bow as I do, come and seek me if he wishes for assistance in winning his fortune. But if he does not come, then let him, and no other, rule over this land after you.’

  Then Heracles set out once more, and this time he reached Greece safely with the cattle.

  But as he was crossing the isthmus of Corinth, a giant bandit who had taken possession of the place and stopped all travellers to rob or kill them, held him up:

  ‘Hand all those cattle over to me!’ he cried, ‘and you shall pass in safety.’

  ‘Never,’ replied Heracles briefly.

  Then the bandit picked up a huge rock and hurled it at him. Heracles dodged the great whirling mass, and picking it up flung it back with such good aim that the bandit never again molested travellers.

  So Heracles came to Tiryns and handed over the cattle to Eurystheus.

  ‘Now!’ he cried, ‘I have accomplished the Ten Labours which you set me, and spent more than eight years of my life in doing so: now I may go free!’

  ‘Not so,’ answered Eurystheus, ‘for you know that two Labours do not count. Iolaus helped you to kill the Lernean Hydra, and you cleaned the Augean Stables for hire. So Hera commands that you perform two further Labours. Go now and bring back three Golden Apples from the Garden of the Hesperides!’

  Once again Heracles bowed to his fate and with a weary sigh turned his back on Tiryns and set off once more.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  THE GOLDEN APPLES, AND

  THE HOUND OF HELL

  Round and round the apples of gold,

  Round and round dance we;

  Thus do we dance from the days of old

  About the enchanted tree;

  Round, and round, and round we go,

  While the spring is green, or the stream shall

  flow,

  Or the wind shall stir the sea!

  After PINDAR

  Tenth Pythian Ode (Translated by Andrew Lang)

  13

  Heracles set out wearily on his eleventh Labour without any idea of where the Golden Apples were to be found. But Zeus was watching him, since he had a special deed for him to perform which, as it turned out, did more to save both mortals and Immortals than any help which Heracles could give in the coming war with the Giants.

  For all this while, Prometheus the good Titan had been lying chained to Mount Caucasus in punishment for disobeying Zeus by bringing fire to mankind. And the great eagle still came every day to devour his liver, which still grew again every night: but in spite of all his suffering, Promethe
us still refused to tell Zeus of the danger greater than that of the Giants, which was threatening him.

  Nevertheless, Zeus had grown merciful with time. If Prometheus had suffered in body, Zeus had suffered in mind – for he knew that at any moment he might make the mistake of which Prometheus had prophesied, and which only Prometheus could prevent.

  So when Heracles came into the land of Illyria and begged the nymphs who lived there to tell him how he might find the Golden Apples, they replied that, by the command of their father, Zeus, he must journey on, to Mount Caucasus, and ask Prometheus.

  The way was long and dangerous, but at length Heracles came to the great mountain above the world’s end. Climbing by chasm and crevasse, by steep glissade and slippery glacier, he came to the great cliff-face on which the Titan was chained. And as he clambered up beside him, the great eagle swooped down to its horrible feast, and the mighty Titan screamed aloud in his agony.

  But Heracles, with a shout of rage and pity, fitted an arrow to his bow, drew it to the head, and loosed it with all his might. The great eagle flew up, transfixed by the arrow, and plunged down into the black waves thousands of feet below.

  ‘Who are you, rash mortal?’ asked Prometheus slowly.

  ‘I am Heracles, the son of Zeus,’ was the answer. ‘And I come here by his command, to free you. For Zeus forgives you for your great crimes against himself, and asks your pardon for the torture to which he has put you. Nevertheless, he bids me say that, since his great decrees cannot be broken altogether, you must wear a ring on your finger for ever as a token that you are still bound in fetters of metal.’