by Glyn Iliffe
‘And if you’ve a received a little help with these labours, then it’s because people wanted to help you. Not out of fear, but out of love. Iolaus is right to love you. You may be brutal, short-tempered and excessive, but you’re also honest, loyal and kind-hearted – things I never thought I would see in you, or say about you. While Eurystheus fumed that you were helping the poor in the slums, where you were sent to be humiliated, I was seeing a side of you I never knew existed. While he ranted that you were trying to turn the people against him, I saw a man using his strength to aid the weak. I saw a man far greater than myself, with my intellectual snobbery and my selfish grief over a dead wife. I never deserved Iolaus. But you do.’
They arrived at the gates to the lower city, which were opened to allow them through. The streets beyond were empty, except for a few stray dogs that barked at them as they passed. Iphicles showed no signs of returning to the citadel, and for once Heracles was glad of his brother’s company.
‘You’ve changed, too,’ he said. ‘To admit your own arrogance, your coldness towards Iolaus – that’s more than I ever expected from you.’
Iphicles laughed.
‘When they told me you’d been found in Copreus’s room, I knew the gods were giving me a chance; a labour of my own to help redeem me from the terrible things I’ve done to my son. I thought that if I could help undo some of Copreus’s scheming, I might make Iolaus hate me less. Heracles, I know where Megara is.’
‘Then tell me!’ Heracles said, facing his brother. ‘If she’s in danger, I must go to her at once.’
‘Do you still love her? Do you still hope she could love you again, after all that happened?’
‘I killed the children that she bore me – murdered them with these hands, which will always bear their blood. Nothing can erase that, even if I complete all the labours Eurystheus gives me; even though I wasn’t in my right mind when I did it. She has every right to hate me, but I will go to her all the same. I owe her that much, and if by saving her I can lessen some of her anger against me, then it will be worth it.
‘Besides,’ he added, ‘I haven’t given up hope for her, for us . You can shake your head, but why would Copreus use her as leverage over me? Why would he do that if he thought there was nothing binding me to her, or her to me? She must have said something, showed some sign that she still cared for me. And for that, I would fight a hundred Nemean Lions.’
‘It might as well be a hundred Nemean Lions,’ Iphicles said. ‘Copreus sent her to Themiscyra, on the shores of the Black Sea.’
‘To the Amazons ?’ Heracles asked.
‘The man values his own life.’
‘Then I will leave at once.’
‘It’s not that easy. You’re still a slave. You can’t sail to Themiscyra unless Eurystheus gives you his permission first – and if you break your oath of service, then you will have broken the terms set by the oracle. All the labours you’ve completed so far will have been for nothing.’
They passed through the gates and out into the sprawl of hovels beyond the battlements. The moon was high now, casting a web of silver over the fields and woods beyond. All was still, offering a rare moment of peace in a life that had succumbed to unending grief and hardship, in a world filled by the wrath of the gods. It was an illusion, too, a fleeting glimpse of a serenity he would never again know. And suddenly, his world had become harder still. The woman he loved was held prisoner by savage warriors, renowned for their skill in battle and their contempt for men; yet, as a slave, he could not lift a finger to help her, unless he first gained the permission of a dismal fool, whose greatest pleasure was to cause him as much suffering as possible. Meanwhile, the man who had brought about the destruction of his once happy life was free to gloat at his misery, safe from his revenge.
‘Then I’m lost,’ he said.
‘Not quite,’ Iphicles replied. ‘There is one way to get you to Themiscyra. And Eurystheus is going to send you there himself.’
Glossary
A
Abderus – young Pheraean soldier
Achilles – renowned Greek warrior
Admete – daughter of Eurystheus
Admetus – king of Pherae
Agrius – a centaur
Aithre – former slave of Heracles and Megara
Anchius – a centaur
Aphrodite – goddess of love
Apollo – archer god, associated with music, song and healing
Arcadia – region in the northern Peloponnese
Ares – god of war
Artemis – moon-goddess associated with childbirth, noted for her virginity and vengefulness
Augeias – king of Elis
B
Bistones – Thracian tribe
Boeotia – region in northern Greece
C
Calyce – priestess of Aphrodite
Carnus – Pheraean soldier
Ceryneia – region in the northern Peloponnese
Ceryneian Hind – white deer with golden antlers and bronze hooves, sacred to Artemis
Charis – high priestess of Hera
Cnossus – Cretan city
Copreus – adviser to King Eurystheus
Creon – king of Thebes and father of Megara
Creontiades – son of Heracles and Megara
D
Daitor – farmer from Elis
Deicoon – youngest son of Heracles and Megara
Diomedes – king of the Bistones
Dresos – merchant galley captain
E
Elis – region in the north-western Peloponnese
Erginus – king of Orchomenus
Erymanthus (Mount) – mountain in the north-western Peloponnese
Erymanthean Boar – monster that lived on Mount Erymanthus
Europa – Phoenician princess, seduced by Zeus
Eurystheus – king of Mycenae and Tiryns; cousin of Heracles
G
Golgos – Pheraean soldier
H
Hades – god of the Underworld
Hephaistos – god of fire; blacksmith to the gods of Olympus
Hera – queen of the gods, married to Zeus
Heracles – son of Zeus
I
Iolaus – nephew and squire of Heracles
Iphicles – twin brother of Heracles and adviser to King Eurystheus
Ismenus – river in Boeotia
Ithaca – island in the Ionian Sea
L
Lacius – herald to King Admetus
Lernea – swamp in the Argolid
Lernean Hydra – many-headed serpent, offspring of Echidna and Typhon
Leucus – orphan boy aided by Heracles and Iolaus
M
Megara – wife of Heracles and daughter of Creon
Melos – island in the Aegean Sea
Minos – king of Crete
Mnesos – farmer from Elis, son-in-law of Daitor
Mycenae – city in north-eastern Peloponnese
N
Nemea – region north of Mycenae
Nemean Lion – monster, offspring of Echidna and Typhon
Nessus – a centaur
O
Odysseus – king of Ithaca
Omeros – Ithacan bard
Orchomenus – city in Boeotia, northern Greece
P
Pagasaean Gulf – body of water in southern Thessaly
Pancratis – Pheraean soldier
Parnassus (Mount) – mountain in central Greece and home of the Pythian oracle
Pasiphaë – wife of King Minos
Peneius – river in Thessaly
Penelope – wife of Odysseus
Pherae – city in Thessaly
Pholoë – mountain home of the centaurs
Pholus – a centaur, friend and teacher of Heracles
Poseidon – god of the sea
Pythoness – high priestess of the Pythian oracle
R
Rhadamanthys – brother of King Mino
s
S
Sarpedon – brother of King Minos
Stymphalus – river in Arcadia
T
Tethris – river in Crete
Thaleia – child kidnapped by the Nemean Lion
Thebes – city in Boeotia, northern Greece
Thelpusa – city in Arcadia
Therimachus – eldest son of Heracles and Megara
Thespius – king of Thespiae in Boeotia
Thessaly – region in northern Greece
Thestor – messenger from Phegia
Thrace – region on the northern coast of the Aegean Sea
Thyestes – Tirynian rebel
Tirida – city in Thrace
Tiryns – city in north-eastern Peloponnese
Troy – chief city of Ilium
Tydeus – commander of the Tirynian guard
X
Xuthus – Pheraean soldier
Z
Zeus – the king of the gods
Author’s Note
The Greek myths we know today are rarely true to one version of a particular story or character, and are usually a hotchpotch of different accounts that have accumulated over the centuries. Ancient poets, dramatists or historians did not regard the myths as sacrosanct, so felt free to portray them in whatever way suited their purposes. In my novelizations of the labours of Heracles, I’ve tried to follow the story as it was laid down in Pseudo-Apollodorus’s Bibliotheca , with bits thrown in from other versions. However, I’ve also taken a few liberties to make some of the original stories more palatable to modern tastes.
According to Pseudo-Apollodorus, the oracle at Delphi ordered Heracles to serve Eurystheus for twelve years, during which time he would have to complete ten impossible labours (which became twelve, after Heracles infringed the rules on two of the labours and they were subsequently discounted). Once the tasks were completed, he would become a god. I have removed any notion that he was to become a slave for a set period of time. I have also emphasized that the purpose of the tasks was to gain redemption for his crimes, rather than the reward of immortality.
Though it is well-known that Hephaistos created a golden net to catch Aphrodite and Ares in bed together, none of the ancient writers suggest that Heracles used this in any of his labours. Neither did he flood King Augeias’s palace with excreta. Although Augeias did agree to pay Heracles a tithe of his cattle, and then denied making any such promise, their dispute was settled in a most un-Heraclean way: in court. When Augeias’s own son testified against his father, the judge decided the matter in Heracles’s favour and the full payment was made. Unfortunately for Heracles, it gave Eurystheus an excellent excuse to disregard the labour.
In most accounts, Heracles climbed a mountain and used a wooden rattle, or a pair of bronze castanets (called krotala ), to scare the Stymphalian Birds from the marsh where they had settled. He then shot several of them as they flew away. It all seemed a bit too easy, so I added the repeated journeys into the middle of the swamp and the use of the net to squeeze a little more drama out of the labour.
Bull leaping really was a sport on ancient Crete, as testified to by wall paintings and other artworks found during archaeological digs at the Palace of Knossos. It is still carried on today in some parts of Spain and France. As for the Cretan Bull, the infamous result of Pasiphaë’s union with this monster was the Minotaur, which King Minos then hid in a labyrinth beneath his palace. However, Pasiphaë did not help Heracles to capture the bull, a feat which he managed single-handedly.
After capturing the man-eating horses of King Diomedes (not to be confused with Diomedes, King of Argos, who gained fame during the Trojan War), Heracles and his companions were pursued by a powerful force of Bistones. In some versions of the myth, he dug a channel that allowed the sea to flood the plain between him and his enemies. He had already diverted a river to clean out the stables of King Augeias, but to carry out a similar exploit before a tide of charging Bistones seemed unlikely, so I had him use his strength to breach a dam instead.
Copreus was, indeed, Eurystheus’s herald. However, he had no part in causing Heracles’s madness. This was induced by Hera, whose hatred for her husband’s bastard I have not exaggerated.
About Glyn Iliffe
Glyn Iliffe studied English and Classics at the University of Reading, where he developed his passion for Greek mythology. Well-travelled, Glyn has visited nearly forty countries, trekked in the Himalayas, hitchhiked across North America, and had his collarbone broken by a bull in Pamplona.
He is married with two daughters and lives in Leicestershire. His first novel was King of Ithaca , part of the popular Adventures of Odysseus series.
For more information visit www.glyniliffe.com
Praise for Glyn Iliffe
‘The world of this novel appears as many scholars see that of Homer: a rich melange of different eras… It has suspense, treachery and bone-crunching action… It will leave fans of the genre eagerly awaiting the rest of the series’
Harry Sidebottom,
author of the bestselling Warrior of Rome series
‘Not since the late David Gemmell has anyone managed to make the legends and heroic myths of the Greeks at Troy so grittily real, so marinated in sweat and blood and dark deeds’
Rob Low,
author of The Oathsworn and The Kingdom series
‘From one adventure to another the pace never lets up. Like Homer’s original, Glyn Iliffe’s series is destined to become a classic!’
Steven A. McKay,
author of Wolf’s Head
‘Iliffe has given the world of Greek myth full rein in his story, which makes it a whole different beast, and a fascinating one at that… The result? Magnificent.’
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‘Iliffe is a talented storyteller’
Times Literary Supplement
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Historical Novels Review
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‘Iliffe knows like no other how to capture the visceral clumsiness of ancient combat and seamanship in all its stomach-wrenching intensity, injecting the action with more than enough adrenaline… Drawing vivid scenery and immediate action together in a uniquely economical and well-paced style of writing, Iliffe’s talents are subtly sublime, guiding the reader through Homeric myth with a steady and seasoned hand’
Edinburgh Book Review
‘Iliffe displays his thorough knowledge of classical literature, vividly bringing to life the glories of Troy and the bloodiness of Bronze Age warfare. A slow start yields quickly to a satisfying tale of politics, romance, and war under the shadow of the Olympian gods in this comprehensive retelling of the genesis of the Trojan War’
Publishers Weekly
‘A cracking overall arc and an author who believes in working the story up so that the reader gets not only the glory but the true horror of this type of battlefield… add to the mix a great sense of pace which when backed with Iliffe’s own writing style made this a book to stand out. I’ll eagerly await future instalments’
Falcata Times
‘The narrative account and description in the telling of the story is strong. I felt drawn-in at the first page. The character
s came alive in my mind, and their stories were vivid and powerful’
Impressions in Ink
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The Review Group
‘I found it utterly fascinating, the historic detail was excellent… I can absolutely recommend it’
Book Talk Bournemouth
‘If you are a fan of Bernard Cornwell, Simon Scarrow and Conn Iggulden you will enjoy this. If you don’t already know the story, it doesn’t matter; and if you do, there are some surprising plot twists to keep readers on their toes’
Myshelf
‘The author brings the reader into the constant drama surrounding Odysseus, Eperitus and the rest of the Ithacans; bringing to life the horrors faced, the circumstances that threaten to unravel everything they hold dear. I kept thinking, man, how much more can they take?’
Hoover Book Review
Also by Glyn Iliffe
The greatest battles need the greatest warriors
Mythical warrior Odysseus battles ancient armies, vengeful demi-gods and man-eating monsters in The Adventures of Odysseus …
First published in the United Kingdom in 2018 by Canelo
Canelo Digital Publishing Limited
57 Shepherds Lane
Beaconsfield, Bucks HP9 2DU
United Kingdom
Copyright © Glyn Iliffe, 2018
The moral right of Glyn Iliffe to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
