Listed 100 (total found 180) sub titles with search on: Homeric world for wider area of: "ARGOS - MYKINES Municipality ARGOLIS" .
"Phemios," she cried,(Penelope), "you know many another feat of gods and heroes,
such as poets love to celebrate. Sing the suitors some one of these, and let them
drink their wine in silence, but cease this sad tale, for it breaks my sorrowful
heart, and reminds me of my lost husband for whom I have grief [penthos] ever
without ceasing, and whose name [kleos] was great over all Hellas and
middle Argos." (Hom. Od. 1.337-344)
Commentary:
This passage has been recently discussed by Mr. Bury B. in the Journal
of Hellenic Studies, vol. xv. pp. 217-238, with especial reference to the words
an' Hellada kai meson Argos. These words are generally understood as a poetical
or traditional periphrasis for the whole of Greece, -Hellas (a part of Thessaly)
representing the north and Argos the Peloponnesus. Mr. Bury points out that, if
this is so, the offer here made by Menelaus is a strange one. Telemachus has just
entreated to be allowed to return home at once. How could Menelaus, who has himself
been dwelling on the duty of speeding the parting guest, suddenly propose to be
his companion on so long a tour? In seeking for a solution of this difficulty,
Mr. Bury is led to examine afresh the old question (Thuc.1. 3) of the different
uses of the names Hellas and Hellenes. Among other results he arrives at the conclusion
that, just as in the Iliad the names Hellas and Achaioi are closely associated
in Thessaly, so the name Hellas at a somewhat later time was applied to the 'Achaia'
of history, the north coastland of the Poloponnesus. If then this is the sense
of the term in the passage before us, Menelaus does not invite Telemachus to go
with him all over Greece, but only to make a detour through Argolis and Achaia--countries
then under the dominion of the Atridae.
It is impossible here to discuss Mr. Bury's history of the name Hellas:
but a word may be said regarding its application to the Odyssey. In the first
place, the difficulty with which he begins is surely not insuperable. Granting
that Telemachus was not likely to accept the invitation, it may be that ancient
manners required some such speech from the host -the muthoi aganoi promised by
Pisistratus (l. 53). And the main purpose of Telemachus, the quest of news of
his father, though not again mentioned here, must be supposed present to the minds
of both. Moreover, the difficulty is not one that is very much diminished by Mr.
Bury's interpretation. For surely it lies (poetically at least) not so much in
the length of the proposed journey as in the fact of such an expedition being
proposed at that moment. Again, the phrase an' Hellada kai meson Argos is (or
became) a piece of Epic commonplace. In Od.1. 344(=4. 726, 816) tou kleos euru
kath' Hellada kai meson Argos it seems to mean Greece generally. Moreover, it
is plainly a variation of the line Argos es hippoboton kai Achaiida kalligunaika,
which is also of a traditional type. The meaning of these phrases no doubt changed
with time and circumstances; but it must always have been wide and conventional.
It is hard to believe that Menelaus would use them to describe a route which he
particularly wished to represent as a definite and limited one.
The phrase meson Argos is not to be pressed: cp. Il.6. 224 Argei messoi.
There is nothing to connect it with a distinction between Argos in the narrower
sense of the Argive plain and in the wider sense in which it includes a large
part (if not the whole) of Peloponnesus.
Hera of Argos, and Athena of Alalkomene (Il. 4.8) .. "My own three favorite cities," answered Hera, "are Argos, Sparta, and Mycenae. (Il. 4.51)
Information about Hera is found at Heraeum , where the Sanctuary of the Godess
He was a son of Zeus by Alcmene (Il. 14.323, 18.118).
Hera delayed the birth of Heracles by guile, so that he did not rule over the people that dwelt round about, as Zeus had promised by oath the power to the son of Alcmene. On the other hand, Hera accelerated the birth of Eurystheus, so that he took the power and not Heracles (Il. 19.98-125).
Heracles undertook an expedition against Troy in order to take vengeance on Laomedon, who refused to reward him for the saviour of his daughter Hesione. He slew Laomedon and all his sons except Priam (Il. 20.145 etc., 5.642).
Heracles (Herakles), and in Latin Hercules, the most celebrated of all the heroes
of antiquity. The traditions about him are not only the richest in substance,
but also the most widely spread; for we find them not only in all the countries
round the Mediterranean, but his wondrous deeds were known in the most distant
countries of the ancient world. The difficulty of presenting a complete view of
these traditions was felt even by the ancients (Diod. iv. 8); and in order to
give a general survey, we must divide the subject, mentioning first the Greek
legends and their gradual development, next the Roman
legends, and lastly those of the East (Egypt,
Phoenicia).
The traditions about Heracles appear in their national purity down
to the time of Herodotus; for although there may be some foreign ingredients,
yet the whole character of the hero, his armour, his exploits, and the scenes
of his action, are all essentially Greek. But the poets of the time of Herodotus
and of the subsequent periods introduced considerable alterations, which were
probably derived from the east or Egypt,
for every nation of antiquity as well as of modern times had or has some traditions
of heroes of superhuman strength and power. Now while in the earliest Greek legends
Heracles is a purely human hero, as the conqueror of men and cities, he afterwards
appears as the subduer of monstrous animals, and is connected in a variety of
ways with astronomical phaenomena. According to Homer (Il. xviii. 118), Heracles
was the son of Zeus by Alcmene of Thebes
in Boeotia, and the favourite
of his father (Il. xiv. 250, 323, xix. 98, Od. xi. 266, 620, xxi. 25, 36). His
stepfather was Amphitryon (Il. v. 392, Od. xi. 269; Hes. Scut. Herc. 165). Amphitryon
was the son of Alcaeus, the son of Perseus, and Alcmene was a grand-daughter of
Perseus. Hence Heracles belonged to the family of Perseus. The story of his birth
runs thus. Amphitryon, after having slain Electryon, was expelled from Argos,
and went with his wife Alcmene to Thebes,
where he was received and purified by his uncle Creon. Alcmene was yet a maiden,
in accordance with a vow which Amphitryon had been obliged to make to Electryon,
and Alcmene continued to refuse him the rights of a husband, until he should have
avenged the death of her brothers on the Taphians. While Amphitryon was absent
from Thebes, Zeus one night, to which he gave the duration of three other nights,
visited Alcmene, and assuming the appearance of Amphitryon, and relating to her
how her brothers had been avenged, he begot by her the hero Heracles, the great
bulwark of gods and men (Respecting the various modifications of this story see
Apollod. ii. 4.7; Hygin. Fab. 29; Hes. Scut. 3.5; Pind. Isth. vii. 5, Nem. x.
19; Schol. ad Hom. Od. xi. 266). The day on which Heracles was to be born, Zeus
boasted of his becoming the father of a man who was to rule over the heroic race
of Perseus. Hera prevailed upon him to confirm by an oath that the descendant
of Perseus born that day should be the ruler. When this was done she hastened
to Argos, and there caused
the wife of Sthenelus to give birth to Eurystheus, whereas, by keeping away the
Eileithyiae, she delayed the confinement of Alcmene, and thus robbed Heracles
of the empire which Zeus had intended for him. Zeus was enraged at the imposition
practised upon him, but could not violate his oath. Alcmene brought into the world
two boys, Heracles, the son of Zeus, and Iphicles, the son of Amphitryon, who
was one night younger than Heracles (Hom. Il. xix. 95; Hes. Scnt. 1--56, 80; Apollod.
ii. 4). Zeus, in his desire not to leave Heracles the victim of Hera's jealousy,
made her promise, that if Heracles executed twelve great works in the service
of Eurystheus, he should become immortal (Diod. iv. 9). Respecting the place of
his birth traditions did not agree; for although the majority of poets and mythographers
relate that he was born at Thebes,
Diodorus (iv. 10) says that Amphitryon was not expelled from Tiryns
till after the birth of Heracles, and Euripides (Herc. Fur. 18) describes Argos
as the native country of the hero.
Nearly all the stories about the childhood and youth of Heracles,
down to the time when he entered the service of Eurystheus, seem to be inventions
of a later age: at least in the Homeric poems and in Hesiod we only find the general
remarks that he grew strong in body and mind, that in the confidence in his own
power he defied even the immortal gods, and wounded Hera and Ares, and that under
the protection of Zeus and Athena he escaped the dangers which Hera prepared for
him. But according to Pindar (Nem. i. 49), and other subsequent writers, Heracles
was only a few months old when Hera sent two serpents into the apartment where
Heracles and his brother Iphicles were sleeping, but the former killed the serpents
with his own hands (Comp. Theocrit. xxiv.1; Apollod. ii. 4.8). Heracles was brought
up at Thebes, but the detail
of his infant life is again related with various modifications in the different
traditions. It is said that Alcmene, from fear of Hera, exposed her son in a field
near Thebes, hence called
the field of Heracles; here he was found by Hera and Athena, and the former was
prevailed upon by the latter to put him to her breast, and she then carried him
back to his mother (Diod. iv. 9; Paus. ix. 25.2). Others said that Hermes carried
the newly-born child to Olympus,
and put him to the breast of Hera while she was asleep, but as she awoke, she
pushed him away, and the milk thus spilled produced the Milky Way (Eratosth. Catast.
44; Hygin. Poet. Astr. ii. in fin). As the hero grew up, he was instructed by
Amphitryon in riding in a chariot, by Autolycus in wrestling, by Eurytus in archery,
by Castor in fighting with heavy armour, and by Linus in singing and playing the
lyre (See the different statements in Theocrit. xxiv. 114, 103, 108; Schol. ad
Theocrit. xiii. 9, 56; Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 49). Linus was killed by his pupil with
the lyre, because he had censured him (Apollod. ii. 4.9; Diod. iii. 66; Aelian,
V. H. iii. 32). Being charged with murder, IIeracles exculpated himself by saying
that the deed was done in self-defence; and Amphitryon, in order to prevent similar
occurrences, sent him to attend to his cattle. In this manner he spent his life
till his eighteenth year. His height was four cubits, fire beamed from his eyes,
and he never wearied in practising shooting and hurling his javelin. To this period
of his life belongs the beautiful fable about Heracles before two roads, invented
by the sophist Prodicus, which may be read in Xenoph. Mem. ii. 1, and Cic de Off.
i. 32. Pindar (Isth. iv. 53) calls him small of stature, but of indomitable courage.
His first great adventure, which happened while he was still watching the oxen
of his father, is his fight against and victory over the lion of Cythaeron.
This animal made great havoc among the flocks of Amphitryon and Thespius (or Thestius),
king of Thespiae, and Heracles
promised to deliver the country of the monster. Thespius, who had fifty daughters,
rewarded Heracles by making him his guest so long as the chase lasted, and gave
up his daughters to him, each for one night (Apollod. ii. 4.10; comp. Hygin. Fab.
162; Diod. iv. 29; Athen. xiii. p. 556). Heracles slew the lion, and henceforth
wore its skin as his ordinary garment, and its mouth and head as his helmet; others
related that the lion's skin of Heracles was taken from the Nemean
lion. On his return to Thebes,
he met the envoys of king Erginus of Orchomenos,
who were going to fetch the annual tribute of one hundred oxen, which they had
compelled the Thebans to
pay. Heracles, in his patriotic indignation, cut off the noses and ears of the
envoys, and thus sent them back to Erginus. The latter thereupon marched against
Thebes; but Heracles, who
received a suit of armour from Athena, defeated and killed the enemy, and compelled
the Orchomenians to pay double
the tribute which they had formerly received from the Thebans.
In this battle against Erginus Heracles lost his father Amphitryon, though the
tragedians make him survive the campaign (Apollod. ii. 4.11; Diod. iv. 10; Paus.
ix. 37. 2; Theocrit. xvi. 105; Eurip. Herc. Fur. 41). According to some accounts,
Erginus did not fall in the tattle, but coneluded peace with Heracles. But the
gorious manner in which Heracles had delivered his country procured him immortal
fame among the Thebans, and
Creon rewarded him with the hand of his eldest daughter, Megara, by whom he became
the father of several children, the number and names of whom are stated differently
by the different writers (Apollod. ii. 4.11, 7.8; Hygin. Fab. 32; Eurip. Herc.
Fur. 995; Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 38; Schol. ad Pind. Isthm. iii. 104). The gods, on
the other hand, made him presents of arms: Hermes gave him a sword, Apollo a bow
and arrows, Hephaestus a golden coat of mail, and Athena a peplus, and he cut
for himself a club in the neighbourhood of Nemea,
while, according to others, the club was of brass, and the gift of Hephaestus
(Apollon. Rhod. i. 1196; Diod. iv. 14). After the battle with the Minyans,
Hera visited Heracles with madness, in which he killed his own children by Megara
and two of Iphicles. In his grief he sentenced himself to exile, and went to Thestius,
who purified him (Apollod. ii. 4.12). Other traditions place this madness at a
later time, and relate the circumstances differently (Eurip. Herc. Fur. 1000;
Paus. ix. 11.1; Hygin. Fab. 32; Schol. ad Pind. Isthm. iii. 104). He then consulted
the oracle of Delphi as to
where he should settle. The Pythia first called him by the name of Heracles--for
hitherto his name had been Alcides or Alcaeus,--and ordered him to live at Tiryns,
to serve Eurystheus for the space of twelve years, after which he should become
immortal. Heracles accordingly went to Tiryns,
and did as he was bid by Eurystheus.
The accounts of the twelve labours of Heracles are found only in the
later writers, for Homer and Hesiod do not mention them. Homer only knows that
Heracles during his life on earth was exposed to infinite dangers and sufferings
through the hatred of Hera, that he was subject to Eurystheus, who imposed upon
him many and difficult tasks, but Homer mentions only one, viz. that he was ordered
to bring Cerberus from the lower world (Il. viii. 363, xv. 639, Od. xi. 617).
The Iliad further alludes to his fight with a seamonster, and his expedition to
Troy, to fetch the horses
which Laomedon had refused him (v. 638, xx. 145). On his return from Troy,
he was cast, through the influence of Hera, on the coast of Cos,
but Zeus punished Hera, and carried Heracles safely to Argos
(xiv. 249, xv 18). Afterwards Heracles made war against the Pylians,
and destroyed the whole family of their king Neleus, with the exception of Nestor.
He destroyed many towns, and carried off Astyoche from Ephyra,
by whom he became the father of Tlepolemus (v. 395, ii. 657; comp. Od xxi. 14;
Soph. Trach. 239). Hesiod mentions several of the feats of Heracles distinctly,
but knows nothing of their number twelve. The selection of these twelve from the
great number of feats ascribed to Heracles is probably the work of the Alexandrines.
They are enumerated in Euripides (Here. Fur.), Apollodorus, Diodorus Siculus,
and the Greek Anthology (ii. 651), though none of them can be considered to have
arranged them in any thing like a chronological order.
...the twelve labours of Heracles... (see below). According to Apollodorus, Eurystheus
originally required only ten, and commanded him to perform two more, because he
was dissatisfied with two of them; but Diodorus represents twelve as the original
number required. Along with these labours (athloi), the ancients relate a considerable
number of other feats (parerga) which he performed without being commanded by
Eurystheus; some of them are interwoven with the twelve Athloi, and others belong
to a later period. Those of the former kind have already been noticed above; and
we now proceed to mention the principal parerga of the second class. After the
accomplishment of the twelve labours, and being released from the servitude of
Eurystheus, he returned to Thebes. He there gave Megara in marriage to Iolaus;
for, as he had lost the children whom he had by her, he looked upon his connection
with her as displeasing to the gods (Paus. x. 29), and went to Oechalia. According
to some traditions, Heracles, after his return from Hades, was seized with madness,
in which he killed both Megara and her children. This madness was a calamity sent
to him by Hera, because he had slain Lycus, king of Thebes, who, in the belief
that Heracles would not return from Hades, had attempted to murder Megara and
her children (Hygin. Fab. 32; Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 38). Eurytus, king of Oechalia,
an excellent archer, and the teacher of Heracles in his art, had promised his
daughter Iole to the man who should excel him and his sons in using the bow. Heracles
engaged in the contest with them, and succeeded, but Eurytus refused abiding by
his promise, saying, that he would not give his daughter to a man who had murdered
Ills own children. Iphitus, the son of Eurytus, endeavoured to persuade his father,
but in vain. Soon after this the oxen of Eurytus were carried off, and it was
suspected that Heracles was the offender. Iphitus again defended Heracles, went
to him and requested his assistance in searching after the oxen. Heracles agreed;
but when the two had arrived at Tiryns, Heracles, in a fit of madness, threw his
friend down from the wall, and killed him. Deiphobus of Amyclae, indeed, purified
Heracles from this murder, but he was, nevertheless, attacked by a severe illness.
Heracles then repaired to Delphi to obtain a remedy, but the Pythia refused to
answer his questions. A struggle between Heracles and Apollo ensued, and the combatants
were not separated till Zeus sent a flash of lightning between them. Heracles
now obtained the oracle that he should be restored to health, if he would sell
himself, would serve three years for wages, and surrender his wages to Eurytus,
as an atonement for the murder of Iphitus (Apollod. ii. 6.1, 2; Diod. iv. 31,
&c.; Hom. Il. ii. 730, Od. xxi. 22, &c.; Soph. Trach. 273, &c.). Heracles was
sold to Omphale, queen of Lydia, and widow of Tmolus. Late writers, especially
the Roman poets, describe Heracles, during his stay with Omphale, as indulging
at times in an effeminate life: he span wool, it is said, and sometimes lie put
on the garments of a woman, while Omphale wore his lion's skin; but, according
to Apollodorus and Diodorus, he nevertheless performed several great feats (Ov.
Fast. ii. 305, Heroid. ix. 53; Senec. Hippol. 317, Herc. Fur. 464; Lucian, Dial.
Deor. xiii. 2; Apollod. ii. 6. Β§ 3; Diod. iv. 31, &c.) Among these, we mention
his chaining the Cercopes, his killing Syleus and his daughter in Aulis, his defeat
of the plundering Idones, his killing a serpent on the river Sygaris, and his
throwing the blood-thirsty Lytierses into the Maeander (Comp. Hygin. Poet. Astr.
ii. 14; Schol. ad Theocrit. x. 41; Athen. x.). He further gave to the island of
Doliche the name of Icaria, as he buried in it the body of Icarus, which had been
washed on shore by the waves. He also undertook an expedition to Colchis, which
brought him in connection with the Argonauts (Apollod. i. 9.16; Herod. vii. 193;
Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. i. 1289; Anton. Lib. 26); he took part in the Calydonian
hunt, and met Theseus on his landing from Troezene on the Corinthian isthmus.
An expedition to India, which was mentioned in some traditions, may likewise be
inserted in this place (Philostr. Vit. Apoll. iii. 4, 6; Arrian, Ind. 8, 9).
When the period of his servitude and his illness had passed away,
he undertook an expedition against Troy, with 18 ships and a band of heroes. On
his landing, he entrusted the fleet to Oicles, and with his other companions made
an attack upon the city. Laomedon in the mean time made an attack upon the ships,
and slew Oicles, but was compelled to retreat into the city, where he was besieged.
Telamon was the first who forced his way into the city, which roused the jealousy
of Heracles to such a degree that lie determined to kill him; but Telamon quickly
collected a heap of stones, and pretended that he was building an altar to Heracles
kallinikos or alexikakos. This soothed the anger of the hero; and after the sons
of Laomedon had fallen, Heracles gave to Telamon Hesione, as a reward for his
bravery (Hom. Il. v. 641, &c., xiv. 251, xx. 145, &c.; Apollod. ii. 6.4; Diod.
iv. 32, 49; Eurip. Troad. 802, &c.).
On his return from Troy, Hera sent a storm to impede his voyage, which
compelled him to land in the island of Cos. The Meropes, the inhabitants of the
island, took him for a pirate, and received him with a shower of stones; but during
the night he took possession of the island, and killed the king, Eurypylus. Heracles
himself was wounded by Chalcodon, but was saved by Zeus. After he had ravaged
Cos, he went, by the command of Athena, to Phlegra, and fought against the Gigantes
(Apollod. ii. 7. Β§ 1; Hom. Il. xiv. 250, &c.; Pind. Nem. iv. 40). Respecting
his fight against the giants, who were, according to an oracle, to be conquered
by a mortal, see especially Eurip. Herc. Fur. 177, &c., 852, 1190, &c., 1272.
Among the giants defeated by him we find mention of Alcyoneus, a name borne by
two among them. (Pind. Nem. iv. 43, Isthm. vi. 47.)
Soon after his return to Argos, Heracles marched against Augeas to
chastise him for his breach of promise (see above), and then proceeded to Pylos,
which he took, and killed Periclymenus, a son of Neleus. He then advanced against
Lacedaemon, to punish the sons of Hippocoon, for having assisted Neleus and slain
Oeonus, the son of Licymnius (Paus. iii. 15.2, ii. 18.6; Apollod. ii. 7.3; Diod.
iv. 33). Heracles took Lacedaemon, and assigned the government of it to Tyndarens.
On his return to Tegea, he became, by Auge, the father of Telephus, and then proceeded
to Calydon, where he demanded Deianeira, the daughter of Oeneus, for his wife.
The adventures which now follow are of minor importance, such as the expedition
against the Dryopians, and the assistance he gave to Aegimius, king of the Dorians,
against the Lapithae; but as these events led to his catastrophe, it is necessary
to subjoin a sketch of them.
Heracles had been married to Deianeira for nearly three years, when,
at a repast in the house of Oeneus, he killed, by an accident, the boy Eunomus,
the son of Architeles. The father of the boy pardoned the murder, as it had not
been committed intentionally; but Heracles, in accordance with the law, went into
exile with his wife Deianeira. On their road they came to the river Euenus, across
which the centaur Nessus used to carry travellers for a small sum of money. Heracles
himself forded the river, and gave Deianeira to Nessus to carry her across. Nessus
attempted to outrage her: Heracles heard her screaming, and as the centaur brought
her to the other side, Heracles shot an arrow into his heart. The dying centaur
called out to Deianeira to take his blood with her, as it was a sure means for
preserving the love of her husband (Apollod. ii. 7.6; Diod. iv. 36; Soph. Trach.
555, &c.; Ov. Met. ix. 201, &c.; Senec. Herc. Oct. 496, &c.; Paus. x. 38.1). From
the river Euenus, Heracles now proceeded through the country of the Dryopes, where
he showed himself worthy of the epithet "the voracious", which is so often given
to him, especially bv late writers, for in his hunger he took one of the oxen
of Theiodamas, and consumed it all. At last he arrived in Trachis, where he was
kindly received by Ceyx, and conquered the Dryopes. He then assisted Aegimius,
king of the Dorians, against the Lapithae, and without accepting a portion of
the country which was offered to him as a reward. Laogoras, the king of the Dryopes,
and his children, were slain. As Heracles proceeded to Iton, in Thessaly, he was
challenged to single combat by Cycnus, a son of Ares and Pelopia (Hesiod. Scut.
Her. 58, &c.); but Cycnus was slain. King Amyntor of Ormenion refused to allow
Heracles to pass through his dominions, but had to pay for his presumption with
his life (Apollod. ii. 7.7; Diod. iv. 36, &c.).
Heracles now returned to Trachis, and there collected an army to take
vengeance on Eurytus of Oechalia. Apollodorus and Diodorus agree in making Heracles
spend the last years of his life at Trachis, but Sophocles represents the matter
in a very different light, for, according to him, Heracles was absent from Trachis
upwards of fifteen months without Deianeira knowing where he was. During that
period he was staying with Omphale in Lydia; and without returning home, he proceeded
from Lydia at once to Oechalia, to gain possession of Iole, whom he loved (Soph.
Track. 44, &c.; 248, &c., 351, &c.) With the assistance of his allies, Heracles
took the town of Oechalia, and slew Eurytus and his sons, but carried his daughter
Iole with him as a prisoner. On his return home he landed at Cenaeum, a promontory
of Euboea, and erected an altar to Zeus Cenaeus, and sent his companion, Lichas,
to Trachis to fetch him a white garment, which he intended to use during the sacrifice.
Deiancira, who heard from Lichas respecting Iole, began to fear lost she should
supplant her in the affection of her husband, to prevent which she steeped the
white garment he had demanded in the preparation she had made from the blood of
Nessus. Scarcely had the garment become warm on the body of Heracles, when the
poison which was contained in the ointment, and had come into it from the poisoned
arrow with which Heracles had killed Nessus, penetrated into all parts of his
body, and caused him the most fearful pains. Heracles seized Lichas by his feet,
and threw him into the sea. He wrenched off his garment, but it stuck to his flesh,
and with it he tore whole pieces from his body. In this state he was conveyed
to Trachis. Deianeira, on seeing what she had unwittingly done, hung herself;
and Heracles commanded Hyllus, his eldest son, by Deianeira, to marry Iole as
soon as he should arrive at the age of manhood. He then ascended Mount Oeta, raised
a pile of wood, ascended, and ordered it to be set on fire. No one ventured to
obey him, until at length Poeas the shepherd, who passed by, was prevailed upon
to comply with the desire of the suffering hero. When the pile was burning, a
cloud came down from heaven, and amid peals of thunder carried him into Olympus,
where he was honoured with immortality, became reconciled with Hera, and married
her daughter Hebe, by whom he became the father of Alexiares and Anicetus (Hom.
Od. xi. 600, &c.; Hes. Theog. 949, &c.; Soph. Trach. l. c., Philoct. 802; Apollod.
ii. 7.7; Diod. iv. 38; Ov. Met. ix. 155, &c.; Herod. vii. 198; Conon, Narrat.
17; Paus. iii. 18.7; Pind. Nem. i. in fin., x. 31, &c., Isthm. iv. 55, &c.; Vir.
Aen. viii. 300, and many other writers).
The wives and children of Heracles are enumerated by Apollodorus (ii.
7.8), but we must refer the reader to the separate articles. We may, however,
observe that among the very great number of his children, there are no daughters,
and that Euripides is the only writer who mentions Macaria as a daughter of Heracles
by Deianeira. We must also pass over the long series of his surnames, and proceed
to give an account of his worship in Greece. Immediately after the apotheosis
of Heracles, his friends who were present at the termination of his earthly career
offered sacrifices to him as a hero; and Menoetius established at Opus the worship
of Heracles as a hero. This example was followed by the Thebans, until at length
Heracles was worshipped throughout Greece as a divinity (Diod. iv. 39; Eurip.
Herc. Fur. 1331); but he, Dionysus and Pan, were regarded as the youngest gods,
and his worship was practised in two ways, for he was worshipped both as a god
and as a hero (Herod. ii. 44, 145). One of the most ancient temples of Heracles
in Greece was that at Bura, in Achaia, where he had a peculiar oracle (Paus. vii.
25.6; Plut. de Malign. Herod. 31). In the neighbourhood of Thermopylae, where
Athena, to please him, had called forth the hot spring, there was an altar of
Heracles, surnamed melampugos (Schol. ad Aristoph. Nub. 1047; Herod. vii. 176);
and it should be observed that hot springs in general were sacred to Heracles
(Diod. v. 3; Schol. ad Pind. Ol. xii. 25; Liv. xxii. 1; Strab. pp. 60, 172, 425,
428). In Phocis he had a temple under the name of misolunes; and as at Rome, women
were not allowed to take part in his worship, probably on account of his having
been poisoned by Deianeira (Plut. Quaest. Rom. 57, de Pyth. Orac. 20; Macrob.
Sat. i. 12). But temples and sanctuaries of Heracles existed in all parts of Greece,
especially in those inhabited by the Dorians. The sacrifices offered to him consisted
principally of bulls, boars, rams and lambs (Diod. iv. 39; Paus. ii. 10.1). Respecting
the festivals celebrated in his honour, see Heracleia.
The worship of Hercules at Rome and in Italy requires a separate consideration.
His worship there is connected by late, especially Roman writers, with the hero's
expedition to fetch the oxen of Geryones; and the principal points are, that Hercules
in the West abolished human sacrifices among the Sabines, established the worship
of fire, and slew Cacus, a robber, who had stolen eight of his oxen (Dionys. i.
14) The aborigines, and especially Evander, honoured the hero with divine worship.
(Serv. ad Aen. viii. 51, 269.) Hercules, in return, feasted the people, and presented
the king with lands, requesting that sacrifices should be offered to him every
year, according to Greek rites. Two distinguished families, the Potitii and Pinarii,
were instructed in these Greek rites, and appointed hereditary managers of the
festival. But Hercules made a distinction between these two families, which continued
to exist for a long time after; for, as Pinarius arrived too late at the repast,
the god punished him by declaring that lie and his descendants should be excluded
for ever from the sacrificial feast. Thus the custom arose for the Pinarii to
act the part of servants at the feast. (Diod. iv. 21; Dionys. i. 39, &c.; Liv.
i. 40, v. 34; Nepos, Hann. 3; Plut. Quaest. Rom. 18; Ov. Fast. i. 581). The Fabia
gens traced its origin to Hercules, and Fauna and Acca Laurentia are called mistresses
of Hercules. In this manner the Romans connected their earliest legends with Hercules
(Macrob. Sat. i. 10; August. de Civ. Dei, vi. 7). It should be observed that in
the Italian traditions the hero bore the name of Recaranus, and this Recaranus
was afterwards identified with the Greek Heracles. He had two temples at Rome,
one was a small round temple of Hercules Victor, or Hercules Triumphalis, between
the river and the Circus Maximus, in the forum boarium, and contained a statue,
which was dressed in the triumphal robes whenever a general celebrated a triumph.
In front of this statue was the ara maxima, on which, after a triumph, the tenth
of the booty was deposited for distribution among the citizens (Liv. x. 23; Plin.
H. N. xxxiv. 7, 16; Macrob. Sat. iii. 6; Tacit. Ann. xii. 24; Serv. ad Aen. xii.
24; Athen. v. 65; comp. Dionys. i. 40). The second temple stood near the porta
trigemina, and contained a bronze statue and the altar on which Hercules himself
was believed to have once offered a sacrifice (Dionys. i. 39, 40; Plut. Quaest.
Rom. 60; Plin. H. N. xxxiii. 12, 45). Here the city praetor offered every year
a young cow, which was consumed by the people within the sanctuary. The Roman
Hercules was regarded as the giver of health (Lydus, de Mens. p. 92), and his
priests were called by a Sabine name Cupenci (Serv. ad Aen. xii. 539). At Rome
he was further connected with the Muses, whence he is called Musagetes, and was
represented with a lyre, of which there is no trace in Greece. The identity of
the Italian with the Greek Heracles is attested not only by the resenmblalce in
the traditions and the mode of worship, but by the distinct belief of the Romans
themselves. The Greek colonies had introduced his worship into Italy, and it was
thence carried to Rome, into Gaul, Spain, arid even Germany (Tac. Germ. 2). But
it is, nevertheless, in the highest degree probable that the Greek mythus was
engrafted upon, or supplied the place of that about the Italian Recaranus or Garanus.
The works of art in which Heracles was represented were extremely
numerous, and of the greatest variety, for he was represented at all the various
stages of his life, from the cradle to his death; but whether he appears as a
child, a youth, a struggling hero, or as the immortal inhabitant of Olympus, his
character is always that of heroic strength and energy. Specimens of every kind
are still extant. In the works of the archaic style he appeared as a man with
heavy armour (Paus. iii. 15.7), but he is usually represented armed with a club,
a Scythian bow, and a lion's skin. His head and eyes are small in proportion to
the other parts of his body; his hair is short, bristly, and curly, his neck short,
fat, and resembling that of a bull; the lower part of his forehead projects, and
his expression is grave and serious; his shoulders, arms, breast, and legs display
the highest physical strength, and the strong muscles suggest the unceasing and
extraordinary exertions by which his life is characterised. The representations
of Heracles by Myron and Parrhasius approached nearest to the ideal which was
at length produced by Lysippus. The socalled Farnesian Heracles, of which the
torso still exists, is the work of Glycon, in imitation of one by Lysippus. It
is the finest representation of the hero that has come down to us: he is resting,
leaning on his right arm, while the left one is reclining on his head, and the
whole figure is a most exquisite combination of peculiar softness with the greatest
strength.
The mythus of Heracles, as it has come down to us, has unquestionably been developed
on Grecian soil; his name is Greek, and the substance of the fables also is of
genuine Greek growth: the foreign additions which at a later age may have been
incorporated with the Greek mythus can easily be recognised and separated from
it. It is further clear that real historical elements are interwoven with the
fables. The best treatises on the mythus of Heracles are those of Buttmann (Mythologus),
and C. O. Muller (Dorians), both of whom regard the hero as a purely Greek character,
though the former considers him as entirely a poetical creation, and the latter
believes that the whole mythus arose from the proud consciousness of power which
is innate in every man, by means of which he is able to raise himself to an equality
with the immortal gods, notwithstanding all the obstacles that may be placed in
his way.
Before we conclude, we must add a few remarks respecting the Heracles
of the East, and of the Celtic and Germanic nations. The ancients themselves expressly
mention several heroes of the name of Heracles, who occur among the principal
nations of the ancient world. Diodorus, e.g. (iii. 73, comp. i. 24, v. 64, 76)
speaks of three, the most ancient of whom was the Egyptian, a son f Zeus, the
second a Cretan, and one of the Idacan Dactyls, and the third or youngest was
Heracles the son of Zeus by Alcmena, who lived shortly before the Trojan war,
and to whom the feats of the earlier ones were ascribed. Cicero (de Nat. Deor.
iii. 16) counts six heroes of this name, and he likewise makes the last and youngest
the son of Zeus and Alcmena. Varro (ap. Serv. ad Aen. viii. 564) is said to have
reckoned up forty-four heroes of this name, while Servius assumes only four, viz.
the Tirynthian, the Argive, the Theban, and the Libyan Heracles. Herodotus (ii.
42, &c.) tells us that he made inquiries respecting Heracles: the Egyptian he
found to be decidedly older than the Greek one; but the Egyptians referred him
to Phoenicia as the original source of the traditions. The Egyptian Heracles,
who is mentioned by many other writers besides Herodotus and Diodorus, is said
to have been called by his Egyptian name Som or Dsom, or, according to others,
Chon (Etym. M. s. v. Chon), and, according to Pausanias (x. 17.2), Maceris. According
to Diodorus (i. 24), Som was a son of Amon (Zeus); but Cicero calls him a son
of Nilus, while, according to Ptolemaeus Hephaestion, Heracles himself was originally
called Nilus. This Egyptian Heracles was placed by the Egyptians in the second
of the series of the evolutions of their gods (Diod. l. c.; Herod. ii. 43, 145,
iii. 73; Tac. Ann. ii. 6). The Thebans placed him 17,000 years before king Amasis,
and, according to Diodorus, 10,000 years before the Trojan war; whereas Macrobius
(Sat. i. 20) states that he had no beginning at all. The Greek Heracles, according
to Diodorus, became the heir of all the feats and exploits of his elder Egyptian
namesake. The 'Egyptian Heracles, however, is also mentioned in the second classof
the kings; so that the original divinity, by a process of anthropomorphism, appears
as a man, and in this capacity he bears great resemblance to the Greek hero (Diod.
i. 17, 24, iii. 73). This may, indeed, be a mere reflex of the Greek traditions,
but the statement that Osiris, previous to his great expedition, entrusted Heracles
with the government of Egypt, seems to be a genuine Egyptian legend. The other
stories related about the Egyptian Heracles are of a mysterious nature, and unintelligible,
but the great veneration in which he was held is attested by several authorities
(Herod. ii. 113; Diod. v. 76; Tac. Ann. ii. 60; Macrob. Sat. i. 20).
Further traces of the worship of Heracles appear in Thasus, where
Herodotus (ii. 44) found a temple, said to have been built by the Phoenicians
sent out in search of Europa, five generations previous to the time of the Greek
Heracles. He was worshipped there principally in the character of a saviour (soter,
Paus. v. 25.7, vi. 11.2).
The Cretan Heracles, one of the Idaean Dactyls, was believed to have
founded the temple of Zeus at Olympia (Paus. v. 13.5), but to have originally
come from Egypt (Diod. iv. 18). The traditions about him resemble those of the
Greek Heracles (Diod. v. 76; Paus. ix. 27.5); but it is said that he lived at
a much earlier period than the Greek hero, and that the latter only imitated him.
Eusebius states that his name was Diodas, and Hieronymus makes it Desanaus. He
was worshipped with funeral sacrifices, and was regarded as a magician, like other
ancient daemones of Crete (Cic. de Nat. Deor. iii. 16; Diod. v. 64).
In India, also, we find a Heracles, who was called by the unintelligible
name Dirsaner (Plin. H. N. vi. 16, 22; Hesych. s.v. Dorsaner). The later Greeks
believed that he was their own hero, who had visited India, and related that in
India he became the father of many sons and daughters by Pandaea, and the ancestral
hero of the Indian kings (Arrian, Ind. 8, 9; Diod. ii. 39, xvii. 85, 96; Philostr.
Vit. Apoll. iii. 46)
The Phoenician Heracles, whom the Egyptians considered to be more
ancient than their own, was probably identical with the Egyptian or Libyan Heracles.
See the learned disquisition in Movers (Die Phoenicier, p. 415, &c.) He was worshipped
in all the Phoenician colonies, such as Carthage and Gades, down to the time of
Constantine, and it is said that children were sacrificed to him (Plin. H. N.
xxxvi. 5).
The Celtic and Germanic Heracles has already been noticed above, as
the founder of Alesia, Nemausus, and the author of the Celtic race. We become
acquainted with him in the accounts of the expedition of the Greek Heracles to
Geryones (Herod. i. 7, ii. 45, 91, 113, iv. 82; Pind. Ol. iii. 11, &c.; Tacit.
Germ. 3, 9). We must either suppose that the Greek Heracles was identified with
native heroes of those northern countries, or that the notions about Heracles
had been introduced there from the East.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Jan 2006 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Heracles (Herakles: Latin, Hercules). Heracles
is not only one of the oldest heroes in the Greek mythology, but the most famous
of all. Indeed, the traditions of similar heroes in other Greek tribes, and in
other nations, especially in the East, were transferred to Heracles; so that the
scene of his achievements, which is, in the Homeric poems, confined on the whole
to Greece, became almost coextensive with the known world; and the story of Heracles
was the richest and most comprehensive of all the heroic myths.
Heracles was born in Thebes, and was the son of Zeus by Alcmene,
the wife of Amphitryon, whose form the god assumed while he was absent in the
war against the Teleboi. On the day which he should have been born, Zeus announced
to the gods that a descendant of Perseus was about to see the light, who would
hold sway over all the Perseidae. Here cunningly induced her consort to confirm
his words with an oath. She hated the unborn son as the son of her rival, and
hence in her capacity as the goddess of childbirth caused the queen of Sthenelus
of Mycenae, a descendant of Perseus, to give birth prematurely to Eurystheus,
while she postponed the birth of Heracles for seven days. Hence it was that Heracles,
with his gigantic strength, came into the service of the weaker Eurystheus. Here
pursued him with her hatred during the whole of his natural life. He and his twin
brother Iphicles, the son of Amphitryon, were hardly born, when the goddess sent
two serpents to their cradle to destroy them. Heracles seized them and strangled
them. The child grew up to be a strong youth, and was taught by Amphitryon to
drive a chariot, by Autolycus to wrestle, by Eurytus to shoot with the bow, and
by Castor to use the weapons of war. Chiron instructed him in the sciences, Rhadamanthus
in virtue and wisdom, Eumolpus (or according to another account, Linus) in music.
When Linus attempted to chastise him, Heracles struck him dead with his lute.
Amphitryon, accordingly, alarmed at his untamable temper, sent him to tend his
flocks on Mount Cithaeron.
It was at this time, according to the Sophist Prodicus, that
the event occurred which occasioned the fable of the "Choice of Heracles".
Heracles was meditating in solitude as to the path of life which he should choose,
when two tall women appeared before him--the one called Pleasure, the other called
Virtue. Pleasure promised him a life of enjoyment, Virtue a life of toil crowned
by glory. He decided for Virtue. After destroying the savage lion of Cithaeron,
he returned, in his eighteenth year, to Thebes, and freed the city from the tribute
which it had been forced to pay to Erginus of Orchomenus, whose heralds he deprived
of their ears and noses. Creon, king of Thebes, gave him, in gratitude, his daughter
Megara as wife. But it was not long before the Delphic oracle commanded him to
enter the service of Eurystheus, king of Mycenae and Tiryns, and perform twelve
tasks which he should impose upon him. This was the humiliation which Here had
in store for him. The oracle promised him, at the same time, that he should win
eternal glory, and in deed immortality, and change his present name Alcaeus (from
his paternal grandfather) or Alcides (from alke, "strength") for Heracles
("renowned through Here"). Nevertheless, he fell into a fit of madness,
in which he shot down the three children whom Megara had borne him. When healed
of his insanity, he entered into the service of Eurystheus.
The older story says nothing of the exact number (twelve) of
the labours (athloi) of Heracles. The number was apparently invented by the poet
Pisander of Rhodes, who may have had in his eye the contests of the Phoenician
god Melkart with the twelve hostile beasts of the Zodiac. It was also Pisander
who first armed the hero with the club, and the skin taken from the lion of Cithaeron
or Nemea. Heracles was previously represented as carrying bow and arrows, and
the weapons of a Homeric hero.
The twelve labours of Heracles were as follows: (1) The contest
with the invulnerable lion of Nemea, the offspring of Typhon and Echidna. Heracles
drove it into its cavern and strangled it in his arms. With the impenetrable hide,
on which nothing could make any impression but the beast's own claws, he clothed
himself, the jaws covering his head. (2) The hydra or water-snake of Lerna, also
a child of Typhon and Echidna. This monster lived in the marsh of Lerna, near
Argos, and was so poisonous that its very breath was fatal. It had nine heads,
one of which was immortal. Heracles scared it out of its lair with burning arrows,
and cut off its head; but for every head cut off two new ones arose. At length
Iolaus, the charioteer of Heracles and son of his brother Iphicles, seared the
wounds with burning brands. Upon the immortal head he laid a heavy mass of rock.
He anointed his arrows with the monster's gall, so that henceforth the wounds
they inflicted were incurable. Eurystheus refused to accept this as a genuine
victory, alleging the assistance offered by Iolaus. (3) The boar of Erymanthus,
which infested Arcadia. Heracles had been commanded to bring it alive to Mycenae,
so he chased it into an expanse of snow, tired it out, and caught it in a noose.
The mere sight of the beast threw Eurystheus into such a panic that he slunk away
into a tub underground and bid the hero, in future, to show the proof of his achievements
outside the city gates. (4) The hind of Mount Cerynea, between Arcadia and Achaia.
Another account localizes the event on Mount Maenalus, and speaks of the Maenalian
hind. Its horns were of gold and its hoofs of brass, and it had been dedicated
to Artemis by the Pleiad Taygete. Heracles was to take the hind alive. He followed
her for a whole year up to the source of the Ister in the country of the Hyperboreans.
At length she returned to Arcadia, where he wounded her with an arrow on the banks
of the Ladon, and so caught her. (5) The birds that infested the lake of Stymphalus,
in Arcadia. These were man-eating monsters, with claws, wings, and beaks of brass,
and feathers that they shot out like arrows. Heracles scared them with a brazen
rattle, and succeeded in killing part, and driving away the rest, which settled
on the island of Aretias in the Black Sea, to be frightened away, after a hard
fight, by the Argonauts. (6) Heracles was commanded to bring home for Admete,
the daughter of Eurystheus, the girdle of Hippolyte, queen of the Amazons. After
many adventures he landed at Themiscyra, and found the queen ready to give up
the girdle of her own accord. But Here spread a rumour among the Amazons that
their queen was in danger, and a fierce battle took place, in which Heracles slew
Hippolyte and many of her followers. On his return he slew, in the neighbourhood
of Troy, a sea-monster, to whose fury King Laomedon had offered up his daughter
Hesione. Laomedon refused to give Heracles the reward he had promised, whereupon
the latter, who was hastening to return to Mycenae, threatened him with future
vengeance. (7) The farm-yard of Augeas, king of Elis, in which lay the dung of
three thousand cattle, was to be cleared in a day. Heracles completed the task
by turning the rivers Alpheus and Peneus into the yard. Augeas now contended that
Heracles was only acting on the commission of Eurystheus, and on this pretext
refused him his promised reward. Heracles slew him afterwards with all his sons,
and thereupon founded the Olympian Games. (8) A mad bull had been sent up from
the sea by Poseidon to ravage the island of Crete, in revenge for the disobedience
of Minos. Heracles was to bring him to Mycenae alive. He caught the bull, crossed
the sea on his back, threw him over his neck and carried him to Mycenae, where
he let him go. The animal wandered all through the Peloponnesus and ended by infesting
the neighbourhood of Marathon, where he was at length slain by Theseus. (9) Diomedes,
a son of Ares, and king of the Bistones in Thrace, had some mares which he used
to feed on the flesh of the strangers landing in the country. After a severe struggle,
Heracles overcame the king, threw his body to the mares, and took them off to
Mycenae, where Eurystheus let them go. (10) The oxen of Geryones, the son of Chrysaor
and the ocean nymph Callirrhoe. Geryones was a giant with three bodies and mighty
wings, who dwelt on the island of Erythea, in the farthest West, on the borders
of the Ocean stream. He had a herd of red cattle, which were watched by the shepherd
Eurytion and his two-headed dog Orthrus, the offspring of Typhon and Echidna.
In quest of these cattle, Heracles, with many adventures, passed through Europe
and Libya. On the boundary of both continents he set up, in memory of his arrival,
the two pillars which bear his name, and at length reached the Ocean stream. Oppressed
by the rays of the neighbouring sun, he aimed his bow at the Sungod, who marvelled
at his courage, and gave him his golden bowl to cross the Ocean in. Arrived at
Erythea, Heracles slew the shepherd and his dog, and drove off the cattle. Menoetius,
who tended the herds of Hades in the neigbourhood, brought news to Geryones of
what had happened. Geryones hurried in pursuit, but after a fierce contest fell
before the arrows of Heracles. The hero returned with the cattle through Iberia,
Gaul, Liguria, Italy, and Sicily, meeting everywhere with new adventures, and
leaving behind him tokens of his presence. At the mouth of the Rhone he had a
dreadful struggle with the Ligyes; his arrows were exhausted, and he had sunk
in weariness upon his knee, when Zeus rained a shower of innumerable stones from
heaven, with which he prevailed over his enemies. The place was ever after a stony
desert plain, and was identified with the Campus Lapidosus near Massilia (Marseilles).
Heracles had made the circuit of the Adriatic and was just nearing Greece, when
Here sent a gadfly and scattered the herd. With much toil he wandered through
the mountains of Thrace as far as the Hellespont, but then only succeeded in getting
together a part of the cattle. After a dangerous adventure with the giant Alcyoneus,
he succeeded at length in returning to Mycenae, where Eurystheus offered up the
cattle to Here. (11) The golden apples of the Hesperides. Heracles was ignorant
where the gardens of the Hesperides were to be found in which the apples grew.
He accordingly repaired to the nymphs who dwelt by the Eridanus, on whose counsel
he surprised Nereus, the omniscient god of the sea, and compelled him to give
an answer. On this he journeyed through Libya, Egypt, and Ethiopia, where he slew
Antaeus, Busiris, and Emathion. He then crossed to Asia, passed through the Caucasus,
where he set Prometheus free, and on through the land of the Hyperboreans till
he found Atlas. Following the counsel of Prometheus, he sent Atlas to bring the
apples, and in his absence bore the heavens for him on his shoulders. Atlas returned
with them, but declined to take his burden upon his shoulders again, promising
to carry the apples to Eurystheus himself. Heracles consented, and asked Atlas
to take the burden only a moment, while he adjusted a cushion for his head; he
then hurried off with his prize. Another account represents Heracles as slaying
the serpent Ladon, who guarded the tree, and plucking the apples himself. Eurystheus
presented him with the apples; he dedicated them to Athene, who restored them
to their place. (12) Last he brought the dog Cerberus up from the lower world.
This was the heaviest task of all. Conducted by Hermes and Athene, he descended
into Hades at the promontory of Taenarum. In Hades he set Theseus free, and induced
the prince of the infernal regions to let him take the dog to the realms of day,
if only he could do so without using his weapons. Heracles bound the beast by
the mere strength of arm, and carried him to Eurystheus, and took him back again
into Hades. While in the upper world the dog, in his disgust, spat upon the ground,
causing the poisonous herb aconite to spring up.
His tasks were now ended, and he returned to Thebes. His first
wife, Megara, he wedded to his faithful friend Iolaus, and then journeyed into
Oechalia to King Eurytus, whose daughter Iole he meant to woo. The king's son
Iphitus favoured his suit, but Eurytus rejected it with contempt. Soon after this
Autolycus stole some of Eurytus's cattle, and he accused Heracles of the robbery.
Meanwhile, Heracles had rescued Alcestis, the wife of Admetus, from death. Iphitus
met Heracles, begged him to help him in looking for the stolen cattle, and accompanied
him to Tiryns. Here, after hospitably entertaining him, Heracles threw him, in
a fit of madness, from the battlements of his stronghold. A heavy sickness was
sent on him for this murder, and Heracles prayed to the god of Delphi to heal
him. Apollo rejected him, whereupon Heracles attempted to carry away the tripod.
A conflict ensued, when Zeus parted the combatants with his lightning. The oracle
bade Heracles to hire himself out for three years for three talents, and pay the
money to Eurytus. Hermes put him into the service of Omphale, queen of Lydia,
daughter of Iardanus, and widow of Tmolus. Heracles was degraded to female drudgery,
was clothed in soft raiment and set to spin wool, while the queen assumed the
lion skin and the club. The time of service over, he undertook an expedition of
vengeance against Laomedon of Troy. He landed on the coast of the Troad with eighteen
ships, manned by the boldest of heroes, such as Telamon, Peleus, and Oicles. Laomedon
succeeded in surprising the guard by the ships and in slaying Oicles. But the
city was stormed, Telamon being the first to climb the wall, and Laomedon, with
all his sons except Podarces, was slain by the arrows of Heracles. On his return
Here sent a tempest upon him. On the island of Cos he had a hard conflict to undergo
with Eurytion, the son of Poseidon, and his sons. Heracles was at first wounded
and forced to fly, but prevailed at length with the help of Zeus.
After this Athene summoned the hero to the battle of the gods
with the giants, who were not to be vanquished without his aid. Then Heracles
returned to the Peloponnesus, and took vengeance on Augeas and on Neleus of Pylos,
who had refused to purify him for the murder of Iphitus. In the battle with the
Pylians he went so far as to wound Hades, who had come up to their assistance.
Hippocoon of Sparta and his numerous sons he slew in revenge for their murder
of Oeonus, a son of his maternal uncle Licymnius. In this contest his ally was
King Cepheus of Tegea, by whose sister Auge he was father of Telephus. Cepheus
with his twenty sons were left dead on the field.
Heracles now won as his wife Deianira, the daughter of Oeneus
of Calydon. He remained a long time with his father-in-law, and at length, with
his wife and his son Hyllus, he passed on into Trachis to the hospitality of his
friend Ceyx. At the ford of the river Evenus he encountered the Centaur Nessus,
who had the right of carrying travellers across. Nessus remained behind and attempted
to do violence to Deianira, upon which Heracles shot him through with his poisoned
arrows. The dying Centaur gave some of his infected blood to Deianira, telling
her that, should her husband be unfaithful, it would be a means of restoring him.
Heracles had a stubborn contest with Theodamas, the king of the Dryopes, killed
him, and took his son Hylas away. He then reached Trachis, and was received with
the friendliest welcome by King Ceyx. Next he started to fight with Cycnus, who
had challenged him to single combat; and afterwards, at the request of Aegimius,
prince of the Dorians, undertook a war against the Lapithae, and an expedition
of revenge against Eurytus of Oechalia. He stormed the fortress, slew Eurytus
with his sons, and carried off Iole, who had formerly been denied him, as his
prisoner. He was about to offer a sacrifice to his father Zeus on Mount Cenaeum,
when Deianira, jealous of Iole, sent him a robe stained with the blood of Nessus.
It had hardly grown warm upon his body when the dreadful poison began to devour
his flesh. Wild with anguish, he hurled Lichas, who brought him the robe, into
the sea, where he was changed into a tall cliff. In the attempt to tear off the
robe, he only tore off pieces of his flesh. Apollo bade him be carried to the
top of Oeta, where he had a great funeral pyre built up for him. This he ascended;
then he gave Iole to his son Hyllus to be his wife, and bade Poeas, the father
of Philoctetes, to kindle the pyre. According to another story, it was Philoctetes
himself, whom Heracles presented with his bow and poisoned arrows, who performed
this office. The flames had hardly started up, when a cloud descended from the
sky with thunder and lightning, and carried the son of Zeus up to heaven, where
he was welcomed as one of the immortals. Here was reconciled to him, and he was
wedded to her daughter Hebe, the goddess of eternal youth. Their children were
Alexiares ("Averter of the Curse") and Anicetus ("the Invincible"),
the names merely personifying two of the main qualities for which the hero was
worshipped.
About the end of Heracles nothing is said in the Iliad but
that he, the best-loved of Zeus's sons, did not escape death, but was overcome
by fate, and by the heavy wrath of Here. In the Odyssey his ghost, in form like
black night, walks in the lower world with his bow bent and his arrows ready,
while the hero himself dwells among the immortals, the husband of Hebe. For the
lives of his children, and the end of Eurystheus, see Hyllus.
Heracles was worshipped partly as a hero, to whom men brought
the ordinary libations and offerings, and partly as an Olympian deity, an immortal
among the immortals. Immediately after his apotheosis his friends offered sacrifice
to him at the place of burning, and his worship spread from thence through all
the tribes of Hellas. Diomus the son of Colyttus, an Athenian, is said to have
been the first who paid him the honours of an immortal. It was he who founded
the gymnasium called Cynosarges, near the city. This gymnasium, the sanctuary
at Marathon, and the temple at Athens were the three most venerable shrines of
Heracles in Attica. Diomus gave his name to the Diomeia, a merry festival held
in Athens in honour of Heracles. Feasts to Heracles (Herakleia), with athletic
contests, were celebrated in many places. He was the hero of labour and struggle,
and the patron deity of the gymnasium and the palaestra. From early times he was
regarded as having instituted the Olympic Games; as the founder of the Olympic
sanctuaries and the Olympic truce, the planter of the shady groves, and the first
competitor and victor in the contests. During his earthly life he had been a helper
of gods and men, and had set the earth free from monsters and rascals. Accordingly
he was invoked in all the perils of life as the saviour (soter) and the averter
of evil (alexikakos). Men prayed for his protection against locusts, flies, and
noxious serpents. He was a wanderer, and had travelled over the whole world; therefore
he was called on as the guide on marches and journeys (hegemonios). In another
character he was the glorious conqueror (kallinikos) who, after his toils are
over, enjoys his rest with wine, feasting, and music. Indeed, the fable represents
him as having, in his hours of repose, given as striking proofs of inexhaustible
bodily power as in his struggles and contests. Men liked to think of him as an
enormous eater, capable of devouring a whole ox; as a lusty boon companion, fond
of delighting himself and others by playing the lyre. In Rome, as Hercules, he
was coupled with the Muses, and, like Apollo elsewhere, was worshipped as Mousagetes
(Hercules Musarum), or master of the Muses. After his labours he was supposed
to have been fond of hot baths (thermai) which were accordingly deemed sacred
to him. Among trees, the wild olive and white poplar were consecrated to him;
the poplar he was believed to have brought from distant countries to Olympia.
Owing to the influence of the Greek colonies in Italy, the
worship of Heracles was widely diffused among the Italian tribes. It attached
itself to local legends and religion; the conqueror of Cacus, for instance, was
originally not Heracles, but a powerful shepherd called Garanos. Again, Heracles
came to be identified with the ancient Italian deity Sancus or Dius Fidius, and
was regarded as the god of happiness in home and field, industry and war, as well
as of truth and honour. His altar was the Ara Maxima in the cattle-market (Forum
Boarium), which he was believed to have erected himself. Here they dedicated to
him a tithe of their gains in war and peace, ratified solemn treaties, and invoked
his name to witness their oaths. He had many shrines and sacrifices in Rome, corresponding
to his various titles, Victor (Conqueror), Invictus (Unconquered), Custos (Guardian),
Defensor (Defender), and others. His rites were always performed in Greek fashion,
with the head covered. It was in his temple that soldiers and gladiators were
accustomed to hang up their arms when their service was over. In the stonequarries
the labourers had their Hercules Saxarius (Hercules of the Stone). He was called
the father of Latinus, the ancestor of the Latins, and to him the Roman gens of
the Fabii traced their origin. The ancient family of the Potitii were said to
have been commissioned by the god in person to provide, with the assistance of
the Pinarii, for his sacrifices at the Ara Maxima. In B.C. 310 the Potitii gave
the service into the hands of the servi publici. Before a year had passed [p.
794] the flourishing family had become completely extinct.
In works of art Heracles is represented as the ideal of manly
strength, with full, well knit, and muscular limbs, serious expression, a curling
beard, short neck, and a head small in proportion to the limbs. His equipment
is generally the club and the lion's skin. The type appears to have been mainly
fixed by Lysippus. The Farnese Hercules, by the Athenian Glycon, is probably a
copy of one by Lysippus. Heracles is portrayed in repose, leaning on his club,
which is covered with the lion's skin. The Heracles of the Athenian Apollonius,
now only a torso, is equally celebrated.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
The goddess Hera, determined to make trouble for Hercules, made him lose his mind. In a confused and angry state, he killed his own wife and children.
When he awakened from his "temporary insanity," Hercules was shocked and upset by what he'd done. He prayed to the god Apollo for guidance, and the god's oracle told him he would have to serve Eurystheus, the king of Tiryns and Mycenae, for twelve years, in punishment for the murders.
As part of his sentence, Hercules had to perform twelve Labors, feats so difficult that they seemed impossible. Fortunately, Hercules had the help of Hermes and Athena, sympathetic deities who showed up when he really needed help. By the end of these Labors, Hercules was, without a doubt, Greece's greatest hero.
His struggles made Hercules the perfect embodiment of an idea the Greeks called pathos, the experience of virtuous struggle and suffering which would lead to fame and, in Hercules' case, immortality.
Labor 1: The Nemean
Lion (see http://www.gtp.gr/AncientNemea
)
Labor 2: The Lernean
Hydra (see http://www.gtp.gr/AncientLerna
)
Labor 3: The Hind of
Ceryneia (see http://www.gtp.gr/AncientCeryneia
)
Labor 4: The Erymanthean
Boar (see http://www.gtp.gr/ErymanthusMountain
)
Labor 5: The Augean
Stables (see http://www.gtp.gr/AncientEphyra-Elis
)
Labor 6: The Stymphalian
Birds (see http://www.gtp.gr/StymphaliaLake
)
Labor 7: The Cretan
Bull (see http://www.gtp.gr/Cnossus
)
Labor 8: The Horses
of Diomedes (see http://www.gtp.gr/AncientAbdera
)
Labor 9: The Belt
of Hippolyte (see http://www.gtp.gr/AncientThemiscyra
)
Labor 10: Geryon's
Cattle (see http://www.gtp.gr/AncientErytheia
)
Labor 11: The Apples
of the Hesperides (see http://www.gtp.gr/HesperidesLand
)
Labor 12: Cerberus
(see http://www.gtp.gr/CapeTainaron
)
This text is cited July 2004 from Perseus Project URL bellow, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Alcmene (Alkmene), a daughter of Electryon, king of Messene, by Anaxo, the daughter
of Alcaeus (Apollod. ii. 4.5). According to other accounts her mother was called
Lysidice (Schol. ad Pind. Ol. vii. 49; Plut. Thes. 7), or Eurydice (Diod. iv.
9). The poet Asius represented Alcmene as a daughter of Amphiaraus and Eriphyle
(Paus. v. 17.4). Apollodorus mentions ten brothers of Alcmene, who, with the exception
of one, Licymnius, fell in a contest with the sons of Pterelaus, who had carried
off the cattle of Electryon. Electryon, on setting out to avenge the death of
his sons, left his kingdom and his daughter Alcmene to Amphitryon, who, unintentionally,
killed Electryon. Sthenelus thereupon expelled Amphitryon, who, together with
Alcmene and Licymnius, went to Thebes.
Alcmene declared that she would marry him who should avenge the death of her brothers.
Amphitryon undertook the task, and invited Creon of Thebes
to assist him.
During his absence, Zeus, in the disguise of Amphitryon, visited Alcmene,
and, pretending to be her husband, related to her in what way he had avenged the
death of her brothers (Apollod. ii. 4.6--8; Ov. Amor. i. 13. 45; Diod. iv. 9;
Hygin. Fab. 29; Lucian, Dialog. Deor. 10). When Amphitryon himself returned on
the next day and wanted to give an account of his achievements, she was surprised
at the repetition, but Teiresias solved the mystery. Alcmene became the mother
of Heracles by Zeus, and of Iphicles by Amphitryon. Hera, jealous of Alcmene,
delayed the birth of Heracles for seven days, that Eurystheus might be born first,
and thus be entitled to greater rights, according to a vow of Zeus himself (Hom.
Il. xix. 95; Ov. Met. ix. 273; Diod. l. c). After the death of Amphitryon,
Alcmene married Rhadamanthys, a son of Zeus, at Ocaleia
in Boeotia (Apollod. ii.
4.11). After Heracles was raised to the rank of a god, Alcmene and his sons, in
dread of Eurystheus fled to Trachis,
and thence to Athens, and
when Hyllus had cut off the head of Eurystheus, Alcmene satisfied her revenge
by picking the eyes out of the head (Apollod. ii. 8.1).
The accounts of her death are very discrepant. According to Pausanias
(i. 41.1), she died in Megaris,
on her way from Argos to Thebes,
and as the sons of Heracles disagreed as to whether she was to be carried to Argos
or to Thebes, she was buried
in the place where she had died at the command of an oracle. According to Plutarch
(De Gen. Socr. p. 578), her tomb and that of Rhadamanthys were at Haliartus
in Boeotia, and hers was
opened by Agesilaus, for the purpose of carrying her remains to Sparta.
According to Pherecydes (Cap. Anton. Lib. 33), she lived with her sons, after
the death of Eurystheus, at Thebes,
and died there at an advanced age. When the sons of Heracles wished to bury her,
Zeus sent Hermes to take her body away, and to carry it to the islands of the
blessed, and give her in marriage there to Rhadamanthys. Hermes accordingly took
her out of her coffin, and put into it a stone so heavy that the Heraclids could
not move it from the spot. When, on opening the coffin, they found the stone,
they erected it in a grove near Thebes,
which in later times contained the sanctuary of Alcmene (Paus. ix. 16.4). At Athens,
too, she was worshipped as a heroine, and an altar was erected to her in the temple
of Heracles (Cynosarges, Paus. i. 19.3). She was represented on the chest of Cypselus
(Paus. v. 1 8.1), and epic as swell as tragic poets made frequent use of her story,
though no poem of the kind is now extant (Hes. Scut. Herc. init.; Paus. v. 17.4,
18.1).
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited April 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Megara was the daughter of the king of Thebes Creon and was the wife of Heracles (Od. 11.268).
(see ancient Thebes )
Hercules married a second wife, Deianira, the daughter of king Oeneus of Calydon and Althaea (see more at ancient Calydon )
Deianeira, A daughter of Althaea by Oeneus, Dionysus, or Dexamenus (Apollod. i. 8.1; Hygin. Fab. 31, 33), and a sister of Meleager. When Meleager died, his sisters lamented his death at his grave; Artemis in her anger touched them with her staff, and changed them into birds, with the exception of Deianeira and Gorge, who were allowed, by the solicitation of Dionysus, to retain their human forms. (Antonin. Lib. 2.) Subsequently Achelous and Heracles, who both loved Deianeira, fought for the possession of her. She became the wife of Heracles, and afterwards unwittingly caused his death, whereupon she hung herself. (Apollod. ii. 7.5, 6.7; Diod. iv. 34)
After Heracles died and ascended to the Mount Olympus, he married to Hebe, who was the daughter of Zeus by Here and was worshipped as the goddess of eternal youth (Od. 11.603). Hebe, before the abduction of Ganymedes, was also the cup-bearer and handmaiden of the gods (Il. 4.2, 5.722, 905).
Hebe. Daughter of Zeus and Here, and goddess of eternal youth. She was represented as the handmaiden of the gods, for whom she pours out their nectar, and the consort of Heracles after his apotheosis. She was worshipped with Heracles in Sicyon and Phlius, especially under the name Ganymede or Dia. She was represented as freeing men from chains and bonds, and her rites were celebrated with unrestrained merriment. The Romans identified Hebe with Iuventas, the personification of youthful manhood. As representing the eternal youth of the Roman State, Iuventas had a chapel on the Capitol in the front court of the Temple of Minerva, and in later times a temple of her own in the city. It was to Iupiter and Iuventas that boys offered prayer on the Capitol when they put on the toga virilis, putting a piece of money into their treasury.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited April 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Hebe, the personification of youth, is described as a daughter of Zeus and Hera
(Apollod. i. 3.1), and is, according to the Iliad (iv. 2), the minister of the
gods, who fills their cups with nectar; she assists Hera in putting the horses
to her chariot (v. 722); and she bathes and dresses her brother Ares (v. 905).
According to the Odyssey (xi. 603; comp. Hes. Theog. 950), she was married to
Heracles after his apotheosis. Later traditions, however, describe her as having
become by Heracles the mother of two sons, Alexiares and Anticetus (Apollod. ii.
7.7), and as a divinity who had it in her power to make persons of an advanced
age young again (Ov. Met. ix. 400, &c.). She was worshipped at Athens, where she
had an altar in the Cynosarges, near one of Heracles (Paus. i. 19.3). Under the
name of the female Ganymedes (Ganymeda) or Dia, she was worshipped in a sacred
grove at Sicyon and Phlius. (Paus. ii. 13.3; Strab. viii.)
At Rome the goddess was worshipped under the corresponding name of
Juventas, and that at a very early time, for her chapel on the Capitol existed
before the temple of Jupiter was built there; and she, as well as Terminus, is
said to have opposed the consecration of the temple of Jupiter (Liv. v. 54). Another
temple of Juventas, in the Circus Maximus, was vowed by the consul M. Livius,
after the defeat of Hasdrubal, in B. C. 207, and was consecrated 16 years afterwards
(Liv. xxxvi. 36 ; comp. xxi. 62; Dionys. iv. 15, where a temple of Juventas is
mentioned as early as the reign of Servius Tullius; August. de Civ. Dei, iv. 23;
Plin. H. N. xxix. 4, 14, xxxv. 36, 22).
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Dec 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Editor’s Information:
About Heracles, Euripides wrote the homonymous tragedy, of which the e-text(s) is (are) found in Greece (ancient country) under the category Ancient Greek Writings.
Editor’s Information:
The story of Deianira and Hercules became the subject of one of Sophocles' tragic plays, Trachiniae (The Women of Trachis), of which the e-text(s) is (are) found in Greece (ancient country) under the category Ancient Greek Writings.
IREON (Ancient sanctuary) ARGOS - MYKINES
Hera (Here), probably identical with kera, mistress, just as her husband, Zeus,
was called errhos in the Aeolian dialect (Hesych.). The derivation of the name
has been attempted in a variety of ways, from Greek as well as oriental roots,
though there is no reason for having recourse to the latter, as Hera is a purely
Greek divinity, and one of the few who, according to Herodotus (ii. 50), were
not introduced into Greece from Egypt.
Hera was, according to some accounts, the eldest daughter of Cronos and Rhea,
and a sister of Zeus (Hom. Il. xvi. 432; comp. iv. 58; Ov. Fast. vi. 29). Apollodorus
(i. 1,5), however, calls Hestia the eldest daughter of Cronos; and Lactantius
(i. 14) calls her a twin-sister of Zeus. According to the Homeric poems (Il. xiv.
201), she was brought up by Oceanus and Thetys, as Zeus had usurped the throne
of Cronos; and afterwards she became the wife of Zeus, without the knowledge of
her parents. This simple account is variously modified in other traditions. Being
a daughter of Cronos, she, like his other children, was swallowed by her father,
but afterwards released (Apollod.), and, according to an Arcadian
tradition, she was brought up by Temenus, the son of Pelasgus (Paus. viii. 22.2;
August. de Civ. Dei, vi. 10). The Argives,
on the other hand, related that she had been brought up by Euboea, Prosymna,
and Acraea, the three daughters of the river Asterion (Paus. ii. 7.1; Plut. Sympos.
iii. 9); and according to Olen, the Horae were her nurses (Paus. ii. 13.3). Several
parts of Greece also claimed the honour of being her birthplace; among them are
two, Argos and Samos,
which were the principal seats of her worship (Strab.; Paus. vii. 4.7; Apollon.
Rhod. i. 187). Her marriage with Zeus also offered ample scope for poetical invention
(Theocrit. xvii. 131), and several places in Greece claimed the honour of having
been the scene of the marriage, such as Euboea
(Steph. Byz. s. v. Karustos), Samos
(Lactant. de Fals. Relig. i. 17), Cnossus
in Crete (Diod. v. 72), and
Mount Thornax, in the south of Argolis
(Schol. ad Theocrit. xv. 64; Paus. ii. 17.4, 36.2). This marriage acts a prominent
part in the worship of Hera under the name of hieros gamos; on that occasion all
the gods honoured the bride with presents, and Ge presented to her a tree with
golden apples, which was watched by the Hesperides in the garden of Hera, at the
foot of the Hyperborean Atlas (Apollod. ii. 5.11; Serv. ad Aen. iv. 484). The
Homeric poems know nothing of all this, and we only hear, that after the marriage
with Zeus, she was treated by the Olympian gods with the same reverence as her
husband (Il. xv. 85; comp. i. 532, iv. 60). Zeus himself, according to Homer,
listened to her counsels, and communicated his secrets to her rather than to other
gods (xvi. 458, i. 547). Hera also thinks herself justified in censuring Zeus
when he consults others without her knowing it (i. 540); but she is, notwithstanding,
far inferior to him in power; she must obey him unconditionally, and, like the
other gods, she is chastised by him when she has offended him (iv. 56, viii. 427,
463). Hera therefore is not, like Zeus, the queen of gods and men, but simply
the wife of the supreme god. The idea of her being the queen of heaven, with regal
wealth and power, is of a much later date (Hygin. Fab. 92; Ov. Fast. vi. 27, Heroid.
xvi. 81; Eustath. ad Hom.). There is only one point in which the Homeric poems
represent Hera as possessed of similar power with Zeus, viz. she is able to confer
the power of prophecy (xix. 407). But this idea is not further developed in later
times (Comp. Strab.; Apollon. Rhod. iii. 931). Her character, as described by
Homer, is not of a very amiable kind, and its main features are jealousy, obstinacy,
and a quarrelling disposition, which sometimes makes her own husband tremble (i.
522, 536, 561, v. 892). Hence there arise frequent disputes between Hera and Zeus;
and on one occasion Hera, in conjunction with Poseidon and Athena, contemplated
putting Zeus into chains (viii. 408, i. 399). Zeus, in such cases, not only threatens,
but beats her; and once he even hung her up in the clouds, her hands chained,
and with two anvils suspended from her feet (viii. 400, 477, xv. 17; Eustath.
ad Hom.). Hence she is frightened by his threats, and gives way when he is angry;
and when she is unable to gain her ends in any other way, she has recourse to
cunning and intrigues (xix. 97). Thus she borrowed from Aphrodite the girdle,
the giver of charm and fascination, to excite the love of Zeus (xiv. 215). By
Zeus she was the mother of Ares, Hebe, and Hephaestus (v. 896, Od. xi. 604, Il.
i. 585; Hes. Theog. 921; Apollod. i. 3.1). Respecting the different traditions
about the descent of these three divinities see the separate articles.
Properly speaking, Hera was the only really married goddess among
the Olympians, for the marriage of Aphrodite with Ares can scarcely be taken into
consideration; and hence she is the goddess of marriage and of the birth of children.
Several epithets and surnames, such as Eigeithuia, Gamelia, Zulia, Teleia, contain
allusions to this character of the goddess, and the Eileithyiae are described
as her daughters (Hom. Il. xi. 271, xix. 118). Her attire is described in the
Iliad (xiv. 170); she rode in a chariot drawn by two horses, in the harnessing
and unharnessing of which she was assisted by Hebe and the Horase (iv. 27, v.
720, viii. 382, 433). Her favourite places on earth were Argos,
Sparta, and Mycenae
(iv. 51). Owing to the judgment of Paris, she was hostile towards the Trojans,
and in the Trojan war she accordingly sided with the Greeks (ii. 15, iv. 21, xxiv.
519). Hence she prevailed on Helius to sink down into the waves of Oceanus on
the day on which Patroclus fell (xviii. 239). In the Iliad she appears as an enemy
of Heracles, but is wounded by his arrows (v. 392, xviii. 118), and in the Odyssey
she is described as the supporter of Jason. It is impossible here to enumerate
all the events of mythical story in which Hera acts a more or less prominent part;
and the reader must refer to the particular deities or heroes with whose story
she is connected.
Hera had sanctuaries, and was worshipped in many parts of Greece,
often in common with Zeus. Her worship there may be traced to the very earliest
times: thus we find Hera, surnamed Pelasgis, worshipped at Iolcos.
But the principal place of her worship was Argos,
hence called the doma Heras (Pind. Nem. x. imt.; comp. Aeschyl. Suppl. 297). According
to tradition, Hera had disputed the possession of Argos
with Poseidon, but the river-gods of the country adjudicated it to her (Paus.
ii. 15.5) Her most celebrated sanctuary was situated between Argos
and Mycenae, at the foot
of Mount Euboea. The vestibule of the temple contained ancient statues of the
Charites, the bed of Hera, and a shield which Menelaus had taken at Troy
from Euphorbus. The sitting colossal statue of Hera in this temple, made of gold
and ivory, was the work of Polycletus. She wore a crown on her head, adorned with
the Charites and Horae; in the one hand she held a pomegranate, and in the other
a sceptre headed with a cuckoo. (Paus. ii. 17, 22; Strab.; Stat. Theb. i. 383).
Respecting the great quinqnennial festival celebrated to her at Argos,
see Diet. of Ant. s. v. Eraia. Her worship was very ancient also at Corinth
(Paus. ii. 24, 1; Apollod. i. 9.28), Sparta
(iii. 13.6, 15.7), in Samos
(Herod. iii. 60; Paus. vii. 4.4; Strab.), at Sicyon
(Paus. ii. 11.2), Olympia
(v. 15.7), Epidaurus (Thucyd.
v. 75; Paus. ii. 29.1), Heraea
in Arcadia (Paus. viii. 26.2),
and many other places.
Respecting the real significance of Hera, the ancients themselves
offer several interpretations: some regarded her as the personification of the
atmosphere (Serv. ad Aen. i. 51), others as the queen of heaven or the goddess
of the stars (Eurip. Helen. 1097), or as the goddess of the moon (Plut. Quaest.
Rom. 74), and she is even confounded with Ceres, Diana, and Proserpina (Serv.
ad Virg. Georg. i. 5). According to modern views, Hera is the great goddess of
nature, who was every where worshipped from the earliest times. The Romans identified
their goddess Juno with the Greek Hera We still possess several representations
of Hera. The noblest image, and which was afterwards looked upon as the ideal
of the goddess, was the statue by Polycletus. She was usually represented as a
majestic woman at a mature age, with a beautiful forehead, large and widely opened
eyes, and with a grave expression commanding reverence. Her hair was adorned with
a crown or a diadem. A veil frequently hangs down the back of her head, to characterise
her as the bride of Zeus, and, in fact, the diadem, veil, sceptre, and peacock
are her ordinary attributes. A number of statues and heads of Hera still exist.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited April 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Hera (Ionic, Here, and in Attic, Hera: the name is often connected
with the Latin hera; but on this,). In Greek mythology, the queen of heaven, eldest
daughter of Cronus and Rhea, sister and lawful consort of Zeus. According to Homer,
she was brought up in her youth by Oceanus and Tethys. But every place in which
her worship was localized asserted that she was born there, and brought up by
the Nymphs of the district. She is said to have long lived in secret intimacy
with Zeus before he publicly acknowledged her as his lawful consort. Her worshippers
celebrated her marriage (hieros gamos) in the spring time. In the oldest version
of the story it took place in the Islands of the Blessed, on the shore of the
Ocean stream, where the golden apple-tree of the Hesperides sprang up to celebrate
it. But this honour, too, was claimed by every place where Here was worshipped.
According to one local story, Zeus obtained the love of Here by stealth, in the
form of a cuckoo.
Here seems originally to have symbolized the feminine aspects
of the natural forces of which Zeus is the masculine representative. Hence she
is at once his wife and his sister, shares his power and his honours, and, like
him, has authority over the phenomena of the atmosphere. It is she who sends clouds
and storms, and is mistress of the thunder and lightning. Her handmaids are the
Horae or goddesses of the season, and Iris, the goddess of the rainbow. Like Zeus,
men worship her on mountains, and pray to her for rain. The union of sun and rain,
which wakes the earth to renewed fertility, is symbolized as the loving union
of Zeus and Here. In the same way a conflict of the winds is represented as the
consequence of a matrimonial quarrel, usually attributed to the jealousy of Here,
who was regarded as the stern protectress of honourable marriage. Hence arose
stories of Zeus illtreating his wife. It was said that he scourged her, and hurled
Hephaestus from heaven to earth when hurrying to his mother's assistance; that
in anger for her persecution of his son Heracles, he hung her out in the air with
golden chains to her arms and an anvil on each foot. There were also old legends
which spoke of Here allying herself with Athene and Poseidon to bind Zeus in chains.
Zeus was only rescued by the giant Aegaeon, whom Thetis called to his assistance.
The birth of Athene was said to have enraged Here to such a pitch that she became
the mother of Typhon by the dark powers of the infernal regions. In fact, this
constant resistance to the will of Zeus, and her jealousy and hatred of her consort's
paramours and their children, especially Heracles, become in the poets a standing
trait in her character.
In spite of all this, Homer represents her as the most majestic
of all the goddesses. The other Olympians pay her royal honours, and Zeus treats
her with all respect and confides all his designs to her, though not always yielding
to her demands. She is the spotless and uncorruptible wife of the king of Heaven;
the mother of Hephaestus, Ares, Hebe, and Ilithyia, and indeed may be called the
only lawful wife in the Olympian court. She is, accordingly, before all other
deities the goddess of marriage and the protectress of purity in married life.
She is represented as of exalted but severe beauty, and appears before Paris as
competing with Aphrodite and Athene for the prize of loveliness. In Homer she
is described as of lofty stature, large eyes (boopis), white arms (leukolenos),
and beautiful hair. On women she confers bloom and strength; she helps them, too,
in the dangerous hour of childbirth. Her daughters Hebe and Ilithyia personify
both these attributes.
In earlier times Here was not everywhere recognized as the
consort of Zeus; at the primitive oracle of Dodona, for instance, Dione occupies
this position. The Peloponnesus may be regarded as the earliest seat of her worship,
and in the Peloponnesus, during the Homeric period, Argos, Mycenae, and Sparta
are her favourite seats. Of these, according to the poet, she is the passionate
champion in the Trojan War. In later times the worship of Here was strongly localized
in Argos and Mycenae. At Argos she took the same commanding position as Athene
at Athens, and the year was dated by the names of her priestesses. Between these
cities, at the foot of Mount Euboea, was situated the Heraeum (Heraion), a temple
held in great honour. At Corinth she was the goddess of the acropolis. At Elis
a garment was offered her every five years by sixteen ladies chosen for the purpose,
and maidens held a race in her honour on the race-course at Olympia. Boeotia had
its feast of the Daedala; Samos its large and splendid temple, built by Polycrates.
The cuckoo was sacred to her as the messenger of spring, the season in which she
was wedded to Zeus; so were the peacock and the crow, and among fruits the pomegranate,
the symbol of wedded love and fruitfulness. Hecatombs were offered to her in sacrifice,
as to Zeus.
In works of art she is represented as seated on a throne in
a full robe, covering the whole figure. On her head is a sort of diadem, often
with a veil; the expression of the face is severe and majestic, the eyes large
and wide open, as in the Homeric description. The ideal type of Here was found
in the statue by Polyclitus in the temple at Argos. This was a colossal image,
in gold and ivory, representing the goddess on her throne, her crown adorned with
figures of the Graces and the Seasons, a pomegranate in one hand, and in the other
a sceptre with the cuckoo on the top. The Farnese Here at Naples, and the Ludovisi
Iuno in Rome, are copies of this work. The Romans identified Here with their own
Iuno.
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To Hera, Homeric Hymns (ed. Hugh G. Evelyn-White)
ARGOS (Ancient city) ARGOLIS
A comrade of Sthenelus (Il. 5.325).
MYCENAE (Mycenean palace) ARGOLIS
The son of Copreus from Mycenae, was slain by Hector (Il. 15.638).
He was a charioteer of Agamemnon and son of Ptolemaeus, son of Peiraeus (Il. 4.228).
Eurymedon. A son of Ptolemaeus, and charioteer of Agamemnon; his tomb was shewn at Mycenae. (Hom. Il. iv. 228; Paus. ii. 16. § 5.) There are two more mythical personages of this name. (Hom. Od. vii. 58; Apollod. iii. 1. § 2.) Eurymedon signifies a being ruling far and wide, and occurs as a surname of several divinities, such as Poseidon (Pind. Ol. viii. 31), Perseus (Apollon. Rhod. iv. 1514), and Hermes. (Hesvch. s. v.)
ARGOS (Ancient city) ARGOLIS
The leader of Argives with 80 ships in the Trojan war, one of the Epigoni, son of Tydeus, husband of Aegialeia, the daughter of Adrastus (Il. 23.470, 5.412, 2.567).
Diomedes. A son of Tydeus and Deipyle, the husband of Aegialeia, and the successor
of Adrastus in the kingdom of Argos, though he was descended from an Aetolian
family (Apollod. i. 8.5). The Homeric tradition about him is as follows: His father
Tydeus fell in the expedition against Thebes,
while Diomedes was yet a boy (II. vi. 222); but he himself afterwards was one
of the Epigoni who took Thebes
(II. iv. 405; comp. Paus. ii. 20.4). Diomedes went to Troy
with Sthenelus and Euryalus, carrying with him in eighty ships warriors from Argos,
Tiryns, Hermione,
Asine, Troezene,
Eionae, Epidaurus, Aegina,
and Mases (ii. 559). In the
army of the Greeks before Troy,
Diomedes was, next to Achilles, the bravest among the heroes; and, like Achilles
and Odysseus, he enjoyed the special protection of Athena, who assisted him in
all dangerous moments (v. 826, vi. 98, x. 240, xi. 312; comp. Virg. Aen. i. 96).
He fought with the most distinguished among the Trojans, such as Hector and Aeneias
(viii. 110, v. 310), and even with the gods who espoused the cause of the Trojans.
He thus wounded Aphrodite, and drove her from the field of battle (v. 335, 440),
and Ares himself was likewise wounded by him (v. 837). Diomedes was wounded by
Pandareus, whom, however, he afterwards slew with many other Trojans (v. 97).
In the attack of the Trojans on the Greek camp. he and Odysseus offered a brave
resistance, but Diomedes was wounded and returned to tile ships (xi. 320). He
wore a cuirass made by Hephaestus, but sometimes also a lion's skin (viii. 195,
x. 177). At the funeral games of Patroclus he conquered in the chariot-race, and
received a woman and a tripod as his prize (xxiii. 373). He also conquered the
Telamonian Ajax in single combat, and won the sword which Achilles had offered
as the prize (xxiii. 811). He is described in the Iliad in general as brave in
war and wise in council (ix. 53), in battle furious like a mountain torrent, and
the terror of the Trojans, whom he chases before him, as a lion chases goats (v.
87, xi. 382). He is strong like a god (v. 884), and the Trojan women during their
sacrifice to Athena pray to her to break his spear and to make him fall (vi. 306).
He himself knows no fear, and refuses his consent when Agamemnon proposes to take
to flight, and he declares that, if all flee, he and his friend Sthenelus will
stay and fight till Troy
shall fill (ix. 32, comp. vii. 398, viii. 151: Philostr. Her. 4).
The story of Diomedes, like those of other heroes of the Trojan time,
has received various additions and embellishments from the hands of later writers,
of which we shall notice the principal ones. After the expedition of the Epigoni
he is mentioned among the suitors of Helen (Hygin. Fab. 81; Apollod. iii. 10.8),
and his love of Helen induced him to join the Greeks in their expedition against
Troy with 30 ships (Hygin.
Fab. 97). Being a relative of Thersites, who was slain by Achilles, he did not
permit the body of the Amazon Penthesileia to be honourably buried, but dragged
her by the feet into the river Scamander (Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 993 ; Dict. Cret.
iv. 3). Philoctetes was persuaded by Diomedes and Odysseus to join the Greeks
against Troy (Soph. Philoct.
570; Hygin. Fab. 102). Diomedes conspired with Odysseus against Palamedes, and
under the pretence of having discovered a hidden treasure, they let him down into
a well and there stoned him to death (Dict. Cret. ii. 15; comp. Paus. x. 31.1).
After the death of Paris, Diomedes and Odysseus were sent into the city of Troy
to negotiate for peace (Dict. Cret. v. 4), but he was afterwards one of the Greeks
concealed in the wooden horse (Hygin. Fab. 108). When he and Odysseus had arrived
in the arx of Troy by a subterraneous
passage, they slew the guards and carried away the palladium (Virg. Aen. ii. 163),
as it was believed that Ilium could not be taken so long as the palladium was
within its walls. When, during the night, the two heroes were returning to the
camp with their precious booty, and Odysseus was walking behind him, Diomedes
saw by the shadow of his companion that he was drawing his sword in order to kill
him, and thus to secure to himself alone the honour of having taken the palladium.
Diomedes, however, turned round, seized the sword of Odysseus, tied his hands,
and thus drove him along before him to the camp (Eustath. ad Hom. p. 822). Diomedes,
according to some, carried the palladium with him to Argos, where it remained
until Ergiaeus, one of his descendants, took it away with the assistance of the
Laconian Leagrus, who conveyed it to Sparta
(Plut. Quaest. Graec. 48). According to others, Diomedes was robbed of the palladium
by Demophon in Attica, where
he landed one night on his return from Troy,
without knowing where he was (Paus. ii. 28.9). A third tradition stated, that
Diomedes restored the palladium and the remains of Anchises to Aeneias, because
he was informed by an oracle, that he should be exposed to unceasing sufferings
unless lie restored the sacred image to the Trojans (Serv. ad Aen. ii. 166, iii.
407, iv, 427, v. 81).
On his return from Troy,
he had like other heroes to suffer much from the enmity of Aphrodite, but Athena
still continued to protect him. He was first thrown by a storm on the coast of
Lycia, where lie was to be
sacrificed to Ares by king Lycus; but Callirrhoe, the king's daughter, took pity
upon him, and assisted him in escaping (Plut. Parall. Gr. et Rom. 23). On his
arrival in Argos lie met with an evil reception which had been prepared for him
either by Aphrodite or Nauplius, for his wife Aegialeia was living in adultery
with Hippolytus, or according to others, with Cometes or Cyllabarus (Dict. Cret.
vi. 2; Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 609; Serv. ad Aen. viii. 9). He therefore quitted Argos
either of his own accord, or he was expelled by the adulterers (Tzetz. ad Lyc.
602), and went to Aetolia.
His going to Aetolia and
the subsequent recovery of Argos are placed in some traditions immediately after
the war of the Epigoni, and Diomedes is said to have gone with Alcmaeon to assist
his grandfather Oeneus in Aetolia
against his enemies. During the absence of Diomedes, Agamemnon took possession
of Argos; but when the expedition against Troy
was resolved upon, Agamemnon from fear invited Diomedes and Alcmaeon back to Argos,
and asked them to take part in the projected expedition. Diomedes alone accepted
the proposal, and thus recovered Argos (Strab. vii, x; comp. Hygin. Fab. 175;
Apollod. i. 8.6; Paus. ii. 25.2). According to another set of traditions, Diomedes
did not go to Aetolia till
after his return from Troy,
when he was expelled from Argos, and it is said that he went first to Corinth;
but being informed there of the distress of Oeneus, he hastened to Aetolia
to assist him. Diomedes conquered and slew the enemies of his grandfather, and
then took up his residence in Aetolia
(Dict. Cret. vi. 2). Other writers make him attempt to return to Argos, but on
his way home a storm threw him on the coast of Daunia in Italy. Daunus, the king
of the country, received him kindly, and solicited his assistance in a war against
the Messapians. He promised in return to give him a tract of land and the hand
of his daughter Euippe. Diomedes defeated the Messapians, and distributed their
territory among the Dorians who had accompanied him In Italy. Diomedes gave up
his hostility against the Trojans, and even assisted them against Turnus (Paus.
i. 11; Serv. ad Aen. viii. 9). He died in Daunia at an advanced age, and was buried
in one of the islands off cape Garganus, which were called after him the Diomedean
islands. Subsequently, when Daunus too had died, the Dorians were conquered by
the Illyrians, but were metamorphosed by Zeus into birds (Anton. Lib. 37; comp.
Tzetz. ad Lyc. 602, 618). According to Tzetzes, Diomedes was murdered by Daunus,
whereas according to others he returned to Argos, or disappeared in one of the
Diomedean islands, or in the country of the Heneti (Strab. vi. p. 284). A number
of towns in the eastern part of Italy, such as Beneventum, Aequumtuticum, Argos
Hippion (afterwards Argyripa or Arpi), Venusia
or Aphrodisia, Canusium,
Venafrum, Salapia, Spina,
Sipus, Garganum, and Brundusium,
were believed to have been founded by Diomedes (Serv. ad Aen viii. 9, xi. 246;
Strab. vi. pp. 283, 284; Plin-H. N. iii. 20; Justin, xii. 2). The worship and
service of gods and heroes was spread by Diomedes far and wide: in and near Argos
he caused temples of Athena to be built (Plut. de Flum. 18; Paus. ii. 24.2); his
armour was preserved in a temple of Athena at Luceria
in Apulia, and a gold chain
of his was shown in a temple of Artemis in Peucetia. At Troezene
he had founded a temple of Apollo Epibaterius, and instituted the Pythian games
there. He himself was subsequently worshipped as a divine being, especially in
Italy, where statues of him existed at Argyripa,
Metapontum, Thurii,
and other places (Schol. ad Pind. Nem. x. 12 ; Scylax, Peripl. p. 6; comp. Strab.
v. p. 214).
There are traces in Greece also of the worship of Diomedes, for it
is said that he was placed among the gods together with the Dioscuri, and that
Athena conferred upon him the immortality which had been intended for his father
Tydeus. It has been conjectured that Diomedes is an ancient Pelasgian name of
some divinity, who was afterwards confounded with the hero Diomedes, so that the
worship of the god was transferred to the hero (Bockh, Explicat. ad Pind. Nem.
x.). Diomedes was represented in a painting on the acropolis
of Athens in the act of carrying
away the Palladium from Troy (Paus. i. 22.6), and Polygnotus had painted him in
the Lesche at Delphi (x.
25.2, 10.2).
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Aegiale or Aegialeia (Aigiale or Aigialeia), a daughter of Adrastus and Amphithea, or of Aegialeus the son of Adrastus, whence she bears the surname of Adrastine (Hom.Il. v. 412; Apollod. i. 8.6, 9.13). She was married to Diomedes, who, on his return from Troy, found her living in adultery with Cometes (Eustath, ad Il. v). The hero attributed this misfortune to the anger of Aphrodite, whom he had wounded in the war against Troy, but when Aegiale went so far as to threaten his life he fled to Italy (Schol. ad Lycophr. 610; Ov. Met. xiv. 476). According to Dictys Cretensis (vi. 2), Aegiale, like Clytemnestra, had been seduced to her criminal conduct by a treacherous report, that Diomedes was returning with a Trojan woman who lived with him as his wife, and on his arrival at Argos Aegiale expelled him. In Ovid (Ibis, 349) she is described as the type of a bad wife.
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He succeeded Iphius to the throne and became the 29th king of Argos (1193 B.C.).
He was the son of Capaneus by Evande and shared the kingdom of Argos with Adrastus and Oicles. (Il. 2.564, 4.367, 9.48, 23.511)
Sthenelus. A son of Capaneus and Evadue, belonged to the family of the Anaxagoridae in Argos. and was the father of Cylarabes (Hom Il. v. 109; Paus. ii. 18.4, 22. 8, 30); but, according to others, his son's name was Comeres (Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 603, 1093 ; Serv. ad Aen. xi. 269). He was one of the Epigoni, by whom Thebes was taken (Hom. Il. iv. 405; Apollod. iii. 7.2), and commanded the Argives under Diomedes, in the Trojan war, being the faithful friend and companion of Diomedes (Hom. Il. ii. 564, iv. 367, xxiii. 511; Philostr. Her. 4 ; Hygin. Fab. 175). He was one of the Greeks concealed in the wooden horse (Hygin. Fab. 108), and at the distribution of the booty, lie was said to have received an image of a three-eyed Zeus, which was in aftertimes shown at Argos (Paus. ii. 45.5, viii. 46.2). His own statue and tomb also were believed to exist at Argos (ii. 20.4, 22. in fin.; comp. Horat. Carm. i. 15. 23, iv. 9. 20; Stat. Achill. i. 469).
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He was the son of Mecisteus, son of Talaus (Hom. Il. 2.565, 6.20, 23.680).
Euryalus (Eurualos). A son of Mecisteus, is mentioned by Apollodorus (i. 9.16) among the Argonauts, and was one of the Epigoni who took and destroyed Thebes (Paus. ii. 20.4; Apollod. iii. 7.2). He was a brave warrior, and at the funeral games of Oedipus he conquered all his competitors (Hom. Il. xxiii. 608) with the exception of Epeius, who excelled him in wrestling. He accompanied Diomedes to Troy, where he was one of the bravest heroes, and slew several Trojans (Il. ii. 565, vi. 20; Pans. ii. 30.9). In the painting of Polygnotus at Delphi, he was represented as being wounded; and there was also a statue of him at Delphi, which stood between those of Diomedes and Aegialeus (Paus. x. 10.2, 25.2).
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MYCENAE (Mycenean palace) ARGOLIS
Agamemnon was the king of Mycenae, son of Atreus, leader of the Myceneans in the Trojan War and brother of Menelaus.
His wife was Clytaemnestra, daughter of Tyndareus by Leda and sister of Helen (Il. 1.113, Od. 3.264). During his absence, she deceived him with Aegisthus, who became her husband and organized with her aid the murder of Agamemnon. Orestes took revenge of his death by killing his mother and Aegisthus (Od. 1.300, 11.409 etc., 24.198).
Agamemnon. A son of Pleisthenes and grandson of Atreus, king of Mycenae, in whose
house Agamemnon and Menelaus were educated after the death of their father. (Apollod.
iii. 2.2; Schol. ad Eurip. Or. 5; Schol. ad Iliad. ii. 249.) Homer and several
other writers call him a son of Atreus, grandson of Pelops, and great-grandson
of Tantalus. (Hom. Il. xi. 131; Eurip. Helen. 396; Tzetz. ad Lycophr. 147; Hygin.
Fab. 97.) His mother was, according to most accounts, Aerope; but some call Eriphyle
the wife of Pleisthenes and the mother of Agamemnon. Besides his brother Menelaus,
he had a sister, who is called Anaxibia, Cyndragora, or Astyocheia. (Schol. Eurip.
Or. 5; Hygin. Fab. 17.) Agamemnon and Memelaus were brought up together with Aegisthus,
the son of Thyestes, in the house of Atreus. When they had grown to manhood, Atreus
sent Agamemnon and Menelaus to seek Thyestes. They found him at Delphi, and carried
him to Atreus, who threw him into a dungeon. Aegisthus was afterwards commanded
to kill him but, recognising his father in him, he abstained from the cruel deed,
slew Atreus, and after having expelled Agamemnon and Menelaus, he and his father
occupied the kingdom of Mycenae. The two brothers wandered about for a time, and
at last came to Sparta, where Agamemnon married Clytemnestra, the daughter of
Tyndareus, by whom he became the father of Iphianassa (Iphigeneia), Chrysothemis,
Laodice (Electra), and Orestes. (Hom. Il. ix. 145, with th e note of Eustath.;
Lucret. i. 86.)
The manner in which Agamemnon came to the kingdom of Mycenae is differently
related. From Homer (Il. ii. 10; comp. Paus. ix. 40.6), it appears as if he had
peaceably succeeded Thyestes, while, according to others (Aeschyl. Agam. 1605),
he expelled Thyestes, and usurped his throne. After he had become king of Mycenae,
he rendered Sicyon and its king subject to himself (Paus. ii. 6.4), and became
the most powerful prince in Greece. A catalogue of his dominions is given in the
Iliad. (ii. 569; comp. Strab. viii; Thucyd. i. 9.) When Homer (Il. ii. 108) attributes
to Agamemnon the sovereignty over all Argos, the name Argos here signifies Peloponnessus,
or the greater part of it, for the city of Argos was governed by Diomedes. (Il.
ii. 559) Strabo (l. c.) has also shewn that the name Argos is sometimes used by
the tragic poets as synonymous with Mycenae.
When Helen, the wife of Menelaus, was carried off by Paris, the son
of Priam, Agamemnon and Menelaus called upon all the Greek chiefs for assistance
against Troy. (Odyss. xxiv. 115.) The chiefs met at Argos in the palace of Diomedes,
where Agamemnon was chosen their chief commander, either in consequence of his
superior power (Eustath, ad Il. ii. 108; Thucyd. i. 9), or because he had gained
the favour of the assembled chiefs by giving them rich presents. (Dictys, Cret.
i. 15, 16.) After two years of preparation, the Greek army and fleet assembled
in the port of Aulis in Boeotia. Agamemnon had previously consulted the oracle
about the issue of the enterprise, and the answer given was, that Troy should
fall at the time when the most distinguished among the Greeks should quarrel.
(Od. viii. 80.) A similar prophecy was derived from a marvellous occurrence which
happened while the Greeks were assembled at Aulis. Once when a sacrifice was offered
under the boughs of a tree, a dragon crawled forth from under it, and devoured
a nest on the tree containing eight young birds and their mother. Calchas interpreted
the sign to indicate that the Greeks would have to fight against Troy for nine
years, but that in the tenth the city would fall. (Il. ii. 303) An account of
a different miracle portending the same thing is given by Aeschylus. (Ayam. 110)
Another interesting incident happened while the Greeks were assembled
at Aulis. Agamemnon, it is said, killed a stag which was sacred to Artemis, and
in addition provoked tle anger of the goddess by irreverent words. She in return
visited the Greek army with a pestilence, and produced a perfect calm, so that
the Greeks were unable to leave the port. When the seers declared that the anger
of the goddess could not be soothed unless Iphigeneia, the daughter of Agamemnon,
were offered to her as an atoning sacrifice, Diomedes and Odysseus were sent to
fetch her to the camp under the pretext that she was to be married to Achilles.
She came; but at the moment when she was to be sacrificed, she was carried off
by Artemis herself (according to others by Achilles) to Tauris, and another victim
was substituted in her place. (Hygin. Fab. 98; Eurip. Iphig. Aul. 90, Iphig. Taur.
15; Sophocl. Elect. 565; Pind. Pyth. xi. 35; Ov. Met. xii. 31; Dict. Cret. i.
19; Schol. ad Lycophr. 183; Antonin. Lib. 27.) After this the calm ceased, and
the army sailed to the coast of Troy. Agamemnon alone had one hundred ships, independent
of sixty which he had lent to the Arcadians. (Il. ii. 576, 612.)
In the tenth year of the siege of Troy -for it is in this year that
the Iliad opens- we find Agamemnon involved in a quarrel with Achilles respecting
the possession of Briseis, whom Achilles was obliged to give up to Agamemnon.
Achilles withdrew from the field of battle, and the Greeks were visited by successive
disasters. Zeus sent a dream to Agamemnon to persuade him to lead the Greeks to
battle against the Trojans. (Il. ii. 8) The king, in order to try the Greeks,
commanded them to return home, with which they readily complied, until their courage
was revived by Odysseus, who persuaded them to prepare for battle. (Il. ii. 55)
After a single combat between Paris and Menelaus, a battle followed, in which
Agamemnon killed several of the Trojans. When Hector challenged the bravest of
the Greeks, Agamemnon offered to fight with him, but in his stead Ajax was chosen
by lot. Soon after this another battle took place, in which the Greeks were worsted
(Il. viii.), and Agamemnon in despondence advised the Greeks to take to flight
and return home. (Il. ix. 10.) But he was opposed by the other heroes. An attempt
to conciliate Achilles failed, and Agamemnon assembled the chiefs in the night
to deliberate about the measures to be adopted. (Il. x. 1) Odysseus and Diomedes
were then sent out as spies, and on the day following the contest with the Trojans
was renewed. Agamemnon himself was again one of the bravest, and slew many enemies
with his own hand. At last, however, he was wounded by Coon and obliged to withdraw
to his tent. (Il. xi. 250) Hector now advanced victoriously, and Agamemnon again
advised the Greeks to save themselves by flight. (Il. xiv. 75) But Odysseus and
Diomedes again resisted him, and the latter prevailed upon him to return to the
battle which was going on near the ships. Poseidon also appeared to Agamemnon
in the figure of an aged man, and inspired him with new courage. (Il. xiv. 125)
The pressing danger of the Greeks at last induced Patroclus, the friend of Achilles,
to take an energetic part in the battle, and his fall roused Achilles to new activity,
and led to his reconciliation with Agamemnon. In the games at the funeral pyre
of Patroclus, Agamemnon gained the first prize in throwing the spear. (Il. xxiii.
890)
Agamemnon, although the chief commander of the Greeks, is not the
hero of the Iliad, and in chivalrous spirit, bravery, and character, altogether
inferior to Achilles. But he nevertheless rises above all the Greeks by his dignity,
power, and majesty (Il. iii. 166), and his eyes and head are likened to those
of Zeus, his girdle to that of Ares, and his breast to that of Poseidon. (Il.
ii. 477) Agamemnon is among the Greek heroes what Zeus is among the gods of Olympus.
This idea appears to have guided the Greek artists, for in several representations
of Agamemnon still extant there is a remarkable resemblance to the representations
of Zeus. The emblem of his power and majesty in Homer is a sceptre, the work of
iiephaestus, which Zeus had once given to Hermes, and Hermes to Pelops, from whom
it descended to Agamemnon. (Il. ii. 100; comp. Paus. ix. 40.6) His armour is described
in the Iliad. (xi. 19)
The remaining part of the story of Agamemnon is related in the Odyssey,
and by several later writers. At the taking of Troy he received Cassandra, the
daughter of Priam, as his prize (Od. xi. 421; Diet. Cret. v. 13), by whom, according
to a tradition in Pausanias (ii. 16.5), he had two sons, Teledamus and Pelops.
On his return home he was twice driven out of his course by storms, but at last
landed in Argolis, in the dominion of Aegisthus, who had seduced Clytemnestra
during the absence of her husband. He invited Agamemnon on his arrival to a repast,
and had him and his companions treacherously murdered during the feast (Od. iii.
263), and Clytemnestra on the same occasion murdered Cassandra. (Od. xi. 400-422,
xxiv. 96) Odysseus met the shade of Agamemnon in the lower world. (Od. xi. 387,
xxiv. 20.) Menelaus erected a monument in honour of his brother on tle river Aegyptus.
(Od. iv. 584.) Pausanias (ii. 16.5) states, that in his time a monument of Agamemnon
was still extant at Mycenae.
The tragic poets have variously modified the story of the murder of
Agamemnon. Aeschylus (Agam. 1492) makes Clytemnestra alone murder Agamemnon: she
threw a net over him while he was in the bath, and slew him with three strokes.
Her motive is partly her jealousy of Cassandra, and partly her adulterous life
with Aegisthus. According to Tzetzes (ad Lycophr. 1099), Aegisthus committed the
murder with the assistance of Clytemnestra. Euripides (Or. 26) mentions a garment
which Clytemnestra threw over him instead of a net, and both Sophocles (Elect.
530) and Euripides represent the sacrifice of Iphigeneia as the cause for which
she murdered him. After the death of Agamemnon and Cassandra, their two sons were
murdered upon their tomb by Aegisthus. (Paus. ii. 16.5) According to Pindar (Pyth.
xi. 48) the murder of Agamemnon took place at Amyclae, in Laconica, and Pausanias
(l. c.) states that the inhabitants of this place disputed with those of Mycenae
the possession of the tomb of Cassandra (Paus. iii. 19.5).
In later times statues of Agamemnon were erected in several parts
of Greece, and he was worshipped as a hero at Amyclae and Olympia. (Paus. iii.
19.5, v. 25 5) He was represented on the pedestal of the celebrated Rhamnusian
Nemesis (i. 33.7), and his fight with Coon on the chest of Cypselus. (v. 19.1)
He was painted in the Lesche of Delphi, by Polygnotus. (x. 25.2; compare Plin.
H. N. xxxv. 36.5; Quintil. ii. 13.13; Val. Max. viii. 11.6.) It should be remarked
that several Latin poets mention a bastard son of Agamemnon, of the name of Halesus,
to whom the foundation of the town of Falisci or Alesium is ascribed. (Ov. Fast.
iv. 73; Amor. iii. 13. 31; comp. Serv. ad Aen. vii. 695; Sil. Ital. viii. 476.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited June 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Agamemnon. The son of Atreus and brother of Menelaus. Driven from Mycenae after the murder of Atreus by Thyestes, the two young princes fled to Sparta, where King Tyndareos gave them his daughters in marriage-Clytaemnestra to Agamemnon, and Helen to Menelaus. While the latter inherited his father-in-law's kingdom, Agamemnon not only drove his uncle out of Mycenae, but so extended his dominions that in the war against Troy for the recovery of Helen the chief command was intrusted to him, as the mightiest prince in Greece. He contributed one hundred ships manned with warriors, besides lending sixty to the Arcadians.In Homer he is one of the bravest fighters before Troy; yet, by arrogantly refusing to let Chryses, priest of Apollo, ransom his daughter Chryseis, who had fallen to Agamemnon as the prize of war, be brought a plague on the Grecian host, which he afterwards almost ruined by ruthlessly carrying off Briseis, the prize of Achilles, who henceforth sulked in his tents and refused to fight. After the fall of Troy, Agamemnon came home with his captive, the princess Cassandra; but at supper he and his comrades were murdered by his wife's lover, Aegisthus, while the queen herself killed Cassandra. Such is Homer's account; the tragic poets make Clytaemnestra, in revenge for her daughter's immolation, throw a net over Agamemnon while bathing, and kill him with the help of Aegisthus. In Homer his children are Iphianassa, Chrysothemis, Laodice, and Orestes; the later legend puts Iphigenia and Electra in the place of Iphianassa and Laodice. Agamemnon was worshipped as a hero. His name is the title of a play by Aeschylus.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Editor’s Information:
The e-text(s) of "Agamemnon", the tragedy written by Aeschylus, is (are) found in Greece (ancient country) under the category Ancient Greek Writings .
Clytaemnestra (Klutaimnestra). A daughter of Tyndarus, king of Sparta, by Leda. She was born,
together with her brother Castor, from one of the eggs which her mother brought
forth after her amour with Zeus under the form of a swan. She married Agamemnon,
king of Mycenae, and when this monarch went to the Trojan War, he left his wife
and family, and all his affairs, to the care of his relation Aegisthus. But the
latter proved unfaithful to his trust, corrupted Clytaemnestra, and usurped the
throne. Agamemnon, on his return home, was murdered by his guilty wife, who was
herself afterwards slain, along with Aegisthus, by Orestes, son of the deceased
monarch. For a more detailed account, see the articles Agamemnon and Orestes.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical
Antiquities
Cited Sept. 2002 from Perseus Project
URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks.
ARGOS (Ancient city) ARGOLIS
Argos was the capital of Argolis and is listed in the Homeric Catalogue of Ships. It participated in the Trojan War under the leadership of Diomedes, son of Tydeus (Il. 4.52, 2.559).
MYCENAE (Mycenean palace) ARGOLIS
Homer places the city, which was the seat of Agamemnon, "in a nook of horse-pasturing Argos" (Od. 3.263). Mycene participated in the Trojan War and is listed in the Homeric Catalogue of Ships (Il. 2.569). The poet calls it "broad-wayed" (Il. 4.52), "rich in gold" (Il. 7.180, 11.46), "well-built citadel" (Il. 2.569) and one of the three dearest cities of Hera - the other two were Argos and Sparta (Il. 4.51).
Exercitus (stratos), army. The earliest notices which we possess of the military
art among the Greeks are those contained in the Homeric poems. The unsettled state
of society in the first ages of Greece led to the early and general cultivation
of the art of arms, which were habitually worn for defence, even when aggressive
warfare was not intended (Thuc. i. 6). But the Homeric poems contain an exhibition
of combined military operations in their earliest stage. Warlike undertakings
before the time described in them can have been little else than predatory inroads
(boelasiai, Il. xi. 672). A collection of warriors exhibiting less of organisation
and discipline than we see depicted in the Grecian troops before Troy, would hardly
deserve the name of an army. The organisation which we see there, such as it was,
arose, not from any studied, formative system, but naturally out of the imperfect
constitution of society in that age. Every freeman in those times was of course
a soldier; but when all the members of a family were not needed to go upon an
expedition under the command of their chieftain or king, those who were to go
seem to have been selected by lot (Il. xxiv. 400). As the confederated states,
which are represented as taking part in the Trojan war, are united by scarcely
any other bond than their participation in a common object, the different bodies
of troops, led by their respective chieftains, are far from being united by a
common discipline under the command-in-chief of Agamemnon. A common epithet for
allies is called from afar (telekleitoi, Il. v. 491, vi. 111). Each body obeys
its own leader, and follows him to the conflict, or remains inactive, according
as he chooses to mingle in the fight or not. Authority and obedience are regulated
much more by the nature of the circumstances, or by the relative personal distinction
of the chieftains, than by any law of military discipline. Gifts (dora) were given
to them at the end of service; and such may be considered as the beginning of
pay being given to soldiers (Il. xvii. 225). Agamemnon sometimes urges the chieftains
to engage, not by commands, but by taunts (Il. iv. 338 ff., 368 ff.). Accordingly,
nothing like the tactics or strategy of a regularly disciplined army is to be
traced in the Homeric descriptions of battles. Each chieftain with his body of
troops acts for himself, without reference to the movements of the rest, except
as these furnish occasion for a vigorous attack, or, when hard pressed, call for
assistance from the common feeling of brotherhood in arms. The wide interval which
in the Homeric age separated the noble or chieftain from the common freeman, appears
in as marked a manner in military as in civil affairs. The former is distinguished
by that superior skill and prowess in the use of his arms, which would naturally
result from the constant practice of warlike exercises, for which his station
gave him the leisure and the means. A single hero is able to put to flight a whole
troop of common soldiers. The account of a battle consists almost entirely of
descriptions of the single combats of the chiefs on both sides; and the fortune
of the day, when not overruled by the intervention of the gods, is decided by
the individual valour of these heroes. While the mass of the common soldiers were
on foot, the chiefs rode in chariots, which usually contained two, one to drive
(heniochos) and one to fight (paraibates). In these they advanced against the
antagonists whom they singled out for encounter, sometimes hurling their spears
from their chariots, but more commonly alighting, as they drew near, and fighting
on foot, making use of the chariot for pursuit or flight. The Greeks did not,
like the ancient Britons and several nations of the East, use the chariot itself
as an instrument of warfare. Cavalry was unknown at that time to the Greeks, and
horsemanship but very rarely practised; the hippees of Homer are the chieftains
who ride in chariots. These chiefs are drawn up in the front of the battle array
(Il. iv. 297, 505, promachoi, promachesthai); and frequently the foot-soldiers
seem to have done nothing but watch the single combats of their leaders, forming
in two opposite, parallel lines, between which the more important single combats
are fought. How they got the chariots out of the way when the foot-soldiers came
to close quarters (as in Il. iv. 427 ff.) is not described.
Though so little account is usually made of the common soldiers (prulees,
Il. xi. 49, xii. 77), Homer occasionally lays considerable stress on their orderly
and compact array; the Atreidae are honourably distinguished by the epithet kosmetore
laon (Il. i. 15). Nestor and Menestheus were also skilled in marshalling an army
(Il. ii. 553, iv. 293 ff.). The troops were naturally drawn up in separate bodies
according to their different nations. It would appear to be rather a restoration
of the old arrangement than a new classification, when Nestor (Il. ii. 362) recommends
Agamemnon to draw the troops up by tribes and phratries. Arranged in these natural
divisions, the foot-soldiers were drawn up in densely compacted bodies (pukinai
phalanges)--shield close to shield, helmet to helmet, man to man (Il. xiii. 130,
xvi. 212 ff.). In these masses, though not usually commencing the attack, they
frequently offer a powerful resistance, even to distinguished heroes (as Hector,
Il. xiii. 145 ff., comp. xvii. 267, 354 ff., xiii. 339), the dense array of their
spears forming a barrier not easily broken through. The signal for advance or
retreat was not given by instruments of any kind, but by the voice of the leader.
A loud voice was consequently an important matter, and the epithet boen agathos
is common. The soldiers advanced and engaged in battle with loud shouting (alaletos,
Il. iv. 436, xiv. 393). The trumpet, however, was not absolutely unknown (Il.
xviii. 219). Respecting the armour, offensive and defensive, (see Arma)
no engines for besieging are found. There were in the army, besides the hoplites,
light-armed troops, archers and slingers (Il. xiii. 767).
Under the king or chieftain who commands his separate contingent we
commonly find subordinate chiefs, who command smaller divisions. It is difficult
to say whether it is altogether accidental or not, that these are frequently five
in number. Thus the Myrmidons of Achilles are divided into five stiches, each
of 500 men. Five chiefs command the Boeotians; and the whole Trojan army is formed
in five divisions, each under three leaders. (Il. iv. 295 ff., xvi. 171-197, ii.
494, 495, xii. 87-104.) The term phalanx is applied either to the whole army (as
Il. vi. 6), or to these smaller divisions and subdivisions, which are also called
stiches and purgoi (Il. xi. 90, iv. 333).
When an enemy was slain, it was the universal practice to stop and
strip off his arms, which were carefully preserved by the victor as trophies.
The division of the booty generally was arranged by the leader of the troop, for
whom a portion was set aside as an honorary present (geras, Il. i. 118, 368, 392).
The recovery of the dead bodies of the slain was in the Homeric age, as in all
later times, a point of the greatest importance, and frequently either led to
a fierce contest (Il. xvi. 756 ff.), or was effected by the payment of a heavy
ransom (Il. xxiv. 502)...
GTP.gr remark: Above is a very small extract of a long and interesting text, covering
army, from the URL below.
Arma, Armatura (hopla, Hom. entea, teuchea), , armour. Homer describes in
various passages the entire suit of armour of some of his greatest warriors, viz.
of Achilles, Patroclus, Agamemnon, Menelaus, and Paris (11. iii. 328-339, iv.
132-138, xi. 15-45, xvi. 30-142, xix. 364-391); and we observe that it consisted
of the same portions which were used by the Greek soldiers ever after. Moreover,
the order of putting them on is always the same. The heavy-armed warrior, having
already a tunic around his body, and preparing for combat, puts on,--first, his
greaves (knemides, ocreae); secondly, his cuirass (thorax, lorica), to which belonged
the mitre underneath, and the zone (zone, zoster, (cingulum) above; thirdly, his
sword (xiphos, ensis, gladius) hung on the left side of his body by means of a
belt which passed over the right shoulder; fourthly, the large round shield (skkos,
aspis, clipeus, scutum), supported in the same manner; fifthly, his helmet (korus,
kunee, cassis, galea) ; sixthly and lastly, he took his spear (enchos, doru, hasta),
or, in many cases, two spears (doure duo). The form and use of these portions
are describ ed in separate articles under their Latin names. The foregoing woodcut
exhibits them all in the form of a Greek warrior attired for battle, as shown
in Hope's Costume of the Ancients (i. 70).
Those who were defended in the manner which has now been represented,
are called by Homer aspistai, from their great shield (aspis); also alchemachoi,
because they fought hand to hand with their adversaries; but much more commonly
promachoi, because they occupied the front of the army: and it is to be observed
that these terms, especially the last, were honourable titles, the expense of
a complete suit of armour (panoplie, Herod. i. 60) being of itself sufficient
to prove the wealth and rank of the wearer, while his place on the field was no
less indicative of strength and bravery.
In later times, the heavy-armed soldiers were called hoplitai, because
the term hopla more especially denoted the defensive armour, the shield and thorax.
By wearing these they were distinguished from the light-armed, whom Herodotus
(ix. 62, 63), for the reason just mentioned, calls anoploi, and who are also denominated
psiloi, and gumnoi, gumnetai, or gumnetes. Instead of being defended by the shield
and thorax, their bodies had a much slighter covering, sometimes consisting of
skins, and sometimes of leather or cloth; and instead of the sword and lance,
they commonly fought with darts, stones, bows and arrows, or slings.
Besides the heavy-and light-armed soldiers, the hoplitai and psiloi,
who in general bore towards one another the intimate relation now explained, another
description of men, the peltastai, sometimes formed a part of the Greek army after
the Persian wars, and regularly after the expedition of the Ten Thousand. Instead
of the large round shield, they carried a smaller one called the pelte, and in
other respects their armour was much lighter than that of the hoplites. The weapon
on which they principally depended was the spear.
The Roman soldiers had different kinds of arms and armour; but an account of the
arms of the different kinds of troops cannot be separated from a description of
the troops of a Roman army, and the reader is therefore referred to Exercitus
( =army). The following cut represents two heavy-armed Roman soldiers, and is
taken from the reliefs on Trajan's Column. On comparing it with that of the Greek
hoplite in the other cut, we perceive that the several parts of the armour correspond,
excepting only that the Roman soldier wears a dagger (machaira, pugio) on his
right side instead of a sword on his left, and, instead of greaves (which were
abandoned in imperial times) upon his legs, has femoralia and caligae. All the
essential parts of the Roman heavy armour (lorica, ensis, clipeus, galea, hasta)
are mentioned together in an epigram of Martial (ix. 57); and all except the spear
in a well-known passage (Eph. vi. 14-17) of St. Paul, whose enumeration exactly
coincides with the figures on the Arch of Severus, and who makes mention not only
of greaves, but of shoes or sandals for the feet.
The soft or flexible parts of the heavy armour were made of cloth
or leather. The metal principally used in their formation was that compound of
copper and tin which we call bronze, or more properly bell-metal (Aes
= cooper, chalkos). Hence the names for this metal (chalkos, aes) are often used
to mean armour, and the light reflected from the arms of a warrior is called auge
chalkeie by Homer, and lux aena by Virgil (Aen. ii. 470). Instead of copper, iron
afterwards came to be very extensively used in the manufacture of arms, although
articles made of it are much more rarely discovered, because iron is by exposure
to air and moisture exceedingly liable to corrosion and decay. Gold and silver,
and tin unmixed with copper, were also used, more especially to enrich and adorn
the armour.
This text is from: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin). Cited June 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Currus (harma), a chariot, a car. These terms are especially applied to the two-wheeled
cars used in battle and in racing. They differed from the carpentum in being open
overhead, and from the cisium in being closed in front. The plural harmata is
generally used to signify the chariot and all its appurtenances-pole, yoke, reins,
e.t.c. --excluding the horse. The words harma (Il. xxiv. 440), harmata (Od. iii.
492), and diphros (ib. 481) are also employed for the light cars used on journeys.
They frequently had, bound on to the body, a basket, peirins (Od. xv. 131), which
must have been capacious to hold the presents Telemachus got from Menelaus (Od.
xv. 102-105). Doubtless Telemachus and Pisistratus sat on this peirins, as it
was unlikely that they would stand for a whole two days' journey (Od. iii. 487,
497;). The most essential parts in the construction of the currus were:
1. The antyx (antux) or rim. Either on three sides of the chariot
or only in front there was a curved (hence ankulon, kampulon harma, Il. v. 231,
vi. 39) barrier (epidiphrias, Il. x. 475; periphragma, Poll. i. 142), sometimes
of light wood, sometimes of leather or metal (cf. for the latter Il. xxiii. 503).
It was generally a sort of trellis-work made by interlacing strips of the material
used; hence probably diphros euplekes or euplektos (Il. xxiii. 436, 335). In different
chariots this barrier was of different heights: sometimes it did not come up to
the knee, sometimes it rose to near the waist, but in the Greek war-chariot it
was seldom, if ever, higher. Warriors in a chariot are mentioned as being wounded
in the stomach (Il. xiii. 398). Round the top of this barrier was the curved rim
(antux), which was generally raised above the trellis-work barrier by bars. A
variety of technical names belonging to these bars are to be found in Poll. i.
143. The two antuges of Hera's chariot (doiai de peridromoi antuges eisi, Il.
v. 728) are to be explained either of a double rim, one rising above the other,
or of a rim at both sides of the chariot. The former perhaps suits the sense of
peri- ( all round, in opposition to amphi-, on both sides ) better than the latter.
The antux often served to fasten the reins to (Il. v. 262). As the antux was curved,
a pliant wood was required for it; and Homer (Il. xxi. 37) mentions the wild fig-tree
as so used. The term antux is sometimes applied to the whole chariot (Soph. El.
746).
2. The axle, usually made of oak (pheginos axon, Hom. Il. v.
838, imitated by Virgil, faginus axis, Georg. iii. 172), and sometimes also of
ilex, ash, or elm (Plin. H. N. xvi.229). It was of iron or brass in the chariots
of the gods (Il. v. 723; xiii. 30). The extremities were called akraxonia (Poll.
i. 145) or chnoai and sometimes ended in the head of an animal. The iron plates
on the axle round which the wheels revolved were called heurai (Poll. i. 145).
The axle was about seven feet long.
3. The wheels (kukla, trochoi, rotae) revolved upon the axle,
as in modern carriages. They consisted of
(a) spokes (knemai, radii), usually four in number, but in the chariot
of Hera there were eight (oktaknema, Il. v. 723). With tips of iron (aetoi, Poll.
i. 145) at each end on the outer side, they were fixed in
(b) a felloe (itus), consisting of four or more arcs, hapsides (Hesiod,
Op. 426; sotra, Poll. i. 144), which of course had to be of flexible wood (Il.
iv. 482-486; xxi. 37), heat being used to assist in producing the curvature (Theocr.
xxv. 247-251), bound on the outside by
(c) an iron tire (epissotron, Il. xxiii. 519; epissotra, Il. v. 725;
canthus, Pers. v. 71). In Hera's chariot the tire was of bronze and the felloe
gold (Il. v. 725). On the inner side they were fixed in
(d) the nave (plemne, II. v. 726; chnoe, Aesch. Theb. 153; modiolus,
Plin. H. N. ix. § 8).
There are several technical terms for the different parts of the nave
(Poll. i. 145). The external ring of iron into which the spokes fitted was called
thorax or plemnodeton. The internal ring round the hole through which the axle
passed was garnon or destron. What was probably a flat ring prevented the wheels
slipping off, and was called paraxonion, epibolos, embolos: it was itself kept
in its place by the linchpin (embolodetes). The wheels were not more than thirty
inches in diameter: this appears to rest on Hesiod, Op. 426, where Proclus and
Tzetzes take hamaxa as the wheel.
4. The body of the chariot, diphros, also called huperteria by
Poll. i. 144, though in Homer that word appears to mean the upper part shaped
like a cart. All efforts were made to lessen the weight of the chariot, and we
have evidence that they were very light. They drive over heaps of arms and corpses
(Il. xi. 534), and even across ditches (Il. viii. 179); and Diomede thinks of
carrying a chariot on his shoulders (Il. x. 505). It consisted of some kind of
interlaced straps of leather (himantosis, tonos, Poll. i. 142). In Hera's chariot
they were of gold and silver cords (Il. v. 727). Doubtless this was bound around
to a narrow frame of some rigid substance, wood or iron; and it is to this perhaps
that the epithets protopages, kolletos, which are applied to the diphros (Il.
v. 193; xix. 395), refer. Possibly this framework at the back of the chariot,
which was always cut straight, is what Pollux (i. 144) means by pterna (to de
pro pou tonou hou proton epibainousin hoi anabainontes, pterna); though Guhl and
Koner (p. 305) say it is the boards which were placed over the straps and on which
the charioteers stood. If we allow a foot on each side of the axle for the wheels,
the breadth of the diphros would be about five feet.
5. The pole (rhumos, temo), made of wood and polished (Il. xxiv.
271). From representations of chariots, we find the pole sometimes as it were
a continuation of the flooring of the diphros, sometimes fastened into the axle,
sometimes above it. It is found fastened by two forked stays (sterigma, hupostates,
furca, Plut. Cor. Plut. Cor. 24). These were either projecting from the axle,
or, as is more probable, at the inner end of the pole. The pole was sometimes
straight for some distance from its point of fastening, and curved rapidly upwards
at its extremity (prote peza, akrorrumion), or else was in its whole length quite
straight and inclined at an angle: in any case the top of the pole was on a level
with the necks of the horses. The extremity of the pole at times ended in the
head of a bird, a ram, or the like. Towards the extremity of the pole the yoke
was fastened about a pin (hestor) fixed in the pole. There was frequently a fastening
running from the top of the pole to the antux, in order to divide the traction-force
on two points. For details as to the yoke and its fastening, see Jugum
(=zygos); and for the reins, see Frenum
(+chalinos, bridle).
All the parts now enumerated are seen in an ancient chariot preserved
in the Vatican, a representation of which is given in the preceding woodcut. (see
image in the URL below).
Carriages with two or even three poles were used by the Lydians (Aesch.
Pers. 47). The Greeks and Romans, on the other hand, appear never to have used
more than one pole and one yoke, and the currus thus constructed was commonly
drawn by two horses, which were attached to it by their necks, and therefore called
dizuges hippoi (Hom. Il. v. 195, x. 473), sunoris (Xen. Hell. i. 2, § 1), gemini
jugales (Verg. Aen. vii. 280), equi bijuges (Georg. iii. 91). We occasionally
find in Homer that only one horse was used (Il. ii. 390; xxii. 22; xxiii. 517),
and it must have been fastened by traces; but a pair of horses is much the most
frequent. They drew the car by means of the yoke and its collars (lepadna); for
they were not fastened to the chariot by traces. Thus in the Iliad, when the pole
breaks (vi. 38 if., xvi. 360), the horses simply run on with the yoke and front
part of the broken pole, and the car is left behind; again, when the yoke breaks
and the horses run to different sides, they do not upset the chariot, as they
would do if they had been fastened by traces (Il. xxiii. 392 ff.). In this latter
passage, however, it seems most probable that the shock which could throw Eumelus
out with such violence must have upset the light chariot. Besides the yoke horses,
there was sometimes a pareoros (Il. xvi. 471), seiraios (Soph. El. 722), seiraphoros
(Aesch. Ag. 842), funalis equus (Stat. Theb. vi. 462), funarius (Isid. Orig. xviii.
33), which was fastened by a trace affixed to the antux, if we may judge from
vase-pictures and as the word seiraphoros would lead us to infer. But the main
work of traction was done by the yoke horses (cf. Aesch. Ag. 1679). Helbig (op.
cit. p. 91) thinks that they were fastened to the yoke or to one of the yoke-horses;
yet he holds (p. 106, note 6) that traces were used in the case of a team of four
horses. At any rate the fastenings of the pareoros were called pareoriai (Il.
xvi. 152). These outriggers had often riders like our postilions. A team of four
horses is mentioned three times in Homer (Il. viii. 185, xi. 699; Od. xiii. 81),
but the passages are not by any means sufficient to prove a general use of four
horses, and they seem to refer to the Olympic games. In the above cut we also
observe traces passing between the two antuges, and proceeding from the front
of the chariot on each side of the middle horse. These probably assisted in attaching
the third, or extra horse.
The Latin name for a chariot and pair was bigae (Verg. Aen. ii. 272,
v. 721; Plin. H. N. vii.202, et alibi); in later: Latin also biga (Tac. Hist.
i. 86; Plin. xxxix.89; Stat. Silv. i. 2, 45, et alibi). When a third horse was
added, it was called triga (Dig. 21, 1, 38,14) or trigae (Isidor. Orig. xviii.
36); and by the same analogy a chariot and four was called quadrigae (Verg. Georg.
i. 512, Aen. vi. 535; Cic. Div. ii. 7. 0, 144, et alibi), in later Latin quadriga
(Gell. xix. 8, 17 ; Suet. Vit. 17, et alibi); in Greek, tetraoria or gethrippos.
Four horses were the largest number usually employed, but we also read of a chariot
drawn by six horses, called sejugis (Orelli, Inscr. 2593, 6179), but more usually
in the plural sejuges (Liv. xxxviii. 35, 4; Plin. H. N. xxxiv.19; Apul. Flor.
p. 356, No. 16), also sejugae (Isid. Orig. xviii. 36), like bigae and quadrigae;
of a chariot drawn by eight horses; and of one drawn by ten horses, which was
the number driven by Nero in the Olympic games (Suet. Ner. 24). In all cases the
horses were driven abreast.
As the works of ancient art, especially fictile vases, abound in representations
of quadrigae, numerous instances may be observed, in which the two middle horses
(ho mesos dexios kai ho mesos aristeros, Schol. in Aristoph. Nub. 122) are yoked
together as in the bigae; and, as the, two lateral ones (ho dexioseiros, ho aristeros
seiraios, dexterior, sinisterior funalis equus, Suet. Tib. 6; and cf. Jebb on
Soph. El. 721) have collars (leradna) equally with the yoke-horses, we may presume
that from the top of these proceeded the ropes which were tied to the rim of the
car, and by which the trace-horses assisted to draw it. The first figure in the
following woodcut is the chariot of Aurora, as painted on a vase found at Canosa.The
reins of the two middle horses pass through rings at the extremities of the yoke.
All the particulars which have been mentioned are still more distinctly seen in
the second figure, taken from a terra-cotta at Vienna. It represents a chariot
over-thrown in passing the goal at the circus. The charioteer having fallen backwards,
the pole and yoke are thrown upwards into the air; the two trace-horses have fallen
on their knees, and the two yoke-horses are prancing on their hind legs.
If we may rely on the evidence of numerous works of art, the currus
was sometimes drawn by four horses without either yoke or pole; for we see two
of them diverging to the right hand and two to the left, as in the cameo in the
royal collection of Berlin, which exhibits Apollo surrounded by the signs of the
zodiac. If the ancients really drove the quadrigae thus harnessed, we can only
suppose the charioteer to have checked its speed by pulling up the horses, and
leaning with his whole body back-wards, so as to make the bottom of the car at
its hindermost border scrape the ground, an act and an attitude which seem not
unfrequently to be intended in antique representations.
The currus, like the cisium, was adapted to carry two persons, and
on this account was called in Greek diphros. One of the two was of course the
driver. He was called heniochos, because he held the reins, and his companion
paraibates, from going by his side or near him. Though in all respects superior,
the paraibates was often obliged to place himself behind the heniochos. He is
so represented in the bigae at p. 129, and in the Iliad (xix. 397) Achilles himself
stands behind his charioteer, Automedon. On the other hand, a personage of the
highest rank may drive his own carriage, and then an inferior may be his paraibates,
as when Nestor conveys Machaon (par de Machaon baine, Il. xi. 512, 517), and Hera,
holding the reins and whip, conveys Athena, who is in full armour (v. 720-775).
In such cases a kindness, or even a compliment, was conferred by the driver upon
him whom he conveyed, as when Dionysius, tyrant of Sicily, himself holding the
reins, made Plato his paraibates. (Aelian, V. H. iv. 18.)
Chariots were frequently employed on the field of battle not only
by the Asiatic nations, but also by the Greeks in the heroic age. The aristees,
i. e. the nobility, or men of rank, who wore complete suits of armour, all took
their chariots with them, and in an engagement placed themselves in front. In
the Homeric battles we find that the horseman, who for the purpose of using his
weapons, and in consequence of the weight of his armour, is under the necessity
of taking the place of paraibates (see above the woodcut of the triga), often
assails or challenges a distant foe from the chariot; but that, when he encounters
his adversary in close combat, they both dismount, springing from their chariots
to the ground, and leaving them to the care of the heniochoi. (Il. iii. 29, xiii.
537, xvii. 480-483, 500-502; Hes. Scut. Herc. 370-372.) As soon as the hero had
finished the trial of his strength with his opponent, he returned to his chariot,
one of the chief uses of which was to rescue him from danger.
In later times the chariots were chiefly employed in the public games.
The usual form of those used in the Grecian public games appears on the coins
of victors, as in the annexed coin of Hieron II. of Syracuse. Those used in the
Roman games of the Circus are figured under Circus
(=greek hippodromos). Their form was the same, except that they were more elegantly
decorated. They had no antuges, but were raised in front. They had low wheels,
quite at the back, and there was no space to stand in behind the wheels. Chariots
were not much used by the Romans. The ancient Italians never fought from chariots.
When such appear, they are either in representations of Greek events or are triumphal
cars. In a Roman triumph the general ascended to the Capitol in a chariot adorned
with ivory (currus eburnos, Ov. Trist. iv. 2, 63) or gold (aureos, Hor. Epod.
ix. 22), which was cylindrical, with sides very much higher than the Greek chariots.
An example may be seen in the cuts under Triumphus
(=thriamnos, triumph) which in a measure exemplify what Zonaras says (vii. 21):
to de harma es purgon peripherous tropon exeirgasto. The utmost skill of the painter
and the sculptor was employed to enhance its beauty and splendour. More particularly
the extremities of the axle, of the pole, and of the yoke, were highly wrought
in the form of animals' heads. Wreaths of laurel were sometimes hung round it
(currum laurigerum, Claudian, de Laud. Stil. iii. 20, Tert. Cons. Honor. 130),
and were also fixed to the heads of the four snow-white horses. (Mart. vii. 8,
8.) The car was elevated so that he who triumphed might be the most conspicuous
person in the procession, and for the same reason he was obliged to stand erect
(in curru stantis eburno, Ovid, Pont. iii. 4, 35). The triumphal car had in general
no pole, the horses being led by men who were stationed at their heads.
Chariots executed in terra-cotta (quadrigae fictiles, Plin. H. N.
xxviii.16), in bronze, or in marble, an example of which last is shown in the
following woodcut from an ancient chariot in the Vatican, were among the most
beautiful ornaments of temples and other public edifices. No pains were spared
in their decoration; and Pliny informs us (e.g. H. N. xxxiv.86) that some of the
most eminent artists were employed upon them. In numerous instances they were
designed to perpetuate the fame of those who had conquered in the chariot-race
(Pans. vi. 10, 6). As the emblem of victory, the quadriga was sometimes adopted
by the Romans to grace the triumphal arch by being placed on its summit; and even
in the private houses of great families, chariots were displayed as the indications
of rank, or the memorials of conquest and of triumph. (Juv. viii. 3.)
This text is from: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin). Cited June 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ARGOS (Ancient city) ARGOLIS
Capaneus. He was the son of Hipponous & Laodice, father of Sthenelus (Il. 2.564), husband of Evande and one of the Seven against Thebes. He was killed by the thunderbolt of Zeus before the walls of Thebes because he boasted that he would set the city on fire even without the will of the gods.
Capaneus (Kapaneus), a son of Hipponous and Astynome or Laodice, tile daughter of Iphis (Hygin. Fab. 70; Schol. ad Eurip. Phoen. 181; ad Pind. Nern. ix. 30). He was married to Euadne or laneira, who is also called a daughter of Iphis, and by whom he became the father of Sthenelus (Schol. ad Pind. Ol. vi. 46; Apollod. iii. 10.8). He was one of the seven heroes who marched from Argos against Thebes, where he had his station at the Ogygian or Electrian gate (Apollod. iii. 6.6; Aeschyl. Sept. c. Theb. 423; Paus. ix. 8.3). During the siege of Thebes, he was presumptuous enough to say, that even the fire of Zeus should not prevent his scaling the walls of the city; but when he was ascending the ladder, Zeus struck him with a flash of lightning (Comp. Eurip. Phoen. 1172; comp. Soph. Antig. 133; Apollod. iii. 6.7; Ov. Met. ix. 404). While his body was burning, his wife Euadne leaped into the flames and destroyed herself (Apollod. iii. 7.1; Eurip. Suppl. 983; Philostr. Icon. ii. 31; Ov. Ars Am. iii. 21; Hygin. Fab. 243). Capaneus is one of those heroes whom Asclepius was believed to have called back into life (Apollod. iii. 10.3). At Delphi there was a statue of Capaneus dedicated by the Argives (Paus. x.10.2).
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited April 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Evadne. A daughter of Iphis or Iphicles of Argos, who slighted the addresses of Apollo, and married Capaneus, one of the seven chiefs who went against Thebes. When her husband had been struck with thunder by Zeus for his blasphemies and impiety, and his ashes had been separated from those of the rest of the Argives, she threw herself on his burning pile and perished in the flames.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
He was a son of Mantius, brother of the seer Polypheides and grandson of Melampus (Od. 15.249).
A son of Mantius, carried off by Eos on account of his extraordinary beauty. (Hom. Od. xv. 250; Eustath. ad Hom. p. 1780.)
Amphilochus, son of Amphiaraus by Eriphyle, brother of Alcmaeon, participated in the expedition of the Epigoni against Thebes and, afterwards, in the Trojan War (Od. 15.248).
Amphilochus (Amphilochos), a son of Amphiaraus and Eriphyle, and brother of Alcmaeon
(Apollod. iii. 7.2; Hom. Od. xv. 248). When his father went against Thebes,
Amphilochus was, according to Pausanias (v. 17.4), yet an infant, although ten
years afterwards lie is mentioned as one of the Epigoni, and according to some
traditions assisted his brother in the murder of his mother. He is also mentioned
among the suitors of Helen, and as having taken part in the Trojan war. On the
return from this expedition he together with Mopsus, who was like himself a seer,
founded the town of Mallos
in Cilicia. Hence he proceeded
to his native place, Argos. But as he was not satisfied with the state of affairs
there, he returned to Mallos.
When Mopsus refused to allow him any share in the government of their common colony,
the two seers fought a single combat in which both were killed. This combat was
described by some as having arisen out of a dispute about their prophetic powers.
Their tombs, which were placed in such a manner that the one could not be seen
from the other, existed as late as the time of Strabo, near mount mount Margasa,
not far from Pyramus (Strab. xiv; Lycophron, 439, with the Schol). According to
other traditions (Strab. xiv), Amphilochus and Calchas, on their return from Troy,
went on foot to the celebrated grove of the Clarian Apollo near Colophon.
In some accounts he was said to have been killed by Apollo (Hes. ap. Strab. xiv).
According to Thucydides (ii. 68) Amphilochus returned from Troy
to Argos, but being dissatisfied there, he emigrated and founded Argos
Amphilochium on the Ambracian
gulf. Other accounts, however, ascribe the foundation of this town to Alcmaeon
(Strab. vii. p. 326), or to Amphilochus the son of Alcmaeon (Apollod. iii. 7.7).
Being a son of the seer Amphiaraus, Amphilochus was likewise believed to be endowed
with prophetic powers ; and at Mallos
in Cilicia there was an oracle
of Amphilochus, which in the time of Pausanias (i. 34.2) was regarded as the most
truthful of all (Dict. of Ant. p. 673). He was worshipped together with his father
at Oropus; at Athens
he had an altar, and at Sparta
a heroum (Paus. i. 34.2, iii. 15.6).
There are two other mythical personages of this name, one a grandson of our Amphilochus
(Apollod. iii. 7.7), and the other a son of Dryas (Parthen. Erot. 27).
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited April 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Amphilochus : Perseus Encyclopedia
Son of Heracles by Astyoche, settles in Rhodes ( see Rhodes)
MYCENAE (Mycenean palace) ARGOLIS
He was the son of Pelops from Elis, father of Periphetes and messenger of Eurystheus (Il. 15.639 etc.).
Copreus (Kopreus),a son of Pelops and father of Periphetes. After having murdered Iphitus, he fled from Elis to Mycenae, where he was purified by Eurystheus, who employed him to inform Heracles of the labours he had to perform. (Hom. Il. xv. 639; Apollod. i. 5.1.) Euripides in his " Heracleidae" makes him the herald of Eurvstheus.
Father of the soothsayer Calchas (Il. 1.69).
Thestor. A son of Idmon and Laothoe (Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. i. 139), though some ancients declare that Idmon (the knowing) was only a surname of Thestor. He was the father of Calchas, Theoclymenus, Leucippe, and Theonoe. (Hom. Il. i. 69; Hygin. Fab. 128.) His daughter Theonoe was carried off by pirates, and sold to king Icarus in Caria. Thestor, who went out in search of her, suffered shipwreck, and was taken as a prisoner to Caria. His other daughter Leucippe then consulted the Delphic oracle about her absent father and sister, and was directed to travel through all countries in the attire of a priest of Apollo. In this manner she came to Caria, where her own sister fell in love with her, and as the love was not returned, Theonoe ordered her to be killed. Thestor received the order to kill her, but when he was on the point of executing it, he recognised his children, and with presents from Icarus Thestor with his daughters returned home. (Hygin. Fab. 190.)
The son of Peiraeus and father of the charioteer of Agamemnon Eurymedon (Il. 4.228).
Talthybius (Talthubios), The herald of Agumenmon at Troy. (Hom. Il. i. 320; Ov. Her. iii. 9.) He was worshipped as a hero at Sparta and Argos, where sacrifices also were offered to him. (Paus. iii. 12.6, vii. 23, in fin.; Herod. vii. 134.)
ARGOS (Ancient city) ARGOLIS
She was the daughter of Acrisius, king of Argos, and mother of Perseus by Zeus (Il. 14.319). (For the legend of Perseus and Danae see Serifos, Island)
Danae. We may add here the story which we meet with at a later time in Italy,
and according to which Danae went to Italy, built the town of Ardea,
and married Pilumnus, by whom she became the mother of Daunus, the ancestor of
Turnus (Virg. Aen. vii. 372, 409, with Servius's note).
The daughter of Neleus by Chloris and wife of Bias (Od. 11.287).
MYCENAE (Mycenean palace) ARGOLIS
Mycene was the daughter of Inachus and wife of Arestor (Od. 2.120) and, according to myth, the city was named after her.
Arestor, the father of Argus Panoptes, the guardian of lo, who is therefore called Arestorides. (Apollod. ii. 1.3; Apollon. Rhod. i. 112; Ov. Met. i. 624.) According to Pausanias (ii. 16.3), Arestor was the husband of Mycene, the daughter of Inachus, from whom the town of Mycenae derived its name.
Daughter of Agamemnon and Clytaemnestra (Il. 9.145 & 287). She became priestess of Artemis in Tauris and afterwards in Brauron.
Iphigeneia, according to the most common tradition, a daughter of Agamemnon and
Clytaemnestra (Hygin. Fab. 98), but, according to others, a daughter of Theseus
and Helena, and brought up by Clytaemnestra only as a fosterchild (Anton. Lib.
27; Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 183).
Agamemnon had once killed a stag in the grove of Artemis, or had boasted
that the goddess herself could not hit better, or, according to another story,
in the year in which Iphigeneia was born, he had vowed to sacrifice the most beautiful
thing which that year might produce, but had afterwards neglected to fulfil his
vow. Either of these circumstances is said to have been the cause of the calm
which detained the Greek fleet in the port of Aulis, when the Greeks wanted to
sail against Troy. The seer Calchas, or, according to others, the Delphic oracle,
declared that the sacrifice of Iphigeneia was the only means of propitiating Artemis.
Agamemnon at first resisted the command, but the entreaties of Menelaus at leagth
prevailed upon him to give way, and he consented to Iphigeneia being fetched by
Odysseus and Diomedes, under the pretext that she was to be married to Achilles.
When Iphigeneia had arrived, and was on the point of being sacrificed, Artemis
carried her in a cloud to Tauris, where she was made to serve the goddess as her
priestess, while stag, or, according to others, a she-bear, a ball, or an old
woman, was substituted in her place and sacrificed (Eurip. Iphig. Taur. 10--30
783, Iphig. Aul. 1540; Suid. s. v. Pentheros), According to Dictys Cretensis (i.19),
Iphigeneia was saved in a peal of thander by the voice of Artemis and the interference
of Achilles, who had been gained over by Clytaemnestra, and sent Iphigeneia to
Scythia. Tzetzes (l. c.) even states that Achilles was actually married to her,
and became by her the father of Pyrrhus.
While Iphigeneia was serving Artemis as priestess in Tauris, her brother
Orestes, on the advice of an oracle, formed the plan of fetching the image of
Artemis in Tauris, which was believed once to have fallen from heaven, and of
carrying it to Attica (Eurip. Iph. Taur. 79). When Orestes, accompanied by Pylades,
arrived in Tauris, he was, according to the custom of the country, to be sacrificed
in the temple of the goddess. But Iphigeneia recognised her brother, and fled
with him and the statue of the goddess. Some say that Thoas, king of Tauris, was
previously murdered by the fugitives (Hygin. Fab. 121; Serv. ad Aen. ii. 116).
In the meantime Electra, another sister of Orestes, had heard that he had been
sacrificed in Tauris by the priestess of Artemis, and, in order to ascertain the
truth of the report, she travelled to Delphi, where she met Iphigeneia, and was
informed that she had murdered Orestes. Electra therefore resolved on putting
Iphigeneia's eyes out, but was prevented by the interference of Orestes, and a
scene of recognition took place. All now returned to Mycenae; but Iphigeneia carried
the statue of Artemis to the Attic town of Brauron near Marathon. She there died
as priestess of the goddess.
As a daughter of Theseus she was connected with the heroic families
of Attica, and after her death the veils and most costly garments which had been
worn by women who had died in childbirth were offered up to her (Eurip. Iph. Taur.
1464; Diod. iv. 44; Paus. i. 33). Pausanias (i. 43), however, speaks of her tomb
and heroum at Megara, whereas other traditions stated that Iphigeneia had not
died at all, but had been changed by Artemis into Hecate, or that she was endowed
by the goddess with immortality and eternal youth, and under the name of Oreilochia
she became the wife of Achilles in the island of Leuce (Anton. Lib. 27). The Lacedaemonians,
on the other hand, maintained that the carved image of Artemis, which Iphigeneia
and Orestes had carried away from Tauris, existed at Sparta, and was worshipped
there in Limnacon under the name of Artemis Orthia (Paus. iii. 16).
The worship of this goddess in Attica and Lacedaemon is of great importance.
At Sparta her image was said to have been found in a bush, and to have thrown
the beholders into a state of madness; and once, as at the celebration of her
festival, a quarrel arose which ended in bloodshed, an oracle commanded that in
future human sacrifices should be offered to her. Lycurgus, however, is said to
have abolished these sacrifices, and to have introduced in their stead the scourging
of youths (Paus. iii. 16.6; Dict. of Antiq. s. v. Diamastigosis). That in Attica,
also, human sacrifices were offered to her, at least in early times, may be inferred
from the fact of its being customary to sled some human blood in the worship instituted
there in honour of Orestes (Eurip. Iph. Taur. 1446). Now, as regards the explanation
of the mythus of Iphigeneia, we are informed by Pausanias (ii. 35.2) that Artemis
had a temple at Hermione, under the surname of Iphigeneia; and the same author
(vii. 26) and Herodotus (iv. 103) tell us, that the Taarians considered the goddess
to whom they offered sacrifices, to be Iphigeneia, the daughter of Agamemnon.
From these and other circumstances, it has been inferred that Iphigeneia was originally
not only a priestess of Artemis, or a heroine, but an attribute of Artemis, or
Artemis herself.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited June 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Editor’s Information:
About Iphigenia, Euripides wrote the tragedies "Iphigenia at Aulis" and "Iphigenia in Tauris", of which the e-text(s) is (are) found in Greece (ancient country) under the category Ancient Greek Writings.
Text by Johann Baptist Mayrhofer (1787-1836), Set by Franz Schubert (1797-1828), D. 573 (1817), published 1829 as op. 98 no 3.
The Iphigenia plays were produced at the Penn State Hazleton Campus in April of 1998; the music was composed and arranged by Jeremy dePrisco.
Laodice was the daughter of Agamemnon and sister of Iphigenia (= Iphianassa) (Il. 9.145 & 287). She is called Electra by the tragic poets.
Electra. A daughter of Agamemnon and Clytaemnestra, is also called Laodice (Eustath.
ad Hom.). She was the sister of Iphigeneia, Chrysothemis, and Orestes. The conduct
of her mother and Aegisthus threw her into grief and great suffering, and in consequence
of it she became the accomplice of Orestes in the murder of his mother.
Her story, according to Hyginus (Fab. 122), runs thus : On receiving
the false report that Orestes and Pylades had been sacrificed to Artemis in Tauris,
Aletes, the son of Aegisthus, assumed the government of Mycenae; but Electra,
for the purpose of learning the particulars of her brother's death, went to Delphi.
On the day she reached the place, Orestes and Iphigeneia likewise arrived there,
but the same messenger wllo had before informed her of the death of Orestes, now
added, that he had been sacrificed by Iphigeneia. Electra, enraged at this, snatched
a firebrand from tile altar, with the intention of putting her sister's eyes out
with it. But Orestes suddenly came to the spot, and made himself known to Electra.
All being thus cleared up, they travelled together to Mycenae, where Orestes killed
the usurper Aletes, and Electra married Pylades.
The Attic tragedians, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, have used
the story of Electra very freely: the most perfect, however, is that in the "Electra"
of Sophocles. When Aegisthus and Clytaemnestra, after the murder of Agamemnon,
intended to kill young Orestes also, Electra saved him by sending him under the
protection of a slave to king Strophius at Phanote in Phocis, who had the boy
educated together with his own son Pylades. Electra, in the meantime, was ever
thinking on taking revenge upon the murderers of her father, and when Orestes
had grown up to manhood, she sent secret messages to him to remind him of his
duty to avenge his father. At length, Orestes came with Pylades to Argos. A lock
of hair which he had placed on the grave of his father, was a sign to Electra
that her brother was near. Orestes soon after made himself known to her, and informed
her that he was commanded by Apollo to avenge the death of his father. Both lamented
their misfortunes, and Electra urged him to carry his design into effect. Orestes
then agreed with her that lie and Pylades should go into the house of Clytaemnestra,
as strangers from Phocis, and tell her that Orestes was dead. This was done accordingly,
and Acgisthus and Clytaemnestra fell by the hand of Orestes, who gave Electra
in marriage to his friend Pylades (Comp. Aeschyl. Eumenides, and Euripides, Orestes).
She became by him the mother of Medon and Strophius. Her tomb was shewn in later
times at Mycenae (Paus. ii. 16.5).
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited June 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Electra (Elektra). One of the daughters of Agamemnon. Upon the murder of her father, after his return from Electra. Troy, Electra rescued her brother Orestes, then quite young, from the fury of Aegisthus, by despatching him to the court of her uncle Strophius, king of Phocis. There Orestes formed the well-known attachment for his cousin Pylades, which, in the end, led to the marriage of Electra with that prince. According to one account, Electra had previously been compelled, by Aegisthus, to become the wife of a Mycenean rustic, who, having regarded her merely as a sacred trust confided to him by the gods, restored her to Orestes on the return of that prince to Mycenae and on his accession to the throne of his ancestors. Electra became, by Pylades, the mother of two sons, Strophius and Medon. Her story has formed the basis of three extant plays, the Choephori of Aeschylus, and the Electra of Sophocles and Euripides.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Editor’s Information:
About Electra, Euripides wrote the homonymous tragedy, of which the e-text(s) is (are) found in Greece (ancient country) under the category Ancient Greek Writings.
A daughter of Agamemnon and Clytaemnestra (Il. 9.145, 287).
Monarchia, a general name for any form of government in which the supreme functions of political administration are in the hands of a single person. The term monarchia is applied to such governments, whether they are hereditary or elective, legal or usurped. If all the officials and ministers of the ruler are merely his deputies, appointed and removable by him, then the term monarchia strictly applies. Aristotle (Pol. iii. 15, 2,= p. 1287) calls this pambasileia. This form of monarchy did not belong to Greek states except as a consequence of revolution, when some citizen usurped this power for himself, and sometimes transmitted it. Monarchy of the more constitutional kind, as described in Homer, probably existed throughout Greece at the time of the Dorian conquest, and gradually disappeared, appeared, as in each state the weak or violent rule stirred up successful opposition of the people. In Argos, however, it lasted to the time of the invasion of Xerxes (Herod. vii. 149), but disappeared before the Peloponnesian War. In Sparta it remained in a peculiar form. In its commonest application, it is equivalent busileia, whether absolute or limited. But the rule of an aesymnetes or a tyrant would equally be called a monarchia. (Arist. Pol. iii. 16, iv. 8 = pp. 1286, 1294;--Plato, Polit. p. 291, C, E; p. 302, D, E.) Hence Plutarch uses it to express the Latin dictatura. Aristotle defines four sorts of basileia: firstly, the kingship of the heroic period, when the obedience was voluntary, but the power of the kings strictly defined, the king being general, judge, and supreme religious functionary; secondly, the non-Greek, which was a hereditary despotic rule of a constitutional character; thirdly, the Asymneteia, as it is called, an elective tyranny; and, fourthly, the Laconian, which may be broadly defined as a hereditary generalship for life. (Arist. Pol. iii. 14, Welldon's translation.) It is by a somewhat rhetorical use of the word that it is applied now and then to the demos. (Eurip. Suppl. 352; Arist. Pol. iv. 4.)
Danaus (Danaos). A son of Belus and Anchinoe, and brother of Aegyptus.
Belus assigned the country of Libya to Danaus, while to Aegyptus he gave Arabia.
Aegyptus conquered the country of the Melampodes and named it from himself. By
many wives he became the father of fifty sons. Danaus had by several wives an
equal number of daughters. Dissension arising between him and the sons of Aegyptus,
they aimed at depriving him of his kingdom; and, fearing their violence, he built,
with the aid of Athene, a fifty-oared vessel, the first that ever was made, in
which he embarked with his daughters and fled over the sea. He first landed on
the isle of Rhodes, where he set up a statue of the Lindian Athene; but, not caring
to remain in that island, he proceeded to Argos; where Gelanor, who at that time
ruled over the country, cheerfully resigned the government to the stranger who
had brought thither civilization and the arts. The people took the name of their
new monarch, and were called Danai (Danaoi).
The country of Argos being at this time extremely deficient
in pure and wholesome water (see Inachus), Danaus sent forth his daughters in
quest of some. As Amymone, one of them, was engaged in the search, she was rescued
by Poseidon from the intended violence of a satyr, and the god revealed to her
a fountain called after her name and the most famous among the streams that contributed
to form the Lernaean lake or marsh. The sons of Aegyptus came now to Argolis and
entreated their uncle to bury past enmity in oblivion, and to give them their
cousins in marriage. Danaus, retaining a perfect recollection of the injuries
they had done him and distrustful of their promises, consented to bestow upon
them his daughters, whom he divided among them by lot; but on the wedding-day
he armed the hands of the brides with daggers, and enjoined upon them to slay
in the night their unsuspecting bridegrooms. All but Hypermnestra obeyed the cruel
orders of their father; and cutting off the heads of their husbands, they flung
them into Lerna, and buried their bodies with all due rites outside of the town.
At the command of Zeus, Hermes and Athene purified them from the guilt of their
deed. Hypermnestra had spared Lynceus for the delicate regard which he had shown
to her modesty. Her father, at first, in his anger at her disobedience, put her
into close confinement. Relenting, however, after some time, he gave his consent
to her union with Lynceus, and proclaimed gymnastic games, in which the victors
were to receive his other daughters as the prizes. It was said, however, that
the crime of the Danaides did not pass without due punshment in the lower world,
where they were condemned to pour water forever into a perforated vessel.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Danaus (Danaos), a son of Belus and Anchinoe, and a grandson of Poseidon and Libya. He was brother of Aegyptus, and farther of fifty daughters, and the mythical ancestor of the Danai (Apollod. ii. 1,4). According to the common story he was a native of Chemnis, in the Thebais in Upper Egypt, and migrated from thence into Greece (Herod. ii. 91). Belus had given Danaus Libya, while Aegyptus had obtained Arabia. Danaiis had reason to think that the sons of his brother were plotting against him, and fear or the advice of an oracle (Eustath. ad Hom. p. 37), induced him to build a large ship and to embark with his daughters. On his flight he first landed at Rhodes, where he set up an image of Athena Lindia. According to the story in Herodotus, a temple of Athena was built at Lindus by the daughters of Danaus, and according to Strabo (xiv. p. 654) Tlepolemus built the towns of Lindus, Ialysus and Cameirus, and called them thus after the names of three Danaides. From Rhodes Danaus and his daughters sailed to Peloponnesus, and landed at a place near Lerna, which was afterwards called from this event Apobathmi (Paus. ii. 38.4). At Argos a dispute arose between Danaus and Gelanor about the government, and after many discussions the people deferred the decision of the question to the next day. At its dawn a wolf rushed among the cattle and killed one of the oxen. This occurrence was to the Argives an event which seemed to announce to them in what manner the dispute should terminate, and Danaiis was accordingly made king of Argos. Out of gratitude he now built a sanctuary of Apollo Lycius, who, as he believed, had sent the wolf (Paus. ii. 19.3. Comp. Serv. ad Aen. iv. 377, who relates a different story). Danaus also erected two wooden statues of Zeus and Artemis, and dedicated his shield in the sanctuary of Hera (Paus. ii. 19.6; Hygin. Fab. 170). He is further said to have built the acropolis of Argos and to have provided the place with water by digging wells (Strab. i. p. 23, viii. p. 371; Eustath. ad Hom) The sons of Aegyptus in the mean time had followed their uncle to Argos; they assured him of their peaceful sentiments and sued for the hands of his daughters. Danaus still mistrusted them and remembered the cause of his flight from his country; however he gave them his daughters and distributed them among his nephews by lot. But all the brides, with the exception of Hypermnestra murdered their husbands by the command of their father. In aftertimes the Argives were called Danai. Whether Danaus died a natural death, or whether he was killed by Lynceus, his son-in-law, is a point on which the various traditions are not agreed, but he is said to have been buried at Argos, and his tomb in the agora of Argos was shown there as late as the time of Pausanias (ii. 20.4; Strab. viii). Statues of Danaus, Hypermnestra and Lynceus were seen at Delphi by Pausanias (x. 10.2).
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited April 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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