Listed 100 (total found 107) sub titles with search on: Homeric world for wider area of: "ARGOS Town 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.
A comrade of Sthenelus (Il. 5.325).
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).
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
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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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).
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).
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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.
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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).
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Amphilochus : Perseus Encyclopedia
Son of Heracles by Astyoche, settles in Rhodes ( see Rhodes)
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).
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.
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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).
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Herse. The wife of Danaus and mother of Hippodice and Adiante. (Apollod. ii. 1.5)
Wells were invented by Danaus,who came from Egypt into that part of Greece which had been previously known as Argos Dipsion.
Commentary:
Danaus is said to have migrated from Egypt into Greece about 1485 B.C. He may
have introduced wells into Greece, but they had, long before his time, been employed
in Egypt and in other countries. The term "Dipsion," "thirsting," which it appears
had been applied to the district of Argos, may seem to render it probable, that,
before the arrival of Danaus, the inhabitants had not adopted any artificial means
of supplying themselves with water. But this country, we are told, is naturally
well supplied with water.
He was the son of Amythaon and Eidomene, brother of Bias father of Antiphates and Mantius and notorious soothsayer from Pylos. He travelled to Phylace in Thessaly in order to take the oxen of Iphicles, so that his brother could marry Pero, the daughter of Neleus. There, he was captured for a year and was released, when he had told Iphicles all the oracles. Afterwards, he returned to Pylos, where he avenged Neleus for the injustice against the Amythaonides (= descendants of Amythaon), gave Pero to his brother and left to Argos (Od. 11.287 etc. 15.225 etc.), where he became the 21st king and shared the kingdom with Anaxagoras and Bias.
Melampus (Melampous), a son of Amythaon by Eidomene, or according to others, by
Aglaia or Plhodope (Apollod. i. 9.1; Diod. iv. 68; Schol. ad Theocrit. iii. 43),
and a brother of Bias. He was looked upon by the ancients as the first mortal
that had been endowed with prophetic powers, as the person that first practised
the medical art, and established the worship of Dionysus in Greece (Apollod. ii.
2.2). He is said to have been married to Iphianassa (others call her Iphianeira
or Cyrianassa - Diod. iv. 68; Serv. ad Virg. Ecloy. vi. 48), by whom he became
the father of Mantius and Antiphates (Hom. Od. xv. 225). Apollodorus (i. 9.13)
adds a son, Abas; and Diodorus calls his children Bias, Antiphates, Manto, and
Pronoe (comp. Pans. vi. 17.4). Melampus at first dwelt with Neleus at Pylus,
afterwards he resided for a time at Phylace,
near Mount Othrys, with Phylacus
and Iphiclus and at last ruled over a third of the territory of Argos (Hom. l.
c.). At Aegosthena, in the
north-western part of Megaris,
he had a sanctuary and a statue, and an annual festival was there celebrated in
his honour. (Paus. i. 44.8.)
With regard to his having introduced the worship of Dionysus into
Greece, Herodotus (ii. 49) thinks that Melampus became acquainted with the worship
of the Egyptian Dionysus, through Cadmus and the Phoenicians, and his connection
with the Dionysiac religion is often alluded to in the ancient writers. Thus,
we are told, for example, that he taught the Greeks how to mix wine with water
(Athen. ii. p. 45; Eustath. ad Hom. p. 1816). Diodorus (i. 97) further adds that
Melampus brought with him from Egypt
the myths about Crones and the fight of the Titans.
As regards his prophetic power, his residence at Phylace,
and his ultimate rule over a portion of Argos, the following traditions were current
in antiquity. When Melampus lived with Neleus, he dwelt outside the town of Pylos,
and before his house there stood an oak tree containing a serpent's nest. The
old serpents were killed by his servants, and burnt by Melampus himself, who reared
the young ones. One day, when they had grown up, and Melampus was asleep, they
approached from both sides and cleaned his ears with their tongues. Being thus
roused from his sleep, he started up, and to his surprise perceived that he now
understood the language of birds, and that with their assistance he could foretell
the future. In addition to this he acquired the power of prophesying, from the
victims that were offered to the gods, and, after having had an interview with
Apollo on the banks of the Alpheius,
he became a most renowned soothsayer (Apollod. i. 9.11; Eustath. ad Hom.).
During his stay with Neleus it happened that his brother Bias was
one of the suitors for the hand of Pero, the daughter of Neleus, and Neleus promised
his daughter to the man who should bring to him as a gift for the maiden, the
oxen of Iphiclus, which were guarded by a dog whom neither man nor animal could
approach. Melampus undertook the task of procuring the oxen for his brother, although
he knew that the thief would be caught and kept in imprisonment for one whole
year, after which he was to come into possession of the oxen. Things turned out
as he had said; Melampus was thrown into prison, and in his captivity he learned
front the wood-worms that the building in which he was would soon break down.
He accordingly demanded to be let out, and as Phylacus and Iphiclus became thus
acquainted with his prophetic powers, they asked him in what manner Iphiclus,
who had no children, was to become father. Melampus, on the suggestion of a vulture,
advised Iphiclus to take the rust from the knife with which Phylacus had once
cut his son, and drink it in water during ten days. This was done, and Iphiclus
became the father of Podarces. Melampus now received the oxen as a reward for
his good services, and drove them to Pylos;
he thus gained Pero for his brother, and henceforth remained in Messenia
(Apollod. i. 9.12; Paus. iv. 36.2; Schol. ad Theocrit. iii. 43).
His dominion over Argos is said to have been acquired in the following
manner. In the reign of Anaxagoras, king of Argos, the women of the kingdom were
seized with madness, and roamed about the country in a frantic state. Melampus
cured them of it, on condition that he and his brother Bias should receive an
equal share with Anaxagoras in the kingdom of Argos (Paus. ii. 18.4; Diod. iv.
68). Others, however, give the following account. The daughters of Proetus, Iphinoe,
Lysippe and Iphianassa, were seized with madness, either because they opposed
the worship of Dionysus (Diod. l. c.; Apollod. i. 9.12), or because they boasted
of equalling Hera in beauty, or because they had stolen the gold from the statue
of the goddess (Serv. ad Viry. Ecl. vi. 48). Melampus promised to cure the women,
if the king would give him one-third of his territory and one of his daughters
in marriage. Proetus refused the proposal: but when the madness continued, and
also seized the other Argive women, messengers came to Melampus to request his
aid; but he now demanded two-thirds of the kingdom, one for himself, and the other
for his brother. The demand was complied with, and with a band of youths, he pursued
the women as far as Sicyon,
with Bacchic shouts. Iphinoe died during the pursuit, but the surviving women
were cured by purifications in a well, Anigrus, or in a temple of Artemis near
Lusi, or in the town of Sicyon
itself; and Melampus and Bias married the two daughters of Proetus (Apollod. ii.
2. § 2; Strab. viii; Ov. Met. xv. 322; Paus. ii. 7.8, viii. 18; Herod. ix. 34;
Schol. ad Pind. Nem. ix. 30).
Another mythical personage of the same name occurs in Virgil (Aen.
x. 320).
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Melampus, (Melampous). The son of Amythaon and of Idomene; brother
of Bias, the oldest Greek seer, and ancester of the family of seers called Melampodidae.
The brothers went with their uncle Neleus from Thessaly to Pylus in Messenia,
where they dwelt in the country. Melampus owed his gift of soothsaying to some
serpents, which he had saved from death and reared, and who in return cleansed
his ears with their tongues when he slept; on awaking he understood the voices
of birds, and thus learned what was secret. When Neleus would only give Bias his
beautiful daughter Pero on condition that he first brought him the oxen of Iphiclus
of Phylace in Thessaly, which were guarded by a watchful dog, Melampus offered
to bring the oxen for his brother, though he knew beforehand that he would be
imprisoned for a year. He was caught in the act of stealing them, and kept in
strict confinement. From the talk of the worms in the woodwork of the roof he
gathered that the house would soon fall to pieces. He thereupon demanded to be
taken to another prison; and this was scarcely done when the house broke down.
When, on account of this, Phylacus, father of Iphiclus, perceived his prophetic
gifts, he promised him the oxen, if, by his art, he would find out some way of
curing his son's childlessness. Melampus offered a bull to Zeus, cut it in pieces,
and invited the birds to the meal. From these he heard that a certain vulture,
that had not come, knew how it could be effected. This vulture was made to appear,
and related that the defect in Iphiclus was the result of a sudden fright at seeing
a bloody knife, with which his father had been castrating some goats; he had dug
the knife into a tree, which had grown round about it; if he took some of the
rust scraped off it, for ten days, he would be cured. Melampus found the knife,
cured Iphiclus, obtained the oxen, and Bias received Pero for his wife.
Afterwards he went to Argos, because, according to Homer, Neleus
had committed a serious offence against him in his ab sence, for which he had
taken revenge; while, according to the usual account, he had been asked by king
Proetus to heal his daughter, stricken with madness for acting impiously towards
Dionysus or Here. He had stipulated that his reward should be a third of the kingdom
for himself, another for Bias; besides which Iphianassa became his wife, and Lysippe
that of Bias, both being daughters of Proetus. A descendant of his son Antiphates
was Oicles, who was a companion of Heracles in the expedition against Troy, and
was slain in battle by Laomedon; he again was ancestor of the seer and hero Amphiaraus.
Descendants of his other son Mantius were Cleitus, whom Eos, the goddess of dawn,
carried off on account of his beauty, and Polypheides, whom, after the death of
Amphiaraus, Apollo made the best of seers. The son of Polypheides was the seer
Theoclymenus, who, flying from Argos on account of committing a murder, met Telemachus
at Pylus, was led by him to Ithaca, and announced to Penelope the presence in
Ithaca of Odysseus and to the suitors their approaching death. The seer Polyidus
was also said to be a great-grandson of Melampus. At Argos Melampus was held to
be the first priest of Dionysus, and originator of mysterious customs at festivals
and at ceremonies of expiation.
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Son of Melampus, father of Oicles, brother of Mantius (Od. 15.242). Perhaps, he reigned after his childless brother and was the 28th king of Argos, where he shared the kingdom with Pronax and Iphis.
He was a son of Melampus by Iphianassa, brother of Antiphates and father of Polypheides and Cleitus (Od. 15.242 etc.). He was the 25th king and shared the kingdom of Argos with Alector & Talaus.
Son of Bias and Pero, father of of Adrastus and of Parthenopaeus, shares kingdom of Argos with Alector & Mantius.
Talaus (Talaos), a son of Bias and Pero, and king of Argos. He was married to Lysimache (Eurynome, Hygin. Fab. 70, or Lysianassa, Paus. ii. 6.3), and was father of Adrastus, Parthenopaeus, Pronax, Mecisteus, Aristomachus, and Eriphyle (Apollod. i. 9.13; Pind. Nem. ix. 14). Hyginus mentions two other daughters of his. He also occurs among the Argonauts (Apollon. Rhod. ii. 118), and his tomb was shown at Argos (Paus. ii. 21.2). Being a great grandson of Cretheus, Antimachus in a fragment preserved in Pausanias (viii. 25.5) calls him Cretheiades. His own sons, Adrastus and Mecisteus, are sometimes called Talaionides, as in Hom. Il. ii. 566; Pind. Ol. vi. 24.
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Adrastus, son of Talaus and husband of Amphithea, succeeded his brother Pronax to the throne as the 30th king of Argos and shared the kingdom with Sthenelus and Oecleus. Afterwards, he left Argos and took refuge in Sicyon, where he succeeded Polybus to the throne (Paus. 2,6,6). He gave one of his daughters as wife to Tydeus, father of Diomedes (Il. 2.572, 14.121).
Homer also mentions his horse, Arion, which had saved him during the siege of Thebes (Il. 23.346).
Adrastus (Adrastos), a son of Talaus, king of Argos, and of Lysimache (Apollod.
i. 9.13). Pausanias (ii. 6.3) calls his mother Lysianassa, and Hyginus (Fab. 69)
Eurynome (Comp. Schol. ad Eurip. Phoen. 423). During a feud between the most powerful
houses in Argos, Talaus was slain by Amphiaraus, and Adrastus being expelled from
his dominions fled to Polybus, then king of Sicyon.
When Polybus died without heirs, Adrastus succeeded him on the throne of Sicyon,
and during his reign he is said to have instituted the Nemean
games (Hom. Il. ii. 572; Pind. Nem. ix. 30; Herod. v. 67; Paus. ii. 6.3). Afterwards,
however, Adrastus became reconciled to Amphiaraus, gave him his sister Eriphyle
in marriage, and returned to his kingdom of Argos. During the time he reigned
there it happened that Tydeus of Calydon and Polynices of Thebes,
both fugitives from their native countries, met at Argos near the palace of Adrastus,
and came to words and from words to blows. On hearing the noise, Adrastus hastened
to them and separated the combatants, in whom he immediately recognised the two
men that had been promised to him by an oracle as the future husbands of two of
his daughters; for one bore on his shield the figure of a boar, and the other
that of a lion, and the oracle was, that one of his daughters was to marry a boar
and the other a lion. Adrastus therefore gave his daughter Deipyle to Tydeus,
and Argeia to Polynices, and at the same time promised to lead each of these princes
back to his own country. Adrastus now prepared for war against Thebes,
although Amphiaraus foretold that all who should engage in it should perish, with
the exception of Adrastus (Apollod. iii. 6.1; Hygin. Fab. 69, 70).
Thus arose the celebrated war of the " Seven against Thebes," in which
Adrastus was joined by six other heroes, viz. Polynices, Tydeus, Amphiaraus, Capaneus,
Hippomedon, and Parthenopaeus. Instead of Tydeus and Polynices other legends mention
Eteoclos and Mecisteus. This war ended as unfortunately as Amphiaraus had predicted,
and Adrastus alone was saved by the swiftness of his horse Areion, the gift of
Heracles (Hom. Il. xxiii. 346; Paus. viii. 25.5; Apollod. iii. 6). Creon of Thebes
refusing to allow the bodies of the six heroes to be buried, Adrastus went to
Athens and implored the assistance
of the Athenians. Theseus was persuaded to undertake an expedition against Thebes;
he took the city and delivered up the bodies of the fallen heroes to their friends
for burial (Apollod. iii. 7.1 Paus. ix. 9.1).
Ten years after this Adrastus persuaded the seven sons of the heroes,
who had fallen in the war against Thebes,
to make a new attack upon that city, and Amphiaraus now declared that the gods
approved of the undertaking, and promised success (Paus. ix. 9.2; Apollod. iii.
7.2). This war is celebrated in ancient story as the war of the Epigoni (Epigonoi).
Thebes was taken and razed
to the ground, after the greater part of its inhabitants had left the city on
the advice of Tiresias (Apollod. iii. 7.2--4; Herod. v. 61; Strab. vii.). The
only Argive hero that fell in this war, was Aegialeus, the son of Adrastus. After
having built a temple of Nemesis in the neighbourhood of Thebes,
he set out on his return home. But weighed down by old age and grief at the death
of his son he died at Megara
and was buried there (Paus. i. 43.1). After his death he was worshipped in several
parts of Greece, as at Megara
(Paus. l. c.), at Sicyon
where his memory was celebrated in tragic choruses (Herod. v. 67), and in Attica
(Paus. i. 30.4). The legends about Adrastus and the two wars against Thebes have
furnished most ample materials for the epic as well as tragic poets of Greece
(Paus. ix. 9. 3), and some works of art relating to the stories about Adrastus
are mentioned in Pausanias. (iii. 18.7, x. 10.2).
From Adrastus the female patronymic Adrastine was formed (Hom. Il.
v. 412).
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Adrastus (Adrastos). Son of Talaus of Argos. Being expelled from Argos by Amphiaraus, he fled to Polybus, king of Sicyon, whom he succeeded on the throne of Sicyon, and instituted the Nemean games. Afterwards he became reconciled to Amphiaraus, and returned to his kingdom of Argos. He married his two daughters Deipyle and Argia, the former to Tydeus of Calydon, and the latter to Polynices of Thebes, both fugitives from their native countries. He then prepared to restore Polynices to Thebes, who had been expelled by his brother Eteocles, although Amphiaraus foretold that all who should engage in the war would perish, with the exception of Adrastus. Thus arose the celebrated war of the "Seven against Thebes," in which Adrastus was joined by six other heroes, viz., Polynices, Tydeus, Amphiaraus, Capaneus, Hippomedon, and Parthenopaeus. This war ended as unfortunately as Amphiaraus had predicted, and Adrastus alone was saved by the swiftness of his horse Arion, the gift of Heracles. Ten years afterwards, Adrastus persuaded the six sons of the heroes who had fallen in the war to make a new attack upon Thebes, and Amphiaraus now promised success. This war is known as the war of the Epigoni (epigonoi), or descendants. Thebes was taken and razed to the ground. The only Argive hero that fell in this war was Aegialeus, the son of Adrastus: the latter died of grief at Megara on his return to Argos, and was buried in the former city. The legends about Adrastus and the two wars against Thebes furnished ample materials for the epic as well as tragic poets of Greece.
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Demonassa, the mother of Aegialus by Adrastus. (Hygin. Fab. 71.)
He was the son of Antiphates or of Mantius, father of Amphiaraus and 31st king of Argos. He shared the kingdom with Sthenelus and Adrastus (Od. 15.244).
Oicles (Oikles) or Oicleus (Oikleus). The son of Antiphates, grandson of Melampus and father of Amphiaraus, of Argos. He is also called a son of Amphiaraus, or a son of Mantius, the brother of Antiphates. Oicles accompanied Heracles on his expedition against Laomedon of Troy, and was there slain in battle. According to other traditions, he returned home from the expedition, and dwelt in Arcadia, where he was visited by his grandson Alcmaeon , and where his tomb was shown.
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Hupermnestra, a daughter of Thestius and Eurythemis, and the witie of Oicles, by whom she became the mother of Amphhiaraus Her tomb was shown at Argos. (Apollod. i. 7.10; Paus. ii. 21. 2.) One of the daughters of Danaus was likewise called Hypermnestra.
He was a son of Talaus, brother of Adrastus and father of Euryalus (Il. 2.566)
Pausanias mentions that he took part in the funeral games of Oedipus at Thebes (Paus. 1,28,7).
Mecisteus, (Mekisteus). A son of Talaus and Lysimache, brother of Adrastus, and father of Euryalus of Thebes (Hom. Il. ii. 566; Apollod. iii. 6.3).
Amphiaraus, king of Argos, was the son of Oicles and husband of Eriphyle, sister of Adrastus, and father of Alcmaeon and Amphilochus. He was an Argonaut and participated in the hunt of the Calydonian boar. His wife urged him to participate in the expedition of the Seven against Thebes and as he was leaving, he commanded his son Alcmaeon to kill her (Od. 11.326, 15.244 etc.). There was a statue representing Amphiaraus at Cerameicus.
Amphiaraus (Amphiaraos), a son of Oicles and Hypermnestra, the daughter of Thestius (Hom. Od. xv. 244; Apollod. i. 8.2; Hygin. Fab. 73; Paus. ii. 21.2.). On his father's side he was descended from the famous seer Melampus (Paus. vi. 17.4). Some traditions represented him as ason of Apollo by Hypermnestra, which, however, is merely a poetical expression to describe him as a seer and prophet (Hygin. Fab. 70). Amphiaraus is renowned in ancient story as a brave hero: he is mentioned among the hunters of the Calydonian boar, which he is said to have deprived of one eye, and also as one of the Argonauts (Apollod. i. 8.2, 9.16). For a time he reigned at Argos in common with Adrastus; but, in a feud which broke out between them, Adrastus took to flight. Afterwards, however, he became reconciled with Amphiaraus, and gave him his sister Eriphyle in marriage, by whom Amphiaraus became the father of Alcmaeon, Amphilochus, Eurydice, and Demonassa. On marrying Eriphyle, Amphiaraus had sworn, that he would abide by the decision of Eriphyle on any point in which he should differ in opinion from Adrastus. When, therefore, the latter called upon him to join the expedition of the Seven against Thebes, Amphiaraus, although he foresaw its unfortunate issue and at first refused to take any part in it, was nevertheless persuaded by his wife to join his friends, for Eriphyle had been enticed to induce her husband by the necklace of Harmonia which Polyneices had given her. Amphiaraus on leaving Argos enjoined his sons to avenge his death on their heartless mother (Apollod. iii. 6.2; Hygin. Fab. 73; Diod. iv. 65; Hom Od. xv. 247). On their way to Thebes the heroes instituted the Nemean games, and Amphiaraus won the victory in the chariot-race and in throwing the discus (Apollod. iii. 6.4). During the war against Thebes, Amphiaraus fought bravely (Pind. Ol. vi. 26), but still he could not suppress his anger at the whole undertaking, and when Tydeus, whom he regarded as the originator of the expedition, was severely wounded by Melanippus, and Athena was hastening to render him immortal, Amphiaraus cut off the head of Melanippus, who had in the mean time been slain, and gave Tydeus his brains to drink, and Athena, struck with horror at the sight, withdrew (Apollod. iii. 6.8). When Adrastus and Amphiaraus were the only heroes who survived, the latter was pursued by Periclymenus, and fled towards the river Ismenius. Here the earth opened before he was overtaken by his enemy, and swallowed up Amphiaraus together with his chariot, but Zeus made him immortal (Pind. Nem. ix. 57, Ol. vi. 21; Plut. Parall. 6; Cic. de Divin. i. 40). Henceforth Amphiaraus was worshipped as a hero, first at Oropus and afterwards in all Greece (Paus. i. 34.2; Liv. xlv. 27). He had a sanctuary at Argos (Paus. ii. 23.2), a statue at Athens (i. 8.3), and a heroum at Sparta. The departure of Amphiaraus from his home when he went to Thebes, was represented on the chest of Cypselus (Paus. v. 17.4). Respecting some extant works of art, of which Amphiaraus is the subject, see GrΌneisen, Die alt griechische Bronze des Tux'schen Kabinets in TΌbingen, Stuttg. and TΌbing.1835. The prophetic power, which Amphiaraus was believed to possess, was accounted for by his descent from Melampus or Apollo, though there was also a local tradition at Phlius, according to which he had acquired them in a night which he spent in the prophetic house (oikos mantikos) of Phlius. (Paus. ii. 13.6; comp. i. 34.3). He was, like all seers, a favourite of Zeus and Apollo (Hom. Od. xv. 245). Respecting the oracle of Amphiaraus see Dict. of Ant. s. v. Oraculum. It should be remarked here, that Virgil (Aen. vii. 671) mentions three Greek heroes as contemporaries of Aeneas, viz. Tiburtus, Catillus, and Coras, the first of whom was believed to be the founder of Tibur, and is described by Pliny (H. N. xvi. 87) as a son of Amphiaraus.
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
Amphiaraus (Amphiaraos). An Argive, the son of Oicles and Hypermnestra, great-grandson of the seer Melampus. In Homer he is a favourite of Zeus and Apollo, alike distinguished as a seer and a hero, who takes part in the Calydonian boar-hunt, in the voyage of the Argonauts, and in the expedition of the Seven against Thebes. Reconciled to Adrastus after a quarrel, and wedded to his sister Eriphyle, he agreed that any future differences between them should be settled by her. She, bribed by Polynices with the fatal necklace of his ancestress Harmonia, insisted on her husband joining the war against Thebes, though he foresaw that it would end fatally for him, and in departing charged his youthful sons Alcmaeon and Amphilochus to avenge his coming death.
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Eriphyle (Eriphule). In Greek mythology, sister of Adrastus and wife of
Amphiaraus. Bribed with a necklace by Polynices, she prevailed on her husband
to take part in the war of the Seven against Thebes, in which he met his death.
In revenge for this she was slain by her son Alcmaeon.
Alcmaeon was the son of Amphiaraus and Eriphyle and brother of Amphilochus (Il. 15.248). He was the leader of the Epigoni against Thebes and murdered his mother, when he heard that she urged his father to participate in the expedition against Thebes, while she knew that he would be killed.
Alacmaeon (Alkmaion), a son of Amphiaraus and Eriphyle, and brother of Amphilochus,
Eurydice, and Demonassa (Apollod. iii. 7.2). His mother was induced by the necklace
of Harmonia, which she received from Polyneices, to persuade her husband Amphiaraus
to take part in the expedition against Thebes
(Hom. Od. xv. 247). But before Amphiaraus set out, he enjoined his sons to kill
their mother as soon as they should be grown up (Apollod. iii. 6.2; Hygin. Fab.
73). When the Epigoni prepared for a second expedition against Thebes,
to avenge the death of their fathers, the oracle promised them success and victory,
if they chose Alcmaeon their leader. He was at first disinclined to undertake
the command, as he had not yet taken vengeance on his mother, according to the
desire of his father. But she, who had now received from Thersander, the son of
Polyneices, the peplus of Harmonia also, induced him to join the expedition. Alcmaeon
distinguished himself greatly in it, and slew Laodamus, the son of Eteocles (Apollod.
iii. 7.2; comp. Diod. iv. 66). When, after the fall of Thebes,
he learnt the reason for which his mother had urged him on to take part in the
expedition, he slew her on the advice of an oracle of Apollo, and, according to
some traditions, in conjunction with his brother Amphilochus. For this deed he
became mad, and was haunted by the Erinnyes. He first came to Oecleus in Arcadia,
and thence went to Phegeus in Psophis,
and being purified by the latter, he married his daughter Arsinoe or Alphesiboea
(Paus. viii. 24.4), to whom he gave the necklace and peplus of Harmonia. But the
country in which he now resided was visited by scarcity, in consequence of his
being the murderer of his mother, and the oracle advised him to go to Achelous.
According to Pausanias, he left Psophis
because his madness did not yet cease. Pausanias and Thucydides (ii. 102; comp.
Plut. De Exil. p. 602) further state, that the oracle commanded him to go to a
country which had been formed subsequent to the murder of his mother, and was
therefore under no curse. The country thus pointed out was a tract of land which
had been recently formed at the mouth of the river Achelous.
Apollodorus agrees with this account, but gives a detailed history of Alcmaeon's
wanderings until he reached the mouth of Achelous,
who gave him his daughter Calirrhoe in marriage. Calirrhoe had a desire to possess
the necklace and peplus of Harmonia, and Alcmaeon, to gratify her wish, went to
Psophis to get them from
Phegeus, under the pretext that he intended to dedicate them at Delphi
in order to be freed from his madness. Phegeus complied with his request, but
when he heard that the treasures were fetched for Calirrhoe, he sent his sons
Pronous and Agenor (Apollod. iii. 7.6) or, according to Pausanias (viii. 24.4),
Temenus and Axion, after him, with the command to kill him. This was done, but
the sons of Alcmaeon by Calirrhoe took bloody vengoance at the instigation of
their mother (Apollod. Paus. ll. cc.; Ov. Met. ix. 407)
The story about Alcmaeon furnished rich materials for the epic and
tragic poets of Greece, and their Roman imitators. But none of these poems is
now extant, and we only know from Apollodorus (iii. 7.7), that Euripides, in his
tragedy " Alcmaeon," stated that after the fall of Thebes
he married Manto, the daughter of Teiresias, and that he had two children by her,
Amphilochus and Tisiphone, whom he gave to Creon, king of Corinth,
to educate. The wife of Creon, jealous of the extraordinary beauty of Tisiphone,
afterwards sold her as a slave, and Alcmaeon himself bought her, without knowing
that she was his daughter (Diod. iv. 66; Paus. vii. 3.1, ix. 33.1). Alcmaeon after
his death was worshipped as a hero, and at Thebes
he seems to have had an altar, near the house of Pindar (Pyth. viii. 80), who
calls him his neighbour and the guardian of his property, and also seems to suggest
that prophetic powers were ascribed to him, as to his father Amphiaraus. At Psopllis
his tomb was shown, surrounded with lofty and sacred cypresses (Paus. viii. 24.4).
At Oropus, in Attica,
where Amphiaraus and Amphilochus were worshipped, Alcmaeon enjoyed no such honours,
because he was a matricide (Paus. i. 34.2). He was represented in a statue at
Delphi, and on the chest
of Cypselus (x. 10.2, v. 17.4).
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
Alcmaeon, (Alkmaion). A native of Argos and son of Amphiaraus and Eriphyle. As his father, in departing on the expedition of the Seven against Thebes, had bound him and his brother Amphilochus, then mere boys, to avenge him on their faithless mother, Alcmaeon refused to take part in the second expedition, that of the Epigoni, till he had first fulfilled that filial duty; nevertheless his mother, bribed by Thersander with the garment of Harmonia, persuaded him to go. The real leader at the siege of Thebes, he slew the Theban king, Laodamas, and was the first to enter the conquered city. On returning home, he, at the bidding of the Delphian Apollo, avenged his father by slaying his mother, with, or according to some accounts, without, his brother's help; but immediately, like Orestes, he was set upon by the Furies, and wandered distracted, seeking purification and a new home. Phegeus, of the Arcadian Psophis, half purified him of his guilt, and gave him his daughter Arsinoe or Alphesiboea to wife, to whom he presented the jewels of Harmonia, which he had brought from Argos. But soon the crops failed in the land, and he fell into his distemper again, till, after many wanderings, he arrived at the mouth of the Achelous, and there, in an island that had floated up, he found the country promised by the god, which had not existed at the time of his dying mother's curse, and so he was completely cured. He married Achelous's daughter, Callirrhoe, by whom he had two sons, Acarnan and Amphoterus. Unable to withstand his wife's entreaties that she might have Harmonia's necklace and robe, he went to Phegeus in Arcadia, and begged those treasures of him, pretending that he would dedicate them at Delphi for the perfect healing of his madness. He obtained them; but Phegeus, on learning the truth, set his son to waylay him on the road, and rob him of his treasure and his life. Alcmaeon 's sons then avenged their father's death on his murderers. Alcmaeon received divine honours after death, and had a sanctuary at Thebes and a consecrated tomb at Psophis.
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Wives of Alcmaeon:
Arsinoe (or Alphesiboea; daughter of Phegeus, receives the necklace and robe (of Harmonia) from her husband Alcmaeon, is carried by the sons of Phegeus to Tegea and given as a slave to Agapenor. Son by Alcmaeon: Clytias
Manto; daughter of Tiresias, mother of Amphilochus and Tisiphone by Alcmaeon, dedicated by the Argives to Apollo, mother of Mopsus by Apollo, sent by Apollo to Colophon, where she marries Rhacius. Children by Alcaeon: Amphilochus, Tisiphone
Callirrhoe; daughter of Achelous, married by Alcmaeon, covets the necklace and robe (of Harmonia), courted by Zeus, requests that her sons be suddenly fullgrown, her sons kill their father's murderers (the sons of Phegeus), slay Phegeus and his wife, and dedicate the necklace and robe at Delphi. Sons by Alcmaeon: Acarnan, Amphoterus.
Callirrhoe, adaughter of Achelous and wife of Alcmaeon, whom she induced to procure her the peplus and necklace of Harmonia, by which she caused her husband's death. Callirrhoe then requested Zeus, with whom she lived in close intimacy, to grant that her sons by Alcmaeon might grow up to manhood at once, in order that they might be able to avenge the death of their father. Zeus granted the request, and Amphoterus and Acarnan killed the murderers of their father, the sons of Phegeus, at Delphi, and afterwards Phegeus himself also. (Apollod. iii. 7.6)
They were the inhabitants of the territory of Argos, but in Homer, this word, like the word "Argives", apllies to all the Greeks in general, who participated in the Trojan War (Il. 1.42, 56, Od. 11.559 etc.).
Danai (Danaoi). A name originally belonging to the Argives, as being, according to the common opinion, the subjects of Danaus. In consequence, however, of the warlike character of the race, and the high renown acquired by them, Homer uses the name Danai as a general appellation for the Greeks, when that of Hellenes was still confined to a narrower range.
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Homer mentions that Achaeans dwelt in Argos (Il. 5.414).
Achaei (Achaioi), one of the four races into which the Hellenes are usually divided. In the heroic age they are found in that part of Thessaly in which Phthia and Hellas were situated, and also in the eastern part of Peloponnesus, more especially in Argos and Sparta. Argos was frequently called the Achaean Argos (Argos Achaiikon, Hom. Il. ix. 141) to distinguish it from the Pelasgian Argos in Thessaly; but Sparta is generally mentioned as the head-quarters of the Achaean race in Peloponnesus. Thessaly and Peloponnesus were thus the two chief abodes of this people; but there were various traditions respecting their origin, and a difference of opinion existed among the ancients, whether the Thessalian or the Peloponnesian Achaeans were the more ancient. They were usually represented as descendants of Achaeus, the son of Xuthus and Creusa, and consequently the brother of Ion and grandson of Hellen. Pausanias (vii. 1) related that Achaeus went back to Thessaly, and recovered the dominions of which his father, Xuthus, had been deprived; and then, in order to explain the existence of the Achaeans in Peloponnesus, he adds that Archander and Architeles, the sons of Achaeus, came back from Phthiotis to Argos, married the two daughters of Danaus, and acquired such influence at Argos and Sparta, that they called the people Achaeans after their father Achaeus. On the other hand, Strabo in one passage says, that Achaeus having fled from Attica, where his father Xuthus had settled, settled in Lacedaemon and gave to the inhabitants the name of Achaeans. In another passage, however, he relates, that Pelops brought with him into Peloponnesus the Phthiotan Achaeans, who settled in Laconia. It would be unprofitable to pursue further the variations in the legends; but we may safely believe that the Achaeans in Thessaly were more ancient than those in Peloponnesus, since all tradition points to Thessaly as the cradle of the Hellenic race. There is a totally different account, which represents the Achaeans as of Pelasgic origin. It is preserved by Dionysius of Halicarnassus (i. 17), who relates that Achaeus, Phthius, and Pelasgus were sons of Poseidon and Larissa; and that they migrated from Peloponnesus to Thessaly, where they divided the country into three parts, called after them Achaia, Phthiotis and Pelasgiotis. A modern writer is disposed to accept this tradition so far, as to assign a Pelasgic origin to the Achaeans, though he regards the Phthiotan Achaeans as more ancient than their brethren in the Peloponnesus.The only fact known in the earliest history of the people, which we can admit with certainty, is their existence as the predominant race in the south of Thessaly, and on the eastern side of Peloponnesus. They are represented by Homer as a brave and warlike people, and so distinguished were they that he usually calls the Greeks in general Achaeans or Panachaeans (Panachaioi Il. ii. 404, vii. 73, &c.). In the same manner Peloponnesus, and sometimes the whole of Greece, is called by the poet the Achaean land. (Achaiis gaia, Hom. Il. i. 254, Od. xiii. 249.) On the conquest of Peloponnesus by the Dorians, 80 years after the Trojan war, the Achaeans were driven out of Argos and Laconia, and those who remained behind were reduced to the condition of a conquered people. Most of the expelled Achaeans, led by Tisamenus, the son of Orestes, proceeded to the land on the northern coast of Peloponnesus, which was called simply Aegialus (Aigialos) or the Coast, and was inhabited by Ionians. The latter were defeated by the Achaeans and crossed over to Attica and Asia Minor, leaving their country to their conquerors, from whom it was henceforth called Achaia. (Strab. p. 383; Pans. vii. 1; Pol. ii. 41; comp. Herod. i. 145.) The further history of the Achaeans is given under Achaia. The Achaeans founded several colonies, of which the most celebrated were Croton and Sybaris.
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Linus (Linos), the personification of a dirge or lamentation, and therefore described
as a son of Apollo by a Muse (Calliope, or by Psamathe or Chalciope, Apollod.
i. 3.2; Paus. i. 43.7, ii. 19.7; Eustath. ad Hom), or of Amphimarus by Urania
(Paus. ix. 29.3). Respecting his mother Psamathe, the story runs thus:
When she had given birth to Linus she exposed the child. He was found
by shepherds, who brought him up, but the child was afterwards torn to pieces
by dogs. Psamathe's grief at the occurrence betrayed her misfortune to her father,
who condemned her to death. Apollo, in his indignation at the father's cruelty,
visited Argos with a plague, and when his oracle was consulted about the means
of averting the plague, he answered that the Argives must propitiate Psamathe
and Linus. This was attempted by means of sacrifices, and matrons and virgins
sang dirges which were called linoi, and the month in which this solemnity was
celebrated was called arneios, and the festival itself arnis, because Linus had
grown up among lambs. The pestilence, however, did not cease until Crotopus quitted
Argos and settled at Tripodisium,
in Megaris (Conon. Narrat.
19; Paus. i. 43. Β§ 7; Athen. iii. p. 99).
According to a Boeotian
tradition Linus was killed by Apollo, because he had ventured upon a musical contest
with the god (Paus. ix. 29.3; Eustath. ad Hom.), and near Mount
Helicon his image stood in a hollow rock, formed in the shape of a grotto;
and every year before sacrifices were offered to the Muses, a funeral sacrifice
was offered to him, and dirges (linoi) were sung in his honour. His tomb was claimed
both by the city of Argos and by Thebes
(Paus. l. c., comp. ii. 19.7); but after the battle of Chaeroneia,
Philip of Macedonia was said
to have carried away the remains of Linus from Thebes
to Macedonia. Subsequently,
however, the king was induced by a dream to send the remains back to Thebes.
Chalcis in Euboea
likewise boasted of possessing the tomb of Linus, the inscription of which is
preserved by Diogenes Laertius (Prooem. 4; comp. Suid. s. v. Linos).
Being regarded as a son of Apollo and a Muse, he is said to have received
from his father the three-stringed lute, and is himself called the inventor of
new melodies, of dirges (Drenoi), and of songs in general. Hesiod (ap. Clem. Alex.
Strom. i. p. 330) even calls him pantoies sophies dedaekos. It is probably owing
to the difficulty of reconciling the different mythuses about Linus, that the
Thebans (Paus. ix. 29) thought it necessary to distinguish between an earlier
and later Linus; the latter is said to have instructed Heracles in music, but
to have been killed by the hero (comp. Apollod. ii. 4.9; Theocrit. xxiv. 103;
Diodor. iii. 67; Athen. iv). In the time of the Alexandrine grammarians people
even went so far as to look upon Linus as an historical personage, and to consider
him, like Musaeus, Orpheus, and others, as the author of apocryphal works (Diodor.
iii. 66), in which he described the exploits of Dionysus; Diogenes Laertius (Prooem.
3), who calls him a son of Hermes and Urania, ascribes to him several poetical
productions, such as a cosmogony on the course of the sun and moon, on the generation
of animals and fruits, and the like.
The principal places in Greece which are the scenes of the legends
about Linus are Argos and Thebes,
and the legends themselves bear a strong resemblance to those about Hyacynthus,
Narcissus, Glaucus, Adonis, Maneros, and others, all of whom are conceived as
handsome and lovely youths, and either as princes or as shepherds. They are the
favourites of the gods; and in the midst of the enjoyment of their happy youth,
they are carried off by a sudden or violent death; but their remembrance is kept
alive by men, who celebrate their memory in dirges and appropriate rites, and
seek the vanished youths generally about the middle of summer, but in vain. The
feeling which seems to have given rise to the stories about these personages,
who form a distinct class by themselves in Greek mythology, is deeply felt grief
at the catastrophes observable in nature, which dies away under the influence
of the burning sun (Apollo) soon after it has developed all its fairest beauties.
Those popular dirges, therefore, originally the expression of grief at the premature
death of nature through the heat of the sun, were transformed into lamentations
of the deaths of youths, and were sung on certain religious occasions. They were
afterwards considered to have been the productions of the very same youths whose
momory was celebrated in them. The whole class of songs of this kind was called
Drenoi oiktoi, and the most celebrated and popular among them was the linos, which
appears to have been popular even in the days of Homer (il. xviii. 569, with the
Schol).
Pamphos, the Athenian, and Sappho, sang of Linus under the name of
Oetolinus (oitos Linou, i. e. the death of Linus, Paus. ix. 29.3); and the tragic
poets, in mournful choral odes, often use the form ailinos (Aeschyl. Agam. 121;
Soph. Ajax, 627 ; Eurip. Phoen. 1535, Orest. 1380), which is a compound of at,
the interjection, and Line. As regards the etymology of Linus, Welcker regards
it as formed from the mournful interjection, li, while others, on the analogy
of Hyacinthus and Narcissus, consider Linus to have originally been the name of
a flower (a species of narcissus). (Phot. Lex. p. 224, ed. Pors.; Eustath. ad
Hom.; compare in general Ambrosch, De Lino, Berlin, 1829, 4to; Welcker, Kleine
Schriften, i. p. 8; E. v. Lasaulx, Ueber die Linosklage, Wiirzburg, 1842, 4to.)
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
This is the hymn for a slain youth (said to typify the departure of early summer),
Thammuz, Atys, Hylas, or Linus; the Semitic refrain ai lenu, "alas for us,"
becomes the Greek ailinos, from which comes the name Linus.
The Greek Linus corresponds to Adonis, the Syrian Tammuz (cf. Ezek.
viii. 14 'the women weeping for Tammuz?), the Lydian Atys, the Mysian Hylas; cf.
H.'s remark 'his name varies from tribe to tribe'. All these were conceived of
as beautiful young men, beloved of the goddess, and perishing untimely. The story
is said to be a sun-myth (Sayce, s.v. 'Tammuz' in Hastings's Dictionary). Frazer,
however (G. B. ii. 115 seq.), with more probability, says it represents 'the death
and resurrection of vegetation'. For the connexion of the reaper's song with the
myth cf. ib. pp. 253-8. If Frazer is right in explaining the story of Osiris (ii.
137 seq.) in the same way, it is only natural that Linus-Maneros should have been
introduced into the Osiris myth (cf. Plut. I. et O. c. 17). For Adonis worship,
which was especially a female cult, cf. Theocr. Id. 15 and Milton, P. L. i. 446
seq., of Tammuz
Whose annual wound in Lebanon
allured
The Syrian damsels to lament
his fate
In amorous ditties all a
summer's day.
Linus, who was worshipped in Argos, was said to be the son of Urania,
killed by Apollo from jealousy of his voice (Paus. ix. 29. 6-7); but there are
other versions of the story. The name is as old as Homer (Il. xviii. 570), who
makes it a reaper's song. In Hesiod (fr. 132) it has a wider extension; he says
of aoidoi:
pantes men threnousin en eilapinais
te chorois te,
archomenoi de Linon kai legontes
kaleousi.
It is said to be the Eastern cry, 'woe unto us,' raised at the festival;
the Greeks first borrowed this as ailinon (cf. Soph. Aj. 627), and then, by a
mistaken etymology, interpreted it as 'alas for Linus'.
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