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Hercules was taught to drive a chariot by Amphitryon, to wrestle by Autolycus, to shoot with the bow by Eurytus, to fence by Castor, and to play the

lyre by Linus.[*](As to the education of Herakles, see Theocritus xxiv.104ff., according to whom Herakles learned wrestling not from Autolycus but from Harpalycus, son of Hermes.) This Linus was a brother of Orpheus; he came to Thebes and became a Theban, but was killed by Hercules with a blow of the lyre; for being struck by him, Hercules flew into a rage and slew him.[*](Compare Diod. 3.67.2; Paus. 9.29.9; Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.213ff. ) When he was tried for murder, Hercules quoted a law of Rhadamanthys, who laid it down that whoever defends himself against a wrongful aggressor shall go free, and so he was acquitted. But fearing he might do the like again, Amphitryon sent him to the cattle farm; and there he was nurtured and outdid all in stature and strength. Even by the look of him it was plain that he was a son of Zeus; for his body measured four cubits,[*](Four cubits and one foot, according to the exact measurement of the historian Herodorus. See Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.210ff.; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 662.) and he flashed a gleam of fire from his eyes; and he did not miss, neither with the bow nor with the javelin. While he was with the herds and had reached his eighteenth year he slew the lion of Cithaeron, for that animal, sallying from Cithaeron, harried the kine of Amphitryon and of Thespius.[*](According to another account, the lion of Cithaeron was killed by Alcathous (Paus. 1.41.3ff.). But Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.216ff. agrees with Apollodorus, whose account of Herakles he seems to follow.)

Now

this Thespius was king of Thespiae, and Hercules went to him when he wished to catch the lion. The king entertained him for fifty days, and each night, as Hercules went forth to the hunt, Thespius bedded one of his daughters with him( fifty daughters having been borne to him by Megamede, daughter of Arneus); for he was anxious that all of them should have children by Hercules. Thus Hercules, though he thought that his bed-fellow was always the same, had intercourse with them all.[*](As to Herakles and the daughters of Thespius, compare Diod. 4.29.2ff.; Paus. 9.27.6ff.; Athenaeus xiii.4, p. 556 F; Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.221ff. The father of the damsels is called Thestius by Pausanias and Athenaeus, who refers to Herodorus as his authority. See the Critical Note.) And having vanquished the lion, he dressed himself in the skin and wore the scalp[*](More exactly, “the gaping mouth.” In Greek art Herakles is commonly represented wearing the lion's skin, often with the lion's scalp as a hood on his head. See, for example, Baumeister, Denkmäler des klassischen Altertums, i. figs. 724, 726, 729, 730.) as a helmet.

As he was returning from the hunt, there met him heralds sent by Erginus to receive the tribute from the Thebans.[*](As to Herakles and Erginus, compare Diod. 4.10.3-5; Paus. 9.37.2ff.; Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.226ff. ) Now the Thebans paid tribute to Erginus for the following reason. Clymenus, king of the Minyans, was wounded with a cast of a stone by a charioteer of Menoeceus, named Perieres, in a precinct of Poseidon at Onchestus; and being carried dying to Orchomenus, he with his last breath charged his son Erginus to avenge his death. So Erginus marched against Thebes, and after slaughtering not a few of the Thebans he concluded a treaty with them, confirmed by oaths, that they should send him tribute for twenty years, a hundred kine every year. Falling in with the heralds on their

way to Thebes to demand this tribute, Hercules outraged them; for he cut off their ears and noses and hands, and having fastened them by ropes from their necks, he told them to carry that tribute to Erginus and the Minyans. Indignant at this outrage, Erginus marched against Thebes. But Hercules, having received weapons from Athena and taken the command, killed Erginus, put the Minyans to flight, and compelled them to pay double the tribute to the Thebans. And it chanced that in the fight Amphitryon fell fighting bravely. And Hercules received from Creon his eldest daughter Megara as a prize of valor,[*](Compare Diod. 4.10.6; Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.228. As to the sons of Herakles by Megara, compare below, Apollod. 2.7.8. The ancients differed considerably as to the number and names of the children whom Herakles had by Megara. According to Pind. I. 4.63ff. there were eight of them. Euripides speaks of three (Eur. Herc. 995ff.). See Scholiast on Pind. I. 4.61(104); Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 48, 663; Scholiast on Hom. Od. xi.269 (who agrees with Apollodorus and quotes Asclepiades as his authority); Hyginus, Fab. 31, 32. The Thebans celebrated an annual festival, with sacrifices and games, in honour of the children. See Pind. I. 4.61 (104)ff, with the Scholiast.) and by her he had three sons, Therimachus, Creontiades, and Deicoon. But Creon gave his younger daughter to Iphicles, who already had a son Iolaus by Automedusa, daughter of Alcathus. And Rhadamanthys, son of Zeus, married Alcmena after the death of Amphitryon, and dwelt as an exile at Ocaleae in Boeotia.[*](Compare Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 50, who says that Rhadamanthys fled from Crete because he had murdered his own brother. He agrees with Pausanias that the worthy couple took up their abode at Ocaleae (or Ocalea) in Boeotia. Their tombs were shown near Haliartus, in Boeotia. See Plut. Lys. 28. The grave of Alcmena was excavated in antiquity, during the Spartan occupation of the Cadmea. It was found to contain a small bronze bracelet, two earthen-ware jars, and a bronze tablet inscribed with ancient and unknown characters. See Plut. De genio Socratis 5. A different story of the marriage of Rhadamanthys and Alcmena was told by Pherecydes. According to him, when Alcmena died at a good old age, Zeus commanded Hermes to steal her body from the coffin in which the sons of Herakles were conveying it to the grave. Hermes executed the commission, adroitly substituting a stone for the corpse in the coffin. Feeling the coffin very heavy, the sons of Herakles set it down, and taking off the lid they discovered the fraud. They took out the stone and set it up in a sacred grove at Thebes, where was a shrine of Alcmena. Meantime Hermes had carried off the real Alcmena to the Islands of the Blest, where she was married to Rhadamanthys. See Ant. Lib. 33. This quaint story is alluded to by Pausanias, who tells us (Paus. 9.16.7) that there was no tomb of Alcmena at Thebes, because at her death she had been turned to stone.) Having first learned from Eurytus the art of archery,[*](See above Apollod. 2.4.9. According to another account, Herakles learned archery from the exile Rhadamanthys (Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 50), and if we accept the MS. reading αὐτοῦ in the present passage (see Critical Note), this was the version of the story here followed by Apollodorus. But it seems more likely that αὐτοῦ is a scribe's mistake for Εὐρύτου than that Apollodorus should have contradicted himself flatly in two passages so near each other. The learned Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 50 mentions no less than three different men—Teutarus, Eurytus, and Rhadamanthys—to whom the honour of having taught Herakles to shoot was variously assigned by tradition.) Hercules received a sword from Hermes, a bow and arrows from Apollo,[*](As to the gifts of the gods to Herakles, see Diod. 4.13.3, who, besides the sword and bow given by Hermes and Apollo, mentions horses given by Poseidon.) a golden breastplate from Hephaestus, and a robe from Athena; for he had himself cut a club at Nemea.

Now it came to pass that after the battle with the Minyans Hercules was driven mad through the jealousy of Hera and flung his own children, whom he had by Megara, and two children of Iphicles into the fire;[*](Compare Eur. Herc. 967ff.; Moschus iv.13ff.; Diod. 4.11.1ff.; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 38; Nicolaus Damascenus, Frag. 20, in Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum, ed. C. Müller, iii.369; Hyginus, Fab. 32.) wherefore he condemned himself to exile, and was purified by Thespius, and repairing to Delphi he inquired of the god where he should dwell.[*](Compare Diod. 4.10.7.) The Pythian priestess then first called him Hercules, for hitherto he was called Alcides.[*](Herakles was called Alcides after his grandfather Alcaeus, the father of Amphitryon. See above, Apollod. 2.4.5. But, according to another account, the hero was himself called Alcaeus before he received the name of Herakles from Apollo. See Sextus Empiricus, pp. 398ff., ed. Bekker; Scholiast on Pind. O. 6.68(115).)

And she told him to dwell in Tiryns, serving Eurystheus for twelve years and to perform the ten labours imposed on him, and so, she said, when the tasks were accomplished, he would be immortal.[*](For the labours of Herakles, see Soph. Trach. 1091ff.; Eur. Herc. 359ff.; Eur. Herc. 1270ff.; Diod. 4.10ff.; Paus. 5.10.9; Paus. 5.26.7; Quintus Smyrnaeus, Posthomerica vi.208ff.; Tzetzes, Chiliades 229ff.; Verg. A. 8.287ff.; Ov. Met. 9.182ff.; Hyginus, Fab. 30.)