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.

When Hercules heard that, he went to Tiryns and did as he was bid by Eurystheus. First, Eurystheus ordered him to bring the skin of the Nemean lion;As to the Nemean lion, compare Hes. Th. 326ff.; Bacch. 8.6ff., ed. Jebb; Soph. Trach. 1091ff.; Theocritus xxv.162ff.; Diod. 4.11.3ff.; Eratosthenes, Cat. 12; Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.232ff.; Hyginus, Fab. 30. According to Hesiod, the Nemean lion was begotten by Orthus, the hound of Geryon, upon the monster Echidna. Hyginus says that the lion was bred by the Moon. now that was an invulnerable beast begotten by Typhon. On his way to attack the lion he came to Cleonae and lodged at the house of a day-laborer, Molorchus;As to Herakles and Molorchus, compare Tibullus iv.1.12ff.; Verg. G. 3.19, with Servius's note; Martial iv.64.30, ix.43.13; Statius, Sylv. iii.1.28. and when his host would have offered a victim in sacrifice, Hercules told him to wait for thirty days, and then, if he had returned safe from the hunt, to sacrifice to Saviour Zeus, but if he were dead, to sacrifice to him as to a hero.The Greeks had two distinct words for sacrificing, according as the sacrifice was offered to a god or to a hero, that is, to a worshipful dead man; the former sacrifice was expressed by the verb θύειν, the latter by the verb ἐναγίζειν. The verbal distinction can hardly be preserved in English, except by a periphrasis. For the distinction between the two, see Paus. 2.10.1; Paus. 2.11.7; Paus. 3.19.3; and for more instances of ἐναγίζειν in this sense, see Paus. 3.1.8; Paus. 4.21.11; Paus. 7.17.8; Paus. 7.19.10; Paus. 7.20.9; Paus. 8.14.10-11; Paus. 8.41.1; Paus. 9.5.14; Paus. 9.18.3-4; Paus. 9.38.5; Paus. 10.24.6; , ed. G. Dittenberger, p. 32, No. 53. For instances of the antithesis between θύειν and ἐναγίζειν, see Hdt. 2.44; Plut. De Herodoti malignitate 13; Ptolemy Hephaest., Nauck 2nd ed., Nov. Hist. iii. in Westermann's Mythographi Graeci, p. 186; Pollux viii.91; Scholiast on Eur. Ph. 274. The corresponding nouns θυσίαι and ἐναγίσματα are similarly opposed to each other. See Aristot. Ath. Pol. 58. Another word which is used only of sacrificing to heroes or the dead is ἐντέμνειν See, for example, Thuc. 5.11, ὠς ἥρωΐ τε ἐντέμνουσι (of the sacrifices offered at Amphipolis to Brasidas). Sometimes the verbs ἐναγίζειν and ἐντέμνειν are coupled in this sense. See Philostratus, Her. xx.27, 28. For more evidence as to the use of these words, see Fr. Pfister, (Giessen, 1909-1912), pp. 466ff. Compare P. Foucart, (Paris, 1918), pp. 96, 98 (from the , vol. xlii). And having come to Nemea and tracked the lion, he first shot an arrow at him, but when he perceived that the beast was invulnerable, he heaved up his club and made after him. And when the lion took refuge in a cave with two mouths, Hercules built up the one entrance and came in upon the beast through the other, and putting his arm round its neck held it tight till he had choked it; so laying it on his shoulders he carried it to Cleonae. And finding Molorchus on the last of the thirty days about to sacrifice the victim to him as to a dead man, he sacrificed to Saviour Zeus and brought the lion to Mycenae. Amazed at his manhood, Eurystheus forbade him thenceforth to enter the city, but ordered him to exhibit the fruits of his labours before the gates. They say, too, that in his fear he had a bronze jar made for himself to hide in under the earth,Compare Diod. 4.12.1, who however places this incident after the adventure with the Erymanthian boar. and that he sent his commands for the labours through a herald, Copreus,As to the herald Copreus, compare Hom. Il. 15.639ff., with the note of the Scholiast. son of Pelops the Elean. This Copreus had killed Iphitus and fled to Mycenae, where he was purified by Eurystheus and took up his abode.

As a second labour he ordered him to kill the Lernaean hydra.Compare Eur. Herc. 419ff.; Diod. 4.11.5ff.; Paus. 2.37.4; Paus. 5.5.10; Paus. 5.17.11; Zenobius, Cent. vi.26; Quintus Smyrnaeus, Posthomerica vi.212ff.; Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.237ff.; Verg. A. 8.299ff.; Ov. Met. 9.69ff.; Hyginus, Fab. 30. Diodorus and Ovid multiply the hydra's heads to a hundred; the sceptical Pausanias (Paus. 2.37.4) would reduce them to one. Both Diodorus and Pausanias, together with Zenobius and Hyginus, mention that Herakles poisoned his arrows with the gall of the hydra. The account which Zenobius gives of the hydra is clearly based on that of Apollodorus, though as usual he does not name his authority. That creature, bred in the swamp of Lerna, used to go forth into the plain and ravage both the cattle and the country. Now the hydra had a huge body, with nine heads, eight mortal, but the middle one immortal. So mounting a chariot driven by Iolaus, he came to Lerna, and having halted his horses, he discovered the hydra on a hill beside the springs of the Amymone, where was its den. By pelting it with fiery shafts he forced it to come out, and in the act of doing so he seized and held it fast. But the hydra wound itself about one of his feet and clung to him. Nor could he effect anything by smashing its heads with his club, for as fast as one head was smashed there grew up two. A huge crab also came to the help of the hydra by biting his foot.For this service the crab was promoted by Hera, the foe of Herakles, to the rank of a constellation in the sky. See Eratosthenes, Cat. 11 (who quotes as his authority the of Panyasis); Hyginus, Ast. ii.23. So he killed it, and in his turn called for help on Iolaus who, by setting fire to a piece of the neighboring wood and burning the roots of the heads with the brands, prevented them from sprouting. Having thus got the better of the sprouting heads, he chopped off the immortal head, and buried it, and put a heavy rock on it, beside the road that leads through Lerna to Elaeus. But the body of the hydra he slit up and dipped his arrows in the gall. However, Eurystheus said that this labour should not be reckoned among the ten because he had not got the better of the hydra by himself, but with the help of Iolaus.

As a third labour he ordered him to bring the Cerynitian hind alive to Mycenae.Compare Pind. O. 3.28(50)ff.; Eur. Herc. 375ff.; Diod. 4.13.1; Tzetzes, Chiliades 11.265ff.; Hyginus, Fab. 30. Pindar says that in his quest of the hind with the golden horns Herakles had seen “the land at the back of the cold north wind.” Hence, as the reindeer is said to be the only species of deer of which the female has antlers, Sir William Ridgeway argues ingeniously that the hind with the golden horns was no other than the reindeer. See his 1. (Cambridge, 1901), pp. 360ff. Later Greek tradition, as we see from Apollodorus, did not place the native land of the hind so far away. Oenoe was a place in Argolis. Mount Artemisius is the range which divides Argolis from the plain of Mantinea. The Ladon is the most beautiful river of Arcadia, if not of Greece. The river Cerynites, from which the hind took its name, is a river which rises in Arcadia and flows through Achaia into the sea. The modern name of the river is Bouphousia. See Paus. 7.25.5, with my note. Now the hind was at Oenoe; it had golden horns and was sacred to Artemis; so wishing neither to kill nor wound it, Hercules hunted it a whole year. But when, weary with the chase, the beast took refuge on the mountain called Artemisius, and thence passed to the river Ladon, Hercules shot it just as it was about to cross the stream, and catching it put it on his shoulders and hastened through Arcadia. But Artemis with Apollo met him, and would have wrested the hind from him, and rebuked him for attempting to kill her sacred animal.The hind is said to have borne the inscription “Taygete dedicated (me) to Artemis.” See Pind. O. 3.29(53)ff., with the Scholiast. Howbeit, by pleading necessity and laying the blame on Eurystheus, he appeased the anger of the goddess and carried the beast alive to Mycenae.

As a fourth labour he ordered him to bring the Erymanthian boar alive;As to the Erymanthian boar and the centaurs, see Soph. Trach. 1095ff.; Diod. 4.12; Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.268ff.; Hyginus, Fab. 30. The boar's tusks were said to be preserved in a sanctuary of Apollo at Cumae in Campania (Paus. 8.24.5). now that animal ravaged Psophis, sallying from a mountain which they call Erymanthus. So passing through Pholoe he was entertained by the centaur Pholus, a son of Silenus by a Melian nymph.As to these nymphs, see Hesiod, Th. 187. The name perhaps means an ash-tree nymph (from μελία, an ash tree), as Dryad means an oak tree nymph (from δρῦς, an oak tree). He set roast meat before Hercules, while he himself ate his meat raw. When Hercules called for wine, he said he feared to open the jar which belonged to the centaurs in common.Compare Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.271; Theocritus vii.149ff. The jar had been presented by Dionysus to a centaur with orders not to open it till Herakles came (Diodorus Siculus iv.12.3). But Hercules, bidding him be of good courage, opened it, and not long afterwards, scenting the smell, the centaurs arrived at the cave of Pholus, armed with rocks and firs. The first who dared to enter, Anchius and Agrius, were repelled by Hercules with a shower of brands, and the rest of them he shot and pursued as far as Malea. Thence they took refuge with Chiron, who, driven by the Lapiths from Mount Pelion, took up his abode at Malea. As the centaurs cowered about Chiron, Hercules shot an arrow at them, which, passing through the arm of Elatus, stuck in the knee of Chiron. Distressed at this, Hercules ran up to him, drew out the shaft, and applied a medicine which Chiron gave him. But the hurt proving incurable, Chiron retired to the cave and there he wished to die, but he could not, for he was immortal. However, Prometheus offered himself to Zeus to be immortal in his stead, and so Chiron died. The rest of the centaurs fled in different directions, and some came to Mount Malea, and Eurytion to Pholoe, and Nessus to the river Evenus. The rest of them Poseidon received at Eleusis and hid them in a mountain. But Pholus, drawing the arrow from a corpse, wondered that so little a thing could kill such big fellows; howbeit, it slipped from his hand and lighting on his foot killed him on the spot.Compare Servius on Verg. A. 8.294. So when Hercules returned to Pholoe, he beheld Pholus dead; and he buried him and proceeded to the boar hunt. And when he had chased the boar with shouts from a certain thicket, he drove the exhausted animal into deep snow, trapped it, and brought it to Mycenae.