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Apollodorus
Apollodorus. The Library. Frazer, James George, Sir, editor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd. 1921.
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; Inscriptiones Graecae Megaridis, Oropiae, Boeotiae, 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, Der Reliquienkult im Altertum (Giessen, 1909-1912), pp. 466ff. Compare P. Foucart, Le culte des héros chez les Grecs (Paris, 1918), pp. 96, 98 (from the Memoires de l' Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, vol. xlii).) And having
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
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 Early Age of Greece 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
The fifth labour he laid on him was to carry out the dung of the cattle of Augeas in a single day.[*](As to Augeas and his cattle-stalls, see Theocritus xxv.7ff.; Diod. 4.13.3; Paus. 5.1.9ff.; Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.278ff. (who seems to follow Apollodorus); Scholiast on Hom. Il. ii.629, xi.700; Scholiast on Ap. Rhod., Argon. i.172; Hyginus, Fab. 30. According to the rationalistic Pausanias, the name of the father of Augeas was Eleus (Eleios), which was popularly corrupted into Helios, “Sun”; Serv. Verg. A. 8.300.) Now Augeas was king of Elis; some say that he was a son of the Sun, others that he was a son of Poseidon, and others that he was a son of Phorbas; and he had many herds of cattle. Hercules accosted him, and without revealing the command of Eurystheus, said that he would carry out the dung in one day, if Augeas would give him the tithe of the cattle. Augeas was incredulous, but promised. Having taken Augeas's son Phyleus to witness, Hercules made a breach in the foundations of the cattle-yard, and then, diverting the courses of the Alpheus and Peneus,
The sixth labour he enjoined on him was to chase away the Stymphalian birds.[*](As to the Stymphalian birds, see Ap. Rhod., Argon. ii.1052-1057, with the Scholiast on 1054; Diod. 4.13.2; Strab. 8.6.8; Paus. 8.22.4; Quintus Smyrnaeus, Posthomerica vi.227ff.; Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.291ff.; Hyginus, Fab. 20, 30; Serv. Verg. A. 8.300. These fabulous birds were said to shoot their feathers like arrows. Compare D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson, Glossary of Greek Birds, p. 162. From the Ap. Rhod., Argon. ii.1052-1057, with the Scholiast on 1054 we learn that the use of a brazen rattle to frighten the birds was mentioned both by Pherecydes and Hellanicus.) Now at the city of Stymphalus in Arcadia was the lake called Stymphalian, embosomed in a deep wood. To it countless
The seventh labour he enjoined on him was to bring the Cretan bull.[*](As to the Cretan bull see Diod. 4.13.4; Paus. 1.27.9ff., Paus. 5.10.9; Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.293- 298 (who seems to follow Apollodorus); Hyginus, Fab. 30.) Acusilaus says that this was the bull that ferried across Europa for Zeus; but some say it was the bull that Poseidon sent up from the sea when Minos promised to sacrifice to Poseidon what should appear out of the sea. And they say that when he saw the beauty of the bull he sent it away to the herds and sacrificed another to Poseidon; at which the god was angry and made the bull savage. To attack this bull Hercules came to Crete, and when, in reply to his request for aid, Minos told him to fight and catch the bull for himself, he caught it and brought it to Eurystheus, and having shown it to him he let it afterwards go free. But the bull roamed to Sparta and all Arcadia, and traversing the
The eighth labour he enjoined on him was to bring the mares of Diomedes the Thracian to Mycenae.[*](As to the man-eating mares of Diomedes, see Diod. 4.15.3ff.; Philostratus, Im. ii.25; Quintus Smyrnaeus, Posthomerica vi.245ff.; Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.299-308 (who seems to follow Apollodorus, except that he speaks of the animals in the masculine as horses, not mares); Strab. 7 Fr. 44, 47, ed. A. Meineke; Stephanus Byzantius, s.v. Ἄβδηρα ; Hyginus, Fab. 30 (who gives the names of four horses, not mares). According to Diod. 4.13.4, Herakles killed the Thracian king Diomedes himself by exposing him to his own mares, which devoured him. Further, the historian tells us that when Herakles brought the mares to Eurystheus, the king dedicated them to Hera, and that their descendants existed down to the time of Alexander the Great.) Now this Diomedes was a son of Ares and Cyrene, and he was king of the Bistones, a very warlike Thracian people, and he owned man-eating mares. So Hercules sailed with a band of volunteers, and having overpowered the grooms who were in charge of the mangers, he drove the mares to the sea. When the Bistones in arms came to the rescue, he committed the mares to the guardianship of Abderus, who was a son of Hermes, a native of Opus in Locris, and a minion of Hercules; but the mares killed him by dragging him after them. But Hercules fought against the Bistones, slew Diomedes and compelled the rest to flee. And he founded a city Abdera beside the grave of Abderus who had been done to death,[*](Compare Strab. 7 Fr. 44, 47, ed. A. Meineke; Stephanus Byzantius, s.v. Ἄβδηρα ; Philostratus, Im. ii.25. From Philostratus we learn that athletic games were celebrated in honour of Abderus. They comprised boxing, wrestling, the pancratium, and all the other usual contests, with the exception of racing—no doubt because Abderus was said to have been killed by horses. We may compare the rule which excluded horses from the Arician grove, because horses were said to have killed Hippolytus, with whom Virbius, the traditionary founder of the sanctuary, was identified. See Verg. A. 7.761-780; Ovid, Fasti iii.265ff. When we remember that the Thracian king Lycurgus is said to have been killed by horses in order to restore the fertility of the land (see Apollod. 3.5.1), we may conjecture that the tradition of the man-eating mares of Diomedes, another Thracian king who is said to have been killed by horses, points to a custom of human sacrifice performed by means of horses, whether the victim was trampled to death by their hoofs or tied to their tails and rent asunder. If the sacrifice was offered, as the legend of Lycurgus suggests, for the sake of fertilizing the ground, the reason for thus tearing the victim to pieces may have been to scatter the precious life-giving fragments as widely and as quickly as possible over the barren earth. Compare Adonis, Attis, Osiris ii.97ff. The games at Abdera are alluded to by the poet Machon, quoted by Athenaeus viii.41, p. 349 B.)