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Not long afterwards he collected an Arcadian army, and being joined by volunteers from the first men in Greece he marched against Augeas.[*](For the expedition of Herakles against Augeas, see Diod. 4.33.1; Paus. 5.1.10ff.; Paus. 5.2.1; Paus. 6.20.16; Scholiast on Pind. O. 9.31(40).) But Augeas, hearing of the war that Hercules was levying, appointed Eurytus and Cteatus[*](As to Eurytus and Cteatus, who were called Actoriones after their father Actor, and Moliones or Molionides, after their mother Molione, see Hom. Il. 2.621, Hom. Il. 11.709ff.,Hom. Il. 11.751ff., Hom. Il. 13.638; Paus. 5.1.10ff.; Paus. 5.2.1ff. and Paus. 5.2.5ff. According to some, they had two bodies joined in one (Scholiast on Hom. Il. 13.638, 639). According to others, they had each two heads four hands, and four feet but only one body (Scholiast on Hom. Il. xi.709). Compare Eustathius on Hom. Il. xi.749, p. 882. The poet Ibycus spoke of them as twins, born of a silver egg and “with equal heads in one body” (ἰσοκεφάλους ἑνιγυίους). See Athenaeus ii.50, pp. 57ff. Their story was told by Pherecydes (Scholiast on Hom. Il. xi.709), whom Apollodorus may have followed in the present passage.) generals of the Eleans. They were two men joined in one, who surpassed all of that generation in strength and were sons of Actor by Molione, though their father was said to be Poseidon; now Actor was a brother of Augeas. But it came to pass that on the expedition Hercules fell sick; hence he concluded a truce with the Molionides. But afterwards, being apprized of his illness, they attacked the army and slew many. On that occasion, therefore, Hercules beat a retreat; but afterwards at the celebration of the third Isthmian festival, when the Eleans sent the Molionides to take part in the sacrifices, Hercules waylaid and killed them at Cleonae,[*](Compare Pind. O. 10.26(32)ff.; Diod. 4.33.3; Paus. 2.15.1, Paus. 5.2.1.) and marching on Elis took the city. And having killed Augeas and his sons, he restored Phyleus and bestowed on him the kingdom.[*](Compare Pind. O. 10.34(43)ff.; Diod. 4.33.4; Paus. 5.3.1; Scholiast on Hom. Il. xi.700.) He also celebrated the Olympian games[*](Herakles is said to have marked out the sacred precinct at Olympia, instituted the quadriennial Olympic festival, and celebrated the Olympic games for the first time. See Pind. O. 3.3ff., Pind. O. 6.67ff., Pind. O. 10.43(51)ff.; Diod. 4.14.1ff., Diod. 5.64.6; Paus. 5.7.9; Paus. 5.8.1 and Paus. 5.8.3ff.; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 41; Scholiast on Hom. Il. xi.700; Hyginus, Fab. 273.) and

founded an altar of Pelops,[*](Apollodorus is probably mistaken in speaking of an altar of Pelops at Olympia. The more accurate Pausanias describes (Paus. 5.13.1ff.) a precinct of Pelops founded by Herakles at Olympia and containing a pit, in which the magistrates annually sacrificed a black ram to the hero: he does not mention an altar. As a hero, that is, a worshipful dead man, Pelops was not entitled to an altar, he had only a right to a sacrificial pit. For sacrifices to the dead in pits see Hom. Od. 11.23ff.; Philostratus, Her. xx.27; Scholiast on Eur. Ph. 274; Paus. 9.39.6; Fr. Pfister, Der Reliquienkult im Altertum, pp. 474ff. ) and built six altars of the twelve gods.[*](As to the six double altars, each dedicated to a pair of deities, see Pind. O. 5.4(8)ff.; Pind. O. 10.24(30); Scholiast on Pind. O. 5.4(8) and Pind. O. 5.5(10), who cites Herodorus on the foundation of the altars by Herakles.)

After the capture of Elis he marched against Pylus,[*](As to the war of Herakles on Pylus, see Hom. Il. 5.392ff.; Hom. Il. 11.690ff.; Scholiast on Hom. Il. ii.396; Paus. 2.18.7; Paus. 3.26.8; Paus. 5.3.1; Paus. 6.22.5; Paus. 6.25.2ff.; Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.451; Ov. Met. 12.549ff. ) and having taken the city he slew Periclymenus, the most valiant of the sons of Neleus, who used to change his shape in battle.[*](See Apollod. 1.9.9, with the note.) And he slew Neleus and his sons, except Nestor; for he was a youth and was being brought up among the Gerenians. In the fight he also wounded Hades, who was siding with the Pylians.[*](See Hom. Il. 5.395ff.; Paus. 6.25.2ff. In the same battle Herakles is said to have wounded Hera with an arrow in the right breast. See Hom. Il. 5.392ff.; Clement of Alexandria, Protrept. ii.36, p. 31, ed. Potter, from whom we learn that Panyasis mentioned the wounding of the goddess by the hero. Again, in the same fight at Pylus, we read that Herakles gashed the thigh of Ares with his spear and laid that doughty deity in the dust. See Hes. Sh. 359ff. ) Having taken Pylus he marched against Lacedaemon, wishing to punish the sons of Hippocoon,[*](As to the war of Herakles with Hippocoon and his sons, see Diod. 4.33.5ff.; Paus. 2.18.7, Paus. 3.10.6, Paus. 3.15.3-6, Paus. 3.19.7, Paus. 8.53.9.) for he was angry with them, both because they fought for Neleus, and still angrier because they had killed the son of Licymnius. For when he was looking at the palace of Hippocoon, a hound of the Molossian breed ran out and rushed at him, and he threw a stone and hit the dog, whereupon the Hippocoontids

darted out and despatched him with blows of their cudgels. It was to avenge his death that Hercules mustered an army against the Lacedaemonians. And having come to Arcadia he begged Cepheus to join him with his sons, of whom he had twenty. But fearing lest, if he quitted Tegea, the Argives would march against it, Cepheus refused to join the expedition. But Hercules had received from Athena a lock of the Gorgon's hair in a bronze jar and gave it to Sterope, daughter of Cepheus, saying that if an army advanced against the city, she was to hold up the lock of hair thrice from the walls, and that, provided she did not look before her, the enemy would be turned to flight.[*](Compare Paus. 8.47.5.) That being so, Cepheus and his sons took the field, and in the battle he and his sons perished, and besides them Iphicles, the brother of Hercules. Having killed Hippocoon and his sons and subjugated the city, Hercules restored Tyndareus and entrusted the kingdom to him.