The Greek Myths

The Argo Navigates the Symplegades. Source: 1st-art-gallery.com

From the Symplegades to Colchis

PHINEUS had warned the Argonauts of the terrifying rocks, called the Symplegades… which, perpetually shrouded in sea mist, guarded the entrance to the Bosphorus. When a ship attempted to pass between them, they drove together and crushed her; but, at Phineus’s advice, Euphemus let loose a dove… to fly ahead of the Argo. (From the Symplegades to Colchis, The Greek Myths by Robert Graves, pp 594-598).

As the dove flew through the channel between the rocks, the Symplegades moved together, clipping the bird’s tail. In the brief interval between the rocks returning to their original position and their sensing further movement, the Argo sped through the gap, missing being destroyed by the returning rocks by inches.

The Argonauts then pursued an uneventful course along the Black Sea coast, although tragedy struck when they put in at Marindyne, a city ruled by King Lycus, an enemy of the boxer-king Amycus, whom Polydeuces had killed. The crew were therefore given a warm welcome by the delighted Lycus. However the following day, Idmon, the Argo’s seer was attacked and fatally wounded by a wild boar. Soon after the navigator Tiphys also died, this time of an illness. Although Jason was able to recruit replacements for these losses in Sinope, the Argo's next landfall, the crew was nonetheless weakened. The expedition pressed on until the Caucasus Mountains came into view, indicating that Colchis was close. Jason concealed the vessel in a backwater and then called a council of war.

Phineus and the Harpies by Ray Harryhausen. Source: ArtUK

Amycus and Phineus

Next the Argo touched in at the island of Bebrycos, also in the Sea of Marmara, ruled by the arrogant King Amycus, a son of Poseidon. This Amycus fancied himself as a boxer, and used to challenge strangers to a match, which invariably proved their undoing; but if they declined, he flung them without ceremony over a cliff into the sea. He now approached the Argonauts and refused them food or water unless one of their champions would meet him in the ring. (Hylas, Amycus and Phineus, The Greek Myths by Robert Graves, pp 589-594).

Polydeuces rose to the challenge. Despite Amycus being the larger man, well-muscled and possessed of gloves studded with spikes, over time the Argonaut outboxed his opponent. Eventually Polydeuces penetrated the King’s defences, broke his nose and finally killed Amycus with a fatal blow to his temple. The Bebrycans drew their weapons to avenge their dead monarch, but the Argonauts defeated them easily in the ensuing battle, then sacked the royal palace.

The Argonauts put to sea and came to Salmydessus in eastern Thrace, ruled by King Phineus. This unfortunate monarch was plagued by the Harpies, two monstrous female winged demons, who descended on Phineus’ feasts, eating what they could of his food and befouling the rest. When Jason asked the tormented man for directions to Colchis, he agreed on condition Jason rid him of the Harpies. Jason called on his winged companions Calais and Zetes to hunt the creatures down. The two heroes chased the demons as far as the Strophades Islands until they begged for mercy. Calais and Zetes spared the Harpies when Hera’s messenger, Iris, intervened, promising the men that the creatures would return to their cave and never molest Phineus again.

The grateful Phineus then gave Jason detailed instructions on how to navigate the Bosphorus and so reach Colchis safely and the Argonauts set off once more.

Hylas and the Nymphs by John William Waterhouse (1896). Source: Wikipedia

Hylas

While they prepared the evening meal, Heracles went in search of a tree which would serve to make him a new oar. He uprooted an enormous fir, but when he dragged it back for trimming beside the camp fire, found that his squire Hylas had set out, an hour or two previously to fetch water from the near-by pool of Pegae, and not yet returned; Polyphemus was away, searching for him. (Hylas, Amycus and Phineus, The Greek Myths by Robert Graves, pp 589-594).

Heracles had broken his oar due to a contest he had initiated amongst The Argo’s crew to see who could row the longest, in order to speed progress with the voyage. As the Argonauts wearied, Heracles’ own oar snapped and the ship therefore put in at the mouth of the River Chius in Mysia. The disappearance of Hylas distressed Heracles mightily, because he loved the young man, whom he had spared after killing his father, King Theiodamas of the Dryopians. Heracles eventually met Polyphemus who had been unable to find hide nor hair of Hylas, except his water pitcher, abandoned at the edge of the pool of Pegae.

Unknown to the two of them, the young and beautiful Hylas had been seduced by the water-nymph Dryope and her sister-nymphs at Pegae and they had enticed the love-struck young man to come and live with them in their underwater grotto. Heracles did all he could to locate Hylas, including forcing scores of Mysians to join the search, but to no avail. He never saw Hylas again.

Eventually Jason wearied waiting for the return of Heracles, Polyphemus and Hylas and ordered the voyage to resume, although many of the Argonauts were unhappy at the decision.

The Lemnian Women and King Cyzicus. Source: Tale and Mythology website.

The Lemnian Women and King Cyzicus

About a year before this, the Lemnian men had quarrelled with their wives, complaining that they stank, and made concubines of Thracian girls captured on raids. In revenge the Lemnian women murdered them all without pity, old and young alike, except King Thoas, whose life his daughter Hypsipyle secretly spared, setting him adrift in an oarless boat. (The Lemnian Women and King Cyzicus, The Greek Myths by Robert Graves, pp 585-589).

The Argonauts’ first landfall at the commencement of their voyage was the island of Lemnos, and the women, anxious not to be blamed for the massacre of their men, initially donned their dead husbands’ armour and made ready to resist the landing. However the counsel of Hypsipyle’s nurse, Polyxo, prevailed and the Lemnian women elected instead to welcome Jason and his crew and to make them their lovers, and so repopulate the island, with Hypsipyle herself choosing Jason as her lover. Many children were indeed conceived during the Argonauts’ sojourn on Lemnos. Heracles however ultimately broke the reverie up, reminding the crew of their mission and the men reluctantly left the Lemnian women and resumed their course to Colchis.

The Argonauts avoided the Hellespont, jealously guarded by King Laomedon of Troy and instead they headed for Dolionia and were greeted warmly by the Dolionian king, Cyzicus. After a pleasant stay, the heroes resumed their voyage only to be driven off course by a storm and beached at night on an unknown shore. The Argonauts were attacked by well-armed warriors and it was only after they had driven the attackers off, that Jason discovered the body of Cyzicus, dead on the beach. The Argonauts had unknowingly landed on the southern side of the Dolionian peninsula and the king had attacked them, mistaking them for pirates. The remorseful Argonauts held funeral games in Cyzicus’ honour.

Todd Armstrong as Jason in the 1963 movie Jason and the Argonauts. Source: Alamy

The Argonauts Assemble

Pelias glared at him balefully. “What would you do,” he enquired suddenly, “if an oracle announced that one of your fellow-citizens was destined to kill you?”

“I should send him to fetch the golden ram’s fleece from Colchis,” Jason replied, not knowing that Hera had placed those words in his mouth. “And, pray, whom do I have the honour of addressing?” (The Argonauts Assemble, The Greek Myths by Robert Graves, pp 577-585).

Pelias had usurped the throne of Iolcus, and when confronted by Jason, the rightful heir who had been raised by Cheiron the Centaur and whose claim was supported by powerful Iolcan nobles, Pelias opted not to dispute Jason’s right to the throne outright. Pelias however appealed to Jason to save him from the curse of being haunted by the ghost of a warrior named Phrixus. Turning Jason’s own words against him, Pelias claimed the curse could only be lifted if if the shade could be transported from Colchis, where Phrixus had died, and be returned to Iolcus for proper burial, alongside the famous golden ram's fleece. Pelias promised to relinquish the throne to Jason if he would save him from the curse. Jason felt unable to refuse, despite Pelias hoping this impossible mission would result in Jason’s death as it had been prophesied to him that Jason would one day kill him.

Jason raised a redoubtable band of heroes and adventurers to accompany him on this perilous task, enough to man a fifty-oared ship. The company included Acastus, son of Pelias, Castor and Polydeuces the Dioscuri, Heracles of Tiryns, Euryalus, one of the Epigoni, Laertes of Ithaca, Phalerus the Athenian archer and Jason himself. It is said a more gallant band had never been raised to undertake such a noble adventure.

Hercules on the Pyre by Luca Giordano. Source: Wikipedia

The Apotheosis of Heracles

Deianeira, comfortably installed at Trachis, was by now resigned to Heracles’s habit of taking mistresses; and when she recognised Iole as the latest of these, felt pity rather than resentment for…[her] fatal beauty… Yet was it not intolerable that Heracles expected Iole and herself to live together under the same roof? Since she was no longer young, Deianeira decided to use Nessus’s supposed love-charm as a means of holding her husband’s affection. (The Apotheosis of Heracles, The Greek Myths by Robert Graves pp 562-568).

Nessus was a Centaur killed by Heracles’ poisoned arrow while in the act of violating Deianeira. Before he expired, Nessus told her that if she mixed his blood and semen into an ointment and spread it on Heracles’ shirt, once worn, he would never be unfaithful to her again. Deianeira’s opportunity arose when Heracles decided to sacrifice twelve bulls to Zeus at Cenaea, in thanks for his victory at Oechalia, and sent a message to his wife asking for a fine garment to wear for the ceremony. Deianeira therefore retrieved the ointment she had mixed while Nessus was in his death throes, spread it on a magnificent garment and sent it to Heracles. To her horror, Deianeira then discovered the mixture, if exposed to sunlight or heat, burst into flames.

The messenger she sent to warn Heracles arrived too late. He had already donned the shirt and sacrificed the bulls when a spark from the sacrificial fire landed on his garment. Immediately the heat melted the poison of the Hydra which resided in Nessus’ blood from Heracles’ arrow. Heracles was seized with unbearable pain - his blood boiled and as he tried to rip off the shirt, his flesh came away in strips. Knowing he was doomed, Heracles summoned his son Hyllus to place him on a pyre and allow him to die in peace. On hearing the news of the terrible death of her husband, Deianeira committed suicide. Thus Nessus had his revenge.

Zeus rescued the immortal part of Heracles and raised him to Olympus where he joined the Gods, ironically adopted by Hera. His mortal part departed to Tartarus.

Heracles vs Cycnos by the Berlin Painter (525-475 BC). Source: Museo Nazionale Etrusco, Rome.

Heracles in Trachis

Heracles now came to Itonus, a city in Pthiotis, where the ancient temple of Athene stands. Here he met Cycnus, a son of Ares and Pelopia, who was constantly offering valuable prizes to guests who dared fight a chariot duel with him. The ever-victorious Cycnus would cut off their heads and use the skulls to decorate the temple of his father Ares. (Heracles in Trachis, The Greek Myths by Robert Graves, pp 557-561).

Cycnus was a notorious bandit whose depredations had infuriated Apollo and it was Apollo who encouraged Heracles to accept Cycnus’ challenge. Armed with armour made Hephaestus, driven to the contest by his charioteer Iolaus, and supported by Athene, Heracles rode towards Cycnus who had his father Ares by his side. Both Heracles and Cycnus were flung from their chariots by the impact but then engaged in combat, Heracles killing Cycnus with a spear thrust to the neck. The enraged Ares threw his spear at Heracles, only for Athene to turn it aside. Ares attacked Heracles, but was wounded in the thigh and the hero would have caused the god of war more damage if the two had not been separated by a thunderbolt hurled from Olympus by Zeus. Heracles and Iolaus then despoiled Cycnus’ corpse and took his armour, while Athene escorted the defeated Ares back to Olympus. Cycnus’ body was later allegedly turned into a swan.

Hercules and Achelous; Engraving by JB Patas. Source: Alamy

Deianeira

AFTER spending four years in Phenus, Heracles decided to leave the Peloponnese. At the head of a large Arcadian force, he sailed across to Calydon where he took up his residence. Having now no legitimate sons, he courted Deianeira, the supposed daughter of Oeneus, thus keeping his promise to the ghost of her brother Meleager. (Deianeira, The Greek Myths by Robert Graves, pp 552-557).

Heracles was not alone in his pursuit of the beautiful Deianeira: many suitors appeared at the court of King Oeneus, pleading their suitability as a husband for his daughter. None could compete with Heracles, apart from the River-god Achelous, who could appear as a bull-headed man, a serpent, or as a bull. Heracles told Oeneus if he accepted his suit, the King would bask in Heracles’ reflected glory, and become the son-in-law of Zeus himself. Achelous scornfully cast doubt on Heracles’ divine heritage which the hero took as an insult to his mother, so the two wrestled. Achelous was able to wriggle free of Heracles’ holds by transforming into a serpent and then went on the attack in the shape of a bull. Heracles nimbly stepped aside and grasped the river-god by his horns, eventually breaking one off, causing the shamed Achelous to give up the fight. Heracles then married Deianeira.

Heracles was rumoured to have held onto the prize of Achelous’ horn and in the course of his Twelfth Labour, the Hesperides filled it with an endless supply of fruit, turning it into Cornucopia, the fabled Horn of Plenty.

Apollo Chasing Heracles. Source: Reddit.

The Capture of Pylus

HERACLES next sacked and burned the city of Pylus, because the Pylians had gone to the aid of Elis. He killed all of Neleus’s sons, except for the youngest, Nestor, who was away at Gerania, but Neleus himself escaped with his life. (The Capture of Pylus, The Greek Myths by Robert Graves, pp 544-548).

Heracles’ war on Pylus brought in the Gods themselves. Athene stood with Heracles’ army, but Neleus was defended by Poseidon, Hera, Hades and Ares. This Olympian force should have been enough to stop Heracles but, aided by the formidable Athene, the hero was undaunted. Heracles drove off Poseidon, the King of the Oceans intimidated by Heracles’ club; Heracles then came to the aid of Athene, locked in combat with Ares, his spear thrust piercing the God of War’s thigh, making him to flee the field, and finally he forced Hera from the fight by piercing her breast with a triple barbed arrow.

Heracles’ victory over the Pylians was guaranteed by his defeat of the shape-shifting Periclymenus the Argonaut, son of Neleus, who took the form of lion, serpent, insect and finally an eagle to attack Heracles. Again aided by Athene, Heracles brought Periclymenus down with an arrow, killing him. After taking Pylus, Heracles installed Nestor as king in place of his father, as the young man had been innocent of any offence against him. Nestor became a mighty warrior-king, later successfully defending Pylus from aggression from Elis, who had sought to dominate Pylus again.

Heracles Founds the Olympic Games. Source: Sirioti Jewellery website

The Conquest of Elis

NOT long after his return, Heracles collected a force of Tirynthians and Arcadians and, joined by volunteers from the noblest Greek families, marched against Augeias, King of Elis, whom he owed a grudge on account of the Fifth Labour. Augeias however, foreseeing this attack, had prepared to resist it by appointing as his generals Eurytus and Cteatus, the sons of his brother Actor and Molione, or Moline, a daughter of Molus; (The Conquest of Elis, The Greek Myths by Robert Graves, pp 537-544).

Led by the Moliones, the Eleans fought well and Heracles suffered a grievous defeat in the subsequent battle. Heracles fell sick, his army was routed and his twin brother Iphicles was mortally wounded. Heracles sought refuge in Tiryns only to be banished by Eurystheus, fearful of Heracles’ ambition. Taking refuge in Phaenus, Heracles succeeded in ambushing and killing the Moliones while they travelled to a religious festival. With Elis now weakened, Heracles raised a new army in Argos, Thebes and Arcadia and attacked Elis again. This time he was victorious and succeeded in killing Augeias and his sons and conquered the city.

Death of Laomedon from the Temple of Aphaia, Aegina. Source: World History Encyclopedia (490-480 BC).

Hesione, Part 2

It is disputed whether Heracles embarked for Troy with eighteen long ships of fifty oars each; or with only six small craft and scanty forces. But among his allies were Iolaus; Telamon son of Aeacus; Peleus; the Argive Oicles; and the Boeotian Deimachus…. On disembarking near Troy, Heracles left Oicles to guard the ships, while he led the other champions in an assault on the city. (Hesione, The Greek Myths by Robert Graves, pp 530-537).

In his keenness to recruit Telamon, Heracles appealed to his father Zeus to ensure the child Telamon’s wife, Periboea, was about to give birth to was a son with the strength and invulnerability of a lion. When Ajax was born, Heracles wrapped him in his lionskin so conferring him with immense strength and invulnerability. Telamon willingly accompanied Heracles to Troy and they decided on a frontal assault, leaving Oicles in charge of their ships only for Laomedon to launch a surprise attack that killed Oicles despite his stalwart defence of the vessels. Laomedon returned ready to resist a siege but the assault by Heracles and Telamon was irresistible. The walls collapsed and Heracles strode in cutting down Laomedon and all his sons with shafts from his mighty bow. Only Podarces, of all Laomedon’s sons, was spared because he had advocated to his father the immortal mares should have been gifted to Heracles as pro

Troy was sacked and in the aftermath of the destruction, the surviving Trojans were rounded up to be sold into slavery. Hesione was given to Telamon as a war-bride by Heracles in recognition of his help in taking Troy. Hesione then freed her brother Podarces from slavery by adorning him with her golden veil. The Greeks sailed away, leaving Podarces to found a new Troy, but now named Priam, which means ‘the redeemed’.

Hercules Delivering Hesione by François Lemoyne c1708-1737. Source: Album Online website

Hesione, Part 1

After serving as a slave to Queen Omphale, Heracles returned to Tiryns, his sanity now fully restored, and at once planned an expedition against Troy. His reasons were as follows. He and Telamon, either on their way back from the country of the Amazons, or when they landed with the Argonauts at Sigeium, had been astonished to find Laomedon’s daughter Hesione, stark naked apart from her jewels, chained to a rock on the Trojan shore. It appeared that Poseidon had sent a sea-monster to punish Laomedon for having failed to pay him and Apollo their stipulated fee when they built the city walls and tended his flocks. (Hesione, The Greek Myths by Robert Graves, pp 530-537).

Hercules and Omphale by Tischbein. Source: Pixels website.

Omphale

HERACLES was taken to Asia and offered for sale as a nameless slave by Hermes, patron of all financial transactions, who afterwards handed the purchase money of three silver talents to Iphitus’s orphans. Nevertheless Euryton stubbornly forbade his grandchildren to accept any monetary compensation, saying that only blood would pay for blood; and what happened to the silver, Hermes alone knows. As the Pythoness had foretold, Heracles was bought by Omphale, Queen of Lydia, a woman with a good eye for a bargain; and he served her faithfully for one year, or for three, ridding Asia Minor of the bandits who infested it. (Omphale, The Greek Myths by Robert Graves, pp 524-530).

Apart from destroying various monsters and evil men who preyed on passing travellers through Lydia, Heracles also became Omphale’s lover, fathering three children with her, which would indicate that his period of enslavement was that of three years, rather than one. In doing so, he incurred the wrath of the jealous god Pan, who had himself become infatuated with the queen. It was Pan who mischievously started the rumour that while in Omphale’s service, Heracles had become weak and effeminate, wearing women’s clothing, allowing Omphale’s maidservants to braid his hair and submitting to his mistress’ punishment with a golden slipper if ever he displeased her. In reality the pair remained playful companions, occasionally exchanging clothes in a lovers’ game, Heracles donning the Queen’s royal dress and Omphale draping herself in Heracles’ fabled lionskin pelt - an innocent lark that Pan amplified into a shameful account of lost manhood.

Hercules Slaying Iphitus, French School. Source: 1st-art-gallery.com

The Murder of Iphitus

WHEN Heracles returned to Thebes after his Labours, he gave Megara, his wife, now thirty-three years old, in marriage to his nephew and charioteer Iolaus, who was only sixteen, remarking that his own union with her had never been auspicious. He then looked about for a younger and more fortunate wife; and, hearing that his friend Eurytus, a son of Melanius, King of Oechalia, had offered to marry his daughter Iole to any archer who could outshoot him and his four sons, he took the road there. (The Murder of Iphitus, The Greek Myths by Robert Graves, pp 520-524)

Euryton, aware of Heracles’ lethal madness and his treatment of Megara, refused to hand over his daughter to him even after Heracles had won the archery contest. He drove the hero from his palace with many an insult. Heracles swore vengeance, so when Eurytus’ prize mares were stolen by the master thief, Autolycus, Eurytus and his sons assumed Heracles must be the thief. The eldest son, Iphitus, tracked Heracles down to Tiryns, where Heracles greeted him warmly, but he came to sense Iphitus’ suspicion. Eventually Heracles took his guest to the highest tower in Tiryns, from which they could see for miles around and challenged Iphitus to say if he could see the stolen horses. Iphitus acknowledged he could not, an admission which perversely drove Heracles to fury at the unspoken false accusation, whereupon Heracles seized Iphitus and threw the man to his death from the tower.

Heracles realised that once again he had infuriated the gods at this wanton murder of a guest and sought absolution from the Delphic Oracle, the Pythoness Xenoclea. The priestess decreed that Heracles would only be granted redemption if he sold himself into slavery for a year, the proceeds of his sale going to Iphitus’ children. Heracles meekly agreed and was told by Xenoclea that he would become the slave of Queen Omphale of Lydia.

The Capture of Cerberus. Source: Science Photo Library

The Twelfth Labour: The Capture of Cerberus

HERACLES’S last, and most difficult, Labour was to bring the dog Cerberus up from Tartarus….Heracles descended to Tartarus from Laconian Taenarum… [and] he was guided by Athene and Hermes… Terrified by Heracles’s scowl, Charon ferried him across the river Styx without demur; in punishment of which irregularity he was fettered by Hades for one entire year. As Heracles stepped ashore from the crazy boat, all the ghosts fled, except Meleager and the Gorgon Medusa. At the sight of Medusa he drew his sword, but Hermes reassured him that she was only a phantom; and when he aimed an arrow at Meleager, who was wearing bright armour, Meleager laughed. ‘You have nothing to fear from the dead,’ he said and they chatted amicably for awhile, Heracles offering in the end to marry Meleager’s sister Deianeira. (The Twelfth Labour: The Capture of Cerberus, The Greek Myths by Robert Graves, pp. 514-520).

Heracles sought out Hades and Persephone and demanded he be allowed to take Cerberus, the three-headed hound who guarded the entrance to Tartarus. Hades agreed but on the condition that Heracles used neither his club nor his bow to subdue the mighty dog. Heracles agreed and found Cerberus chained to the gates of Acheron and seized the hound by its single throat from which all three heads grew. He then choked the dog until it yielded. Assisted by Athene, Heracles was able to half drag-half carry Cerberus all the way to Mycenae where Eurystheus greeted him ungraciously, despite the hero having completed all the near-impossible tasks the king had set him.

The Hesperides. Source: greekmyths-greekmythology.com

The Eleventh Labour: The Apples of the Hesperides

HERACLES had performed these Ten Labours in the space of eight years and one month; but Eurystheus, discounting the Second and the Fifth, set him two more. The Eleventh Labour was to fetch fruit from the golden apple-tree, Mother Earth’s wedding gift to Hera, with which she had been so delighted that she planted it in her own divine garden. The garden lay on the slopes of Mount Atlas, where the panting chariot-horses of the Sun complete their journey, and where Atlas’s sheep and cattle, one thousand herds of each, wander over their undisputed pastures. When Hera found, one day, that Atlas’s daughters, the Hesperides, to whom she had entrusted the tree, were pilfering the apples, she set the ever-watchful dragon Ladon to coil around the tree as its guardian. (The Eleventh Labour: The Apples of the Hesperides, The Greek Myths by Robert Graves, pp 507-514).

When Heracles arrived at the garden, he was advised by the sea-god Nereus that he should not pluck the golden apples himself, so Heracles sought out Atlas and offered to take the burden of the globe from his shoulders if he would pick the golden apples on his behalf. Atlas agreed, delighted to be relieved of the immense weight of the world if only for a short while. Atlas was nonetheless wary of the dragon Ladon, so Heracles shot an arrow over the wall of Hera’s sacred garden, killing the monster instantly. Atlas then commanded the Hesperides to pluck the apples and then bequeathed them to Heracles.

On the way home to Mycenae, Heracles wrestled and defeated King Antaeus of Libya, son of Gaia, who was in the habit of challenging and killing visitors to his realm by wrestling them to death. Antaeus fancied himself as unbeatable because his strength was replenished every time he was flung to to the earth. Heracles however worked out his opponent’s advantage and so broke Antaeaus’ ribs and held him aloft from the earth until he died.