The Library of Greek Mythology (Oxford World's Classics) (16 page)

⁹
As a ninth labour, Eurystheus ordered him to fetch the belt of Hippolyte. She was queen of the Amazons, who lived by the River Thermodon
*
and were a people who excelled in war; for they cultivated manly qualities, and if they ever had intercourse with men and gave birth to children, they raised the girls. They pressed down
*
their right breasts to ensure that they would not be hindered from throwing their javelins, but retained their left breasts to allow them to suckle their children. Hippolyte had the belt of Ares
*
in her possession as a symbol of her supremacy over the others, and Heracles was sent to fetch the belt because Admete, the daughter of Eurystheus, wanted it for herself. So taking some volunteers to assist him, he set sail in a single ship, and called in at the island of Paros, where the sons of Minos were living, namely Eurymedon, Chryses, Nephalion, and Philolaos. It happened that two men from the ship who had gone ashore were killed by the sons of Minos; and in his fury at this, Heracles slew them on the spot, and kept the other islanders under close siege until they sent a delegation to invite him to take whatever pair of them he pleased in return for the men who had been murdered. So he lifted the siege, and taking on board Alcaios and
Sthenelos, the sons of Androgeos, son of Minos, he arrived in Mysia, at the court of Lycos, son of Dascylos. He was entertained there by [Lycos, and when Lycos
*
] joined battle with the king of the Bebrycians, Heracles came to his aid, and killed many men, including King Mygdon, the brother of Amycos. And he deprived the Bebrycians of a large amount of land and gave it to Lycos, who called the whole territory Heracleia.

When he put in at the harbour of Themiscyra, Hippolyte came to see him, and she asked him why he had come and promised to give him the belt. But Hera assumed the likeness of an Amazon and wandered around in the crowd saying that the strangers who had just arrived were abducting the queen. Seizing their arms, the Amazons hastened to the ships on horseback; and when Heracles saw them there fully armed, he thought that this must be the result of a plot, and he killed Hippolyte and robbed her of the belt. And then, after fighting the rest of the Amazons, he sailed away, and called in at Troy.

It happened that the city was in a desperate plight at that time, through the wrath of Apollo and Poseidon; for wanting to put Laomedon’s arrogance to the test, they had taken on human form and undertaken to fortify Pergamon
*
in return for pay. But when they had constructed the wall, he refused to pay them their fee. In response, Apollo sent a plague, and Poseidon a sea-monster which was carried along on a flood and used to snatch away the inhabitants of the plain. When oracles declared that they would be delivered from these misfortunes if Laomedon offered his daughter, Hesione, as prey to the monster, Laomedon offered her up, binding her to some rocks by the sea. When Heracles saw her exposed there, he promised to rescue her if he received in return the mares that Zeus had presented [to Tros
*
] in compensation for the abduction of Ganymede. Laomedon said that he would hand them over, and Heracles killed the monster and rescued Hesione. But Laomedon refused to pay the agreed reward, and Heracles put to sea threatening to make war on Troy at some future time.
*

He then called in at Ainos, where he was entertained by Poltys. As he was sailing off, he shot and killed a man of violence on the shore there, Sarpedon, a son of Poseidon
and brother of Poltys. Arriving in Thasos, he subjugated the Thracians who inhabited the island and gave it to the sons of Androgeos to settle in. From Thasos he set out for Torone, where he was challenged to a wrestling match by Polygonos and Telegonos, the sons of Proteus, son of Poseidon, and killed them during the contest. And taking the belt to Mycenae, he gave it to Eurystheus.

¹⁰
As a tenth labour, he was ordered to fetch the cattle of Geryon from Erytheia. Erytheia was an island that lay near the Ocean and is now called Gadeira; it was inhabited by Geryon, son of Chrysaor and Callirrhoe, daughter of Oceanos. He had the body of three men joined into one;
*
these were united at the waist, but divided into three again from the hips and thighs downwards. He owned red cattle, which were herded by Eurytion and guarded by Orthos, a two-headed dog that Echidna had borne to Typhon. So travelling through Europe to fetch the cattle of Geryon, Heracles killed many savage beasts,
*
and then arrived in Libya. He made his way to Tartessos, where he erected two pillars
*
standing opposite one another at the boundaries of Europe and Libya, as memorials of his journey. In the course of his journey, he was overheated by the Sun, and aimed his bow against the god; and the Sun was so impressed by his bravery that he offered him a golden cup
*
which he used when crossing the Ocean. Arriving at Erytheia, Heracles set up camp on Mount Abas. His presence was detected by the dog Orthos, which rushed to attack him; but he struck it with his club and when the herdsman Eurytion came to the dog’s assistance, he killed Eurytion too. Menoites, who was pasturing the cattle of Hades in the area, informed Geryon of what had happened; and Geryon caught Heracles driving the cattle away near the river Anthemous, and engaged him in battle, but was killed by an arrow. Heracles put the cattle into the cup, and after he had made the crossing to Tartessos, he returned it to the Sun.

He passed through Abderia and arrived in Liguria, where Ialebion and Dercynos, sons of Poseidon, tried to rob him of the cattle, but he killed them and travelled on through
Tyrrhenia. At
Rhegion
*
a bull
broke loose
, plunged swiftly into the sea, and swam across to Sicily, and then, after passing through the neighbouring land which was named
Italy
after it (because the Tyrrhenians called the bull
italus
*
)
, it arrived at the plain of Eryx, who was king of the Elymoi; and Eryx, a son of Poseidon, mixed the bull amongst his own herds. Entrusting the rest of the cattle to Hephaistos, Heracles hurried off in search of the bull; he discovered it in the herds of Eryx, and when Eryx declined to surrender it unless Heracles defeated him
*
in a wrestling match, he defeated Eryx three times in the course of the match and killed him. He then took the bull and drove it with the other cattle to the Ionian Sea.

When he reached the top of the gulf,
*
Hera sent a gadfly against the cattle and they dispersed among the foothills of the Thracian mountains. Heracles set out in pursuit, and recovering some of them, he drove them towards the Hellespont, but those that he left behind were wild from that time forth. Having had difficulty collecting his cattle together, he blamed the River Strymon, and although it had been navigable previously, he made it unnavigable by filling it with rocks. He took the cattle to Eurystheus, and handed them over; and Eurystheus offered them in sacrifice to Hera.

¹¹
When these labours had been accomplished in eight years and a month, Eurystheus, who would not acknowledge the labour of the cattle of Augeias or that of the hydra, ordered Heracles, as an eleventh labour, to fetch some golden apples from the Hesperides.
*
These apples were to be found, not in Libya, as some have claimed, but on Mount Atlas in the land of the Hyperboreans.
*
They had been presented to Zeus [by Ge] at the time of his marriage to Hera, and were guarded by an immortal dragon, the offspring of Typhon and Echidna, which had a hundred heads and could speak with all manner of different voices. And with this dragon, the Hesperides—Aigle, Erytheia, Hesperia, and Arethousa by name—also kept guard. So Heracles proceeded on his way, until he arrived at the River Echedoros, where Cycnos, the son of Ares and Pyrene,
challenged him to single combat [. . .] to avenge him, Ares too engaged him in single combat,
*
but a thunderbolt was hurled between the two combatants, bringing the fight to an end. Travelling through the land of the Illyrians, Heracles hurried to the River Eridanos, where he visited the nymphs who were daughters of Zeus and Themis; and they told him where he could find Nereus. Heracles seized hold of him while he was asleep, and although he transformed himself
*
into many different shapes, Heracles tied him up and refused to let him go until he had learned from him where the apples and the Hesperides were located. After he had acquired this information, he travelled through Libya, which was then ruled by Antaios,
*
a son of Poseidon, who compelled strangers to wrestle with him and killed them. When he too was compelled to wrestle with him, Heracles seized him in his arms, lifted him into the air, and crushed him until he was dead; for whenever he touched the earth, Antaios would always grow stronger (which is why some have called him a son of Ge).

Leaving Libya, he passed through Egypt, which was then under the rule of Bousiris, son of Poseidon and Lysianassa, daughter of Epaphos. Bousiris used to sacrifice strangers on an altar of Zeus, in accordance with an oracle; for barrenness had gripped the land of Egypt for nine years, and Phrasios, a skilled diviner who had come from Cyprus, said that the barrenness would come to an end if they slaughtered a male foreigner in honour of Zeus every year. Bousiris began by slaughtering the diviner himself, and continued to slaughter strangers who landed there. So Heracles was arrested and dragged to the altars, but he broke free of his bonds, and killed both Bousiris and his son Amphidamas.

After passing through Asia, he put in at Thermydrai, the harbour of the Lindians. And releasing one of the bullocks from the cart of a drover,
*
he sacrificed it and feasted on its flesh. The drover, unable to defend himself, stood on a certain mountain and cursed him; and because of that, even to this day, when they sacrifice to Heracles there, they do so to the accompaniment of curses.

Passing by Arabia, he killed Emathion
*
the son of Tithonos; and he travelled through Libya
*
to the outer sea, where he
received the cup from the Sun. He crossed over to the mainland opposite, and on the Caucasos he shot the eagle, born to Echidna and Typhon, that fed on the liver of Prometheus. He then set Prometheus free, taking the fetters of olive for himself, and presented Cheiron to Zeus as an immortal being who was willing to die in Prometheus’ place.
*

When he reached Atlas in the land of the Hyperboreans, Heracles followed the advice of Prometheus, who had told him not to go for the apples himself but to take over the sky from Atlas and send him instead. So Atlas took three apples from the Hesperides and returned to Heracles; and not wishing to hold up the heavens again, [he said that he himself would carry the apples to Eurystheus, and asked Heracles to support the sky in his place. Heracles promised that he would, but passed it back to Atlas by means of a ruse. For Prometheus, when offering his advice, had told him that he should ask Atlas to take the sky back until
*
] he had prepared a pad for his head. And when Atlas heard his request, he placed the apples on the ground and took the sky back. In this way, Heracles was able to pick up the apples and depart. (It is said by some, however, that he did not get the apples from Atlas, but plucked them himself after killing the guardian snake.
*
) He brought the apples back, and gave them to Eurystheus; but as soon as he received them, he returned them to Heracles. Then Athene took them from Heracles, and carried them back again; for it was unholy
*
for them to be deposited anywhere else.

¹²
As a twelfth labour, he was ordered to fetch Cerberos
*
from Hades. Cerberos had three dogs’ heads, the tail of a dragon, and on his back, the heads of all kinds of snakes. When Heracles was about to depart for Cerberos, he went to Eumolpos in Eleusis with a view to being initiated;
*
† but since it was impossible for him to behold the Mysteries unless he had been purified from the murder of the Centaurs, he was purified by Eumolpos
*
and initiated thereafter. He made his way to Tainaron in Laconia, where the mouth of the descent to Hades is located, and descended through it. When the souls caught
sight of him, they fled, except for Meleager and the Gorgon Medusa.
*
He drew his sword against the Gorgon as if she were still alive, but learned from Hermes that she was an empty phantom. As he drew close to the gates of Hades, he discovered Theseus there, and Peirithoos,
*
who had tried to gain Persephone as his bride, and had been imprisoned there for that reason. When they saw Heracles, they stretched their arms towards him, hoping that his strength would enable them to be raised from the dead. He took Theseus by the hand and raised him up, but when he wanted to raise Peirithoos, the earth shook and he let him go. He also rolled aside the stone of Ascalaphos.
*
Wanting to procure blood for the souls,
*
he slaughtered one of the cattle of Hades; but their herdsman, Menoites, son of Ceuthonymos, challenged him to a wrestling match. Heracles seized him round the middle and broke his ribs, but let him go when Persephone interceded. When he asked Pluto for Cerberos, Pluto told him to take the beast if he could overpower it without using any of the weapons that he was carrying. Discovering Cerberos by the gates of Acheron,
*
Heracles, sheathed in his breastplate and fully covered by his lion’s skin, grasped its head between his arms and never relaxed his grip and stranglehold on the beast until he had broken its will, although he was bitten by the dragon in its tail. Then he carried it off and made his way back, ascending through Troezen. As for Ascalaphos, Demeter turned him into an owl.
*
After Heracles had shown Cerberos to Eurystheus, he returned the beast to Hades.