And shouted but once more aloud, "My father! must I stay?" While o'er him fast, through sail and shroud, They wrapped the ship in splendour wild, They caught the flag on high, And streamed above the gallant child, Like banners in the sky. There came a burst of thunder sound,- THE LABOURS OF HERCULES. A GREEK LEGEND. PART I. HERCULES was very big when quite a child; and he ate a great deal of meat and bread, but no sweet things. He learned to write and to read, and to ride and to drive a chariot, and to shoot with a bow and arrow, and to hurl a javelin; and to wrestle, and to fight with the cestus; and a good centaur called Chiron taught him to know the stars, and plants, and herbs, and beasts, and told him all about them; and Hercules liked to listen to all this, and remembered it, and learned fast. Hercules was very good-natured, but he had the fault that when he was angry he became quite furious, and did a great deal of mischief; he was very sorry for it afterwards, and cried bitterly; but then it was too late, and he could not mend it. * * * * * At this time [when Hercules was grown up] the Thebans had to give a hundred oxen every year to the king of the Minyans; now Hercules did not choose his town to be tributary, and when the king of the Minyans sent heralds to demand the oxen, Hercules drove them away. Then King Erginus marched on Thebes with a great army. Now the king of Thebes, whose name was Creon, was cowardly, and had no heart to meet the enemy; that, indeed, was the reason of his paying the tribute. So he made Hercules commander, at which the Thebans greatly rejoiced, and their courage for the war was very much. And Hercules and the Thebans were victorious over the enemy, and killed King Erginus; and the Minyans were obliged in their turn, to give two hundred oxen to the Thebans every year. Then Creon gave Hercules his daughter Megara for a wife, and she bore him three children, and he lived happily at Thebes for a few years. But Juno afflicted him with raving madness, so that he fancied his children were wild beasts, and took his bow and shot them; and when he had done it he saw that they were his own children, and would not be comforted, but ran out into the woods. Now, when the ancients did not know what to do they went to the oracles, and asked Apollo for counsel. The oracles were temples inhabited by priests or priestesses, of whom people asked questions, to which Apollo told them the answers; and when a king wished to declare war, he first sent to consult the oracle, and if Apollo told him he would be beaten he let the war alone. The best oracle was at Delphi, at the foot of Mount Parnassus, where a priestess called the Pythia sat in the temple on a tripod, and gave answers to all who came to ask; and when those who had consulted it were obedient to the oracle, and successful in their undertakings, they gave beautiful things of gold, or silver, or bronze to the temple, which was quite filled with presents of this sort. The unhappy Hercules went to Delphi, and asked the Pythia what he should do in his great grief at having killed his children: and the Pythia told him to go to the city of Tiryns, and serve King Eurystheus with patience and submission, and do all that he would command him. She said that Eurystheus would order him to encounter twelve combats, all so terrible that he would be in danger of perishing in each; but that if he had courage and endurance the gods would help him, and that when he had achieved the twelve labours he would be happy again, and after his death he would become a god. Now King Eurystheus was wicked and cruel, and had no courage, and he hated all who did noble and generous things; nevertheless, Hercules went patiently to Tiryns, and came before King Eurystheus, and told him that Apolio had commanded him by the Pythia to serve him, and that he was ready to do whatever he should order. Then King Eurystheus told him to go to Nemea and kill the lion. Nemea was a valley filled with thick wood, between high mountains, in the land of Eurystheus; and in this wood lived a fierce lion, whose skin was so thick and tough that no iron could wound him; and when the shepherds hurled spears at him, they fell without hurting him, and he flew at the shepherds and tore them to pieces. Hercules went and stood behind a tree, that the lion might not see him while he took aim; and the lion came with his mouth and his mane covered with blood, for he had just been eating a bull, and he licked his jaws with his great red tongue and roared; and when he roared it sounded like thunder, and the earth shook, and he lashed his sides with his tail. Then Hercules shot an arrow at him; but it rebounded from the lion's hide. He shot again, but with no better success, though he could send an arrow through an armed man. In a minute the lion caught sight of Hercules; then he crouched down close to the earth, and sprang at him; but Hercules wrapped his mantle round his left arm to keep the lion off, and in his right hand he held a huge club which he had hewed down in the forest. With this he struck the lion on the head. Then Hercules seized him by the neck, and strangled him in his arms, while he stood upon his hinder paws. As soon as the lion was dead he skinned him, and he put the skin round his neck by the fore paws. His club was broken on the lion's head, so he cut another in the forest, and ever after he wore the lion's skin and carried a huge club. Then Hercules went back to Tiryns, and sent the king word that the Nemean lion was dead; and when Eurystheus heard this, he was excessively afraid of him, and he had a chamber all of brass made underground, in which he shut himself up whenever Hercules was there; and there was a grated window in the chamber, and through this he spoke to Hercules, and commanded him to go to Lerna and kill the hydra. The hydra was a great serpent with nine heads, as long as a ship, and it lived in the marsh at Lerna. So Hercules mounted his chariot, and his friend Iolaus drove the horses, and they went to Lerna. When the hydra saw Hercules she crawled away and hid herself in a hole under the earth; but Hercules took an arrow, and wound tow round it, and dipped it in pitch and brimstone, and shot it into the hole. Then the hydra rushed out to attack Hercules, and he seized her with one hand round the neck, just where her nine heads grew, while she twisted her long tail round his leg. Hercules struck her heads with his club; but for every head he destroyed there instantly grew two fresh ones. There came also a frightful huge lobster, which pinched Hercules and held his legs fast with its claws, for it was a friend of the hydra's, and wanted to help her; but Hercules crushed it with his other foot. And he went on knocking off the hydra's heads, and fresh ones kept constantly growing, and he never could have conquered her if it had not been for his friend Iolaus, who cut down some trees and made a great fire, and brought burning brands from it, with which he seared the heads as Hercules crushed them, so that no others grew up. When all the heads were destroyed, and the hydra was dead, Hercules dipped his arrows in her blood, which was so poisonous, that if his arrows only scratched the skin of man or beast, they died. This was the second labour. After this, Eurystheus ordered him to catch the Cerynian stag, and bring it him alive. Now this stag had golden horns, and ran so fast that no horse or hound could overtake it. But Hercules was as swift as he was strong, and he ran after the stag for a whole year, till he caught it. Then he carried it on his back to Tiryns. And this was the third labour. Next Eurystheus commanded Hercules to bring him the wild boar of Erymanthus alive. Erymanthus is a mountain in Arcadia, and this wild boar lived there, and laid waste the gardens and cornfields all round; and when the people went out to attack him, he rushed upon them and threw them |