Apollodorus Library 2.7

1. See Hom. Il. 14.249ff. , Hom. Il. 15.24ff.

2. See Apollod. 1.3.5 .

3. With the following account of Herakles's adventures in Cos, compare the Scholiasts on Hom. Il. i.590, xiv.255 ; Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.445 ; Ov. Met. 7.363ff. The Scholiast on Hom. Il. xiv.255 tells us that the story was found in Pherecydes, whom Apollodorus probably follows in the present passage.

4. See Apollod. 1.6.1ff.

5. 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) .

6. 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.

7. Compare Pind. O. 10.26(32)ff. ; Diod. 4.33.3 ; Paus. 2.15.1 , Paus. 5.2.1 .

8. Compare Pind. O. 10.34(43)ff. ; Diod. 4.33.4 ; Paus. 5.3.1 ; Scholiast on Hom. Il. xi.700 .

9. 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 .

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. See Apollod. 1.9.9 , with the note.

14. 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.

15. 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 .

16. Compare Paus. 8.47.5 .

17. As to the story of Herakles, Auge, and Telephus, see Apollod. 3.9.1 ; Diod. 4.33.7-12 ; Strab. 13.1.69 ; Paus. 8.4.9 , Paus. 8.47.4 , Paus. 8.48.7 , Paus. 8.54.6 , Paus. 10.28.8 ; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 206 ; Hyginus, Fab. 99ff. The tale was told by Hecataeus ( Paus. 8.4.9 , Paus. 8.47.4 ), and was the theme of tragedies by Sophocles and Euripides. See TGF (Nauck 2nd ed.), pp. 146ff., 436ff. ; The Fragments of Sophocles. ed. A. C. Pearson, i. 46ff., ii.70ff. Different versions of the story were current among ancient writers and illustrated by ancient artists. See Frazer, note on Paus. 1.4.6 (vol. ii. pp. 75ff.) . One of these versions, which I omitted to notice in that place, ran as follows. On a visit to Delphi, king Aleus of Tegea was warned by the oracle that his daughter would bear a son who would kill his maternal uncles, the sons of Aleus. To guard against this catastrophe, Aleus hurried home and appointed his daughter priestess of Athena, declaring that, should she prove unchaste, he would put her to death. As chance would have it, Herakles arrived at Tegea on his way to Elis, where he purposed to make war on Augeas. The king entertained him hospitably in the sanctuary of Athena, and there the hero, flushed with wine, violated the maiden priestess. Learning that she was with child, her father Aleus sent for the experienced ferryman Nauplius, father of Palamedes, and entrusted his daughter to him to take and drown her. On their way to the sea the girl (Auge) gave birth to Telephus on Mount Parthenius, and instead of drowning her and the infant the ferryman sold them both to king Teuthras in Mysia, who, being childless, married Auge and adopted Telephus. See Alcidamas, Od. 14-16, pp. 179ff., ed. Blass (appended to his edition of Antiphon). This version, which represents mother and child as sold together to Teuthras, differs from the version adopted by Apollodorus, according to whom Auge alone was sold to Teuthras in Mysia, while her infant son Telephus was left behind in Arcadia and reared by herdsmen ( Apollod. 3.9.1 ). The sons of Aleus and maternal uncles of Telephus were Cepheus and Lycurgus ( Apollod. 3.9.1 ). Ancient writers do not tell us how Telephus fulfilled the oracle by killing them, though the murder is mentioned by Hyginus, Fab. 244 and a Greek proverb-writer ( Paroemiographi Graeci, ed. Leutsch and Schneidewin, i. p. 212 ). Sophocles appears to have told the story in his lost play, The Mysians; for in it he described how Telephus came, silent and speechless, from Tegea to Mysia ( Aristot. Poet. 1460a 32">P">Aristot. Poet. 1460a 32 ), and this silence of Telephus seems to have been proverbial. For the comic poet Alexis, speaking of a greedy parasite who used to gobble up his dinner without exchanging a word with anybody, says that, “he dines like speechless Telephus, answering all questions put to him only with nods” ( Athenaeus x.18, p. 421 D ). And another comic poet, Amphis, describing the high and mighty airs with which fish-mongers treated their customers in the market, says that it was a thousand times easier to get speech of a general than of a fish-monger; for if you addressed one of these gentry and, pointing to a fish, asked “How much?” he would not at first deign to look at you, much less speak to you, but would stoop down, silent as Telephus, over his wares; though in time, his desire of lucre overcoming his contempt of you, he would slap a bloated octopus and mutter meditatively, as if soliloquizing, “ Sixpence for him, and a bob for the hammerfish.” This latter poet explains incidentally why Telephus was silent; he says it was very natural that fish-mongers should hold their tongue, “for all homicides are in the same case,” thus at once informing us of a curious point in Greek law or custom and gratifying his spite at the “cursed fish-mongers,” whom he compares to the worst class of criminals. See Athenaeus vi.5, p. 224 DE . As Greek homicides were supposed to be haunted by the ghosts of their victims until a ceremony of purification was performed which rid them of their invisible, but dangerous, pursuers, we may conjecture that the rule of silence had to be observed by them until the accomplishment of the purificatory rite released them from the restrictions under which they laboured during their uncleanness, and permitted them once more to associate freely with their fellows. As to the restrictions imposed on homicides in ancient Greece, see Psyche's Task, 2nd ed. pp. 113ff. ; Folk-Lore in the Old Testament, i.80, 83ff. The motive of the homicide's silence may have been a fear lest by speaking he should attract the attention, and draw down on himself the vengeance, of his victim's ghost. Similarly, among certain peoples, a widow is bound to observe silence for some time after her husband's death, and the rule appears to be based on a like dread of exciting the angry or amorous passions of her departed spouse by the sound of the familiar voice. See Folk-Lore in the Old Testament, iii.71ff.

18. Apollodorus seems to derive the name Telephus from θηλή, “a dug,” and ἔλαφος, “a doe.”

19. When Herakles went down to hell to fetch up Cerberus, he met the ghost of Meleager, and conversing with him proposed to marry the dead hero's sister, Deianira. The story of the match thus made, not in heaven but in hell, is told by Bacch. 5.165ff., ed. Jebb , and seems to have been related by Pindar in a lost poem ( Scholiast on Hom. Il. xxi.194 ). As to the marriage of Herakles with Deianira at Calydon, the home of her father Oeneus, see also Diod. 4.34.1 .

20. On the struggle of Herakles with the river Achelous, see Soph. Trach. 9-21 ; Diod. 4.35.3ff. ; Dio Chrysostom lx. ; Scholiast on Hom. Il. xxi.194 ; Ov. Met. 9.1-88 ; Hyginus, Fab. 31 ; Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. Bode, i. pp. 20, 131 (First Vatican Mythographer 58; Second Vatican Mythographer 165) . According to Ovid, the river-god turned himself first into a serpent and then into a bull. The story was told by Archilochus, who represented the river Achelous in the form of a bull, as we learn from the Scholiast on Hom. Il.xxi.194 . Diodorus rationalized the legend in his dull manner by supposing that it referred to a canal which the eminent philanthropist Herakles dug for the benefit of the people of Calydon.

21. According to some, Amalthea was the goat on whose milk the infant Zeus was fed. From one of its horns flowed ambrosia, and from the other flowed nectar. See Callimachus, Hymn to Zeus 48ff., with the Scholiast . According to others, Amalthea was only the nymph who owned the goat which suckled the god. See Eratosthenes, Cat. 13 ; Hyginus, Ast. ii.13 ; Ovid, Fasti v.115ff. Some said that, in gratitude for having been nurtured on the animal's milk, Zeus made a constellation of the goat and bestowed one of its horns on the nymphs who had reared him, at the same time ordaining that the horn should produce whatever they asked for. See Zenobius, Cent. ii.48 . As to the horn, see A. B. Cook, Zeus, i.501ff.

22. Compare Diod. 4.36.1 , who gives Phyleus as the name of the king of Ephyra, but does not mention the name of his daughter. According to Pind. O. 7.23(40)ff. , with the Scholiast), the mother of Tlepolemus by Herakles was not Astyoche but Astydamia.

23. The sons referred to are those whom Herakles had by the fifty daughters of Thespius. See Apollod. 2.4.10 . Compare Diod. 4.29 , who says that two (not three) of these sons of Herakles remained in Thebes, and that their descendants were honoured down to the historian's time. He informs us also that, on account of the youth of his sons, Herakles committed the leadership of the colony to his nephew Iolaus. As to the Sardinian colony see also Paus. 1.29.5 , Paus. 7.2.2 , Paus. 9.23.1 , Paus. 10.17.5 , who says ( Paus. 10.17.5 ) that there were still places called Iolaia in Sardinia, and that Iolaus was still worshipped by the inhabitants down to his own time. As Pseudo-Aristotle, Mirab. Auscult. 100, (Westermann, Scriptores rerum mirabilium Graeci, p. 31) tells us that the works ascribed to Iolaus included round buildings finely built of masonry in the ancient Greek style, we can hardly doubt that the reference is to the remarkable prehistoric round towers which are still found in the island, and to which nothing exactly similar is known elsewhere. The natives call them nouraghes. They are built in the form of truncated cones, and their material consists of squared or rough blocks of stone, sometimes of enormous size. See Perrot et Chipiez, Histoire de l'Art dans l'Antiquité, iv.22ff. The Sardinian Iolaus was probably a native god or hero, whom the Greeks identified with their own Iolaus on account of the similarity of his name. It has been surmised that he was of Phoenician origin, being identical with Esmun. See W. W. Baudissin, Adonis und Esmun (Leipsig, 1911), pp. 282ff.

24. Compare Diod. 4.36.2 ; Paus. 2.13.8 ; Athenaeus ix.80, pp. 410 411 FA ; Scholiast on Ap. Rhod., Argon. i.1212 ; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 50-51 ; Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.456ff. From Athenaeus ix.80, pp. 410 411 FA we learn that the story was told or alluded to by Hellanicus, Herodorus, and Nicander. The victim's name is variously given as Eunomus, Ennomus, Eurynomus, Archias, Cherias, and Cyathus. He was cupbearer to Oeneus, the father-in-law of Herakles. The scene of the tragedy seems to have been generally laid at Calydon, of which Oeneus was king ( Apollod. 1.8.1 ), but Pausanias transfers the scene to Phlius.

25. As to Herakles and Nessus, and the fatal affray at the ferry, see Soph. Trach. 555ff. ; Diod. 4.36.3ff. ; Strab. 10.2.5 ; Dio Chrysostom lx ; Eusebius, Praeparatio Evangelii, ii.2.15ff. ; Nonnus, in Westermann's Mythographi Graeci, Appendix Narrationum, xxviii.8. p. 371 ; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 50-51 ; Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.457ff. ; Ov. Met. 9.101ff. ; Hyginus, Fab. 34 ; Servius. on Virgil, Aen. viii 300 ; Lactantius Placidus on Statius, Theb. xi.235 ; Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. Bode, i. pp. 20ff., 131 (First Vatican Mythographer 58; Second Vatican Mythographer 165) . The tale was told by Archilochus, Scholiast on Ap. Rhod., Argon. i.1212 . Apollodorus's version of the story is copied, with a few verbal changes and omissions, by Zenobius, Cent. i.33 , but as usual without acknowledgment.

26. As to Herakles and Thiodamas, compare Callimachus, Hymn to Diana 160ff. , with the Scholiast on 161 (who calls Thiodamas king of the Dryopians); Nonnus (Westermann, Mythographi Graeci, Appendix Narrationum, xxviii.6, pp. 370ff.) ; Scholiast on Ap. Rhod., Argon. i.1212 ; Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.464ff. From the Scholiast on Ap. Rhod., Argon. i.1212 , we learn that the tale was told by Pherecydes, whom Apollodorus may here be following. The story seems to be a doublet of the one told about Herakles at Lindus in Rhodes. See Apollod. 2.5.11 , with the note.

27. On the reception of Herakles by Ceyx, see Diod. 4.36.5 ; Paus. 1.32.6 . As to the conquest of the Dryopians by Herakles, see Hdt. 8.43 , compare 73; Diod. 4.37.1ff.; Strab. 8.6.13 ; Paus. 4.34.9ff. ; Nonnus, in Westermann's Mythographi Graeci, Appendix Narrationum, xxix.6, p. 371 ; Scholiast on Ap. Rhod., Argon. i.1212, 1218 . From these accounts we gather that the Dryopians were a wild robber tribe, whose original home was in the fastnesses of Mount Parnassus. Driven from there by the advance of the Dorians, they dispersed and settled, some in Thessaly, some in Euboea, some in Peloponnese, and some even in Cyprus. Down to the second century of our era the descendants of the Dryopians maintained their national or tribal traditions and pride of birth at Asine, on the coast of Messenia ( Paus. 1.32.6 ).

28. On the war which Herakles, in alliance with Aegimius, king of the Dorians, waged with the Lapiths, see Diod. 4.37.3ff.

29. Compare Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.466 .

30. On the combat of Herakles with Cycnus, see Hes. Sh. 57ff. ; Pind. O. 2.82(147) , with the Scholia to Pind. O. 10.15(19) ; Eur. Herc. 391ff. ; Plut. Thes. 11 ; Paus. 1.27.6 ; Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.467 . It is said that Cycnus used to cut off the heads of passing strangers, intending with these gory trophies to build a temple to his father Ares. This we learn from the Scholiasts on Pind. O. 2.82 . The scene of his exploits was Thessaly. According to Paus. 1.27.6 , Herakles slew the ruffian on the banks of the Peneus river; but Hesiod places the scene at Pagasae, and says that the grave of Cycnus was washed away by the river Anaurus, a small stream which flows into the Pagasaean gulf. See Hes. Sh. 70ff. , Hes. Sh. 472ff. The story of Cycnus was told in a poem of Stesichorus. See Scholiast on Pind. O. 10.15(19) . For the combat of Herakles with another Cycnus, see Apollod. 2.5.11 .

31. It is said that the king refused to give his daughter Astydamia in marriage to Herakles. So Herakles killed him, took Astydamia by force, and had a son Ctesippus by her. See Diod. 4.37.4 . Ormenium was a small town at the foot of Mount Pelion. See Strab. 9.5.18 .

32. Eurytus was the king of Oechalia. See Apollod. 2.6.1ff. As to the capture of Oechalia by Herakles, see Soph. Trach. 351-365 ; Soph. Trach. 476-478 ; Diod. 4.37.5 ; Zenobius, Cent. i.33 ; Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.469ff. ; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 50-51 ; Scholiast on Hom. Il. v.392 ; Scholiast on Eur. Hipp. 545 ; Hyginus, Fab. 35 ; Serv. Verg. A. 8.291 ; Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. Bode, i. pp. 129ff., 131ff. (Second Vatican Mythographer 159, 165) . The situation of Oechalia, the city of Eurytus, was much debated. Homer seems to place it in Thessaly ( Hom. Il. 2.730 ). But according to others it was in Euboea, or Arcadia, or Messenia. See Strab. 9.5.17 ; Paus. 4.2.2ff. ; Scholiast on Ap. Rhod., Argon. i.87 ; Second Vatican Mythographer 165 . Apollodorus apparently placed it in Euboea. See above, Apollod. 2.6.1ff. There was an ancient epic called The Capture of Oechalia, which was commonly attributed to Creophilus of Samos, though some thought it was by Homer. See Strab. 14.1.18 ; compare Strab. 9.5.17 ; Paus. 4.2.3 (who calls the poem Heraclea); Callimachus, Epigram 6(7) ; Epicorum Graecorum Fragmenta, ed. G. Kinkel, pp. 60ff. ; F. G. Welcker, Der epische Cyclus (Bonn, 1835), pp. 229ff. As to the names of the sons of Eurytus, see the Scholiast on Soph. Trach. 266 . He quotes a passage from a lost poem of Hesiod in which the poet mentions Deion, Clytius, Toxeus, and Iphitus as the sons, and Iola (Iole) as the daughter of Eurytus. The Scholiast adds that according to Creophylus and Aristocrates the names of the sons were Toxeus, Clytius, and Deion. Diod. 4.37.5 calls the sons Toxeus, Molion, and Clytius.

33. Compare Soph. Trach. 237ff. , Soph. Trach. 752ff. , Soph. Trach. 993ff. ; Diod. 4.37.5 ; Ov. Met. 9.136ff. ; Seneca, Herakles Oetaeus 102ff., 782ff. Cenaeum is the modern Cape Lithada, the extreme northwestern point of Euboea. It is a low flat promontory, terminating a peninsula which runs far out westward into the sea, as if to meet the opposite coast of Locris. But while the cape is low and flat, the greater part of the peninsula is occupied by steep, rugged, and barren mountains, overgrown generally with lentisk and other shrubs, and presenting in their bareness and aridity a strong contrast to the beautiful woods and rich vegetation which clothe much of northern Euboea, especially in the valleys and glens. But if the mountains themselves are gaunt and bare, the prospect from their summits is glorious, stretching over the sea which washes the sides of the peninsula, and across it to the long line of blue mountains which bound, as in a vast amphitheatre, the horizon on the north, the west, and the south. These blue mountains are in Magnesia, Phthiotis, and Locris. At their foot the whole valley of the Spercheus lies open to view. The sanctuary of Zeus, at which Herakles is said to have offered his famous sacrifice, was probably at “the steep city of Dium,” as Homer calls it ( Hom. Il. 2.538 ), which may have occupied the site of the modern Lithada, a village situated high up on the western face of the mountains, embowered in tall olives, pomegranates, mulberries, and other trees, and supplied with abundance of flowing water. The inhabitants say that a great city once stood here, and the heaps of stones, many of them presenting the aspect of artificial mounds, may perhaps support, if they did not suggest, the tradition. See W. Vischer, Erinnerungen und Eindrucke aus Griechenland (Basel, 1857), pp. 659-661 ; H. N. Ulrichs, Reisen und Forschungen in Griechenland, ii. (Berlin, 1863), pp. 236ff. ; C. Bursian, Geographie von Griechenland, ii.409ff. At Dium (Lithada?), in a spot named after a church of St. Constantine, the foundations of a temple and fair-sized precinct, with a circular base of three steps at the east end, have been observed in recent years. These ruins may be the remains of the sanctuary of Caenean Zeus. See A. B. Cook, Zeus, i.123, note 9 .

34. With this and what follows compare Soph. Trach. 756ff. ; Diod. 4.38.1ff. ; Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.472ff. ; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 50-51 ; Ov. Met. 9.136ff. ; Hyginus, Fab. 36 ; Seneca, Herakles Oetaeus 485ff. ; Serv. Verg. A. 8.300 ; Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. Bode, i. pp. 21, 132 (First Vatican Mythographer 58; Second Vatican Mythographer 165) . The following passage of Apollodorus, down to and including the ascension of Herakles to heaven, is copied verbally, with a few unimportant omissions and changes, by Zenobius, Cent. i.33 , but as usual without acknowledgment.

35. That is, the “fine raiment” which Lichas had fetched, from Trachis for the use of Herakles at the sacrifice.

36. The reading is uncertain. See the critical note.

37. Compare Diod. 4.38.3 . According to Soph. Trach. 930ff. ), Deianira stabbed herself with a sword. But hanging was the favourite mode of suicide adopted by Greek legendary heroines, as by Jocasta, Erigone, Phaedra, and Oenone. See Apollod. 1.8.3 , Apollod. 1.9.27 , Apollod. 3.5.9 , Apollod. 3.12.6 , Apollod. 3.13.3 , Apollod. 3.14.7 , Apollod. E.1.19 . It does not seem to have been practised by men.

38. For this dying charge of Herakles, see Soph. Trach. 1216ff. ; Ov. Met. 9.278ff. It is remarkable that Herakles should be represented as so earnestly desiring that his concubine should become the wife of his eldest son by Deianira. In many polygamous tribes of Africa it is customary for the eldest son to inherit all his father's wives, except his own mother. See Folk-Lore in the Old Testament, i.541, note 3, ii.280 . Absalom's treatment of his father's concubines ( 2 Samuel, xvi.21ff. ) suggests that a similar custom formerly obtained in Israel., I do not remember to have met with any other seeming trace of a similar practice in Greece.

39. For the death of Herakles on the pyre, see Soph. Trach. 1191ff. ; Diod. 4.38.3-8 ; Lucian, Hermotimus 7 ; Ov. Met. 9.229ff. ; Hyginus, Fab. 36 ; Seneca, Herakles Oetaeus 1483ff. ; Serv. Verg. A. 8.300 ; Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. Bode, i. pp. 21, 132 (First Vatican Mythographer 58; Second Vatican Mythographer 165) . According to the usual account, it was not Poeas but his son Philoctetes who set a light to the pyre. So Diod. 4.38.4 , Lucian, De morte Peregrini 21 , Ov. Met. 9.233ff. , Hyginus, Fab. 36 , Seneca, Herakles Oetaeus 1485ff., 1727 , and the Second Vatican Mythographer. According to a different and less famous version of the legend, Herakles was not burned to death on a pyre, but, tortured by the agony of the poisoned robe, which took fire in the sun, he flung himself into a neighbouring stream to ease his pain and was drowned. The waters of the stream have been hot ever since, and are called Thermopylae. See Nonnus, in Westermann's Mythographi Graeci, Appendix Narrationum, xxviii.8 ; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 50-51 . Nonnus expressly says that the poisoned tunic took fire and burned Herakles. That it was thought to be kindled by exposure to the heat of the sun appears from the narrative of Hyginus, Fab. 36 ; compare Soph. Trach. 684-704 ; Seneca, Herakles Oetaeus 485ff., 716ff. The waters of Thermopylae are steaming hot to this day. See Adonis, Attis, Osiris, 3rd ed. i.210ff. The Vatican Mythographers, perhaps through the blunder of a copyist, transfer the death of Herakles from Mount Oeta to Mount Etna.

40. The ascension of Herakles to heaven in a cloud is described also by Zenobius, Cent. i.33 , who copies Apollodorus. In a more sceptical vein Diod. 4.38.4 relates that, as soon as a light was set to the pyre, a thunderstorm burst, and that when the friends of the hero came to collect his bones they could find none, and therefore supposed he had been translated to the gods. As to the traditional mode of Herakles's death, compare Alberuni's India, English ed. by E. C. Sachau, ii.168 : “Galenus says in his commentary to the apothegms of Hippocrates: ‘It is generally known that Asclepius was raised to the angels in a column of fire, the like of which is also related with regard to Dionysos, Heracles, and others, who laboured for the benefit of mankind. People say that God did thus with them in order to destroy the mortal and earthly part of them by the fire, and afterwards to attract to himself the immortal part of them, and to raise their souls to heaven.’” So Lucian speaks of Herakles becoming a god in the burning pile on Mount Oeta, the human element in him, which he had inherited from his mortal mother, being purged away in the flames, while the divine element ascended pure and spotless to the gods. See Lucian, Hermotimus 7 . The notion that fire separates the immortal from the mortal element in man has already met us in Apollod. 1.5.1 .

41. On the marriage of Herakles with Hebe, see Hom. Od. 11.602ff. ; Hes. Th. 950ff. ; Pind. N. 1.69(104)ff. ; Pind. N. 10.17(30)ff. ; Pind. I. 4.59(100) ; Eur. Heraclid. 915ff. ; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 1349, 1350 ; Ov. Met. 9.400ff. According to Eur. Heraclid. 854ff. ), at the battle which the Athenians fought with the Argives in defence of the Heraclids, two stars were seen shining brightly on the car of Iolaus, and the diviner interpreted them as Herakles and Hebe.

42. A short list of the sons of Herakles is given by Hyginus, Fab. 162 . As to the daughters of Thespius, see above, Apollod. 2.4.10 .

43. Compare Diod. 4.37.1 .

44. Compare Apollod. 2.4.11 ; Scholiast on Hom. Od. 11.269 , who agrees with Apollodorus as to the names of the children whom Herakles had by Megara. But other writers gave different lists. Dinias the Argive, for example, gave the three names mentioned by Apollodorus, but added to them Deion. See the Scholiast on Pind. I. 5.61(104) .

45. Diod. 4.31.8 and Ovid, Her. ix.53ff. give Lamus as the name of the son whom Omphale bore to Herakles.

46. According to Hdt. 1.7 the dynasty which preceded that of Croesus on the throne of Sardes traced their descent from Alcaeus, the son of Herakles by a slave girl. It is a curious coincidence that Croesus, like his predecessor or ancestor Herakles, is said to have attempted to burn himself on a pyre when the Persians captured Sardes. See Bacch. 3.24-62, ed. Jebb . The tradition is supported by the representation of the scene on a red-figured vase, which may have been painted about forty years after the capture of Sardes and the death or captivity of Croesus. See Baumeister, Denkmäler des klassischen Altertums, ii.796, fig. 860 . Compare Adonis, Attis, Osiris, 3rd ed. i.174ff. The Herakles whom Greek tradition associated with Omphale was probably an Oriental deity identical with the Sandan of Tarsus. See Adonis, Attis, Osiris, i.124ff.

47. See above, Apollod. 2.7.4 , and below, Apollod. 3.9.1 .

48. See above, Apollod. 2.7.6 .