The chorus of Milton's Samson Agonistes referred to a bad
wife or mistress as a cleaving mischief.
wife or mistress as a cleaving mischief.
Ovid - 1934 - Metamorphoses in European Culture - v2
As the lion
sprang at him, he struck it so hard with his club that the animal was
dazed. Then, attacking from behind, he trod on the lion's hind paws and
threw his arms round its neck. After strangling the lion, he endeavored
to remove the hide but could make no impression on it until at last he
tried the lion's own claws. Ovid, probably recalling the Manual, spoke
of Hercules as crushing the Nemean monster with his arms.
After recording the complaint of Hercules, Ovid proceeded to
describe his wild behavior. When Apollonius had recounted the fate of
Hylas, he spoke of Hercules as rushing hither and thither, like a bull
maddened with the stings of a gadfly. Vergil had compared Dido in love
with Aeneas to a hind which a shepherd has wounded, not aware that he
has done so, and which flees through woods and glades still carrying the
deadly shaft. Combining these ideas, Ovid likened Hercules to a bull,
when a hunter has wounded him and he has fled. He rushed wildly up
the side of Mt. Oeta, after roaring in agony, often endeavoring to tear
off the fateful garment, often uprooting great trees with his hands.
At this point Ovid introduced the encounter with Lichas. Evidently
the herald had fled a long way up the mountain and taken refuge under
a hollow rock. Hercules, proceeding in the same direction, observed him
and called him to account. Following Sophocles in the earlier part of
the affair, Ovid stressed the idea that Lichas tried to excuse himself.
Following Nicander in the latter part, he declared that the herald's
body was transformed into an island. With the Manual he noted that
it lay in the Euboic Sea. But he gave the tale particular interest for
his contemporaries by alluding to a recent scientific theory, taken prob-
ably from Varro. According to this idea, water, when lifted high in
air, dries and hardens, first into snow and then into hail. In a similar
manner, said Ovid, the body of Lichas, rising high in air, dried and
hardened into a piece of flint.
Sophocles and the Manual, recording the events at Trachin, had
included a strange incident. With a number of African tribes it is
customary for the son and heir to inherit his father's wives and concu-
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK NINE
bines, with the exception of his own mother. The custom appears to have
been known among the prehistoric Greeks. Tradition recorded an ex-
ample in the family of Ulysses. After the death of that hero, Tela-
machus, his son by Penelope, espoused his former mistress Circe; and
Telegonus, his son by Circe, married his former wife Penelope. In
harmony with this idea Sophocles and the Manual declared that Her-
cules ordered Hyllus to marry Iole, and the Manual noted that Hyllus
did so. Since Ovid had avoided any mention of Hyllus and had omitted
the visit to Trachin, he said nothing at this point about a marriage of
Hyllus and Iole. But in the tale which followed he observerd, incon-
sistently, that by order of Hercules it had taken place.
Following the Manual, Ovid noted that Hercules built his own
funeral pyre; and, following Sophocles, he added that he persuaded
Philoctetes to light it and gave him in return his bow, which twice vis-
ited Troy. Ovid referred to the conquest of the city by Hercules, which
he intended to record in the tale of Hesione (Bk. 11), and to the arrival
of Philoctetes in the Troad, which he afterwards mentioned in the tale
of Ajax and Ulysses (Bk. 13).
According to the Odyssey, Hercules was transformed into an
Olympian god and married Hebe, the personification of eternal youth.
This idea became one of the most popular elements in the whole tradition
of that famous hero. In the drama called Children of Hercules, Euripides
related it to the story of the funeral pyre on Mt. Oeta. Hercules, he
observed, raising his soul from the dread flame, entered the charming
couch of Hebe. Greek tradition noted also that fire separated the mortal
part of Hercules from the immortal, an idea repeated afterwards by
Lucian. Propertius observed in harmony with this that on the heights
of Mt. Oeta, Hercules first knew the joys of godhead. And Ovid, re-
calling the same tradition, had remarked that Neptune took from Ino
and Melicerta whatever was mortal before transforming them into sea
deities (Bk. 4).
The Theogony had spoken of Hebe as daughter of Jupiter and
Juno. Since the time of the Iliad, Hercules had been regarded as the
son of Jupiter and Alcmena. In espousing Hebe, he took a wife whose
father was the same as his but whose mother was different. Marriage
of this kind often was permitted by the ancient Greeks (cf. Io, Bk. 1).
Euripides, calling attention to the idea, declared that Hymenaeus
thought two children of Jupiter worthy of each other. But this was
not the only version of the story, for Ovid observed in a subsequent tale
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? NESSUS AND THE DEATH OF HERCULES
of Iolaiis that Hebe was only a stepdaughter of Jupiter, meaning prob-
ably a child of Juno without a father (cf. Semele and Jupiter, Bk. 3).
The idea that Hercules married Hebe would suggest that her
mother had become reconciled to him. This was implied often by the
older Greek poets, especially by Pindar. The Manual stated that a
reconciliation with Juno occurred immediately after Hercules arrived
on Mt. Olympus. Greek artists indicated that Juno even adopted him
as her son and that she symbolized the adoption by having him drink
milk from her breast.
In the tradition of several ancient peoples great men have been
transported supernaturally to heaven. The events indicated have been
as follows. The hero at first was in some open place and in broad day-
light, plainly observed by several witnesses. Then clouds enveloped him,
sometimes without concealing him from view; a chariot descended
through the clouds; and he was transported to his new home with the
immortals. So, according to the Old Testament, Elijah was conveyed
by a chariot and horses of fire and a whirlwind to heaven.
Usually the hero was transported from high ground. According to
Roman tradition, Romulus was on the Palatine Hill, when clouds sur-
rounded him and a celestial chariot carried him away to become the
god Quirinus. This tale Ovid treated both in his Metamorphoses
(Bk. 14) and in his Fasti. Apparently following Varro, he noted that
the hero's father, Mars, descended in a chariot and that Juno welcomed
the new deity in a council of the gods. A similar event was associated
with Hercules. The Manual stated that a cloud took the hero up from
Mt. Oeta and carried him away with peals of thunder to become a
heavenly god. Greek artists pictured him ascending in a four-horse
chariot. Already the tradition of Hercules was parallel in some respects
to that of Romulus. Ovid decided to make the parallel closer.
While developing many traditional ideas of supernatural ascent
and immortality, Ovid improved his account with congenial details sug-
gested by earlier Roman poets. Spreading the lion skin on the pyre, he
said, and setting the club across it for a pillow, Hercules lay down.
Horace, when he told of Regulus departing to a death by torture, ob-
served that he acted as unconcerned as if he were leaving for a vacation
in the country. Ovid noted that Hercules lay down on the pyre as
calmly as if he were commencing a banquet. Ovid then invented an inci-
dent in the heavens. The gods, who were assembled in council, mani-
fested alarm at the fate of earth's defender. Jupiter expressed his glad-
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK NINE
ness at their feeling solicitude for his son and proceeded to reassure
them. The flame should devour only the mortal portion of Hercules,
which he received from his mother. The portion that came from his
father was to be immortal, and soon he was to be received on the
heavenly shores. Jupiter expressed the hope that all would rejoice in
his rewarding Hercules with divinity and added that, even if anyone
present were to grudge the bestowal of this reward, he must admit at
least that it was deserved. Juno seemed displeased at the allusion to
her former hostility -- presumably because she now was reconciled and
shared the good will of the rest.
The flames of the pyre, Ovid continued, had now taken away the
former appearance of Hercules and given him one which was new and
better. Both Tibullus and Vergil had spoken of the snake as putting off
his old state and being new. Vergil had noted in his Georgics how the
Calabrian viper, putting off his skin, glides away new and shining with
youth. In the Aeneid he repeated the passage almost verbatim to de-
scribe Pyrrhus in his fresh armor. Ovid, recalling both Tibullus and
Vergil, used the idea more aptly to describe the transformation of Her-
cules. The hero took on new brilliance, as the snake, when it has put off
old age with its skin, becomes new, rejoices, and shines in gleaming scales.
Horace, predicting his own immortal fame, had made the following
boast. Not all of me shall die. A mighty part of me shall escape the
goddess of death, and I shall keep growing in the praise of later times.
Ovid, recalling Horace, observed that the better part of Hercules es-
caped death and grew to even more heroic size.
The hero's father, Jupiter, descended in a chariot with four horses
and conveyed him up through clouds to find a place among the stars. Al-
though this last phrase may have been merely figurative, Ovid seems to
have remembered the idea that Hercules became a constellation of that
name. He noted that Atlas felt the added weight, again forgetting that
Atlas had become a mountain. After this impressive event, it might have
been inconsistent to add the traditional marriage with Hebe. It certainly
would have been an anticlimax. Ovid ended the story with the deification
of Hercules, but afterwards in the tale of Iolaiis he spoke of Hebe as
yielding to her husband's request.
After Ovid's time the subject of Hercules continued to interest
many authors and artists. Although numerous other treatments of the
subject were available and some of them were clearer, especially in their
account of the exploits, Ovid's narrative became and remained the most
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? NESSUS AND THE DEATH OF HERCULES
accessible and the best known. We always may assume that it was
familiar to men of later times and that it encouraged them when they
sought elsewhere for further details. This observation would be true
notably of Lucan in his famous account of Hercules and Antaeus, of
Boccacio in his De Natura Deorum, and of several authors who intro-
duced Hercules into medieval romances. The French poetical romance
of Alexander described Alexander's tent as adorned with designs repre-
senting exploits of Hercules. A French prose romance treated the ex-
ploits at some length*. It spoke of Hercules as acting in the service of
a Boeotian princess, and it gave many of his labors a medieval form. For
example, it presented Pluto as king of a dismal castle, which was
guarded by a giant named Cerberus. Late in the fifteenth century, Pietro
Bassi wrote an Italian prose romance called The Toils of Hercules,
which Villana translated into Spanish, and Perillos wrote an Italian
poetical romance called Twelve Labors of Hercules. Recollection of
Ovid encouraged Shakespeare's frequent allusions to Hercules as typical
of strength and valor.
Ovid's effect in these examples appears to have been merely remote
and general. But on many authors it was also direct and particular.
However much they may have taken from others, they took at least a
few details from him. This was true of Seneca in his tragedies called
Hercules Furens and Hercules on Mt. Oeta'f, of Hyginus, of Claudian
in his Abduction of Proserpina, and of Boethius in his Consolation of
Philosophy. It was true also of the famous medieval poets Jean de
Meun, Dante, and Chaucer. Direct influence undoubtedly occurred
again in the work of authors and artists of the Renaissance and of later
times but is difficult to establish because of the increasing possibility
that details were taken at second hand from some modern predecessor.
The encounter of Hercules and Nessus attracted several authors.
Seneca in his Hercules on Mt. Oeta followed Ovid's idea that it occurred
almost immediately after the victory over Acheloiis. He agreed with
Ovid that Hercules was journeying towards his native city, which he
mistakenly called Argos, and that, before shooting, Hercules warned
Nessus to stop. Dante spoke of himself as conveyed on the back of
Nessus over an infernal river. He showed his guide, Virgil, dt'Tibing
the centaur as rash and alluding to his death and subsequent revtage.
Hyginus mentioned the centaur's giving Deianira the tunic and re-
*The title was Les Prowesses et les Vaillances du Preux Hercule.
tThis play served as a model for the French dramatist Rotrou in his Hercule*
Dying.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK NINE
peated Ovid's word (vestem). Chaucer declared that Nessus wove the
garment himself. Shakespeare alluded to Ovid more vaguely. In All's
Well That Ends Well, Parolles remarked of a certain Captain Dumain,
that for rapes and ravishments, he paralleled Nessus.
The passion of Hercules for Iole interested many great poets of
later times. In Dante's Paradiso the troubadour Foulquet likened him-
self to Alcides, when Iole was shut in his heart. Chaucer in the Knight's
Tale and Shakespeare in Love's Labour's Lost, mentioned Hercules as
a notable example of the great man yielding to love. Boccaccio, confus-
ing Ovid's account of Iole in the Metamorphoses with his account of
Omphale in the Epistle of Deianira, spoke of Hercules as taking the
distaff for the sake of Iole, and he was followed by Tasso and by Spen-
ser. Ovid's incident of Rumor bearing the news to Deianira and his
emphasis on Rumor as mendacious provided the material for Shakes-
peare's prologue to the Second Part of Henry Fourth. And the idea
that Deianira expressed jealous resentment appeared in the work of
Seneca.
The disastrous effect of the poisoned robe was the most famous
part of the whole story. Chaucer observed of Deianira,
She hath him sent a sherte fresh and gay.
Alias! this sherte, alias and weylaway!
Envenimed was so subtilly with-alle,
That, or that he had wered it half a day,
It made his flesh al from his bones falle.
But on his bak this sherte he wered al naked,
Til that his flesh was for the venim blaked.
Shakespeare's Antony, thinking himself betrayed by Cleopatra, ex-
claimed
The shirt of Nessus is upon me: teach me,
Alcides, thou mine ancestor, thy rage;
Let me lodge Lichas on the horns of the moon;
And with these hands that grasped the heaviest club
Subdue my worthiest self.
Milton, lamenting the death of the Procancellar, remarked that, if a
right hand had availed against death, fierce Hercules would not have
lain on Mt. Oeta poisoned by the robe of Nessus. And in Paradise Lost
he declared the sports of the demons as violent,
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? NESSUS AND THE DEATH OF HERCULES
As when Alcides, from Oechalia crowned
With conquest, felt the envenomed robe,
And tore up by the roots Thessalian pines,
And Lichas from the top of Oeta threw
Into the Euboic sea.
Particularly interesting to later authors was the idea of a garment
which at first appeared beautiful but afterwards stuck fast and burned
continually. Hyginus noted that, when Hercules tried to remove the
tunic, his viscera followed the cloth. Spenser described as follows the
result of the dragon's fiery attack on St. George.
Not that great champion of the antique world,
Whom famous poets' verse so much doth vaunt,
And hath for twelve huge labors high extold,
So many furies and sharp fits did haunt,
When him the poisoned garment did enchaunt,
With centaur's blood and bloody verses charmed;
As did this Knight twelve thousand dolors daunt,
Whom fiery steel now brent that erst him armed,
That erst him goodly armed now most of all him harmed.
In Shakespeare's As You Like It, Old Adam spoke of Orlando as in-
jured even by his merit, and he added,
0 what a world is this, when what is comely
Envenoms him that wears it.
Cowper noted in his Progress of Error that
Habits are soon assumed; but, when we strive
To strip them off, 'tis being flayed alive.
Other authors were concerned chiefly with the idea of disastrous
results.
The chorus of Milton's Samson Agonistes referred to a bad
wife or mistress as a cleaving mischief. Walpole in The Mysterious
Mother, observed that marriage was to wrap Edmund and Adelizia
fatally, like an envenomed robe. And Shelley in Prometheus Unbound,
spoke of his hero as declaring that Jupiter's Infinity was to become a
robe of envenomed agony.
Still other writers recalled the poisoned robe merely as an instance
of acute and inescapable suffering. Sienkiewicz used the idea in a literal
sense. In Quo Vadis, he declared that, when the tunic of Vinicius caught
fire, it burned like a shirt of Nessus. Carlyle in his Heroes and Hero
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK NINE
Worship used the idea in a figurative sense to describe the chronic ill-
ness and hypochondria of Dr. Johnson.
The fate of Lichas attracted separate attention more than once.
Hyginus noted that Lichas became a rock. Petrarch declared that he
himself became marble, like him that caused Hercules to put on his
shoulders the grievious burden. Shakespeare in The Merchant of Venice
showed Morocco complaining that the test of the caskets was as unjust
as having Hercules and Lichas play at dice and having Alcides beaten
by his page.
Seneca followed Ovid's idea that Hercules made a long complaint,
asking Juno for death.
Many authors recalled Ovid's exploits of Hercules. Seneca in both
of his plays gave similar prominence to Busiris and Antaeus and in his
Hercules on Mt. Oeta, repeated the inconsistent ideas that Hercules
killed the Hesperian dragon and upheld the sky. Claudian also gave
prominence to Busiris and Antaeus, and both Claudian and Boethius
gave their emphatic final place to the exploit of holding up the sky. Ari-
osto noted that stepmother Juno and Eurystheus had imposed the
famous labors on Hercules with the hope that he would perish and de-
clared that Lydia imposed on Alceste equally formidable tasks with the
same intent. Shakespeare recalled the twelve labors both in The Taming
of the Shrew and in Coriolanus*. Hawthorne recalled eleven exploits in
his tale, The Three Golden Apples.
Several of the exploits attracted attention individually. Shakes-
peare alluded to the Nemean lion, first in Love's Labour's Lost and then
in Hamlet; and in King John he recalled the traditional association of
Hercules with the lion skin. Dante in the Convivio and in the treatise
called Monarchy used Antaeus for illustrating a number of ideas in his
discussion and cited as authority Ovid and Lucan. Spenser alluded to
Hercules and the Hesperian fruit both in his Amoretti and in his descrip-
tion of Proserpina's garden. Shakespeare recalled the fruit in Love's
Labour's Lost, in Pericles, and in Coriolanus, adding that Hercules
climbed up among the boughs and shook down the mellow fruit. Dante
introduced Geryon as an aerial monster who enabled him to descend
from the cliff into the circle of Fraud. And in Heroes and Hero Wor-
ship, Carlyle spoke of the Protestant Reformation as a cleansing of
Augean Stables.
Ovid's comparison of the manner in which Hercules ascended Mt.
*A remote effect of Ovid's passage about the labors may appear in the remarkable
sonnets of Hereclia.
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? NESSUS AND THE DEATH OF HERCULES
Oeta to the aimless fury of a mortally wounded bull probably suggested
to Dante his similar description of the conduct of the Minotaur.
The pyre on Mt. Oeta and the deification of Hercules interested
many later poets. Chaucer in the Parliament of Fowls and Milton in
the Sixth Prolusion, referred vaguely to the manner of the hero's death.
Seneca introduced into his Hercules Furens the idea that Hercules con-
sidered burning himself on a pile of logs. In the Monk's Tale, Chaucer
declared that Hercules, not deigning to end his life by the poison, caused
his body to be raked in coals. Seneca in Hercules on Mt. Oeta described
him as calmly lying down on the pyre and stated that the flames de-
voured only the mortal part, which he derived from his mother. He
noted further that Atlas was able to bear the hero's weight. Spenser
declared in his Ruines of Time, that, after the great Oetaean wood had
consumed Hercules to dust, he was raised to heaven and lived happy as
the lover of Hebe. And Lewis Morris continually recalled Ovid's nar-
rative in his monologue of Deianira.
Modern artists were attracted by several incidents of Ovid's tale.
The adventure with Nessus became the theme for a painting by Lematte,
a German crystal carving of the Renaissance period, a marble statue
by Marqueste, and statues of several kinds by Giovanni da Bologna.
Hercules and Lichas inspired a famous work of the sculptor Canova.
The labors of Hercules became the subject for a wonderful series of
murals in grisaille adorning the palace at Palermo. Antaeus attracted
the painter Pollaiuollo and the sculptors Giovanni da Bologna, Guer-
cino, and Thorvaldsen. Ammanati treated the combat, in sculpture of
a fountain at Costello. Durer made the Stymphalian birds the subject
of a remarkable painting. The death of Hercules was treated by the
sculptor G. Coustou. And the deification inspired a painting by Rubens
and a masterpiece by Lemoyne. In a series of paintings the brothers
Dossi treated the entire story of Hercules.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK NINE
Galanthis
Tradition had recorded the idea that, after Hercules ascended to
heaven, Eurystheus transferred his hatred to the surviving children of
Hercules and while persecuting them, was killed by Iolaiis. Pindar noted
that Iolaiis cut off his head with a sword. Pherecydes told the story.
Eurystheus despatched a herald to King Ceyx of Trachin demanding
that he give up the children of Hercules. Feeling unable to resist the
tyrant, Ceyx allowed them to escape from the country. Their grand-
mother Alcmena went with them. Eventually they took refuge in the
temple at Marathon, which was in Athenian territory. Demophoon,
who then was king of Athens, offered them protection. Eurystheus was
defeated in battle and perished while attempting to escape from the field.
Euripides declared in his Children of Hercules that he was taken pris-
oner by Iolaiis and afterwards was executed by order of Alcmena. But
most later authors reported that he was killed while in flight. Pausanias
repeated the older idea that the killer was Iolaiis. The Manual and
Diodorus asserted that he was Hyllus, and they noted that he brought
the severed head to Alcmena.
Following tradition, Ovid observed that Eurystheus transferred
his enmity to the children of Hercules and they felt obliged to leave
their home. But he said that Alcmena stayed in Trachin with Iole, who
soon was to bear Hyllus a child. Moschus had told how, during the
absence of Hercules at his labors, Alcmena and Megara were left discon-
solate and beguiled the time with talk about their loved hero. Ovid
imagined that, after the death of Hercules and the enforced departure
of his children, Alcmena and Iole were left disconsolate and beguiled the
time in a similar manner.
Alcmena, he said, expressed the hope that Iole might receive kind
treatment from the goddess of childbirth. She named Ilithyia, who
since the Iliad had been mentioned by the Greeks as presiding at such
occasions. In one passage the Iliad had spoken of more than one Ilithyia,
who might further the birth of a child, an idea repeated by the The-
ogony. But from the time of Pindar it became customary to mention
only a single goddess. The Romans identified her with their deity
Lucina, and later in the tale Ovid gave her this name also. Both the
Theogony and the Manual had described Ilithyia as daughter of Jupiter
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? GALANTHIS
and Juno. Ovid showed Alcmena adding that, for her, childbirth had
been exceedingly difficult.
Here Ovid introduced a little known Theban myth, which had been
recorded by Nicander. The Iliad had stated vaguely that Juno delayed
the birth of Hercules. Later Greek authors supposed that, when she
wanted to retard a process of this kind, she would interrupt the normal
action of Ilithyia. According to the Homeric Hymn to Delian Apollo,
Juno kept the goddess ignorant of Latona's condition and so caused
Latona nine days of torture. Nicander declared that in the case of
Alcmena, Juno went further. She persuaded Ilithyia maliciously to
impede the birth of Hercules, with the intention that prolonged suffer-
ing might cause Alcmena to die. Pindar had spoken of the Fates as
cooperating with Ilithyia to further childbirth. Nicander observed that
Juno persuaded them to cooperate in withholding it. As a result of their
combined efforts Alcmena was in torture seven days.
In many parts of the world primitive men have believed they could
aid a woman in travail by loosening various objects in the house. Ac-
cording to the Koita tribe of New Guinea, the husband ought to un-
fasten the cord round his hair and open all boxes and containers.
According to certain tribes of Nigeria, it is important to undo all knots
and open every lock in the house. Opposite conduct would impede the
birth of the child. It is reported that a certain jealous wife acted on
this principle, in order to spite her rival. Hiding a number of locks under
her dress, she visited the other woman's house and covertly fastened
them. Not content with that, she stole a waist belonging to the other
woman and tied it full of knots. Then she sat in front of the door with
her knees crossed and her fingers interlaced. Similar attempts to im-
pede childbirth are recorded in the folklore of many countries, from Italy
northwards to Scandinavia. Often men have thought it possible to get
relief by deceiving the malevolent woman and causing her to undo the
spell. In an English Ballad of Willie's Lady the hero's mother tied nine
knots in her hair, in order to prevent the birth of his child. But Willie
deceived her by fashioning a baby of wax and inviting her to the bap-
tismal service. Imagining that someone had frustrated her spell, the
mother undid her knots, and the child was born.
Nicander told a similar tale of Alcmena. Ilithyia and the Fates
visited her house and sat before the door of her bedroom holding their
fingers tightly interlaced. But a girlhood friend of Alcmena, Galin-
thias, daughter of Proetus, realized what they were doing and suddenly
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK NINE
announced that, by the will of Jove, Alcmena now had a son. In con-
sternation the goddesses released their fingers. The spell was broken,
and the child was born. The malevolent goddesses punished Galinthias by
transforming her into a weasel. Nicander noted that the animal still is
deceitful; and, following a mistaken scientific belief, he added that, be-
cause the mouth of Galinthias had made possible the birth of Hercules,
the weasel is condemned to bear young through her mouth. But Galin-
thias did not go without some reward. Hecate made her an attendant
of hers, and Hercules erected a shrine to her in his house and caused her
to be given the first offerings at Theban festivals in his honor.
Although Ovid took the outline of his tale from Nicander, he made
a number of changes. Ordinarily it was supposed that Alcmena bore
two sons, Hercules and Iphicles. Although the Iliad and Nicander did
not mention the fact, they said nothing to the contrary. But Ovid im-
plied clearly that Alcmena bore only one child. Following an observa-
tion of Moschus, he noted that she carried her son ten months, and he
added that her unborn child grew so heavy as to leave no doubt that his
father was Jupiter.
Ovid spoke of Alcmena as invoking both Lucina and the Nixi. The
latter were three male deities represented by kneeling statues in the
Forum at Rome. The images were said to have been imported from
Syria. Probably mistaking their true function, the Romans imagined
them as gods furthering childbirth. Ovid supposed that Ilythia alone
visited the house of Alcmena. He observed that she not only interlaced
her fingers but also crossed her knees and silently muttered charms to
prevent the delivery of the child. Afterwards in the tale of Myrrha
(Bk. 10) he spoke of her reciting charms to further childbirth. Ovid
noted that Alcmena cried out in her torture, reproaching Jupiter. This
made it plausible for Ilithyia to suspect that Jupiter allowed the birth
of Hercules.
Ovid called the deceitful woman Galanthis and gave a new account
of her. She was a girl of humble origin and an attendant of Alcmena,
active in her service and loved by her. Galanthis had distinctive reddish
yellow hair. While going in and out on errands for her mistress, she
observed the unknown female figure performing spells. Galanthis an-
nounced the birth of a child, but without mentioning Jupiter. The god-
dess not only opened her hands but sprang to her feet. Ovid added
plausibly that Galanthis laughed at her dismay and so provoked her
further.
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? GALANTHIS
According to the Iliad, Jupiter was so enraged at Ate's deceiving
him and giving dominion to Eurystheus that he seized her by the hair
and threw her down from the home of the gods. According to Ovid,
Ilythia was so enraged at Galanthis that she seized her by the hair and
threw her on the ground. Then, holding her down, she transformed her
into a weasel. Ovid repeated Nicander's idea that a weasel bears her
young through her mouth and added that Galanthis in her new form
retained her reddish yellow hair, her activity, and her love of dwelling
in the home. The less interesting details about her subsequent relation
to Hecate and Hercules, Ovid wisely omitted. Although he referred to
the malevolent goddess as Ilithyia or Lucina, he gave an impression
throughout that in reality she was Juno herself.
Ovid's idea that Galanthis, after becoming a weasel, retained her
love of dwelling in the home would have impressed his contemporaries as
remarkably true to life. Before the dawn of history European house-
holders had begun to suffer from the depredations of mice. They felt
the need of encouraging some other animal to frequent the house and
prey on these vermin. Sometimes the animal was a harmless variety of
snake. In warm weather the snake was a valuable ally, for it was not
especially afraid of human beings and it was able to pursue the mice in
almost all their hiding places. But in cold weather it became torpid and
allowed the mice to continue undisturbed.
A more useful animal was the weasel. With all the advantages of
the snake, it combined ability to hunt throughout the year. The weasel
became recognized as man's chief protector within the house. Plautus
mentioned it in this character, and other Roman poets followed his ex-
ample. The weasel was welcomed first in southern Europe, but, as the
practice of living in permanent dwellings became general, it was re-
ceived as a household animal all over the continent. The weasel had
certain disadvantages. It was somewhat malodorous and rather destruc-
tive to poultry. But it did not lose favor until the end of the medieval
period. For many centuries of readers, Ovid's description would have
continued to be true.
In Egypt the cat became a household animal before historical times.
From there it was brought to the Greek world as early as the year
1500 B. C. ; but it won favor very slowly, and it was regarded as a pet
for the amusement of the wealthy rather than a creature for practical
use.
sprang at him, he struck it so hard with his club that the animal was
dazed. Then, attacking from behind, he trod on the lion's hind paws and
threw his arms round its neck. After strangling the lion, he endeavored
to remove the hide but could make no impression on it until at last he
tried the lion's own claws. Ovid, probably recalling the Manual, spoke
of Hercules as crushing the Nemean monster with his arms.
After recording the complaint of Hercules, Ovid proceeded to
describe his wild behavior. When Apollonius had recounted the fate of
Hylas, he spoke of Hercules as rushing hither and thither, like a bull
maddened with the stings of a gadfly. Vergil had compared Dido in love
with Aeneas to a hind which a shepherd has wounded, not aware that he
has done so, and which flees through woods and glades still carrying the
deadly shaft. Combining these ideas, Ovid likened Hercules to a bull,
when a hunter has wounded him and he has fled. He rushed wildly up
the side of Mt. Oeta, after roaring in agony, often endeavoring to tear
off the fateful garment, often uprooting great trees with his hands.
At this point Ovid introduced the encounter with Lichas. Evidently
the herald had fled a long way up the mountain and taken refuge under
a hollow rock. Hercules, proceeding in the same direction, observed him
and called him to account. Following Sophocles in the earlier part of
the affair, Ovid stressed the idea that Lichas tried to excuse himself.
Following Nicander in the latter part, he declared that the herald's
body was transformed into an island. With the Manual he noted that
it lay in the Euboic Sea. But he gave the tale particular interest for
his contemporaries by alluding to a recent scientific theory, taken prob-
ably from Varro. According to this idea, water, when lifted high in
air, dries and hardens, first into snow and then into hail. In a similar
manner, said Ovid, the body of Lichas, rising high in air, dried and
hardened into a piece of flint.
Sophocles and the Manual, recording the events at Trachin, had
included a strange incident. With a number of African tribes it is
customary for the son and heir to inherit his father's wives and concu-
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK NINE
bines, with the exception of his own mother. The custom appears to have
been known among the prehistoric Greeks. Tradition recorded an ex-
ample in the family of Ulysses. After the death of that hero, Tela-
machus, his son by Penelope, espoused his former mistress Circe; and
Telegonus, his son by Circe, married his former wife Penelope. In
harmony with this idea Sophocles and the Manual declared that Her-
cules ordered Hyllus to marry Iole, and the Manual noted that Hyllus
did so. Since Ovid had avoided any mention of Hyllus and had omitted
the visit to Trachin, he said nothing at this point about a marriage of
Hyllus and Iole. But in the tale which followed he observerd, incon-
sistently, that by order of Hercules it had taken place.
Following the Manual, Ovid noted that Hercules built his own
funeral pyre; and, following Sophocles, he added that he persuaded
Philoctetes to light it and gave him in return his bow, which twice vis-
ited Troy. Ovid referred to the conquest of the city by Hercules, which
he intended to record in the tale of Hesione (Bk. 11), and to the arrival
of Philoctetes in the Troad, which he afterwards mentioned in the tale
of Ajax and Ulysses (Bk. 13).
According to the Odyssey, Hercules was transformed into an
Olympian god and married Hebe, the personification of eternal youth.
This idea became one of the most popular elements in the whole tradition
of that famous hero. In the drama called Children of Hercules, Euripides
related it to the story of the funeral pyre on Mt. Oeta. Hercules, he
observed, raising his soul from the dread flame, entered the charming
couch of Hebe. Greek tradition noted also that fire separated the mortal
part of Hercules from the immortal, an idea repeated afterwards by
Lucian. Propertius observed in harmony with this that on the heights
of Mt. Oeta, Hercules first knew the joys of godhead. And Ovid, re-
calling the same tradition, had remarked that Neptune took from Ino
and Melicerta whatever was mortal before transforming them into sea
deities (Bk. 4).
The Theogony had spoken of Hebe as daughter of Jupiter and
Juno. Since the time of the Iliad, Hercules had been regarded as the
son of Jupiter and Alcmena. In espousing Hebe, he took a wife whose
father was the same as his but whose mother was different. Marriage
of this kind often was permitted by the ancient Greeks (cf. Io, Bk. 1).
Euripides, calling attention to the idea, declared that Hymenaeus
thought two children of Jupiter worthy of each other. But this was
not the only version of the story, for Ovid observed in a subsequent tale
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? NESSUS AND THE DEATH OF HERCULES
of Iolaiis that Hebe was only a stepdaughter of Jupiter, meaning prob-
ably a child of Juno without a father (cf. Semele and Jupiter, Bk. 3).
The idea that Hercules married Hebe would suggest that her
mother had become reconciled to him. This was implied often by the
older Greek poets, especially by Pindar. The Manual stated that a
reconciliation with Juno occurred immediately after Hercules arrived
on Mt. Olympus. Greek artists indicated that Juno even adopted him
as her son and that she symbolized the adoption by having him drink
milk from her breast.
In the tradition of several ancient peoples great men have been
transported supernaturally to heaven. The events indicated have been
as follows. The hero at first was in some open place and in broad day-
light, plainly observed by several witnesses. Then clouds enveloped him,
sometimes without concealing him from view; a chariot descended
through the clouds; and he was transported to his new home with the
immortals. So, according to the Old Testament, Elijah was conveyed
by a chariot and horses of fire and a whirlwind to heaven.
Usually the hero was transported from high ground. According to
Roman tradition, Romulus was on the Palatine Hill, when clouds sur-
rounded him and a celestial chariot carried him away to become the
god Quirinus. This tale Ovid treated both in his Metamorphoses
(Bk. 14) and in his Fasti. Apparently following Varro, he noted that
the hero's father, Mars, descended in a chariot and that Juno welcomed
the new deity in a council of the gods. A similar event was associated
with Hercules. The Manual stated that a cloud took the hero up from
Mt. Oeta and carried him away with peals of thunder to become a
heavenly god. Greek artists pictured him ascending in a four-horse
chariot. Already the tradition of Hercules was parallel in some respects
to that of Romulus. Ovid decided to make the parallel closer.
While developing many traditional ideas of supernatural ascent
and immortality, Ovid improved his account with congenial details sug-
gested by earlier Roman poets. Spreading the lion skin on the pyre, he
said, and setting the club across it for a pillow, Hercules lay down.
Horace, when he told of Regulus departing to a death by torture, ob-
served that he acted as unconcerned as if he were leaving for a vacation
in the country. Ovid noted that Hercules lay down on the pyre as
calmly as if he were commencing a banquet. Ovid then invented an inci-
dent in the heavens. The gods, who were assembled in council, mani-
fested alarm at the fate of earth's defender. Jupiter expressed his glad-
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK NINE
ness at their feeling solicitude for his son and proceeded to reassure
them. The flame should devour only the mortal portion of Hercules,
which he received from his mother. The portion that came from his
father was to be immortal, and soon he was to be received on the
heavenly shores. Jupiter expressed the hope that all would rejoice in
his rewarding Hercules with divinity and added that, even if anyone
present were to grudge the bestowal of this reward, he must admit at
least that it was deserved. Juno seemed displeased at the allusion to
her former hostility -- presumably because she now was reconciled and
shared the good will of the rest.
The flames of the pyre, Ovid continued, had now taken away the
former appearance of Hercules and given him one which was new and
better. Both Tibullus and Vergil had spoken of the snake as putting off
his old state and being new. Vergil had noted in his Georgics how the
Calabrian viper, putting off his skin, glides away new and shining with
youth. In the Aeneid he repeated the passage almost verbatim to de-
scribe Pyrrhus in his fresh armor. Ovid, recalling both Tibullus and
Vergil, used the idea more aptly to describe the transformation of Her-
cules. The hero took on new brilliance, as the snake, when it has put off
old age with its skin, becomes new, rejoices, and shines in gleaming scales.
Horace, predicting his own immortal fame, had made the following
boast. Not all of me shall die. A mighty part of me shall escape the
goddess of death, and I shall keep growing in the praise of later times.
Ovid, recalling Horace, observed that the better part of Hercules es-
caped death and grew to even more heroic size.
The hero's father, Jupiter, descended in a chariot with four horses
and conveyed him up through clouds to find a place among the stars. Al-
though this last phrase may have been merely figurative, Ovid seems to
have remembered the idea that Hercules became a constellation of that
name. He noted that Atlas felt the added weight, again forgetting that
Atlas had become a mountain. After this impressive event, it might have
been inconsistent to add the traditional marriage with Hebe. It certainly
would have been an anticlimax. Ovid ended the story with the deification
of Hercules, but afterwards in the tale of Iolaiis he spoke of Hebe as
yielding to her husband's request.
After Ovid's time the subject of Hercules continued to interest
many authors and artists. Although numerous other treatments of the
subject were available and some of them were clearer, especially in their
account of the exploits, Ovid's narrative became and remained the most
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? NESSUS AND THE DEATH OF HERCULES
accessible and the best known. We always may assume that it was
familiar to men of later times and that it encouraged them when they
sought elsewhere for further details. This observation would be true
notably of Lucan in his famous account of Hercules and Antaeus, of
Boccacio in his De Natura Deorum, and of several authors who intro-
duced Hercules into medieval romances. The French poetical romance
of Alexander described Alexander's tent as adorned with designs repre-
senting exploits of Hercules. A French prose romance treated the ex-
ploits at some length*. It spoke of Hercules as acting in the service of
a Boeotian princess, and it gave many of his labors a medieval form. For
example, it presented Pluto as king of a dismal castle, which was
guarded by a giant named Cerberus. Late in the fifteenth century, Pietro
Bassi wrote an Italian prose romance called The Toils of Hercules,
which Villana translated into Spanish, and Perillos wrote an Italian
poetical romance called Twelve Labors of Hercules. Recollection of
Ovid encouraged Shakespeare's frequent allusions to Hercules as typical
of strength and valor.
Ovid's effect in these examples appears to have been merely remote
and general. But on many authors it was also direct and particular.
However much they may have taken from others, they took at least a
few details from him. This was true of Seneca in his tragedies called
Hercules Furens and Hercules on Mt. Oeta'f, of Hyginus, of Claudian
in his Abduction of Proserpina, and of Boethius in his Consolation of
Philosophy. It was true also of the famous medieval poets Jean de
Meun, Dante, and Chaucer. Direct influence undoubtedly occurred
again in the work of authors and artists of the Renaissance and of later
times but is difficult to establish because of the increasing possibility
that details were taken at second hand from some modern predecessor.
The encounter of Hercules and Nessus attracted several authors.
Seneca in his Hercules on Mt. Oeta followed Ovid's idea that it occurred
almost immediately after the victory over Acheloiis. He agreed with
Ovid that Hercules was journeying towards his native city, which he
mistakenly called Argos, and that, before shooting, Hercules warned
Nessus to stop. Dante spoke of himself as conveyed on the back of
Nessus over an infernal river. He showed his guide, Virgil, dt'Tibing
the centaur as rash and alluding to his death and subsequent revtage.
Hyginus mentioned the centaur's giving Deianira the tunic and re-
*The title was Les Prowesses et les Vaillances du Preux Hercule.
tThis play served as a model for the French dramatist Rotrou in his Hercule*
Dying.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK NINE
peated Ovid's word (vestem). Chaucer declared that Nessus wove the
garment himself. Shakespeare alluded to Ovid more vaguely. In All's
Well That Ends Well, Parolles remarked of a certain Captain Dumain,
that for rapes and ravishments, he paralleled Nessus.
The passion of Hercules for Iole interested many great poets of
later times. In Dante's Paradiso the troubadour Foulquet likened him-
self to Alcides, when Iole was shut in his heart. Chaucer in the Knight's
Tale and Shakespeare in Love's Labour's Lost, mentioned Hercules as
a notable example of the great man yielding to love. Boccaccio, confus-
ing Ovid's account of Iole in the Metamorphoses with his account of
Omphale in the Epistle of Deianira, spoke of Hercules as taking the
distaff for the sake of Iole, and he was followed by Tasso and by Spen-
ser. Ovid's incident of Rumor bearing the news to Deianira and his
emphasis on Rumor as mendacious provided the material for Shakes-
peare's prologue to the Second Part of Henry Fourth. And the idea
that Deianira expressed jealous resentment appeared in the work of
Seneca.
The disastrous effect of the poisoned robe was the most famous
part of the whole story. Chaucer observed of Deianira,
She hath him sent a sherte fresh and gay.
Alias! this sherte, alias and weylaway!
Envenimed was so subtilly with-alle,
That, or that he had wered it half a day,
It made his flesh al from his bones falle.
But on his bak this sherte he wered al naked,
Til that his flesh was for the venim blaked.
Shakespeare's Antony, thinking himself betrayed by Cleopatra, ex-
claimed
The shirt of Nessus is upon me: teach me,
Alcides, thou mine ancestor, thy rage;
Let me lodge Lichas on the horns of the moon;
And with these hands that grasped the heaviest club
Subdue my worthiest self.
Milton, lamenting the death of the Procancellar, remarked that, if a
right hand had availed against death, fierce Hercules would not have
lain on Mt. Oeta poisoned by the robe of Nessus. And in Paradise Lost
he declared the sports of the demons as violent,
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? NESSUS AND THE DEATH OF HERCULES
As when Alcides, from Oechalia crowned
With conquest, felt the envenomed robe,
And tore up by the roots Thessalian pines,
And Lichas from the top of Oeta threw
Into the Euboic sea.
Particularly interesting to later authors was the idea of a garment
which at first appeared beautiful but afterwards stuck fast and burned
continually. Hyginus noted that, when Hercules tried to remove the
tunic, his viscera followed the cloth. Spenser described as follows the
result of the dragon's fiery attack on St. George.
Not that great champion of the antique world,
Whom famous poets' verse so much doth vaunt,
And hath for twelve huge labors high extold,
So many furies and sharp fits did haunt,
When him the poisoned garment did enchaunt,
With centaur's blood and bloody verses charmed;
As did this Knight twelve thousand dolors daunt,
Whom fiery steel now brent that erst him armed,
That erst him goodly armed now most of all him harmed.
In Shakespeare's As You Like It, Old Adam spoke of Orlando as in-
jured even by his merit, and he added,
0 what a world is this, when what is comely
Envenoms him that wears it.
Cowper noted in his Progress of Error that
Habits are soon assumed; but, when we strive
To strip them off, 'tis being flayed alive.
Other authors were concerned chiefly with the idea of disastrous
results.
The chorus of Milton's Samson Agonistes referred to a bad
wife or mistress as a cleaving mischief. Walpole in The Mysterious
Mother, observed that marriage was to wrap Edmund and Adelizia
fatally, like an envenomed robe. And Shelley in Prometheus Unbound,
spoke of his hero as declaring that Jupiter's Infinity was to become a
robe of envenomed agony.
Still other writers recalled the poisoned robe merely as an instance
of acute and inescapable suffering. Sienkiewicz used the idea in a literal
sense. In Quo Vadis, he declared that, when the tunic of Vinicius caught
fire, it burned like a shirt of Nessus. Carlyle in his Heroes and Hero
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK NINE
Worship used the idea in a figurative sense to describe the chronic ill-
ness and hypochondria of Dr. Johnson.
The fate of Lichas attracted separate attention more than once.
Hyginus noted that Lichas became a rock. Petrarch declared that he
himself became marble, like him that caused Hercules to put on his
shoulders the grievious burden. Shakespeare in The Merchant of Venice
showed Morocco complaining that the test of the caskets was as unjust
as having Hercules and Lichas play at dice and having Alcides beaten
by his page.
Seneca followed Ovid's idea that Hercules made a long complaint,
asking Juno for death.
Many authors recalled Ovid's exploits of Hercules. Seneca in both
of his plays gave similar prominence to Busiris and Antaeus and in his
Hercules on Mt. Oeta, repeated the inconsistent ideas that Hercules
killed the Hesperian dragon and upheld the sky. Claudian also gave
prominence to Busiris and Antaeus, and both Claudian and Boethius
gave their emphatic final place to the exploit of holding up the sky. Ari-
osto noted that stepmother Juno and Eurystheus had imposed the
famous labors on Hercules with the hope that he would perish and de-
clared that Lydia imposed on Alceste equally formidable tasks with the
same intent. Shakespeare recalled the twelve labors both in The Taming
of the Shrew and in Coriolanus*. Hawthorne recalled eleven exploits in
his tale, The Three Golden Apples.
Several of the exploits attracted attention individually. Shakes-
peare alluded to the Nemean lion, first in Love's Labour's Lost and then
in Hamlet; and in King John he recalled the traditional association of
Hercules with the lion skin. Dante in the Convivio and in the treatise
called Monarchy used Antaeus for illustrating a number of ideas in his
discussion and cited as authority Ovid and Lucan. Spenser alluded to
Hercules and the Hesperian fruit both in his Amoretti and in his descrip-
tion of Proserpina's garden. Shakespeare recalled the fruit in Love's
Labour's Lost, in Pericles, and in Coriolanus, adding that Hercules
climbed up among the boughs and shook down the mellow fruit. Dante
introduced Geryon as an aerial monster who enabled him to descend
from the cliff into the circle of Fraud. And in Heroes and Hero Wor-
ship, Carlyle spoke of the Protestant Reformation as a cleansing of
Augean Stables.
Ovid's comparison of the manner in which Hercules ascended Mt.
*A remote effect of Ovid's passage about the labors may appear in the remarkable
sonnets of Hereclia.
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? NESSUS AND THE DEATH OF HERCULES
Oeta to the aimless fury of a mortally wounded bull probably suggested
to Dante his similar description of the conduct of the Minotaur.
The pyre on Mt. Oeta and the deification of Hercules interested
many later poets. Chaucer in the Parliament of Fowls and Milton in
the Sixth Prolusion, referred vaguely to the manner of the hero's death.
Seneca introduced into his Hercules Furens the idea that Hercules con-
sidered burning himself on a pile of logs. In the Monk's Tale, Chaucer
declared that Hercules, not deigning to end his life by the poison, caused
his body to be raked in coals. Seneca in Hercules on Mt. Oeta described
him as calmly lying down on the pyre and stated that the flames de-
voured only the mortal part, which he derived from his mother. He
noted further that Atlas was able to bear the hero's weight. Spenser
declared in his Ruines of Time, that, after the great Oetaean wood had
consumed Hercules to dust, he was raised to heaven and lived happy as
the lover of Hebe. And Lewis Morris continually recalled Ovid's nar-
rative in his monologue of Deianira.
Modern artists were attracted by several incidents of Ovid's tale.
The adventure with Nessus became the theme for a painting by Lematte,
a German crystal carving of the Renaissance period, a marble statue
by Marqueste, and statues of several kinds by Giovanni da Bologna.
Hercules and Lichas inspired a famous work of the sculptor Canova.
The labors of Hercules became the subject for a wonderful series of
murals in grisaille adorning the palace at Palermo. Antaeus attracted
the painter Pollaiuollo and the sculptors Giovanni da Bologna, Guer-
cino, and Thorvaldsen. Ammanati treated the combat, in sculpture of
a fountain at Costello. Durer made the Stymphalian birds the subject
of a remarkable painting. The death of Hercules was treated by the
sculptor G. Coustou. And the deification inspired a painting by Rubens
and a masterpiece by Lemoyne. In a series of paintings the brothers
Dossi treated the entire story of Hercules.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK NINE
Galanthis
Tradition had recorded the idea that, after Hercules ascended to
heaven, Eurystheus transferred his hatred to the surviving children of
Hercules and while persecuting them, was killed by Iolaiis. Pindar noted
that Iolaiis cut off his head with a sword. Pherecydes told the story.
Eurystheus despatched a herald to King Ceyx of Trachin demanding
that he give up the children of Hercules. Feeling unable to resist the
tyrant, Ceyx allowed them to escape from the country. Their grand-
mother Alcmena went with them. Eventually they took refuge in the
temple at Marathon, which was in Athenian territory. Demophoon,
who then was king of Athens, offered them protection. Eurystheus was
defeated in battle and perished while attempting to escape from the field.
Euripides declared in his Children of Hercules that he was taken pris-
oner by Iolaiis and afterwards was executed by order of Alcmena. But
most later authors reported that he was killed while in flight. Pausanias
repeated the older idea that the killer was Iolaiis. The Manual and
Diodorus asserted that he was Hyllus, and they noted that he brought
the severed head to Alcmena.
Following tradition, Ovid observed that Eurystheus transferred
his enmity to the children of Hercules and they felt obliged to leave
their home. But he said that Alcmena stayed in Trachin with Iole, who
soon was to bear Hyllus a child. Moschus had told how, during the
absence of Hercules at his labors, Alcmena and Megara were left discon-
solate and beguiled the time with talk about their loved hero. Ovid
imagined that, after the death of Hercules and the enforced departure
of his children, Alcmena and Iole were left disconsolate and beguiled the
time in a similar manner.
Alcmena, he said, expressed the hope that Iole might receive kind
treatment from the goddess of childbirth. She named Ilithyia, who
since the Iliad had been mentioned by the Greeks as presiding at such
occasions. In one passage the Iliad had spoken of more than one Ilithyia,
who might further the birth of a child, an idea repeated by the The-
ogony. But from the time of Pindar it became customary to mention
only a single goddess. The Romans identified her with their deity
Lucina, and later in the tale Ovid gave her this name also. Both the
Theogony and the Manual had described Ilithyia as daughter of Jupiter
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and Juno. Ovid showed Alcmena adding that, for her, childbirth had
been exceedingly difficult.
Here Ovid introduced a little known Theban myth, which had been
recorded by Nicander. The Iliad had stated vaguely that Juno delayed
the birth of Hercules. Later Greek authors supposed that, when she
wanted to retard a process of this kind, she would interrupt the normal
action of Ilithyia. According to the Homeric Hymn to Delian Apollo,
Juno kept the goddess ignorant of Latona's condition and so caused
Latona nine days of torture. Nicander declared that in the case of
Alcmena, Juno went further. She persuaded Ilithyia maliciously to
impede the birth of Hercules, with the intention that prolonged suffer-
ing might cause Alcmena to die. Pindar had spoken of the Fates as
cooperating with Ilithyia to further childbirth. Nicander observed that
Juno persuaded them to cooperate in withholding it. As a result of their
combined efforts Alcmena was in torture seven days.
In many parts of the world primitive men have believed they could
aid a woman in travail by loosening various objects in the house. Ac-
cording to the Koita tribe of New Guinea, the husband ought to un-
fasten the cord round his hair and open all boxes and containers.
According to certain tribes of Nigeria, it is important to undo all knots
and open every lock in the house. Opposite conduct would impede the
birth of the child. It is reported that a certain jealous wife acted on
this principle, in order to spite her rival. Hiding a number of locks under
her dress, she visited the other woman's house and covertly fastened
them. Not content with that, she stole a waist belonging to the other
woman and tied it full of knots. Then she sat in front of the door with
her knees crossed and her fingers interlaced. Similar attempts to im-
pede childbirth are recorded in the folklore of many countries, from Italy
northwards to Scandinavia. Often men have thought it possible to get
relief by deceiving the malevolent woman and causing her to undo the
spell. In an English Ballad of Willie's Lady the hero's mother tied nine
knots in her hair, in order to prevent the birth of his child. But Willie
deceived her by fashioning a baby of wax and inviting her to the bap-
tismal service. Imagining that someone had frustrated her spell, the
mother undid her knots, and the child was born.
Nicander told a similar tale of Alcmena. Ilithyia and the Fates
visited her house and sat before the door of her bedroom holding their
fingers tightly interlaced. But a girlhood friend of Alcmena, Galin-
thias, daughter of Proetus, realized what they were doing and suddenly
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK NINE
announced that, by the will of Jove, Alcmena now had a son. In con-
sternation the goddesses released their fingers. The spell was broken,
and the child was born. The malevolent goddesses punished Galinthias by
transforming her into a weasel. Nicander noted that the animal still is
deceitful; and, following a mistaken scientific belief, he added that, be-
cause the mouth of Galinthias had made possible the birth of Hercules,
the weasel is condemned to bear young through her mouth. But Galin-
thias did not go without some reward. Hecate made her an attendant
of hers, and Hercules erected a shrine to her in his house and caused her
to be given the first offerings at Theban festivals in his honor.
Although Ovid took the outline of his tale from Nicander, he made
a number of changes. Ordinarily it was supposed that Alcmena bore
two sons, Hercules and Iphicles. Although the Iliad and Nicander did
not mention the fact, they said nothing to the contrary. But Ovid im-
plied clearly that Alcmena bore only one child. Following an observa-
tion of Moschus, he noted that she carried her son ten months, and he
added that her unborn child grew so heavy as to leave no doubt that his
father was Jupiter.
Ovid spoke of Alcmena as invoking both Lucina and the Nixi. The
latter were three male deities represented by kneeling statues in the
Forum at Rome. The images were said to have been imported from
Syria. Probably mistaking their true function, the Romans imagined
them as gods furthering childbirth. Ovid supposed that Ilythia alone
visited the house of Alcmena. He observed that she not only interlaced
her fingers but also crossed her knees and silently muttered charms to
prevent the delivery of the child. Afterwards in the tale of Myrrha
(Bk. 10) he spoke of her reciting charms to further childbirth. Ovid
noted that Alcmena cried out in her torture, reproaching Jupiter. This
made it plausible for Ilithyia to suspect that Jupiter allowed the birth
of Hercules.
Ovid called the deceitful woman Galanthis and gave a new account
of her. She was a girl of humble origin and an attendant of Alcmena,
active in her service and loved by her. Galanthis had distinctive reddish
yellow hair. While going in and out on errands for her mistress, she
observed the unknown female figure performing spells. Galanthis an-
nounced the birth of a child, but without mentioning Jupiter. The god-
dess not only opened her hands but sprang to her feet. Ovid added
plausibly that Galanthis laughed at her dismay and so provoked her
further.
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According to the Iliad, Jupiter was so enraged at Ate's deceiving
him and giving dominion to Eurystheus that he seized her by the hair
and threw her down from the home of the gods. According to Ovid,
Ilythia was so enraged at Galanthis that she seized her by the hair and
threw her on the ground. Then, holding her down, she transformed her
into a weasel. Ovid repeated Nicander's idea that a weasel bears her
young through her mouth and added that Galanthis in her new form
retained her reddish yellow hair, her activity, and her love of dwelling
in the home. The less interesting details about her subsequent relation
to Hecate and Hercules, Ovid wisely omitted. Although he referred to
the malevolent goddess as Ilithyia or Lucina, he gave an impression
throughout that in reality she was Juno herself.
Ovid's idea that Galanthis, after becoming a weasel, retained her
love of dwelling in the home would have impressed his contemporaries as
remarkably true to life. Before the dawn of history European house-
holders had begun to suffer from the depredations of mice. They felt
the need of encouraging some other animal to frequent the house and
prey on these vermin. Sometimes the animal was a harmless variety of
snake. In warm weather the snake was a valuable ally, for it was not
especially afraid of human beings and it was able to pursue the mice in
almost all their hiding places. But in cold weather it became torpid and
allowed the mice to continue undisturbed.
A more useful animal was the weasel. With all the advantages of
the snake, it combined ability to hunt throughout the year. The weasel
became recognized as man's chief protector within the house. Plautus
mentioned it in this character, and other Roman poets followed his ex-
ample. The weasel was welcomed first in southern Europe, but, as the
practice of living in permanent dwellings became general, it was re-
ceived as a household animal all over the continent. The weasel had
certain disadvantages. It was somewhat malodorous and rather destruc-
tive to poultry. But it did not lose favor until the end of the medieval
period. For many centuries of readers, Ovid's description would have
continued to be true.
In Egypt the cat became a household animal before historical times.
From there it was brought to the Greek world as early as the year
1500 B. C. ; but it won favor very slowly, and it was regarded as a pet
for the amusement of the wealthy rather than a creature for practical
use.
