According to Pisander, the Sun gave
Hercules valuable aid.
Hercules valuable aid.
Ovid - 1934 - Metamorphoses in European Culture - v2
And he added that Hercules was unaware
of what he was receiving. Although Ovid's phrasing was artificial, he
did well to show that all three acted in fatal ignorance.
Putting on the tunic, Hercules began the ceremony. Ovid may
have supposed that Hyllus was present, but he did not indicate it at
any point in the story. Already a flame was kindled on the altar. Her-
cules proceeded to offer wine and incense. As a matter of historical
fact, incense was unknown to the early Greeks. But Vergil had spoken
of Queen Amata and Lavinia as offering it on the morning of the cavalry
battle. Ovid followed Vergil's example, both here and elsewhere in his
poem. Afterwards Seneca followed Ovid in his Hercules on Mt. Oeta,
and Racine and Goethe revived the Roman practice in their own dramas
about ancient times.
Tradition had assumed that, as Hercules approached the altar
his tunic was exposed suddenly to light and heat both from the sun and
from the flames of the altar. The flames usually were thought to have
exerted the more potent effect. Soon the hydra venom became active,
with dire results. Hercules, believing that Lichas had plotted his death,
killed him. Aeschylus alluded to this incident in his Glaucus Pontius and
referred to the herald's grave as in Euboea.
Sophocles told the story in detail. After putting on the tunic,
Hercules at first proceeded with the sacrifice, proud and happy. All at
once a heavy sweat appeared on his face and limbs, and the tunic stuck
fast to his skin. The venom, working inwards, gave him racking pains.
He questioned Lichas, who disclaimed any ill intent. Then maddened
with the pain, Hercules seized Lichas by the ankle and hurled him from
the mountainside into the sea. As Lichas fell, his head struck a rock,
which lay among the waves. The blow dashed out his brains. Hercules
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? NESSUS AND THE DEATH OF HERCULES
in agony sometimes fell to the ground, at other times leaped high in
air, while the capes on both sides of the water echoed with his cries. He
cursed his wife, who had sent the fatal gift. As the heat of the poison
obscured him in a cloud of smoke, he bade Hyllus take him from the un-
hallowed place. Led aboard a ship, he lapsed into an exhausted sleep.
Hyllus proceeded with him to Trachin, and told the appalling news to
Deianira. She killed herself with a sword.
On Mt. Oeta, a little south of Trachin, there was an ancient shrine
where either human victims or puppets were burned as offerings. Tradi-
tion ascribed the origin of the practice to Hercules. This idea was re-
corded in an early poem called The Marriage of Ceyx. Sophocles showed
the hero ordering his son to convey him up the mountain and then con-
struct a pyre and burn his still living body. He permitted Hyllus to
leave for someone else the duty of lighting the pyre. In the Trachinian
Women, Sophocles did not tell who undertook this duty, but in the
Philoctetes he spoke of that hero as performing the task and obtaining
as his reward the bow of Hercules, which later proved essential for the
capture of Troy. Ovid alluded twice in his Ibis to the account of Soph-
ocles. He mentioned the torture which Hercules experienced from poison
of the hydra and the fate of Lichas, whose blood tinged the waters of
the sea.
The Manual retold the story briefly but with a number of changes.
Of Lichas it said only that Hercules threw him into the Euboic sea. It
gave new details about the effect of the poison. The venom corroded
the hero's skin. The tunic clung to him, and, as he pulled it off, his flesh
came with it. Merely implying that Hyllus conveyed his father to
Trachin, the Manual declared that Deianira hanged herself and that
Hercules ascended Oeta on his own feet and built the pyre. Not Philoc-
tetes, but the father of Philoctetes, kindled the flame and received the
bow.
Nicander gave a still different account. He imagined that almost
all events of the story occurred on Mt. Oeta. Near the crest of this
mountain, he said, Hercules began the sacrifice to Jupiter. The poisoned
blood, when exposed to heat, caused his tunic to break out in flames.
Lichas, hurled into the sea, became a small, rocky island of that name,
on which sailors afterwards feared to land. Hercules himself ran down
an eastern ridge of Mt. Oeta, leaped into the springs at its base, and was
drowned. The water has boiled ever since and has given to the neigh-
boring pass its name Thermopylae (Gates of Hot Springs). This ver-
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK NINE
sion afterwards was repeated in part by Nonnus. In the Epistle of
Deianira, Ovid spoke of Hercules as torn on Mt. Oeta.
In the Metamorphoses, Ovid treated the Cenaean Promontory as
if it were part of Mt. Oeta, on the opposite shore. For the incidents of
the story he recalled not only previous accounts of Hercules but also
other famous accounts of similar nature.
One of these was a remarkable passage in the Medea of Euripides,
inspired in large measure by the Sophoclean description of Hercules in
Euboea. Euripides recorded how by the gift of a magic robe and crown
Medea destroyed Creiisa and her father (cf. Bk. 7). After Creiisa had
put on the gifts, he said, she at first walked proudly along the corridor
of her palace. All at once she staggered and sank on a couch, with mute
evidences of distress. Then she screamed in agony, as fire spurted from
the crown and as the robe burned into her flesh. Madly she endeavored
to free herself, but robe and crown stuck fast. Blood mingled with the
fire round her head. The flesh melted off her bones. As her father em-
braced her, the robe clung to him also; and, as he tried to escape, it
pulled the flesh off his bones until at last he died.
With ideas from Euripides, Ovid combined recollections of a simi-
lar passage in his own tale of Meleager. That hero felt his vitals scorch-
ing with hidden flame. Although he bore the pain with fortitude, he at
length was compelled to utter groans. But he lamented chiefly the in-
glorious nature of his death.
Ovid noted that in the beginning Hercules proceeded, untroubled,
with the sacrifice. But the venom soon penetrated into his skin. Ovid
imagined that he did not observe Lichas until much later. So long as
possible, he bore the pain with fortitude. Then he overturned the altar
and filled Oeta with his cries. He struggled to remove the tunic, but it
either stuck fast or tore off both skin and flesh, exposing rent muscles
and huge bones. The fiery poison made his blood hiss, like red hot metal
plunged into a lake. Sweat appeared everywhere on his skin. Hidden
fire devoured his vitals and melted even his marrow. Ovid already had
made the story more sensational. He proceeded to make it less probable.
We should imagine that Hercules must have been on the point of dying.
Ovid imagined the situation quite otherwise.
Hercules, he said, complained bitterly of his cruel, unmerited fate.
This idea was suggested by passages both of Sophocles and of Euripides.
According to the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, the Savior cried out
that he was forsaken by God, whom he had served faithfully and from
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? NESSUS AND THE DEATH OF HERCULES
whom he might have expected protection. Sophocles imagined that a
similar idea introduced the complaints of Hercules. After arriving in
Trachin, he said, the hero discoursed with Hyllus, bewailing his wretched
state. Hercules complained that Jupiter had made an ill return for the
altar on the Cenaean Promontory. Then, passing to other matters, he
longed for death, even at the hands of his son, and prayed Jupiter to
grant it. Recalling his labors, he declared that none of them had cost
him such suffering. He mourned the fact that so many great achieve-
ments were to end with an inglorious death at the hands of a woman.
Although the present foe was invisible, he hoped at least to avenge
himself on Deianira -- until he learned of her death. Hyllus then com-
plained that Jupiter and the other gods appeared indifferent to the tor-
ture of their champion.
Euripides in the Hercules Furens imagined that Hercules made
similar complaints after the madness in which he killed Megara and her
children. Euripides, too, showed Hercules recalling his labors and
mourning his present ignominy. But he imagined his going further in
reproaching the gods. Hercules doubted even the existence of Jupiter
and bade Juno rejoice and triumph in his distress.
Ovid showed Hercules complaining in a monologue addressed to
Juno -- this form suggested probably by his own earlier passage on the
complaint of Narcissus (Bk. 3). He left out the idea of vengeance on
Deianira, because Mt. Oeta was so far from Trachin as to make it seem
impossible, and he mentioned her death only by an allusion in the story
which followed. In the complaint he took his initial idea from Euripides.
Hercules bade Juno look down from the skies and rejoice at his de-
struction. Ovid agreed with Sophocles that his hero prayed for death
but showed him asking it from Juno and combined with the request an
idea taken from his own tale of Niobe (Bk. 6). If, said Hercules, I am
worthy of pity even from a foe, end my life of suffering. And Hercules
declared that death would be a fitting boon for a stepmother to grant.
In accord with both Sophocles and Euripides, Ovid showed the hero re-
calling his exploits, but he included a greater number of them. Then,
following a hint of Sophocles, Ovid showed him lamenting his inglorious
death by an invisible enemy, against whom neither strength nor weapons
availed. Finally Ovid repeated and heightened an idea of Euripides.
Eurystheus still is alive and well, said Hercules, and yet there are people
who can believe in the existence of gods!
By making such frequent use of the Greek dramatists, Ovid invited
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK NINE
comparison with them. His treatment of the subject was far more melo-
dramatic. Sophocles had introduced the complaint as uttered after an
interval of sleep and had indicated pauses and incoherence, which would
be natural under great suffering. Ovid imagined it as uttered at the
height of torture and made it improbably long and orderly. Sophocles
had been content with pointing out the seeming indifference of the gods;
Euripides had thought it enough for Hercules to doubt the existence of
Jupiter, and in both dramas the circumstances made such ideas appro-
priate. Ovid showed Hercules doubting the existence of any gods. But
his idea was out of place, when the complaint itself was addressed to
Juno and was in large part a recital of her injustice.
Following the tragic poets, Ovid included in the complaint a recol-
lection of the hero's famous exploits. He did so the more willingly
because the exploits did not involve metamorphoses and so were difficult
to introduce elsewhere. In all, Ovid mentioned fifteen. They included
the usual twelve labors* and three of the supplementary labors. Ovid
enumerated them, not in their traditional order, but according to a
rhetorical association of ideas.
First Ovid mentioned the destruction of Busiris. According to the
Egyptian author Manetho, the people of Egypt through a long period
used to sacrifice foreigners. They did this, as Diodorus noted, at a
place called Bu Asiri (the grave of Osiris). The Greeks, misinterpreting
the term, imagined that it was the name of a local king, whom they
called Busiris. The Manual explained that he began the practice of
offering human beings in order to end nine years of famine. Tradition
declared that, while Hercules was visiting Egypt, he was seized and led
to the altar but, suddenly breaking loose, killed the king and many of
his followers. The story was challenged more than once. Herodotus
denied that Egyptians had indulged in human sacrifice and pronounced
it incredible that one man should overcome thousands. Isocrates, in an
oration which was supposed to exonerate Busiris, asserted that he lived
two centuries earlier than Hercules. Nevertheless Greek authors and
artists often treated the story. It became regularly a part of the tradi-
tion of Hercules, and Vergil observed in the Georgics that it was known
to all.
Next Ovid mentioned the destruction of a Libyan king, Antaeus.
Pindar had stated that this malefactor habitually killed travelers and
*Only in the opening tale of Book Fifteen did Ovid specify the labors as twelve
in number.
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? NESSUS AND THE DEATH OF HERCULES
hung their skulls on a certain temple of Neptune. He noted that Her-
cules wrestled with him and killed him. Plato observed in his Theatetus
that Antaeus compelled all travelers to wrestle with him. According to
early works of art, Hercules threw Antaeus violently to the ground. But
later the story changed. It was imagined that Antaeus, being a son of
Earth, got renewed strength from contact with the soil. Hercules, dis-
covering this fact, raised him high in air and held him up while he
weakened and died. This idea, which appeared in later Greek art and in
the Manual, was recalled in turn by Ovid.
As a third exploit of Hercules, Ovid mentioned his adventure with
Geryon. The Theogony had recorded the following circumstances.
Geryon, son of Chrysaor and Callirhoe, was a man with three heads.
He lived in an island called Erythia (Redland) and reared cattle, aided
by the herdsman Eurytion and the dog Orthus. Hercules, desiring the
cattle, slew Geryon and his herdsman and dog. Aeschylus noted in
the Agamemnon that Geryon had also three bodies. Later authors ex-
plained that his bodies were joined at the waist but separate above and
below.
Pisander and Herodotus gave a more definite account of Erythia.
It lay far to the west, in the ocean just beyond the Spanish city of
Gadira, now called Cadiz, and received its name because it continually
was reddened by the setting sun.
According to Pisander, the Sun gave
Hercules valuable aid. He lent the hero an enormous bowl, which ordi-
narily was used for taking the Sun eastwards at night to his point ol
rising in the orient (cf. Phaethon, Bk. ? 2). By this means Hercules
crossed to Erythia and afterwards transported the cattle to the main-
land.
Pindar and Plato noted, with some misgivings, that Hercules took
Geryon's cattle by right of the stronger. The story appeared at some
length in the Manual and was treated in sculpture of the Athenian treas-
ury at Delphi. A number of authors, both Greek and Roman, alluded
to it briefly. About the death of Geryon they gave two accounts. Ac-
cording to Euripides, Hercules killed him with arrows, according to
Quintus Smyrnaeus, he killed him with blows of his club. Ovid seems to
have been alone in referring to Geryon as a shepherd.
The triple form of Geryon suggested the triple form of Cerberus
(SeeBk. 7).
Ovid alluded next to the adventure with the Cretan Bull. As early
as the end of the sixth century B. C. , Acusilaiis had mentioned this ex-
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK NINE
ploit. He described the bull as the animal which had brought Europa to
Crete (cf. Bk. 2). But most authors identified him as the notorious
animal which had been the paramour of Pasiphae (cf. Bk. 8). Accord-
ing to the Manual, Neptune had punished Minos further by causing the
animal to be fierce and destructive. Hercules overcame the bull and
returned with him to the court of Eurystheus. Ovid spoke of Hercules
as pressing down the bull's horn. Probably he remembered the following
incident of Theocritus. When Hercules visited the Augean Stables, a
fierce bull named Phaethon attacked him. Hercules caught this bull by
the horn and with tremendous strength pushed him down on the ground.
By observing that Elis knew the toils of Hercules, Ovid recalled his
cleansing of the Augean stables. Although Pindar had alluded to the
adventure, the first surviving accounts were written in Alexandrian
times. Hercules was required to clean in one day the cattle barns of
King Augeas of Elis, which were filthy with the use of thirty years. To
do this, he turned through them the waters of the river Alpheus. Theo-
critus, telling the first part of the adventure, described the enormous
herds which gathered nightly in the barns. The Manual told the whole
story, adding that Hercules used also the Elian river Peneus.
Another exploit of Hercules was his victory over the birds of the
Stymphalian Lake in Arcadia. These creatures were armed with brazen
beaks and claws and with feathers that could be shot like arrows. They
fed on human flesh, presumably of their own killing. Athena provided
Hercules with a loud sounding rattle, which drove them into the air. He
then killed them, according to most accounts, with his arrows. Hellani-
cus mentioned this exploit, and Pherecydes and the Manual told it in
full. Apollonius declared that some of the birds escaped to an island of
the Black Sea and were found there by the Argonauts. Greek vase
painting and coins represented the birds as long-necked waterfowl of
variegated plumage.
Ovid mentioned also toil of Hercules in the Parthenian woods. By
this phrase Ovid alluded to his quest of the hind which often was called
Cerynitian, because it frequented the neighborhood of Cerynitia in
northern Arcadia. Different accounts were given of the animal's origin.
Pindar observed that a nymph Taygete presented it to Diana and that
it became sacred to the goddess. Callimachus declared that it was one
of five hinds larger than bulls that Diana discovered feeding near the
Arcadian river Anaurus. He added that she captured four, and the fifth
escaped northwards to the Cerynitian Hill.
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? NESSUS AND THE DEATH OF HERCULES
Apparently the early Greeks had received some account of rein-
deer, the only species in which antlers are grown by the hind, for antlers
were attributed regularly to the hind of Cerynitia. * Pindar observed
that the quest took Hercules far north, beyond the cold blasts of Boreas.
Other authors agreed that the quest was long, for it occupied more than
a year, but they thought of it as confined to southern Greece. They
added further details to the description of the animal. Euripides re-
ferred to the antlers as made of gold, Vergil spoke of brazen hoofs,
Quintus Smyrnaeus noted the hind's breathing out fire. Euripides ob-
served also that it ravaged the crops. He remarked that Hercules killed
it, and the Manual added that he shot it near Oenoe in Argolis. The
Manual stated further that Apollo and Diana at first reproved Her-
cules for injuring the sacred animal and opposed his return but finally
were mollified.
Ovid spoke next of the gold wrought belt secured from Thermodon,
alluding to the time when Hercules obtained a girdle of the Amazon
Queen Hippolyta. This tradition grew out of the historical fact that
occasionally in times of danger women have taken part in warfare.
Sometimes they merely put to death an enemy who temporarily was dis-
armed and incapable of resistance, as Judith is said to have killed Holo-
fernes, or Jael is reported to have killed Sisera. But at other times
they appear to have faced the perils and hardships of war. This was
true of Augustina, Maid of Saragoza, who was commemorated by
Southey and Byron, and of several women who fought more recently in
the armies of Dahomey.
During historical times women such as Boadicaea and Joan of Arc
occasionally have commanded armies. Their adventures interested not
only historians but also poets and novelists, and it was natural for
authors such as Fletcher, Schiller, and Mark Twain to present them in
a manner that was partly fictitious. But many authors introduced in
their stories warlike women who were entirely imaginary. The Iliad
told of several goddesses, one of them Venus, who took part in battles
near Troy and elsewhere. Vergil introduced into the war between
Aeneas and Turnus his famous warrior heroine Camilla. Leading poets
of the Renaissance gladly followed his example: Ariosto with his Brada-
mante and Marfisa, Tasso with Clorinda, and Spenser with Brito-
mart. And in the nineteenth century Scott revived the fashion, first in
*Some authors, apparently troubled by the fact, referred to the animal as a stag.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK NINE
his poem Harold the Dauntless and then in his novel Count Robert of
Paris.
All these were examples of individual women who took part in wars.
There also have been historical instances where a company of women
organized themselves to participate in warfare. During the eighth cen-
tury A. D. , a certain Ylasta led an army of warrior women in Bohemia,
and during the Great War there appeared the Russian Battalion of
Death. Prehistoric companies of warrior women probably suggested
the famous traditions of the Valkyries in northern Europe and the Ama-
zons in Greece.
The Amazons were described as a whole nation of women who lived
in Asia Minor, somewhere near the eastern end of the Black Sea. The
Iliad spoke of them as warring first against Troy and later against
Bellerophon. Aeschylus in his Prometheus Bound declared that the
Amazons originated somewhere in the north and migrated southwards to
the valley of the river Thermodon, near the modern city of Trebizond.
Herodotus and others spoke of this country as their home and told of
their inhabiting a town called Themiscyra. Many authors and artists
treated the theme of the Amazons, associating them especially with
adventures of Theseus and Hercules. Plutarch and others even gave
them a part in the Asiatic conquests of Alexander and Pompey.
The quest for Hippolyta's girdle appeared in sculpture of the
Athenian treasury at Delphi. Not long afterwards it was mentioned by
Euripides. In the HercuJss Furens he noted that Hercules attacked and
defeated an army of mounted Amazons near Lake Maeotis (the Sea of
Azov). Quintus Smyrnaeus added that Hercules pulled Queen Hippo-
lyta out of her saddle. Other Greek authors imagined a less violent pro-
cedure. According to Apollonius, Hercules captured Melanippe, a sister
of the queen, and obtained the girdle as her ransom. According to the
Manual, Hippolyta came voluntarily to Hercules and would have yielded
the girdle peaceably, if Juno had not caused the other Amazons to
attack him. Hercules, believing their demonstration had been planned
in advance, killed the queen.
Ovid's next allusion mentioned winning apples guarded by an un-
sleeping dragon. They usually were called the golden fruit of the
Hesperides. According to the Theogony, the Hesperides were nymphs
living far west, beyond the ocean, and guarding trees which bore golden
apples. Beginning with the fifth century B. C, Greek authors gave a
different account of them. They localized the Hesperides in northern
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? NESSUS AND THE DEATH OF HERCULES
Africa, at the foot of the Atlas Mountains, and spoke of one tree,
round which there coiled an unsleeping dragon. According to Sophocles,
Euripides, and Apollonius, Hercules killed the dragon and gathered the
fruit. And this idea was repeated by most ancient authors who wrote
after Alexandrian times. But Pherecydes and the Manual thought of
the dragon as immortal. They declared that Hercules persuaded Atlas
to obtain the apples for him and meanwhile he himself assumed the duty
of holding up the sky. This idea appeared often in Greek art. Ovid in
his account of Perseus and Atlas (Bk. 4) had followed the poets, for he
noted a prediction that Hercules was to plunder the golden fruit. The
tree had also golden leaves, he added, and Atlas tried to protect it with
a high wall round the garden where it grew. In the complaint of Her-
cules, Ovid alluded to the same version of the tale. His reference to
winning apples from an unsleeping dragon implied that Hercules killed
the monster. But a few lines afterwards Ovid recalled the account in
the Manual and spoke of him as holding up the sky. This idea was in-
consistent not only with Ovid's previous allusion but also with his story
of Perseus transforming Atlas into a mountain. By the time of Her-
cules, Atlas would have been unable to go in quest of the fruit. It is an
odd circumstance that, although Ovid treated the theme of the golden
apples both in his account of Perseus and in his complaint of Hercules,
he never even alluded to the Hesperides.
Still another exploit was a victory over the centaurs. Sophocles
had referred to the adventure, and Euripides had spoken of it as occur-
ring in Thessaly. The Manual told the story. While Hercules was visit-
ing a centaur named Pholus, he persuaded him to include in the enter-
tainment part of the wine which the centaurs held in common. The other
centaurs, objecting to this appropriation of their property, made an
attack but were routed with arrows. During the combat both Pholus
and Ghiron suffered wounds which resulted in their death (cf. Ocyrhoe,
Bk. 2). Ovid had mentioned this victory in his Epistle of Deianira.
Ovid referred also to a boar that ravaged Arcadia. Sophocles had
mentioned the destruction of the beast. The Manual recorded the story.
The boar inhabited Mt. Erymanthus in Arcadia. Hercules pursued him
up the mountain beyond the treeline until the animal foundered in deep
snow, then threw a net over him and brought him back alive. Presumably
he afterwards killed the boar. Pausanias observed that in his time the
tusks were shown in Apollo's temple at Cumae. Ovid already had men-
tioned the quest of the Erymanthian boar in his Epistle of Deianira.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK NINE
He spoke again of the battle with the hydra, which he had consid-
ered at greater length in the previous tale.
Ovid alluded also to King Diomed of Thrace. This king was no-
torious for his team of bloodthirsty horses. Euripides had given two
different accounts of them. In the Alcestis he described them as mares,
an idea repeated by the Manual and by Ovid in the Epistle of Deianira.
In the Hercules Furens he described them as stallions, an idea repeated
by Lucretius and by Ovid in the complaint of Hercules. According to
Euripides, the king fed his team with human flesh, probably the bodies
of those whom he put to death. Hercules overcame and captured the
formidable animals. The Manual added that he brought them to Greece
but that meanwhile Diomed tried to recover them and perished. Dio-
dorus declared that Hercules allowed the horses to kill and devour their
former master. But, according to another Greek tradition, Hercules
killed both Diomed and the horses in the stable. This idea was repeated
afterwards by Quintus Smyrnaeus. Ovid, alluding to the same version,
added that Diomed's mangers were full of human corpses.
Ovid made his last allusion to the adventure with the Nemean lion.
During prehistoric times, wild lions probably existed in all parts of
Greece (cf. Medea's Flight to Athens, Bk. 7). Tradition gave Hercules
two adventures with them, the first with a lion of Mt. Cithaeron near
Thebes, the second with the more famous Nemean lion of southern
Greece. But the Nemean lion usually was described as a more or less
supernatural animal. According to the Theogony, it frequented the
region of Nemea in Argolis and destroyed many human lives but suc-
cumbed at last to Hercules. Pindar noted that after the victory Her-
cules made it his custom to wear the head and skin of this lion, an idea
often repeated both in literature and in art.
Bacchylides recorded a few details of the conflict. Hercules first
attacked the lion with a sword but found the beast invulnerable. The
sword encountered bronze instead of flesh and bent back. He was obliged
to grapple with his enemy. Here Bacchylides accepted an idea common
in Greek lore, that, if an animal or a human being was invulnerable by
weapons, he still might perish by strangling or smothering. Another
instance Ovid recorded in his tale of Cycnus (Bk. 12). Euripides noted
that Hercules overcame the lion in his den.
The Manual added several particulars. Hercules encountered the
animal first in the open.
of what he was receiving. Although Ovid's phrasing was artificial, he
did well to show that all three acted in fatal ignorance.
Putting on the tunic, Hercules began the ceremony. Ovid may
have supposed that Hyllus was present, but he did not indicate it at
any point in the story. Already a flame was kindled on the altar. Her-
cules proceeded to offer wine and incense. As a matter of historical
fact, incense was unknown to the early Greeks. But Vergil had spoken
of Queen Amata and Lavinia as offering it on the morning of the cavalry
battle. Ovid followed Vergil's example, both here and elsewhere in his
poem. Afterwards Seneca followed Ovid in his Hercules on Mt. Oeta,
and Racine and Goethe revived the Roman practice in their own dramas
about ancient times.
Tradition had assumed that, as Hercules approached the altar
his tunic was exposed suddenly to light and heat both from the sun and
from the flames of the altar. The flames usually were thought to have
exerted the more potent effect. Soon the hydra venom became active,
with dire results. Hercules, believing that Lichas had plotted his death,
killed him. Aeschylus alluded to this incident in his Glaucus Pontius and
referred to the herald's grave as in Euboea.
Sophocles told the story in detail. After putting on the tunic,
Hercules at first proceeded with the sacrifice, proud and happy. All at
once a heavy sweat appeared on his face and limbs, and the tunic stuck
fast to his skin. The venom, working inwards, gave him racking pains.
He questioned Lichas, who disclaimed any ill intent. Then maddened
with the pain, Hercules seized Lichas by the ankle and hurled him from
the mountainside into the sea. As Lichas fell, his head struck a rock,
which lay among the waves. The blow dashed out his brains. Hercules
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? NESSUS AND THE DEATH OF HERCULES
in agony sometimes fell to the ground, at other times leaped high in
air, while the capes on both sides of the water echoed with his cries. He
cursed his wife, who had sent the fatal gift. As the heat of the poison
obscured him in a cloud of smoke, he bade Hyllus take him from the un-
hallowed place. Led aboard a ship, he lapsed into an exhausted sleep.
Hyllus proceeded with him to Trachin, and told the appalling news to
Deianira. She killed herself with a sword.
On Mt. Oeta, a little south of Trachin, there was an ancient shrine
where either human victims or puppets were burned as offerings. Tradi-
tion ascribed the origin of the practice to Hercules. This idea was re-
corded in an early poem called The Marriage of Ceyx. Sophocles showed
the hero ordering his son to convey him up the mountain and then con-
struct a pyre and burn his still living body. He permitted Hyllus to
leave for someone else the duty of lighting the pyre. In the Trachinian
Women, Sophocles did not tell who undertook this duty, but in the
Philoctetes he spoke of that hero as performing the task and obtaining
as his reward the bow of Hercules, which later proved essential for the
capture of Troy. Ovid alluded twice in his Ibis to the account of Soph-
ocles. He mentioned the torture which Hercules experienced from poison
of the hydra and the fate of Lichas, whose blood tinged the waters of
the sea.
The Manual retold the story briefly but with a number of changes.
Of Lichas it said only that Hercules threw him into the Euboic sea. It
gave new details about the effect of the poison. The venom corroded
the hero's skin. The tunic clung to him, and, as he pulled it off, his flesh
came with it. Merely implying that Hyllus conveyed his father to
Trachin, the Manual declared that Deianira hanged herself and that
Hercules ascended Oeta on his own feet and built the pyre. Not Philoc-
tetes, but the father of Philoctetes, kindled the flame and received the
bow.
Nicander gave a still different account. He imagined that almost
all events of the story occurred on Mt. Oeta. Near the crest of this
mountain, he said, Hercules began the sacrifice to Jupiter. The poisoned
blood, when exposed to heat, caused his tunic to break out in flames.
Lichas, hurled into the sea, became a small, rocky island of that name,
on which sailors afterwards feared to land. Hercules himself ran down
an eastern ridge of Mt. Oeta, leaped into the springs at its base, and was
drowned. The water has boiled ever since and has given to the neigh-
boring pass its name Thermopylae (Gates of Hot Springs). This ver-
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK NINE
sion afterwards was repeated in part by Nonnus. In the Epistle of
Deianira, Ovid spoke of Hercules as torn on Mt. Oeta.
In the Metamorphoses, Ovid treated the Cenaean Promontory as
if it were part of Mt. Oeta, on the opposite shore. For the incidents of
the story he recalled not only previous accounts of Hercules but also
other famous accounts of similar nature.
One of these was a remarkable passage in the Medea of Euripides,
inspired in large measure by the Sophoclean description of Hercules in
Euboea. Euripides recorded how by the gift of a magic robe and crown
Medea destroyed Creiisa and her father (cf. Bk. 7). After Creiisa had
put on the gifts, he said, she at first walked proudly along the corridor
of her palace. All at once she staggered and sank on a couch, with mute
evidences of distress. Then she screamed in agony, as fire spurted from
the crown and as the robe burned into her flesh. Madly she endeavored
to free herself, but robe and crown stuck fast. Blood mingled with the
fire round her head. The flesh melted off her bones. As her father em-
braced her, the robe clung to him also; and, as he tried to escape, it
pulled the flesh off his bones until at last he died.
With ideas from Euripides, Ovid combined recollections of a simi-
lar passage in his own tale of Meleager. That hero felt his vitals scorch-
ing with hidden flame. Although he bore the pain with fortitude, he at
length was compelled to utter groans. But he lamented chiefly the in-
glorious nature of his death.
Ovid noted that in the beginning Hercules proceeded, untroubled,
with the sacrifice. But the venom soon penetrated into his skin. Ovid
imagined that he did not observe Lichas until much later. So long as
possible, he bore the pain with fortitude. Then he overturned the altar
and filled Oeta with his cries. He struggled to remove the tunic, but it
either stuck fast or tore off both skin and flesh, exposing rent muscles
and huge bones. The fiery poison made his blood hiss, like red hot metal
plunged into a lake. Sweat appeared everywhere on his skin. Hidden
fire devoured his vitals and melted even his marrow. Ovid already had
made the story more sensational. He proceeded to make it less probable.
We should imagine that Hercules must have been on the point of dying.
Ovid imagined the situation quite otherwise.
Hercules, he said, complained bitterly of his cruel, unmerited fate.
This idea was suggested by passages both of Sophocles and of Euripides.
According to the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, the Savior cried out
that he was forsaken by God, whom he had served faithfully and from
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? NESSUS AND THE DEATH OF HERCULES
whom he might have expected protection. Sophocles imagined that a
similar idea introduced the complaints of Hercules. After arriving in
Trachin, he said, the hero discoursed with Hyllus, bewailing his wretched
state. Hercules complained that Jupiter had made an ill return for the
altar on the Cenaean Promontory. Then, passing to other matters, he
longed for death, even at the hands of his son, and prayed Jupiter to
grant it. Recalling his labors, he declared that none of them had cost
him such suffering. He mourned the fact that so many great achieve-
ments were to end with an inglorious death at the hands of a woman.
Although the present foe was invisible, he hoped at least to avenge
himself on Deianira -- until he learned of her death. Hyllus then com-
plained that Jupiter and the other gods appeared indifferent to the tor-
ture of their champion.
Euripides in the Hercules Furens imagined that Hercules made
similar complaints after the madness in which he killed Megara and her
children. Euripides, too, showed Hercules recalling his labors and
mourning his present ignominy. But he imagined his going further in
reproaching the gods. Hercules doubted even the existence of Jupiter
and bade Juno rejoice and triumph in his distress.
Ovid showed Hercules complaining in a monologue addressed to
Juno -- this form suggested probably by his own earlier passage on the
complaint of Narcissus (Bk. 3). He left out the idea of vengeance on
Deianira, because Mt. Oeta was so far from Trachin as to make it seem
impossible, and he mentioned her death only by an allusion in the story
which followed. In the complaint he took his initial idea from Euripides.
Hercules bade Juno look down from the skies and rejoice at his de-
struction. Ovid agreed with Sophocles that his hero prayed for death
but showed him asking it from Juno and combined with the request an
idea taken from his own tale of Niobe (Bk. 6). If, said Hercules, I am
worthy of pity even from a foe, end my life of suffering. And Hercules
declared that death would be a fitting boon for a stepmother to grant.
In accord with both Sophocles and Euripides, Ovid showed the hero re-
calling his exploits, but he included a greater number of them. Then,
following a hint of Sophocles, Ovid showed him lamenting his inglorious
death by an invisible enemy, against whom neither strength nor weapons
availed. Finally Ovid repeated and heightened an idea of Euripides.
Eurystheus still is alive and well, said Hercules, and yet there are people
who can believe in the existence of gods!
By making such frequent use of the Greek dramatists, Ovid invited
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK NINE
comparison with them. His treatment of the subject was far more melo-
dramatic. Sophocles had introduced the complaint as uttered after an
interval of sleep and had indicated pauses and incoherence, which would
be natural under great suffering. Ovid imagined it as uttered at the
height of torture and made it improbably long and orderly. Sophocles
had been content with pointing out the seeming indifference of the gods;
Euripides had thought it enough for Hercules to doubt the existence of
Jupiter, and in both dramas the circumstances made such ideas appro-
priate. Ovid showed Hercules doubting the existence of any gods. But
his idea was out of place, when the complaint itself was addressed to
Juno and was in large part a recital of her injustice.
Following the tragic poets, Ovid included in the complaint a recol-
lection of the hero's famous exploits. He did so the more willingly
because the exploits did not involve metamorphoses and so were difficult
to introduce elsewhere. In all, Ovid mentioned fifteen. They included
the usual twelve labors* and three of the supplementary labors. Ovid
enumerated them, not in their traditional order, but according to a
rhetorical association of ideas.
First Ovid mentioned the destruction of Busiris. According to the
Egyptian author Manetho, the people of Egypt through a long period
used to sacrifice foreigners. They did this, as Diodorus noted, at a
place called Bu Asiri (the grave of Osiris). The Greeks, misinterpreting
the term, imagined that it was the name of a local king, whom they
called Busiris. The Manual explained that he began the practice of
offering human beings in order to end nine years of famine. Tradition
declared that, while Hercules was visiting Egypt, he was seized and led
to the altar but, suddenly breaking loose, killed the king and many of
his followers. The story was challenged more than once. Herodotus
denied that Egyptians had indulged in human sacrifice and pronounced
it incredible that one man should overcome thousands. Isocrates, in an
oration which was supposed to exonerate Busiris, asserted that he lived
two centuries earlier than Hercules. Nevertheless Greek authors and
artists often treated the story. It became regularly a part of the tradi-
tion of Hercules, and Vergil observed in the Georgics that it was known
to all.
Next Ovid mentioned the destruction of a Libyan king, Antaeus.
Pindar had stated that this malefactor habitually killed travelers and
*Only in the opening tale of Book Fifteen did Ovid specify the labors as twelve
in number.
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? NESSUS AND THE DEATH OF HERCULES
hung their skulls on a certain temple of Neptune. He noted that Her-
cules wrestled with him and killed him. Plato observed in his Theatetus
that Antaeus compelled all travelers to wrestle with him. According to
early works of art, Hercules threw Antaeus violently to the ground. But
later the story changed. It was imagined that Antaeus, being a son of
Earth, got renewed strength from contact with the soil. Hercules, dis-
covering this fact, raised him high in air and held him up while he
weakened and died. This idea, which appeared in later Greek art and in
the Manual, was recalled in turn by Ovid.
As a third exploit of Hercules, Ovid mentioned his adventure with
Geryon. The Theogony had recorded the following circumstances.
Geryon, son of Chrysaor and Callirhoe, was a man with three heads.
He lived in an island called Erythia (Redland) and reared cattle, aided
by the herdsman Eurytion and the dog Orthus. Hercules, desiring the
cattle, slew Geryon and his herdsman and dog. Aeschylus noted in
the Agamemnon that Geryon had also three bodies. Later authors ex-
plained that his bodies were joined at the waist but separate above and
below.
Pisander and Herodotus gave a more definite account of Erythia.
It lay far to the west, in the ocean just beyond the Spanish city of
Gadira, now called Cadiz, and received its name because it continually
was reddened by the setting sun.
According to Pisander, the Sun gave
Hercules valuable aid. He lent the hero an enormous bowl, which ordi-
narily was used for taking the Sun eastwards at night to his point ol
rising in the orient (cf. Phaethon, Bk. ? 2). By this means Hercules
crossed to Erythia and afterwards transported the cattle to the main-
land.
Pindar and Plato noted, with some misgivings, that Hercules took
Geryon's cattle by right of the stronger. The story appeared at some
length in the Manual and was treated in sculpture of the Athenian treas-
ury at Delphi. A number of authors, both Greek and Roman, alluded
to it briefly. About the death of Geryon they gave two accounts. Ac-
cording to Euripides, Hercules killed him with arrows, according to
Quintus Smyrnaeus, he killed him with blows of his club. Ovid seems to
have been alone in referring to Geryon as a shepherd.
The triple form of Geryon suggested the triple form of Cerberus
(SeeBk. 7).
Ovid alluded next to the adventure with the Cretan Bull. As early
as the end of the sixth century B. C. , Acusilaiis had mentioned this ex-
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK NINE
ploit. He described the bull as the animal which had brought Europa to
Crete (cf. Bk. 2). But most authors identified him as the notorious
animal which had been the paramour of Pasiphae (cf. Bk. 8). Accord-
ing to the Manual, Neptune had punished Minos further by causing the
animal to be fierce and destructive. Hercules overcame the bull and
returned with him to the court of Eurystheus. Ovid spoke of Hercules
as pressing down the bull's horn. Probably he remembered the following
incident of Theocritus. When Hercules visited the Augean Stables, a
fierce bull named Phaethon attacked him. Hercules caught this bull by
the horn and with tremendous strength pushed him down on the ground.
By observing that Elis knew the toils of Hercules, Ovid recalled his
cleansing of the Augean stables. Although Pindar had alluded to the
adventure, the first surviving accounts were written in Alexandrian
times. Hercules was required to clean in one day the cattle barns of
King Augeas of Elis, which were filthy with the use of thirty years. To
do this, he turned through them the waters of the river Alpheus. Theo-
critus, telling the first part of the adventure, described the enormous
herds which gathered nightly in the barns. The Manual told the whole
story, adding that Hercules used also the Elian river Peneus.
Another exploit of Hercules was his victory over the birds of the
Stymphalian Lake in Arcadia. These creatures were armed with brazen
beaks and claws and with feathers that could be shot like arrows. They
fed on human flesh, presumably of their own killing. Athena provided
Hercules with a loud sounding rattle, which drove them into the air. He
then killed them, according to most accounts, with his arrows. Hellani-
cus mentioned this exploit, and Pherecydes and the Manual told it in
full. Apollonius declared that some of the birds escaped to an island of
the Black Sea and were found there by the Argonauts. Greek vase
painting and coins represented the birds as long-necked waterfowl of
variegated plumage.
Ovid mentioned also toil of Hercules in the Parthenian woods. By
this phrase Ovid alluded to his quest of the hind which often was called
Cerynitian, because it frequented the neighborhood of Cerynitia in
northern Arcadia. Different accounts were given of the animal's origin.
Pindar observed that a nymph Taygete presented it to Diana and that
it became sacred to the goddess. Callimachus declared that it was one
of five hinds larger than bulls that Diana discovered feeding near the
Arcadian river Anaurus. He added that she captured four, and the fifth
escaped northwards to the Cerynitian Hill.
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? NESSUS AND THE DEATH OF HERCULES
Apparently the early Greeks had received some account of rein-
deer, the only species in which antlers are grown by the hind, for antlers
were attributed regularly to the hind of Cerynitia. * Pindar observed
that the quest took Hercules far north, beyond the cold blasts of Boreas.
Other authors agreed that the quest was long, for it occupied more than
a year, but they thought of it as confined to southern Greece. They
added further details to the description of the animal. Euripides re-
ferred to the antlers as made of gold, Vergil spoke of brazen hoofs,
Quintus Smyrnaeus noted the hind's breathing out fire. Euripides ob-
served also that it ravaged the crops. He remarked that Hercules killed
it, and the Manual added that he shot it near Oenoe in Argolis. The
Manual stated further that Apollo and Diana at first reproved Her-
cules for injuring the sacred animal and opposed his return but finally
were mollified.
Ovid spoke next of the gold wrought belt secured from Thermodon,
alluding to the time when Hercules obtained a girdle of the Amazon
Queen Hippolyta. This tradition grew out of the historical fact that
occasionally in times of danger women have taken part in warfare.
Sometimes they merely put to death an enemy who temporarily was dis-
armed and incapable of resistance, as Judith is said to have killed Holo-
fernes, or Jael is reported to have killed Sisera. But at other times
they appear to have faced the perils and hardships of war. This was
true of Augustina, Maid of Saragoza, who was commemorated by
Southey and Byron, and of several women who fought more recently in
the armies of Dahomey.
During historical times women such as Boadicaea and Joan of Arc
occasionally have commanded armies. Their adventures interested not
only historians but also poets and novelists, and it was natural for
authors such as Fletcher, Schiller, and Mark Twain to present them in
a manner that was partly fictitious. But many authors introduced in
their stories warlike women who were entirely imaginary. The Iliad
told of several goddesses, one of them Venus, who took part in battles
near Troy and elsewhere. Vergil introduced into the war between
Aeneas and Turnus his famous warrior heroine Camilla. Leading poets
of the Renaissance gladly followed his example: Ariosto with his Brada-
mante and Marfisa, Tasso with Clorinda, and Spenser with Brito-
mart. And in the nineteenth century Scott revived the fashion, first in
*Some authors, apparently troubled by the fact, referred to the animal as a stag.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK NINE
his poem Harold the Dauntless and then in his novel Count Robert of
Paris.
All these were examples of individual women who took part in wars.
There also have been historical instances where a company of women
organized themselves to participate in warfare. During the eighth cen-
tury A. D. , a certain Ylasta led an army of warrior women in Bohemia,
and during the Great War there appeared the Russian Battalion of
Death. Prehistoric companies of warrior women probably suggested
the famous traditions of the Valkyries in northern Europe and the Ama-
zons in Greece.
The Amazons were described as a whole nation of women who lived
in Asia Minor, somewhere near the eastern end of the Black Sea. The
Iliad spoke of them as warring first against Troy and later against
Bellerophon. Aeschylus in his Prometheus Bound declared that the
Amazons originated somewhere in the north and migrated southwards to
the valley of the river Thermodon, near the modern city of Trebizond.
Herodotus and others spoke of this country as their home and told of
their inhabiting a town called Themiscyra. Many authors and artists
treated the theme of the Amazons, associating them especially with
adventures of Theseus and Hercules. Plutarch and others even gave
them a part in the Asiatic conquests of Alexander and Pompey.
The quest for Hippolyta's girdle appeared in sculpture of the
Athenian treasury at Delphi. Not long afterwards it was mentioned by
Euripides. In the HercuJss Furens he noted that Hercules attacked and
defeated an army of mounted Amazons near Lake Maeotis (the Sea of
Azov). Quintus Smyrnaeus added that Hercules pulled Queen Hippo-
lyta out of her saddle. Other Greek authors imagined a less violent pro-
cedure. According to Apollonius, Hercules captured Melanippe, a sister
of the queen, and obtained the girdle as her ransom. According to the
Manual, Hippolyta came voluntarily to Hercules and would have yielded
the girdle peaceably, if Juno had not caused the other Amazons to
attack him. Hercules, believing their demonstration had been planned
in advance, killed the queen.
Ovid's next allusion mentioned winning apples guarded by an un-
sleeping dragon. They usually were called the golden fruit of the
Hesperides. According to the Theogony, the Hesperides were nymphs
living far west, beyond the ocean, and guarding trees which bore golden
apples. Beginning with the fifth century B. C, Greek authors gave a
different account of them. They localized the Hesperides in northern
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? NESSUS AND THE DEATH OF HERCULES
Africa, at the foot of the Atlas Mountains, and spoke of one tree,
round which there coiled an unsleeping dragon. According to Sophocles,
Euripides, and Apollonius, Hercules killed the dragon and gathered the
fruit. And this idea was repeated by most ancient authors who wrote
after Alexandrian times. But Pherecydes and the Manual thought of
the dragon as immortal. They declared that Hercules persuaded Atlas
to obtain the apples for him and meanwhile he himself assumed the duty
of holding up the sky. This idea appeared often in Greek art. Ovid in
his account of Perseus and Atlas (Bk. 4) had followed the poets, for he
noted a prediction that Hercules was to plunder the golden fruit. The
tree had also golden leaves, he added, and Atlas tried to protect it with
a high wall round the garden where it grew. In the complaint of Her-
cules, Ovid alluded to the same version of the tale. His reference to
winning apples from an unsleeping dragon implied that Hercules killed
the monster. But a few lines afterwards Ovid recalled the account in
the Manual and spoke of him as holding up the sky. This idea was in-
consistent not only with Ovid's previous allusion but also with his story
of Perseus transforming Atlas into a mountain. By the time of Her-
cules, Atlas would have been unable to go in quest of the fruit. It is an
odd circumstance that, although Ovid treated the theme of the golden
apples both in his account of Perseus and in his complaint of Hercules,
he never even alluded to the Hesperides.
Still another exploit was a victory over the centaurs. Sophocles
had referred to the adventure, and Euripides had spoken of it as occur-
ring in Thessaly. The Manual told the story. While Hercules was visit-
ing a centaur named Pholus, he persuaded him to include in the enter-
tainment part of the wine which the centaurs held in common. The other
centaurs, objecting to this appropriation of their property, made an
attack but were routed with arrows. During the combat both Pholus
and Ghiron suffered wounds which resulted in their death (cf. Ocyrhoe,
Bk. 2). Ovid had mentioned this victory in his Epistle of Deianira.
Ovid referred also to a boar that ravaged Arcadia. Sophocles had
mentioned the destruction of the beast. The Manual recorded the story.
The boar inhabited Mt. Erymanthus in Arcadia. Hercules pursued him
up the mountain beyond the treeline until the animal foundered in deep
snow, then threw a net over him and brought him back alive. Presumably
he afterwards killed the boar. Pausanias observed that in his time the
tusks were shown in Apollo's temple at Cumae. Ovid already had men-
tioned the quest of the Erymanthian boar in his Epistle of Deianira.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK NINE
He spoke again of the battle with the hydra, which he had consid-
ered at greater length in the previous tale.
Ovid alluded also to King Diomed of Thrace. This king was no-
torious for his team of bloodthirsty horses. Euripides had given two
different accounts of them. In the Alcestis he described them as mares,
an idea repeated by the Manual and by Ovid in the Epistle of Deianira.
In the Hercules Furens he described them as stallions, an idea repeated
by Lucretius and by Ovid in the complaint of Hercules. According to
Euripides, the king fed his team with human flesh, probably the bodies
of those whom he put to death. Hercules overcame and captured the
formidable animals. The Manual added that he brought them to Greece
but that meanwhile Diomed tried to recover them and perished. Dio-
dorus declared that Hercules allowed the horses to kill and devour their
former master. But, according to another Greek tradition, Hercules
killed both Diomed and the horses in the stable. This idea was repeated
afterwards by Quintus Smyrnaeus. Ovid, alluding to the same version,
added that Diomed's mangers were full of human corpses.
Ovid made his last allusion to the adventure with the Nemean lion.
During prehistoric times, wild lions probably existed in all parts of
Greece (cf. Medea's Flight to Athens, Bk. 7). Tradition gave Hercules
two adventures with them, the first with a lion of Mt. Cithaeron near
Thebes, the second with the more famous Nemean lion of southern
Greece. But the Nemean lion usually was described as a more or less
supernatural animal. According to the Theogony, it frequented the
region of Nemea in Argolis and destroyed many human lives but suc-
cumbed at last to Hercules. Pindar noted that after the victory Her-
cules made it his custom to wear the head and skin of this lion, an idea
often repeated both in literature and in art.
Bacchylides recorded a few details of the conflict. Hercules first
attacked the lion with a sword but found the beast invulnerable. The
sword encountered bronze instead of flesh and bent back. He was obliged
to grapple with his enemy. Here Bacchylides accepted an idea common
in Greek lore, that, if an animal or a human being was invulnerable by
weapons, he still might perish by strangling or smothering. Another
instance Ovid recorded in his tale of Cycnus (Bk. 12). Euripides noted
that Hercules overcame the lion in his den.
The Manual added several particulars. Hercules encountered the
animal first in the open.
