The History and Antiquities of the Doric Race Volume I Part 11

1. In the following attempt to unravel the complicated mythology of Hercules, we will begin with those fables in which this hero appears evidently as the progenitor of the Doric Heraclidae,(1722) as representative of the heroes of the Hyllean tribe, the highest order in the Doric nation.

We will first direct our attention to the locality described in the beginning of the first book, the ancient country of the Dorians in the most mountainous part of Thessaly, where this nation was continually at enmity with its immediate neighbours, the Lapithae. In this war Hercules appears as the hero of the Hyllean tribe, according to the epic poem aegimius, and gained for them a third part of the conquered territory. With this contest is, as it appears, also connected the celebrated conquest of chalia, the subject of an epic poem called ???a??a? ???s??, which was ascribed to Homer or Creophylus.(1723) In this poem it was related how Eurytus of chalia, the skilful archer, who was said to have surpa.s.sed Hercules himself in this mode of fighting, and who dared to engage with Apollo,(1724) promised his daughter Iole as a prize to the person who should excel himself and his sons in archery; but Hercules having accepted the challenge, Eurytus refused to perform his engagement: upon which Hercules collected an army, conquered chalia, killed Eurytus and his sons, carried away Iole prisoner, and gave her in marriage to his son Hyllus.(1725)

The situation of this "well-fortified"(1726) chalia is an ancient subject of controversy. There were three places of this name; one on the banks of the Peneus in Thessaly, in the ancient country of the Lapithae, between Pelinna to the east and Tricca to the west, not far from Ithome:(1727) another in the island of Euba, in the district of Eretria.(1728) The third was a town in Messenia, which in latter times was called Carnasium, upon the boundary of Arcadia;(1729) in which region there was also a town named Ithome; and, as it is stated, another named Tricca; so that we must suppose that there was some early connexion between the inhabitants of this district and the tribes near the Peneus. Now it may be presumed that each of these chalias was considered by the respective inhabitants as the celebrated town of the great Eurytus; whence among the early poets there was a difference of statement on the subject. For the Messenian chalia is called the city of Eurytus in the Homeric catalogue,(1730) and in the Odyssey,(1731) which statement was followed by Pherecydes;(1732) the Euban city was selected by the writer of the poem called the Taking of chalia;(1733) as also probably in the aegimius,(1734) and afterwards by Hecataeus of Miletus;(1735) the Thessalian, in another pa.s.sage in the catalogue of the ships, apparently of considerable antiquity.(1736) Since, then, this question cannot be settled by authority, we can only infer (but with great probability) from the connexion of the traditions that the last-mentioned chalia was the city of the original fable. The contest for this city is evidently closely connected with the war with the Lapithae; Eurytus, as well as the Lapithae, was hated by Apollo. If chalia is placed on the banks of the Peneus, the conquest of it naturally falls in with the other tradition; if not, it stands isolated and unconnected. Again; Hercules, according to all traditions, conquers Iole for his son Hyllus; now Hyllus never occurs in mythology except in connexion with the Dorians; consequently the place of the battle must be looked for in the vicinity of the Doric territory.

Even before the time of this war (according to the common narration) Hercules had embroiled himself with the chalians by killing Iphitus, the son of Eurytus, who demanded of him the rest.i.tution of some plundered cattle or horses. In the common version of this story, Peloponnesus was the scene of the encounter; for Hercules is said to have hurled him from the walls of Tiryns.(1737) But to expiate this murder, and the violation of the rights of hospitality, Hercules became a slave; and, in order to release himself from the guilt, he was compelled to pay to the father of Iphitus his own ransom.

2. The meaning of this servitude cannot be rightly explained without observing the remarkable coincidence between some parts of the mythology of Hercules and Apollo, which we will here shortly elucidate. As Eurytus is represented sometimes as killed by Apollo, sometimes by Hercules, so in the poem of the Shield of Hercules(1738) this hero punishes Cycnus for profaning the Pagasaean temple; thus, in another tradition, he slays Phylas and Laogoras, princes of the Dryopes, for violating the shrine of Delphi and other temples;(1739) and consecrates the whole nation to the Pythian Apollo.(1740) Nor do I believe that Euripides invented the fable of the restoration of Alcestis, and the contest between Hercules and death.(1741) It is also perhaps fair to infer, from the legends of epic poets, in which Hercules is represented as a hero in brazen armour, who defended the sacred roads with his sword, and overthrew the violent sons of Ares that waylaid the sacrificial processions in the narrow pa.s.ses and defiles, that in ancient fables he was considered not only as the defender of the Doric race, but also of the Doric worship.

We may now proceed to consider the sale and servitude of Hercules; a point of primary importance in the various forms which the legends concerning this hero a.s.sume. In the present instance this degradation originated from the killing of Iphitus. Here also the parallel with the servitude of Apollo at Pherae cannot fail to strike every one. The G.o.d and the hero were chosen, as examples, to impress the people in early times with a strong sense of the sacred character, and necessity of expiation for homicide.(1742) By whom Hercules was supposed to have been purchased in the original legend of northern Thessaly we know not; at a later period Omphale was called his mistress, who (according to Pherecydes)(1743) bought him for three talents.

3. We will now proceed to the second settlements of the Dorians, which comprehend the towns between the ridges of ta and Parna.s.sus; viz., Erineus, Cytinium, b.u.m, and Pindus.(1744)

The neighbours of the Dorians in these settlements were, as has been already stated, the Dryopes, the Melians of Trachis, and the aetolians. The first were hostile to the Dorians; the other two were for the most part friendly to them. These facts again are expressed with much clearness in the mythology of Hercules. Of the relation between the Dorians and Dryopians, and the manner in which it is expressed in the fables of Hercules, we have already given an account.(1745) Ceyx, the Trachinian, was a faithful friend of Hercules, and of his descendants; in one account, indeed, he is called the nephew of Hercules,(1746) who is said to have founded for him his town of Trachis.(1747) In this place was shown a grave of Deianira,(1748) the daughter of neus, whose marriage with Hercules is evidently a mythological expression for the league which existed between the aetolian and Dorian nations before the invasion of Peloponnesus.(1749) For Deianira was an inhabitant of Calydon;(1750) and the Calydonians had the princ.i.p.al share in this expedition. To this marriage is annexed a series of connected aetolian fables concerning Hercules. For the peculiarity of this part of the heroic mythology is, that they readily pa.s.sed from one nation to another; and wherever they obtained a firm ground, formed a large ma.s.s of traditions. Among these is the conquest of the bull Achelous,(1751) and the adventure at the ford of the Euenus,(1752) which afterwards occasioned the death of Hercules. It is also probable that the residence of Hercules at Olenus, in the house of Dexamenus, was connected with the aetolian adventures; although even Hesiod does not in this legend mention the ancient aetolian town Olenus in the neighbourhood of Calydon, but the Achaean city of the same name on the banks of the Pirus.(1753) Now Dexamenus is frequently placed in connexion with the Calydonian family of neus;(1754) the wife of neus came from Olenus, and was of the same family. The ancient legend represented him as a hospitable hero: which quality is also expressed in his name (?e?ae???, from de??e???); in return for which, Hercules released him from his brutal guests, the Centaurs;(1755) to which fable the ancient battle of the Centaurs in the mythology of Hercules probably annexed itself. Lastly, Hercules is said to have led the aetolians against the Thesprotians of Ephyra. This expedition was perhaps as much celebrated in ancient lays as the taking of chalia. Ephyra, which is here spoken of, is an ancient city of Thesprotia,(1756) situated on the spot where the Acherusian lake flows into the sea through the river Selleeis (Acheron). In later times the name of this city was Cichyrus; but even at the present day remains of the original Cyclopian style of building, not unlike those of Tiryns, are extant.(1757) The whole district is celebrated in fables as the dwelling-place of Aidoneus: as the seat of an oracle where departed spirits were questioned, it was always regarded by the inhabitants with an awe, which was further increased by a belief that the natives were very skilful in the preparation of poison.(1758) This city Hercules is said to have attacked as an ally of the aetolians; whence it appears probable that this circ.u.mstance gave occasion for introducing his contest with Hades, and his adventures in the infernal regions, such as the carrying away of Cerberus, the liberation of other heroes,(1759) &c. It must not, however, be thought, that in the style of Euhemerus, I suppose a king Aidoneus to have really once reigned in this district, who had a dog, or rather a general, named Cerberus, whom Hercules overcame in a battle, &c. The following appears to be a more probable method of accounting for the origin of this fable. The gloomy religious rites on the banks of the Acheron, which had always deterred the neighbouring nations from a partic.i.p.ation in them, were at an early period contrasted with the free and active habits of the heroic tribes; the awe inspired by the presence of the unearthly spectres with the proud spirit and bold thoughts of a military life. If now the people themselves came into collision with each other, their G.o.ds necessarily did the same; the result of which was traditions of contest and war between themselves. On the other hand, it must not be thought that the fable has a purely symbolical meaning; and that Hercules was worshipped, together with Hades, merely as an enemy of Death, as a deity alleviating and removing the terrors of the infernal regions.

4. The rest of this fable, however, entirely loses its symbolical character; viz., the manner in which the birth of several Doric heroes is connected with the taking of Ephyra; who, though out of the confines of history, are nevertheless to be considered as real individuals. In the first place, Hercules is stated to have begotten Tlepolemus on Astyocheia, whom, according to Homer, he carried away from Ephyra, on the river Sellecis, after having destroyed many cities;(1760) Antiphus and Pheidippus also were said to have come from Ephyra in Thesprotia, the sons of Thessalus, and grandsons of Hercules, to whom the n.o.blest families of Thessaly, as well as the Heraclidae of Cos, referred their origin;(1761) the latter, however, according to another and later tradition, sprang from the union of Hercules and the daughter of Eurypylus in Cos itself.(1762) The origin of this intricate fable appears to be as follows: There were in the ancient country of the Dorians some n.o.ble families which referred their origin to the conquest of Ephyra; and these were designated by the names of Tlepolemus, Antiphus, and Pheidippus; those families went with the other Dorians to Peloponnesus, and pa.s.sed through Argos and Epidaurus to Rhodes and Cos, where they partly new-modelled their original family legends. Now it was always admitted that the Thessalian people came also from Ephyra and Thesprotia; and when it settled among the Greeks, and sought to partic.i.p.ate in their traditions, it was natural that Hercules, the conqueror of Ephyra, should be placed at the head of its genealogies.

5. To the combat of Hercules and Pluto at Ephyra we will now annex the legend of Geryoneus. The cattle of Geryoneus and Pluto grazed together in the island of Erytheia;(1763) but they were supposed to belong to the Sun,(1764) and therefore were of a bright red colour. Now Erytheia was anciently believed to be near the kingdom of Hades. For the statement of Hecataeus, that Erytheia and Geryoneus belonged to Epirus and the region of Ambracia,(1765) could not have been owing to an attempt to give to mythology an appearance of reality: but he seems to have availed himself of some real tradition. This is certain, from the datum of Scylax, who would never have laid down Erytheia in his Periplus(1766) on the authority of a logographer. According to this writer it is situated between the territory of the Atintanes and the Ceraunian mountains, north of Epirus, on the borders of Greece, at no great distance from the earliest seats of the Dorians. Now it is a remarkable fact, that, even in historical times, there were in the same country, viz., near the Aous, a river running from mount Lacmon, herds sacred to the Sun, which were guarded in the daytime on the banks of that river, and in the night in a cave of the mountain, by men whom the inhabitants of the Greek city of Apollonia intrusted with this office as a particular honour.(1767) It is not probable that the Corinthians, who founded Apollonia, should have been the first to introduce this usage, although there are traces of an ancient worship of the Sun in the territory of Corinth;(1768) but we may fairly a.s.sume that the colonists merely retained a native custom. This hypothesis clears away all difficulty. The empire of Hades on this earth was conterminous with a district in which the worship of the Sun prevailed, and which contained innumerable herds of cattle, under the protection of the G.o.d; but the Greek hero, little caring for their sanct.i.ty, had driven them away, and devoted them to _his own_ G.o.ds. Epirus was always distinguished for its excellent breed of cattle, which were said to have sprung from the herds of Geryoneus, which Hercules offered to the Dodonaean Zeus.(1769)

6. We were led to these considerations by the aetolian legends respecting Hercules, from which we will now return to the Dorians, who possessed the mountainous tract along mount ta towards Thermopylae. There was perhaps no region in the whole of Greece which abounded more in local fables of Hercules. It was in the pa.s.s of Thermopylae that he caught those strange monsters the Cercopes;(1770) here it was that Athene caused a hot spring to issue for him from the ground;(1771) on the top of mount ta, on the Phrygian rock,(1772) was raised the fatal pile, which the brook of Dyras in vain strove to extinguish;(1773) and many adjacent cities claimed a connexion with his exploits:(1774) even the aenianes (who at a later period settled in this district) attempted to appropriate to themselves these traditions;(1775) and Heraclea Trachinia, not founded till the Peloponnesian war, and the neighbouring Cylicrani, were referred to the mythology of Hercules.(1776) It is certain that local traditions of this kind must have originated with the inhabitants of this district. Is it at least probable that the natives of Argos would have placed the death of their deified hero in a foreign region, if they had been the original inventors of this fiction? The career of the Doric hero doubtless closed on the funeral pile of ta; and this adventure ended a series of fables, of which there are now extant only some fragments. In this point of view we may perceive a connexion between many of the legends detailed above.

The general tendency and spirit of these legends may be described in the following proposition: The national hero is represented as everywhere preparing the way for his people and their worship; and as protecting them from other races. Thus he opens a communication between Tempe and Delphi, between the fabulous worshippers of Apollo, the Hyperboreans, and the worshippers of his own age. At the same time his own person is an outward symbol of the national worship; he complies with its rites of expiation for homicide, being himself both the victim and the sacrificer.

7. We will next consider the Theban legends of Hercules; and will, for the sake of clearness, first state the propositions which the following discussion is intended to establish.

Hercules at Thebes is not to be considered as a Cadmean; and has no connexion with the ancient G.o.ds, and traditions of the Cadmeans; but his mythology was introduced into Botia partly by the Doric Heraclidae, and partly from Delphi, together with the worship of Apollo.

To prove that Hercules has no connexion with the Cadmean G.o.ds, temples, and princes, it is only necessary to refer to a genealogical table of the Theban mythology, and a plan of Thebes sketched after Pausanias. From the former we perceive that Hercules (whose father is represented as having arrived as a fugitive from Mycenae) is not made the relation either by blood or marriage of the Cadmeans, Creon (?????, the ruler), his supposed father-in-law, being only a fict.i.tious personage, invented to fill up a chasm in the pedigree;(1777) from the latter, that the temples of Hercules were not only not in the citadel (like those of Cadmus, Harmonia, and Semele), or within the walls of the city, but were all without the gates.

This fact is of great importance as to the antiquity of any worship in a city. The ancient and original deities, which enjoyed the honours of founders, possessed the citadel as their birthright; while all G.o.ds afterwards introduced enjoyed a less honourable abode in the suburbs of the town. Now it is known that the house of Amphitryon and the Gymnasium of Hercules stood in front of the gate of Electra, opposite the Ismenium;(1778) and to this we may add the account of Pherecydes(1779) respecting a village near that same gate, which the Heraclidae had founded before their invasion of Peloponnesus, and where there was a statue of Hercules in the market-place. What can be clearer than that these Heraclidae established the worship of their hero at Thebes? Near this place (it should be observed) was the Ismenian sanctuary of Apollo. Opposite to this temple Hercules was said to have been educated; and at a festival of Apollo to have carried the laurel before the chorus of virgins; and afterwards to have consecrated a tripod in the temple, as was the general custom in later times. This tripod is represented on the famous relief of the Argive apotheosis of Hercules, with the inscription ?f?t???? ?p??

???a??? t??p?d ?p??????.(1780)

With this is evidently connected the story of the robbery of the Delphian tripod, of which the common version is as follows: Hercules was visited with a severe illness, as a punishment for the murder of Iphitus; and, in consequence, he had recourse for relief to Delphi; but as the Pythian priestess refused to answer the questions of one guilty of homicide, he threatened to plunder the temple, and carry off the tripod. Apollo accordingly pursued him, till Zeus separated the combat of his two sons by lightning.(1781) The fable went on to say that a new consecration of the Delphian tripod took place, and a reconciliation of the G.o.d and hero: of this part we are only informed by works of art, these being indeed of tolerable antiquity.(1782) But it is manifest that this is not the genuine, ancient, and sacred tradition. How could this hero, who in other respects was entirely dependent on the mandates of the oracle, and who in so many ways protected and promoted the worship of Apollo,(1783) suddenly become a sacrilegious violator of his most holy and ancient temple? This carrying away of the tripod appears from other traditions to signify nothing else than a propagation of the worship of Apollo.(1784) Whither, then, is this tripod stated to have been first moved? By the Arcadians Hercules was said to have brought it to Pheneus, but was compelled again to restore it to Apollo.(1785) The hero, on his journey to Elis, is said to have built a temple to the Pythian Apollo;(1786) which, however, can scarcely be more ancient than the Doric migration. The foundation of this temple, as dependent on the Delphic oracle, was therefore by the tradition expressed under this image of the transportation of the tripod, the bearer of it being Hercules. But it is more important to our present purpose that, according to the Botian account,(1787) Hercules was supposed to have brought the tripod to Thebes, that is probably to the Ismenium. This fable therefore shows the connexion between the Ismenium and the great sanctuary of Apollo; and represents Hercules as the intermediate link between these two temples.

8. Several other traditions current in Botia are connected with the above explanation of this tradition. The Cretan colony, which, setting out from Cirrha, established the Tilphosian temple at Ocalea in Botia, was represented under the person of Rhadamanthus.(1788) Rhadamanthus is said to have there dwelt with Alcmene, and to have instructed the youthful hero in the Cretan art of archery.(1789) For this reason also Zeus raised Alcmene from the dead, and conducted her to the islands of the blest as the wife of Rhadamanthus. A stone remained in her tomb, which was set up in her sacred grove at Thebes.(1790)

9. The Theban traditions of Hercules are not all equally significant; but some, such as those just mentioned, had a religious, some a political(1791) import, and others only express the bodily strength of that hero. The education of Hercules is confided to certain fabulous personages, most of whom were supposed to reside in Botia.(1792) His most remarkable instructor is the minstrel Linus, whom (probably in execution of the will of Apollo) he put to death,(1793) justifying himself by the law of Rhadamanthus. The destruction of the lion of Cithaeron is an imitation of the legend of Nemea, of which we shall speak hereafter.(1794) After this adventure he went to Thespiae, to the house of Thestius, where he deflowers in one or in fifty-seven nights the fifty daughters of his host, a fable which has perhaps an astronomical reference.(1795)

With respect to the singular legend of Hercules murdering his children by Megara by throwing them into the fire,(1796) it cannot be denied that this had some symbolical meaning, derived from an ancient elementary religion.

In general, however, this temporary fury is merely an exaggerated picture of that heroic mind whose courage and endurance had carried Hercules through so many dangers and difficulties for the good of mankind.(1797) According to the Botian version, it was a melancholy madness, in which Hercules, regardless even of all that was most dear to him, murdered his children, and was even on the point of slaying his father.(1798) Upon this the hero, oppressed with a deep melancholy, turned for relief to the atoning Apollo; and either to the G.o.d of the Ismenium(1799) or of Pytho.(1800) The oracle commands him to serve as a slave, in the same manner as Apollo himself had served after the destruction of the Python.

In the broken narrative of Apollodorus a remarkable trace has been preserved as to the time during which, according to the Botian tradition, the slavery of Hercules lasted, viz., eight years and one month.(1801) This cannot be considered as an accidental number; but it is probable that the Ennaeteris is signified, which was a period of eight years and three intercalary months; of which only the last month is here mentioned, because the two inserted in the middle were less conspicuous. Hercules, therefore, like Apollo at Pherae, was supposed to have served for an ??d???

???a?t??, for the octennial period of mythology and ancient astronomy.(1802)

10. We will here add some observations on the Attic worship of Hercules, which was celebrated chiefly at Marathon in the Tetrapolis,(1803) in the three villages of Melite, Diomea, and Collytus,(1804) which lay close to one another in the vicinity of Athens; at Cynosarges(1805) in particular, which belonged to the demus of Diomea; at Acharnae(1806) and Hephaestia,(1807) and in the city itself; and likewise near the sea in the Tetracomae, or "Four Hamlets."(1808) The circ.u.mstance that those temples which were not situated in the vicinity of the city were all in the northern part of Attica, seems to prove that the worship was derived from the northern frontiers; and it was attributed to the presence of the Heraclidae in Attica, though the fable of the great a.s.sistance which Athens lent to the Heraclidae was peculiar to the Athenians.(1809) It is probable, however, that at some early period a division of the Doric people pa.s.sed through Attica, and there founded that worship which, by the supremacy of the Dorians and their various connexions with other nations, increased in character and importance. If the Lacedaemonians really spared the Tetrapolis in the Peloponnesian war,(1810) their forbearance must be attributed to the respect which they showed to their national hero. There is a tradition worthy of notice, that Theseus consecrated to Hercules all the temples which had been dedicated to himself;(1811) whence it may be inferred that the worship of the former demiG.o.d was thus transferred at some early period; only not, it should be observed, at the time of Theseus himself. That the worship of Hercules was only half-nationalized may (as it appears) be inferred from the custom of the Parasiti of that hero at Cynosarges being always Athenians, of whose parents one only was a citizen; a symbolical allusion to the half-foreign origin of their worship.

Of the same description are the traditions which were peculiar to the villages of Aphidna, Decelea, and t.i.tacidae (likewise situated in the north of Attica), respecting the expedition of the Tyndaridae; who were said to have conquered Aphidna with the aid of Decelus and t.i.tacus.(1812) From this plunder, according to a Spartan legend, the very ancient temple of Pallas Chalcicus at Sparta was built. In this instance, likewise, the tradition was recognised as real history; for the Lacedaemonians always kept up a friendly intercourse with Decelea; nor was it, we may be a.s.sured, without some particular reason that in the Messenian war at the command of the oracle they called to their aid Tyrtaeus, the man of Aphidna. But as the Tyndaridae, _i.e._, their images (as was mentioned above),(1813) accompanied every Spartan army on its marches, it is probable that these stories originated in some Doric expedition into the northern parts of Attica, which left behind it these permanent traces and recollections.

Chapter XII.

-- 1. Peloponnesian mythology of Hercules. Adventures of Hercules: his combats with wild beasts. -- 2. His martial exploits. -- 3. His establishment of the Olympic games. -- 4. Complexity of the mythology of Hercules. -- 5. Worship of Hercules carried from Sparta to Tarentum and Croton. -- 6. Coan fable of Hercules. -- 7.

Hercules and Hylas. -- 8. Identification of Hercules and Melcart. -- 9. Human character of Hercules. -- 10. His joviality and love of mirth.

1. We must now entreat the indulgence of our readers when we enter upon an obscure and difficult part of our subject, and one lying beyond the limits of historical record. We allude to the Peloponnesian mythology of Hercules; a collection of legends doubtless for the most part invented subsequently to the Doric invasion, and intended by that nation in great measure to justify their conquest of the peninsula, and to make their expedition appear, not as an act of wrongful aggression, but as a re-a.s.sertion of ancient right. Some hero (perhaps even of the same name) must have existed in the Argive traditions in the time of the Persidae, and the resemblance may have been sufficiently striking to identify him with the father of the Doric Hyllus. We shall therefore consider the destroyer of the Nemean lion as a native Argive hero; but the delay experienced at his birth, and his consequent exposure to want and toil, evidently belong to the Doric tradition, as well as the enmity of Here; fables which were partly borrowed from the worship of Apollo, and may partly have been intended to indicate the contrast between the ancient worship of Argos and that of the invading race.(1814)

We shall now proceed without further preface to consider the different adventures of Hercules, which may be divided into two cla.s.ses; the first consisting of his warlike exploits, the second of his combats with wild beasts. We shall commence with the examination of the latter.(1815)

Nemea was separated from the Argive temple of Here, the most ancient one in the country, by a chain of mountains and a long rocky ravine. It cannot be denied that the moon was often invoked in this worship, although it would not be safe to consider Here as the G.o.ddess of the moon. Now Nemea is called the daughter of the moon,(1816) from which deity the Nemean lion is also said to have sprung; the antiquity of which fable may be inferred from the circ.u.mstance that Anaxagoras availed himself of it, as being generally received, to account for the physical hypothesis of the Antichthon.(1817) Connected with this is Hesiod's tradition that the G.o.ddess Here had herself brought up the lion, which she is by that poet represented as having done out of enmity to Hercules. Hence we detect the symbolical character of the fable, which resembles that of Perseus and Gorgo, &c.; although we can scarcely attempt to explain the whole legend in a similar manner. The combat with the Lernaean hydra may also be thus explained. Hercules is represented as employing in this contest the same sickle with which Perseus beheaded Medusa.(1818)

Whatever meaning we may attach to these combats, whether we consider them as symbolical, or as memorials of a remote antiquity, in which it was the hero's princ.i.p.al occupation to free Greece from monsters and wild beasts, it is nevertheless evident that they are as little adapted to the time a.s.signed to them (shortly previous to the Pelopidae) as to the character of the other parts of the fable. A mere consideration of Hercules' costume will sufficiently convince us of this fact. It is certain that the Hercules of the early poets was either a hero armed with a spear and buckler, as in the poem attributed to Hesiod,(1819) or with a bow and sword, as in the Odyssey.(1820) The latter description occurs particularly in the battle of the giants; the former is founded on all the traditions which represent Hercules as the first of warriors and conquerors. Pisander and Stesichorus were the first who introduced him as a half-naked savage, with the lion's skin round his loins, the jaws covering his head instead of a helmet, and merely a club in his hand.(1821) There were extant so late as the time of Strabo some ancient wooden statues of Hercules very different from this description. Pisander, too, was (as far as we know) the first who represented in detail the combats of Hercules with wild beasts, collected from scattered accounts in the Theogony, and who composed the "Labours of Hercules;" for which he perhaps availed himself of different local traditions.

2. We now come to the martial exploits of Hercules, which, as it appears, were intended to represent the conquests of the Dorians in Peloponnesus.

We have only to direct our attention to the account that Hercules, towards the close of his life, being prince of Mycenae,(1822) delivered Sparta from the Hippocontidae into the hands of Tyndareus, and, after conquering Pylos from Neleus, transferred, it to Nestor,(1823) in order to perceive the coincidence of tradition and history. The circ.u.mstances which have chiefly contributed to the formation of these traditions may best be traced in the combat at Pylos. The share which Hades had in this adventure, when that G.o.d was himself wounded by the bold son of Zeus,(1824) may be considered, according to the connexion established above, as having been transferred from Ephyra, where Hades had a greater inducement to the protection of oppressed cities than at Pylos.(1825) But Hercules is said to have destroyed Pylos because Neleus would not purify him from the murder of Iphitus;(1826) an act which Deiphobus afterwards performed in the temple of Apollo at Amyclae.(1827) Here it seems to be a.s.sumed that chalia, the native city of Iphitus, was situated in Messenia, which, as we have shown above,(1828) was not the original tradition.

3. The influence of historical facts upon mythology is most clearly perceivable in the legend of Hercules having founded the Olympic games when he returned victorious from his expedition against Augeas of Elis.(1829) Afterwards the same hero celebrates the first Olympiad as a festival of all Peloponnesus, with various combats, in which heroes from Tiryns, Tegea, Mantinea, and Sparta were victorious.(1830) It was also Hercules who fixed the quinquennial period, and established the sacred armistice.(1831) His bringing the wild olive-tree from the Hyperboreans, and planting it in the grove of Altis, was probably derived from the traditions of Northern Greece;(1832) in which Hercules was represented as more closely connected with Apollo than in the common Peloponnesian legends. It should, moreover, be remarked that Hercules in his expedition against Elis is reported to have founded or visited several temples of Apollo at Pheneus and Thelpusa;(1833) both lying on the road which connected the isthmus and the north of Greece with Olympia.(1834) It would, however, involve us in no slight difficulties to date the tradition of Hercules founding the Olympic games later than the Olympiad of Iphitus; for as since that period the Eleans conducted the festival, and therefore showed a particular veneration for Hercules, it is scarcely probable that a war _against Elis_ should have been considered as the cause of the establishment of this festival, had not the report been handed down from an earlier period. The continual claim of Pisa, that the presidency of the games should be restored to her as an ancient right, is, however, one of several circ.u.mstances which render it probable that she had once enjoyed this privilege before the festival had acquired its subsequent celebrity; and that Hercules, to whom a very ancient wooden statue had been erected at Pisa,(1835) was, even at this early period, regarded as the founder: to which facts the story of a war against Elis was easily subjoined. The combat with Augeas, a son of Helius, seems to have been in great part borrowed from some Epirotan fable respecting Geryon.

4. In tracing the various steps which led to the formation of the Peloponnesian mythology of Hercules, it has by no means been our aim to enter minutely into the details of the subject, which would carry us far beyond the limits of the present inquiry; the distinction between the ancient and recent parts of the tradition being so undefined that an accurate separation of the two is almost impossible. Enough has been said to show how frequently the same legend reappears in different shapes; and consequently that some original version was variously modified in different places. We shall once for all remind those who imagine the northern legend of Hercules to have been of later date than the Peloponnesian because the latter is mentioned by the early epic poets, that some higher source must be sought for than a few pa.s.sages of those poets which have been accidentally preserved: that it should be looked for (if anywhere) in some connected mythological tradition, to which the particular fables owed their rise and development.

The task is comparatively easy to examine the history of fables, the scene of which lies in colonies or countries with which the Greeks did not become acquainted till a late period, as the events on which they are founded took place within the era of our historical knowledge. At the same time the a.n.a.logy of these facts, sufficiently ascertained, enables us to conjecture as to those which are enveloped in fabulous obscurity; we can reason from what we know to what we do not know.

5. From Sparta the worship of Hercules spread to her colonies, particularly Tarentum(1836) and Croton. In the latter city Hercules enjoyed the honours of a founder,(1837) being reported to have established it on his return from Erythea.(1838) Afterwards the tradition of his purification and atonement was transferred from Amyclae in Laconia to Croton, an event to which the high reputation enjoyed by the worship of Apollo in the latter town greatly contributed. Hence we perceive on the coins of this place the youthful hero sitting with a bow, quiver, and arrows before a blazing altar, on which he scorches a branch of laurel.(1839) Connected with the above is the tradition of Philoctetes having deposited the arrows of Hercules in the temple of Apollo Alaeus at Croton, from whence they were said to have been brought by the Crotoniats into the temple of Apollo within the precincts of their town.(1840) On the coins of that city Hercules is frequently seen with a goblet in his hand, either in a rec.u.mbent or erect posture. The allusion is explained by the following story: Hercules, who was always thirsty, had asked for some wine at Croton; but the woman of the house dissuaded her husband from tapping the cask for a stranger; on which account the women of that country never drank wine.(1841)

6. Our readers are, we take for granted, well acquainted with the fable of Hercules in the island of Cos, as related by Homer.(1842) The events which contributed to its formation are, in the first place, the existence of several n.o.ble families of Heraclide descent, whose origin, according to ancient traditions, was connected with the conquest of Ephyra, though they were afterwards said to have sprung from the supposed residence of Hercules in the island itself, where the ancestor of these families sprang from his connexion with a daughter of the king of the Meropians. This fiction of his abode in Cos took its rise in a mistaken view of certain ceremonies there practised: for the peculiarity of the worship in question, in which the priest at the festival ??t?a??a, celebrated in the spring, put on a female dress (as Hercules is said to have disguised himself in woman's clothes,)(1843) betrays an Asiatic origin; which induced the poets of ancient times to consider Hercules of Cos as identified with the Idaean Dactyli.(1844) This dress was also probably worn in the Lydian worship of Sandon(1845) (who was called Hercules by the Greeks); for Omphale is said to have attired the effeminate hero in a transparent garment dyed with sandyx, a custom which evidently originated in the practice of some festival. The man described as the slave of a lascivious woman was a symbolical representation of a soft and voluptuous elementary religion; while the same allegory was by the Greeks referred to the servitude of Hercules in the house of Eurystheus. This legend is first mentioned by Pherecydes, then by h.e.l.lanicus of Lesbos (who refers to the traditions current in the city of Acele),(1846) and also in Herodotus, whose genealogy of the ancient kings of Lydia-Hercules, Alcaeus (from the Greek mythology, Belus, the G.o.d of Babylon), Ninus (Nineveh), Agron, &c., refers to the a.s.syrian origin of the ancient Lydian kings, and agrees remarkably with the statement that Hercules-Sandon or Sandes, was originally an a.s.syrian deity belonging to the same religious system as Belus.(1847)

7. We now come to a fable of kindred origin, the fable of Hylas. Hylas was invoked during midsummer at the sides of fountains by the aboriginal inhabitants of Bithynia,(1848) long before the Greeks founded their city of Cios; but the latter adopted the story of the boy falling into the water, connecting it (as they worshipped Hercules as their founder)(1849) with the fable of that hero. Indeed a legend very similar had previously existed, the minion of Hercules being (according to h.e.l.lanicus) Theiomenes, the son of Theiodamas the king of the Dryopes.(1850) The death of Lityerses was in Phrygia the subject of an ancient song; and who else should have slain him, according to the tradition of the Greeks, than he whose power was dreaded throughout the countries of the barbarians?(1851) The Greeks introduced such heterogeneous matter without hesitation into their mythology. Hercules, even in the spot where his worship originated, was represented as a hero of great power abroad: he was the protector of boundaries and (if I may be allowed the expression) of marches: afterwards, when his worship was adopted by the whole of Greece, he was considered as the general guardian of the Grecian colonists. Thus he is represented as contending for the territory of Heraclea on the Pontus, against the aboriginal Bebryces, and in defence of Cyrene against the native Libyans. For it seems very probable that the combat with Antaeus,(1852) who derived new vigour from touching the earth, was merely emblematical of the contests sustained by the Greek colonists against the Libyan hordes, which, though often conquered, always sallied forth from the deserts in increased numbers. Thus the fable of Hercules and Busiris was invented at a time when the Greeks first became known in Egypt, and had as yet only an imperfect acquaintance with that country; for which reason Herodotus ridicules it as a silly invention of the Ionians. Busiris appears to me to have been the name of the princ.i.p.al deity with the addition of the article. In this story he is described as a ferocious tyrant, who orders Hercules to be sacrificed, until the latter, recovering himself suddenly, slays the tyrant and his cowardly retinue.

8. While attempting to reconcile these discordant traditions, and mould them into one connected story, it was natural that the Greeks should find some affinity of character between Hercules and the Phnician G.o.d Melcart, the son of Baal and Astarte (?ste??a). It was to the existence of a temple of Hercules at Gadira that the fable of this hero having there terminated his voyage after the battle of Geryon, owed its origin; and the neighbouring pillars of Hercules or Briareus(1853) were originally considered as the work of Melcart. The Hercules of the Carthaginians was also represented as a wanderer and conqueror;(1854) his particular province was the island of Sardinia;(1855) which island became also included in the Grecian mythology: he is likewise said to have pa.s.sed through Spain.(1856) The discoverer of the purple dye, in the Tyrian tradition, is the same personage;(1857) the quail was sacred to him, the smell of that bird having resuscitated him from death.(1858) Great as the confusion soon became between the Doric and Phnician traditions respecting Hercules, they may still be easily distinguished from each other; and the first effect of their union may perhaps be traced in the wish of Dorieus, the son of Anaxandridas, to found a kingdom near mount Eryx, because Hercules had formerly conquered that country;(1859) now the worship and name of the Phnician Aphrodite (Astarte) existed on mount Eryx, and probably also that of her son Melcart.

9. Notwithstanding the long digression into which the examination of our subject has led us, we are afraid that the following positions, attempted to be established as the result of the preceding investigation, will by no means carry with them conviction to all readers. We may, however, rest a.s.sured, that whatever traces of an elementary religion can be discovered in this fable, they were additions totally at variance with its original structure. The fundamental idea of all the heroic mythology may be p.r.o.nounced to be a proud consciousness of power innate in man, by which he endeavours to place himself on a level with the G.o.ds, not through the influence of a mild and benign destiny, but by labour, misery, and combats. The highest degree of human suffering and courage is attributed to Hercules: his character is as n.o.ble as could be conceived in those rude and early times; but he is by no means represented as free from the blemishes of human nature; on the contrary, he is frequently subject to wild, ungovernable pa.s.sions, when the n.o.ble indignation and anger of the suffering hero degenerate into phrensy.(1860) Every crime, however, is atoned for by some new suffering; but nothing breaks his invincible courage, until, purified from earthly corruption, he ascends mount Olympus, and there receives the beauteous Hebe for his bride, while his shade threatens the frightened ghosts in Hades.(1861) As in the fable of Apollo, the G.o.dhead descends into the circle of human life, so in Hercules a purely human power is elevated to the G.o.ds. Hercules also corresponds to the last-mentioned deity, in his divine attributes, as an averter of evil (??e???a??? and s?t??);(1862) which the taeans carried so far as to worship him as the destroyer of gra.s.shoppers (?????p???), and the Erythraeans as the killer of the vine-worm (?p??t????).(1863) We cannot, however, agree with Herodotus, who derives the deification of Hercules from a combination of the Phnician or Idaean G.o.d, and the hero of Thebes, since Hercules also enjoyed divine honours at places (as Messene and Marathon(1864)) where such an amalgamation can scarcely be imagined. But he is a deity representing the highest perfection of humanity, and therefore the model and aim of human imitation; and the summit of heroic energy was seen where the human pa.s.sed into the divine nature. His life and actions on earth are in ancient mythology perfectly human; and those fables, which raise him above humanity, for instance, those alluding to the combat with the giants,(1865) betray a later origin.

10. How little the ancient mythology was desirous of divesting Hercules of any feelings of humanity may be collected from various features in his character. Hercules, whether invited or not invited, is a jovial guest, and not backward in enjoying himself. This explains the frequent allusions to him as a great eater (??????a?) and tippler, and also the Herculean goblets and couches. The original source of all these fictions was the ancient tradition of the residence of Hercules with Ceyx and Dexamenus: nay, they may be traced to the ceremonies observed at his worship and festivals.(1866) The Doric,(1867) like the Athenian comic poets and satirists, merely adopted the general outline of the story, filling up the details to suit their own fancy and humour: the latter adding some jokes upon the gluttony of their Botian neighbours.(1868) It was Hercules, above all other heroes, whom mythology endeavoured to place in ludicrous situations; and sometimes made the b.u.t.t of the buffoonery of others. This was the case in the fable of the Cercopes (treated of in a ludicrous epic poem ascribed to Homer),(1869) who are represented as alternately amusing and annoying the hero. In works of art they are often represented as satyrs, who rob the hero of his quiver, bow, and club.(1870) Hercules, annoyed at their insults, binds two of them to a pole, in the manner represented on the bas-relief of Selinus,(1871) and marches off with his prize. Happily for the offenders, the hinder parts of Hercules had become tanned by continued labours and exposure to the atmosphere: which reminded them of an old prophecy, warning them to beware of a person of this complexion;(1872) and the coincidence caused them to burst out into an immoderate fit of laughter. This surprised Hercules, who inquired the reason, and was himself so diverted by it, that he set both his prisoners at liberty. And in general no company better agrees with the character of Hercules, even in his deified state, than that of satyrs and other followers of Bacchus, as might easily be proved by many works of Grecian art. It also seems that mirth and buffoonery were often combined with the festivals of Hercules: thus there was at Athens a society of sixty men, who, on the festival of the Diomean Hercules, attacked and amused themselves and others with sallies of wit.(1873) We shall hereafter show how these exhibitions originated in the propensity of the Doric race to the burlesque and comic.(1874)

APPENDIX I.

_On the settlements, origin, and early history of the Macedonian nation._

_General outline of the country._(1875)

1. In the Thermaic bay, the modern _gulf of Salonichi_, three rivers of considerable size fall into the sea at very short distances from one another, but which meet in this place in very different directions. The largest of the three comes from the north-west, and is now called (as indeed it was in the time of Tzetzes and Anna Comnena) the _Bardares_ (or _Vardar_), and was in ancient days celebrated under the name of Axius. Its stream is increased by large tributary branches on both sides, and chiefly by the Erigon, which flows from the mountains of Illyria.(1876) The river next in order runs from the west; it is now called in the interior of the country _Potova_, and on the coast _Carasmac_: its ancient name, as is evident from pa.s.sages in Herodotus and Strabo, was Lydias, or Ludias.(1877) And, lastly, after many turnings and windings, the Haliacmon, now called _Bichlista_, flows from the south-west; in the time of Herodotus it fell into the sea through the same mouth as the Lydias, probably being widened by marshes; and in modern maps the interval between the two rivers is represented as very small.(1878) It may be easily conceived that this whole maritime district must have been low and marshy; and by this means Pella, as Livy remarks, was of all towns in the country best fitted for being the fortress of the Macedonian kings, and the place of deposit for their treasure, since it lay, like an island, in the mora.s.ses and swamps formed by the neighbouring lakes and rivers. These marshes were called by the expressive name of ??????, or _mud_.(1879)

2. Although the mouths of these rivers were so near together, the extent of mountains, valleys, and plains which they encompa.s.sed in their course was very considerable, amounting, according to modern maps, to 140 geographical miles from north and south, and more than 60 from east to west. The Axius, together with its minor branches, runs from the great Scardian chain, which further on receives the names of Orbelus, Scomius, and Haemus; while the course of the Haliacmon is close to the heights of mount Olympus (part of which ridge in later times was called the Cambunian mountains), and therefore to the borders of Thessaly. Both ridges run at right angles from the great mountain-chain which cuts the upper part of Greece in a direction from north-west to south-east, its southern parts bearing the name of Pindus, the ridge towards Thessaly and Epirus of Lacmon,(1880) and further to the north-west it is called the Candavian chain(1881) and mount Barnus.(1882) It stretches behind the whole of the district just named, and forms, as it were, the spine, to which the mountains of Illyria, Epirus, Macedonia, and Thessaly are attached like ribs. From this chain the two lines of mountains proceed, which separate the valleys of the Haliacmon and the Axius. The name of the ridge between the Haliacmon and the Lydias is known by the mention of mount Bermius above Bera;(1883) and Bera is certainly the modern Veria, or Cara Veria,(1884) near the northern bank of the Haliacmon. It will be shown presently that Dysorum was the name of the mountain which divided the Lydias and the Axius.(1885) And the ridge, which, stretching southward from the Scardian chain, parted the valley of the Axius from the plains to the east, was called (in one point at least), as we know from Thucydides'(1886) account of the Odrysian king's march, Cercine.