Brick Greek Myths Page 8

  Next he was confronted by Menoetius, a Titan god of violence and anger who had been banished forever to the Underworld by Zeus.

  Seeing the fight, Persephone arrived and broke the two men apart.

  Heracles finally reached the main gates to the Underworld, where Hades stood blocking his path.

  Heracles shot the god with an arrow and told him that he planned to capture Cerberus.

  Unfazed, Hades deflected the arrow and told Heracles that he could take the great hellhound on one condition: he do it with only his bare hands.

  Heracles agreed to the terms and attacked the dog.

  During the heated battle, Heracles dodged the snapping teeth and slashing tail of the vicious animal. He grasped all three heads at the same time

  and wrestled the dog to the ground.

  Heracles placed the dog in shackles and brought him to Eurystheus, who was utterly horrified and dismayed.

  Eurystheus was forced to accept that Heracles had successfully completed his labors and could be set free.

  Heracles returned Cerberus to its rightful place in the Underworld.

  Heracles and Admetus

  In the city of Pherae in Thessaly, there once lived a kind and well-loved king named Admetus.

  Long ago, when Apollo fled Olympus, King Admetus had welcomed him to Pherae with open arms.

  When Zeus returned Apollo to his position, he remembered Admetus’s kindness, and Admetus became the king’s patron, bestowing blessings and favors upon him.

  One day King Admetus became very ill. As he lay on his deathbed, Apollo came to him and told him of a way he could escape death. He would need a mortal to offer to die on his behalf.

  His subjects were heartbroken to see their beloved king die, but no one, not even the king’s elderly parents, would volunteer to die in his place.

  Then Alcestis, his wife and the loving mother to his children, stepped forward. She offered to sacrifice herself so that her husband could live.

  Thanatos, god of death, came to claim her.

  Alcestis prepared for her end, bidding her children and her husband a teary, sad farewell. She told her husband to remember her sacrifice and had him promise her that he would not marry again.

  As they were preparing Alcestis’s funeral, Heracles arrived for a visit.

  He was taken to see the king, who, despite his sorrow, welcomed the hero warmly.

  Heracles noticed that the king was dressed in robes of mourning. He inquired who had died. Admetus wished not to upset his guest, or give him cause to leave, so he told Heracles that it had been some distant relative.

  A servant arrived to take Heracles to his room, and he followed her cheerfully.

  He noticed the servant was upset, and inquired why she would be so moved by the death of someone unknown to her.

  The servant began to cry, and she was so upset that she couldn’t help but tell Heracles the whole story. It was no unknown woman, but the queen who had died.

  Heracles felt guilty for being so cheerful and for interrupting this sad scene. He wished to show his gratitude to his host for being so welcoming despite his own troubles. He determined to find a way to save Alcestis.

  So Heracles made his way to Alcestis’s grave to wait for Thanatos to bring her to Hades.

  When the god of death arrived, Heracles ambushed him.

  He captured Thanatos and held him until the god agreed to let Alcestis live.

  Heracles brought Alcestis to King Admetus, disguising her under a hood.

  He apologized to Admetus for imposing on his hospitality during a time of such grief. He offered him the veiled woman to be his handmaid, as a sign of his gratitude.

  Admetus told Heracles he had concealed his grief so as not to share it with his guest or make him feel unwelcome.

  He said that while he thanked Heracles for his gift, he had nowhere for the woman to stay: he could not have her stay with him or go to his wife’s quarters.

  Heracles hid his true thoughts on the matter and told Admetus that he wished he could save the king’s wife to repay his kindness.

  He convinced King Admetus to accept his gift and take the woman to the house.

  Admetus refused to lead the woman to the house himself, as he did not want to violate his promise to Alcestis by even touching another woman.

  Heracles was adamant, and so King Admetus reluctantly took her by the hand.

  As he did so, Heracles pulled the hood from Alcestis’s face, revealing the king’s wife alive and well.

  Admetus was overjoyed and thanked Heracles for this miracle.

  The people rejoiced to see Alcestis returned. That day, all of Pherae celebrated.

  Heracles and Eurytus

  After succeeding in his labors, Heracles rejoiced that he was no longer in the service of King Eurystheus.

  Having killed all of their children, it was no longer an option to remain married to Megara.

  So Heracles sought off to find a new match. He quickly became interested in the lovely Iole. She was the daughter of Eurytus, the king of Oechalia who had helped teach Heracles archery as a young boy.

  King Eurytus decreed that if a suitor wanted to win the hand of Iole in marriage, then he would have to defeat Eurytus and his brawny sons in an archery contest.

  Heracles headed to Oechalia to take up the challenge.

  As the grandson of Apollo, the god of archery, the skilled Eurytus and his sons all presented great competition for Heracles.

  But their skill and aim were not quite great enough.

  Heracles outranked each of them

  with perfect bull’s eyes.

  Eurytus knew the story of what Heracles had done to Megara’s children and worried deeply about allowing Heracles to wed Iole.

  His son Iphitus had become very friendly with Heracles through the archery contest and did his best to convince his father that he would be a good match for Iole.

  Eurytus argued back, deciding once and for all that Heracles would not be allowed to marry his daughter, despite having proven that he was a superior bowman.

  Feeling jilted, Heracles angrily left the palace and wandered through the forests.

  While he was gone, thieves stole mares from the royal herd.

  Eurytus pointed the finger at Heracles, imagining that he had stolen the herd out of revenge.

  Iphitus once again came to Heracles’s defense, telling his father that he would go find Heracles and that the two would seek out the stolen mares themselves.

  Iphitus found Heracles in the forest and explained what had happened.

  They searched far and wide for the missing herd, hoping to return them to Eurytus and clear Heracles’s name. Despite their efforts, the mares were nowhere to be found.

  They searched along a high cliff, where Hera looked on loathingly. She struck Heracles with powerful sorcery, sending him into a fit of madness.

  In a frenzy, Heracles approached his friend, who stood at the edge of the rocky cliff overlooking the lands below.

  Taken over by the madness that Hera had inflicted upon him, Heracles lifted Iphitus into the air and tossed him off the cliff.

  Heracles and Omphale

  When Heracles saw what he had done to his friend Iphitus in his madness, he was filled with guilt and sorrow.

  He wandered across the earth seeking a priest-king who could purify him, but none would help him.

  He finally met Deiphobus, who was able to purify him.

  Despite this, the gods still punished him, cursing him with a terrible illness, which was something the strong and healthy hero had never experienced before.

  The gods came to him and told him that his affliction would be ended if he were sold into slavery for three years.

  Heracles was sent to Asia and sold to a woman named Omphale, who was the daughter of Iardanus and the queen of the country Maeonia.

  As soon as the money for his sale reached the hands of Iphitus’s family, Heracles’s illness disappeared.

  Now healthy
and strong once again, Heracles continued his heroic duties in Omphale’s service, punishing criminals and other enemies of his queen.

  Omphale was impressed with his good work, and when she discovered that he was the son of Zeus, she raised him to his proper standing and married him.

  Heracles forgot his duties as a hero and became indulgent and pampered.

  Meanwhile Omphale shamed him by dressing in his lion skin and carrying around his club.

  Sometimes she would dress him in women’s clothing.

  But Heracles’s passion for the beautiful woman kept him content and docile, and he spent much of his time chatting with the servant girls over his sewing.

  When Heracles’s three years of servitude were up, he suddenly came to his senses and was angry that he had neglected his righteous quest. He took his lion skin from Omphale and left her, resolving to take revenge on his enemies.

  Heracles and Deianira

  Heracles continued on his adventures, taking on quests and wreaking revenge on many rulers who had wronged him.

  In his travels, he heard news of a beautiful woman named Deianira, who was the daughter of King Oeneus.

  Deianira was so beautiful that she was constantly visited by suitors seeking her hand. She hated it.

  Her most persistent and obnoxious suitor was the river god Achelous, who came to her disguised in many different forms.

  She refused his advances, but her rejections just made him more wildly determined to have her.

  King Oeneus wished for Deianira to accept Achelous, since he was such an old and powerful god.

  But just then Heracles arrived in the throne room, armed and ready for battle. Achelous was furious to see him.

  King Oeneus, seeing his opportunity to gain one powerful son-in-law or another, told the suitors that he would wed his daughter to whichever of them beat the other in combat.

  They met for their battle, Heracles armed with his bow.

  As the hero prepared to let fly his arrows, the river god transformed himself into a gigantic bull.

  The fight became a wrestling contest, and strong Heracles had the upper hand.

  The tricky god tried to throw Heracles from him by changing into a snake, but Heracles avoided his fangs.

  Then Achelous became a great bull again, and they continued to fight. Heracles reached down and grasped one of the bull’s horns, and pulled with all his might, tearing the horn off Achelous’s head.

  Seeing he had been soundly defeated, the river god gave up. He gave Heracles the Horn of Plenty in exchange for his own horn.

  Heracles and Deianira were married and lived happily. Deianira soon bore her husband a son named Hyllus.

  Then Heracles continued out on his adventures, bringing Hyllus and Deianira along.

  Heracles and Nessus

  Along their journey, Heracles, Deianira, and Hyllus came to a rushing river. The centaur Nessus was a ferryman of the river Euenos and offered to carry them across.

  Heracles needed no assistance and carried the young Hyllus across the river to safety.

  Deianira accepted Nessus’s offer to escort her across the river, for the water was treacherous.

  While Nessus carried Deianira across the river, he became infatuated with the beautiful woman.

  Against her will, Nessus tried to embrace Deianira.

  Deianira shrieked, crying out to her husband for help.

  From the riverbank, Heracles and Hyllus saw her struggling. Heracles pulled out one of the venomous arrows from the Hydra . . .

  . . . and shot Nessus clear through the heart.

  The lecherous centaur came upon the shore, slowly fading from the arrow wound.

  Unbeknownst to Heracles, Nessus reached out for Deianira and told her that his blood had special properties. He said that if she were to save some of his blood and soak Heracles’s clothing in it, her husband would never be unfaithful.

  Foolishly, Deianira believed him and collected the blood of the centaur in a vial just before he died.

  Heracles, Iole, and Deianira

  Heracles’s last quest was to seek revenge against King Eurytus, who had denied him his daughter Iole in marriage.

  He went to them and killed Eurytus and his sons.

  Then he destroyed the palace.

  When the battle was done, Heracles’s messenger Lichas brought the prisoners to Deianira and told her they were at her mercy. Among the prisoners was Iole.

  Deianira was kind and took pity on the prisoners, including the beautiful Iole. She recognized that the girl was clearly noble born and asked her who she was.

  But the girl would not tell her.

  Still, Deianira treated her and the other prisoners with great care and kindness.

  Another messenger came and told Deianira who the woman was. She was Iole, who Heracles once loved, and it was for her that they came to this place and destroyed the palace. Deianira was very upset, but she did not take her anger out on Iole, since she had done Deianira no wrong.

  Still, she was heartbroken at the thought of losing Heracles, so she decided to use the centaur blood she had gotten from Nessus so that he would love no one else.

  She took a piece of wool and secretly dyed it red with the blood of the centaur.

  Then she made it into a beautiful red tunic for Heracles to wear at an upcoming ceremony where he would give offerings to the gods.

  She gave the tunic to a messenger named Lichas and sent him to deliver it to Heracles as a gift from her.

  She instructed him that no one was to wear it but Heracles, and that he should not wear it in sunlight until the day of the offering when he would present himself to the gods.

  Several days passed and Deianira had no news of Heracles, so she sent their son Hyllus to tell him that she was worried and to ask him to return to her.

  When he had gone, Deianira went back to the room where she had secretly dyed the tunic. The wool she had discarded lay by the window, and she saw that where the sun had touched it, the fabric had crumbled and was oozing poisonous foam.

  Hyllus returned to Deianira in a fury, yelling that he wished she were not his mother.

  Deianira asked him what he meant, and Hyllus mournfully cried that she had deprived him of his father.

  Then he explained what had happened.

  When Heracles received the tunic from Lichas, he was very pleased with the gift. He put it on the morning of the offering.

  Wearing the lovely tunic, he stepped forward to begin the ceremony.

  He stepped close to the flame for the offering, and the fire rose suddenly.

  Heracles began to sweat, and the tunic stuck to his body as if it were welded to him.

  He called Lichas to him and asked him to repeat Deianira’s instructions.

  Heracles was certain that Deianira had plotted to kill him, and in his incredible pain and anguish, he killed Lichas, picking him up and throwing him to the ground.

  He screamed out in agony and anger, cursing his marriage and his wife as the tunic continued to weep poison onto his skin. Heracles knew that he was going to die.

  He asked Hyllus to help him to a ship, so that he could die in his own lands. Hyllus returned to prepare the ship.

  Finishing his tale, Hyllus cried out to his mother, “You have killed the most glorious hero of all time!”

  Deianira did not answer him but turned and left the room in silence.

  There was a servant who had overheard the whole affair, and she went to Hyllus after his mother had left. She told the boy that he had been unjust to his mother and explained how the wicked centaur had tricked her.

  Hyllus regretted his harsh words and sought out his mother to apologize. But it was too late: she had put a sword through her chest and was dead.

  Heracles soon arrived, and begged Hyllus to kill him so that he would not be slain by his wife’s hand.

  Hyllus explained that Deianira had meant no harm and told his father how she had been tricked by the centaur. Heracles’s anger became
sorrow as Hyllus told him what had happened and how Deianira had killed herself.