Herakles, the Hero of Thebes, and Other Heroes of the Myth

Yet he did not despair. Again he descended into Hades and reached the river which separates this world from that of the dead, but the boatman, Charon, refused to ferry him across. Seven days and seven nights Orpheus remained there without drink or food, weeping and mourning. The decree of the gods was not to be changed. When Orpheus found that he could effect nothing he returned to the earth. He wandered alone over the mountains and glens of Thrace, which resounded with his plaintive songs day and night.

One day as he sat upon a grassy spot and played his lyre a troop of wild women who were celebrating a festival rushed upon him and tried to make him play for them to dance. Orpheus indignantly refused, and they grew angry and handled him so roughly that he died. Where he was buried the nightingales sang more sweetly than elsewhere. And his lyre, which was thrown into the sea, was caught by the waves, which made sweet music upon it as they rose and fell.

Orpheus was honored by the gods, and after his death they brought him to the Abode of the Blessed, where he found his beloved Eurydike and was reunited to her.

CHAPTER XXIV

PELOPS, THE HERO OF THE PELOPONNESOS

Some of the heroes famed in Greek song and story, and whose descendants lived in Greece, had come from foreign countries, many of them from Asia Minor. Greece and Asia Minor had always been closely connected. Travellers from each were in the habit of visiting the other country. Sometimes they traded together and sometimes made war on each other.

One of the most powerful kingdoms of Asia Minor was Phrygia, and it was ruled by a king of the name of Tantalos, who had at first governed wisely and in the fear of the gods. He was made arrogant by prosperity, and at length grew so overbearing and cruel even to his own son, Pelops, that the gods determined to make an example of him. They sent him living to Tartaros, the portion of Hades reserved for the very worst offenders, there to endure a terrible punishment forever.

He was placed up to his waist in the midst of running water, clear and cool, under hanging boughs laden with lovely fruit. Yet he could not reach the water or the fruit, and was always faint with hunger and thirst. Whenever he bent down to get a drink of water it rapidly rushed away from him, and if he lifted up his hand to pluck some of the ripe fragrant fruit, a sudden gust of wind tossed the branches high up into the air. Poor Tantalos never came nearer than this to quenching his thirst or satisfying his hunger.

To make his misery more unbearable, a huge block of rock was poised above his head, so lightly that it moved with every breeze, and he was in perpetual fear of its falling down on him. Pelops, the son whom he had abused in childhood, became a great favorite with the gods, and they wished to make up to him for his father’s cruelty. They gave him a shoulder of ivory to replace the shoulder of which his father had deprived him. When he grew up the gods helped him to leave his native land, where he had been ill-treated, and they guided him across the Ægean Sea, and around the southern point of Greece to Elis, where Herakles had cleaned out the stables of Augeias. The capital of Elis was the city of Pisa, where a king ruled who had a beautiful daughter named Hippodameia. She must have been very fond of sports and athletics, for her name means “The Tamer of Horses.”

Hippodameia had many suitors, but her father, Œnomaos, had heard that he would be dethroned by his daughter’s husband, and so he did not wish her to marry. He was very warlike, being a son of Ares, the God of War, and he determined to kill all the suitors. So he proposed a chariot race with each of the wooers, and promised that the one who succeeded in winning the race should have his daughter in marriage; on the other hand, if the suitor lost the race he should be put to death by the king.

Œnomaos was a famous charioteer, and he had steeds which were swifter than the wind. The race-course began at Pisa, and stretched as far as the Isthmus of Corinth to the altar of Poseidon. Œnomaos believed in himself and in his own skill. So great was his self-reliance, and so sure was he of the swiftness of his horses, that whenever a suitor came along he let him go ahead with his chariot drawn by four horses, while he himself first sacrificed a ram to Zeus, and only at the end of the ceremony mounted his chariot, having as driver, Myrtilos, and being armed with a strong spear. Then he would overtake the suitor and kill him. Thus he had already killed a great many.

Pelops, on his arrival at Pisa, saw Hippodameia, and at once had a strong desire to make her his wife. When he saw that he could not conquer Œnomaos by fair means he planned a trick. He secretly approached the king’s charioteer, Myrtilos, and said to him: “Myrtilos, hear what I have to say to thee. Help me to win the race and I will give thee half the kingdom when I become King of Pisa.”

Hippodameia, too, who greatly admired the young man, advised the charioteer to lend them his aid. Myrtilos accepted the proposal of Pelops. On the day of the race Œnomaos again waited to sacrifice a ram to Zeus, leaving Pelops to drive on ahead, and only mounted his chariot after the offering was over, being sure that he should overtake the suitor as he had done with the others.

But suddenly a wheel flew off from the king’s chariot, and Œnomaos fell to the ground, hurting himself badly. Myrtilos had removed the pin which held the wheel on to the axle. Thus Pelops reached the Isthmus before the king and won the race.

Œnomaos died of his injuries, and Pelops married Hippodameia, and took possession of the kingdom. Then Myrtilos demanded half the kingdom as it had been promised him by Pelops. But Pelops carried him to the sea and cast him into it. On account of this crime the descendants of Pelops, the Pelopides, had to suffer many misfortunes. Crime and craft may answer an immediate purpose, but they are followed by divine wrath.

Pelops instituted the famous Olympic games, which were celebrated every fourth year, and lasted five days. And he did many other things which were of great use to his people. In honor of Pelops, the great peninsula, south of the Isthmus of Corinth, was called Peloponnesos, which means Pelops’ Island. The name was not quite correct at the time, for the land was not an island but a peninsula. But after all these thousands of years it has curiously come to pass that the old name is a true one, for it was only a few years ago that the Isthmus of Corinth was cut in two, and the Peloponnesos was in truth made an island.

CHAPTER XXV

PERSEUS, THE HERO OF ARGOS

Less than sixty miles in a straight line to the southwest of Athens there is a barren, swampy plain. It is in the Peloponnesos and is bounded on all sides by mountains except to the south, where it is bounded by the sea. In this plain lies the market-town, Argos, at the foot of a lofty hill, its acropolis, Larisa. There is a citadel on this acropolis which looks off to a high mountain at the north near the Isthmus of Corinth, and the white-streaked hills beyond. And nearer to the citadel, on the north, is a higher mountain, the highest of the Peloponnesos, where the people used to pray to Zeus and Hera for rain. To the southeast the Larisa looks over a great prison on a fortified mountain.

We have said that the Peloponnesos was the shape of a man’s hand. The thumb of this hand is a peninsula pointing toward the east and south. In more ancient times this thumb was called the peninsula of Argos. The town, Argos, shares its name with the barren plain in which it is situated, and in olden times it shared it with the peninsula also. The peninsula of Argos was quite separate from a larger district, called Argolis, until the Romans conquered Greece. But now it is one with the entire district, and Argos the town, and Argos the plain, and Argos the peninsula, are all in Argolis.

Hera, wife of Zeus and goddess of the heavens, was the patron deity of Argos. It is said that she had a contest with Poseidon to see which should name the land, and as she brought the most valuable gift, the honor fell to her. The river Inachos flows through Argos the plain. The first king of Argos was a son of the river-god, Inachos, and the ocean-nymph, Melia, was his mother.

The earliest people of Argos must have worked hard to keep the country rightly irrigated. They were called Danaæ, doubtless because their work resembled that of the Danaïds, who were said to be punished in the lower world by carrying water in pitchers to fill a broken cistern. As fast as they poured water in the cistern it ran out through the cracks at the bottom. So, too, the Danaæ carried water to the sandy soil, but it ran into the earth without doing very much good.

The Danaæ came from Egypt and were accustomed to farming in the sand. They knew the unsparing pains that must be taken to conquer it, and kept at work until the land became fertile enough to repay them. But in modern times the plain has lost its fertility because the farmers do not take the same trouble in cultivating the soil.

One of the earliest of the Argive kings, Danaos, sent his daughters out to search for springs as he would have sent them to bring water from the Nile if they had remained in Egypt. Poseidon, seeing how fair one of them was, loved her and caused a spring to flow at Lerna, and it is called by her own name, Amyone, to the present time. It was this spring that created the marsh where the terrible Hydra was slain by Herakles.

Danaos had many descendants, one after another succeeding him as king. The fifth successor was Akrisios and he had a daughter, Danäe. Some oracle had told him that he would be slain by a son of Danäe if she ever had one. This worried the king and he determined that she should never marry. He built a high tower of brass and shut her up in it so that no one could get to her.

Danäe grew very lonely, shut up in the tower, and she used to watch from the window to try to catch a glimpse of the people below. No one looked up to notice her, but Zeus saw her from his abode in the heavens and was struck with her beauty and loneliness. He sent a golden shower of sunbeams to console her in her prison, and a little babe was born to her, and she called him Perseus, the son of Light.

Akrisios, the king, heard the child’s voice and called his daughter to a holy sanctuary and bade her tell the truth about the babe. This she did, but the king would not believe her. He put her into a box and the child with her and cast the box into the sea to sink or float. The box did float and the kind waves carried it to the island of Seriphos. A good old fisherman caught it in a net and took it to his own little hut, and thus Danäe and her babe were saved.

Perseus grew up to be a strong, handsome lad, and was often seen with his beautiful mother wandering over the island. As Perseus grew older he became his mother’s protector and champion and could never do enough for her. They continued to live at the cottage of the fisherman, who had adopted them as members of his own family.

The fisherman had a brother, Polydektes, who was king of the island, and he was as proud and cruel as the fisherman was simple and kind. Polydektes saw the beautiful Danäe and resolved to add her to his possessions and make her subject to his whims. He feared Perseus, however, and studied how to get him out of the way. So he called his friends together, among them Perseus, and said that he was looking for quaint gifts to send to the wedding of Hippodameia, the daughter of Œnomaos.

All the young men came to the court of the king and listened to his request, and each one promised to go on some quest and find a present worthy of the princess. Perseus wanted to outdo all the others, and said he would bring the head of Medusa if the king desired it. Polydektes took him at his word and ordered him to go for it at once.

CHAPTER XXVI

PERSEUS FINDS THE GORGONS

Medusa was the youngest of three sisters known as the Gorgons, who lived somewhere in the far west by the ocean. She was the fairest of the three and in her youth had been a famous beauty. But having insulted Athena in her holy temple, that goddess punished her by spoiling her beauty in a most ghastly way. She changed her beautiful locks into living snakes. A great horror settled on the face of the poor girl, and it became so terrible in its look of agony, with its frightful frame of snakes, that no one could bear the sight. Whoever looked at her turned to stone.

Perseus set forth to find Medusa with the courage of a youth who has never known defeat. The goddess, Athena, who particularly despised the Gorgon, lent him her aid. She advised him to go to three aged women, who lived in a dark cavern near the entrance to the infernal regions. They were old women from their birth, gray-haired, misshapen, and had but one eye and a single tooth for the three. These they exchanged, each taking a turn at using the tooth and eye, while the other two sat toothless and blind.

Perseus approached them quietly, for they were easily alarmed and always on the lookout for something to dread. As they were passing the eye from one to the other, Perseus seized it, and they pleaded piteously for him to restore it. This Perseus refused to do until they should tell him the way to the home of the nymphs who took care of the invisible helmet of Hades and the winged shoes of Hermes, messenger of the gods. The three miserable old women were glad to get back their eye and tooth, although they were loath to give Perseus the information he wanted. But they told him the way to find the home of the nymphs, and he went on with a happier heart.

Perseus received the winged sandals from the nymphs and bound them to his own feet. They gave him a mantle, too, which he threw over his shoulders. It made him invisible, just as the darkness of night hides everything from human eyes. They put the helmet of Hades on his head. Whoever wore this helmet could see others, but no one could see him. Moreover, Hermes gave him a two-edged sword and Athena gave him a shield of brass, which was polished on the inside until it glittered like a mirror and reflected the image of everything back of the person using it.

Perseus, being thus armed, went flying toward the ocean and found the Gorgons lying on the shore. There were three of them and they were sisters. Medusa alone was immortal. The other Gorgons, as well as Medusa, had snakes on their heads instead of hair, and large teeth like wild beasts, and iron hands with golden nails. Athena had taught Perseus how to approach them without being the victim of Medusa’s deadly stare. Instead of facing her, he kept his face turned toward his shield and looked at her image only.

In this way, guarded by his cloak and helmet of invisibility, he came close to Medusa, and with one blow from his two-edged sword cut off the monster’s head. As the blood flowed down over the sand, there sprang from it a beautiful white-winged horse. Perseus had brought a large pouch which the nymphs had given him; a magic pocket that could be distended to almost any size. He hurried the head into the pouch without looking at it and flew away as fast as his winged sandals would carry him; the other Gorgons followed him in vain, for he was invisible to them.

CHAPTER XXVII

PERSEUS RESCUES ANDROMEDA

On his way back to the island of Seriphos, Perseus met with many adventures. He visited Atlas, expecting the hospitality which the Greeks consider due to all strangers. But Atlas did not receive him with courtesy, and Perseus in return held up the Gorgon’s head for Atlas to gaze at. Atlas was turned into a rocky mountain, and there he stands and always will stand with the firmament resting on his head.

In his flight Perseus reached Ætheopia, where King Kepheus reigned. There he saw an immense rock on the coast and a charming maiden was chained to the rock. Perseus approached her in pity and said, “Tell me, oh maiden, why thou art bound to this rock! What is thy name and which is thy country?” “I am a princess, the daughter of King Kepheus,” answered the girl, “and my name is Andromeda. My mother praised my beauty above that of the daughters of Nereus, displeasing the nymphs themselves and offending the god.

“The Nereids complained to Poseidon, and in his wrath he sent a sea-monster on shore to destroy the people and their flocks and herds and devastate the country. The king, my father, inquired of the Oracle how the country might be freed from this calamity. The Oracle made reply that the country would be delivered if the king would give up his own daughter to be devoured by the monster. When the people of Ætheopia heard of the answer of the Oracle they forced my father to accede to the terms. They themselves chained me to this rock, and every moment I expect the monster to come and tear me to pieces.”

No sooner had Andromeda finished her tale than the monster appeared in the distance. Her father and mother saw him too and wept in despair. Crying out to their beloved child, with extended hands they bewailed her fate.

“A truce to tears!” cried Perseus. “The brave man sheds no tears in the face of danger! He wastes no words but dares! Shall Perseus, the son of Zeus and Danäe, having slain Medusa, quail before a sea-serpent? I will save thy daughter, but thou must give her to me to be my wife!”

“Thou shalt have our daughter for thy wife and our kingdom as well,” cried the king, “if thou wilt save her!”

The waves rose higher and higher around the cliff and the sea-monster came roaring and hissing, with open jaws showing his savage teeth, his neck outstretched, and his head reared high above the breakers. Over the waves rose his tremendous back covered with thick, heavy scales, and he lashed the waters to a foam with his coiling tail.

Then Perseus, with the aid of his winged sandals, rose up into the air and attacked the monster from above. The beast plunged this way and that, leaping up and striking at Perseus with his fangs, diving again into the water and springing out, bellowing in a frightful manner.

Time after time Perseus thrust his sword into the monster, until a stream of black blood ran from its throat, and it grew motionless and died. Perseus quickly flew to Andromeda and took off the chains that bound her, and she sprang into her father’s arms with a cry of joy. The king and queen threw their arms around their beloved daughter and covered her with kisses, and they clasped the hand of Perseus with gratitude which they could not express.

Then they returned to the grand castle of Kepheus, promising to celebrate the nuptials of Perseus and Andromeda. The wedding took place amidst great pomp and splendor, but while they were in the midst of their festivities the din of arms and battle-cries resounded through the hall. Phineus, the brother of the king, had come with a crowd of warriors to steal the bride. For Andromeda, before her misfortunes, had been promised to him in marriage, but in the hour of danger he had left her to her fate, a prey to the sea-monster.

Now that she was safe again and in favor, Phineus had come to claim her. He said petulantly to Perseus, “Andromeda belongs to me. I come to get her. Neither thy winged sandals nor thy father Zeus shall save thee from my wrath. Thou art a robber trying to take my bride from me.”

Then the king answered him angrily. “Phineus,” he said, “thou art a boastful coward. In no way does Perseus rob thee of Andromeda. Thou hast lost her through thine own fault, for when she was in peril thou didst desert her like a coward, and she would have been devoured by the sea-monster before now if this noble youth had not saved her. My daughter shall wed the man who has saved her from a terrible death.”

But Phineus would not yield. Wishing to kill Perseus, he shot an arrow at him. At the same time he ordered his band of followers to rush upon him. The arrow did not hit Perseus, who fought single-handed against them all, but as soon as he struck down one foe a new one sprang up in his place. Perseus saw that he could keep on fighting for all time, and never conquer this army, which could furnish a new warrior as often as one was slain. Having thus fought alone against great numbers until he saw it was hopeless, Perseus took the head of Medusa out of the pouch where he had kept it and held it up for Phineus and his warriors to gaze upon. Instantly everyone of them was changed to stone, and Perseus, taking his bride, returned to the island of Seriphos.

CHAPTER XXVIII

PERSEUS BECOMES KING OF TIRYNS

When Perseus reached home he did not find the glad welcome to which he had looked forward with all the ardor of a youth who has been for the first time on an important errand. His mother had taken refuge in a temple at the altar of Zeus to escape the persecutions of King Polydektes, who had begun to ill-treat her as soon as Perseus had departed in search of Medusa. His brother, the fisherman, had tried to protect her and had used hot words in warning the king to desist from his unmanly purpose. But Polydektes turned his wrath upon his brother also, and he, too, could find no refuge save the sacred altars.

Perseus went at once to the king and announced his arrival. The king was uneasy, and yet he did not believe that Perseus had been able to keep his word. He called all the nobles of his court together to listen to what Perseus had to say. Perseus came before them, and taking the fearful head from its covering, held it up for them to look at. At once they became stone images, a ghastly court of petrified men. Even the frogs and beetles and other animals in the castle and its grounds were turned to stone.

Then Perseus flew to his mother, who was still a beautiful woman in spite of all her sorrows. She had long prayed for her son’s return, almost without hope, and now that he had really come her joy was boundless. Perseus established the fisherman as king of the island in his brother’s place, and the people rejoiced that they had been freed from the tyrant, Polydektes.

Perseus now gave up his winged sandals to Hermes, and asked him to carry the helmet and mantle to the nymphs, but the head of Medusa he gave to Athena, who wore it on her shield ever after.

Perseus could not remain idle at Seriphos. He set out for Argos to visit his grandfather, taking his mother and Andromeda. Akrisios, suspecting that he would come, for the words of the Oracle often came to his mind, had gone to Thessaly. There at Larissa he had built a home and established himself, hoping that his grandson would be contented to remain in Argos.

But Perseus went on until he came to Thessaly, and finding some games going on he took part in them. He threw a discus which accidentally struck his grandfather’s foot, giving him a painful wound which could not be cured. Thus the Oracle was fulfilled. Learning whom he had killed and that Akrisios had died according to an old prophecy, he mourned for him and buried him with honors outside of the city.

Perseus then returned to Argos, where he had left his wife and mother, and he became king of the country in the place of his grandfather, Akrisios. But the thought of sitting on a throne whose rightful king he had accidentally killed was distasteful to him, so he exchanged kingdoms with Megapenthes of Tiryns.

It is said that the Persian kings claimed to be descendants from Perses, a son of Perseus and Andromeda. However this may be, Perseus has certainly inspired many a poet and artist and hero to express great actions and courage in word and deed.

CHAPTER XXIX

TRIPTOLEMOS, THE HERO OF ELEUSIS, AND DEMETER, THE EARTH-MOTHER

Twelve miles to the west of Athens is a beautiful hill which ends abruptly close to the sea. It is the acropolis or highest point of Eleusis and is covered with splendid blocks of marble, the ruins of wonderful temples which stood there in ancient times. The greatest of these temples was called The Temple of the Mysteries. Demeter, the Earth-Mother, was worshipped there.

The principal road leading to the acropolis of Eleusis begins at the acropolis at Athens and is called The Sacred Way. Over this road, thousands of years ago, went the stately processions of loose-robed Greeks, their beautiful garments fluttering in the winds. Their heavy chariot-wheels left deep prints in the rocks, and there they are at the present time. There are ruins of temples to the gods along The Sacred Way, and the little lambs and kids skip playfully about among them.