Mythology

The flames crackled and rose around the hero. At the moment they reached his body a cloud descended from the skies and in an apotheosis of thunder and lightning the son of Zeus disappeared from the eyes of men. He was admitted to Olympus where he was reconciled with Hera. He was married to her daughter Hebe and from then on lived the blissful and magnificent life of the Immortals. The Progeny of Hercules. Legend ascribes nearly eighty sons to Hercules; their fortunes varied. Certain of them, more especially designated the Heraclids, distinguished themselves by conquering the Peloponnese. After their father’s death the sons of Hercules, fearing Eurystheus’ persecution, left Mycenae and for a long time searched for refuge in vain. Finally Demophon, son of Theseus, received them in Athens. This was sufficient pretext for war between Eurystheus and the inhabitants of Attica. lolaus, a former companion of Hercules, killed Eurystheus. The Heraclids then thought they could return to the Peloponnese. Their return was premature and caused an outbreak of the plague, and again they had to exile themselves. Afterwards they attempted five consecutive invasions. Only the last one was successful. Its leaders were Temenus, Cresphontes and Aristodemus, great-grandsons of the hero. Allied with them were Dymas and Pamphylus, sons of the king of the Dorians. They chose the sea route and embarked at Naupactus to sail through the straits of Corinth. Before they left they had the misfortune to kill a prophet of Apollo. In anger the god destroyed their fleet and struck the expedition with famine. When the oracle of Delphi was consulted, it told the allies that they required a guide with three eyes. In the end they discovered a one-eyed man. Oxylus, who rode towait^ them on a horse and thus, with his mount, fulfilled the

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finally threw the cruel Lityerses into the Maeander. Lityerses had been in the habit of forcing strangers to help with his harvest and then of cutting off their heads with a scythe. Omphale was overcome with admiration and restored the hero’s freedom. Hercules then offered to rescue Hesione, daughter of Laomedon, King of Ilium. This unfortunate princess had been chained to a rock, as an expiatory victim against an epidemic. A dragon had come to devour her. Hercules prevented the tragedy, but Laomedon refused to give him the reward which had been agreed upon. The hero returned to Ilium with six ships, besieged the town, took it by assault, killed Laomedon and his sons, and gave Hesione in marriage to his friend Telamon. On his return journey he was thrown onto the shores of the island of Cos by a storm raised by Hera. The inhabitants received him badly and he avenged himself by sacking the island and slaying its king, Eurypylus. Next, he took part at Phlegra in the battle between the gods and the giants. Hercules had not forgotten the dishonesty of Augeias in the matter of the Augeian Stables. He marched against him and devastated his domain. He had on this occasion to fight the Molionids, sons of Poseidon. It was said that they had been hatched from a silver egg and had but one body with two heads, four arms and four legs. While he was laying siege to Pylus Hercules did battle with Periclymenus who had the power of metamorphosis. When Pericly-menus turned himself into an eagle Hercules destroyed him with a blow of his club. Hercules also restored Tyndareus to his throne after he had been deprived of it by Hippocoon and his sons. Passing through Tegea in Arcadia Hercules seduced Auge, daughter of Aleus and a priestess of Athene. She bore him a son Telephus, whom she hid in the temple of the goddess. Athene, angered by this profanation, sent a plague to the country. Aleus discovered his daughter’s shame and drove her away. She took refuge with King Teuthras in Mysia and exposed her child on Mount Parthenius. When Telephus grew to manhood he went in search of his mother. He found her in Mysia and, not recognising her, was on the point of marrying her when Hercules intervened and prevented the incest. The last adventure of Hercules took place in Aetolia and in the land of Trachis. He obtained the hand of Deianeira, daughter of Oeneus, king of the Aetolians, after having triumphed over another suitor, the river-god Achelous. But shortly afterwards the accidental murder of young Eunomus, who served at his father-in-law’s table, obliged Hercules to fly from the country, together with his wife. When he arrived at the river Evenus Hercules gave Deianeira to the Centaur Nessus to carry across to the opposite bank. But halfway across Nessus attempted to violate Deianeira. Hercules saw this and at once struck him with an arrow. As Nessus died he gave his blood to Deianeira, telling her that it would preserve the love and fidelity of her husband. Unfortunately Hercules then conceived the fateful idea of going back to punish Eurytus. He slew Eurytus, together with his sons, and brought away lole whom he had never ceased to love. On his return he stopped at Cenaeum in Euboea to offer a sacrifice to Zeus. Before doing so he sent his companion Lichas to Deianeira in Trachis to fetch a white tunic. Deianeira was worried at the thought that lole was with her husband and. remembering the words of Nessus, soaked the tunic in the Centaur’s blood before sending it to Hercules, hoping thus to regain his love. Scarcely had Hercules put on the tunic when he felt himself devoured by inner fire. Maddened with pain, he seized Lichas by the feet and flung him into the sea; then, tearing up pine-trees by their roots he made himself a funeral pyre, mounted it and ordered his companions to set it alight. All refused. Finally Poeas, father of Philoctetes, lighted the pines and Hercules rewarded him by giving him his bow and arrows.

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Nereus about the route. Hercules succeeded in capturing the prophetic god who told him how to reach the garden of the Hesperides. Crossing Libya Hercules measured his strength with Antaeus, a monstrous bandit who forced all travellers to wrestle with him. Antaeus was the son of Gaea, Mother Earth, and had the power of regaining his strength by touching the earth with his feet. Hercules in the end choked him to death by holding him high in the air in his arms. Hercules was next attacked while asleep by the Pygmies. He sewed them up in his lion skin. Then he arrived in Egypt where Busiris, the king, sacrificed a foreigner every year in order to put an end to a terrible famine. Hercules was chosen as victim, put in chains and conducted to the temple. But he threw off his chains suddenly and slew Busiris and his son Amphidamas (Iphidamas). He then resumed his journey. He crossed Ethiopia where he killed Emathion, son of Tithonus, and replaced him by Memnon. He crossed the sea in a golden barque which the Sun had given him. In the Caucasus he slew with his arrows the eagle which gnawed the liver of Prometheus and finally reached the garden of the Hesperides. He killed the dragon Ladon which guarded the entrance, seized the apples and delivered them to Eurystheus. Eurystheus made him a gift of them and Hercules in his turn presented them to Athene who returned them to the Hesperides. It was also related that Hercules was aided by Atlas on this enterprise. He persuaded Atlas to pick the apples while he, Hercules, meanwhile supported the world on his shoulders. When Atlas returned with the apples he was reluctant to reassume his traditional burden and would have refused to do so had not Hercules outwitted him. Hercules’ Journey to the Underworld. In despair of ever getting the better of Hercules, Eurystheus, as a final labour, commanded him to fetch Cerberus, guardian of the infernal gates. Hercules first had himself initiated into the infernal mysteries at Eleusis and then, guided by Hermes, he took the subterranean passage which descended at Cape Taenarum. Everything fled before him except Meleager and the Gorgon. Farther on Theseus and Peirithous, who had imprudently ventured into the Underworld, implored his assistance. Hercules saved Theseus, but was prevented from rescuing Peirithous by a sudden earthquake. He relieved Ascalaphus of the boulder which was crushing him, overthrew Menoetes, or Men- oetius, the herdsman of Hades, wounded Hades himself and finally obtained the permission of Hades to carry off Cerberus, provided that he could conquer the monster without other weapons than his bare hands. Hercules leapt on Cerberus and at last mastered him by strangulation. Then he dragged the brute -by the scruff of its neck back to earth, showed him to Eurystheus, and sent him back to Hades again. Other Exploits of Hercules. When he was at last freed from servitude Hercules, far from resting on his laurels, set forth on new adventures. When King Eurytus promised the hand of his daughter lole to him who vanquished him in an archery contest, Hercules arrived and triumphed. The king refused to keep his word. Shortly afterwards the king’s son, Iphitus, asked Hercules to help him search for some stolen horses, and Hercules, distraught with fury, killed him. For this crime Hercules went to Delphi to be purified. The Pythia refused to answer him and Hercules made off with her tripod. A bitter quarrel with Apollo ensued in which Z^us himself had to intervene. At last the oracle condemned Hercules to a year’s slavery, and obliged him to hand over his year’s wages to Eurytus. It was Omphale, Queen of Lydia, who bought the hero when he was offered for sale as a nameless slave, for three talents. In spite of the tradition which showed Hercules during this period softened by pleasures and dressed in a long oriental robe while he spun wool at the feet of his mistress, he did not remain inactive. He captured the Cer-copes, evil and malicious demons who were, perhaps, only a horde of brigands camped near Ephesus. He killed the king of Aulis, Syleus, who forced strangers to work in his vineyards and then cut their throats. He rid the banks of the Sagaris of a gigantic serpent which was ravaging the countryside, and

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that the king gave him a tenth part of the herd. In order to do this he breached the walls of the building and, altering the course of the rivers Alpheus and Peneius, made them rush though the cowsheds. When the job was done Augeias, under the pretext that

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Hercules was merely executing the orders of Eurystheus, refused to fulfil his part of the bargain. Later the hero was to punish this dishonesty. The Cretan Bull. Poseidon had given Minos a bull, believing that Minos would offer it in sacrifice to him. As the king did nothing of the sort, Poseidon drove the animal mad. The country was terrorised and Minos appealed to Hercules who at the time happened to be in Crete. The hero managed to capture the animal which he carried on his back across the sea to Argolis. The Mares of Diomedes. Diomedes, son of Ares and king of the Bistones, owned mares which he fed on human flesh. Hercules, accompanied by a few volunteers, approached Thrace and captured these terrible mares, having first killed their guardians. The alert was given, the Bistones rushed upon him and the battle began. Hercules at last vanquished his assailants and Diomedes was given to his own mares to eat. The rescue of Alcestis is usually said to have taken place at this same time. Admetus, King of Pherae, had obtained from the Fates, through the intermediary of Apollo, an assurance that he would not die if someone consented to die in his stead. When the fatal moment arrived his wife, Alcestis, took his place. They were about to bury the unhappy woman when Hercules passed by and engaged in dreadful struggle with Thanatos - Death himself. Hercules succeeded in wrenching Alcestis from death’s grasp and returned her to her husband. The Girdle of Hippolyte. Hippolyte, whom some call Melanippe, was the Queen of the Amazons in Cappadocia. As a mark of her sovereignty she possessed a magnificent girdle given to her by Ares. Admete, daughter of Eurystheus, greatly coveted this marvellous adornment, and Hercules was therefore given orders to go and fetch it. Accompanied by several celebrated heroes - Theseus, Telamon, Peleus - he embarked. His first port of call was Paros where he fought with the sons of Minos. Next he reached Mariandyne in Mysia where he helped King Lycus to conquer the Bebryces. In gratitude Lycus built the town of Heracles Pontica. When at last he reached the country of the Amazons Hercules at first encountered no obstacle: Hippolyte agreed to give him the girdle. But Hera was enraged and, disguising herself as an Amazon, spread abroad the story that Hercules planned to abduct the queen. The Amazons seized their weapons. Hercules, believing they had betrayed him, slaughtered the Amazons, together with their queen. He took the girdle and then proceeded towards Troy. The Cattle of Geryon. Geryon was a triple-bodied monster who reigned over the western coast of Iberia or, according to others, over the Epirus. He owned a herd of red oxen which were guarded by the herdsman Eurytion and the dog Orthrus. Hercules, on the orders of Eurystheus, took possession of the oxen after killing Eurytion, Orthrus and finally Geryon. On his return journey he had various adventures. He slew the sons of Poseidon who attempted to steal the oxen, and he had to go to Eryx, king of the Elymans, in Sicily, to recapture an ox which had escaped and been put in the stables of Eryx. Eryx refused to return the beast unless Hercules beat him in a series of boxing and wrestling bouts. Hercules finally overthrew and killed him. In the hills of Thrace Hera sent a gadfly which drove the animals mad; they dispersed through the mountains and Hercules had great trouble in herding them together again. When he had done so he brought the cattle to Eurystheus who sacrificed them to Hera. It was in the course of this expedition that Hercules penetrated Gaul where he abolished human sacrifice. He fought the Ligurians with the aid of stones which Zeus caused to rain down from the sky and which covered the plain of the Crau. The river Strymon refused to let him cross and he filled up its bed with stones. The Golden Apples of the Hesperides. Eurystheus next commanded Hercules to bring to him the golden apples which the Hesperides, daughters of Atlas and Hesperus, guarded in their fabulous garden at the western extremities of the world. Hercules first travelled towards the north where, on the banks of the Eridanus, the nymphs of the river advised him to consult

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thus the orack of Delphi had commanded when Hercules, wishing to rcmoe the stain of his crime, consulted her. THE TWELVE LABOURS The emcan Lion. The Hist monster that Hercules had to exterminate was the emcan [.ion. the skin ol which Kurvsthcus ordered I lead of I lygeia. The daughter of Asclcpius. Hygeia was closely associated \ith her father’s cult as the goddess of health and was frequently portiased with him. The most important of his attendants, her mother. brothers and sisters also being auxiliary divinities of the god. she had a cult at Titanc which was almost as honoured as his. Her name follows immediately after his and before that of her sister Panacea in the Hippocratic oath. him to bring hack. Hercules attempted in vain to pierce the beast with his arrows, then he engaged it hand to hand and finally strangled it in his powerful grip. But he kept the skin and from it made a garment which rendered him invulnerable. He then returned to Tiryns with his trophy. The Lernaean Hydra. This hydra, horn of Typhon and F.chidna. was an enormous serpent with nine heads. Its den was a marsh near I.erna in the Peloponnesc. It would issue forth to raage the herds and crops: its breath moreover was so poisonous that whoever felt it fell dead. Accompanied by lolaus. son of Iphicles. Hercules arrived at Lerna. found the monster near the spring of Amymone and forced it to emerge from the marshes by means of flaming arrows. Then he tried to overwhelm it by means of his mighty club. But in vain: lor every time he struck off one of the hydra’s nine heads two grew in its place. Then lolaus set the neighbouring forest on fire and with the help of red-hot brands burnt the serpent’s heads. Hercules cut oO the final head and buried it. Then he soaked his arrows in the hydra’s blood which made them poisonous and deadly. The Wild Boar of Erymanthus. This savage beast came down from Mount Erymanthus. on the borders of Arcadia and Achaia. and devastated the territory of Psophis. Hercules succeeded in capturing it and carried it to Tiryns. Eurystheus was so terrified at the sight of the monster that he ran away and hid himself in a bronze jar. On his way to Mount Erymanthus Hercules had received the hospitality of the Centaur Pholus, who in his honour broached a barrel of delicious wine which had been a present from Dionysus. The other Centaurs were attracted by the bouquet of the wine and came running to the house of Pholus, armed with stones and uprooted fir trees, to demand their share of the wine. Hercules drove them off with his arrows. The Centaurs were decimated, and took refuge near Cape Malea. The Stymphalian Birds. The marshes of Stymphalus in Arcadia were peopled by monstrous birds whose wings, beaks and claws were of iron. They fed on human flesh and were so numerous that when they took wing the light of the sun was blotted out. Hercules frightened them with brazen cymbals and slew them with arrows. The Ceryneian Hind. Eurystheus then ordered Hercules to bring him back the hind of Mount Ceryneia alive. Her hooves were of bronze and her horns of gold. Hercules chased her for an entire year before he at last caught her on the banks of the Ladon. The Stables of Augeias. Augeias, King of Elis, owned innumerable herds of cattle among which were twelve white bulls sacred to Helios. One of them whose name was Phaethon was privileged to shine like a star. Unhappily these magnificent animals lived in foul stables, heaped high with manure of many years’ accumulation. Hercules undertook to clean them out in one day on

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Tartarus with its gates of bronze was the sombre gaol of those who had committed crimes against the gods. It was surrounded by a triple wall and bathed by the waters of the Phlegethon. The avenue which led to Tartarus was closed by a diamond gate. Here the most notorious prisoners were the Titans and the giant Tityus on whom two vultures fed because he had attempted to violate Leto. Tantalus could also be seen, eternal ly tortured by hunger and thi rst; Sisyphus, who without respite rolled his rock up a steep cliff; Ixion, bound to his flaming wheel spinning in the air; and the Danaids, condemned eternally to fill a bottomless barrel. In Elysium, on the contrary, snow and rain and tempests were unknown. Soft breezes forever refreshed this abode of happiness which was at first reserved for the children of the gods, but later opened to the favourites of the Olympians and the souls of the just. THE HEROES The Greeks’ Idea of the Hero. The Greek Hero was not always a supernatural being related to the gods. Homer made him a man of strength and courage or one who was especially venerated for his wisdom, like Laertes, Aegyptus and Demodocus. The hero could also be simply a prince of an illustrious family like Odysseus and Menelaus, for example. It is only incidentally that the heroes of Homer’s poems are related to gods. Hesiod on the other hand generalised the idea of the superman and recounted his origin. According to him, heroes were the offspring of the fourth generation of mythical men, that is to say the generation which took part in the battles of Troy and Thebes. At that epoch, indeed, gods and mortals often mingled. Cult of the Heroes. The cult which the Greeks rendered to their heroes closely resembled the devotion with which they honoured their own ancestors. The hero, they believed, was in fact their most illustrious ancestor. Heroes and ancestors alike were offered sacrifice at the end of the day: the sacrificial victim was turned towards the West and at the foot of the altar a trench was dug to receive the victim’s head. But the chief role of the hero was to act as intermediary between men and the gods. While men after death became insubstantial shadows, heroes retained their original qualities and could intercede for mortals. In brief, the heroes, who were originally idealised men, became demi-gods and in the hierarchy occupied a position midway between men and the Olympians. HERCULES We are not very certain about the etymology of the word Heracles (the Latinised form being Hercules, which is used here throughout). Various hypotheses have been suggested to explain the name. The ancients claimed that Heracles was thus named because he owed his glory to Hera. The name has also been translated as ‘glory of the air’. But no one of the theories advanced is more convincing than the others. The Functions of Hercules. Hercules was thought of as the personification of physical strength. In his aspect of athlete-hero the foundation of the Olympic Games was ascribed to him. Pindar says that he arranged all the rules and details. But the chief function of Hercules was to play the part of a protector. When men were in danger Heracles Alexikukox was their chief resort. In consequence he even had medical powers: he was invoked in case of epidemics, while certain medicinal springs at Himera and Thermopylae were sacred to him. Finally, sometimes as Heracles Musagetes he played the cithara. To sum up, he presided over all aspects of Hellenic education and, after being the god of physical prowess, he was the god who sang of victory and accompanied himself on the lyre. More than any other he was the friend and counsellor of men. Representation and Cult. The glorious hero, the invincible athlete, is depicted as a man of mature strength, endowed with muscular power, whose head is rather small in relation to his body. Generally Hercules stands, leaning on his heavy club. In his statues and busts we

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observe a rather sad and severe expression, as though Hercules, the eternal conqueror, never knew repose. His appearance suggests that he is waiting for yet another superhuman task to fulfil. Hercules was venerated like other heros and with the same rites, but his cult was much more general. All Greece honoured him. His exploits, indeed, took place all over the Hellenic world. Thebes and Argos were the centres from which his legend spread. The Birth of Hercules. His Childhood and First Exploits. Hercules descended from Perseus, whose son Alcaeus (the Strong) was the father of Amphitryon, the supposed father of Hercules. On the other hand, Electryon (the Brilliant), another son of Perseus, was the father of Alcmene (woman of might). Hercules, then, was born under the sign of strength and light; and, into the bargain, his paternity was divine. Zeus, wishing to have a son who should be a powerful protector of both mortals and Immortals, descended one night to the city of Thebes where he assumed the appearance of Amphitryon and lay with Amphitryon’s wife, Alcmene. Shortly afterwards Amphitryon himself returned from a victorious expedition and took his wife in his arms. From the two successive unions Alcmene conceived twins: Hercules and Iphicles. Their birth was not without difficulties. On the day Hercules should have been born Zeus swore a solemn and irrevocable oath before the Olympians that the descendant of Perseus who was about to be born should one day rule Greece. At these words Hera, doubly jealous, hurried to Argos where she caused the wife of one Sthenelus - himself a son of Perseus - to be brought prematurely to bed. She gave birth to Eurystheus. Hastening to Thebes, Hera simultaneously retarded the birth of Hercules. Thus Eurystheus came into the title of ruler of Greece and Zeus, bound by his solemn oath, was obliged to recognise him. And that was why Hercules all his life found the hardest tasks imposed on him by the rival whom Hera had set up against him. Nor was her vengeance yet satisfied. One night while all in the palace of Amphitryon were asleep, two serpents attacked the infant Hercules. While Iphicles screamed pitifully. Hercules firmly grasped the two monsters, one in each hand, and wrung their necks. To encourage such promise Hercules was then handed over to illustrious tutors. Rhadamanthys taught him wisdom and virtue while Linus taught him music. Linus was killed by the young hero in a lit of temper. Amphitryon then confided his divine offspring to some shepherds who lived in the mountains. There Hercules gave himself over to physical exercise and developed his strength. At the age of eighteen he killed Asclcpius. The god of” health and healing leans on a tree-trunk lost in meditation grasping a seroll representing medical learning. The son of Apollo, he had learned the science of medicine from the Centaur Chiron hut was later killed by Zeus for raising the dead. His image was set among the stars. Greatly venerated throughout Greece, he had numerous shrines, his priests holding a monopoly of medical knowledge. a ferocious lion which came to devour Amphitryon s herds. The hero, while waiting lor the beast, hid in the house of King Thcspius and. legend recounts, he made use of the occasion to lie in a single night with his host’s filly daughters. Hercules shortly afterwards defended his native city against Orchomenus. He met the herald ol Orchomenus. who had come to Thebes to collect the tribute, and cut off his nose and cars, thus starting the war. Amphitryon, fighting beside his two sons. wa> killed. But Hercules, aided by Athene, defeated Frginus. King ol Orchomcnus. Crcon became king of that country and gave his daughter Megara to Hercules as a wife. Then marriage was unhappy Hera sent Lyssa. the t ury of madness, to Hercules. The hero was sci/ed with the deadly malady, mistook his own children for those of Lurystheus. and massacred them and their mother. Alter this grim crime Hercules had to flee the country. He went to Argolis where he spent twelve years under the orders of Curystheus \ho imposed upon him the most arduous labours, f or

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touching them with his magic wand or by fanning them with his dark wings. He had power also over the gods and Homer tells us how at Hera’s request he took the form of a night bird and sent Zeus to sleep on Mount Ida. The son of Hypnos was Morpheus, god of dreams. The Keres. The Keres executed the will of the Moerae or Fates and were no doubt originally confused with them. When the implacable deities had fixed the fatal hour, it was the Keres who appeared. They would then seize the unhappy mortal, deliver the decisive blow, and carry him down to the land of shadows. In the midst of battle especially they could be seen to hover, with a sparkling eye, grimacing mouth, and sharp teeth whose whiteness contrasted with the sombre hue of their visage. They wore red robes and cried out dismally as they finished off the wounded. They would dig in their sharp claws, then greedily drink the streaming blood. Not without reason were they called the dogs of Hades. The Erinnyes. The Erinnyes were also sometimes called the ‘dogs of Hades’. They, too, were infernal deities whose special mission was to punish parricides and those who had violated their oaths. Their genealogy was rather vague: according to Hesiod they were born to Gaea fertilised by the blood of Uranus. Aeschylus calls them ‘the children of Eternal Night’ and Sophocles ‘Daughters of the Earth and the Shadow’. It seems that they were first venerated in Arcadia where a Demeter Erinnyes, from whom they were perhaps derived, was worshipped. Tiieir number for long remained undetermined, but was later fixed at three when they were given the individual names of Tisiphone, Megara and Alecto. When a crime was committed in a family - above all when a son’s hands were stained with the blood of his parents - the black goddesses would immediately appear, their hair bristling with serpents, armed with torches and whips. They would sit at the threshold of the guilty one’s house and it was in vain to attempt escape. Even in the Underworld they pursued their vengeance and tormented the guilty in Tartarus. The cult of the Erinnyes was spread throughout all Greece, above all in Athens where they had a temple near the Areopagus. Here they were honoured under the name of the Eumenides - the Benevolent Ones - in memory of the mildness they had shown towards Orestes, who, after the murder of his mother, had come to seek refuge in Athens Life in the Underworld. Souls of the dead, when they had left the earth, only retained a pale reflection of their former personality. Physically they were diaphanous and insubstantial. Morally they were also shadows: their courage and intelligence had disappeared. Only a few privileged persons lived in the Underworld as they had lived on earth, following the same occupations. Orion continued to hunt, Minos judged souls, Hercules was always ready to overthrow some monster or other. In brief the Underworld, in this primitive conception of it, was a sort of dismal house of retirement. Only the outstandingly guilty suffered eternal torture. Little by little, however, the Underworld came to be thought of, not as a limbo, but as a place of justice where each received exactly what he deserved. Souls on their arrival appeared before a tribunal composed of Hades and his three assessors: Aeacus, Minos and Rhadamanthys. The latter two were sons of Zeus and Europa and had reigned, Minos over Crete and Rhadamanthys over the Cyclades. Aeacus was the son of Zeus and Aegina and during his life had been distinguished for his piety and love of justice. The gods themselves had chosen him as an arbiter. After his death he was appointed in the Underworld especially to judge Europeans, while Rhadamanthys tried Asiatics. It was Aeacus who held the keys of the Underworld. After they had been examined and judgment pronounced, the souls of the dead were either cast into Tartarus or conducted to the Elysian Fields or to the Islands of the Blessed.

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The problem is complicated by the fact that Persephone is not a purely infernal divinity. Before marrying Hades she lived on earth with her mother Demeter who had conceived her by Zeus. Her name had then been Kore. It is probable that originally mother and daughter were merged in one and the same divinity. Demeter, as we have seen, had in her province not only the surface of the earth, but also its interior. Subsequently the personality of Demeter split and her subterranean function devolved on a distinct goddess who was, however, an offspring of the primitive goddess. This is the meaning of the Kore-Persephone myth. The dramatic circumstances of Kore’s abduction will be recalled: how Hades surprised her while she was gathering flowers in a field, carried her away in his chariot and plunged with her into the depths of the earth; how Demeter, unable to regain full possession of her daughter, accepted the gods’ proposal that Persephone should pass at least part of the year with her. Persephone’s legend is limited to this single episode, though the initiates of Orphism tried to enrich it by making the goddess the mother of Dionysus-Zagreus. Confined, like Hades, to her shadowy empire, Persephone was exempt from the passions which swayed other divinities. At most she was said to have felt a certain tenderness for the beautiful Adonis. As goddess of the Underworld Persephone’s attributes were the bat, the narcissus and the pomegranate. She was honoured in Arcadia under the names Persephone Soteira and Despoena. She was also venerated at Sardes and in Sicily. But usually her cult was joined to Demeter’s and the rites of both were almost always similar. Hecate. Hecate is best treated as a divinity of the Underworld, though she was in origin a moon-goddess. She was a native of ancient Thrace and in some ways she resembled Artemis with whom she was sometimes merged. Her name seems to be the feminine form of a title of Apollo’s - the far-darter. Thus Hesiod makes her the daughter of the Titan Perses and the Titaness Asteria, both symbols of shining light. Hecate’s lunar character always remained: she and Helios together witnessed the abduction of Kore by Hades. Hecate was powerful both in the sky and on earth: she gave men riches, victory and wisdom; she watched over the prosperity of flocks and presided over navigation. During the war with the Giants she was the ally of Zeus; thus she continued to be honoured on Olympus. A later tradition says that Hecate was the daughter of Zeus and Hera. It was said that she incurred her mother’s wrath by stealing her rouge to give to Europa. She fled to the earth and hid in the house of a woman who had just been brought to bed with a child, contact with whom rendered Hecate impure. To remove the stain the Cabeiri plunged her into the Acheron, and that was how Hecate became a divinity of the Underworld. In the infernal regions Hecate’s authority was considerable: she was called Prytania of the dead or the Invincible Queen. She presided over purifications and expiations. She was the goddess of enchantments and magic charms as well. She sent demons to the earth who tormented men. She herself would appear at night accompanied by her retinue of infernal dogs. The places that she haunted most frequently were crossroads, or near tombs or the scenes of crimes. Thus at crossroads her image could be found, either columns or statues of the goddess with three faces - they were called triple Hecates - and, on the eve of the full moon, offerings would be left before these images to propitiate the redoubtable goddess. THE AUXILIARIES OF HADES Thanatos and Hypnos. Thanatos - Death - naturally supplied Hades with his subjects. He was the son of Night. Euripides shows him dressed in a black robe holding in his hand the fatal sword, as he walks among men. But normally Death did not appear in this sinister aspect; Thanatos was more usually represented as a winged spirit. He then completely resembled his brother Hypnos - Sleep -who lived with him in the Underworld. Hypnos put men to sleep by

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