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 Greek I od Greek of the mythology,UNDERwORLD, associated in Roman mythology with PLUTO, ORCUS, and DIS. Hades was the son of CRONUS and RHEA, and like his sisters, DEMETER, HERA, and HESTIA, and his brother POSEIDON, was swallowed by Cronus. His brother ZEUS escaped and eventually rescued his brothers and sisters from Cronus.

After the defeat of Cronus, Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades drew lots to see who should rule the various parts of the universe. To Hades fell the UNDERwORLD.

Hades seldom left his underground realm—or if he did, no one knew about it, for he had a helmet that made him invisible. When he fell in love with PERSEPHONE, however, Hades traveled above ground to pursue her as she gathered flowers in a field. He carried her off into the dark Earth, and there she lived for four months of the year.

On another occasion, Hades came above ground to woo the NYMPH, MINTHE. In a fit of anger, Persephone, or perhaps Demeter, trod the maiden underfoot. A sorrowful Hades transformed her into the fragrant mint plant.

As he was essentially a god of terror and inexorable death, there were few temples built to Hades and he had few worshippers. The cypress and the narcissus were sacred to Hades.

The word Hades is often used as a euphemism for Hell.

hArmoniA (Peace) Greek Daughter of APHRO­DITE and ARES; wife of CADMUS, king of THEBES. All the OLYMPIAN GODS attended the wedding of Harmonia and Cadmus. The gods blessed Harmonia with many gifts, including a golden necklace from Aphrodite, made by the smith-god, HEPHAESTUS. The necklace had the power of giving unfading beauty to its wearer, but it would also bring misfortune in the later history of Thebes (see ERIPHYLE and SEvEN AGAINST THEBES).

While Harmonia, which means “peace,” may seem a strange name for a daughter born of Aphro­dite, the goddess of love, and ARES, the god of war, some scholars note that then, as now, more than usual affection and therefore harmony are generated among people in times of stress such as war.

The children of Cadmus and Harmonia were daugh-ters INO, Agave, and SEMELE, and Polydorus, a son.

hArpies (Swift Robbers) Greek The storm wINDS; daughters of ELECTRA (3), a sea NYMPH, and an ancient sea god, THAUMUS; sisters of the goddess of rainbows, IRIS.

In early stories, the Harpies were shown as beautiful winged women. They were said to appear suddenly and snatch up people and objects and were blamed for sudden disappearances. The Harpies served the great god ZEUS, who wielded thunder and lightning as his weapons, and sent them along with storms to do his bidding.

The poet HESIOD wrote that there were two Harpies and that their names were Aello and Ocypete. HOMER names a third Harpy, Pordage, and says she was married to the western wind ZEPHYRUS, and gave birth to the two great horses of ACHILLES. In later mythology, particularly the stories of JASON and the ARGONAUTS, authors described the Harpies as vicious bird-like creatures with sharp talons that carried off food and precious treasures and gave off a terrible stench.

In Roman mythology, Harpies attack AENEAS and his Trojan crew in VIRGIL’s AENEiD. This poet names a yet another Harpy, Celaeno.

hebe Greek Daughter of the gods ZEUS and HERA and cupbearer to the gods. She became the wife of the hero HERACLES after he was deified and transported to Olympus. Later Hebe was represented as the goddess of youth, with the power to rejuvenate,

that is, bring back youth. In Roman mythlogy she is called JUvENTAS (Youth).

HECATE Greek A goddess with ancient origins whose traits changed significantly over time; daugh-ter of PERSES and ASTERIA. In her earliest form, Hec-ate was a goddess of goodwill who gave prosperity and victory to people. She was originally a TITAN. In her later forms, Hecate was a powerful goddess of magic and witches. She presided over sorcery and had the power to send spirits of the dead up to the human world. She was honored and summoned at crossroads, which were, in ancient times, believed to be the best places to perform witchcraft.

Hecate became associated with PERSEPHONE, the queen of the UNDERWORLD, and was often linked to SELENE, a Titan moon goddess, and ARTEMIS, an OLYMPIAN moon goddess. Hecate was often portrayed as a woman with either three heads or three bodies.

HECATONCHEIRES (HECATONCHiREs) Greek The hundred-handed giants, offspring of GAIA and URANUS. Their names were Briareus, Cottus, and Gyges. They helped ZEUS in the war against the TITANS. The Hundred-Handed Ones are thought to represent early bands of warriors, who were organized in groups of 100 men. In Latin poetry, their name is Centimani.

HECTOR Greek A great hero of the Trojans (see TROJAN WAR); eldest son of PRIAM, king of TROY, and of HECUBA; brother of PARIS, HELENUS, and CAS-SANDRA; husband of ANDROMACHE; father of Astyanax. Hector has very little mythology except in HOMER’s iliAD. His death, the violation of his body by ACHIL-LES, and his magnificent funeral bring the Iliad to an end. There are references to Hector in VIRGIL’S AENEiD, and OvID’s Metamorphoses.

HECUBA Greek Wife of King PRIAM of TROY; daughter of the king of PHRYGIA; mother of many, among them HECTOR, leader of the Trojans in the TROJAN WAR, and PARIS, whose abduction of HELEN was a leading cause of the war. Hecuba was a char-acter in HOMER’s iliAD and in EURIPIDES’ tragedies Hecuba and The Trojan Women.

HELEN Greek Daughter of ZEUS and LEDA, said to have been born from an egg, since Zeus came to Leda and mated with her disguised as a swan. Often called Helen of TROY, Helen was in fact from SPARTA. She was the sister of the DIOSCURI (CASTOR and Polydeuces) and of CLYTEMNESTRA. She became the

wife of MENELAUS, king of Troy. Helen was said to be the most beautiful woman in the world, a symbol of womanly beauty. Her abduction by the Trojan prince PARIS was a leading cause of the TROJAN WAR.

There are varying accounts of the end of Helen. Some say that after the fall of Troy she was reconciled with her husband, Menelaus. Others say that she married DEIPHOBUS, that she was hanged by a venge-ful queen, or that she hanged herself from a tree. She was venerated as a goddess of beauty on the island of RHODES in the eastern Mediterranean under the name Dendritis (Tree).

It seems likely that Helen was an ancient goddess of fertility in LACONIA, which may account for the halfhuman, halfdivine stories that feature her.

HELENUS Greek Son of PRIAM and HECUBA; brother of PARIS, HECTOR, and CASSANDRA. With his sister, Helenus shared the gift of prophecy. In HOMER’s iliAD, Helenus gives good advice to Hector, leader of the Trojans in the TROJAN WAR. In the play Androm-ache, by EURIPIDES, Helenus weds his fellow captive ANDROMACHE after the fall of TROY. In some accounts, Helenus becomes king of EPIRUS. In VIRGIL’s AENEiD, he warns the Trojan hero of SCYLLA and CHARYBDIS and urges him to consult with the SIBYL OF CUMAE.

HELICON, MOUNT Greek The highest mountain in BOEOTIA, in the southern part of the Greek mainland. It was celebrated in Greek mythology as the haunt of the nine MUSES. The poet HESIOD lived on the slopes of Mount Helicon. In later mythology, the spring of Hippocrene, created when the winged horse PEGASUS stamped his hoof, flowed just below the summit.

HELIOS (HElius) (The sun god) Greek Helios was husband to Rhodos, the NYMPH of the island of RHODES, which he chose as his favored abode. Their children—CIRCE, ACETES, and PHAETON—were the first inhabitants of Rhodes. Helios is usually depicted as a charioteer who drove the Sun across the Earth from east to west each day. Helios was all-seeing and often called upon as a witness (see Demeter and Perse-phone, under DEMETER). Helios (called HYPERION by HOMER) appears in both the iliAD and the oDyssEy; in the latter, the cattle of Helios (Hyperion) are victims of ODYSSEUS and his crew of hungry mariners.

In later times, Helios was identified with APOLLO, and, in the late Roman empire, with SOL, one of the principal gods of the Romans.

HELLE Greek Daughter of Athamas and Neph-ele; sister of Phrixus. Helle and her brother fled from Ino, their stepmother, on the back of the winged ram with the famed Golden Fleece, which Hermes sent to them. One story has it that Helle fell from the air and drowned at a place in the ocean that came to be called the Hellespont in her honor, but Phrixus was rescued by Aeetes.

HELLEN Greek The son of Deucalion and Pyrrha, survivors of the Flood. He was the father of Aeolus, Dorus, and Xuthus and through them the patriarch of all the Hellenes, who were also known as Greeks.

HELLENEs Greek The name given to the people now known as Greeks. The name was derived from Hellen, the son of Deucalion, who became, after

the Flood, the ancestor of all the Greeks. There is no good explanation of why the people of ancient GREECE should be called Hellenes, rather than Achae-ans, Argives, or Danaans.The word Greek comes from the Latin Graecia, the country from which many “Greek” settlers came to live in Italy.

HELLENizATioN Greek The processes of spread-ing the influence of Greek mythology, philosophy, language, and culture to societies and cultures that came in contact with the people of ancient GREECE. In Greek and Roman mythology, Hellenization refers to the process by which the people of ROME and central Europe, and eventually the Roman Empire, adapted and adopted the myths of Greece as their own, though often giving different names to the gods and goddesses and modifying the stories to meet Roman needs.

Greek colonists living in southern Italy and on the island of Sicily before 800 B.C. were the first to influence the younger civilizations developing in central Italy. A period of widespread exploration and colonization of Italy by the people of Greece took place from 800 to 650 B.C., beginning, according to archaeological and linguistic evidence, with the people of ETRURIA. By 650 B.C., Rome came under Greek influence through trade and through the arrival of Greeks as residents of Rome. By the first century B.C., Greek culture had deeply influenced the thought, culture, literature, and mythology of Rome.

The early people of central Italy believed in gods and spirits closely connected to the needs of everyday life, but those beings appear not to have developed stories of their own. The Romans, over time, applied the stories of Greek gods to the names of their gods. The Romans, however, did not simply adopt the Greek myths. They transformed the gods and their legends to meet the social, personal, historical, and religious needs of their own culture.

Ancient histories and poetry as well as archaeology suggest that APOLLO was the first Greek god to have a strong influence on Rome. A temple dedicated to him was built at Cumae, on the western shores of Italy in the Bay of Naples. Greeks settled this location, about 120 miles southeast of Rome, as early as 730 B.C. The neighboring people may have gone there, too, to worship the gods. (See SIBYL OF CUMAE.)

Roman religious and civic leaders introduced more Greek gods into Roman life during emergen-cies. For example, leaders brought to Rome in about 295 B.C. the cult of ASCLEPIUS, the Greek god of healing, to help stop a devastating plague.

Even after the Romans made Greece part of their empire in the first century B.C., the Greek religions continued to have a strong influence on the cultures of Rome. Scholars of Rome’s religious history suggest this Hellenization period was, in large part, due to the Roman characteristic of incorporating the cultures of conquered lands into the Roman culture. Other experts suggest that the Romans, having never developed a full mythology of their own, sought out the myths of other lands, including those of the Far East as well as Greece, to meet cultural and personal needs.

HELLEspoNT (Dardanelles) Greek The long narrow channel or strait leading from the Aegean Sea into the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea. It was an important trade route for ships traveling between Asia and Europe. There were many battles and wars for control of this channel, the most famous of which was the TROJAN WAR.

The Hellespont got its name from legends that say HELLE, the sister of PHRIxUS, drowned there when she and her brother, who were fleeing from their stepmother, INO, flew over the water on the ram with the GOLDEN FLEECE.

HEMERA (Day, Daylight) Greek The daughter of NYx (Night) and EREBUS (Darkness); sister of ETHER (Air). Mother and daughter lived in the same dwelling. At sunset, Hemera met her mother in the distant West, the realm of ATLAS, where that god held up the Earth. There they exchanged places, Hemera entering the home they lived in and Nyx spreading her darkness over the world. At dawn they traded places once again.

HEpHAEsTus Greek The god of craftsmen, espe-cially smiths, and of fire; called “the divine artificer.” In some accounts, Hephaestus was the son of ZEUS and HERA, in some of Hera alone. The Romans gave his attributes and stories to VULCAN.

Hephaestus was lame from birth and not as hand-some as the other gods on OLYMPUS. Some myths say Zeus or Hera flung him from Mount Olympus in anger. He landed on the island of Lemnos, where the sea goddesses THETIS and EURYNOME rescued him and looked after him until he was grown.

Although lame, Hephaetus had strong shoulders and was an excellent craftsman, the patron of all smiths, and perhaps something of a magician.

In HOMER’s oDyssEy, Hephaestus was married to the beautiful goddess of love, APHRODITE, but she was

unfaithful to him, and had many lovers, including ARES, the god of war. Hephaestus used his craftsman-ship to get the better of Ares.

Another story has it that Hephaestus cracked open the head of Zeus in order to release the goddess ATHENE.

In other accounts (including Homer’s iliAD) Aglaeia, one of the three graces, is the wife of Hephaestus.

Hephaestus is an ancient god whose origins are probably in ASIA MINOR, and who was kindly and peace-loving. His smoky, flaming workshop was sup-posed to be located beneath Mount Etna, the volcano in Sicily, an idea that the Romans adapted for Vulcan. With ATHENE, the cult of Hephaestus was important in the life of the city of ATHENS.

Some scholars say that every Bronze Age (c. 3000 B.C.) tool, weapon, or utensil was believed to have magical properties and that the smith who made them was thought to be a sorcerer.

HERA (Lady) Greek Queen of OLYMPUS, sister and wife of ZEUS, daughter of CRONUS and RHEA. Known as JUNO by the Romans. Mother of ARES, HEBE, HEPHAESTUS, and EILEITHYA. The patroness of marriage, Hera was the goddess most concerned with the welfare of women and children.

Hera was an ancient goddess, existing long before the new gods, including Zeus. Her original name is unknown: Hera is a title, meaning “Lady.” Her original cult was so strong that the newcomers to the Greek peninsula from the North had to acknowledge it and absorb it into their own religion by making Hera the consort of Zeus, the king of the OLYMPIAN GODS.

Hera was depicted as a young woman, fully clad and of regal beauty, sometimes wearing a high, cylindrical crown. Her emblems include a scepter topped with a cuckoo and a pomegranate, symbol of married love and fruitfulness. The peacock is sacred to Hera, testify-ing to the services of the hundred-eyed ARGUS (1).

The marriage of Hera and Zeus was not a happy one, because Zeus was unfaithful to his wife and Hera was angry and jealous. She sought to avenge herself on Zeus and his loves in various ways. The many quarrels between Hera and Zeus may reflect the conflicts between the old gods, where woman was the EARTH MOTHER and Queen, and the new male-dominated religion of Zeus and the Olympians.

Hera and the Cuckoo There are several leg-ends about how the marriage of Zeus, chief god of the Olympians, and Hera, queen of Olympus, came about. The writer Pausanius tells the most famous one. In this story, Zeus appears before Hera in the

shape of a cuckoo, a small, shivering bird, drenched with rain. Tenderhearted Hera takes the poor crea-ture to her bosom to warm it. Zeus at once resumes his normal form and Hera finally agrees to become his wife. The gods solemnly celebrated the marriage on Olympus, but the ceremony did not put an end to the amorous adventures of Zeus. With Zeus, Hera had two sons, Ares and Hephaestus, and a daughter, Hebe. Some legends say that Hera conceived and gave birth to Hephaestus without any help from Zeus. Some say that she was also the mother of Eileithya, about whom little is known.

Hera and Ixion Hera was ever faithful to her fickle husband, Zeus. However, she was very beautiful and men found her desirable. Ephialtes, one of the ALOEIDS, was determined to capture Hera and make her his wife. Thus he and his brother started a war with the Olympians. Another admirer, King IxION of Lapith, fell in love with Hera at a banquet at Olym-pus. When Zeus found out about Ixion’s advances, he was angry and jealous and used his magic to shape a cloud in the likeness of Hera. Ixion made love to the cloud, whose name was NEPHELE, and from this union was born CENTAURUS, father of the CENTAURS. Ixion was bound to a fiery wheel and doomed to whirl perpetually through the sky.

Hera and Io One of the loves of Zeus was the maiden Io. Zeus turned Io into a beautiful white cow to protect her from Hera, but Hera was not deceived. She demanded to be given the heifer and Zeus could not refuse her. Hera then tied up the heifer and the hundred-eyed Argus guarded her. The god HERMES rescued Io by using songs and stories to close all the eyes of Argus in sleep, and then killing him. But Io remained a heifer, relentlessly pursued by a gadfly sent by Hera, until she reached Egypt. Hera trans-ferred the eyes of Argus onto the magnificent tail of the peacock, where, legend has it, they remain to this day. Some scholars believe that Io was a form of Hera as an ancient goddess dispossessed by the Olympians. In HOMER’s work, the goddess Hera is often described as “ox-eyed.”

HERAcLEs (HERAKlEs; Glory of Hera) Greek The greatest hero of Greek mythology, he was called HERCULES by the Romans. Heracles was the son of the god ZEUS and of a mortal, ALCMENE, who was the wife of AMPHITRYON of THEBES. Both Alcmene and Amphitryon were descendants of the hero PERSEUS. Heracles was a superman and demigod and a supreme athlete but at the same time a man of many human weaknesses. He performed seemingly impossible

tasks, fought in battle, loved many women including DEIANIRA who would eventually cause his death, and was afflicted by murderous madness and sudden rages. Zeus snatched Heracles from his funeral pyre and took him to Olympus, where Heracles was worshiped like a god, became immortal, and married HESE.

Heracles’ name, Glory of Hera, suggests an origin among ancient people who worshiped the goddess HERA, wife of Zeus. The myth of Heracles is based perhaps on a historical figure, possibly a lord of TIRYNs (in ARGOs) whose military prowess led to the Homeric legend of his having met and conquered death. Later, invaders of the PELOPONNEsus, the southern peninsula of what is now called GREECE, adapted the cycle of the Heracles hero myths to fit their own ancestry.

The Childhood of Heracles Heracles’ mother, Alcmene, was married to Amphitryon, also a descen­dant of Perseus. While Amphitryon was at war, Zeus visited Alcmene disguised as her husband. He wished to father a son that would be a champion of both humans and gods. This son was Heracles. When Amphitryon came back the next evening, he, too, fathered a son with Alcmene. His name was IPHICLEs.

Hera, the wife of Zeus, was, as usual, jealous and angry at the dalliance of her husband. Using her magic arts, she contrived the premature birth of EuRYsTHEus, another descendant of Perseus. Eurys-theus was born a few minutes before Heracles and therefore became ruler of Argos. Heracles was obliged to serve him, and this he did most heroically.

One legend has it that Hera sent two serpents to the cradle of the infant Heracles to kill him, but the baby managed to strangle both serpents with his supernormal strength. Another legend holds that Amphitryon sent the serpents, knowing that one of the twins belonged to Zeus. Thus, while his own son, Iphicles, cried pitifully, the son of the god was able to vanquish the serpents.

Amphitryon made sure that his godlike stepson was trained in all the arts of fighting, wrestling, and boxing. Heracles became a supreme athlete.

Heracles, The Young Hero Heracles was the greatest of the Greek heroes. When Heracles was a boy, his stepfather sent him to tend his cattle in the mountains and to develop athletic skills. A fero-cious lion came from Mount Kithaeron to devour Amphitryon’s cattle. Heracles killed the lion and ever after wore its pelt (though some say that the pelt worn by Heracles was that of the Nemean lion; see The Twelve Labors of Heracles, right).

Heracles then did battle with Erginus, King of Orchomenos, who attacked Thebes. Amphi­tryon died in this struggle. The victorious Heracles became the idol of Thebes. Creon, the new king of Thebes, gave his daughter MEGARA (2) to Heracles in marriage. The marriage was not a happy one, and in later years, in a fit of madness sent upon him by the goddess Hera, Heracles killed his children and possibly his wife as well. He went to the ORACLE at DELPHI for advice. As atonement for the dreadful killings, the oracle put Heracles into the servitude of his cousin, King EuRYsTHEus, who would impose upon the young hero the Twelve Labors, seemingly impossible tasks.

The Twelve Labors of Heracles Like many a hero in mythologies from all over the world, Heracles, the greatest Greek hero, fought and won battles with extraordinary creatures that represented man’s ancient strife with evil and the forces of darkness. Because of a fit of madness, in which he killed his children and his brother’s children, Heracles, son of the god Zeus and the mortal Alcmene, was put into the service of King Eurystheus, a descendant of Perseus and ruler of Argos. To atone for his sins, Heracles had to perform 12 almost impossible tasks over the course of 12 years. In all of them, he emerged as a victorious hero against unbelievable odds. The order of the Twelve Labors varies in some sources but they are thought to begin with the killing of the ferocious Nemean lion and end with either the stealing of the apples of the HEsPERInEs or the vanquishing of the dog CERsERus.

1.  The Nemean Lion The lion was gigantic, an offspring of SELENE. It lived in a cave with two entrances. After many futile battles, Heracles sealed off one mouth of the cave and strangled the trapped lion with his bare hands. Ever afterward, he wore the pelt and head of the lion. The two mouths of the lion’s cave perhaps symbolize the entry of Heracles into the battles (the Twelve Labors) from which he would eventually escape, after death, into rebirth and immortality.

2.  The Hydra of Lernaea The HYnRA was a many-headed monster who grew a new head each time Heracles lopped off the previous one. With the help of his companion IOLAus, who burned the stumps of the heads and prevented them from growing again, Heracles vanquished the monster. He dipped his arrows in the blood of the Hydra, which contained a deadly poison. Most mythographers are

still puzzled as to the exact meaning of the Lernaean Hydra.

3.    The Wild Boar of Erymanthus The boar was a huge beast that Heracles hunted through deep fields of snow. He captured the boar and delivered it to Eurystheus. The king was so terrified at the sight of the beast that he hid himself in his bronze jar.

4.    The Hind of Ceryneia This beautiful Arcadian deer had feet of bronze and antlers (surprising for a hind) that shone like gold, and ran so swiftly that it took Heracles a year to capture it. He carried it unharmed to King Eurystheus.

5.    The Stymphalian Birds These monstrous birds had wings, beaks, and claws of bronze. They fed on human flesh and were so numerous that when they took flight their hordes blotted out the Sun. Heracles terrified them with the shattering noise from a bronze rattle that the goddess ATHENE helped him make. The birds flew away and were never seen again.

This legend may refer to Heracles’ reputa-tion as a healer, expert at getting rid of fever demons. In ancient times, fevers were little understood and often proved fatal. Since they occurred frequently in marshy places, they were identified with marsh birds such as cranes and ibises, large birds on which the Stymphalian birds may have been modeled.

6.    The Augean Stables The Sixth Labor of Heracles was to clean, in one day, the pestilent, dung-filled stables of the cattle of King Elis of Augeus. Heracles did this by diverting the courses of two nearby rivers and sending their cleansing waters rushing through the stables. “Cleaning the Augean stables” has come to mean getting rid of noxious rubbish in any area, whether physical, moral, religious, or legal.

7.    The Cretan Bull Heracles captured the BULL that had been terrorizing the island of CRETE and returned with it to Greece. THESEUS later killed the bull. The combat of a man with a bull was one of the ritual tasks imposed on heroes (see the stories of Theseus and JASON).

8.    The Horses of Diomedes Heracles cap-tured the horses (some say they were wild mares) of DiOMEDES (2) of Thrace. It was said that Diomedes fed the horses on human flesh Heracles killed Diomedes and gave his flesh to the horses, after which, it is said, the beasts

became quite tame. The taming of wild horses was an important rite in many ancient cultures.

9.       The Girdle of the Amazon Eurystheus asked Heracles to obtain the girdle of Queen HiPPOLYTA of the AMAZONS, for his daughter. Some versions of the legend say that Hip-polyta fell in love with Heracles and gave him her girdle. Other versions say that Hippolyta was later abducted by Theseus.

10.   The Cattle of Geryon GERYON was a three-headed monster whose fine red cattle were the envy of everyone, including Eurystheus, who ordered Heracles to capture them. Heracles did this on the way erecting the Pillars of Her­cules (now known as the Straits of Gibraltar), where Africa and Europe face each other at the western end of the Mediterranean Sea. Stealing another man’s cattle was an ancient custom; a prospective husband bought his bride from the proceeds of a successful cattle raid.

11.   The Stealing of Cerberus Cerberus, the fearsome three-headed dog, guarded the gates of the UNDERwORLD. Eurystheus ordered Her-acles to bring him the monster, never expecting the hero to return to the land of the living. However, with the help of the gods HERMES and Athene, Heracles overcame both HADES, god of the UNDERwORLD, and the monstrous dog. When Eurystheus saw the huge creature, he jumped into his bronze jar in terror.

The three heads of Cerberus may have represented the three seasons vanquished by the demigod who became immortal.

12.   The Apples of the Hesperides Heracles’ final task was to bring some of the golden apples of the HESPERiDES (daughters of ATLAS) to Eurystheus. The apples belonged to Hera who set the dragon LADON to guard them. Only the TiTAN Atlas, who carried the sky on his shoulders, knew where the apple orchard was. Heracles took the sky from Atlas and persuaded him to fetch some apples. He then tricked the Titan into taking back the weight of the sky.

The explanation for this labor may lie in the primitive ritual in which the candidate for a kingship or immortality (Heracles) had to overcome a monster (Ladon) and rob it of its treasure (the golden apples).

The Exploits of Heracles There is no clear chronology for the exploits of Heracles, but rather

a patchwork of events, with some confusion about the order in which they took place. For example, it is not clear at what point the goddess Hera, wife of Zeus, angry at the dalliance of her husband with Alcmene, took revenge upon Heracles by sending him fits of murderous madness. Among his crimes were the killing of his own children and, some say, his wife Megara, and the killing of Iphitus, a guest in his house. Such deeds were unforgivable. Even the oracle at Delphi refused to help Heracles after the killing of Iphitus. In another fit of madness, Heracles ravaged the oracle’s shrine and attacked his halfbrother, the god APOLLO. As a result of this outrage, Heracles became a slave to OMPHALE, queen of LYDIA.

Among his exploits for Omphale was the capture of the clever thieves called the CERCOPES. Heracles also killed Syleus, the king of Aulis, who had forced strangers to work in his vineyards and then, instead of paying them, cut their throats. Heracles rid the banks of the Sagaris from a gigantic serpent and then killed Lityerses, another evil man who forced people to work for him and then killed them. Omphale so admired Heracles that she set him free.

After his servitude to Omphale, Heracles offered his services to LAOMEDON, king of TROY. Laomedon had incurred the wrath of the sea god, POSEIDON, who sent a monster to ravage Troy. The oracle told Laom-edon that only the sacrifice of his beautiful daughter, HESIONE, would appease the monster and save Troy. Laomedon chained the girl to a rock to await her fate. Heracles agreed to rescue the maiden in return for two magical horses that had been a gift from Zeus to Laom-edon. But Laomedon, his daughter now safe, reneged on his agreement and Heracles killed him. Heracles then gave Hesione to his friend TELAMON in marriage. PRIAM, now king of Troy, demanded the return of his sister, Hesione. The Greeks refused to return her. The subsequent ill-feeling between the nations of Troy and Greece was one cause of the TROJAN WAR.

Heracles, Deianira, and the Centaur Heracles, the mortal hero, spent his life engaging in one heroic exploit after another. Sometimes Heracles sought adventure, sometimes he sought revenge for injustice, and sometimes he had to flee from the punishment due him for acts committed in madness.

After many bold deeds, Heracles came to CALY-DON, in Aetolia, whose king, OENEUS, had a beautiful daughter, Deianira. Deianira was constantly plagued by the attentions of Achelous, who appeared to her in the form of a river, a dragon, and a BULL. After a furious contest, Heracles vanquished Achelous and

won the hand of the beautiful Deianira, with whom he bore a son, Hyllus.

Heracles, Deianira, and Hyllus fled from Calydon after Heracles, again afflicted by rage, killed an innocent cupbearer, Eunomus.

When they came to the river Evenus, a CENTAUR, NESSUS, offered to carry Deianira on his back, while Heracles swam across. When they reached the other side, the centaur tried to carry Deianira off. Heracles shot him with his arrow. As he lay dying, Nessus told Deianira to collect some of his blood and use it as a love potion if she ever thought that her husband was straying. Deianira respected the wishes of the dying beast and took his blood in a vial that she carried. This potion would eventually cause the death of Heracles.

The Death of Heracles The last expedition of Heracles was against his old enemy EURYTUS. Heracles slew Eurytus and carried off his daughter, IOLE, with whom he had been in love before he had met his present wife, Deianira. When Deianira heard about the beautiful maiden, she remembered the vial of blood that she had taken from Nessus. Innocently thinking that the potion would bring Heracles back to her, she soaked a shirt in a liquid made from the blood in the vial and sent it to her husband with his messenger, Lichas.

As soon as Heracles put on the fateful shirt, he began to writhe with pain, for the potion was a deadly one, and proved fatal to Heracles. He commanded a funeral pyre to be built and laid himself upon it. His son, Hyllus, told him that Deianira had not intended his death and had killed herself in despair. Heracles, in his last throes of agony, gave Iole to his son in marriage. No one wanted to light the funeral pyre, but at last, PHILOCTETES (or his father, Poeas) set the wood on fire. Immediately, a cloud descended from the sky, and in a display of thunder and lightning, Zeus snatched his son from death and bore him to Olympus, where he would become immortal.

HERBS Greek The mythic power of herbs to transform people and to restore life to the dead fea-tures prominently in several Greek myths. GAIA, the EARTH MOTHER, the oldest goddess in Greek mythol-ogy, found an herb that would protect the GIGANTES (Giants), some of her children, in their war with the OLYMPIAN GODS. ZEUS, the supreme god among the Olympians, who were themselves descendants of Gaia, obtained that herb and used it to help him defeat the giants in their war against the gods.

The herb moly helped ODYSSEUS resist the efforts of the goddess-sorceress CIRCE to turn him into a swine