9. Before we proceed to consider the heroic mythology of the Dorians, which is chiefly confined to Hercules, we will first attempt to sketch the principal features of the religious character of the Dorians, as seen in the several worships already enumerated. Both in the development of modes of religion peculiar to that race, and in the adoption and alteration of those of other nations, an ideal tendency may be perceived, which considered the deity not so much in reference to the works or objects of nature, as of the actions and thoughts of men. Consequently their religion had little of mysticism, which belongs rather to elementary worships; but the gods assume a more human and heroic form, although not so much as in the epic poetry. Hence the piety of the Doric race had a peculiarly energetic character, as their notions of the gods were clear, distinct, and personal; and it was probably connected with a certain degree of cheerfulness and confidence, equally removed from the exuberance of enthusiasm and the gloominess of superstition. Funeral ceremonies and festivals with violent lamentations, as well as enthusiastic orgies, were not suited to the character of the Dorians; although their reverence for antiquity often induced them to adopt such rites when already established. On the other hand, we see displayed in their festivals and religious usages a brightness and hilarity, which made them think that the most pleasing sacrifice which they could offer to their gods was to rejoice in their sight, and use the various methods which the arts afforded them of expressing their joy. With all this, their worship bears the stamp of the greatest [pg 410] simplicity, and at the same time of warmth of heart. The Spartans prayed the gods “to give them what was honourable and good;”[1718] and although they did not lead out any splendid processions, and were even accused of offering scanty sacrifices, still Zeus Ammon declared that the “calm solemnity of the prayers of the Spartans was dearer to him than all the sacrifices of the Greeks.”[1719] They likewise showed the most faithful adherence to the usages handed down to them from their ancestors, and hence they were little inclined to the adoption of foreign ceremonies;[1720] although in commercial towns, as, for instance, at Corinth, such rites were willingly admitted, from a regard for strangers of other races and nations.[1721]
Chapter XI.
§ 1. Legends respecting Hercules in the earliest settlements of the Dorians. § 2. Servitude of Hercules. § 3. Legends respecting Hercules in the second settlements of the Dorians. § 4. Legends respecting Tlepolemus, Antiphus, and Phidippus. § 5. Legend of Geryoneus. § 6. Legends respecting Hercules in the neighbourhood of Thermopylæ. § 7, 8, and 9. Bœotian legends respecting Hercules. § 10. Attic legends respecting Hercules.
1. In the following attempt to unravel the complicated mythology of Hercules, we will begin with [pg 411] those fables in which this hero appears evidently as the progenitor of the Doric Heraclidæ,[1722] as representative of the heroes of the Hyllean tribe, the highest order in the Doric nation.
We will first direct our attention to the locality described in the beginning of the first book, the ancient country of the Dorians in the most mountainous part of Thessaly, where this nation was continually at enmity with its immediate neighbours, the Lapithæ. In this war Hercules appears as the hero of the Hyllean tribe, according to the epic poem Ægimius, and gained for them a third part of the conquered territory. With this contest is, as it appears, also connected the celebrated conquest of Œchalia, the subject of an epic poem called Οἰχαλίας ἅλωσις, which was ascribed to Homer or Creophylus.[1723] In this poem it was related how Eurytus of Œchalia, the skilful archer, who was said to have surpassed Hercules himself in this mode of fighting, and who dared to engage with Apollo,[1724] promised his daughter Iole as a prize to the person who should excel himself and his sons in archery; but Hercules having accepted the challenge, Eurytus refused to perform his engagement: upon which Hercules collected an army, conquered Œchalia, killed Eurytus and his sons, carried away Iole prisoner, and gave her in marriage to his son Hyllus.[1725]
The situation of this “well-fortified”[1726] Œchalia is an ancient subject of controversy. There were three places of this name; one on the banks of the Peneus in Thessaly, in the ancient country of the Lapithæ, between Pelinna to the east and Tricca to the west, not far from Ithome:[1727] another in the island of Eubœa, in the district of Eretria.[1728] The third was a town in Messenia, which in latter times was called Carnasium, upon the boundary of Arcadia;[1729] in which region there was also a town named Ithome; and, as it is stated, another named Tricca; so that we must suppose that there was some early connexion between the inhabitants of this district and the tribes near the Peneus. Now it may be presumed that each of these Œchalias was considered by the respective inhabitants as the celebrated town of the great Eurytus; whence among the early poets there was a difference of statement on the subject. For the Messenian Œchalia is called the city of Eurytus in the Homeric catalogue,[1730] and in the Odyssey,[1731] which statement was followed by Pherecydes;[1732] the Eubœan city was selected by the writer [pg 413] of the poem called the Taking of Œchalia;[1733] as also probably in the Ægimius,[1734] and afterwards by Hecatæus of Miletus;[1735] the Thessalian, in another passage in the catalogue of the ships, apparently of considerable antiquity.[1736] Since, then, this question cannot be settled by authority, we can only infer (but with great probability) from the connexion of the traditions that the last-mentioned Œchalia was the city of the original fable. The contest for this city is evidently closely connected with the war with the Lapithæ; Eurytus, as well as the Lapithæ, was hated by Apollo. If Œchalia is placed on the banks of the Peneus, the conquest of it naturally falls in with the other tradition; if not, it stands isolated and unconnected. Again; Hercules, according to all traditions, conquers Iole for his son Hyllus; now Hyllus never occurs in mythology except in connexion with the Dorians; consequently the place of the battle must be looked for in the vicinity of the Doric territory.
Even before the time of this war (according to the common narration) Hercules had embroiled himself with the Œchalians by killing Iphitus, the son of Eurytus, who demanded of him the restitution of some plundered cattle or horses. In the common version of this story, Peloponnesus was the scene of the encounter; for Hercules is said to have hurled him from the walls of Tiryns.[1737] But to expiate this murder, and [pg 414] the violation of the rights of hospitality, Hercules became a slave; and, in order to release himself from the guilt, he was compelled to pay to the father of Iphitus his own ransom.
2. The meaning of this servitude cannot be rightly explained without observing the remarkable coincidence between some parts of the mythology of Hercules and Apollo, which we will here shortly elucidate. As Eurytus is represented sometimes as killed by Apollo, sometimes by Hercules, so in the poem of the Shield of Hercules[1738] this hero punishes Cycnus for profaning the Pagasæan temple; thus, in another tradition, he slays Phylas and Laogoras, princes of the Dryopes, for violating the shrine of Delphi and other temples;[1739] and consecrates the whole nation to the Pythian Apollo.[1740] Nor do I believe that Euripides invented the fable of the restoration of Alcestis, and the contest between Hercules and death.[1741] It is also perhaps fair to infer, from the legends of epic poets, in which Hercules is represented as a hero in brazen armour, who defended the sacred roads with his sword, and overthrew the violent sons of Ares that waylaid the sacrificial processions in the narrow passes and defiles, that in ancient fables he was considered not only as the defender of the Doric race, but also of the Doric worship.
We may now proceed to consider the sale and servitude of Hercules; a point of primary importance in [pg 415] the various forms which the legends concerning this hero assume. In the present instance this degradation originated from the killing of Iphitus. Here also the parallel with the servitude of Apollo at Pheræ cannot fail to strike every one. The god and the hero were chosen, as examples, to impress the people in early times with a strong sense of the sacred character, and necessity of expiation for homicide.[1742] By whom Hercules was supposed to have been purchased in the original legend of northern Thessaly we know not; at a later period Omphale was called his mistress, who (according to Pherecydes)[1743] bought him for three talents.